The Bush Betrayal
by James Bovard

From Publishers Weekly
Writing from a libertarian perspective, Bovard offers a fierce critique of the presidency of George W. Bush, focusing on restrictions on liberty and expansion of government. ... By the fourth chapter, Bovard has moved on to Bush’s gyrations on free trade, notably steel tariffs. By the fifth, he’s on to No Child Left Behind, arguing that home schooling surpasses government schooling. Bovard takes swipes at AmeriCorps ...), subsidies for sugar ..., the Medicare bill ..., the prison industry and the drug war. He asserts that Attorney General John Ashcroft has “effectively encouraged agencies to deny FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] requests” and points out abuses of 9/11 detainees in New York. Americans, Bovard concludes, should cease looking to a president as a savior and instead view him as a hired hand—though he doesn’t exactly sketch out the boundaries of such limited government. ...

Publisher’s Description
... In a series of cogently argued allegations, Bovard shows how the campaign promises of 2000 have betrayed not only the electorate, but the Constitution itself: from the erosion of civil liberties, massive debt, and the arrogance of federal agencies, to economic policies that favor the wealthy, and the deceptive maneuvers that led to war in Iraq and the alienation of former allies. ...

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Contents
 1    Introduction
 2    9/11: Canonization and Coverup
 3    A War on Dissent?
 4    Hollow Steel: Bush vs. Free Trade
 5    Ed Fraud 101
 6    AmeriCorps and Moral Reformation
 7    Bush’s Farm Fiasco
 8    Spending and Caring
 9    The Political Profits of Pointless Punishment
 10  Government by Stealth: The New Iron Curtain
 11  Airport Antics: the TSA Attitude Police
 12  John Ashcroft, King of “Ordered Liberty”
 13  Antiterrorism Abuses and Frauds
 14  Protecting Democracy from Freedom
 15  Afghan Absurdities
 16  Iraq: The Iron Fist of Freedom
 17  Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index