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Summary: The Truth Hurts
Review: Greg Palast is not your typical journalist. He doesn't varnish the truth based upon ideology, political leaning or who's paying his salary. His background as an investigator shines through in his writing. Unlike a vast majority of so-called investigative reporters, Greg does his homework by scouring sources and providing evidence, not by rewording what's already been dictated to the media. Greg reveals what really happened in Florida. Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris fixed the election. Plain and simple. The proof is in the book....This book doesn't spare the Clintons or Gore. If you've wondered why the Democrats didn't jump on the Palast bandwagon during the election fiasco and publicize the voter purge of primarily black Democratic voters, Greg's got the answers. You may not like them. The chapters on the WTO and IMF may bring tears to your eyes when you stop and think about what they've done in the name of progress. The wholesale destruction of economies and people seems to be the new definition of progress, with the US leading the pack. Ever really wonder why America is so despised? Here's one answer. Media myths are destroyed in this book. Read about Walmart, Tony Blair, Pat Robertson, the Exxon/Valdez coverup, Volvo, etc. This is the most explosive and accurate portrayal of our new globalized society that you can find in America. No fluff, only substance. If you care about civilization, read the book.
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Summary: Hurry while the truth lasts!
Review: Very informing book. If you're a fan of the truth, you need to read this. Hurry before they start the burning... again.
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Summary: How Florida Profiled Blacks and Stole the 2000 Election
Review: In a time when fiduciary responsibilities and concern for stockholders have reduced most American newsrooms to ghost towns populated only by cut and paste journalists, Greg Palast, an American working for the Observer in London, still does what reporters used to do. He digs through the evidence, particularly the emails, the government records and the financial reports to get the hard evidence. His evidence on the 2000 Florida Presidential election voting process is both astonishing and terribly troubling. Palast also offers clear documentary evidence that Blacks were racially profiled to be eliminated from voter rolls by Florida's voter/felon purge. Essentially, at the behest of Katherine Harris, under Jeb Bush's close watch, Florida systematically and intentionally denied voting rights to approximately 90,000 voters whose right to vote in Florida was legally unquestionable--and over 54% of them were Black. Since Florida Blacks voted 93% for Al Gore, Palast's remarkably detailed book makes it perfectly evident that illegally purged Black votes prevented Florida from voting overwhelmingly for Al Gore and giving Gore the presidency. Palast also demonstrates that the issue is not one of Black incompetence. Voting machines were set to accept double voted, and therefore uncountable, ballots in Black districts, while they were set to reject double voted ballots in White districts, so Whites could recast their ballots. In other counties with heavily Black populations, the automatic protection systems which reject double voted ballots were simply turned off to "reduce costs." So while Bush "won" the presidency on a 5-4 Supreme Court vote which said, essentially, that Americans don't have the Constitutional right to vote for the President, something far more sacred was lost in the Florida voting process--the right of every eligible, adult American to have his or her vote counted and to have that vote determine who will lead our country.
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Summary: They Are Controlling Your Utilities!
Review: Palast provides a factual blast of secret corporate and government liasons that have been created to rip all of us off! He's done an excellent job of tying together the names and dates of suspicious events, and the guts to spell it all out. Turns out the U.S. government has been financing corporations, and giving those corporations lucrative contracts, as we all know. However, according to Palast these contracts are specifically for the building new utility companies, or the taking over old utility companies and deregulating them. They are trying to gain control of all utilities such as water, natural gas, cooking oil, fuel oil, waste treatment, and electricity. Once they take control, these companies can then generate profits forever. They can also generate fake energy crisis, fake oil shortages etc, whenever they feel like it. It is obvious after reading this book that we probably went to war in IRAQ so that this fat-cat Oligarchy could build their utility companies and then get paid back whenever the Iraquis sell their oil. And this profit stream will continue forever, as long as they keep all of us driving oil burning or fuel-cell powered vehicles. What we all kind of knew was true, but couldn't really prove, Palast has now provided the facts to make it so obviously real. This is a must-read for any aspiring republican or democrat that really wants to learn about what is going on in the world today. There is a thin line being drawn in the sand between good and evil.
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Summary: The Best Book about Democracy You Can Buy
Review: Greg Palast is a U of Chicago grad who smoked from the bong of free marketeers and was able to get over his addiction to the fallacy that unregulated markets are efficient and the panacea to all our problems, from poverty to foot fungus. Palast is an investigative journalist who tackles topics ranging from the IMF and the World Bank to the electioneering in Florida. In fact, his analysis of the disenfranchisement of Florida voters is must reading as the 2004 election approaches. An American citizen based in Britain, he is able to look at things from a slightly detached perspective and asks questions the mainstream media failed to, such as, on 9/11, why is that the only planes still in the air after the attacks were shuttling members of the Bin Laden family out of the country? While Michael Moore is mainly a satirist, Palast is a true journalist in that he is able to dig into hidden memos and dodgy laws to bring us a view of the truth that we would not otherwise be exposed to. Most impressive is that because of Palast's educational background, he is one of the few journalists qualified to crunch statistical information and come up with cogent explanations.
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Summary: AN ALL-STAR READING
Review: It was a New York Times bestseller, now it's destined to be an audiobook bestseller due in large part to the stellar group of actors who are giving it voice. Kind readers, please do note that whether thou leanest to the left or the right these comments are confined to the quality of the audio editions, and have absolutely nothing to do with political agendas. Both editions from Penguin, the CD version and the cassette edition, are read by the author and an outstanding group of performers, including (in alphabetical order) Ed Asner, Jello Biafra, Al Franken, Janeane Garofolo, Amy Goodman, Jim Hightower, Cynthia McKinney, Alexander Paul, and Shiva Rose. An outstanding group of experienced and gifted artists. For those unfamiliar with the author, Greg Palast is an investigative reporter for BBC Newsnight and Britain's Guardian papers. Once based on these shores we understand that he relocated to Britain where he found greater freedom of expression. In these updated editions of his previously published hardcover book he revisits some of his more groundbreaking exposes. Among these revelations are the author's take on how the Bush family stole the election in Florida, Pat Robertson, how Bush nixed the FBI's investigation of bin Laden before 9/11, how Enron lied, cheated, and wriggled its way into becoming a monopoly, plus much more. Surely no one could give voice to these stories as eloquently, passionately, and animatedly as this stellar cast. - Gail Cooke
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Summary: With Gary Webb Dead, Its Important To Support This Man
Review: Investigative Reporting, one of the greatest features of a society that is somewhat free, is embodied by Greg Palast. He carries on the banner held by Upton Sinclair, Seymour Hersh, Bob Woodward (of old), and the recently deceased Gary Webb.
This is a great book, easy to read and follow, that covers a diverse array of subjects; all of them imporant, but none so much as his expose on the 2000 election debacle.
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Summary: Forget About CNN and Fox and Read This
Review: This book is a breath of fresh air, non-partisan reporting for a change. And even if it's not all completely accurate, it speaks volumes above and beyond CNN and the rest of the "most trusted news" media. While the majority of the world exists in poverty and unimaginable suffering, the corporate giants and governments of the developed world are working deals in partisan and monetary interests in a league outside from the working masses. And the real truth behind the visage, who reports this stuff? The corporate controlled media? Of course not. What they report is always bias, snippets of truth sandwiched between slanted stories of corporate and government controlled media.
For years now I've been watching the media and have given up in the bourgeois mind melt of the believing public in a news media that falsely claims to report truth as their main objective. And Palast's book is worth the read. This version is an updated one from the 2002 edition, and was apparently a New York Times bestseller. It's amazing how this book was not prevented from publishing. I mean the amount of weight the many parties involved in the book carry, you would think this book would get lost somewhere, never to be found. But since it's not, I'm glad for the opportunity to read it. It's really a very educational book, to say the least
In this Palast exposes both Republicans, Democrats and many Corporate giants in areas from environmental, pharmaceutical, financial (of course), evangelical and etc. Good information on the 2000 presidential election, the WTO, the World Bank and IMF, Bush, Gore, Robertson and Blair, nuclear waste, oil spills, Wallmart, OPEC and Chavez, BST hormone & etc. Really, you'll get a good education with this book. Of course, there's no use arguing this stuff with the partisan views and fundamentalists, which is like driving a car into a brick wall. And really, if you open your eyes and mind, you'll know that our so-called democracy only lives in a misused, misguided word, which definition radically changes from year to year, while the real meaning resides in the history books.
One thing I do get out of this book, whether it's the WTO, IMF, World Bank and all the Corporations, is that it's the LLM's manifesto on page 283, which states that "leaders who lead today are antique creatures of the Passing World. Today, markets lead. Industry CEOs lead. In the Emerging World, prime ministers and presidents merely 'listen.'" It's as though the new "Popes," with the power of the medieval Popes, are emerging as the new leaders, the corporate giants, who through the market and partisan monetary ventures that only benefit the elites, will rule the world in an unethical, authoritarian structure. Only this time around, with technology, both the environment and extreme totalitarianism are the stakes.
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Summary: Good view of the Globalization Greedsters
Review: Palast gives many examples of how the ravages of globalization affect industries and whole countries. He provides true stories that are both long and short to support his assertion that "democracies" are being destroyed by corporate greed. He further shows how government not only looks the other way, but also has insiders at the very top who profit by it. Some of his longer stories tended to be a tedious read. But then, Palast is a reporter that is careful about facts and timelines. I wish his TV program could be seen in the US. My only complaint about Palast and others like him is: Where was he in the eight years of Clinton? Maybe he wasn't writing books. The phenomenom that there is often an unholy coalition between corporate pirates and people in high places in government is nothing new.
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Summary: palast further exposes the dark side of politics
Review: Palast is the epitomy of anti-establishment journalism. In this book, Palast goes where our soft and complacent mass media will not. In doing so he sheds light on facts that the media establishment will not dare dig into. From the Florida vote in 2000 to Foreign Affairs involving World Bank and the IMF, Palast exposes corruption and wrong-doing that makes him a hated figure in high, powerful places. In the end, he gives a simple guidline to the common man to thwart the shady powers that be.
In conclusion, it seems to me that the animosity toward him from the minds he's trying alert comes from partisanship and a disdain for counter-culture and dissent. His zeal for truth, justice, free speech and democracy are almost disconcerting for the masses who, for a variety of reasons, would rather not question the quality of their news, topics of news, substance in the news or lack thereof.
The audio book is excellent. the all-star cast that aids Palast in the reading is a treat for the listener. I definitely reccomend it.
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