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Who Hates Whom:
Well-Armed Fanatics,
Intractable Conflicts,
and Various Things Blowing Up
A Woefully Incomplete Guide™
“Revelatory... Harris's sly wit and infectious curiosity make understanding world chaos fascinating... witty, horrific, and necessary.”
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-- New York Observer
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-- John Hodgman,
author, The Areas of My Expertise and correspondent for The Daily Show
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-- The Wall Street Journal
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General Incompetence
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Online access remains limited. Saw this, however, in the international print edition of the USA Today, elaborating precisely the problem with the entire American political system (to wit: that its financing system remains corrupt to the core, and virtually every aspect of public policy is now on sale to the highest bidder):
Contributors to GOP reap big post-election victories
Less than six months into a new term for President Bush and the Republican-controlled Congress, some of their heaviest donors are scoring victories on the legislative and regulatory fronts.
From rewrites of the laws concerning bankruptcy and class-action lawsuits to relief for oil, timber, and tobacco interests, the GOP's business supporters who gave millions of dollars last year are reaping decisions worth billions from a Congress with more Republicans.
The best-case annual return on invested capital within a particularly robust business: maybe forty percent.
The best-case annual return on invested capital when buying political influence: maybe a thousand percent.
You can see where the whole American system might be headed long-term very quickly.
On a related note:
One of the arguments you hear against sending aid to the poorest African nations is that many of their governments are notoriously corrupt kleptocracies.
The near-immediate response which seems to be commonly made by supporters of such aid across Europe: the American government's a kleptocracy, too, but that doesn't stop us dealing with them.
Whether that's a fair comment or not you can judge for yourself. But I've now heard it made twice, in two different countries. And neither interviewer flinched.
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