Bush cards: carefully stacked deck
“Bush cards: carefully stacked deck”, USA, 2003.
This anti-Bush pack was created by three film-makers: Zachary Levy, Ryan Deussing and Benjamin Dailey. Their goal was to create an informative deck of Bush cards similar to the official “Iraqi Most Wanted” pack, including both high-ranking administration officials as well as lesser-known figures in the Bush administration. The cards have a photograph of the various politicians and government officials with critical or cynical information about each underneath. Most of the photographs, quotations and information for the deck came from Internet sites in the public domain, mainly government sites. The reverse has a picture of Bush with rockets, oil rigs, dollar sign and a pretzel in each corner. For an explanation of the Pretzel, see here►
As the pack became known and more popular, several versions were produced, and with each printing, the packs were updated to reflect changes in the administration. The later printings include cards with “Resigned” stamped across the top and one of the jokers was redrawn. The pack illustrated below is an updated edition. See the boxes►
In 2005 a further version of “Bush Cards – The Second Term” was issued.
Above: “Bush cards: carefully stacked deck” playing cards (updated edition).
By Peter Burnett
United Kingdom • Member since July 27, 2022
I graduated in Russian and East European Studies from Birmingham University in 1969. It was as an undergraduate in Moscow in 1968 that I stumbled upon my first 3 packs of “unusual” playing cards which fired my curiosity and thence my life-long interest. I began researching and collecting cards in the early 1970s, since when I’ve acquired over 3,330 packs of non-standard cards, mainly from North America, UK and Western Europe, and of course from Russia and the former communist countries.
Following my retirement from the Bodleian Library in Dec. 2007 I took up a new role as Head of Library Development at the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) to support library development in low-income countries. This work necessitated regular training visits to many sub-Saharan African countries and also further afield, to Vietnam, Nepal and Bangladesh – all of which provided rich opportunities to further expand my playing card collection.
Since 2019 I’ve been working part-time in the Bodleian Library where I’ve been cataloguing the bequest of the late Donald Welsh, founder of the English Playing Card Society.
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