This book really should have been two books. For half the book Taibbi is investigating how Congress really works (a topic that he reports on quite well and makes understandable, but that really could fill hundreds of pages on its own). For most of the rest of it, he’s in deep cover at John Hagee’s Cornerstone Church, exposing the craziness of the people who appear to have taken over government and public discourse. I would have loved to have seen more of this as well, and maybe he could supplement it with undercover stints at Saddleback or New Life. I enjoyed his style and his passion, but I think the squashed-togetherness of this book might have deranged me a little. :) Even a two-part series would have worked better.

Eris Reads, my book blog

Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi tackles the Bush era mentality in his inimitable style. This book is not for the easily offended, but the more open-minded reader should appreciate it, especially his undercover infiltration of John Hagee's Cornerstone Church. ( )

Saw the author on BookTV.

This was a frighteningly enlightening book. Taibbi put himself into the lives of people from the fringes of the political spectrum and showed just how crazy everyone is. He has a angry writing style and uses profanity like a pro. It read more like opinion than fact and was a nice break from the logical step by step antiseptic wort of writing I usually read.

There were two main points in this book.

1) People are looking to belong to something and most will hold on to anything just to belong
2) Our government is broken because of money.

They said separation of church and state was important. They should have separated government and money instead.

Overall I liked the book and would recommend it to people based on the flavor of the book. The guy doesn't make you guess how he feels. ( )

This is a difficult book to describe. Taibbi is a reporter for Rolling Stone and in this book follows some of the irrational communities that many people in the United States are joining. The two he covers in this book are fundamentalist Christianity as found in John Hagee's megachurch, and in the 911 truthers conspiracy theorists. To show the political derangement that people are escaping from in these fringe communities, he talks about his experiences with Congress, both under the Republicans and the Democrats, and as a reporter embedded with the U.S. military in Iraq.

There are hilarious scenes, such as the experience of having his demons cast out as part of joining Hagee's church (including the foul demon of handwriting analysis), and his imagined transcript of a meeting where Cheney, Douglas Feith, Paul Wolfowitz and others are plotting 9/11 as the 911 truthers insist they did.

There are also parts that make one want to scream, as he indicates that Congress is broken, beholden to the monied class, no matter which party is in the majority. he paints a bleak and depressing picture of politics at the end stage of the American Empire.

Some might be surprised to see how strongly he condemns the 9/11 Truthers, but by the end of the book he is convincing in debunking the ideas of that movement. The imagines transcript, found on pages 191 to 204, is alone worth the price of the book.

Taibbi has a surprising amount of compassion and understanding for the people caught up in these irrational movements. It has become so hard for people to trust in government or the media, and many people have little sense of what the facts ARE, since there no longer seem to be a set of agreed upon facts. So they turn to groups where they might find community and security, or a sense of understanding what has happened to create the world we live in today.

And he sees some signs of hope. Although at one point he mentions that those in Hagee's church have been so brainwashed they''ll accept anything, no matter how crazy, from the church's authority figures, and doesn't believe most of them can be brought to see reason, he still has hopes that people are realizing they've been suckers and are now ready to move past that. I hope it turns out to be true.

Recommended. ( )