Smells Like Dead Elephants: Dispatches from a Rotting Empire Paperback – October 10, 2007

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,

I like Matt Taibbi a lot. Not only is he an intrepid reporter and an excellent writer, but he's a rather hot young man. This is basically a collection of some of his best work for Rolling Stone, dated from April 7, 2005, to November 2, 2006. While most of it is about politics in one way or another, he starts off with "Jacko on Trial," about Michael Jackson. His wit is as acidic as it is brilliant. You can't help thinking about Hunter S. Thompson and H.L. Mencken.Several of the articles have to do with Matt's extended "embed" with forces in Iraq. A couple are about the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina and the Gulf Coast. In both cases, you get the sort of human details you don't get from other reporters. Matt writes like he's your best buddy writing you a letter about his experiences. But funnier than any best buddy I ever had. (No reflection on you, Chuck or Glen, or even Richard.)It's a little dated, of course, but much is still totally relevant, including the parting shot of the last chapter which is titled "The Worst Congress Ever." "If we have learned nothing else in the Bush years, it's that this Congress cannot be reformed. The only way to change it is to get rid of it. Fortunately, we still get that chance once in a while."

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.

Written about 13 years ago, Taibbi's take on Congress (and many other things like Katrina and Michael Jackson) are not only great and accurate observations. They are also history lessons that are still being played out today, only in a much broader and more dangerous fashion. I suspect conservatives well say he's biased, and so will the liberals. This means he's right on the mark. I will say, and i stand by this, Taibbi has inherited Hunter S. Thompson's throne. Let's hope it ends better for him and for us.

Taibbi's "Smells Like Dead Elephants" is interesting - starts by describing Michael Jackson's trial (weird - him, not the trial), Bernie Sanders' efforts to pass legislation and amendments (exposes how majority will is thwarted; one wonders why Sanders or anyone else tolerates such frustration), the court-martial of Lynndie England (a sad-sack female enlistee), and attending (no-longer) Senator Burns' birthday party pretending to be a lobbyist for drilling in the Grand Canyon.The most impactful - several days boating around New Orleans post-Katrina, trying to find someone's lost mother while rescuing those wanting out. Amazingly a number didn't want out - insisted on staying to protect their home/possessions from looters. Large low-income areas without any assistance from the military or local police. Encountered large numbers of police in clean uniforms - standing around at police headquarters and doing nothing useful. Bodies floating around. Rumors about how white people had breached a levee to relieve the threat to their own areas.Then the more serious moments of Lnnydie England and her trial for Abu Gharaib abuses, and later having the guts to stay there for three days.Definitely a "Must Read."

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!