Sometimes, what makes us laugh out loud also scares the hell out of us when we stop to think about the truth behind the humor. Such is the case with the hilarious yet utterly disturbing White House Inc. Employee Handbook: A Staffer’s Guide to Success, Profit and Eternal Salvation Inside George W. Bush’s Executive Branch. Whew! Once you make it past the long subtitle, you will find some of the funniest, most scathing dark humor that has ever been allowed in print -- especially today, with John Ashcroft ready to pounce on free speech at every turn.

The staff writers of the top political parody website Whitehouse.org have put together a truly unique and laugh-til-you-pee handbook about working at the Bush White House, from filling out your employment forms to dressing the part to where to find the booze to getting to know your superiors. There is even a floor plan of the White House, including all those secret chambers the “liberal media” never tells us about – like the AK-47 Appreciation Room and the Ann Coulter Transgender Outreach Room. You will learn about GW’s daily schedule, which includes regular aerobics along with trips to Narcotics Anonymous, and why Laura Bush prefers Caucasian Christians to all other worthless heathens. You’ll come to understand Dick Cheney more -- if you can read through all the blacked-out lines of his dossier, that is. You’ll even get an idea of just how close to God Bush and Co. really are, with their Presidential Prayer Squad night visits and Christian-only requirements for employment (got baptism?).

You’ll learn more about Babs Bush, Poppa Bush and all the key and bit players than you ever imagined, including the fact that leading lady Laura leaves no child behind except her own, and that Colin Powell worries about graying sissies taking over our military if gays are allowed to enlist. Wow, and Babs even admits to not loving her own kids equally, especially that nasty loser who divorced his wife who is now writing a tell-all book. How dare she?

Throughout the book are goofy quotes and comments courtesy of the dimmest bulb in the house, GW, and funny pictures and drawings that give us the inside scoop into White House life, including parking allocations (handicapped people are screwed) and photo-op protocols (always try to be seen with “colored” kids whenever possible). No sacred stone is left unturned as this book wickedly exposes and lampoons foreign policy, faith-based governing, domestic affairs and rules and regulations inside and outside the walls of the Bush empire.

This book dares to go where no book has gone before, using humor as a shield as it pokes giant holes in the White House balloon of WASP-y perfection, revealing the fanaticism, zealotry, hatred and bigotry at the core of this administration’s beliefs and policies. Only under the guise of comedy can this kind of hilarious, brutally sarcastic and scathing commentary be permitted. I’m surprised the authors are still living!

This is the kind of book you will be looking through fifty times a day, laughing to yourself and sometimes out loud, and passing on to friends and family to give them a few belly laughs. This is the kind of book that tells the truth but disguises it nicely behind fun and silliness and jokes and parody. This is the kind of book that, when you finally put it down long enough to think about how true its contents are, makes you feel really…really sick-to-your-stomach scared.

Truly a “tour guide of the ridiculous,” this book takes us far deeper into the reality of our White House and its occupants than any serious book on the bestseller lists. What was that line from Amityville Horror? Be afraid…be very afraid. But first, laugh yourself silly. It just might be the only way to cope with reality.