Rating: 
Summary: Whiney, Better A Pamphlet
Review: Left-wing liberal extremists, such as Mr Miller, always unveil their true political identity when they start characterizing themselves as middle-of-the-road, unbiased, independents.In the beginning of this book the author's strain to sell the reader on the idea that he's evolved into some higher form of political species by virtue of voting for Ralph Nader (his mommy and daddy are "hardened Democrats") is laughable. If the whiney liberal condescension was excised from this book it might make for a mildly amusing pamphlet. Of Presidential quotes, I'm sure glad the sentences containing the words "but, I didn't inhale" and "I did not have sex with that woman" were found--by liberals--to be grammatically correct.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is NOT another "Bushisms"
Review: As my title says, this book is really NOT about GWB's quirky verbal stammers. It is about George W. Bush the man. It is an analysis of his political positions, his background and his personal politics. Beware: after reading this book you will have good reason for thoroughly disliking this man, but not because he makes a bunch of funny verbal mistakes. If you're afraid of being thoroughly skeptical and possibly oppositional to the policies of our "commander in chief", then don't buy this book. There are many many things in the book that I already knew, but the author defintely does lay out a very damaging portrayal of our current President's personal politics and ideology. Please, get the newest paperback version, released AFTER 9-11. Do NOT get the old hardcover version printed before the September events. You'll miss out on a lot of extra materials if you don't. This book is very parochial and does not go very deep into foreign policy, class analysis, or deeper and longer standing issues of US society (issues that are often laughingly painted as "class warfare" in the commercial media whenever they are hinted at, and thereby sidestepped in favor of fluff), but it does paint a very convincing picture of a president who is fully devoted to the most reactionary and privileged elements of the ruling class in the United States. This is NOT about some supposedly "stupid" president who is "incompetent" or "dumb". These kind of appeals to Goerge Jr's supposed "stupidity" only show how stupid and gullible Democrats and "Liberals" really are, and how they really fall all over themselves to play into the hands of the Bush administration who want nothing more than to portray George W. Bush as a "regular joe" who cares about the "working man" and is trying his best to protect "America" from any number of mysterious and devious enemies waiting to pounce on us. "Make no mistake", GWB is none of these things, but instead is as much a blue-blood, silver-spoon ivy-leaguer as is Al Gore and actually quite more so. And, is as thoroughly calculated and schooled in propaganda, public relations and polls as was Bill Clinton or his father George Bush the First, or the Reagan administration before them. It's about a president who is very much aware of what he is doing to America and who seeks to, and IS using the deaths of 3000 people to advance a reactionary and regressive agenda, all wrapped in the flag. I actually suggest that readers that already realize this NOT read this book, don't bother, but rather read some more in-depth analysis of foreign policy of the kind of class warfare and nationalism that is now and always has used "patriotism" (since the dawn of recorded history and beyond) as a tool to convince the general population into accepting policies that thoroughly harm them and to draw them into subservience under protection of the fearless leader. If what I've said above seems odd or outlandish to you, then just read this very good book on the personality of our president (the best currently available), get from it what you can, and then move on to more broad analysis later. Josh
Rating: 
Summary: Not a joke book
Review: Miller's "Dyslexicon" gives the reader a startling look inside GWB's head and the thinking of his family. It also shows just how conservative the corporate-owned "liberal media" really is. Of special note are the comparisons of GWB with Nixon and the shameful Republican handling of the 2000 Presidential election.
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Summary: Deconstructing the Bush Dyslexicon
Review: The gaffes by President George W. Bush are no laughing matter. Funny they may be, but to merely laugh at his gaffes or roll one's eyes is to pretend that he is just a big bumblehead and is therefore, no danger to America. To do so is a big mistake and Mark Crispin Miller shows why. Mark Crispin Miller's book -- The Bush Dyslexicon (both the original and the recently updated version) -- take us into a haunted horror house of the President's mind. If you laugh, you miss the point. Virtually every Bush gaffe, read closely and deconstructed carefully, reveals great danger because it reveals what Bush really thinks about people, about issues, about culture, about intellect, about education, about the environment, about his status as a silver spoon son with silver spoon entitlements and an arrogance to match, all masked by his handlers and minders via patina of "good ole boy" charm. Liberals make a mistake dismissing the Bush charm and dismissing the Bush intellect. He has, with his guru Karl Rove, set probably the most political White House in American History, rewarding corporate [friends] with tax cuts, war contracts and slaps on the wrist for Wall Street shenanigans and consigning the non-rich to the misery of everyday American life with no hope of help. Now Bush is embarking upon conquest and American Empire -- wars without end, preventive wars, wars of Empire. Frankly, one could see it all coming if one had examined the Bush gaffes rather closely in 2000 rather than merely laughed at them. Mark Crispin Miller has provided a patriotic public service under what remains of the FIrst Amendment in an effort to guarantee the continued existence and success of the American nation for eons to come. His exposure of and deconstruction, parsing and further research about the Bush gaffes should send a chill down the spine of every American who believes in freedom, liberty, justice and democracy. The Bush gaffes documented, analyzed and exposed in The Bush Dyslexicon clearly show that Bush is an enemy of freedom, liberty, justice and democracy. Laugh and dismiss Bush and we will lose our country. Study his gaffes with Miller as your mentor and tutor and we can become motivated to save the nation, and do it, in the words of the late Sen. Paul Wellstone, if we organize, organize, organize. This is stuff that makes it on Leno and Letterman and for good reason. But Mark Crispin Miller tells you why you should read the Bush gaffes and be scared, be very scared. Thomas A. Prentice
Austin, Texas
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Summary: A Frightening Book!
Review: A very funny book, sometimes. Most of all, a book that should be read-- and understood. The Leader of the Free World is a neoconservative hawk. Apparently almost half the country found that desirable. But that's not the point. The problem is, the president is quite incapable of communicating. He cannot fathom a unique thought. He is not fond of reading, (or, in the alternative, he cannot fathom detailed briefings). Unlike our past presidents, Mr. Bush has no long-driving passion for history. This does not bode well. As Crispin Miller points out, even our least "cerebral" presidents have been motivated by a love of reading, particularly history. They have, at minimum, read about other countries and other cultures. They have understood wars, strategies, and diplomacy. They attempted, when necessary, to empathize with the less fortunate of us. They understood the three branches of government; and they probably knew which branch makes laws-- Mr. Bush does not. The problem is, Mr. Bush does not know much about anything. He would leave the "knowing" to his Savior, Jesus Christ. This may be a fine approach to Sunday Services or marital fidelity; it's thoroughly terrifying when one realizes the U.S. is run by a spoiled, heartless little man whose visceral responses (unfettered by contemplation) are at the core of world-altering decisions. "The Bush Dyslexicon" may well have started out as another easily dashed of compilation of George's phenomenal incompetence. I suspect Mark Crispin Miller was as horrified to land on the depth of the this president's truly numbing nastiness and ignorance as we (those capable of reading) are. One hopes that partisanship will not stop buyers from buying, here. There is nothing "unpatriotic" about being informed. At least we know who and what is leading our sons and daughters into hellish waters.
Rating:
Summary: Worth reading, defintely
Review: I thought this was a great read. The author at times stretches to make his difficult points, but his central claims - that Bush is a shrewd, deeply angry, dishonest, and hugely uninformed man - come through loud and clear. The book is largely made up of Bush quotes, which can make for light reading. For any reader of history and politics, this can act as a great break from the difficult texts that come with such reading tastes. Still though, that does not mean it's fluff by any means. What it will do more than anything is give you some arguing ammo when you're approached with the nitwits who actually support this plutocratic politician.
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Summary: Good but...
Review: The book is an excellent insight into the image that the Bush Administration purveys (and the American people buy...or didn't buy) Anyway, the first part of the book is excellent and will make you sad with desparation for change in this country. But then for more than a hundred pages, nothing but the quotes and gaffes of Bush, with minimal writing. I was dissapointed becuase I was expecting to gleam some valuable psychological insights into our president. THe book does do that, excellently, but I just was left wanting. The author does extract alot from Bush's statements, and then explains the history behind them. But a deeper portrait of the man in charge would be better.
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Summary: Suprisingly intelligent book
Review: When I first saw this book in the shops [the Australian cover features the photo of Bush pointing to his head with a speech bubble of "They misunderestimated me"] I thought it would be just another quote book, looking to make fun of the 43rd president. It turns out, though, that it's a very intelligent, interesting discussion on 'The Madness of King George'. Admittedly, I'm not a fan of Bush. That said, this book was very satisfying in that it's criticisms of him are very even-handed, reasonable and justifiable. There is nothing in here that amounts to mockery or left-wing propaganda. Instead, it presents a very clear portrait of Bush and the forces surrounding him. The book loses a star as, towards the end, it starts to become slightly repetitive and drawn out. However the initial few chapters, in particular on the Nixon connections, his youth and the role of the media, are very interesting and informative. Oh, and there are a few verbal gems from the subject himself [plus his father]. They're a good laugh, but not the basis for the book. Give the book a go and you'll only be dissappointed if you're after something that will completely tear Bush apart.
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Summary: Is children what?
Review: The modern world has turned into a bunch of spellbound spectators, and Mark Crispin Miller is trying to figure out how bad things are by seriously considering those things that a thoroughly comic society would only find amusing. Talking is not an activity which appeals to many people today. Being in a crowd is like going to church for so many people that it shouldn't be surprising that "Voices Carry" was the first song of Til Tuesday that could be considered a hit. The single mix version of "Voices Carry" is currently available on the Aimee Mann "Ultimate Collection" CD. The word "Hush," used in that song, is a euphemism for what I usually hear when I am out in public. There are so many things that are more interesting than one person trying to say something, it is a wonder that anyone in a thoroughly soundtracked society learns to say anything without communicating an overbearing weight of strained vindictiveness. Now that President George W. Bush has gotten enough on-the-job shocks to feel that he has found himself, engaged in a battle for the safety of all Americans which is so suspicious of what anyone might say, that silence it truly golden, this book, THE BUSH DYSLEXICON, might be subject to an attempt to impose a deeper meaning. It is most unfortunate for this book that I acquired it shortly after reading THE SECRET WAR AGAINST HANOI by Richard H. Shultz, with its memory of two Kennedy brothers, starting from their most vindictive moments on Saturday morning, January 28, 1961, and thereafter. If our future is mainly our children, the future of our government seems to be mainly the children of the people who killed President John F. Kennedy and those who plot killings using security guards, as may have been the case in the death of Bobby Kennedy. The failure of a nuclear test ban treaty to be ratified by the U.S. Senate before this book was published in 2001 is as much as I need to know about who is exercising power now, compared to how President Kennedy saw things at the time of his death, for me to think that the killers' kids rule. What is said in this book is what any educated person might think about the way such a particularly clique talks to each other, but talks down to everyone else. Page 1 starts with the possibilities which would be most familiar to those whose expectations have been shaped by TV, a comic hit on the clique, "a mere commercial venture . . . taking on the latest round of flubs and pratfalls." Page 2 contains the boast, "As a New Yorker, I could vote safely for Ralph Nader, and I did so with a certain wary pride." I love this objection to party politics as an evil, observed by someone who thought that a governing clique might try to do more than loot the world of all its commercial possibilities: here in Minnesota, Al Gore got less votes than Bill Clinton had, though nationally Gore received more votes than Bill Clinton ever did. There might be a lot of books by people who were outraged by the same things Ralph Nader complained about, and an openly criminal war on drugs was a big factor in the minds of those who felt it was the political parties that get most excited about a war on anything, but never shut it off. This book does not have an index, so it is not easy to find anything on a particular topic. Relating as well as it does to its main topic, just about the only thing you will find in this book is George W. Bush. Individuality is not what it used to be. Highly educated people are so sensitive to the sociology of knowledge that the particular point of view of an assault on anyone who speaks publicly for a great establishment is easily dismissed. "This book, you figure, must be just another snickering ad hominem attack on yet another U.S. president." (p. 1). After a president has been subjected to impeachment proceedings for something as personal as Clinton's behavior in the White House, it does seem that people understand that kind of thing much more readily than easy subterfuge on the scale which is practiced daily by the governing clique. Saying anything in such a situation, "George W. Bush is so illiterate as to turn completely incoherent when he speaks without a script or unless he thinks his every statement through so carefully beforehand that the effort empties out his face." (p. 6). Experts on the use of the Socratic method as a teaching mechanism at Harvard might remember the experience, something that the Unabomber might remember from the psychological experiments that he endured as an undergraduate at Harvard. Miller's remarks about the new thinking reflected obscurely in the remarks of George W. Bush merely shows how much he underestimates the ability of the ruling clique to upset the current use of smoke and mirrors: "To believe that Social Security is somehow not a federal program, that the word `insurance' is mere Washington bureaucratese, . . . is to suffer from no disability but ignorance." (pp. 6-7). Miller is not ready to have this particular rug pulled out from under him. Philosophically, the idea that Bush has found an axis of evil, the one sure thing that he can rely on, seems to stand the philosophy of Nietzsche on the distinction between good and evil being primarily a judgment of the powerless, back on its head, where it has always belonged, in spite of the philosophers who contend that people might believe anything. It isn't so, and Nietzsche couldn't just come right out and say it, but on "Meet the Press," on April 15, 2000, George W. Bush said, "Laura and I really don't realize how bright our children is sometimes until we get an objective analysis." (p. 137). Theoretically, "how bright" could be a quality that a lot of children share, and they are all that bright when how bright is the objective analysis that even Nietzsche could agree with. People who think that issues about gay Republicans, the creation of the world, anyone who preaches hate, the wall between church and state, or books in general all deserve a deeper analysis than anything that has been said before won't learn much from this one.
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Summary: More than just the politics of the moment
Review: I have both editions of this book; the earlier one and the one published just this year. The newer edition is much improved from the new material, but the message is the same. This appears to be a vastly misunderstood work. I understand that some bookstores stack this in the "humor" or "political humor" (if they have one) sections. That's like placing "Animal Farm" in the children's section because it has talking pigs and horses. Personally, I don't find disabilities amusing (Bush's no less than any others) and Miller seems to make it clear he feels the same way. Also, the joke has been running on too long by this time to be funny. The other mistake is that this is simply an attack by a liberal professor against the conservative Bush president. Yes, Miller is obviously a liberal and does attack Bush with a near lethal precision of insight and logic -- the kind Peggy Noonan wishes she had -- but "Dyslexicon" is every bit as much about the rest of us as it is about Bush. It is about how our superficial media allows a creature such as Bush to exist and even flourish. Regardless of how you feel about the current president Bush, reading Dyslexicon is very instructive in understanding the psychology of others, particularly politicians. That's a useful skill in this day and age.
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