Fleeced: How Barack Obama, Media Mockery of Terrorist Threats, Liberals Who Want to Kill Talk Radio, the Do-Nothing Congress, Companies That Help Iran, and Washington Lobbyists for Foreign Governments Are Scamming Us ... and What to Do About It

Manufacturer: Harper List Price: $26.95 Our Price: $16.17

HE KNOWS THE NUANCES OF OUR SYSTEM. This 337 page book is a glaring testament to irrational ideas & policies that are hurting our country across the spectrum of politics, economics, social, & commercial issues. This book is a warning not a tirade. He bashes both Republicans & Democrats, & Liberals & Conservatives with equal gusto. It should be noted that he has worked for folks of both parties as a political consultant, so those who accuse him of being a "right wing nut" are just showing their own biases. He hits President Bush, the Supreme Court, the whole Congress, crooked lenders, lobbyists working for foreign countries, credit card companies, hedge fund billionaires who are getting tax breaks from the IRS, Halliburton's war profiteering, & John McCain, Hillary Clinton, & Barack Obama for not showing up for their day jobs. He asks a poignant question as pertains to Congress. Why do they get $167,500 a year when they often don't even address the problems & issues facing the country? His take on the attempts of terrorists in the USA that have been stopped since 9/11/01 was intriguing. One of these men that was released from Gitmo was a Taliban leader who went back to fighting the USA in Afghanistan. He is also very concerned about the large numbers of teachers leaving their profession, while education is getting far less money than healthcare. Which is likely to remain the case for the foreseeable future since the baby boomers are or are near retirement age. All in all a very detailed & eye opening book. Ironic Ironic that the authors attack Barack Obama when the developments they decry started with President George W. Bush. During his administration government spending has increased by $1 trillion and our debt is at all time high. David Friedman, an economist at Santa Clara University and son of Nobel-winning economist Milton Friedman, observes: "Bush was elected on a pro-market, small government platform and proceeded to expand the size of government to the largest in our nation's history." Any effort to understand our problems and how to fix them has to begin with a critique of the Bush years and how to correct what went wrong under his administration. biased reviewers: get specific, please! (4.5 stars I sez) This book has a nearly equal number of '1 star' and '5 star' ratings and it seems - to me at least - that most of these contributors have rated it based on their political preferences and biases. To be sure it's thought (and invective-) provoking, and it ranges from topics on too-early Guantánamo prisoner release, to the socialist bend of those who seek to implement incremental taxes in the next decade. My personal favorite topic is the concern about "there are too many conservative talk radio stations" meaning one needs "equal time" for left-wing programming. That subject alone desevers a book! My vote is that Dick Morris + Eileen McGann did a nice job here, politics be damned, and for that reason I give them a '5-star' ... but FWIW it would have been a '4.5 star' because I disagree with their analysis on companies doing business in Syria, North Korea, etc. For that subject they need more concrete data to support their conclusions methinks. I am HalMcInnes The Morris's & Co. know how to make a splash Clearly, those who really like Dick Morris will buy his books, and those who ferociously dislike him will use the pages for other purposes. This review merely recommends picking up the book for reading, knowing that most people will both find many sections they disagree with, and will also be entertained by the story as it goes along. As with other Morris-McGann books, the authors depend on a mild variety of shock value. They mildly shock the reader with the amount of detail they are willing to put to paper, and risk libel actions downstream. They also shock by taking on a variety of topics reaching all over the political and sociological spectrum. Imagine hearing first their outrage (and earlier book title!) about an Obama presidency, then later a more vigorous anger over Haliburton's recent skulduggery in Iraq? Or first about the badmouthing of teachers' unions fleecing their teachers, then later about teachers being underpaid? In truth, these are all of one stripe: the rich and powerful tend to have more tools and opportunity to take advantage of "regular" people. To the extent that their research is both accurate AND reasonably complete, the fleecing truly is outrageous. The Morris's will simply have to get better editing, though. If the reader gets distracted by bad English usage or confusing language style, then there are small parts of "Fleeced" which will grate the nerves from time to time. There are thankfully fewer of these than in "Outrage." One of the gems showing up on page 217: "Satisfied to know that they investments are being well managed,...." Awful! The publisher should have known better also. Nevertheless, English professors simply have to get over extreme judgments, and go get the book. At least check it out from the library.