Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Armed Madhouse, 15 Aug 2006
This is Palast at his best. Smart, quick, scathing and accurate. He tears through the Bush administration like Katrina through a levee. Palast is a very serious and important investigative journalist for several top organisations including BBC's Newsnight. The BBC have shown many of his reports, which unsurprisingly the US networks have not even acknowledged. His chapters include insider memos and leaks which only Palast can get. He expains the Iraq war, he explains OPEC and the relationship between the Neocons, the Saudi royal family, the Bin Ladens and the Oilmen behind the Bush dynasty. His exposure of how FDRs New Deal is being trashed by the Bush's government would make you weep. So many new US laws are simply to protect the big companies and destroy the little man, the voter. Just when the gun firms were about to go to court for a mass action about their reckless advertising, Bush passes a law to prevent gun firms suffering class actions. The same is on the books for pharmaceutical firms. Vioxx may never come to court, certainly not in the US. If you have any interest in where the US is and where it is going, because Blair is rarely far behind, you have to read this book. The chapter on how the 2004 Presidential election was 'secured' for Bush is truly frightening. It should be on the national Book List for Schools.
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25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Not very cuddly indeed, 16 Aug 2006
Reading this book, I was reminded of a letter written to Private Eye years ago that said something along the lines of "I very much enjoy reading your magazine, but find it curiously depressing. Is there anybody out there who isn't bent?"
Well, in this, the follow-up to 'The Best Democracy Money Can Buy', arguably the world's greatest muck-raking journalist again comes up trumps in the exhuming of the utterly corrupt body politic of the global economic system. And the results, although written in his trademark humorous and caustic style, are exactly that. Rather depressing. Quoting from the film 'Network', Palast points out that there are no governments, no ideologies any more, merely the wanton and unrestrained exercise of money-making by the powerful. From the labouriously pieced-together post-mortem of the utterly psychopathic policy wrangles that led up to the invasion of Iraq, to the merciless excorication of Bush's 'No Child Left Behind', Palast reveals levels of utterly scandalous behaviour by the scoundrels in charge of the world. His analysis of the 2004 US Presidential election has echoes of fellow maverick scribbler Thomas Frank's analysis of the poison at the heart of American politics, Palast pointing out that, despite all the electoral fraud committed by the GOP and the Democrats' cowardice and complicity with the interests of the rich, you still have to account for why 59 million people still turned out for Bush. He, like Frank, identifies this in terms of the 'culture wars', expressing bewilderment (but not too much) that people would cheerfully vote for a candidate whose intention is to royally shaft their health insurance, wage levels and benefits, as long as the candidate makes the right noises about God and homo-bashing.
Palast ends the book, like 'The Best Democracy...', by urging people to get involved on every level to combat the crimes revealed within. "What are you going to do about it?" is the cry.
The world needs more Greg Palasts, for a start. And the current culture of mass media is in no fit state to provide them. Muck-raking at its best.
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21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We need (and need to read) Greg Palast's work., 12 Aug 2006
In this day and age, most of us are hopelessly resigned to paying higher bills, .inc corruption and a web of politik deceit never before seen on such a scale.
Greg Palast got me going with 'The Best Money Democracy Can Buy' and it really shook me. I'm two dozen books maxxed out by various authors and watched all his available works on Google Video - I'm saturated.
Then Mr Palast unleashes 'Armed Madhouse'. On seeing him interviewed by Alex Jones, I couldn't wait to get my hungry brain in on it's contents. Four copies, three for friends, one for me to digest over the weekend, I wondered if the missus would handle my ranting and raving at the end of each chapter.
What a read!
And Greg has an uncanny nack of releasing massive works every so often, just as we're catching up on what's going on already in the world. If you have ever wondered why, say, we have such high energy prices, here's your answer. If you want to know the extent of the Iraq issue, here's your answer. If you want to know what's really going on, there's so much here for you.
Be warned. 'Armed Madhouse' is not for the light hearted. If you want cuddly stories, buy a teddy bear. But we ALL need to read/watch/listen to Greg Palast. I'm in no doubt that he's a commoners wonder, a gift to us all. Unless, of course, you are in big oil or trade in arms.
Do yourself a favour, open your eyes, open a Greg Palast book - this one is a peach.
Do a friend a favour and get two and pass one on. Remember, knowledge is about the most precious, the most honest, the most valuable gift one can give.
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