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F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare
The United States has survived clueless presidential administrations before. But no matter how enormous the crisis -- the Great Depression, Vietnam, Watergate, Monica Lewinsky's thong -- America's always come out looking like, well, America.
This time, however, something's different. Things aren't just screwed up; they're f!$d up beyond all recognition. Welcome to F.U.B.A.R., a hilarious and scathing satire of the American Right's bad behavior, by the creators of Air America's Majority Report.
If you're a liberal who's somehow not panicked over the state of our Union, or if you're a Republican who's just having voter's remorse, or if you think what's happening to the country is just politics as usual, F.U.B.A.R. will open your eyes to our current national nightmare. With completely unfair and unbalanced analysis, authors Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill take readers on a whirlwind tour of what's left of the United States, exposing the truth about the Right's blueprint for total domination -- over your money, your mind, your sex life, and even your place in the afterlife (yes, they have a plan for that, too).
Along the way, they'll answer your most pressing questions, like:
I'm gay. Can I still be a Republican?
Do I need to own my own congressman, or is a time share okay?
Is New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's mustache, in fact, the sign of the Beast?
I thought we ran the media. What happened?
Finally, Seder and Sherrill offer a helpful and hopeful vision for a future that remarkably doesn't look like a cross between the Matrix and Mayberry. F.U.B.A.R. is the wake-up call America has been waiting to receive -- and it will probably be wiretapped.
This time, however, something's different. Things aren't just screwed up; they're f!$d up beyond all recognition. Welcome to F.U.B.A.R., a hilarious and scathing satire of the American Right's bad behavior, by the creators of Air America's Majority Report.
If you're a liberal who's somehow not panicked over the state of our Union, or if you're a Republican who's just having voter's remorse, or if you think what's happening to the country is just politics as usual, F.U.B.A.R. will open your eyes to our current national nightmare. With completely unfair and unbalanced analysis, authors Sam Seder and Stephen Sherrill take readers on a whirlwind tour of what's left of the United States, exposing the truth about the Right's blueprint for total domination -- over your money, your mind, your sex life, and even your place in the afterlife (yes, they have a plan for that, too).
Along the way, they'll answer your most pressing questions, like:
I'm gay. Can I still be a Republican?
Do I need to own my own congressman, or is a time share okay?
Is New York Times columnist Thomas L. Friedman's mustache, in fact, the sign of the Beast?
I thought we ran the media. What happened?
Finally, Seder and Sherrill offer a helpful and hopeful vision for a future that remarkably doesn't look like a cross between the Matrix and Mayberry. F.U.B.A.R. is the wake-up call America has been waiting to receive -- and it will probably be wiretapped.
224 pages, Hardcover
First published May 23, 2006
16 people are currently reading
276 people want to read
About the author
Sam Seder
5 books16 followersSamuel Lincoln "Sam" Seder is a comedian, writer, actor, film director, television producer-director, and talk radio host. Seder was born in New York City, New York into a Jewish family, and raised in Worcester, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
January 24, 2016
Decent political send-up of what the authors call "The Rapture Right," though since it was written in W. Bush's second term, a bit dated. Problem is, Seder seems approximately correct. Dogmatic fundamentalists -- both Christian and "free-market" -- still have a stranglehold on the GOP. They still seem incapable of compromise. And madden moderates like myself to no end. Since my experience of life is that any colleague who is "dead certain" they are right most often turn out wrong. The people who get it right hem and haw, weigh options and are realistic about the potential flaws in their plans.
The GOP's cock-suredness alienated me a long time ago. Worse, their cock-suredness is often built on denied facts. Global warming (which the evidence shows, inconveniently for Right-Wing dogma, is happening and that human activity is the main driver). WMD (which the evidence shows, inconveniently for Right-Wing dogma, were absent from Iraq when we invaded).
Seder does a nice job highlighting the factual innacuracies. "FUBAR" reads sort of like classic Daily Show (with Jon Stewart), though is not quite as funny. However, the "Ask Mr. Science" -- with "Mr. Science" being a born-again preacher that describes a rainbow in terms of refraction "caused by" God's promise to Noah -- and "The GOP Guide on How to Be a Gay-Hating Gay" are classic.
As usual in politics, I am in a quandary. I find that humor coming from the Left is much funnier because the Right is so preposterous now. It's easy to debunk their positions using facts. Right-Wing humor (except Dennis Miller and Adam Sandler) is most often terrifying, since it reflects their ideology. Which is often racist, sexist, militaristic and borders on acceptance of Christian theocracy.
I find none of these things funny. That they pass for humor in the GOP makes me pause. But as a moderate, I do want the GOP to sort things out. So I have a viable alternative to voting Democrat or abstaining.
Soapbox aside, I am giving this 3 1/2 stars (impossible in GR). But it's closer to 3.49, so I'll round down to 3. Recommended for people who miss Jon Stewart, and liberal-leaners who like laughing at ignoranr Right-Wing media consumers.
The GOP's cock-suredness alienated me a long time ago. Worse, their cock-suredness is often built on denied facts. Global warming (which the evidence shows, inconveniently for Right-Wing dogma, is happening and that human activity is the main driver). WMD (which the evidence shows, inconveniently for Right-Wing dogma, were absent from Iraq when we invaded).
Seder does a nice job highlighting the factual innacuracies. "FUBAR" reads sort of like classic Daily Show (with Jon Stewart), though is not quite as funny. However, the "Ask Mr. Science" -- with "Mr. Science" being a born-again preacher that describes a rainbow in terms of refraction "caused by" God's promise to Noah -- and "The GOP Guide on How to Be a Gay-Hating Gay" are classic.
As usual in politics, I am in a quandary. I find that humor coming from the Left is much funnier because the Right is so preposterous now. It's easy to debunk their positions using facts. Right-Wing humor (except Dennis Miller and Adam Sandler) is most often terrifying, since it reflects their ideology. Which is often racist, sexist, militaristic and borders on acceptance of Christian theocracy.
I find none of these things funny. That they pass for humor in the GOP makes me pause. But as a moderate, I do want the GOP to sort things out. So I have a viable alternative to voting Democrat or abstaining.
Soapbox aside, I am giving this 3 1/2 stars (impossible in GR). But it's closer to 3.49, so I'll round down to 3. Recommended for people who miss Jon Stewart, and liberal-leaners who like laughing at ignoranr Right-Wing media consumers.
October 20, 2008
This is a snarky look at the horror that is the right wing in power in the USA. I found it annoying to read. While I do not disagree with much that they say, I did not find their attempt to make their critiques amusing at all affective. I even thought of dropping it pre-completion, but it has the benefit of being a reasonably quick read. Not recommended. There is little that is more annoying that failed attempts at humor, particularly when the subject matter is so dire.
Having written the above when only half done, I can say that the second half is considerably more entertaining. Of particular note are chapters that address the Republican fixation on issues of gayness, a wonderful chapter on Adam Nagourney in which the authors list in sequence a selected list of Nagourney article titles that tells a very compelling tale of Adam’s bias, and fabulous columns that might have been written by Thomas Friedman. My favorite was one in which Friedman contends that the sacking of Rome was ultimately a good thing for the Romans.
So, while I did not love the book, it has enough content to make it worthwhile
Having written the above when only half done, I can say that the second half is considerably more entertaining. Of particular note are chapters that address the Republican fixation on issues of gayness, a wonderful chapter on Adam Nagourney in which the authors list in sequence a selected list of Nagourney article titles that tells a very compelling tale of Adam’s bias, and fabulous columns that might have been written by Thomas Friedman. My favorite was one in which Friedman contends that the sacking of Rome was ultimately a good thing for the Romans.
So, while I did not love the book, it has enough content to make it worthwhile
January 19, 2016
It got off to a choppy start, and then the writing became a little more cohesive and thematic. However, this is probably one of those cases where the authors had more fun writing their humor than the audience did reading it.
August 29, 2019
F.U.B.A.R is the new S.N.A.F.U.
I want to know when these wackos on the left are going to ease up on my boy George. Okay, so he blew a few hundred billion dollars in Iraq and never got bin Laden. So what if he turned a $7.2-trillion surplus into a $4-trillion deficit? What's the big deal? In the first place he didn't get Obama bin Laden ON PURPOSE! Getting Obama bin Laden would have been a real nightmare. Kill him and he's a martyr, not to mention that we have nobody for an enemy. How can you be an effective Commander-in-Chief without an enemy? Huh? And how can you control Congress! Put us on a war footing and Congress behaves. Otherwise, they become obstructionist. And look what happened when we captured Saddam Hussein. What good is he now?
And as far as the Clinton surplus goes that was money Slick Willie stole from the people who created the wealth in the first place! That's right, hardworking, God-fearing Americans like Dick Cheney and the people at ExxonMobil and et cetera. President George W. Bush gave it back to them. And what's a deficit anyway? That's just money we owe ourselves that the Chinese and the Japanese and others are holding for us in US TREASURES! US TREASURIES! These folks are loaning us money at rates we like. The crypto/pinko Nancy boys on the Left are Econ 101 challenged! They just don't understand globalization and what's really happening.
And they don't get it about Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda didn't exist we'd have to invent them. You wanna know why we really invaded Iraq? I'll tell you why. So Al Qaeda could establish a presence there. How do you think Al Qaeda could get established with Saddam Hussein murdering everybody who disagreed with him and having a totalitarian hold on the country? We had to get rid of him. We're working hard to make Al Qaeda the new Evil Empire to replace the sorry Soviet one that let us down.
And as far as those so-called "gay anti-gay Republican" congressmen that Seder and Sherrill are having so much fun with, I want to say where's your Christian forgiveness? At least they know they're sick and work hard at trying to get anti-gay type legislation passed and at least they support heterosexual marriage and the Bible even if they like to...you know what. They aren't hypocrites. They know who they are and at least they're doing something about it. You think Seder and Sherrill are prophetic in that they more or less predicted Larry Craig? They created the tragedy that IS Larry Craig. Here is a fine Republican congressman, been in the House so long that he has some real power on committees and such and can do some really good things for the people in his district, and because of a media frenzy, started by the types that write ultra-liberal books like this, he's going to be out of a job. They don't get it. Anti-gay gays are the RIGHT kind of gays, nothing like those degenerates in San Francisco who voted for Nancy Pelosi.
I will say one thing that Seder and Sherrill got right--and I think it's kind of funny, hilarious in fact. In the appropriately titled Chapter 18, "The Media Is Not Your Friend" they nail the New York Times and its left-wing reporters to the wall. You might call them anti-liberal liberals. I mean that's the essence of the chapter, and Seder and Sherrill got it right, they ARE anti-liberal liberals and that's the best kind. You think a newspaper as dependent upon corporate advertising as the New York Times is going to be going against its corporate sponsors? We just call them liberal to keep them in line, to remind them who pays the bills. It's a way of intimidating them. And they know it. They pretend to be left-wing while actually writing good solid George W. Bush copy (as Seder and Sherrill document). Without the support of the New York Times, invading Iraq would have been a lot harder sell, believe me.
And so what do I think of this book? It's funny, but NOT in the way the authors intended. They think they're reaching somebody other than the previously indoctrinated. But they don't understand one basic fact, nobody but Chablis-swilling and quiche-eating liberals comprehend satire or get irony. People on the Right understand irony as hypocrisy and that's GOOD. It's human to be hypocritical and that's the Right way to behave. So all the so-called comedic devices employed by Seder and Sherrill amount to just a very sorry example of preaching to the devil's choir.
And please use Payday Advance responsibly.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
I want to know when these wackos on the left are going to ease up on my boy George. Okay, so he blew a few hundred billion dollars in Iraq and never got bin Laden. So what if he turned a $7.2-trillion surplus into a $4-trillion deficit? What's the big deal? In the first place he didn't get Obama bin Laden ON PURPOSE! Getting Obama bin Laden would have been a real nightmare. Kill him and he's a martyr, not to mention that we have nobody for an enemy. How can you be an effective Commander-in-Chief without an enemy? Huh? And how can you control Congress! Put us on a war footing and Congress behaves. Otherwise, they become obstructionist. And look what happened when we captured Saddam Hussein. What good is he now?
And as far as the Clinton surplus goes that was money Slick Willie stole from the people who created the wealth in the first place! That's right, hardworking, God-fearing Americans like Dick Cheney and the people at ExxonMobil and et cetera. President George W. Bush gave it back to them. And what's a deficit anyway? That's just money we owe ourselves that the Chinese and the Japanese and others are holding for us in US TREASURES! US TREASURIES! These folks are loaning us money at rates we like. The crypto/pinko Nancy boys on the Left are Econ 101 challenged! They just don't understand globalization and what's really happening.
And they don't get it about Al Qaeda. If Al Qaeda didn't exist we'd have to invent them. You wanna know why we really invaded Iraq? I'll tell you why. So Al Qaeda could establish a presence there. How do you think Al Qaeda could get established with Saddam Hussein murdering everybody who disagreed with him and having a totalitarian hold on the country? We had to get rid of him. We're working hard to make Al Qaeda the new Evil Empire to replace the sorry Soviet one that let us down.
And as far as those so-called "gay anti-gay Republican" congressmen that Seder and Sherrill are having so much fun with, I want to say where's your Christian forgiveness? At least they know they're sick and work hard at trying to get anti-gay type legislation passed and at least they support heterosexual marriage and the Bible even if they like to...you know what. They aren't hypocrites. They know who they are and at least they're doing something about it. You think Seder and Sherrill are prophetic in that they more or less predicted Larry Craig? They created the tragedy that IS Larry Craig. Here is a fine Republican congressman, been in the House so long that he has some real power on committees and such and can do some really good things for the people in his district, and because of a media frenzy, started by the types that write ultra-liberal books like this, he's going to be out of a job. They don't get it. Anti-gay gays are the RIGHT kind of gays, nothing like those degenerates in San Francisco who voted for Nancy Pelosi.
I will say one thing that Seder and Sherrill got right--and I think it's kind of funny, hilarious in fact. In the appropriately titled Chapter 18, "The Media Is Not Your Friend" they nail the New York Times and its left-wing reporters to the wall. You might call them anti-liberal liberals. I mean that's the essence of the chapter, and Seder and Sherrill got it right, they ARE anti-liberal liberals and that's the best kind. You think a newspaper as dependent upon corporate advertising as the New York Times is going to be going against its corporate sponsors? We just call them liberal to keep them in line, to remind them who pays the bills. It's a way of intimidating them. And they know it. They pretend to be left-wing while actually writing good solid George W. Bush copy (as Seder and Sherrill document). Without the support of the New York Times, invading Iraq would have been a lot harder sell, believe me.
And so what do I think of this book? It's funny, but NOT in the way the authors intended. They think they're reaching somebody other than the previously indoctrinated. But they don't understand one basic fact, nobody but Chablis-swilling and quiche-eating liberals comprehend satire or get irony. People on the Right understand irony as hypocrisy and that's GOOD. It's human to be hypocritical and that's the Right way to behave. So all the so-called comedic devices employed by Seder and Sherrill amount to just a very sorry example of preaching to the devil's choir.
And please use Payday Advance responsibly.
--Dennis Littrell, author of “The World Is Not as We Think It Is”
July 18, 2024
I’m a fan of The Majority Report. Sam and crew’s commentary and interviews provide a fact-based, leftist view of the United States infused with the right amount of comedy to keep the program interesting. I think Sam Seder is a unique comedic talent and effective teller of the truth. Reading FUBAR in 2024 (the text is obviously a bit outdated at this point - but much of the commentary on the religious right holds true), I actually found the excessive injection of snark to be a bit distracting. The funniest moments of the book occur when Sam and Stephen just tell it how it is and let the absurdism of the Rapture Republicans make the joke for them.
Still, it’s an enjoyable, quick read that also serves as an early aughts time capsule for Millennials and helps us recall how bad things were, and could be, in a nation where overt theocracy has invaded our politics and facts are eschewed in favor of religion.
Still, it’s an enjoyable, quick read that also serves as an early aughts time capsule for Millennials and helps us recall how bad things were, and could be, in a nation where overt theocracy has invaded our politics and facts are eschewed in favor of religion.
August 20, 2022
It's good and at its best reminds me of some of the anti-George W. Bush books that Michael Moore wrote. Like those, Sam knows how to use humor to add some levity while also commenting on the ludicrous imagery that Republicans put forward in their ideas. The best parts are about the religious nature of the aughts--in everything from Christianity to rampant homophobia. He also does a skilled takedown of Thomas Friedman. Still, I wish the film had tackled racism and the Bush era ownership society mandates a bit more. But those are minor complaints. Recommended.
May 25, 2018
This was much more polemic than humor. Since those who are excoriated would be unlikely to read it, it is a loud and cacophonous preaching to the choir. The points made, however heavy handed, are relevant and well documented.
March 23, 2021
A pre Chapo take on America. Solid, snarky and spot on.
November 13, 2023
Definitely a product of the mid-2000s... but this book has some great insights into the politics of the day. I’d love if Sam wrote another book… but until then… left is best
February 6, 2017
In the footsteps of Al Franken.
May 13, 2009
If you couldn't laugh, you'd cry.[return][return]That adage seems to sum up a segment of liberal authors when it comes to the Bush Administration.
F.U.B.A.R.: America's Right-Wing Nightmare
, written by the co-host and a producer of Air America Radio's "The Majority Report", is the latest entry in the field of books taking on Bush and the conservative movement through satire, sarcasm and humor. While F.U.B.A.R. has its moments, it won't stand with the leaders in the genre, such as Al Franken and Michael Moore.[return][return]Like their compatriots, Sam Seder, the cohost of "The Majority Report," and Stephen Sherrill, one of the show's producers, don't hold back. It even starts on the cover. Part of the first word of the military phrase for which the acronym "F.U.B.A.R." stands is blackened out, "redacted by the U.S. Department of Justice, as per the U.S. Patriot Act." They open the book referring to the current GOP as the "Rapture Right" and "an American Taliban." Those labels mesh with the fact that much of the authors' satirical attack on Bush and the GOP is largely on social issues. They start with "intelligent design" and ease right into the concept of the rapture that inspires the name they give the fringe right they believe has gained control of the Republican Party.[return][return]Balance of review at http://prairieprogressive.com/?p=728
August 4, 2016
Quite funny, in a sarcastic, satirical, snarky way. The mashup of Bush's Katrina debacle and FDR's Pearl Harbor speech was priceless. In the vein of The Daily Show, this often conveys more truth in its humor than any "real" news pieces. Sadly, despite being published eight years ago, things are even worse today in almost every skewered instance with the lone plus being Bush is no longer president. Far worse, because in addition to every one of Seder's and Sherill's call outs, there are now Tea Party nuts, Citizens United and the Kochs buying up Congress, bigger Wrong Wing media influence, more religious interference in representation without taxation. Of course, Fox is still resiliently resisting admitting their wrestling, um "news", is fake.
August 1, 2016
Dated (I listened 10 years after publication) but it is still worth ploughing through for the important stuff that hasn't changed. Quality is spotty, with the good spots* getting smaller and further apart.
Strange how the Trump nightmare is providing a perspective in which the rapture-right-wing nightmare seems like a welcome "normal."
* Apparently my three stars mean I "liked it"--what I really mean is the stars apply to the spots.
Strange how the Trump nightmare is providing a perspective in which the rapture-right-wing nightmare seems like a welcome "normal."
* Apparently my three stars mean I "liked it"--what I really mean is the stars apply to the spots.
December 21, 2007
This book was great. It had great information and was pretty funny. A few more F-bombs than you'd expect in a political book. Sam Seder sits farther to the left than most of us, but he makes good points. Speaking of far to the left, his chapter on the Gay anti-gay Right was pretty funny and one of my favorites.
October 6, 2013
This book was hilarious, but also a little frightening! Sometimes you have to laugh so you don't cry. I read so many serious political books that cover the same subjects, it was refreshing to read one that puts the doom and gloom in a humorous perspective.
December 12, 2016
Amazing
Worth the read
Sam Seder has a funny and quirky personality and it comes through so genuinely in this book. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN POLITICS TODAY
Majority Report is a great podcast. check it out
Worth the read
Sam Seder has a funny and quirky personality and it comes through so genuinely in this book. THIS IS A MUST READ FOR ANYONE INVOLVED IN POLITICS TODAY
Majority Report is a great podcast. check it out
September 4, 2007
I loved this book. Besides being dead on true it was hilarious while it pissed you off at the current administration....
February 17, 2008
This book has several great chapters on anti-gay Gay republicans long before the Mark Foley and Larry Craig scandals broke. Funny, edifying and a great read before the upcoming election.
February 14, 2008
Everyone should read this book. A great insite on this messed up time with comedy and sarcasim
March 13, 2008
It was entertaining at times, but it lacked an informative punch.
April 3, 2008
Finally, I read it and it was enjoyable. It's very short sections, so it's great to read before bed or when you are busy. It's good political satire. (I listen to Sam Seder on Air America.)
July 31, 2008
More entertainment than education. There were some points, but they were vastly overshadowed by the funnies, and stretched to the point of breaking at times. Amusing. What can I say?
February 23, 2009
It's a satire, so you know the deal (it's all sad information disguised as funny so the reader isn't as depressed as they become when they think of what they've learned in retrospect)
January 22, 2009
Lots of fun...but not for the faint of heart or easily offended. But, if you are a big liberal like me, you will laugh until your sides split!
March 10, 2009
This book was hilarious, but it will really make you mad.
January 15, 2012
F.U.B.A.R. is a satisfying liberal screed replete with snarky sarcasm. Though there's not much depth and the material is a bit dated, the overall themes and humor hold up quite nicely.
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews