Skip to main contentbush versus the environment
By Robert S. Devine
(Anchor Books, 270 pages, $12)
Let's assume for a moment that despite the unfounded claims of weapons of mass destruction, the death and maiming of tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and the murder and torture of detainees at Abu Ghraib, you still stand by George W. Bush. Think he deserves four more years, in fact. Well, you might not want to look too closely in your own back yard, where Bush has been waging a covert war on something far more fragile: the environment.
Magazine journalist Robert Devine shows how Bush's assault on clean air, clean water and diverse ecosystems goes way deeper than walking away from the Kyoto Protocol, pushing for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and breaking his campaign pledge to regulate carbon dioxide, all the routine stuff you usually read about. No, Bush's tactics are much more sophisticated and insidious. Since taking office, the Bush administration has winked and nudged polluters to sue the federal government over environmental regulations and then mounted feeble defenses, if any, in court. It has tried to pack advisory committees and the federal bench with industry lobbyists and so-called "wise-use" advocates. It has ignored, even censored, scientific evidence that contradicts Bush's environmental policies and pressured government scientists to produce findings that match the president's views.
Finally, it has grossly exaggerated the costs for industry to clean up its act and underestimated the benefits of pollution standards that save human lives. This is not merely a partisan struggle between Democrats and Republicans, as Devine is careful to make clear. If that were true, the Democrats would have lost a long time ago. Instead, he reports that moderates from the president's own party have played a crucial role in stemming the red tide of Bush's anti-environmental agenda on Capitol Hill, and polls show that an overwhelming majority of American voters--blue and red--support strong environmental safeguards. It's a lesson apparently lost on the White House, and the remedial course starts in November. Matt Buckingham
get your war on II
by David Rees
(Riverhead, 208 pages, $12)
Imagine turning on network news one evening and instead of having Tom Brokaw spout jingoisms about "staying the course," your talking head launched into an expletive-laced tirade about the debacle in Iraq? If this sounds amusing, then get your hands on a copy of David Rees' Get Your War On II. Each panel pictures two people talking on the phone. Though they look like they'd rather be chatting about golf, all they seem capable of talking about is war.
Using this simple but effective ironic device, Rees holds a funhouse mirror to our national dialogue--showing how our press ignores the terrible reality of war for sunnier topics. "Well, it's been over a year," says one fellow in an early comic, "and the President still can't seem to get around to FUCKING FIRING SOMEONE for the September 11th attacks!" A 2003 strip begins with a character raising this overlooked issue: "I must've missed the referendum--when did Iraqis agree that all their key economic sectors would be privatized and owned by foreigners?"
If our media has a whopping case of ADD, then Rees and his comic might be their Ritalin. In the meantime, Rees will keep delivering the laughs. After all, how can you not chuckle when a Beaver Cleaver cutout of a man asks, "When Dick Cheney weeps, is the oil coming out of his eyes leaded or unleaded?" Or: "If an FBI agent secretly takes a dump in your toilet, does he have to flush?" John Freeman
WWeek 2015