Rating: 
Summary: Open Your Eyes and Read This Book
Review: Another winner from the sage of Santa Monica, this book strips the veneer from the fanatics in office who hijacked our country and sent our men to die on a ill-fated, poorly-planned attack on Iraq and who cut taxes as the budget balloons and we continue to spend 5 billion in our tax money on Iraq each month. What a disgrace.You will love this book if you are open-minded, a clear thinker, and willing to laugh as uncomfortable facts about this Administration are skewered. However, if you are like the reviewer from Derby, Conn. below, who obviously did not read the book but based his review on Amazon's blurb, you will be disappointed. The choice is yours.
Rating:
Summary: More Than Just Criticism
Review: Arianna has outdone herself with this book. Unlike other pundits who seem content to choose a party and attack, Huffington takes a bat to the knees of both Democrats and Republicans (and sometimes even Greens). While this is endlessly amusing, especially when combined with Huffington's flair for language and the immense amount of research that has obviously gone into "Fanatics," it was not my favorite part. What I enjoyed the most, and what stuck with me the longest after I put this book down, was the fourth section, Huffington's vision for America. Maybe Arianna's brief foray into electoral politics woke her up to America's hunger for passion and idealism - she provides an ample dose of both in this book. Her suggestions range from the broad to the specific, and she includes several amazing speeches she suggests John Kerry deliver during his campaign. On another note, she also provides an enlightening description of her much-talked-about transition from witty, redheaded Republican to witty, redheaded Democrat. Her core values have remained essentially the same, her views on the role of government are what evolved. This book is a call to action - no matter what your political views (though I imagine it is mostly liberals who will be reading this book) it is impossible not to put down "Fanatics and Fools" and want to do something in this election. That is, in my opinion, what sets this book apart from other Bush-bashing tomes. This is more than an angry polemic, it is a call to action and a plea to the Democratic party to make itself something we can be proud of.
Rating: 
Summary: Much valid criticism but not enough game plan!
Review: Arianna Huffington as always is informative and accurate in her scathing criticism of the Bush regime and the damage Bush and cronies are doing to the people of America and the world.... and anyone who does not yet intellectually and emotionally grasp the reality (indeed the horrors) existing under the rhetoric of our current government will benefit from reading this book. But having just previously read Senator Byrd's excellent LOSING AMERICA - which focused on the facts and Byrd's deeply felt and profound observations (in his case, of the power tactics, lack of conscience and integrity, and vicious partisanship he has witnessed among many of our Congresspersons) without ranting and name-calling, I found myself frustrated with Huntington.
Clearly the left needs its Huntington's and Franken's and Moore's - and I value all three of them. But Huntington is more likely to provide confirmation and an outlet for anger for those already strongly anti-Bush, while turning off the undecided with inflammatory language. Not all of us are empowered to political action by nonstop ranting. The realities speak for themselves. Let the reader learn of them, feel his or her own anger rather than react to the authors, and feel mobilized as a result to take action for new political alternatives. Too much ranting can leave one emotionally exhausted and depressed rather than empowered to help bring in a new government.
The Left also needs more specific clarification of its vision and agenda, and this book does not provide that in more than a few pages. After reading many anti-Bush books, I bought Huntington's latest because of the subtitle, "The Game Plan for Winning Back America". But the "Game Plan", in the simplest form, was really a brief addendum to a book which focused almost entirely on what is wrong, rather than what we need to make right and how to do it.
I do not however want to dissuade readers from buying and reading this book. The more you learn about what's really going on in this country and its effect on the world and future of this planet, the more appalled you may be... and the more committed to helping bring about a new Democratic regime. If you are wanting to learn more about what's wrong, read this book (and Hightower's Thieves in High Places, Hartmann's We the People, Derber's Regime Change Begins at Home and People Before Profit, and Byrd's Losing Ground - all which I preferred). But once you know what's wrong and are well-informed enough to share it with others, and once you have lived in your outrage long enough to want to channel your anger into commitment and vision, you may then be ready for a Game Plan for America which goes beyond Huntington. You might then wish to read John Kerry's Call to Service and Plan for America. They at least provide the seeds which can eventually blossom into a new kind of government, one which serves the needs of its people, in action as well as words.
Rating:
Summary: She does it again!
Review: Arianna Huffington does it again! With substance only Ann Coulter could dream off, and wit Bill O'Reily can only wish for, Ms. Huffington reveals all the wrong paths this nation has taken since the Bush-Cheney junta, as well as criticizing the Democrats for standing aside and watching this happen. As Arianna put it in Pigs at the Trough, "put the act, back in action"--something Fanatics and Fools certainly does spark.
Rating:
Summary: A Surprisingly Strong Argument for the Defeat of George Bush
Review: Arianna Huffington has written a well thought out book that profoundly indicts the current Bush Administration but does so in a way that the most respected political philosophers of today like Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. would be proud. Basically, Ms. Huffington warns of an America that is so wildly off course due to the detached leadership of George W. Bush that we are getting to a dangerous point in our country's history. She offers the thought that asks how long can the downtrodden be tossed aside before the entire social fabric that hold our society collapses? Ms. Huffington adds that the amount of people looking for emergency rooms as their health care is increasing at alarming rates. She cites headlines from around the country that note the plight of the working poor and wonders why they are being ignored by our political system. More importantly, Ms. Huffington calls into question that lack of leadership by the media who've abandoned the task of reporting on how Bush has broken promises to help the poor and children but had rewarded the rich time and again with excessive tax cuts. Ms. Huffington then calls into question the political rise of Arnold Schwarzenegger and sadly notes that he is nothing but a warmed over George W. Bush who upon taking office made his first action to strip away a cost of living increase for California's poor. She then says that the media has fallen in love with Arnold and is giving him a pass time and again all to the determent of the poor of California as he cuts their social net. This is a well written book on so many levels that is better than the Franken book as it is less angry and more intellectual. Her book is more of a strategic argument for a new course of action for the Democratic Presidential Candidate of 2004 and the party itself. In short, this is an excellent political treatise that should be read by all who are looking for a new course for our country.
Rating:
Summary: A Populist With A Timely Message
Review: Arianna Huffington's superbly witty book is particularly significant in view of the fact that she falls into the category of independents that the Democratic Party needs to win back the White House in November. Huffington reveals her epiphany, when Harris Wofford, a former civil rights leader with close ties to Martin Luther King, convinced her in the wake of her criticism that the Americorps program he headed in the Clinton administration deserved her support. Arianna not only reversed course on Americorps, she became an articulate populist who is now one of the most trenchant critics of George W. Bush. The rationale for Huffington's book is stated in her title, bracketing competing political forces into fanatics and fools. She sharply attacks the Bush administration and the current Republican Party, attaching the label of fanaticism based on what she perceives as destructive policies, 1) in the realm of supporting tax cuts which disproportionately benefit the wealthy at the expense of the rest of America, 2) a jingoistic foreign policy responsible for not only launching a war in Iraq that was unnecessary, but alienating world opinion through a go it alone attitude, 3) shortchanging America's schools, 4) despoiling the environment, 5) leaving America vulnerable to foreign terrorist attack while making bogus claims of making the citizenry safer. The Republicans are defined as fanatics and the Democrats labeled as fools for failing to mount a cohesive opposition. Huffington delivers a necessary slap in exhorting the troops to shape up after the disastrous 2002 mid-term elections, in which the opposition party failed to provide a clear message and appeared intimidated by boisterous Republican propaganda efforts directed by Karl Rove equating opposition with an absence of patriotism. Speaking as someone with authentic independent credentials of her own, Arianna bluntly tells the Democratic Party leadership that the only way Bush can be defeated is to stir the increasing number of Americans dropping out of the process with a clear and effective message, a concise and sharply articulated alternative to Bush Republicanism. Bush Lite, she argues, will do no more than provide Bush More. Huffington, who was a candidate in the recent California recall race for governor before dropping out late in the race, provides an intelligent analysis of Arnold Schwarzenegger from the up close perspective of someone who has known him for a long time, becoming acquainted with him initially when the actor supported her ex-husband in his attempt to defeat Senator Dianne Feinstein in a hotly contested 1994 race. She notes that he uses his charm to shield himself from criticism, dodging the tough issues. Despite his "moderate" tag stemming from issues such as abortion and gay adoption, she notes that on the important money issues that really matter to the Republican Party, Schwarzenegger's positions are in lock step with those of Bush, someone for whom he has expressed deep admiration. She notes that in honoring his pledge to repeal the controversial car tax, Schwarzenegger reeked economic wreckage in which the blind, students from middle class families hoping to attend college, and welfare single mothers seeking to bring up families were all deprived of needed funds. Huffington writes with a penetrating wit, honed as a debater in her college days at Cambridge University. It is understandable why right wing Republicans prefer to keep their distance from her.
Rating:
Summary: Remember she once supported the Republicrats
Review: Arianna was on Howard Stern's show last week speaking against Bush but remember she also was married to a Republicrat (Republican = Democrat) until she found out he was gay. How she supports the Demopublicans. This woman is an opportunist who will support whoever will pay her. She is a media whore and worse, she is not even a native born Amerikan. If she doesn't like Bush or our political system when her side is out of power, go back to Greece. Live in that third world country. GO BACK
Rating: 
Summary: Zha-Zha can write?
Review: Arianna(the dumb gabor sister) continues with her "Gubernatorial debate" style of whine. Here she repeats the same tired liberal spew that Leftists rule and "Righty's drool". Nothing new there. As with her TV apearences she has no clear or original thoughts nor the eloquence to articulate them. She's famous for getting rich in a divorce...nothing else....and her hatred of BUSH is hardly original or inspired. She also brings up irrelevent non-issues in a feeble attempt to debate(like on tv) an issue, and thinks this type of "I know you are but what am I" prattle is scoring a point. Still she''s not as bad as the rest of the America hating leftists, and Moveon.org traitors and terrorists.
I hear they have already produced a series of campaign video's to capitalize on the NEXT terroist attacks, hoping it will sweep their party(THE DNC) into power like the "terrorist attacks"(socialist campaign tactics) gave the Spainish election to the Lefties in Spain. The kinda money Moveon and other lefties have raised will buy a lot of bombs.
Rating:
Summary: great review
Review: For more great recommendations, please visit:
http://www.campaign2004.com/ There's a lot of great info on John Kerry, George W Bush, and their bids for Campaign 2004 during the November 2004 Presidential Election. http://www.campaign2004.com/
Rating:
Summary: A Good Companion for Today's Political Landscape
Review: Huffington's "Fanatics and Fools" is an excellent companion for the 2004 election year, and beyond.
In this book, Huffington does the following:
1. She lays out the case for viewing the neo-conservative threat to America as one of fanatics who, without regard to facts, are making a disaster of America's economic life and foreign policy. She also provides profiles of key neo-con players.
2. She removes the facade of "compassionate conservatism" worn by so-called "moderate" Republicans, such as Arnold Schwarzenegger and George W, and exposes the bread and circus nature of their campaigns and the real intention and effects of their policies.
3. She shows us what has gone wrong, within the Democratic Party, that prevents this party from playing an effective role in countering neo-con fanaticism -- and she shows how to fix the blurred vision and short-sightedness of the Democrats.
4. She adds sidebars of humor that help to lighten up a heavy topic, while still driving home the nature of the political crisis we are currently in.
5. She offers a blueprint to serve as a national agenda, drawing on the best progressive traditions of both the Democratic and the Republican Parties.
This a book that anyone who is interested in understanding the present and building a future for our country should read.
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