Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild.
New York: Plume / Penguin Group, May 2007 (paperback edition, has additional chapters).
Book information: publisher, Amazon.com
I think this is an excellent book on American politics. Particularly valuable is Palast's investigation and exposure of the many techniques the Republican Party uses to steal elections. The comfortable classes who take their rights for granted must become aware of those shameful anti-democratic practices; rights denied for one can be denied for anyone, and by that I mean you. In our age, we the inheritors of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 appear to have squandered that inheritance. In order for America to reform itself the people must know how deeply America has fallen short of its ideals; I find it a tremendously ugly situation. Palast's discussion of how class war is practiced in America is also very valuable. I also found his speculations on the motivation of the U.S. government to depose Saddam Hussein and occupy Iraq intriguing and convincing; however, I qualify my agreement by observing that singling out one motivation, though possibly the dominant one in the most influential circle, does not tell the whole story; it seems to me that the many groups acquiescing and participating in the Iraq invasion and occupation have many motivations (most of them not openly admitted, and without the American public's consent) that allow those different interests to enjoy the various benefits of that common undertaking.
Links:
- www.GregPalast.com, his website (articles, videos of his BBC broadcasts, etc.).
- Greg Palast. The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. New York: Plume, April 2004.
- Greg Palast, Jerrold Oppenheim, Theo MacGregor. Democracy and Regulation: How the Public Can Govern Essential Services. London: Pluto Press, January 2003.