Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back

Rating:
Summary: Hightower Gives the Lowdown on Bush Kleptocrats
Review:
This is a compendious examination of the corporate highjacking of our country, filled with earthy wisdom and inimitable wit. Jim Hightower is the very definition of populist. Instead of engendering the hopeless despair and resignation his treatise of "kleptocrat nation" ought, he offers up rather an infectious optimism, hope, and practical suggestions for a more humane, egalitarian community.

"Our democracy is being dismantled right in front of our eyes," says Hightower, "not by crazed foreign terrorists, but by our own ruling elites. This is a crucial moment when America desperately needs you and me to stand as full citizens, asserting the bold and practical radicalism of America's democratic ideals." (His italics)

Hightower's outraged and incredulous humor is served in heaping portions making bearable, even riotous, his extensive canvassing of the current epidemic of corporate and governmental corruption. Much of it is technically legal even if ethically challenged. For example, if huge US corporations want to avoid taxes, Tyco and Enron to name two of the most notorious, they set up paper partnerships and blind subsidiaries, open a post office box and incorporate in say, Bermuda or the Cayman Islands and, presto change-o, still based predominately in the US, pay no taxes. Perfectly legal.

President Bush recently appointed former CEO of CSX Railroad John Snow as Treasury Secretary. Under Snow, CSX paid no taxes in three of the previous four years. In what Hightower refers to as Enron-accounting, the company actually received $164 million in tax rebates in that time, despite posting a billion dollar profit. All perfectly legitimate. This is the guy in charge of this nation's tax policy, says Hightower, and he wonders aloud rhetorically whether he'll look out for the interests of big business or ordinary taxpayers.

Global Crossing is also incorporated in Bermuda. Soon after leaving office, the elder Bush received an evening's speaking fee from the company of $80,000. Hightower reports that company officials surreptitiously encouraged Bush to invest the fee in company stock. In only weeks he cashed out for $14 million. A bipartisan, if legal, briber, Terry McAuliffe, now chair of the Democratic Party put $100,000 into company stock. In only one year he pocketed $18 million. As the company's stock crashed toward bankruptcy, says Hightower, CEO Gary Winnick redeemed $734 million worth of stock, while mom and pop investors were left with worthless paper. Subsequently, in testimony before Congress, Winnick magnanimously announced that he would personally write a $25 million check to the depleted pension funds of fourteen thousand workers - $1,800 each.

Dennis Kozlowski paid himself $300 million in the last three years of his stewardship of Tyco International. It was also incorporated in Bermuda to "avoid pesky US taxes," reports Hightower. Its stock lost $80 billion in the last year alone under Kozlowski. At the same time, he was enjoying perks such as a $6,000 shower curtain (Hightower wonders whether you are allowed to let one of these get wet), a $17,000 antique traveling toilet box, a $2,200 wastebasket, a $445 pincushion, a $30 million waterfront estate in Boca Raton, a $25,000 a month apartment in New York City, a $30 million second apartment in Manhattan and "$1 million in Tyco funds allocated for the fortieth-birthday bash he threw in Italy for his wife, complete with a life-sized sculpture of Michelangelo's David, which gaily sluiced vodka through the statue's penis into the glasses of astonished guests." Taxpayers got to play their part in the fun, according to Hightower, subsidizing these expenses when Tyco wrote them off as a cost of doing business.

Hightower diligently uncovers rampant cupidity, often wrapped in the flag, head reverently bowed beneath all that's good and decent. Were it not for his ever-present optimism and indefatigable humor, it would be too much to endure. Says Hightower, much more that business as usual, "BushCheneyRumsfeld and the rest are not simply dutiful servants trying to please corporate interests, as previous administrations have been, THEY ARE THE CORPORATE INTERESTS (...) from the start and by design, this was Bush Incorporated. Of course Bush's handlers ran it through their spin cycle so it wouldn't seem like what it was (...) practically every cabinet member has spent a lifetime advancing the interests of corporations over those of working families, consumers, small farmers, the poor, the environment, and ordinary taxpayers - the people's interests." (His italics and emphasis) And then, says an astonished Hightower, accusing those who call attention to these issues of engaging in class warfare.

Hightower also takes a detailed look at the imperial and adventurist militarism of "BushCo." It's blueprint was drawn up by the Project for a New American Century, a right-wing think tank, composed of many of the top neocons in the administration, and set forth in classified policy papers such as "DEFENSE PLANNING GUIDANCE." In addition to a reckless design of dominating the entire globe militarily and economically, including close allies, this doctrine, "more like the Bush dictate" as Hightower calls it, is a rapacious attack on the Treasury to the detriment of critical social needs, and a symbiotic system of legalized bribery on a massive scale between the huge manufacturers of monstrous weaponry and the administration.

Wal-Mart gets a well-deserved drubbing as a union-smashing, corporate megalopoly, whose low prices mask a predator that sucks all the economic, democratic, and spiritual vitality out of the communities upon which it descends. Its business model is becoming the standard, says Hightower, and with numerous examples and anecdotes he shows why it "is now the world's most powerful private force for lowering labor standards and stifling the middle-class aspirations of workers everywhere."

Ultimately though, this book is filled with hope and optimism. Hightower finds it in "(T)he beauty of America (...which) is Americans! We're a nation of mavericks, rebels, mutts, and agitators," he says. He draws strength in that even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building, as he puts it; from the organic and locally grown family-farm movement, which is of necessity the future; in the rebellious and egalitarian spirit in even failed causes like Shay's Rebellion; the women's suffrage movement in which none of its founders or leaders lived to vote; in the American labor movement challenging brutal corporations and winning huge, yet unfinished victories in the early Twentieth Century; in Native American's perseverance in the face of the longest and most vicious terrorist campaign ever; and in the soaring dreams of everyday people and their desire for and belief in community, to which Hightower exhorts the reader, sometimes implicitly, again and again.


Rating:
Summary: Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country--And Its
Review: A former Texas public official turned author and lecturer, Hightower (If The Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates) takes on the conservative political establishment, calling them "kleptocrats" and arguing that the nation is ruled by thieves who have stolen democracy from the people and used the levers of government to enrich themselves and their fat-cat friends. President George W. Bush, the "Thief-in-Chief," comes in for especially harsh criticism. With biting and often on-target wit, the author attempts to speak truth to power, calling on the public to wake up and reclaim the democracy they have lost. Hightower is a gifted humorist who often brings his considerable talents to the defense of a brand of liberal populism that has difficulty finding a voice in post-9/11 America. This book won't change any minds, and it certainly won't appeal to conservatives or supporters of the President, but it will entertain Bush's critics and help establish Hightower as one of the stronger voices of liberalism in the country.

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Summary: All Americans take note..
Review: After reading prior reviews, I purchased this eye-opener book.It isn't just for democrats and while hitting the current administration as it deserves, it more importantly takes on and makes us aware of the "Kenny-Boy" corporations. Hooray for the towns that defied Wallyworld and refused to let them desecrate their environment and destroy the local businesses. I wish all Americans would read this and wake up!

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Summary: Not just anti-Bush, it's Pro-People and Anti-Corporation
Review: Even if you like Bush, even if you are republican, you certainly don't like the fact that the Corporations like Enron are cheating people and getting away with it. And Hightower's sharp sense of humor combined with his down-to-earth writing style make this a quick and rousing read.

No matter what your political influence is, this is a book that, IMHO, every concerned citizen should read. The issues brought up affect all of us in the long run, and the best part of "Thieves" is the list of resources at the end in case you get fired up enough to do something about it.

Just because the internet moves at the speed of light does not mean that man was created to do the same, and we need to slow down so we can smell the foul and ripened odor of the corporate greed that surrounds us. While over 80 percent of Americans are working longer hours for less money, the average CEO salary has gone from 40 percent more than the working-class (1981) to 400 percent of the working-class (2003). And they are the ones getting all the tax cuts and government assistance while screaming "Poverty".

"Thieves" is packed with many, many more shocking facts like the one above, from taxes and revised environmental standards to campaign funding to government subsidies for billionaires (page 23); Hightower has pulled all the punches and laid their grubby fingers out on the table for us to take a cold, hard, factual look at.

In the book, Hightower does make heavy use of references for his sources, but I would have liked to seen a Bibliography too, which would probably be my only complaint about the book. However, if you are concerned that corporations are gaining too much power, or can't find a manufacturing job in the USA, or recently had your high-tech job leave US soil for a third world country to do your job at one-quarter your wage and line the pocket of that CEO, pick up a copy of "Thieves" and read. Enjoy!


Rating:
Summary: Focuses the Light of Reform on the Source of the Problem
Review: Hightower (like fellow writer Michael Moore) has the guts to tell the truth. The real terrorists are occupying the White House, Capitol Hill, and the rest of the high places of government. People around the world don't hate our freedoms or average everyday Americans. Instead they hate the greedy face of corporate America that supports torurous regimes that destroy their livelihoods and cultures. If you want to fight terrorism, read this book, and vote BushCo out of office in November. Otherwise the next constitutional amendment there creeps go for will be aimed right at you. If you are afraid of the truth, and wish to live in fear as BushCo wants you to, roll over and play dead. Otherwise, get this today, and get to work.

Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: Hightower talks about how corporations are trying to run our lives - from their freakish channel 1 idea to closing libraries to selling twinkies to elementary school kids. He attacks - Republicans, Democrats (wobblycrats), the media and corporations. The cool thing is that he also gives us hope - many times in history people have been told to "shut up" even when they are protesting something that is WRONG like child labor, safety hazards at work, etc. It has not been politicians who made these things better - it has been people like you and me who stood up for what was right.

Here's a statistic that really stuck with me:

- In the last 6 years, Congress has given themselves a raise of $5,000 4 times but they "haven't gotten around to" increasing the federal minimum wage - it has been stuck at $5.15 for a few years now.

Great book for learning about hidden evils in our system which effect you and me. Oh I just remembered something else he talks about - clean air on airplanes. Regulation says that 50% air on airplanes can be clean and 50% is recycled (this means nasty air which people burped and did other things in). Frequent travelers were complaining about this because not only did they get light headed, dizziness and headaches - its just plain nasty. So the government airline regulation guy listened - to corporations - he sent a recommendation that we should get 25% clean air and 75% dirty air.

So if for nothing else - get involved in grassroots so when you travel you can have some clean air!

Rating:
Summary: Very much on target to the dismay of the Neoconservatives
Review: I can't disagree with anything that Mr. Hightower says in the book. The bottom line is that we have criminals in many corporate suites as well as high places in Washington. Other books I have read concur with most of what Mr. Hightower had to say. Bush bobbleheads need to read this book.

On the downside, his delivery is full of sarcastic humor. Unfortunately, after I was about 100 pages into it, discerning the facts through his style got to be debilitating. It became hard to read more than 10 pages at one time. Also, the bulk of the ranting should have been left to the readers.



Rating:
Summary: Fantastic Political Journey
Review: If you need a little inspiration in your life and feel like your being stepped on all the time by the big guys, get this FANTASTIC read by Jim Hightower!Incredibly researched, a biting down to earth Texas humor, and above all it makes you feel like you can do your small part to make this world a better place!This guy covers all the meaty topics, from the Enron heist, to the big corporations (Walmart) destroying all the small town mom and pop businesses, to child slave/sweatshop labor, Bushes environmental 'terrorism' acts (a term I made up), and the best of all small stories of how the regular 'ol jenny and jims of this great America take on these crooked corporations and injustice in our daily lives and beat them in the end!I love Michael Moore a lot for his expose of the daily attack on our American way of life from the Bush administration, but I have to say he is lacking one thing that Hightower totally delivers, and that is optimism and a good spirit!This book could not have been better in my opinion, and it surely is not biased and/or partisan/one sided (knocks on the Republicans & the Democrats).At times, hardcore political commentary can be hard to read if it becomes to fact based with no trace of humor, but with Hightowers' unique sense of humor and great wit, you will never be prone to a sudden dose of sleepy eyes.Way to go!

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Summary: A call to arms
Review: Jim Hightower is a well known populist writer, speaker and commentator. He has a distinctive style and sense of humor. His book Thieves in High Places continues on themes he has covered in the past. It also remains true to his style and sense of humor. While his style works well in short articles and speeches I found it overbearing in a book.

Thieves in Hight Places was originally published in 2003 and seems quit dated now in January 2005. Hightower and a bevy of left wing commentators have throughly covered the topics he deals with in this book. The recent election may have helped these issues become well known. While "Thieves" adds new details and more examples, there is little new in the litany of complaints about the Bush administration and powerful corporations.

What Hightower does add is a call to arms. He gives several examples of small groups of people or community organizations that have successfully fought large corporations. There are website addresses for many of the organizations he discusses.

While the books spends a lot of time criticizing and complaining, the tone of the book is actually up beat. Hightower is not whining. He offers concrete suggestions and encourages the reader to take action. As the subtitle "They've Stolen our Country and It's Time to Take It Back" suggests, the author thinks the problems he describes can be fixed. All we have to do is take up the mantel of the participatory democracy this country was meant to be.

Rating:
Summary: Good but has some flaws
Review: Overall I would say this book is worth reading. I thought the chapters concerning Wal-Mart, sweat shops, and the food supply were particularly compelling. At times the "down home" style of the book was funny, but other times it was tedious (i.e., I just wanted to get to the facts). I think some of the information contained in the earlier chapters about Bush is better covered by Molly Ivins' "Bushwhacked." The biggest flaw of the book is the documentation. There is an enormous amount of data and statistics, but usually there is no footnote or endnote (some of the tables do have references) - there is merely a list at the back of the book of organizations, so it is nearly impossible to do some fact checking if desired.