Search - Bush Family Fortunes - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy on DVD

Meet The Man Who Saw Bush's Guard Records Shredded!

Alice June Milligan | 08/24/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"And tells about it on camera, loud and clear! Anyone who views this DVD knows why the American TV networks didn't air it: too much truth, too much documentation, too much honesty. I live in Asia and have friends living in Europe. This program was shown on TV on those two continents, but not in N. America.
Why? Because it also tells exactly how the 2000 election was stolen - gives the names of the people involved, the companies involved, and lets us know that the contracts for this infamy were given out months in advance. What's keeping them from doing it again? This DVD should be viewed by all Americans."

Very good Special

J. Henson | Washington, The State | 09/14/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Living in our modern world I was able to snag a copy off of the internet, it was shown on BBC 3 and what Greg Palast calls the electronic Berlin Wall is and was still in effect Americans weren't lucky enough to get a peek; until now.

Greg Palast exposes the charmed life of George Dubya Bush through his dealings with the Texas air national guard through the theft of the White House in 2000 and does so with snarky commentary AND documented proof.

I recommend this to everyone, no matter what your political leanings are it's important to know both sides of the story."

Liberal propoganda or not?

Richard Melvin | Atlanta, GA. USA | 10/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I find it ironic that the previous reviewer(s) label Greg Palast as a liberal propogandist because this reveals they did not read his book, 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy'. Palast is an old-fashioned muckraking journalist who will report the mis-deeds of those with conservative, liberal and moderate persuasions. To give some background, in his book he exposes misdeeds by the Bushs, Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Pat Robertson, the World Bank, environmentalists, major corporations......and if this is giving you the perception that the ball part of Palast's 'ball point pen' is a wrecking ball, you are correct. Investigative reporting has no credability if it is biased in any way shape and form and Palast is relentless to find the truth, no matter how offensive it is. Palast even exposes himself: the one-time he took the money and ran from an investigative report. This is totally indicative of the truthfulness and uncompromising nature of his reportage in both the book and DVD. This documentary could have easily been called 'Lewinsky, the snorting Koch brothers, and the reason why Bill Clinton should have been impeached'.

But the subject matter at hand is the all-American Bush family and Palast, as usual, gives no quarter. He reports on the 2000 stolen election; how the Iraq invasion was actually planned in the year 2001; how W. jumped ahead of 'thousands' of applicants to get into the Texan National Air Guard with a score of 25 on his entrance exam. This score places W. at one point above the "too-dumb-to-fly-status". Etc, etc, etc. For those who think the Bush family is being wronged just consider some of the historic offences accumulated by the Bush clan.

In 1918, Prescott Bush and two friends crept into the cemetery near Fort Sill and pried open the grave of Geronimo and removed the head. It was cleaned and sent to New Haven where it was used in some ritualistic manner by later Bushs.

Excuse me. Isn't this called grave robbing?

George Walker, GW's great-grandfather and Prescott Bush were both in business with the Nazis. GW made money of of I.G. Farben, the loving company who made Zyklon B gas used you know where. Ole GW hired John Foster Dullas to hide the funds they were making from Nazi investments and the funds they were sending to Nazi Germany, rather than divest. Hmmmmm......

Prescott Bush managed the Silesian-American Corporation along with his father-in-law George Herbert Walker. This company was vital in supplying coal to the Nazi war industry and was seized as a Nazi-front on November 17, 1942 by the US government. The largest company Bush's UBC helped finance was the German Steel Trust, responsible for between one-third and one-half of Nazi iron and explosives. I suppose it is just another case of unwarrented government regulation. How dare the feds prevent the Bushs from making money from the Nazis. Long live the free market!!!

The Bush family misdeeds include Neal Bush, Jeb Bush, Jonathon Bush, Jeb son's George, Jeb's son John, Laura Bush, Jeanna Bush....................so it's just another episode of 'All In The Family'. My only question is, who represents 'dingbat' and 'meathead'? Oh Ahrrchie.....

As for the film BFF, its production values are not on the exalted level as 'Fahrenheit 9/11' but, or perhaps because of this, the revealed facts seem stark and more damaging that those in F.911.

My only caveat has nothing to do with Palasts reportage but with one of its featured interviewees. Retired Lieutenant Colonel Bill Burkett, the man in BFF who stated he watched parts of Bush's National Guard records being shredded, is the person who gave Dan Rather the 'newly found' (questionable) papers that stated Bush was given preferential treatment to avoid going to Vietnam. Rather had to apologize to Bush on natioinal television over the flap. OK. But as any active news junkie knows, Dr. Yoshi Tsurumi, one of W's Harvard business professors from the early 70's stated Bush told him, "he admitted to me that to avoid the Vietnam draft, he had his dad -- he said 'Dad's friends' -- skip him through the long waiting list to get him into the Texas National Guard." So Palast could dump Burkett and substitute Tsurumi to draw the same conclusion.

The point to this lengthy review is to encourage those with reservations about Bush Family Fortunes to watch this DVD and then read his book 'The Best Money Democracy Can Buy' to give the documentary its proper context. As Eugene O'Neal once stated, 'the truth is never bad'. Yes, this is true, but the truth can be awfully embarrassing to the Bushs.

Watch this documentary."

Raising a Red Flag Before November 2...Hard to Ignore

Ed Uyeshima | San Francisco, CA USA | 10/19/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Along with Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9/11" and "Bush's Brain" about Bush advisor Karl Rove, this excellent one-hour DVD appears to complete an eye-opening trilogy of pertinent documentaries about concerns raised in continuing the Bush administration for another four years. Each has its shortcomings, mostly around the veracity of some of the findings, but this one by journalist Greg Palast seems more grounded than the other two and consequently less caught up in its own hyperbole. Perhaps that's because it was first produced for the BBC where a non-American audience was trying to make sense of Bush's rise to prominence, his imperialist and economically insensitive policies and the extremist feelings he seems to induce in this country.

Much of this material has been covered in "Fahrenheit 9/11", but his approach is quite different. Palast also does not focus as much on Iraq since his film was made earlier than Moore's. What he does cover is still quite intriguing, beginning with Bush's admittance into the Texas Air Guard, which effectively ensured he would not see active duty in Vietnam. Among those interviewed regarding that mysteriously unrecorded period are people who claim that Bush didn't even show up for duty. Palast even one-ups Moore by finding an official who swears that any incriminating evidence in Bush's file was shredded to avoid making the then-Governor of Texas look anything but heroic. The controversial 2000 Florida election results are covered in this film as well. Moore had powerful footage of African-American members of Congress being turned away for their pleas to invalidate the results. Palast, on the other hand, takes great care in providing some seriously damning evidence providing documents (included as part of the DVD extras) which prove that many legitimate voters were prevented from casting their ballots based on false accusations of a criminal past. The majority of these voters were not coincidentally African American and Democrat, and their numbers outdo the margin by which Bush defeated Gore by a fairly significant amount. A telling moment occurs when Palast tries to have a Florida official account for this alleged and obviously illegal act, and the man leaves the room in a huff and refuses to look at the documentation or answer his questions. Finally, like "Fahrenheit 9/11", much time is spent investigating Bush family ties with the Saudi royals and the bin Laden family. Palast traces the same money trail that Moore does connecting Bush's business endeavors back to Saudi investment money and bin Laden capital specifically.

Chances are high that if you are a staunch Republican that you will avoid this DVD, which would be a shame since the evidence is powerfully presented here in a dry journalistic style. Having myself read "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against Kerry" to get an alternative perspective on John Kerry's leadership, I think it's fair to take a look at this film to see the other side. The DVD also includes a very enlightening interview with Palast on how he compiled his information. Strongly recommended viewing before you vote."