Generalissimo El Busho: Essays & Cartoons on the Bush Years

by Ted Rall

Book Overview

In time for the election campaign in America, Rall compiles his most scathing cartoons and commentary aimed at what he portrays as the first non-elected president, and also one of the most hawkish and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1561633844
• ISBN13: 9781561633845
• Release Date: June 2004
• Publisher: Nantier Beall Minoustchine Publishing
• Length: 208 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.4" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

with broad grinning ...

Seldom an America has been so clearly divided on the opinion of the quality of his president. The one rejoice, the others moan. Leader of such an Anti-Bushies movement is the cartoonist Ted Rall next to the loud Michael Moore or the quiet Esther Kaplan and others. Rall's cartoons are distributed by insiders constantly around the globe by e-mail appendix. More than 120 merciless cartoons with necessary comments (written 2000-2004) show as foresighted satire can be: Ted Rall often had anticipated the walk of the events months before it became reality: the joy of making torture against prisoners in some American armed forces areas, the financial obtaining practices for a register looting war enthusiasm, the absurdity of some targets, thought up at the desk of the Oval Office: With "Predator" Drones, that remote-controlled "Hellfire Missiles" US-army shot not only in the cartoon but also in the reality vs. the axis of the bad : against a Mercedes hurrying through the desert at the 3rd Nov. 2002 - unfortunately, an American citizen also dies by mistake; or at the 17th Feb. of the same year a fully automatic "Predator"-beast hits Tall Man Khan -- unfortunately, this one had been mistaken for Osama bin Laden . Ted Rall thinks that Bush has a monkey similar face, funny ears and empty eyes, and because this reminded him of the Chilean president Pinochet, he headlined "Generalissimo El Busho" and provided the Washington War-Lord with a sash and many medallions which he perhaps would like to see to himself if it were in Texas fashion, then. So he adorns himself as an alternative in the reality merely with jackets of aircraft carrier fight bomber pilots, broad grinning ...

Lessons in mass distraction

In our society of competing popularity contests, in which the prevalence of countervailing insults seems to be of more importance than democratic ideals in maintaining political social ties, Ted Rall draws the cartoons which demonstrate how much freedom of speech editors are willing to allow in an America that is so clearly divided that journalists ought to feel obligated to maintain some sympathy for readers who are more likely to agree with Rall than with unsubstantiated assertions from anonymous sources. With the current controversies about secret provisions inserted in late-night conference committee drafts of important end-of-session appropriations legislation, it is not surprising that most people are capable of believing that the United States has reached a level of secrecy which makes the scenes shown in Ted Rall's cartoon possible, if not probable. Most of us don't actually know where Jimmy Hoffa's body ended up, and it is a shame that this book does not have an index to allow curious readers to look up Hoffa and see if Rall has a new theory on that, but we are sure to have a few ideas about events between October 10, 2000 ("Never has that been clearer than during this sad, pathetic, duller than death election year." p. 17) and the Last Word on March 2, 2004 (p. 207) and the essays in GENERALISSIMO EL BUSH allow news junkies to see how much more or less than Rall we knew then or know now. When it comes to predictions, Rall made some good ones, and I am unaware of any that were so far off he had to leave them out of this book in 2004, when, like the Worst-Case Scenarios cartoon on page 21, "The Jerk stops here" sign looks like it is on the desk in the Oval Office. I find the humor great, but I should be emphasizing how much the book shows an interest in technology and economics, two subjects which are not often prevalent in comic looks at the world situation. On February 17, 2002, Rall and I both took an interest in the Afghan Tall Man Khan, who was 5-feet-eleven but was attacked by a Hellfire missile fired from a Predator drone because he was mistaken for Osama bin Laden, who is 6-feet-4. (p. 68). Rall reprints information from the New York Times article by John F. Burns without further comment, except about "thousands of indiscriminately dropped bombs" in Afghanistan where Rall went to report on the war in November 2001. But the idea shows up in a `Beyond the West Wing' cartoon on page 112: `All I have to do is declare you an "enemy combatant" and WHAM!! Hellfire missile!" That article is about a November 3, 2002 "Central Intelligence Agency rub-out of alleged al-Qaeda operatives riding in a car in Yemen. Langley fired a Hellfire missile from a remote-controlled Predator drone into the vehicle, blowing up several men. The CIA later discovered that an American citizen, Kamel Derwish, had inadvertently been killed in the resulting inferno." (pp. 111-112). Costs are revealed in the "You Can Sponsor the War Against Iraq" cart

Rall scores with this funny collection on "el presidente"

Generalissimo El Busho: Essays & Cartoons on the Bush Years by Ted Rall is a scathing, funny, and poignant collection on the George W. Bush Presidency. Starting out with the 2000 election and exploring topics like 9/11, the Iraq War etc., Rall presents some legitimate, tough, and in some cases eye opening criticism on W. and his administration. I was specifically entertained endlessly by his cartoons of "el presidente". They are crude drawings, but delibertly so. They are so funny and the criticism is so dead on I would recommend it to anyone who has legitimate questions about this administration. The facts are Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, there was no link between Iraq and Al-Queda, and we were mislead into a war that has distracted from what should be the real focus fighting Al-Queda and terrorism and finding the "evil-doer" Osama Bin-Laden. Rall presents the mistakes of W. in a fun and entertaining fashion. A must read!

SO PRESCIENT, IT'S SCARY!

A blend of caustic humor and well-written razor-sharp prose that's hard to put down. I spent many a sleepless night reading and re-reading this highly stimulating book and scanning and e-mailing the author's clever, pointed, and merciless cartoons to pro and anti-Bushies alike. Ted Rall was one of the few Americans who weren't fooled by the Bush administration's claim that Saddam Hussein was armed with horrible weapons, in cahoots with al-Qaeda, and an imminent threat which required immediate military intervention. This collection of articles from Rall's incisive weekly column during the Bush years, peppered with more than 120 of his pull-no-punches cartoons, is a spellbinding read. The introduction by fellow political cartoonist, Tom Tomorrow, sardonically defends Rall against those who accuse him of hating America; "...he hates America so much, he thinks the guy who wins the election should be the guy who actually becomes president." In the preface that follows, Ted Rall describes the incredible events that took place during and shortly after Election Day, November 7, 2000. On November 9th, more than a month before the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Bush v. Gore, the Bush campaign sent James Baker to proclaim Bush the winner on PBS' The News With Jim Lehrer. "...as the recount continued, Baker returned to Lehrer's show to threaten a military coup d'état should Bush be denied the presidency. Bush's people sent young goons to beat up and intimidate Miami-Dade County election workers." These events heralded Rall's creation of "Generalissimo El Busho". "Bush was a bully. Like all bullies-like all tin-pot third world autocrats-he wasn't going to take no for an answer. The first man in American history to illegally seize power was appointed president by a party-line vote of the Supreme Court on December 20, 2000." The first thing that popped into Rall's mind "...upon watching Bush's simian countenance...was that of former dictator Augusto Pinochet." Examining a state portrait of the Chilean general, "I was struck by the contrast between the grandeur of his costume and the dimness of his eyes. The parallel with Bush was readily apparent. Like Pinochet, he would soon assume all of the trappings of high office...but they wouldn't change his essential inferiority and incompetence." "I promised myself that I would never utter the phrase `President George W. Bush', but that wasn't enough...I drew the empty-eyed, bat-eared Bush in General Pinochet's uniform, festooned with medals, a sash and a great big hat. Eureka! Generalissimo El Busho was born." The first column presented in the book is dated October 10, 2000, lamenting that both Bush and Gore "...consistently ignore America's massive, pressing structural issues in favor of trivial micro-mini issuettes." Ted Rall's subsequent essays are so prescient that I had to look back several times to make sure of the date they were published...some of them could have been written in the las

Sharp, funny, takes no prisoners!

This is the first book i've read by Rall, after seeing his comics for years in the Village Voice. Here, he skewers members of the current administration and their bogus "war" on terror, with special attention paid to our "(P)resident-in-Chief", El Busho. if you need to hear someone tell it like it is, without all the wishy-washy popcorn crap from the major media news outlets, this is the book for you. But be forewarned: Rall's commando style may be hurtful to those with their heads stuck in the sand, contented with what they believe to be "facts".