Book Description
In this, his first major book, Mark Steyn--probably the most widely read, and wittiest, columnist in the English-speaking world--takes on the great poison of the twenty-first century: the anti-Americanism that fuels both Old Europe and radical Islam. America, Steyn argues, will have to stand alone. The world will be divided between America and the rest; and for our sake America had better win.
Customer Reviews:
Hilarious, but, oh so disturbing!.......2007-10-22
Hilarious but, oh so disturbing...
Mark Styne looks from a higher plane... and it's most likely that the Islamic Dark Age he predicts, will come to pass... I won't be around in 2050, so I won't find out...
Unfortunately True.......2007-10-14
Every single American should read this book! He explains exactly how the Muslims are conquering the world. More wives = more babies = more Muslims = more terrorism. This is a religion that should nor even exist in the 21st century. They are commanded to murder everyone that refuses to convert to Islam. Most Americans do not understand that the greatest threat to the future of the world (especially America) is the Muslim religion.
America Alone.......2007-10-11
Every person in the USA should read this book. Today in the Dallas Morning news(10/10/07)there is an editorial by Anne Applebaum verifing one of the facts stated it this book. Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who is under death threat because of her comments about the mistreatment of women in the Dutch Muslin community had to move to the US because the Dutch say it is too expensive to protect her and she will not shut up. No free speech for her. Mohammed Bouyeri murdered the Dutch writer, Theo Van Gohg, because he made a film about the oppression of Muslim women.
Funny, but also an important message........2007-10-11
While I cannot say that anybody reading this should have more kids just out of the guilt this book might give you, it is an important message about the sad effects of low birthrates. Mark Steyn has a quick wit and funny tone that is clearly not politically correct (good for him). Anybody who enjoys a good laugh or is concerned about terrorism should read this.
A Must-Read!.......2007-10-10
This book was every bit as good as I had heard. I've always enjoyed Mark Steyn, but hadn't gotten a chance to read this yet because I had a stack of books in front of it. That's my loss, because this was one of the most profound and eye-opening books I've ever read. To be honest, I pay pretty close attention to this conflict we find ourselves in, so most of the individual facts in this book weren't exactly foreign to me. But Steyn pulls all this together and presents it in such a concise, clear and entertaining way that I was able to put the pieces together in a way I hadn't even imagined. His demographic data alone is shocking, and should make every person in Europe and Canada sit up and take serious note - I'll be paying very close attention to what happens over the next few years "across the pond", as they say, for how goes Europe, so will eventually go America. I plan to buy several more copies of this book and hand them out to friends and family. I highly suggest it.
Book Description
From the most highly respected analyst of foreign policy writing today, a story of wasted opportunity and squandered prestige: a critique of the last three U.S. presidents' foreign policy.
America's most distinguished commentator on foreign policy, former National Security Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski, offers a reasoned but unsparing assessment of the last three presidential administrations' foreign policy. Though spanning less than two decades, these administrations cover a vitally important turning point in world history: the period in which the United States, having emerged from the Cold War with unprecedented power and prestige, managed to squander both in a remarkably short time. This is a tale of decline: from the competent but conventional thinking of the first Bush administration, to the well-intentioned self-indulgence of the Clinton administration, to the mortgaging of America's future by the "suicidal statecraft" of the second Bush administration. Brzezinski concludes with a chapter on how America can regain its lost prestige. This scholarly yet highly opinionated book is sure to be both controversial and influential.
Customer Reviews:
The idealism is better than the realism .......2007-08-29
Intelligence is no substitute for integrity. In surveying the world - situation and the role three U.S. Presidents had after the fall of the Soviet Union Brezinski fails to give prominent place to one major development he himself had considerable responsibility for i.e. the rise of Islamic fundamentalism. It was he who as Carter's foreign policy chief - advisor supervised the fall of the Shah in Iran, and did nothing to prevent the rise of the radical Islamic regime there. He also helped put into place the Mujadeen in Afghanistan, and they have been a key element in the rise of Global Islam worldwide.
In this book he focuses on what he considers the missed opportunities of the U.S. after the fall of the Soviet Union. He is especially critical of the current President.
Brezinski does have interesting things to say about current American weaknesses including the balance of payments problem, the problem of a loss of kind of moral discipline.
His idea of the United States leading mankind to a new era of dignity and freedom is a good one. And for his 'idealism' expressed most fully in the final chapter the book is worth reading.
DR. BRZEZINSKI SHOULD BE RUNNING THIS COUNTRY.......2007-07-25
I feel strongly, that this book says what most rational people in the "world!" are thinking. It is pure and clear truth. It could have been a lot less disasterous for our country, if Dr. Brzezinski could have tutored bush/cheney/rice, on how to lead a great nation with "integrity, honor and some backbone." Can we find a way for a man like Dr. Brzezinski,(who was born in Europe/Poland), to run for President?! Fantastic book! I read it in one sitting.
Second Chance: 3 presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower.......2007-07-21
Grim yet fairly non-biased assessment of the administrations since the fall of the wall. There is some hope at the end of the book, but it will take an extraordinary turn of events to keep America from losing its place in global stature.
His critical eye on the current administration is no nonsense and, sadly, accurate.
J'Accuse.......2007-07-08
This is nothing more than a scathing indictment on eight years of GWB misrule.
To distinguish his indictment from other partisan rhetoric, ZB has placed his argument in a much wider and rational perspective. He has reviewed also the missteps of the previous two US Presidents in the foreign policy arena, and the lost chances of securing and cementing a true global leadership position for USA.
What is so different with the current regime is of course not just a matter of lost chances but colossal cost to US interests abroad. Not to mention lack of any significant progress in any key domestic agenda issues to balance it all.
ZB tries to make the argument at the end that all is not lost, and US still has a chance to regain its leadership position following certain steps.
His argument is not very credible though. He ignores the fact that US, as a nation, thinks and feels very differently than the one of 50s and 60s which put US on a moral path to global leadership. Things are indeed different, and second chance seems to be wishful thinking mostly.
Writing is excellent as expected, delivery and reasoning forceful and complete. Interesting reading for those of us contemplating the next chapter.
Brilliant. A must read as we approach the future election they are boring us with ..........2007-06-28
I happen to hear this guy on Charlie Rose the other night and went out and bought his book. The book isnt as interesting as he is in an interview live but its well worth the read.
His analysis of the past three administrations is superb. It is balanced and I think offers great insight into the hits and misses of our leaders. He goes on to explain his views on the world post Russia and our missed opportunites. His close of post 2008 I would love to hear discussed by him and others.
An important book for this country. Get it and read it and act.
Book Description
"Insurgents and terrorists retain the resources and capabilities to sustain and even increase current level of violence through the next year." This was the secret Pentagon assessment sent to the White House in May 2006. The forecast of a more violent 2007 in Iraq contradicted the repeated optimistic statements of President Bush, including one, two days earlier, when he said we were at a "turning point" that history would mark as the time "the forces of terror began their long retreat."
State of Denial examines how the Bush administration avoided telling the truth about Iraq to the public, to Congress, and often to themselves. Two days after the May report, the Pentagon told Congress, in a report required by law, that the "appeal and motivation for continued violent action will begin to wane in early 2007."
In this detailed inside story of a war-torn White House, Bob Woodward reveals how White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, with the indirect support of other high officials, tried for 18 months to get Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replaced. The president and Vice President Cheney refused. At the beginning of Bush's second term, Stephen Hadley, who replaced Condoleezza Rice as national security adviser, gave the administration a "D minus" on implementing its policies. A SECRET report to the new Secretary of State Rice from her counselor stated that, nearly two years after the invasion, Iraq was a "failed state."
State of Denial reveals that at the urging of Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld, the most frequent outside visitor and Iraq adviser to President Bush is former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who, haunted still by the loss in Vietnam, emerges as a hidden and potent voice.
Woodward reveals that the secretary of defense himself believes that the system of coordination among departments and agencies is broken, and in a SECRET May 1, 2006, memo, Rumsfeld stated, "the current system of government makes competence next to impossible."
State of Denial answers the core questions: What happened after the invasion of Iraq? Why? How does Bush make decisions and manage a war that he chose to define his presidency? And is there an achievable plan for victory?
Bob Woodward's third book on President Bush is a sweeping narrative -- from the first days George W. Bush thought seriously about running for president through the recruitment of his national security team, the war in Afghanistan, the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the struggle for political survival in the second term.
After more than three decades of reporting on national security decision making -- including his two #1 national bestsellers on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, Bush at War (2002) and Plan of Attack (2004) -- Woodward provides the fullest account, and explanation, of the road Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice and the White House staff have walked.
Customer Reviews:
Great Information .......2007-10-07
There is a reason our country is such a mess and this book will give you all the true facts
Fascinating but Painful.......2007-09-20
From a political perspective, reading this book is like watching a horrific car wreck happening at slow motion. The man at the wheel happens to be one George W. Bush. I never believed in him, but those that still do should read this tome with an open mind and come to their own conclusions. Woodward's sources and methods are objective and credible, and the only real criticism I have of the book is that it came out far too late to make any difference.
A Great Read!.......2007-09-16
As are all of Woodwards's books this one is well written and informative. I enjoy all his books and I have no problem keeping up with the events and my interest stays peaked. I'm sure you'll enjoy reading this book too. I would have given five stars but I just feel all books are too high priced!
Eye-opening.......2007-09-01
Woodard evokes honestly in all his writings. We can hear the credibilty of his words. Very thought provoking and this should raise many subsequent questions about how one in Washington power uses facts or fails to use people and facts.
getting an inside view of the war on Iraq.......2007-08-12
Bob Woodward's sweeping narrative is an eye opener into the elite world of political and military Washington. He rarely tells information, but lets the players speak for themselves. Reading this book, I often felt like I was in the oval office listening in on a conversation between Bush, Rice and Rumsfeld. The incredible incompetency, inefficiency, and hypocrisy of the adminstration is staggering.
One thing that I wish the book had was a character list. Because there are so many characters coming in and out of each chapter that it's hard to keep track of them. I suggest you keep such a list as you read.
This book really helped me to see why we are in the mess we are in, and I feel like I will be better informed as I read the news these days. (The situation in August 2007, today, seems just as bad if not worse than it was when the book was finished.)
In this book you find out:
The facts about Iraq
- An average of 2500 enemy initiated attacks a month since the war started
- Iraqis were relieved to have Saddam Hussein removed from power, but dismayed and angered by how long it took for basic services such as sewage, electricity, and food supplies to be restored.
- In 2006, at the end of the book, electricity, sewage, and oil pipelines were still mostly disfunctional in Iraq
- President Bush would tally the number of Iraqis killed as a measure of how successful is the war on terror, a number that the Iraqis use to recruit insurgents.
- Sectarian violence increased after the election.
- Death tolls are getting higher and the country becoming more insecure.
About why the administration failed:
- They all believed that it was going to be quick and easy, so there was no plan or funds allocated for an extended exit strategy.
- President Bush was adamant in staying the course, regardly of how the course wasn't working.
- President Bush never asked for alternative opinions or how things were really going, he only wanted to hear and speak of good news.
- Donald Rumsfeld was arrogant and domineering, often blocking the efforts of people around him to fix problems.
- Lots of people saw what was going on and gave advice on how to fix it, but it could never be implemented because of the fighting among the members of the administration, and Bush's policy of not revising their strategy.
- The administration hid the facts about Iraq from the public and often from themselves.
- Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld all held the incredibly callous view that Iraqi casualties are irrelevant, only winning matters
- The administration put into power people who agreed with them and ostracized the ones who were critical. 'If you don't agree with us you are not a team player.'
- The competent people got frustated and some of them gave up trying to fix the problem.
Book Description
Filled with headline-making revelations, this explosive account by two award-winning investigative reporters tracks the behind-the-scenes story of the forged intelligence document that the Bush administration used to push the nation into war with Iraq
Like Barbara Tuchman’s 1958 classic, The Zimmerman Telegram, about the decoded German wire that drew the United States into World War I, or the recent bestseller Cobra II, The Italian Letter traces the road to war by following the scandal surrounding the Italian Letter, a fraudulent intelligence document that cooked up proof that the African country of Niger was prepared to supply Saddam Hussein with uranium for nuclear weapons.
What is the real story that led to President Bush’s 16 famous words in his 2003 State of the Union address, "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."? In the first book to uncover the details of the scandal that has already led to the indictment of one administration official—a scandal bigger than the Iran-Contra affair—the authors have drawn on their unique access to a large group of CIA, FBI, and international sources as well as whistle-blowers.
As frustration over the increasing deaths in Iraq continues to mount, this timely, page-turning narrative provides fresh insights for a nation hungry for greater understanding of the Iraq War and the manipulated intelligence document that altered the course of contemporary history.
Customer Reviews:
In the lives of the American people it was the end of Innocence.......2007-08-31
1. The Italian letter indirectly supplied by Laura Montini to Rocco Martino and introduced to Elisabetta Burba was not concretely proven. Montini, an employee at Nigerian embassy, in Rome produced the excerpt from the Italian letter: "The government of the republic of Niger and The Govrnment of Iraq by their respective official delegated representatives. Said provision equaling 500 tons of pure uranium per year will be delivered in 2 phases."
2. Michael Ledeen, fellow of the American Enterprise Institute was thought to have had a hand in the Italian letter development from forgery to intelligence because his ties with Italian intelligence services. Ledeen alleged Iranian intelligence agents, and noted Iranian Intelligence fabricator, Manucher Ghorbanifar. AEI fellows include Cheney, Shultz, Kirkpatrick, and Ledeen.
3. Burba was convinced that Niger did not have the capability of shipping yellowcake to Iraq, secretly or openly. Yellowcake was store in 880 barrel filled half way, to control weight and safety. Burba estimated to ship the barrels would have required a 100 truck convey and tractor trailers were rarely seen in West Africa. Each truck would have to travel hundreds of miles from the mining sites in Niger to Cotonou, a major port city in neighboring Benin, where the uranium would be loaded on ships. The risk to sell uranium to Iraq would have been disasterous to Niger, if discovered, because the country receives financial aid from the US and Europe. It wouldn't make sense to make the deal.
4. Burba left copies of the Italian letter with US intelligence and inspired the Bush 16 words scenario. The intelligence community was stunned by the statement not knowing where the statement came from or the source of the information. The policy office was out of the loop and was unaware of a rogue operation in the African country. The intelligence community case was the Iraq was rearming with chemical and biological weapons and when the State department discounted the Niger claim, the director of WINPAC said it was possible. The difference of opinion had more to do with politics than analysis of intelligence.
5. Wolfowitz as his from Christopher DeMuth, president of the American Enterprise Institute, to put together a small team of scholars to assess the dynamics inside the Middle East that had produced the Sep 11 hijackers. The twelve man team concluded that Saadam Hussein had to be removed from power to transform the region into a stable and less threaten part of the world. Neoconservatives were also attracted to the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs with the advisory board consisting of Kirkpatrick, Ledeen, Perle, and Woolsey and Feith as chairman.
6. Wolfowitz hope that Ahmad Chalabi would preside over Iraq after the US invasion. Chalabi received $30 million by the Defense Department in the run-up to the Iraq invasion, payment inpart for providing intelligence, most turned out to be worthless. Chalabi "attempted to influence United States policy on Iraq by providing false information through defectors directed at convincing the United States that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and had links to terrorist." In Oct 2002, the Defense Intelligence Agency cautioned that the Iraq National Congress was pentrated by Iranian hostile intelligence services and would use the relationship to promote its agenda. A similar warning came from the CIA. Chalabi introduced Mohammed Harith, to the Pentagon and the DIA found much of the WMD reporting questionable and his descriptions of alleged nuclear facilities demonstrably incorrect.
7. Under the approval of Rumsfeld, Feith and Wolfowitz create a supersecret team called Team B. Team B provided Cheney and Rumsfeld the evidence that Saadam had created an unholy alliance with Osama Bin Laden. The CIA never said such a thing and did not believe it was true. Team B told Cheney, "Mohammed Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence officer several months before 9/11 attacks" and Cheney repeated it to the public. As a result 70 percent of Americans polled said Hussein had something to do with the toppling of the Twin Towers.
8. The Office of Special Plans for the new Iraq initiative was a secret matter. The Joint Chief of Staff was not in the loop. Chalabi was a frequent visitor to the NESA and Special Plans office and often broth along Iraqi defectors. DIA reported the information Chalabi and his defectors provided was virtually worthless. "Chalabi stock fell after the invasion, when new accounts dislosed that his intelligence chief was a long time senior officer in Iran's espionage service. US authorities, meanwhile, investigated Chalabi for allegedly passing secrets to Iran.
A Thorough Examination.......2007-07-03
At the core of the disaster of the Bush presidency lies a fabricated "intelligence" document used to justify pre-emptive military invasion.
You wouldn't know it by watching the mainstream press.
This book fills an important role, similar to the 9/11 commission report or the Iraq Study Group. It fills in many of the details necessary to understand how and why such a colossal and embarrassing "intelligence failure" could find it's way into the most important State of the Union address in decades.
It doesn't answer every question, but it answers enough to make it a very worthwhile read, and it does so with just the right touch of humor and lighter prose.
Faked out?.......2007-07-03
Blow by blow account of how to construct a lie and get it delivered to the public by a president. Very well written account of the infamous `sixteen words' in Bush's 2003 state of the union address. This is the way the Mafia would use our intelligence agencies.
It also includes a quick reference time line of events for those amount us who do not posses great faculties of memory.
Fairly thin on the purported topic.......2007-06-14
I have read most of the books on how and why the US went into Iraq and how badly we botched it up once we got there. I found this book interesting and there was some valuable new information, but I came away knowing little about the Italian letter I hadn't already read elsewhere. The central question of who wrote it and why went unanswered, beyond the belief that it originated within SISMI. It's an interesting book if you don't know the story, but unsatisfying if you do and desire to know more.
Whoa...........2007-06-06
This book really opens your eyes to what exactly this administration has done to push the war in Iraq. It is very indepth and very accurate. While I was reading this book, at times, I would forget that I am reading about something that is going on right at this moment because the crap they have pulled sounded like something in a movie. It's frightening that this is real. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know what the hell is going on.
Book Description
“When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag, carrying a cross.”
---Sinclair Lewis, author of It Can’t Happen Here, 1935
For the first time since the Nixon era, Americans have reason to doubt the future---or even the presence---of democracy. We live in a society where government conspires with big business and big evangelism; where ideologues and religious zealots attack logic and the scientific method; and where the ruling party encourages xenophobic nationalism based on irrational, manufactured fear. The party in power seems to seek a perpetual state of war to hold on to power, and they are willing to lie, cheat, and steal to achieve their ends. The question must be asked: Are we headed toward the end of American democracy?
Nobel Prize--winning author Sinclair Lewis depicted authoritarianism American-style in his sardonically titled dystopian novel It Can’t Happen Here, published in 1935. Now, bestselling political journalist Joe Conason argues that it can happen here—and a select group of extremely powerful right-wing ideologues are driving us ever closer to the precipice.
In this compelling, impassioned, yet rational and fact-based look at the state of the nation, Conason shows how and why America has been wrenched away from its founding principles and is being dragged toward authoritarianism.
Praise for the books of Joe Conason:
“A comprehensive, well-researched indictment of a bunch of nasty people who really deserve it.”
---Molly Ivins on Big Lies
“When Joe casts his eye on the cadres of the right, they invariably emerge battered, with their arguments filleted, their sources of money exposed, and their real motives laid bare.”
—Michael Tomasky, former editor, The American Prospect, on The Raw Deal
“A hundred years from now the primary source on the so-called Clinton scandals will still be The Hunting of the President by Joe Conason and Gene Lyons.”
---James Carville on The Hunting of the President
Customer Reviews:
Every American Should Read this Book!.......2007-10-21
This book is a well researched, well documented look at the Bush Administration. Everyone who cares about this country and its future needs to read this book. Think you know what the Constitution says? Think you know what the Founding Fathers intentions were? Think you know the perils we face today? Maybe . . . Maybe not. A truly eye-opening read.
A decent effort.......2007-10-06
I enjoy Joe Conason's writing and I miss his appearances on the old Al Franken Radio show. That being said, there have been so many books written lately about the dangers of Bush administration policies that this book felt like a retread of things I already know and am already concerned about.
But if this book manages to convince one person to reconsider their political convictions or at least dig into the arguments, then it would have served it's purpose.
Not one of the best Bush critiques on the market but still worth a look into.
It has happened here........2007-10-02
I'm going to read "It Can't Happen Here" next. Apparently it's quite precient about our current state of affairs.
Last bucket of water from a drying up well--.......2007-06-01
Conason is trying to dip one last royalty check from the "Stand by for the Bush dictatorship" bucket, before the well runs dry next year.
After 2007, nobody is going to buy into this stuff and come January 2009, it'll get thrown in a bargain bin under the last copy of a Gary Sick "expose'" of "the 1980 October surprise".
Think Joe Conason will give a rat's if Hillary uses the same methods and usurps the same Executive powers, if she becomes President? Or simply changes nothing about NSA spying and the Patriot Act.
Not a chance...he'll probably write a book DEFENDING it.
Quick Read, Makes an Important Point.......2007-05-11
Conason really drives home the need to link authoritarian thinking to other elements of fascism (such as corporatism, cronyism, and other corruptions of good government).
Of the group, I fear authoritarianism most of all, because it demands blind adherence to X, whatever X is deemed to be. Authoritarianism is ultimately classist as well, because it divides the world into an elitist class of relativist-thinking Machiavellian authorities, and a class of those who are meant to be nothing more than blind followers of the authorities.
That speaks greatly to the fools they deem the followers to be, and reflects poorly on the educational "reforms" executed by this administration, most to indoctrinate authoritarian thinking and the shut down of critical thinking and questioning abilities, anything that might lead one of those blind followers to stand up and say "the emperor isn't wearing any clothes."
So-called "faith-based" initiatives are also a thinly-cloaked attempt to further indoctrinate authoritarianism and blind-goose-stepping, by setting up strict hierarchies of patriarchal authority all over again, like the Divine Right of Kings, reining in the empowerment of women, anything that might lead to free-thinking dissent.
The TRUE IRONY of all of this persuasion process is that the so-called authoritarian elitist class are deep relativists, far more postmodern than most intellectual postmodernists.
Average customer rating:
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Marketing Research with SPSS 10 CD (3rd Edition)
Alvin C. Burns , and
Ronald F. Bush
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Book Description
The top journalist in America and the funniest (Randi Rhodes, Air America), takes his previous New York Times bestseller a step further with hot undercover dispatches hanging out the dirty underpants of the armed and dangerous clowns that rule us.
A White House spokesman said, We hate that sonovabitch. They're not alone: From corporate suites to Osama's cave, they fear what Britain's Guardian calls investigations up there with Woodward and Bernsteinand a lot funnier. But Greg Palast's fanatic following (nearly two million readers of his Web column) has made him a cult fave among progressives (Village Voice) who can't wait for his next release.
Palast's old-style gum-shoe detective work to dig out the info on the War on Terror, greed- dripping schemes to seize little nations with lots of oil, the hidden program to steal the 2008 election, and the media biases that keep it unreported are the meat and bones of this BBC television reporter's new book. Armed Madhouse is illustrated with dozens of documents marked secret and confidential that have walked out of file cabinets and fallen into Palast's hands.
You won't find Palast in The New York Times (except its bestseller list), but you will read his reports on the hottest Web sites worldwide, hear him regularly on Air America and the Pacifica radio networks, and see his stories reappearing as the basis for Eminem's hit video Mosh, Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, and sampled by a dozen of today's top platinum rock artists. BACKCOVER: The greatest investigative journalist in America.
ALAN CHARTOCK, NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO
The type of investigative reporter you don't see anymorea cross between Sam Spade and Sherlock Holmes.
JIM HIGHTOWER
Courageous reporting.
MICHAEL MOORE
Upsets all the right people!
NOAM CHOMSKY
Customer Reviews:
Read the book, avoid the audio version.......2007-10-10
The material presented seems to be meticulously researched, and clearly and systematically presented. The problem is -on the audio CD edition- the sarcasm with which the lines are spoken. The sneering, cloying sarcasm is so intense, so pervasive, and so grating that it detracts from the narrative. Is it really necessary to emulate Anne Coulter's style?
The truth exponentially!.......2007-10-05
Greg Palast is the modern day Thomas Paine. Believe me when I say that that is not overstatement. This is the book that got a man tazed by his vociferous opining over one single chapter - in fact, the very chapter that is what makes this book so important to understanding the hijacking of an entire country and its Constitution by the Bush crime machine.
The very fact that Palast has to go to another country to speak his truth tells you that we are in serious danger of losing the fourth estate altogether if we don't pay attention and do something about it.
I heard Palast on progressive radio and started my quest for the facts by reading his online pieces, and then buying this book. I only wish more Americans had listened much earlier and perhaps we could have avoided the fiasco that began with the hanging chad fiasco of 2001 when the Supreme Court appointed King George. That horrific event began the decent into constitutional chaos and the monumental abyss of lies, torture, rendering, the attack on human rights in our country and more.
I am so glad there is a Greg Palast. Just as glad as Bush cronies hate everything this man represents. "Armed Madhouse" is a welcome addition to my reference library and historic archives. Read and become enlightened!
Hostile Takeover.......2007-10-04
Greg Palast's Armed Madhouse documents the thesis of CW Mills' seminal 1956 book The Power Elite - that US politics is just a facade: A facade for a hostile corporate takeover of both governments and nations. Palast asserts and documents that the "war on terror" was conceived as an attempt to destroy OPEC, further impoverish the US middle class, and reap windfall corporate profits from rebuilding Iraq, whose "no-bid", cash cow rebuilding Palast calls "the biggest reconstruction project since the pyramids" [page 277]. Palast humorously remarks in passing that "Operation Iraqi Freedom" was originally dubbed Operation Iraqi Liberation ("O.I.L.") by White House spokesman Ari Fleischer.
"Conspiracy nuts think George Bush, from the moment he took office, had a secret plan to control Iraq's oil. They're wrong. Bush had two plans. Here they are: One crafted by the neoconservatives at the Pentagon, another fashioned by the State Department and Big Oil. This is the history of the secret cold war between these two power elites, which drives the hot war on the Tigris" [page 51].
"[This book] is about how they are taking these American rights away, stripping them off you one by one, from the Wage and Hour Law's 40-hour week to the Clayton Antitrust Law to the False Claims Act to the laws that keep your lights on and your pensions protected. Many are laws that you've probably never heard of, like the Public Utility Holding Company Act. But, take my word for it, you'll miss them when they're gone" [page 284].
Outstanding book.
Highly Informative, Disturbingly Insightful.......2007-10-01
Palast uncovers advanced economic plots to make the rich richer and the poor their servants. First he discusses the oil economy as it relates to big businesses and the political systems of those countries in power. Although there are those who completely dispel Palast's notion that oil is in seemingly infinite supply (and I don't mean right-wingers, either... do a google), I don't think if Palast is wrong on this count that it destroys his theories on how the oil industry operates and prospers. Other keep-the-rich rich schemes include the stealing of elections, something I've already studied and yet, was completely horrified to learn further extent to this phenomenon. Other notable topics include China, our lack-luster education system, and how the working class is held down. Well worth the listen, but have your brain turned on and focused. You can't be day dreaming and get what the author is saying because there are a lot of details given and he talks rather quickly.
Why Isn't Congress Reading This Book?.......2007-09-23
This book should be a mandatory assignment to be read by every member of congress. It's all about lies and the real reason for this war. Controll of oil prices.
Book Description
An investigative history of Western complicity in Saddam Hussein's crimes reveals the story his trial never will.
In February 1991, the Shia of southern Iraq rose against Saddam Hussein. Barry M. Lando, a former investigative producer for 60 Minutes, argues compellingly that this ill-fated uprising represents one instance among many of Western complicity in Saddam Hussein's crimes against humanity. The Shia were responding to the call for rebellion from President George H.W. Bush that was broadcast repeatedly across Iraq by clandestine CIA stations. But, just as the revolution was on the brink of success, the United States and its allies turned their backs: U.S. troops destroyed huge weapons caches to prevent them from falling into rebel hands and blocked rebels trying to reach Baghdad. In the end, tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, were massacred.
Because of restrictions imposed by the Special Tribunal prosecuting Saddam Hussein, the extensive role of the U.S. and its allies in his crimes will never be explored at his trial. But as Web of Deceit demonstrates, the nations that now denounce Saddam most prominently secretly backed the dictator from his rise to power in the 1960s and '70s to his offensives in Iran and, despite warnings, took no action to stop his invasion of Kuwait. They also turned their backs when he used chemical weapons against the Iraqi people and persisted in international sanctions long after they had proved ineffective and, for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, lethal.
Web of Deceit draws on a wide range of journalism and scholarship to present a complete picture of what really happened in Iraq under Saddam, detailingfor the first timethe complicity of the West in its full and alarming extent.
Customer Reviews:
All Roads Lead to Britain.......2007-09-16
I suppose we will never see the end of the damage done by the old European colonial system. Even my hero, Churchill, was guilty of moving boundaries of countries to serve the empire. Very eye opening book and gives insight into some of the reasons "they hate us".
Web of deceipt.......2007-06-26
most excellent & informative. brings the hypocrisy of the western world out into the light. a must read.
The One Book No US Politician Will Read, That You SHOULD Read.......2007-06-19
This is one of two books that I have read together, both documenting the decades of deceit by both the US and UK governments, and to a much lesser degree, by France, Germany, and Russia, among others.
The two compelling facts that stay with me as I put the book down, are two:
1) From Churchill to Kennedy to Bush (Cheney), all of our Presidents in the US, but most especially Reagan, Bush, Clinton (Brzezinski), and the current and failed crew of neo conservatives that use Bush Junior as a talking doll, have been complicit--let me spell that again--complicit in the mass murders, the massacres, the torture that we first condoned and now practice ourselves. The US White House denizens are all long overdue for formal indictment, at least by a Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The author documents, very ably, a long string of broken promises (e.g. to the Bedouin leader for a free Arab state in return for help in WWI, to the Kurds, etc.) and complicity in mass murder. In the author's views, the sanctions are a war crime against the children, women, and elderly of Iraq, a war crime that lasted thirteen years.
2) Salaam Hussein was a creature spawned in large part by the CIA. Although I have spent 30 years in the intelligence business, it was not until I embarked on my broad non-fiction reading program that I have been able to understand that the CIA specifically, but all the rest of the classified intelligence community, is complicit in mass murders, genocides, running cocaine into the US to wipe out poor communities now addicted to crack, made affordable by the CIA's drug runners, and made politically kosher because Wall Street demands drug money--laundered drug money--for its liquidity.
I join Lee Iacocca in asking, "Where is the outrage?" There is not a candidate for President today, not even Ron Paul, who can outline in chapter and verse, as I now can on the shoulders of the 900+ authors whose hard-earned insights I have absorbed these past six years, the evil that Lionel Tiger and others show is inherent in industrialization and the centralization of power. We need to destroy the current corrupt elections process, implement electoral reform across the board, and start putting bright honorable people in office, instead of these nakedly immoral and profoundly evil creatures who will inflict any sacrifice, impose any burden, on We the People so that they may profit.
A few of the many gems from this superb work:
1) All our Presidents in recent time have lied to us, and the most humiliating of all of these lies was not the weapons of mass destruction, but the abandonment of the Kurds and the refusal to listen when Iraqi generals approached Iraqi dissidents who in turn came to the Department of State only to be shunned away. Salaam Hussein promised to leave Kuwait, but US wanted to destroy his army, and refused to hold off on what proved to be 40 hours of pure slaughter. Gulf II was not only more lies, but the active suppression of facts and dissident views, not least of which were General Tony Zinni's views--he was called a traitor by Condolezza Rice, who appears to know nothing of honor, decency, and truthfulness.
2) CIA is creating more long-term havoc than it is worth. I am finally persuaded, with absolute certainty, that we need to get out of the covert action business. CIA should become the National Analysis Agency, and the small clandestine arm should be limited to multinational operations against transnational crime and terrorism, with an Inspector General in every Station.
3) Jimmy Carter, advised by Zbig Brzezinski, comes out of this book looking both more ignorant and more unscrupulous than Reagan or either of the Bushies. Brzezinski not only masterminded the tacit okay for Pakistani development of nuclear weapons in return for aid in Afghanistan, he also began the process of helping Salaam Hussein acquire, develop, and utilize weapons of mass destruction, and I hold Brzezinski directly accountable for the mass murder of Kurds, Iraqi Shiites, and Iranians.
There are many other notes from this book that I have, but rather than lay them out here I am going to simply say that this book moves to the top of my list of books on evaluating the Iraq misadventure that has given us a $2 trillion debt and 75,000 amputees whose lives are forever shattered ***for no good reason***
The betrayal of the public trust by both the Executive and Congress, by both politicians and senior civil servants and military flag officers, has been outrageous. The author uses the words ignorance, arrogance, incompetence, amorality, illegality, hypocrisy, and cynicism sparingly. This is not a vendetta book. This is a reasons indictment and joins a host of other books that demand the immediate impeachment not only of the sitting President and Vice President, but also of the Republican ***and*** Democratic leadership in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
I am ashamed of our Republic and what these amoral thieves have done "in our name." I am disheartened by the knowledge that all of our brave troops have died, been disabled, and suffered for ***no good reason.*** This makes me very angry. Angry enough to begin speaking out, pleading with America to wake up and find within itself the means for a non-violent restoration of the Constitution and We the People as individuals with liberty for all, lest America be disgraced, and our children's' futures sacrificed, forevermore. Shame, shame, shame.
Devil's Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam (American Empire Project) (American Empire Project)
Unintended Consequences: The United States at War
The Sorrows of Empire: Militarism, Secrecy, and the End of the Republic (The American Empire Project)
Manufacture of Evil: Ethics, Evolution, and the Industrial System
Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude
Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency
Statecraft as Soulcraft
Why the Rest Hates the West: Understanding the Roots of Global Rage
The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People
Breaking the Real Axis of Evil: How to Oust the World's Last Dictators by 2025
And, so we solemnly pray for..........2007-05-24
Barry M. Lando presents a virtual rogue's gallery of the good Christian boys and girl who the knuckleheads at my church pray for, apparently because they have put young men and women from our community at the point of the spear to "fight for our freedom." The author's revelations appear authentic, and are not as surpising as they should be. As a veteran, not a hero, of Desert Storm, I remember the TV interview of the young African American soldier from our fort who was raring to go to Kuwait to "restore democracy." Apparently, the poor sap did not realize Kuwait never had democracy and he himself, as a black in the south, did not either. It was about oil then and is about oil, and a rather dangerous vendetta mixed with bizarre religious tones now. How fascinating that we propped up both Iran and Iraq during a lengthy and bloody conflict that killed both civilain and soldier alike. Then, we merrily ran sanctions that killed perhaps half a million or more children in Iraq, while at the same time, praying, wailing and beating their chests in agony when a brain dead woman was taken off life support. This rather reminds me of the Kingston Trio's "Merry Minuet." Perhaps this is something more than irony, but I do not know what it is. Colon Powell and Tony Blair were added to the cast of villians. I had hoped Powell had been duped by the sock puppet, but he appeared to go along of his own volition. I should have figured Blair all along, considering the imperialistic horrors that have been inflicted upon the Southwest Asian Peninsula by his country for more than a century. The civilian and military deaths add up to quite a tidy total, but as Stalin would have agreed, this is merely a statistic and no one cares. So, this is why I gave the book a 3 star. It is a swell documentation of a murderous disaster, but it does not accomplish a darn thing. This book will not cause one policy change. America will still believe the president, inspired by Jesus, is fighting the war to protect us from terrorism, instead of actually fanning the fires of terrorism. Since the publication of this book, things have gotten from bad to worse. One voice on Christian radio denouncing gay marriage will get more attention than all the press run of this title. Folks who wish to read more books on this subject, which also have not changed a darn thing, might read "All the Shah's Men" by Stephen Kinzer and "Sleeping with the Devil" by Robert Baer.
They're all Idoits.......2007-04-03
After reading this book, you'll discover that Bush isn't the only idiot when it comes to the current Iraq situation. In fact the idiocy of today goes way way back. It's a fasinating history and make you realize that our leaders don't read history because they foolishly repeat it. In the case of W, it makes you wonder what the hell he thought he was going to do once he got there. Makes you appreciate George W's policy of not going to Bagdad during the Gulf war, though he screwed up too. And Clinton! Don't even get me started... Buy the book, read the book, it's very very good.
Book Description
Arguing that the power in America is concentrated in large institutions, this book studies the people at the top of these institutionswho they are, how much power they wield, and how they came to power. Tom Dye has chronicled the national leadership since the Nixon-Ford years, each edition featuring the current president and his staff. The seventh edition focuses on the new Bush administration and the contrast it will bring to Washington following 8 years of Clinton dominance. The commentary is supported by years of data analysis involving more than 7000 institutional elites, which includes governmental and corporate leaders. This edition describes the return of the Bush dynasty to power. It includes a new chapter on The Money Elite, describing the power of the banking and financial community as well as the Federal Reserve Board; Chapter 7 now covers important issues concerning elite interlocking, recruitment, social characteristics, class, and factionalism; the discussion of How Institutional Leaders Make Public Policy has been expanded greatly in Chapter 8; several discussions have been added, including The Globalization of Economic Power, The Battle for IBM, Alan Greenspan: Ruling over Money, Hillary Clinton: Power and Ambition, and Liberal and Conservative Factions among Elites.
Customer Reviews:
Elite View of American Politics.......2003-05-04
Pretty good book about political elites in the United States. Its strongest point is its empirical discussion of personalities and of groups that have a lot of power in America. Even though the book has been through seven editions, including one following election 2000, some information needs to be updated. This is true, for example, of the discussion about the richest people in America.
The theoretical model I found a bit tangled and not one hundred percent persuasive. I am on the side of the author as far as the major thesis, but I think theoretically this is not the last word on the elite theory of American politics, nor is the book astonishingly creative from the theoretical standpoint.
I also needed more persuasion as far as some specific hypotheses. For example the role of endowments and foundations was presented as a truly major role. Most textbooks on American politics do not even mention endowments and foundations that support academic and scientific research. Much less do most textbooks on the subject consider endowments and foundations to be key players.
Nevertheless, it is a clear no-nonsense book and easy to read, especially if you are interested in politics. I thought it had a nice introductory chapter, paying homage to some of the early great elite theorists, such as Vifredo Pareto, Robert Michels, and Gaetano Mosca.
I recommend it to undergraduate students in American politics and political theory.
Product Description
The thesis of Webster Tarpley's 911 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA has been enthusiastically received with its working model of the 9/11 plot: a covert network of moles, patsies, and a commando cell in the privatized intelligence services, backed by corrupt political and corporate media elites. Buttressed by historical examples like the Baader-Meinhof Gang and the Gunpowder Plot, this model makes it clear how such a monstrous false-flag or self-terror exploit is possible even under a largely benign government. That paradox is the incredibility gap that has made most Americans reject the evidence about 9/11 as paranoid fantasy. Tarpley brings decades of expertise to the 9/11 issue. In 1978 he exposed the terrorist Red Brigades as patsies of Italy's fascist P2 shadow government, and 9/11 is on the same pattern. The forthright subtitle, Made in USA, is backed up by an analysis of key figures who behave like moles working for the insidious network. 9/11 Synthetic Terror highlights the salient points of sheer physical impossibility of the official 9/11 conspiracy theory. It makes clear that figures like Osama bin Laden are patsies, dupes or double agents, selected for their ethnic coloring as the basis for launching a "Clash of Civilizations," and how absurd it is to imagine that such tools of US intelligence agencies could turn around and infiltrate or overwhelm US defenses unaided. Tarpley shows that the wars on the Islamic world, the Soviet-Afghan, Kosovo and Chechen conflicts, as well as US-UK-NATO synthetic terror incidents like 9/11, Beslan or 3/11 in Madrid, have been contrived to continue the Cold War, in pursuit of the centuries-long campaign for Anglo hegemony over Eurasia and the world. The preface to the second edition explains the significance and superiority of "MIHOP" vs "LIHOP," and the many drills on 9/11 and on 7/7, which were cover and conduit for those false-flag operations. The third edition preface makes clear that 9/11 is the only issue that can stop a new world war and the descent into a police state. It shows up the cowardice of the "left gatekeepers" on this score. The analysis of Moussaoui on trial as a classic weak-minded patsy -- part double agent, part fanatic -- again shows the unique power of Tarpley's mole-patsy model to debunk the lies put out by the war party. For a principled refutation of the 9/11 propaganda myth in all its parts, Tarpley'A bombshell, brilliant book - I strongly recommend 911 Synthetic Terror. Should be required reading for all honest truth seekers, s work is indispensable.
Customer Reviews:
An insult.......2007-10-15
to intelligence and to the memory of the 3000 innocent victims felled by Islamist fanaticism
Tour De Force !.......2007-08-05
This book is packed with information which probably means that if you are a beginning truth seeker, you would want to start out with something such as David Ray Griffins books as they are a little easier to read.
Think for yourself, and QUESTION!.......2007-07-09
I heard this guy speak. He gives a moderately entertaining romp through a lot of true information, and more. 95% of what he says is plausible (if questionable). Perhaps 50% of what I heard, I know to be true. But plenty of his stuff is a shotgun blast of information which only SEEMS convincing by its voluminousness, but in fact has no evidence. Take his (and Tex Marrs') claim about "angel is next". This refers to a threat supposedly delivered to Bush by moles in his staff, entailing a threat on air force 1, and nuclear war by compromised launch codes on 9/11. He gives a whole rapt story, with twists and turns and lots of insider details. It's not totally impossible, and could make fine fiction, but has no evidence whatsoever.
There's too much crucial, true, and verifiable information out there to waste your time on this in-depth far-out fantasy garbage. I wouldn't trust this man to give me a weather report.
The search for Truth is one step at a time.......2007-07-09
I love to devour books. I leave my local library with no less than two or three volumes after each visit. Sometimes I wonder if I ever race through literature too quickly. Occasionally a book crops up that can be sifted through within a few hours, depending on its type, although I always try to keep pages of notes on hand if I misplace or forget key facts or points. Webster Tarpley's "9/11 Synthetic Terror: Made in USA" is not one of those books. Quite the contrary, I recommend this book to be studied ponderously, pored over hours at a time, critically dissected and examined, not to mention cross-referenced by numerous other sources, whether they be unauthorized or obscure. Supposedly, we live in the "Information Age", yet the most unverifiable of claims and propositions confuse and sway more efficiently than ever before, and the populace hardly diligently deciphers what is true. Partisan politics, not to mention rigid principles ("liberal" and "conservative") can dampen even the freshest and inquisitive of minds. That kind of reader will not enjoy Tarpley's book.
I personally do not subscribe to any one conspiracy theory, precisely because there are so many, and thus hundreds that follow sweeping conclusions based on the stretching of facts, outright absurdness, and lack of relevant evidence. I, however, cannot outright dismiss the conspiratorial views regarding the tragic day of September 11 because I so often come across pertinent points. The groups propagating such theories ask the correct questions most of the time, whether or not they embrace the correct conclusion. Rather, I believe piecing together the facts from a variety of authors and sources into a sound theoretical framework appears to be the only way to acquire the truth behind the 9/11 attacks that is free from dogma or ideology (although many of these authors and sources do just that).
What the book's author does is exactly this: combing the external facts, the puzzling discrepancies, historical evidences, public testimony, important documents, etc. and constructing each part into a plausible theoretical framework. From what I conducted during other research, I think Tarpley's essential thesis is correct. It is that the U.S. government secretly holds an elite oligarchy, or a "network or faction of like-minded plotters which cuts across the institutions transversally" (pg. 104). They hold influential positions as a hidden government inside the elected one. The group may not populate just the intelligence agencies, the Pentagon, or the White House, but also the privatized public sector, which acts as its center of gravity. The oligarchy deploys a select amount of "moles", which may not be everywhere, but are nonetheless strategically placed to carry out core objectives. The corporate media participates also, complicit with the magicians directing the show. These core objectives numerously appear throughout the course of history, especially the twentieth century, such as the many attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle and Operation Northwoods, in which planned attacks on key U.S. targets would justify an invasion of Castro's Cuba.
How does this relate to 9/11? Tarpley himself dismisses the official media story as the ultimate conspiracy theory of them all, and unveils these facts:
+ Six of alleged 11 hijackers receive training at U.S. military bases (pg.179)
+ Mohammed Atta: Not a radical Islamist, but a promiscuous playboy and frequent cocaine user hooking up at topless bars and drinking vodka for three hours (pg. 178)
+ Could hijackers fly the planes? Atta and Marwan Al Shehhi had to receive supplemental lessons due to sub-par performance, according to an instructor associated with the Jones Aviation Flying Service (pg. 183)
+ Instructors at Maryland Freeway Airport acknowledged that, despite 600 log hours, Pentagon hijacker Hani Hanjour was incapable of finishing his flight training (pg. 183)
+ The hijackers, instead of choosing direct ways to their targets, flew long detours (pg. 188)
+ Training needed to pilot 757s or 767s required special precision and "super training" not offered at Huffman Aviation, where the Flight 11 and Flight 175 hijackers received lessons (pg. 191)
Although I do not recall whether Tarpley mentioned it in the book or not, but on September 10, 2001, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced that $2.3 TRILLION could not be accounted for in the Pentagon budget. Obviously, the story vanished the next day. Tarpley also discloses lesser-known factoids of equal importance, including the fact that live fly, NORAD exercises were conducted on 9/11, some that even resembled hijacked airliners (pg. 207). On page 213, Tarpley writes how blips and dummy hijacks occurred, thus confusing loyal air controllers on 9/11. Why, exactly? So government moles could carry out their ordered operations.
There is so much more to this work than I let on in this review. Suffice to say, whatever your political background, this is one of the most important books regarding current events that I ever read. A lot of the information, I admit, made my head swirl, even when I gasped and cringed throughout what I read. At the end of the book, I felt depressed and sorrowful. I expressed pity at the American people, of whom most this book will never find, and how so quickly we abandoned our Founding Fathers' dream of a constitutional republic of a well-informed and hardworking independent people. President Reagan, leaving all conceptions of this book behind about various government officials aside, said, "Trust but verify." We forgot. Will we be forgiven again?
Comprehensive Review of 9/11.......2007-07-08
Tarpley provides a thorough analysis of the 9/11 and how the tragedies could have happened. This book is a must read for those interested in the 9/11 truth issues.
The book goes into great detail about logistics of the attacks. Tarpley shows his experience as a historian and the amount of time he used to research into the issues.
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