Comments on: Praise & Reviews

By: insanity

insanity — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 03:02:57 +0000

I must say that overall I am really impressed with this blog.It is easy to see that you are passionate about your writing. If only I had your writing ability I look forward to more updates and will be returning.

By: Dan Santopole

Dan Santopole — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 03:49:20 +0000

I applaud you for this book. It is about time the truth is out. It is sad that not everyone will read it but they do not want to know. Keep up the great work.

By: payday loans

payday loans — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 02:46:14 +0000

The author of http://www.familyofsecrets.com has written an excellent article. You have made your point and there is not much to argue about. It is like the following universal truth that you can not argue with: The probability you will irrepairably stick your foot in your mouth is directly proportional to the attractiveness of the person you are trying to impress. Thanks for the info.

By: Jim Stefanchik

Jim Stefanchik — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 15:09:31 +0000

It takes a keen mind to compare and contrast the vastness of lies of comission and omission and it appears that Russ Baker has one. Attempting to ascertain how things work and how things appear to work is a daunting challenge which takes courage and an open mind of which Baker seems to possess. To cop a phrase “The truth is out there” and Baker shines a light on it.

By: Frank

Frank — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 15:49:29 +0000

I was truly disappointed in the book for a few reasons. I was looking for an objective and factual view of the Bush presidencies. Clearly this was not an objective intrepration of their lives, their terms or their families.

How objective can a writer be if you question a person’s war heroism based on flimsy evidence, re: getting shot down in a fighter jet in WWII? Ostensibly this was done to question his moral character and courage. Have you ever been in a combat situation where losing your life was imminent and your courage was questioned with this flimsy amount of evidence? This did not belong in your book. The tone for the book was now set. You let the reader know early in the book that you don’t care for Poppy then you continued to bash him throughout. It’s tough to believe the many facts you point out after the reader is aware of you purpose in writing the book.

Later in the book you make ostensibly seemingless allegtions about drug use by Laura Bush. What does this have to do with the supposed message you are trying to send about Poppy and W? It doesn’t belong there.

I wanted to hear anout the ties to the CIA, oil and persons in general presented in a factual, objective manner citing hard evidence. Instead, it seems you used this book to pursue a personal agenda, one I did not want to hear about. When you attacked these people, as indicated above, your book sent a clear message that you were there to hurt rather than inform.

Since I purchased this book looking for a non-fiction account of these people I feel I was duped. I paid $30 for this book and I would like to know what your refund policy is.

(I also think your editor should have pointed out that ostensibly was used too often in the book. Perhaps seemingly, apparently, evidently)

By: Tony

Tony — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 03:03:02 +0000

I thoroughly enjoyed the book and was fascinated by the ties between George Herbert Walker Bush, the Kennedy assassination, and Watergate. While I know the Bush family is very powerful, I had no idea just how powerful it is.

Just as with the National Guard problem, W’s handlers turned his undisclosed driving under the influence conviction against those who revealed it, claiming it was a below-the-belt attempt to influence the election at the last minute. The fact that W, a presidential candidate, had suffered a misdemeanor conviction and had not disclosed it seemed to get lost in the shuffle.

One factual error I caught concerns Scooter Libby. W. commuted his jail sentence but refused to pardon him. I understand Cheney was furious with W about it.

By: Jon

Jon — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 10:48:26 +0000

Unbelievable!! Documentated facts showing Bush Sr. Was Close friends with a person who was close friends with Lee harvy Oswald. This friend, George de Mohrenschildt, had another friend that owned the book depository building that Oswald shot JFK out of. There is ALOT of information in this book along with many footnotes. This is a great book.
On a side note, one thing that’s not mentioned but alway amazed me was when Cheney shot his friend in the face while hunting. His friend went on national TV and appoligized for Cheney shooting him in the face. I thought to myself “why would you appoligize to someone for shooting you in the face?” I found it telling that after Gary Tredou, the author of dunsbury offered $10,000 to anyone if they could offer proof that George W. Bush completed his Air National Guard training. And even after Media matters offered $50,000 you would think a private eye or detective would have found some sort of proof, but no came forward to claim the prize.

By: Bender

Bender — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 05:48:32 +0000

I have to agree with what a couple of reviewers have observed: when it’s not sorting facts that have been researched by others, Family of Secrets becomes a miasma of conjecture, innuendo, and smear. Not that it isn’t chock full of interesting facts, and even a couple of truly perplexing facts that Shafer has rediscovered by himself (e.g. Poppy’s fingering call after the JFK assassination), but the overall picture is nebulous and, at times, lurid. In short, while this book accuses no one of anything in particular, it implicates everyone in something - all behind the disingenous cover of just “asking questions.” (I had to laugh when Baker told the interviewer on Greater Boston that he had no agenda in writing this book. Family of Secrets smolders with agenda.) To take but one sample of the sort of “reasoning” that you’ll find in Family: Baker wants us to believe that Prescot Bush had something very significant - Baker doesn’t know precisely what, of course - to do with JFK’s murder. Why? Because, among other things, Prescott was outraged that JFK fired Allen Dulles, Prescott’s old “chum”, from the CIA. How absurd! As if Prescott really gave a damn about his rival Dulles. Chances are that he was delighted to see Dulles fall. But even if P. had been slightly miffed about this, would it have prompted him to reach out a helping hand to those - whoever they were - who (supposedly) took out a contract on JFK’s life? Perhaps Baker will counter that a less compromising relationship is possible: Prescott and Poppy Bush might have known something about a plot, and then just stepped aside. OK. But this places them on the periphery of the action, which amounts to downgrading them from the status of “dark knights of the underworld,” which is how the book aspires to portray them. In sum, if you’re a “deep politics”-cum-factoids kind of person, this book is for you (and of course I’m just a CIA plant). But if you’d like to read a book that’s rationally cohesive, I’d skip this verbose rag.

By: College Student

College Student — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:39:50 +0000

Poorly researched, full of outrageous conspiracy theories and half truths. Its a good read for a laugh, but it doesn’t have any substance. The author of this book tries to Bush to the Kennedy assasination, which is bizarre. How would Bush have benefited from that in any way, it just caused another liberal Democrat, Johnson, to become president. The book is also full of factual inaccuracies. He claims George W. Bush got a girlfriend of his an abortion without providing any evidence. He also rehashes Dan Rather’s discredited claims that Bush dodged the draft. Even if Bush did dodge the draft, I don’t see why it matters, we’ve had other draft dodger in the White House, including Clinton. If I were rating this book I would give it 0 stars.

By: Utah Dentist

Utah Dentist — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:44:09 +0000

I’m currently reading the book and haven’t seen anything yet that would surprise me. I’m already wondering whether it was worth the purchase. I’ll keep on reading and hopefully get something out of it.