Various Fantagraphics anthologies – The Bush Junta

May 2, 2010

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The Bush Junta

I’m going to go out on a limb here and assume that I’m speaking mostly to people who are either of a progressive mindset (or why would you be reading about independent comic books?) or are Republicans smart enough to know that the current bunch of opportunists and criminals near the White House don’t have a thing to do with their beliefs. If you buy what these people have to say, nothing you see in this book is going to convince you of anything. It’s all that “liberal” comic company making stuff up, never mind the fact that the sources here for the quotes are immense, and boy there sure are an awful lot of coincidences leading up to a lot of bad things, and a lot of the people closest to this family have benefited the most from these horrible things. I have no interest in talking to you if you believe all of these things were a happy coincidence. You should read this more than anybody else, but you won’t, so why bother telling you to? This book is as complete and concise an account as you’re likely to find about all the major players in this administration, how they got there and what they did with the power once they had it. The ongoing US policy of torture is graphically documented here, with eyewitness accounts from the innocent people that we tortured and locked up for years without filing charges. And if that’s news to you, you REALLY need to watch the news more often. A lot of the best folks in the comic world have stories in here, including Ted Rall, Spain Rodriquez, Jamie o, Lloyd Dangle and Peter Kuper. Granted, this book does veer into mostly unfounded conspiracy theories at times. OK, maybe not so much “veer” as “dives right into”. Still, like I said, there have been an awful lot of happy coincidences over the years for the Bush family, and the charges in here should at least be looked into by more people with actual positions of authority. This book is at its best when detailing known facts about these people and what they’ve done, which is as damning a list as you’re likely to find in recent memory. If you have a relative of some kind who believes in the crap these people are spewing and you just can’t find a way to get through to them, you could do a lot worse than to try and get them to read this. At the very least it should start a real discussion, which is another thing this country is sorely lacking these days. This is $18.95, but it’s available at Amazon right now for around $13.