This book started out strong for me with the chapter on how the 2000 Presidential election was stolen in Florida. He makes a compelling case for tens of thousands of voters being deleted.

However, as the book went on, I was suprised to find myself quite bored. First off, it wasn't a compelling read. Second and more importantly, for a book with these allegations, the fact that it had no notes and references I found troublesome. Palast constantly says "here is a reproduction of xyz document" but it is not a photo of it, but a representation. I also could have done without that hedgy tactic, if he had endnotes.

It was enough where I was turned off of the book. I read a third of it.

Having said that, I did flag a few quotes:

"Mary Frances Berry, chairperson of the US Civil Rights Commission, said the real horror of the 2000 election was not the vote count that so transfixed our media, but what she calls "the noncount"- the means of keeping citizens from voting or having their votes counted."

"I reported these stories from Europe, where simple minds think that the appropriate response to the discovery that the wrong man took office would be to remove him from that office."

Two other presidential elections were nearly stolen in the year 2000, in Peru and Yugoslavia. How ironic that in those nations, though not in the US, the voters' will ultimately counted. Peruvians and Yugoslavs took to heart Martin Luther King's admonition that rights are never given, only asserted. They knew: When the unelected seize the presidential palaces, democrats must seize the streets.

[Former TExas AGriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower]: They've eliminated the middleman. THe corporations don't have to lobby the government anymore. THey are the government." Hightower used to complain about Monsanto's lobbying the secretary of agriculture. Today, Monsanto executive Ann Veneman is the Secretary of Agriculture.

"I want my fair share, and that's all of it"-- attributed to Charles Koch

Now lets count the corpses. From 1950 to 1980, socialist and welfare statist policies added more than a decade of life expectancy to virtually every nation on the planet. From 1980 to today, life under structural assitance [IMF/World Bank] has gotten brutish and decidedly shorter. Since 1985, in 15 African nations the total number of illiterate people has risen and life expectancy fallen ... In the former Soviet states, life expectancy has fallen off a cliff--adding 1.4 million a year to the death rate in Russia alone."

Every chapter of this book left me feeling more and more depressed. I was happy to get to the next to the last page and read, 'I've got a stack of letters that read, "Your book is depressing." True, but only if you put your hands in your pockets, look at your shoes and whistle. You can shut the book and use the binding to scratch your nether parts or you can do something. Read, learn, join, holler, act. Sue something....If not, then don't come crying to me; I don't have time for the corporate abuse enablers....'The appendix that follows has lots of resources for action. I don't know about you, but I'm starting today. ( )

Palast is an American journalist with an annoying wiseass sense of humor, but better defined by his hardass devotion to journalistic investigation with a left wing agenda. This book collects and connects his articles exposing the crimes of globalization, corporate corruption, and sell-outs in the United States and British governments. The book – assuming that what he writes is true or even partially true – inspires depression over the sad state of affairs while at the same time an enduring hope in that there are those that are willing to fight.

“It is estimated that one in eight American adults have worked at McDonald’s. This acts as kind of moral instruction for the working class, as jail time does for ghetto residents. It is one reason behind America’s low unemployment rate. As my old professor Milton Friedman taught me, unemployment falls when workers give up hope of higher pay.” (p. 78)

“It would be a mistake to view the politics of emptiness – in which ideals and beliefs are suspect – as a New Labour invention. Blair, Cardoso of Brazil, Frei of Chile, are all products of the factory that manufactured Bill Clinton, all bionic election machines who, in Medelsohn’s words, are ‘not ideologically constrained.’ LLM’s manifesto dismisses ‘leaders who lead’ as antique creatures of The Passing World. Today, markets lead. Industry CEOs lead. In the Emerging World, prime ministers and presidents LISTEN. Without the restraints of conviction, they are free to respond to requests of the powerful while shifting their media images as the public mood demands.” (p. 170) ( )

I was aware of some political scientists associating the American as opposed to the British political system with inherent corruption, because of personality cult rather than party discipline. This book pins down both! ( )

Whether one believes Katherine Harris’s claim that Palast’s conclusions are "twisted and maniacally partisan" or Tribune Magazine’s declaration that he is "the greatest investigative reporter of our time," one thing is plain: Palast does not shy away from controversy. This collection of reports touches on a number of familiar topics, including Enron, the presidential election of 2000 and the Bush family’s purported connection to Saudi Arabia. These issues have been explored in more depth by other authors, but what makes this audiobook so entertaining is its all-star anti-administration cast, including Al Franken, Janeane Garofalo and Jim Hightower. All of the readings are well-executed, but the full plate of narrators can cause confusion. It’s unclear how the text is divided up amongst the readers, and at any moment, a new chapter may begin with a new, unidentified voice. Despite the guessing-game nature of the audio presentation, this is still a fun, provocative listen ( )