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

Amazon should only allow people to review the book if you have bought it from them, that way we can eliminate all of the drones trying to rate the book as one star despite the fact they haven't read it.

Now...on to the review.
I like Michelle's writing style. I've been a fan of hers since the 2004 election. I knew she was a journalist before she started writing her blog, so she has the experience in researching and gathering facts before writing the story and research she did.

This book does a very good job of pointing out the corruption of this administration that you won't get in the mainstream media (MSM). While they gush, faint and swoon for this President and affectionately compare him to the next Kennedy, Michelle paints a different picture of Chicago style bare knuckles thug type politics.

Michelle O. is no better. She complains about being kept on the periphery of society while attending Princeton and Harvard, a chance most Americans will never have. She served on a law form before going on to be a "health administrator" at the U. of Chicago Medical Center and eventually helping to create one of the worst medical programs in terms of patient care in the country.


Biden is the epitome of a corrupt politician who engages in nepotism at every turn. He has is greasy little hands in everything funneling tons of earmarks to amtrack buddies and his friends in the State of Delaware.

Valerie Jarrett served as a board member for several organizations that provided funding and support for Chicago housing projects operated by real estate developers and Obama financial backers Rezko and Allison Davis. (Davis is also Obama's former boss.) Jarrett was a member of the Board of Directors for the Woodlawn Preservation and Investment Corporation along with several Davis and Rezko associates, as well as the Fund for Community Redevelopment and Revitalization, an organization that worked with Rezko and Davis. She also managed Grove Parc Plaza, which the Boston Globe said was "uninhabitable by unfixed problems, such as collapsed roofs and fire damage.
In 2006, federal inspectors graded the condition of the complex an 11 on a 100-point scale. The score is so bad the buildings now face demolition. Ms. Jarrett refused to comment this disaster and pocketed a six figure salary to boot.

This is just the beginning, there are many, many more examples of corruption, nepotism, dirty money and mafia style tactics

In this book we get to see the Obama cabinet of tax cheats and swindlers, all things the MSM ignores. Why the GOP doesn't fight this more I don't know. What I do know is if any one of us had pulled these tricks we'd be in an orange jumpsuit. I find it ironic that nomination after nomination was either not paying their taxes or involved in some other corruption charge...hope and change indeed. It's business as usual.

Anyone who fell for the mantra of hope and change need to read this book and see it's not just business as usual, it's Chicago business as usual. This administration of tax cheats, swindlers and self proclaimed marxists will destroy this country.

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!

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.

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. One of those "independent" investigators is the head of SEIU. Really, you can't make stuff like this up!)

Reading this book is slow going because it is so amazingly depressing. More truth in reviewing: I didn't vote for Obama, because he worried me from his first campaign speeches (which I stopped listening to). It was clear to me that Barack Obama never saw a government program he didn't like. So I hoped that he would grow into the job and govern from the center. "Hope" didn't accomplish much.

Reading this book is not a jolly experience, it is a painful duty.

Two closing remarks: first, a lot of Obama supporters brush this book off because "it was written in less than six months." That's not right. Malkin has been covering Barack Obama since he appeared on the national scene, and has been continuously blogging about him and his cronies since then. When he won the election, I imagine she shifted into high gear. There's no question that the book was produced quickly, because it contains a number of trivial typographical errors and oversights, such as a long citation which lacks a footnote. But the BOOK does not lack footnotes. On the contrary, it has 75 pages of source documentation! Like so many other things in life, the "luck" of Michelle Malkin grew out of a huge amount of hard work over a period of two years or more. None of the little goofs in the book are substantive in any way.

Second -- well, I'll let Ralph Waldo Emerson say it: "As we are, so we associate. The good, by affinity, seek the good; the vile, by affinity, the vile. Thus, of their own volition, souls proceed into heaven, into hell."

Michelle Malkin deserves a Pulitzer prize for this book. But I hope nobody is naive enough to think that she'll even come close to getting it.

I am a staunch conservative and have been for many years. If you define an independent as someone whose stomach was turned by George Bush and Barack Obama, then I'm an independent. Neither of these men know anything about small non-intrusive government or conservative values. Well Bush is gone now and the menu before us has Barack Obama's name on the cover. I knew the conservative mantra of negatives about Obama before, during, and after election. He had the most liberal voting record of any Senator, no experience running anything, biggest claim to fame prior to government professional was "community organizer", the Tony Rezko connection, Bill Ayres, Rev. Wright etc. etc. blah blah blah. That was plenty enough for me to believe he was eminently unqualified, if not dangerous, as an American President. Been there...did that.

Then I read Michelle Malkin's "Culture Of Corruption" I fancied myself somewhat of a political junkie and as such could not imagine a jaw-dropping political expose. Wrong again bar room breath. The book is jaw dropper not just because of the plethora of corruptive associations and activities concerning Obama (and his spouse believe it or not), but the vast depth and breadth of corruption involving his key government advisors, appointees, and friends. It is so meticulously documented that it also served as proof positive that mainstream media is even more corrupted than I imagined. The proof was out there!