Let's Stop Beating around the Bush: More Political Subversion from Jim Hightower

The bestselling grassroots guru is back with his incisive take on the state of the union and life today in the good ol' U.S.A.

America in 2004 is color coded — and it's not just a matter of red, white, and blue. The terror alert bounces from yellow to orange. The economy offers up a hundred shades of red ink. The environment is turning brown. National security is cloaked in gray shadows. And, as he did in the bestselling Thieves in High Places, Jim Hightower covers it all with uncommon insight, political fearlessness, and laugh-out-loud humor.

America's #1 populist gives us Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush — a hard-hitting, fact-filled review of the real state of the union that you won't get from the establishment media. With his daily radio commentaries and award-winning monthly newsletter, no one has chronicled the madness of King George the W, the wimpiness of corporate Democrats, and the aggressive avarice of Wall Street with the thoroughness and tenacity of Hightower. Now he brings that investigative punch into this wild and woolly hook of fiery essays.

With his satirical "Six Perfectly Good Reasons to Re-elect George W. Bush"; his mix of damning indictments and uplifting stories; and side bars, cartoons, games, and puzzles, Hightower has clone the impossible: he has created a subversive read that makes politics fun again.

Progressive populist radio commentator and essayist Hightower presents his entry in the growing list of anti-Bush volumes, characterized by his particular brand of Texas humor. He runs down the list of the various destructive policies of the Bush administration, covering the environment, the economy, agriculture, civil liberties, and social welfare in separate sections.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

With his usual candor, radio commentator and bestselling author Hightower returns with his lowdown on the Bushites, Congress, the War on Terror, the economy, and a host of other hot, newsworthy topics.

Jim Hightower is an American original who burst on the national scene twenty years ago from the unlikely launching pad of Texas agricultural commissioner, an obscure (but powerful) office to which he was elected for two terms. He has since become America's most popular populist, spreading his message of democratic hope via national radio commentaries, columns, his award-winning monthly newsletter (The Hightower Lowdown), and barnstorming tours all across America. He is the author of the New York Times bestseller Thieves in High Places, There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road but Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos, and If the Gods Had Meant Us to Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates.

CONTENTS

BUSH...AGAIN?

Six Perfectly Good Reasons to Elect George W. Bush

Introduction xv

1: GLOBAL WARMING! 1

George W Does the Environment

• Bush Gets Hot 7

• Making Government Listen 9

• Mountain Massacre 11

• Bus‛s“Clean Coa” Boondoggle 12

• The Ever-Loopy Synfuels Loophole 13

• A Dirty Dozen 14

• Inside the“Pink Zon” 20

• Messing with Frogs 21

• Dumping High-Tech Toxins on Poor Nations 22

• Democrats Get Down and Dirty, Too 23

• Timber Scams 25

• Kill Endangered Species to Save Them 26

• Putting the“Yuc” in Yucca Mountain 27

• Guess Who Loves Conservation? 29

• Energetic Thieves 30

• Shifting the Cleanup Burden 31

• The Grassroots Water Rebellion 33

• Polluting the Poor 35

2: CHEAP UNDERWEAR, BUB 39

George W Does the Economy

• A Work in Progress 46

• Bush Creates New Manufacturing Jobs! 48

• Happy Days Are Here Again 49

• The Statistically Employed 52

• CEOs Average $25,000...an Hour 53

• Converting Safeway to Greedway 57

• Bus‛s PR Boo-Boo 61

• Bus‛s Jobs Plan 62

• High-Tech Execs to Workers: Go to Hell 64

• Get to Work, America 68

• Gifts to Power 69

• A Big Idea 70

• A Corporation That Breaks the Greed Mold 71

3: ONE WORD, BUCKO: YUM-YUM-YUM! 77

George W Does Food

• Down on the Farm 81

• NAFTA Gives the Shafta to Farmers 85

• The Cows Have Come Home 89

• Living High on the Hog 94

• Frankenfood 96

• Monsanto Goes Nuts 102

• Bringing the Farm to the City 105

• High on Hemp 107

• The Mendocino Rebellion 111

4: YO‛LL NEVER HAVE TO FEEL ALONE AGAIN, MY FRI: 115

George W Does Liberty

• BushZones Go National 120

• The Miami Model 128

• Bush Rewrites the Founders 136

• Et Tu, Postmaster? 138

• New Toys for Big Brother 139

• Our Loopy Attorney General 140

• Shredding Ashcroft 143

• Spy, Inc. 145

• The Intrusion Industry 146

• Corporate Cancellation of the Sixth Amendment 148

• Bye-Bye, Medical Privacy 149

• Catch-22, the Corporate Version 150

• Letting Consumerism Get Under Your Skin 151

5: RUGGED INDIVIDUALISM, COMPADRE 155

George W Does the Common Good

• Forget Health Care, W‛re Going to Mars 165

• Reforming Nursing Home Rules 166

• Defending America from Canada 167

• Why Drugs Cost So Much 171

• Social Security Works 172

• Edison Comes A-Cropper 175

• Teaching Commercialism 176

• Higher Education for All 178

• Why Libraries Matter 182

• The Book Thing 184

• Where Did Ranger George Go? 185

• The Corporate Takeover of Our Water 187

• The Big Muddy of Corporatization 192

• Budgeting for Class Warfare 196

• Betrayal of Our Troops 198

• Who Gets Taxed? 202

• Le‛s Run Government Like A... 205

• Heroes 206

6. YOU NAME IT! 211

• What George W Means to Me 215

Connections 217

Solutions to Puzzles 225

Index 229