ARMED MADHOUSE
Thursday, April 27, 2006
For the past two years, I've nearly disappeared from BBC Television screens and from newspapers so my team could focus on our most important investigation yet. I've put it in a book: Armed Madhouse. The book travels from Beijing to New Orleans to Caracas to Baghdad to New Mexico ... a five-part investigation of global economic piggery so deep, dark and devious you just have to scream or cry -- or laugh.
Don't be fooled by the fact that 'Armed Madhouse' is entertaining -- this is my most serious reporting yet -- connecting oil panic, Hurricane Katrina, Chinese currency, Venezuela's petrodollars, disappearing ballots, Thomas Friedman, more oil, and the murder of General Motors. These are dispatches from the front lines of the class war.
Here is our new world of militarized greed, where America's panic over lunatics with box-cutters has metastasized into a billion-dollar fear industry; where Republicans sucking on Super-sized Slurpies(r) are hunting dark-skinned voters to eliminate their rights; where James Baker's fixer in alligator boots sets up the grab for Iraq's oil on her way to the rodeo; where miners are suffocated by the same investment bankers who are siphoning off auto workers' pensions. I add 50 illustrations, including those intriguing ones marked 'secret' by the State Department and the World Bank, plus a brilliant recipe for shrimp curry -- and Dick Cheney.
There are five sections:
THE NETWORK: The World as a Company Town. The weird and frightening facts about the tidal flow of international currency -- the real story of China's rise and the death of Detroit. Plus a report from the future on the assassination of Hugo Chavez -- and explain why it had to be done.
THE CON: Kerry Won -- but two million of his votes were never counted. They can't take away your Social Security until they take away your vote. In the 2008 race, four million ballots will go missing. Here's how it will be done.
THE FEAR: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? Turning Ground Zero into a Profit Center. Why does Southold, New York, have machine guns on SUVs at the casino ferry? Investigations of health insurance and suicide bombings -- in other words, the fun chapter.
THE FLOW: Trillion Dollar Babies. If you thought George Bush had a secret plan to seize Iraq's oil -- you're wrong. He had TWO plans, and Armed Madhouse has both of them.
THE CLASS WAR: I go deeper into George Bush's crude system of educational terror ("No Child's Behind Left"), Ken Lay's REAL crimes for which he won't be tried and the story of New Orleans you won't get on Fox Schnews. Here you'll get some complex economics and a free ticket to the circus -- and the core issue of the book: the war of the movers and shakers against the moved and shaken.
Asia Times says, "Greg Palast, the man widely considered as the top investigative journalist in the United States, is persona non grata in his own country's media." But it's not ME that's 'non-grata' -- it's the information about the Washington regime that is shut out of the mainstream press in the USA.
I'm writing to ask you to order the book right NOW for delivery the week of its release, June 6. Here's why. These early sales are crucial to convincing mainstream media that America really wants to know what the hell is going on. My last book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, helped open the forbidden topic of vote theft in America. Now, we need break the media's omerta, the silencing of talk of class war.
I'm asked again and again, What can we DO? The answer is, we can't do anything until we're INFORMED. We can't prevent the theft of the '08 election until you know the crazy details of the theft of '04. We can't stop the coming war in Venezuela until we learn the weird story of how Big Oil mapped out Iraq's petroleum destiny. We can't shield ourselves from economic onslaught until we have the hard, if hidden, facts of class conflict from the Sino-dollar panic to the privatization of hurricane planning. That's why I wrote this book.
And if you're of a mind to buy it, please do so now via local or 'Net bookstore or through our website at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/armedmadhouse/preorder.html Like to support our work? We don't charge Democracy Now or the Pacifica Network or non-profit websites for our work. So we can only investigate and report if you help. Donate $100 to our non-profit foundation and I'll send you a personally signed hardbound, illustrated copy of Armed Madhouse: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, No Child's Behind Left and Other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War. I take no salary: 100% of the funds go to keep our staff alive.
AND SIGN UP TO SPONSOR THE 20-CITY ARMED MADHOUSE TOUR. Your national or local organization can join Project Censored, Code Pink, Activist San Diego, Global Exchange, Austin Vote Rescue, Ohio Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections, Pacifica Radio affiliates, as a sponsor of the Armed Madhouse tour. Contact: sponsors(AT)GregPalast.com
And a note to MEDIA PEOPLE reading this missive: If you wish to book an interview with me
, or need a review copy -- or want to publish an excerpt -- contact interviews(AT)gregpalast.com
And soon you can download Jim Hightower, Larry David, Randi Rhodes, Amy Goodman and other friends reading from Armed Madhouse at www.GregPalast.com
When the inmates are running the asylum, arm yourself with the facts.
Greg Palast & Team
New York | London
ARMED MADHOUSE
Table of Contents
THE BEGINNING
"Like the Cowardly Dog He Was" 1
CHAPTER 1
THE FEAR
Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf? 9
Including Marines in a tube, learning to speak Terrorist, Bush's Khan
job, National Security Document 199-I and Osama's Mission Accomplished. What are you afraid of? Our Fear Salesman-in-Chief has something for everyone.
CHAPTER 2
THE FLOW
Trillion Dollar Babies 51
A five-and-a-half-part tale including Nose-Twist's Hidden Hand, Kissinger's man in the dream palace, the No-Brainer vs. The Witches' Brew, the OtherDowning Street memo, the Houston Insurgency, Amy's alligator boots, Mr. 5%, a call to Riyadh, Wolfowitz D䭭erung and "especially the oil."
CHAPTER 3
THE NETWORK
The World as a Company Town 143
The holistic system of systems, petro-dollars, electro-dollars, the assassi-nation of Hugo Chᶥz, Euro-nations, Mundell's Toilet and coming down from Hubbert's Peak. Mr. Friedman tees off.
CHAPTER 4
THE CON
Kerry Won. Now Get Over It... 187
.. . . because they're putting '08 in their pocket. Republicans just seem to
have that winning spirit. They also have caging lists, felons of the future,
rotting ballots, snuffed canaries, and a lock on the votes of Kissinger-
Americans and the undead.
CHAPTER 5
THE CLASS WAR
Hope I Die Before My Next Refill 277
Dispatches from the war of the movers and shakers against the moved and shaken, including No Child's Behind Left, the Grinch That Stole Overtime and the Chᶥz of Louisiana. Welcome to 1927.
THE END
The House I Live In 329
Insurgency USA-Join Today! 334
APPENDIX
Return to Hubbert's Peak: Why Palast Is Wrong 336
Acknowledgments, Sources, and Resources 342
Index 349
Illustration Credits 363
The Armed Madhouse Soundtrack 365
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