BuzzFlash Reviews

BUZZFLASH REVIEWS

We'll begin with Rossi's introductory quote, because BuzzFlash readers will get the picture immediately: "This book may break your heart, because this book is about a beautiful idea that has gone tragically wrong, or so it certainly appears at the moment. It's about the government of the United States of America, and what the hell has happened to it. This is about how thugs took over the steering wheel of our country -- but they didn't yank it by force, they won it with money. This is a book about how our government has been corroded inside and out."

When we think about what we have learned as we mark our seventh anniversary of what has now become the BuzzFlash Internet News Network, we've come to take the long view. A large enough segment of individuals and corporations have become outrageously wealthy and solely interested in preserving their financial power through political means. The electoral and legislative system has become corrupted by money. War and death are just collateral damage in the rush for a greedy, gluttonous wealth -- and feeling that as the sole remaining superpower, America has the right to plunder the world.

Meanwhile, the rest of the country is made up of a minority of informed Americans, a sizeable comfortable class that is still riding the crest of Post World War II American jingoism, and the vast swath of the religiously deluded -- and, of course, there are the neglected, marginalized poor.

In "What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running America," Melissa Rossi does us a great service by connecting the dots of the powers behind the throne of America. Her book is eminently engaging, accessible and readable. It must have taken a strong stomach to weave together this cast of nefarious knaves and fools without upchucking at least a few times.

If BuzzFlash were to write a book (and we're thinking about it), it would read something like this one. It is generously insightful and fact-based without being ponderous.

It will inform you and stoke your coals of indignation at what has happened to our Constitutional democracy all over again.

BuzzFlash recently interviewed author and Buzz contributor Larry Beinhart (who wrote the novel that became the movie, "Wag the Dog"). In response to a question, Beinhart noted that Bush and Cheney aren't going to end the meaningless deaths of our GIs and Iraqis because they are like gamblers in Vegas who went in with a $200,000 stake and are now $100,000 in debt. They have nothing to lose by continuing the war, Beinhart noted. They are already so far behind that they might as well run out the clock and hand the mess that they made over to the next administration. They aren't going to walk away from the table $100,000 in debt.

We agree with the analogy, but the measure by which public policy is determined has to do with hundreds of billions of dollars, as the war profiteering in Iraq by the likes of Cheney's Halliburton shows us.

Rossi's book is actually part of a series. Her last one, "What Every American Should Know About Who's Really Running the World", was a big hit with BuzzFlash readers.

This current book, focusing on America, is a bit more filled with rage and anger. It is also a call to arms, urging readers to fight back against the forces of greed and runaway corruption that have stolen our Constitution away from our nation.

This is a thoughtful, well-researched, and gripping read (even if you know much of the information). It maps out the forces that are destroying America.

It's not an academic tome. It's a cri de coeur (cry of the heart) for the America we are incrementally losing -- and it's backed up with footnotes.



BUZZFLASH REVIEWS