To be honest, my knowledge of current events (especially current political events) has greatly declined since leaving my parents’ house.
It’s much easier to stay informed when you’re surrounded by people who want to discuss current events with you. It’s much easier when you have time (due to not having to pay rent :-P)
Nevertheless, I know enough of current events that when I started listening to the audiobook version of New Deal or Raw Deal (link to Amazon), I saw some scary parallels between FDR’s politics and that of our current president.
Reading Michelle Malkin’s Culture of Corruption only confirmed the parallels I’d already begun to draw.
Pay-to-play cronyism? Check.
Unaccountable “brain trust” or “czars”? Check.
Tax evasion? Check.
Saying one thing and doing the opposite? Check.
Obama’s administration has it all–while claiming to be changing Washington’s “business as usual.”
Malkin meticulously catalogs the “business as usual” behavior of the men and women Obama has chosen to surround himself with (and reminds us that “birds of a feather…”)
For me, this provided a good run-through of Obama’s various appointments–something I’ve paid little attention to for this administration (in contrast, I could have named most of Bush 43’s cabinet in his first term). On the other hand, many of the indictments of the various appointees involved detailed reports of corporate intrigue, which this reader finds…less than intriguing.
I have to confess that I skipped pages here and there, not wanting to spend valuable time exploring the intricacies of donation “bundling” and corporate buy-offs.
In all, I feel much more educated regarding some of the names and various scandals surrounding Team Obama. For that, I am grateful. Otherwise, this is one of those books that is deeply interesting to the sort of people who are deeply interested by it–and not so interesting to people who aren’t too interested. (How’s that for a say-something-without-saying-anything recommendation?)
Rating: 2 Stars
Category:Current Events
Synopsis: Malkin exposes Team Obama for the cronies and crooks they are–showing how business under Obama is most certainly Beltway business as usual.
Recommendation: If political exposes and the intricate details of political corruption is your thing, this book will also be your thing. If not, probably not.