Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies

by Michelle Malkin

Book Overview

The era of hope and change is dead....and it only took six months in office to kill it.
Never has an administration taken office with more inflated expectations of turning Washington around. Never have a media-anointed American Idol and his entourage fallen so fast and hard. In her latest investigative tour de force, New York Times bestselling author Michelle Malkin delivers a powerful, damning, and comprehensive indictment of the culture of corruption...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1596981091
• ISBN13: 9781596981096
• Release Date: July 2009
• Publisher: Regnery Publishing
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.2" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

The Obama Presidency most don't know yet

Tell so much that went on in Obama's presidency that either wasn't written about or very little. Michelle Malkin is an excellent writer. She documents her findings so well. You don't have to take her word. Just go to the notes and look it up for yourself

This is not pleasant reading

I learned quite a bit about two women named Michelle from this book. Michelle Malkin is someone I had only known as a blogger. But she's been a working journalist since 1992, and a syndicated columnist since 1999. She's also a prize-winning muckraker: she won the COGEL national award while working for the Seattle Times. (That's the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws, and she won the prize for exposing corruption in the state of Washington -- among Democrats, Republicans, and political organizations. To sum up: she's not a lightweight, and she's not a beginner. She is among the very best investigative journalists we have. Michelle Obama --- well, she's not a lightweight, or a beginner, either. Despite her constant complaints about being kept on the "periphery" of events, this poor, poor woman went to Princeton and then to Harvard Law School. She served a brief, inglorious term in her chosen profession (the law) but quickly advanced to a series of patronage positions, including a job especially created for her at the University of Chicago Medical Center. She was soon pulling down $500,000 per year as a ...medical administrator?? Do people generally go to Harvard Law so they can make a fortune in hospital administration? Well, Michelle O. has her own way of doing things, like wearing those $540 Lanvin sneakers while "helping out" at a food bank. A sketch of the book's contents: Chapter One is the tale of all those Obama nominations that went down in flames due to problems with unpaid taxes, charges of corruption, and general political crookedness. Chapter Two is about Michelle O --- whom Michelle M calls "First Crony." Chapter Three is about Joe Biden, and it's a big surprise. I had no idea Biden and his family were so corrupt. I don't really follow politics that closely, in normal times, so I just assumed that Joe Biden was Bozo the Clown. "Our foreign policy expert," no less. Well, he may be Bozo, but this Clown has his fingers in pockets all over the place. Hope & Change? Joe Biden represents the very opposite; he personifies "Beltway Business as Usual." Chapter Four introduces us to the Obama Cabinet --- and a sad lot they are. The saddest of them all seemed to be the new Labor Secretary, a complete union loyalist & fanatic who co-sponsored the infamous "Card Check" bill, which seeks to eliminate the secret ballot in union elections!! (When she was asked about this bill --- the one she co-sponsored --- she managed to duck and weave and avoid offering any definite opinion about what she might do. Oh, Hope & Change!!) Chapters Seven and Eight contain an awful lot of the dirt about SEIU and ACORN. These chapters have a renewed relevance right now, when the corrupt ACORN gang has been caught red-handed encouraging seriously criminal activity, including underage prostitution. (ACORN just appointed "an independent panel" to look into things, and you can find most of the members of that panel right here in this book.

Read the Book

I'm a Libertarian. Did not vote for Bush. Did not vote for Obama. Loved this book. A very important read. So very few of the one-star reviewers appear to have actually read it. The facts are very well documented and footnoted in the book. I'm open to a refutation--I just haven't seen one that involves well-researched information or facts. It seems if you consider yourself "conservative" you're predestined to like this book. If you're "liberal" predestined to hate it. However, for someone like me, who reads a lot on both sides of the aisle to find a bit of sense somewhere, this is a great and informative read.

Should Have Been Titled "Cesspool of Corruption"!

Before I proceed with my review, it is clear from the polar opposite 1-star reviews that there are many libs commenting on the book, so let me go ahead and mention the "drone" talking points so they won't get distracted - "Bush lied, people died", "Cheney/Halliburton", "Scooter Libby", "Karl Rove caused Katrina", "Blackwater", "9/11 was in inside job", blah, blah, blah. Having said all of that, Michelle Malkin did an excellent job of laying out a coherent, well-researched, and systematic roadmap of corruption, self-serving favors, and criminal activity -- all linked to our President and his network of thug insiders. She clearly lays out the proven links between the players and the overwhelming evidence of the role of money and corruption on how things get done in Washington. I had heard of many of these players through other research and reading, but Ms Malkin brought to light NUMEROUS relationships between these players I was not aware of, and which cause an even greater disgust for business as usual. President Obama has somehow convinced all the drones that he's above "Politics as Usual", but the sheer weight of the evidence clearly shows he's neck deep in the "cesspool", but his lips are still moving. After reading all of the negative reviews on the book, one would hope the detractors could at least debunk the book with facts and evidence, but of course if the allegations are true then that's not possible..........so, on to Plan B! Attack the author as a right-wing hack, and paint all the readers as ignorant right-wing talk radio heads who can't think for themselves. I am a well-educated senior executive in business, and I observe every day that "relationships matter", and who a person associates with tells a lot about that person. It is often said that "integrity is what you do when nobody's looking", which I heartily endorse. Based on the contents of this book, if the players are this flagrant in their "visible behavior", can you imagine what they are capable of when nobody's looking? This was a riveting book which I wasn't able to put down, and well worth the time. I applaud Michelle Malkin for the hard work and thorough research that obviously went into this body of work!