Product Description

"Very little of my backstory qualifies as Hallmark Card material, but it may help you to make sense of the way I see and interpret what's going on around me."
-Jack Cafferty

For the millions who watch the "Cafferty File" on CNN's The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty stands for common sense-the much-needed voice of reason who skewers right-wing nut jobs and liberal eggheads alike. For years, he's voiced the views, hopes, and fears of the average American in inimitable style. Now, in It's Getting Ugly Out There, he brings that level-headed wisdom to bear on the most critical issues facing us today-and explains why Americans must take our country back from those who are harming it.

"It's been a target-rich seven years for someone like me who enjoys pushing people's buttons and sticking pins in things that need pricking, from rich and fatuous celebrities offering foreign policy analysis to the latest lying Beltway blowhard impaling himself on his sword of pomposity. . . . Anyone familiar with my daily 'Cafferty File' segments on CNN's The Situation Room knows I'm not exactly what you'd call the mainstream media's poster boy for feel-good news and commentary. In your face is more like it."

"I'm no shrink, but I have the sense Bush has carried an angry chip on his shoulder much of his pampered life, seething just beneath the good-old-boy surface."

"The bottom line is that our government no longer works for us. The government works for the lobbyists who have had a big hand in influencing (if not helping to draft) legislation favoring not the average American citizen but instead big business: health insurance, pharmaceutical and oil companies, and defense contractors, among others. These are the guys who can make the kinds of political contributions that are needed to finance today's multi-million-dollar political campaigns."

"We want our troops home, but we also want a new army of elected officials to march into Washington and take a fresh, uncorrupted look at the needs of the vast majority of Americans. If these two parties, however 2008 breaks, can't fix what's broken, this way of life as we've known it may vanish into some deep, dark crevasse."

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #213782 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 288 pages

From Publishers Weekly
His deep, fatherly voice may evoke the comfort of an old-fashioned, Conkrite-era news broadcast, but newsman Cafferty has made a career of saying whatever he damn well pleases: "I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and to complain about the things that bother me." Reading the television news correspondent's first book feels much like watching his segments on CNN's The Situation Room, in which he follows a similarly straightforward formula: denounce bad leadership, media shortcomings and government missteps with a satirical tone just above withering. From Katrina to Iraq, from immigration to terrorism, from Bush-baiting to big business, Cafferty admits to "saying some pretty outrageous stuff" in order to get his audience riled up. Aside from skewering congress, shaming rich white guys, and repudiating Anna Nicole (the "peroxide blonde never-was"), Cafferty sheds some light on his own life, sharing personal episodes about disrespecting his boot camp drill sergeants and letting his terrier defecate in the lobby of the Des Moines television station for which he was working. Without his rich vocal presence, Cafferty's tough talking cynicism can become grating, but also cuts through, with ease, a media climate thick with rigid ideology and tabloid excess.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"It is ugly out there and Cafferty doesn't make it any prettier. Instead, it makes it easier to understand." (Syndicated Review by Tribune Media Services, November 4, 2007)

His deep, fatherly voice may evoke the comfort of an old-fashioned, Conkrite-era news broadcast, but newsman Cafferty has made a career of saying whatever he damn well pleases: "I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and to complain about the things that bother me." Reading the television news correspondent's first book feels much like watching his segments on CNN's The Situation Room, in which he follows a similarly straightforward formula: denounce bad leadership, media shortcomings and government missteps with a satirical tone just above withering. From Katrina to Iraq, from immigration to terrorism, from Bush-baiting to big business, Cafferty admits to "saying some pretty outrageous stuff" in order to get his audience riled up. Aside from skewering congress, shaming rich white guys, and repudiating Anna Nicole (the "peroxide blonde never-was"), Cafferty sheds some light on his own life, sharing personal episodes about disrespecting his boot camp drill sergeants and letting his terrier defecate in the lobby of the Des Moines television station for which he was working. Without his rich vocal presence, Cafferty's tough talking cynicism can become grating, but also cuts through, with ease, a media climate thick with rigid ideology and tabloid excess. (Sept.) (Publishers Weekly, August 13, 2007)

From the Inside Flap

In his daily "Cafferty File" segments on CNN's The Situation Room, Jack Cafferty focuses on the high, the mighty, and the often mindless public figures in politics and corporate America who think they can hoodwink the great American middle class indefinitely and get away with it. Millions of people watch him, feeling that he expresses their own concerns. Now, in his first book, Cafferty kicks his outrage into high gear with a brilliant condemnation of some of the most egregious and infuriating boondoggles, screw-ups, and swindles ever perpetrated on the American public. With both logic and heart, he assesses the ongoing damage done to our American democracy by the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act, illegal immigration, cowboy diplomacy, and the media that have often been all too willing to overlook or even encourage these nightmares.

While his sights are set primarily on President George W. Bush and his team—Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rove, Rice, Brownie, and many more—Cafferty is an equal-opportunity curmudgeon. With the same intensity, he goes after the Democratic Party, Nancy Pelosi, the ACLU, and some causes beloved by liberals while sizing up the leading candidates for the 2008 presidential race.

Cafferty argues that those in power are so isolated from the rest of the population and so indebted to the corporations, lobbyists, and tycoons who finance their campaigns and hire them when they leave office that they simply don't have a clue what life is like for most Americans and don't care enough to find out. Cafferty does care—and he shows it. It's Getting Ugly Out There shares many of the thoughtful, hilarious, perceptive, and moving e-mail messages from viewers of the "Cafferty File." These include some of the unprecedented thousands of e-mails received by CNN in the two days following Cafferty's resounding denunciation of the government's response to Hurricane Katrina—the ultimate example of indifference to the plight of citizens in desperate straits.

Passionate, controversial, and in your face, It's Getting Ugly Out There is a rarity among current-affairs books—a searing, hard-hitting critique of the powers that be, not from the left or the right, but straight from the heart of a proud mainstream American.

Customer Reviews

Note: East Asian Flavor to Many of the Negative Reviews
Count how many of the 1 star reviews are left by people with east Asian names. Some of them admit they did not read the book. Some of them say they were offended by Jack Cafferty's "goon" comments, with respect to China's leaders.

Well, unless they are members of China's totalitarian regime, there is no reason to be offended. US leadership is full of goons too. The people who get offended are just being stupid.

Great overview of what's wrong with our gov't. Easy read, important info.
This book somewhat reminds me of the "Idiots guide to..." series, yet nowhere does JC treat you like an idiot. The book is a clear guide to the major issues in our gov't today and points out a number of questions that we all need to ask ourselves the next time we vote. All of the major issues and scadals are discussed here (well, all except the numerous NEW problems that have arisen since the book was published) and I feel that if someone cannot see the logic and honesty of Jack's writing then I'd wager you are someone who LIKES to turn a blind eye to the corruption in Washington. Or maybe you voted for Bush. Maybe both, lol.

This book is also an easy read; if you are someone who is put off by political writing, know this book isn't dull at all and JC doesn't try to talk down to anyone or put himself on a pedestal. I hope he continues with another volume; Lord knows there is enough to write about. I'd like a thick chapter on Karl Rove, actually. I am sure there is a lot of info there.

One last thing: JC is on the money when he speaks of Congressional term limits. Let's bring that back...pronto!

"Cherish those who seek the truth but beware of those who find it." (Voltaire)

Dislaimer: On average, I discuss politics with dozens of people each week and those among them who have observed Jack Cafferty's work for CNN's "Situation Room" program tend to fall within one of four groups: conservatives who thought him a liberal during the Bush 43 administration and now think he is "coming around" to their views; liberals who once praised him and now think he has "betrayed" his liberal principles; those with or without a party affiliation who think he is a curmudgeon (a somewhat younger version of Andy Rooney), if not demented; and finally, those who share my own opinion that, if he is simultaneously so popular and unpopular, he must be doing something right --- and has been doing something right for most of his 40-year career thus far.

What follows are two excerpt composites from the Preface and then the Prologue to It's Getting Ugly Out There.

"I'm the product of a very dysfunctional, sometimes violent, Irish background...my backstory...may help you to make sense of the way I see and inter-ret what's going on around me. People don't wind up with this kind of jaundiced, offbeat take on things without going through some interesting stuff...And this book ain't therapy. I'm content being mildly maladjusted, with absolutely no desire to change. Through all the turbulence of my Reno, Nevada, childhood, I learned a lot about protecting myself...You didn't need to weasel your way out of stuff. If you said, `But that wasn't my fault,' someone else told you, `Bullshit,' case closed...I was born in Chicago on December 14, 1942...I had a bit of an inferiority complex, courtesy of the overpowering, judgmental asshole who had sired me...But I'm no victim - far from it. I'm fortunate. I learned self-reliance and how to survive. When you get old enough to understand the role that money takes in your life - and in your dreams - and you remember how you watched it all thrown away, it can eat at you for a long time. But it can also teach you some lessons that will shape how you make decisions in your life for your own family. It did that for me." Now from the Prologue.

"I get paid to ask questions I don't know the answers to and complain about things that bother me...It's Getting Ugly Out There examines [various] crises, scandals, and infuriating facts of political life that have been and will be driving the public debate as we head toward the 2008 campaign season...I wasn't [and am not] on the air to pull punches...I've always viewed my career in pragmatic terms - as a paycheck, not a pulpit...The book's title is taken from a November 2005 `Cafferty File' piece I did after Vice President Dick Cheney had delivered a speech in which he attacked critics of the botched, manipulative run up to the Iraq war. `It's getting ugly out there,' I said... [Begin italics] `Dissent is not treason [end italics], Mr. Cheney.'...As a commentator on The Situation Room, I get to push about two million people's buttons three times every afternoon...I `m under no pressure to be `fair and balanced.' But then neither is the F-word network when you think about it, are they? God, they hate me when I call them that! I couldn't care less about political spin. My guidance comes from my own BS detector...I like to get under people's skin as a way of salting the mines for the e-mail gold I read on the air...[from] some of the brightest, most engaged electronic pen pals in the world...Viewers who connect with me - whatever their positions [and views] - are a major part of whatever success I've enjoyed at CNN, and a bunch of their finest, funniest e-mails are included here. The news can be a very depressing place. Maybe that's why I have developed a tendency to look at stories with a slightly twisted and jaundiced sense of humor...This book discusses how the politicians and the people who manipulate public opinion have made this country more polarized than ever...This game of ideological `gotcha' keeps us from pulling together. Divide and rule. This book offers a tough, no non-sense look at what needs to be done to glue us back together...I react viscerally when the headlines get my blood boiling...I attack the status quo because it's flawed and dangerous...Are there solutions to turn around this crisis and fix it? Absolutely."

These two excerpt composites provide a far better introduction to both Jack Cafferty and his book than I possibly could. Better yet, they suggest the thrust and flavor of his personality. Please keep in mind that this book was published on September 10, 2007, at the outset of what was to become the longest presidential campaign thus far. Also keep in mind that, as Cafferty points out, he feels no external pressure or personal sense of obligation to be "fair and balanced" when expressing his opinions. Like Sabatini's Scaramouche, he seems to have been born "with the gift of laughter and a sense that the world is mad." It also seems likely that he agrees with an Irish proverb that brothers John and Robert Kennedy frequently cited: "One way or another, the world will eventually find a way to break your heart."

As a reader soon realizes, Cafferty has had no shortage of targets of opportunity to discuss. It comes as no surprise that the leadership of George W. Bush heads the list. Others include the Air National Guard (in which he served), the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, the immigration crisis, Dubai Ports World and the security of major U.S. ports, the "evisceration" of the American middle class, the Patriot Act (e.g. the "terrorist surveillance program"), "culture shock" for new residents of Manhattan, vertical integration of media companies, Dennis Rader (the "BTK Killer"), finally getting sober to save his marriage and his life, whether or not the Iraq war is a war, "frauds and disasters on Capital Hill," the Terri Schiavo "charade," and the impact of the 2006 elections.

It should also be noted that Cafferty also includes dozens of his favorites among the millions of e-mails he has received thus far, all of which are at least temporarily displayed online. Each day, he reads several on-air and seems to enjoy most those that have passed through his "BS detector" and then inform him that one of his opinions failed to pass through their BS detector.

Several of Cafferty's comments caught my eye. Here are three brief excerpts. On the American Dream: "For than two centuries, every subsequent generation has had it better than their parents had it. That has been our nation's evolution and its bounty, built upon our core spirit of freedom, our indominitable will and industrial might, the contribution and assimilation of massive waves of immigrants, and the boundless and benevolent American spirit of discovery. Embedded in our national soul is the nation that there would always be enough to go around, and that everyone had a right to fulfill that dream. They will most likely still have the right, but they may well lack the means to fulfill that dream." (Page 113).

Two more, one on alcoholism and anger: "For many years I was pissed off continually only because I was drinking. If I'm angry these days, there's a good reason for it. Make no mistake: being as pissed off and as disappointed as I have been by the outrageous misdeeds and abuses of the people we elect to represent us in Washington, D.C., is quite different from finding an excuse when you're drunk to be pissed off at somebody who cares for you." (Page 184) And another on one of the presidential candidates: "Biden's probably the smartest guy in the race. As far as emotional intelligence goes, though, he's dumber than a fence post because he can't keep his goddamn mouth shut." Cafferty calls such remarks "beyond a slip of the tongue - it's outright stupidity" and cites Biden's reference to Barak Obama as "the first mainstream African American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy." (Page 238)

I agree with many of Jack Cafferty's opinions, disagree with others, but have thoroughly enjoyed the pleasure of his company while reading this book and now look forward to reading Now or Never.