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" Mike Huckabee represents something that is either tremendously encouraging or deeply disturbing, depending on your point of view: a marriage of Christian fundamentalism with economic populism. "
Matt Taibbi
Point Of View
View
Christian
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" The average Tea Partier is sincerely against government spending - with the exception of the money spent on them. "
Matt Taibbi
Against
Government
Average
" Criminal justice, as it pertains to the Goldmans and Morgan Stanleys of the world, is not adversarial combat, with cops and crooks duking it out in interrogation rooms and courthouses. Instead, it's a cocktail party between friends and colleagues who from month to month and year to year are constantly switching sides and trading hats. "
Matt Taibbi
Colleagues
World
Justice
" The threat posed by Bank of America isn't just financial - it's a full-blown assault on the American dream. Where's the incentive to play fair and do well, when what we see rewarded at the highest levels of society is failure, stupidity, incompetence and meanness? If this is what winning in our system looks like, who doesn't want to be a loser? "
Matt Taibbi
Failure
Loser
Winning
" You know, I used to live in Russia where you had officers in the military opening up the warehouses at night and taking weapons out and putting them into a truck and selling them to foreign powers. That type of stuff doesn't happen in the United States. We still have a very functioning and relatively civil society. "
Matt Taibbi
Society
Truck
You
" It obviously matters who gets to be president. And it's perfectly valid for us media types to advocate for the candidate we think is more qualified, based on our reporting. But the hype has gotten so out of control, it's become bigger than the presidency itself. "
Matt Taibbi
Matters
Think
Become
" I try to be outraged by things that other people are just very accepting of, as though they're normal and can't be changed. A lot of what I write about is, 'Hey, you know, this stuff is really awful, and it doesn't need to be, and that's why it's so offensive.' Things should be better. "
Matt Taibbi
Need
Know
Try
" What we Americans go through to pick a president is not only crazy and unnecessary but genuinely abusive. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent in a craven, cynical effort to stir up hatred and anger on both sides. "
Matt Taibbi
Hatred
Both Sides
Anger
" Capitalism is a system for determining objective value. "
Matt Taibbi
System
Objective
Capitalism
" The House Rules Committee is perhaps the free world's outstanding bureaucratic abomination - a tiny, airless closet deep in the labyrinth of the Capitol where some of the very meanest people on earth spend their days cleaning democracy like a fish. "
Matt Taibbi
Fish
Deep
People
" I mean, people who say that the Tea Party isn't a grassroots movement, I think, are incorrect. I think in some respects, it is a grassroots movement. "
Matt Taibbi
Think
People
Tea
" Like wars, forest fires and bad marriages, really stupid laws are much easier to begin than they are to end. "
Matt Taibbi
Like
End
Laws
" You know what an effective deterrent to crime is? Jail! And do you know what kind of criminal penalty actually makes people think twice about committing crimes the next time? The kind that actually comes out of some individual's pocket, not fines that come out of the corporate kitty. "
Matt Taibbi
Know
Jail
You
" Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. "
Matt Taibbi
You
Hidden
Hands
" Sarah Palin is a symbol of everything that is wrong with the modern United States. As a representative of our political system, she's a new low in reptilian villainy, the ultimate cynical masterwork of puppeteers like Karl Rove. "
Matt Taibbi
Wrong
Political
New
" In reality, everybody in Congress is a stand-in for some kind of lobbyist. In many cases it's difficult to tell whether it's the companies that are lobbying the legislators or whether it's the other way around. "
Matt Taibbi
Congress
Kind
Reality
" This is America: Corporate stealing is practically the national pastime, and Goldman Sachs is far from the only company to get away with doing it. "
Matt Taibbi
Company
Away
America
" America's always had a real passion for lunatic movements. That's one of the things we're probably known for around the world, I would imagine. "
Matt Taibbi
Real
Passion
America
" There are some who think that the government is limited in how many corruption cases it can bring against Wall Street, because juries can't understand the complexity of the financial schemes involved. But in 'U.S.A. v. Carollo,' that turned out not to be true. "
Matt Taibbi
Financial
Government
Corruption
" I was a bit of a troubled kid growing up, let's put it that way. I didn't take pleasure in hard work. "
Matt Taibbi
Growing Up
Growing
Work
" An unregulated derivatives market essentially gives Wall Street a way to place hidden taxes on everything in the world. "
Matt Taibbi
Street
Place
Hidden
" Since the end of the Cold War, America has been grasping left and right for an identity. "
Matt Taibbi
Identity
War
Right
" In the '50s and '60s, journalism wasn't a profession. It wasn't something you went to college for - it was really more of a trade. You had a lot of guys who came up working in newspapers at the copy desk, or delivery boys, and then they would somehow become reporters afterward and learn on the job. "
Matt Taibbi
Copy
Journalism
You
" To Wall Street, a firm like BP isn't just a profitable energy company with lots of assets like oil rigs and pipelines and gas stations - it's also a corporation that routinely borrows hundreds of millions of dollars to keep its business up and running. "
Matt Taibbi
Business
Street
Company
" By incentivizing Wall Street players to sniff out inefficient or corrupt companies and bet against them, short-selling acts as a sort of policing system; legal short-sellers have been instrumental in helping expose firms like Enron and WorldCom. "
Matt Taibbi
Legal
Street
System
" Obviously the commercial news media tries to get you worked up and terrified so you'll buy products that they're advertising. "
Matt Taibbi
Media
News
Products
" I don't often get angered by the things press spokespeople say. Most of these people have difficult jobs and are often forced to be the public faces of policies they had nothing to do with creating. "
Matt Taibbi
Things
Creating
Say
" At root, the Tea Party is nothing more than a them-versus-us thing. "
Matt Taibbi
Than
Nothing
Party
" This idea that you can't be an honest man and a Washington politician is a myth, a crock made up by sellouts and careerist hacks who don't stand for anything and are impatient with people who do. It's possible to do this job with honor and dignity. "
Matt Taibbi
Man
People
Honor
" Obviously, people who commit crimes should be punished. Even people who steal socks and 'Snow White' videos should probably do time if they have priors, especially serious priors. But the punishment has to fit the crime, and the standard has to be the same for everyone. "
Matt Taibbi
People
White
Same
" In other countries they have histories with revolutions and class movements. In America, people don't like to think of themselves like being in a lower class. They all like to think of themselves as potential millionaires. "
Matt Taibbi
Potential
America
Class