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Al Franken: The Truth

Although all his recent books have been political, "The Truth" is probably his most frontal attack on Bushevism to date. On page 193, for instance, he states unequivocally, "Bush is lucky that he had a Republican Congress, or he almost certainly would have been impeached and imprisoned." (There's also a phony blotter of LSD on the page, which Franken claims is the only way you could possibly understand Bush's contorted, deceptive, changing Social Security policy.)

And Franken means it. While the subtitle of the book notes "with jokes," this is a rather robust broadside about how Bushevism is destroying our nation and threatening world peace. Being Franken, wry humor emerges at times, but Franken is clearly, as listeners of his Air America show know, truly baffled by how Bush and his cabal are getting away with highway robbery, death and economic destruction, not to mention the shredding of our Constitution. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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Tragedy and Farce: How the American Media Sell Wars, Spin Elections, and Destroy Democracy
by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney

McChesney and Nichols are two of the country's foremost champions of media reform. They co-founded Free Press, an organization that drew a sold-out crowd of more than 2200 people earlier this year to a conference on returning journalism to its roots of ferreting out the truth.

The authors of this book have been pulling the fire alarm on the dangers of media consolidation for years -- and now they've jointly written a book on how their worst warnings came true in the Bush Administration. Big media has become an obstacle to democracy for so many reasons, you'll just have to read the book.

But, first on the list is the obvious fact that big media is big business -- and big business doesn't want to offend the Republicans in power, because the GOP gives them tax breaks and generally supports further media consolidation. The mainstream media, particularly television, puts themselves financially at risk -- so they think -- when they expose Bushevism. They have a monetary incentive to play it safe and run with White House propaganda -- because they can get away with it. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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WAL-MART: The High Cost of Low Price (DVD)
by Robert Greenwald, Producer/Director

Wal-Mart is another Bushevik corporate welfare recipient, gorging at the public trough while proclaiming itself a triumph of capitalism. In fact, they are America's biggest subsidized retailer.

Greenwald is focusing his film on the victims of Wal-Mart: the people who have worked there. And, let's not forget the numerous small business owners who are wiped out whenever a Wal-Mart opens. And, we the taxpayers who underwrite Wal-Mart's cheap labor policies. And the list goes on and on. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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The Fox in the Henhouse: How Privatization Threatens Democracy

An introductory quotation by Bill Moyers eloquently states, "We are moving toward an oligarchic society where a relatively small handful of the rich decide, with their money, who will run, who will win, and how they will govern. The defenders of the present system will fight hard to hold on to their privilege, and they write the rules. Nothing less than our democracy is at stake."

Privatization, as carried out by the Busheviks, is just a euphemism for stealing from taxpayers and giving the money to campaign contributors. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to Undermine the UN and Overthrow Saddam Hussein

By Scott Ritter
Let's just lay it on the line. When it came to WMDs and Iraq, Scott Ritter was right and the Busheviks were wrong. But they knew that, and he knew that. Too bad the American people didn't believe Ritter, because tens of thousands of Iraqis and Americans wouldn't be wounded and dead now. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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Unfit Commander: Texans for Truth Take On George W. Bush
by Glenn W. Smith

"Unfit Commander" is a title that captures the essence of Bush's incompetence, ethical corruption and cronyism. It provides detail upon detail -- and document upon document -- that disprove the Rove/Hughes/Miers perpetrated myth that Bush served his country well. He was a coward who supported a war, but refused to fight in it, leaving other young men to die on behalf of his gung ho rhetoric. Then he got drugged and liquored up and disappeared from his "gentleman's duty" in the Guard.

He always appears to be AWOL from crises -- from his odd "My Pet Goat" moment and flight away from Washington after 9/11, to his mysterious bike ride when the Capitol and White House were evacuated and no one bothered to tell him, to his guitar strumming tour while New Orleans was drowning. The only thing Bush doesn't appear to be AWOL from are public relations stunts. In fact, that is his presidency as far as his reporting for duty. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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Special Plans: The Blogs On Douglas Feith And The Faulty Intelligence That Led To War

What a nifty idea. A small publisher in Oregon decides to do a series of handbooks on Bush administration figures and policies, using material that was originally posted on blogs.

After all, as we noted, in the mainstream media, you rarely ever come across the name of Douglas Feith, an undersecretary in the Department of Defense, who was behind much of the misinformation that was peddled to the American public to convince us of the need to go to war. It was also in Feith's office that the FBI found a staffer accused of leaking classified information to AIPAC, which -- not the misinformation that led to war -- was the final reason Feith was forced to resign. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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The Raw Deal: How the Bush Republicans Plan to Destroy Social Security and the Legacy of the New Deal
by Joe Conason, Foreward by James Roosevelt, Introduction by Al Franken

Conason's book reveals the fraudulent bait-and-switch gambit that Rove and Norquist (with the help of the ubiquitous GOP "framer," Frank Luntz) are trying to pull off: they'll have Bush talk of "strengthening" Social Security, while taking the first steps to ensure its demise. Because the only group of people who will be ensured of prosperity under Bush's plans are Wall Street brokers. Under Bush, one of America's great success stories would become one of its riskiest adventures, leaving many senior citizens destitute, while Wall Street firms would increase bonuses and break out the champagne. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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The Republican War on Science
By Chris Mooney

There are really two main forces at work in the Republican right, which has reached its pinnacle of power in the reign of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and Tom DeLay. On the one hand, you have the extremist religious "base" that supports Bush no matter what his latest egregious failure or betrayal is. To them, science is an enemy because it, ipso facto, deals with discoveries, research and explanations of life and the world that conflict with literal interpretations of the Bible. Forget about the canard of "Intelligent Design," which is just another Frank Luntz euphemism -- in this case for creationism. The religious right fully endorses the war on science because science is born of human research, and human research inevitably comes into conflict with the fundamentalist interpretation of divine intent.

The second major camp behind Bush's war on science is the corporate world, particularly the depletable natural resources companies who are championed by Dick Cheney. They believe that science gets in the way of their pillaging and plundering the environment for a quick profit. If science proves, as it has, that global warming is accelerating rapidly, then what good is it? It will only lead these companies -- headed by big Republican contributors -- to a short-term reduction in profits. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT

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Hijacking Catastrophe: 9/11, Fear And The Selling Of American Empire

"Hijacking" is a film that you will nod your head to as you watch it and feel haunted at the same time. Narrated by Julian Bond, the film captures the sinister, hidden agenda of the Bush regime -- and reveals how they used propaganda to pull off a costly and tragic "bait and switch" war.

You are left feeling that Bush is a puppet who is satisfied to be in a position of power, while others -- most notably Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz -- determine the fate of American foreign policy.

Most sobering is realizing how inept the Bush crew is. Rumsfeld in particular appears to say anything that comes into his head, with no accountability whatsoever. >>READ MORE OR BUY IT