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Briefly Noted: Politics Corrupts Money
"Is the story of Abramoff a
tale of personal corruption," Alex Gibney asks at the beginning of
his 2010 documentary
Casino Jack and the United States of Money, "or the
story of what our democracy has become?" Gibney inclines sharply
toward the latter view. His insistence on presenting the career of
lobbyist-cum-convicted-felon Jack Abramoff as an illustration of
money's corrupting influence on politics mars an appallingly
amusing movie that is really about politics' corrupting influence
on money.
For Abramoff, Gibney claims, "The buying and selling of politicians was the free market in action." But what does the free market have to do with using government to crush a client's competitors, obtain grants and special favors, or pressure the owner of a casino boat fleet into selling it on favorable terms? A former congressional chief of staff who was implicated in the Abramoff scandal comes closer to the truth when he tells Gibney, "It's an issue of power." —Jacob Sullum
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Qetesh|5.5.11 @ 1:32PM|#
When I saw the title, I thought it was a story about the Fed.
sologn|6.13.11 @ 9:28AM|#
is good
scarpe Nike Store|7.27.11 @ 11:53PM|#
is good