Be careful where you say "Yamamah"

Looks like a "culture of corruption" is not unique to our upstart new world empire: The LA Times reports today that a Saudi minister of influence peddling and the British Military Imperialist Complex have been exposed engaging in a kind of baksheesh, about two billion in baksheesh to be imprecise. This story is not one of simple greed, to hear British officials tell it. Fear is invoked for its explanatory magic:

The Serious Fraud Office's decision to close its probe led to charges that Britain was attempting to shore up its negotiations to sell a $20-billion new fleet of Eurofighter Typhoon jets to the desert kingdom.

But British officials said their real fear was losing Saudi Arabia's cooperation in the war on terrorism. Atty. Gen. Peter Goldsmith told Parliament the heads of Britain's security and intelligence agencies, as well as the nation's ambassador in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, had warned that the investigation could seriously damage relations.

...riiiight. The Saudi's, awash in dollars we poured into the gas tanks of our SUVs, hardly need a few more billions. Arms dealers plying them with money seems suspect. The Saudi royals can already afford a huge dole to the Wahhabists to buy political stability...and in turn the Wahhabists can fund their fundamentalism world wide. That is not to equate Wahhabism with Islamic terrorists in the overstated manner of a report such as this in a web zine for the arms trade . But it would be naive to say there is no relation between making Saudi royals rich and fomenting extremism. The money defense contractors have to plow into such "marketing" programs ultimately must come from governments and thus from taxes we insignificant blog readers pay. The money we spend filling the skies with hawks in search a dove to eat would be better spent defusing the petrodollar time bomb and the festering sore that is Palestine/Israel. Shortsighted ideas of defense, built on fear rather than on understanding, are breeding grounds for misdirected monies and corruption.

BTW, don't tell Gonzo about this Britishism, "Serious Fraud Office". Until we stop the unethical and probably illegal flow of influence between Cheney, Rove and the DoJ, we can't be sure they won't try to bury any real investigation of unseemly political influence in civil service with a new "Run-out-the-clock Fraud Office". [Really now! Do you suppose they have a "Frivolous Fraud Office" or a "Comical Fraud Office" in the UK that creates a need for the semantic distinction of a Serious Fraud Office? One begins to understand Monty Python as a perfectly sane response to a daffy strain of Brit bureaucracy.] Here, let Josh Marshall spell out exactly how eager DoJ is to not answer questions and yet, how serious the questions are.

second hand muck

The culture of corruption, the Republican "values" at work pilfering the commons for any common wealth that is not nailed down, is depressingly perennial. But for a toy journalist, it would provide a rich beat. I admit I just repeat the muck that others have raked up...hence the label second hand muck. For my own benefit, I will post under that label as the stories come along...and they will come along. That way I can pull the record with a single click if I ever need to review the quality of this fine, fine administration.
For your benefit? Well, lets just suppose you and I are comparing notes since we don't all read the same things

Two gobs of muck today. One is an excerpt from a new book Are We Rome? by Cullen Murphy, reprinted in Vanity Fair. On the strength of a few other good articles and Walcott's wit, I broke down and subscribed to VF. The topic is comparing the bloat and degeneracy of American empire with that of Roman empire. That comparison is a theme that comes without tutoring into the mind of anyone with even a half decent education in history. The excerpt takes only the essay on venality and privilege, the privatization meme, from the broader comparison, i.e. just the culture of corruption part. Walter Isaacson reviewed the book for NY Times last month. He gets right to the polar extremes between the nation we might once have been and could yet be and the nation our present leadership permits and encourages:

Laudably, he ends on some optimistic notes, and some prescriptions.... At home, it should resurrect the ideals of citizen engagement and promote a sense of community and mutual obligation, rather than treating most government as a necessary evil.

The one thing a government run by and for K-Street does NOT want, would not even survive, is an engaged citizenry. A body politic that in its persons and its minor councils felt a "sense of mutual obligation" would demand as much from its leaders. Nothing that goes on in our nation's capital today would measure up. Selfishness as I have said, is the bad coin that drives out the good so I am not as optimistic as Mr Murphy.

The other gob is from the TPM Muckraker pages, a veritable storm drain of patronage news from which the daily e-mail alerts alone would provide me most of a day's reading. Today, TPM's Laura McGann details the naked venality of Rep. Don Young who was supposed to be doing the business of the people of the state of Alaska.

And for dessert, and justice, I cannot ignore one glaring exception. William Jefferson exhibits what I have called Republican values but he is a Democrat. An explanation of sorts for this oddity was provided by Jon Stewart last night on The Daily Show: "He has discovered what it takes for a black man from New Orleans to get some attention from Washington".