Rating: 
Summary: Angry yes, pointless yes
Review: But then, Pitt's quite famous for flogging his own writing across the length and breadth of the world wide web. He ought to stop if not for the sake of his book sales, then for the creepy reputation he's getting as he slips into one (youth-oriented) net forum and out another, leaving foul and bitter tastes as he perambulates from one easy mark to another in predatory style. A real slime ball of a money-grubber. Don't buy his book- I repeat, don't buy that phony's book-like thing. Don't!
Rating: 
Summary: Rising Star
Review: From the website: http://www.ragingliberal.orgWilliam Rivers Pitt is the kind of person who surprises you. Not only is he one of the more eloquent representatives of the left, and one of the most prolific commentators on the internet (he helped to co-found truthout.org), but he's also an English Literature teacher at a Boston public high school, and he's only 30 years old. Having that in the back of your mind as you read The Greatest Sedition is Silence: Four Years in America merely adds to his credibility as a rising star in the ranks of liberal dissenters. The book itself, while relatively brief, centers on opposition to the policy directives of the Bush administration, with particular regard to foreign policy in Latin America and the Middle East, but you can find that kind of discussion in a number of books available today. What makes Pitt's work different is the way he approaches his dissent, and the message he attempts to deliver with it. Political pundits seldom use references to Rudyard Kipling and Shakespeare amidst the finer details of liberalism. Add to that the fact that the author is young, and a teacher, and you have for a refreshing combination. In the book, you'll find detailed discussions about Iraq, and when the decision to wage war was reached, some of the failures of 9/11 intelligence, and details American involvement in Venezuela and the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez. But more interestingly, and more startling, is the assertion by the author that the American experiment in democracy is largely over; that somewhere in the politics of corruption over the past twenty-five years, we reached a critical mass in which the vestiges of the democratic process have withered on the vine. It's not a hopeless message. He doesn't argue that the major principles of our system are irretrievable, or that a peaceful, popular revolution within our current system is no longer possible. I simply hadn't heard anyone convincingly portray American democracy as being in such critical condition, at least not in such direct terms as Pitt. There's certainly no shortage of books being released that are critical of the direction our country is going. Al Franken and Michael Moore are great for comic relief and the occasional good point when it comes to bashing Bush and friends, but it's men like Pitt who, I find, really have something to say.
Rating:
Summary: Rising Star
Review: From the website: http://www.ragingliberal.org William Rivers Pitt is the kind of person who surprises you. Not only is he one of the more eloquent representatives of the left, and one of the most prolific commentators on the internet (he helped to co-found truthout.org), but he's also an English Literature teacher at a Boston public high school, and he's only 30 years old. Having that in the back of your mind as you read The Greatest Sedition is Silence: Four Years in America merely adds to his credibility as a rising star in the ranks of liberal dissenters. The book itself, while relatively brief, centers on opposition to the policy directives of the Bush administration, with particular regard to foreign policy in Latin America and the Middle East, but you can find that kind of discussion in a number of books available today. What makes Pitt's work different is the way he approaches his dissent, and the message he attempts to deliver with it. Political pundits seldom use references to Rudyard Kipling and Shakespeare amidst the finer details of liberalism. Add to that the fact that the author is young, and a teacher, and you have for a refreshing combination. In the book, you'll find detailed discussions about Iraq, and when the decision to wage war was reached, some of the failures of 9/11 intelligence, and details American involvement in Venezuela and the attempted coup against Hugo Chavez. But more interestingly, and more startling, is the assertion by the author that the American experiment in democracy is largely over; that somewhere in the politics of corruption over the past twenty-five years, we reached a critical mass in which the vestiges of the democratic process have withered on the vine. It's not a hopeless message. He doesn't argue that the major principles of our system are irretrievable, or that a peaceful, popular revolution within our current system is no longer possible. I simply hadn't heard anyone convincingly portray American democracy as being in such critical condition, at least not in such direct terms as Pitt. There's certainly no shortage of books being released that are critical of the direction our country is going. Al Franken and Michael Moore are great for comic relief and the occasional good point when it comes to bashing Bush and friends, but it's men like Pitt who, I find, really have something to say.
Rating:
Summary: Honest, Insightful Assessment of the Mess We're In Today
Review: I am only halfway through this book and with each page my heart sinks further. For the last fews years, I've closely followed the news in the American and International media and Mr. Pitt's book only confirmed my analyses and the conclusions I'd drawn. This is no time for citizens to rest, comfortable in the knowledge that we live in a Democracy. Our Democratic rights are being stripped away daily- right under our very noses but unnoticed. This book is a must read! As you read it, ask yourself if it doesn't explain why we are fast becoming a Pariah nation and losing all moral authority we ever had on the international scene. Kudo's to Mr. Pitt for his excellent book!
Rating:
Summary: Propoganda Pamphlet
Review: I read ,oh maybe 3-4 pages of Mr.Pitts new epic masterpiece and I agree with the reviewer from Boston...This book is pure crap!
Mr.Pitt ignores fact and just makes up his anti-bush rhetoric as fits him.Just another angry liberal folks..nothing to see here.Environmentalists should be fuming mad that trees had to die to make this propoganda pamplet.
Rating:
Summary: reviewing a bogus reviewer
Review: I read William Rivers Pitt's book "The Greatest Sedition Is Silence" in June of 2003. It is every bit as important (and terrifying) now as it was then. As an outside, neither American citizen nor resident (though I am a frequent visitor), I read the book with a detachment that I think helps me avoid some of the emotion and concern that I would have if I actually lived in the States. That said, in many ways it reads like a horror story of a regime that one would never countenance in your fair and beautiful country. Detailing incidents of government fear-mongering and suppression of free speech, such as university students told that they would be suspended if they did not clap George W. Bush at a speech on their campus, would have just a few years ago been thought impossible in the United States. I recommend this book thoroughly to anyone who has even a slight interest in just what it is that's going on in your backyard. Having read this book and others addressing similar issues, I find myself believing more and more that the great American Experiment might very well be over.
Rating:
Summary: The Emperor's Clothes are ........
Review: My personal 9/11 was on 20th September 1999, when suddenly the nightmare in June 1999 was realized when the Professional Terrorists KPMG turned up, supposedly to re-organize company management... instead with perfect power suits and perfectly mouthed lies, they destroyed all, and my engineering career, finances and colon lay in ruin. (Only skydiving has saved my colon.) A taste of the corruption that is rife in large companies run by MBAs and now in the US government.
The second wake up was Gore Vidal's interview on Australian ABC radio from the August 2001 Edinburgh book festival, in the aftermath of 9/11, a very chilling foretelling interview indeed!
[...]
Thus I discovered hope. For here I find hard truth.
In addition we lost the Columbia Space Shuttle to "software" only testing and the use of the MBA's tool "PowerPoint".
I fear NASA's situation will only worsen. Given the strong anti-science stance and actions of the current US Government and much of the US population, scientists and engineers like myself deeply <sigh>. Who will understand the technology of today, tomorrow, when we are forced to swallow "Christianity" and the 7000 year old Earth?
Electrical Engineering teaches one that, "Any system with improper, incomplete and/or false feedback will fail in time either castrophically or otherwise." This applies beyond just electrical systems...
I am grateful to have Willam Rivers Pitt raising the flag.
To tell the truth, is to give hope, and that is to create good.
Thank you,
Ps. According to the Evangelicals now coming into Australia from the USA, I am a Devil Incarnate and a Satanic person. As I have found reincarnation a truth...and dared to mention the "r" word. I am still waiting for these same Evangelicals to put their faith, as George W. does, into action, and have me arrested as a terrorist!
Yes, Carl (Sagan) you did warn us in "CONTACT".
You Carl knew what was coming... from the people for the people.
Bonsai'd
Down_Under
Get this book!
... and get your children to read George Orwell's 1984 too.
Rating:
Summary: reviewing a bogus reviewer
Review: The 5-star rating is a supposition that this book is excellent - haven't read it. However, I did read the "bartcop from tulsa" review - someone has taken his name in vain. b/c is too busy to read books what with a daily rant and daily radio show, but were he to read the book, he would rate it the same as I - 5 star, I'm sure. He is as repulsed by the current Washington regime as am I, and as are all thoughtful people.
Rating:
Summary: Five Star Journalism
Review: What more can one say... the truth hurts, but it needs to be said. As a researcher I know a thing or two about how hard it is to find the facts. It's not just documentation, itself a major task that goes well past the norm of a 9-5 type of job. Rather, it takes dedication, long sleepless nights, and what's even harder is putting your work into words. Mr. Pitts is and always will be this American Historians' journalist hero. If his name is on the book, it's as close to the truth as one can ever expect.
In a world where hero's are far and in between, just having the guts to write the factual truth should be enough, but if anyone can step up to the plate and prove Pitts is wrong, well, I'd like to see it. Thanks Mr. Pitt for giving me the truth when no other media had the nerve or cared to.
Rating:
Summary: pure crap.
Review: William Rivers Pitt proved with his Iraq book ,that he has neither talent for the english language nor talent repeating facts. Utter garbage. A friend gave this book to me as an april fools day joke ,I randomly glanced the contents and came up with the analysis ,that it is crap.
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