GENERALISSIMO EL BUSHO: Essays and Cartoons on the Bush Years

Even when the country was rallying around President Bush, syndicated cartoonist and columnist Rall remained in a state of outrage—one he effectively maintains throughout this book, a set of essay-like meditations on a Pinochetesque figure he calls "Generalissimo El Busho." Each of 60 or so short salvos is typically accompanied by one to three cartoons (at most four to six panels). Bush's election ("The Seizure of Power") is followed by a post-9/11 cartoon on the president's attitudes toward civil liberties violations titled "Martin Niemoller Now"—referring to the priest who said, in part, "When they came for Jews, I did not speak up, because I wasn't a Jew." A prescient cartoon imagines the prison at Guantánamo as the reality show Gitmo House . A "Canyon of Heroes" cartoon cites a 9/11 victim: "My death helped create the political climate that allowed tax cuts for rich folks during a recession." Love him or hate him, Rall is never less than provocative. The material is current through March 2004, and much of it still stings. A specialist on Central Asia, Rall actually went to Afghanistan and wrote, "We won the war but we lost the peace. Will we do the same thing in Iraq? Count on it." Agent, NBM. (Aug.)