Rome Wasnt Burnt in a Day or The Price of Fire

Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day: The Real Deal on How Politicians, Bureaucrats, and Other Washington Barbarians are Bankrupting America

Author: Joe Scarborough

With big-spending Democrats at their side, President George Bush and his "conservative" Republican Congress have controlled the government's checkbook while the national debt has skyrocketed past seven trillion dollars. That's right, $7,000,000,000,000. How has the party of Reagan become the party of big-government spending? Now former Republican congressman Joe Scarborough delivers a scathing indictment of Republicans and Democrats alike in the same informed, hard-hitting, and entertaining style fans of Scarborough Country have come to admire. Having had a ringside seat during his four terms in the House of Representatives, Scarborough gives the inside scoop on how Washington really works and on the spending orgy the Republicans have fueled the last ten years.

The story begins with Newt Gingrich's Contract with America and the Republicans promising to balance the budget and reform Washington. It culminates with a Republican president continually rubber-stamping pork-filled appropriations bills that squander taxpayer dollars. That is, unless you think it's necessary to spend millions of dollars on research into "alternative salmon products" in Alaska, or the study of crickets in Utah, or of sea turtles in Hawaii. Sadly, these instances merely hint at the gross spending by Congress.

From confrontations with the Fat White Pink Boys (political operatives who put the sick in sycophant) to flights on Air Force One and a tell-tale discussion with President Bush about how to balance the budget, Joe Scarborough has seen all that he can take and now calls on his fellow Republicans to stop turning their backs on the ideals Ronald Reagan fostered that were once the backbone of this proud party. Important, timely, and a call to arms, Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day shows just how imperative it is that Washington politicians of all stripes stop mortgaging the country's economic future for their own ill-gotten gains.

Publishers Weekly

Elected to Congress in 1994 as a Contract with America revolutionary, Scarborough spent six years representing the Florida panhandle, and currently hosts the MSNBC political talk show Scarborough Country. His book is part memoir, part political treatise that purports to explain how various "Washington barbarians" are bankrupting America. Full of partisan and reformer zeal, the freshman class of 1994 set out on its crusade to reform Congress and reduce government spending. However, the crusaders met their Saladin in President Clinton and his skillful use of the veto pen. The House freshmen were further disillusioned when their leadership opted for compromise rather than continued confrontation following the government shutdown in 1995. Scarborough bitterly compares the Republican leadership to the pigs in George Orwell's Animal Farm-indistinguishable from the corrupt Democratic bosses they had ousted. His account of the Republican Congress is well told from the perspective of the House freshmen, but Scarborough never asks the hard questions about why the Gingrich Republicans became so unpopular with voters. Similarly, the book's promise to reveal the "real deal" about why government spending continues to rise, is nothing more than the revelation that interest groups, lobbyists and politicians collude on government spending because it is in their mutual self-interest. (Sept.) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Republicans and Democrats are both burning our tax dollars, argues this former Republican Congressman, now host of MSNBC's Scarborough Country. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Table of Contents:

	Introduction	1
Chapter 1	The Real Deal	13
Chapter 2	Barbarians at the Gate	33
Chapter 3	Battling the Imperial Congress	51
Chapter 4	Capitol Offense	77
Chapter 5	Not a Dime's Worth of Difference	91
Chapter 6	Becoming the Imperial Congress	105
Chapter 7	The Easter Rising	121
Chapter 8	Fat White Pink Boys	137
Chapter 9	Why Washington Always Wins	149
Chapter 10	How to Fix It	171
	Epilogue	183

Interesting book: Dirección Estratégica:Texto y Casos

The Price of Fire: Resource Wars and Social Movements in Bolivia

Author: Benjamin Dangl

New social movements have emerged in Bolivia over the "price of fire"-access to basic elements of survival like water, gas, land, coca, employment, and other resources. Though these movements helped pave the way to the presidency for indigenous coca-grower Evo Morales in 2005, they have made it clear that their fight for self-determination doesn't end at the ballot box. From the first moments of Spanish colonization to today's headlines, The Price of Fire offers a gripping account of clashes in Bolivia between corporate and people's power, contextualizing them regionally, culturally, and historically.

Benjamin Dangl has worked as an independent journalist throughout Latin America, writing for publications such as Z Magazine, The Nation, and The Progressive. He is the editor of TowardFreedom.com, a progressive perspective on world events, and UpsideDownWorld.org, an online magazine covering activism and politics in Latin America. Benjamin won a 2007 Project Censored Award for his coverage of US military operations in Paraguay.

"Price of Fire is not yet another bleak 'tell-all' account of globalization, its pages are filled with stories of resistance, struggle and, above all, hope."-Teo Ballve, editor of the NACLA Report on the Americas and co-editor of Dispatches from Latin America

"Ben Dangl takes the reader on an unforgettable and inspiring journey through Bolivia and neighboring countries, providing a window on the revolutionary struggles of the poor and dispossessed, and particularly on the resurgence of indigenous resistance and leadership."-Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, author of Blood on theBorder: A Memoir of the Contra War

"Most Americans know nothing of Bolivia, an ignorance that only plays into the hands of empire. Ben Dangl's book is both informative and inspiring, a cure for the apathy that grows from that ignorance. A must-read for those already interested in solidarity with Latin America and indigenous people."-Tom Hayden, author of The Zapatista Reader and Street Wars

"Ben Dangl has found himself under the skin of the Bolivian freedom struggle: he accurately represents its constraints, its opportunities, and its hopes."-Vijay Prashad, author of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World

"With great empathy and lucid prose, Dangl captures the exemplary courage that has put Latin America in the vanguard of the new internationalism and has made it one of the few bright spots on an otherwise dismal global landscape."-Greg Grandin, author of Empire's Workshop

"Price of Fire by Ben Dangl informs, outrages, and builds hope. People's movements for societal betterment in South America are an inspiration for human rights activists worldwide and Dangl gives us a full serving of encouragement and hope. He documents how historical imperialism, dominated my US corporate/government capital interests, is being successfully challenged by indigenous activists. Price of Fire is the story of cultural resistance from the street to international geo-political alliances. I highly recommend this book for working people, students, and radical democrats to hear the voices of South American people and their chronicle of grassroots democratic empowerment."-Peter Phillips, Professor Sociology, Sonoma State University, Director Project Censored, and co-editor with Dennis Loo of Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney