Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire

Reliable. Recommended.

ich bewerte keine Bücher mehr. Nachdem ich zahllose Rezensionen hier auf Amazon gelesen habe, weiß ich, dass sie alle so subjektiv sind, dass sie nicht als objektive Bewertung taugen. Lest und bildet Euch Eure Meinung selbst!

This book is worth reading just for the "Katrina" rescue mission chapter, but I enjoyed the entire thing. I especially liked the excerpts of Randy "Duke" Cunningham's letter whining about how nothing was really his fault, and the astute observation by Matt Taibbi that Cunningham is "too stupid to be ashamed."Until a few years ago, I had assumed that the people who were in charge must be reasonably smart. At the very least, they were educated. They might lack ethics and morals, but they must have done something to deserve the respected positions they're in.Members of Congress are exposed as not even being able to write a simple letter without irrational capitalizing and nonsensical sentences. It clears up the question of "What the hell is going on?" that people have been asking themselves when they weren't so completely busy struggling to survive that they had a minute to think.I hope they start requiring this book in high schools in order that kids understand the importance of voting, education, and the consequences of actions (ours and "theirs.") Matt Taibbi takes a normally boring subject and not only makes it interesting, but funny. I laughed out loud at the description of the helicopter dropping him a meal while simultaneously stirring up the disease water of the Katrina flood as he stood in it, begging them to get lost.If you're interested to know what the people allegedly "helping" us have really been doing, read this book.

Aside from agreeing with Taibbi's points-of-view, I love his writing. To me, he's exceptional at coming up with appropriate metaphors for describing the ideas he's portraying. That skill helps carry the emotion he puts into his descriptions. Very good writer.While some of what he's writing about are events around the "Tom Delay years," the Republicans haven't changed. All politicians are a bit dirty, but the Republicans over the last 20 years take the cake.

This is a good book and it is very informative. This book will make you hate the Washington insider process. Wow this book makes Washington DC look worse than the most corruption filled years of the Roman Empire. It appears this book is telling the truth but the truth it tells is sickening. The corruption in Washington DC is enough to stupify even the most clear thinker. Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire lives down to its title. If half of what is written in this book is true ours is indeed a Rotting Empire. The corruption, the lobbists, the back room deals, the money changing, the lies makes Washington DC appear to be a festering cesspool of moral decay ewwe.This is a very good book but it is depressing as hell. I enjoy reading this book in short bursts because it is honest and factual. I can only stand reading Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire in short bursts because, I do love the United States of America even with all its many flaws. I just get depressed when I look closely at the behavior of all the people we send to Washington DC. That government is filled with so many degenerates just hurts my heart no end,