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 GREG
PALAST- Live From The Armed Madhouse (Alternative
Tentacles) In the spirit of full disclosure (Who am I? Fuckin’ Ken
Lay?), aside from a few Bukowski discs, I’ve never had much use for
spoken word releases that weren’t straight out comedy. (Other than to
use the best bits and bobs as segues between songs on my multitude of
mixes, of course). So I went into reviewing this CD not expecting much.
And on the surface, a liberal journalist acerbically ranting about how
Republicans have fraudulently stolen the last two elections and how
they’ve fucked up Iraq monumentally, about the evils of big oil and
(gasp) about how vilified Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez actually may have
some good ideas doesn’t seem like anything that would be all that
enlightening or groundbreaking. But even if only 10% of what he’s saying
here is factual (and my guess is that he’s speaking the truth a helluva
lot more than that), it illustrates what a fucked up political system we
have here in the good ol’ U. S. of A. The interesting thing about what
Palast talks about in this June 2006 engagement at the University of Tampa
is that hardly any of it makes mainstream media in this country. (The BBC
does regularly report Palast’s findings, but that doesn’t really help
us ignorant so and sos here in the States). Parts of Live
From The Armed Madhouse got me incredibly worked up, especially the
bits about how both soldiers of color currently serving in Iraq and Native
Americans out West had their votes essentially disqualified during the
last presidential election. While most of this release is at the very
least thought provoking, the last two tracks are utterly unnecessary (Palast’s
message is much more engaging when it’s not backed by a droning
synthesizer). Still, much of the rest of this disc, including his call to
action at the end- is very much worth checking out. –Ben Hunter
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