Armed Madhouse

LTNE!! (Long time no entry.) Not that I haven't been reading--I've actually read tons over the past 3 weeks. This book kind of depressed me though and I lost my drive to write about what I've been reading.

Greg Palast is famous for having detailed exactly how Al Gore "lost" the presidential elections of 2000. (Michael Moore talked about it in his book, Stupid White Men, but he relied mostly on Palast's research.) His new book spends a lot of ink on figuring out the reason the US is involved in Iraq (it IS the oil, but not the way most people think), a fair amount on how Kerry "lost" the election of 2004, some on how more election shenanigans will take place in 2008, some on the state of the nation.

He couches a lot of his disturbing assertions in humor, which I enjoyed initially then began to find irritating. Come on, man--this is serious shit you're talking about!! Be serious about it!!

He backs up his statements with references to documents and interviews with key witnesses and I had no reason to believe that he would fabricate this entire book. (I found his last book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, really well-grounded in fact and do trust in his credibility.)

His assertions on American involvement in Iraq are a little hard to follow (because they do go round and about) but completely plausible. I feel though that the value of the book is in its discussion of past and future election fraud. I think Americans should read this book if only to have their eyes opened to the possibility that their democracy has been shanghaied. I come from a country where electoral cheating is the norm rather than the exception, so I don't have any difficulty believing that people are capable of twisting the system to benefit one political party or another. I feel that if more people were ready to question the electoral process and their elected leaders America will probably be able to rectify many of the mistakes it's made in the last half-century.

I brought up the issue of possible electoral cheating with some of my American friends. Their general reaction (in spite of being mostly avowed Democrats) is that their faith in the electoral system is steadfast, that it's still worth trusting in.

Sadly, any electoral system--even in this great democracy--isn't designed, maintained, or executed by God--which is the only way it can be considered infallible and foolproof. Human minds and hands are responsible for seeing that the system works. And Palast makes it clear that if the human minds and hands are determined to subvert the system, the system can be gamed.