"Get rich quick! Read this book and learn how to invest in politicians for fun and profit! Just don’t leave this book where any regular voters can read it!" –Arianna Huffington, author of Pigs at the Trough Every day corporations and other wealthy special interests pump another $2 million into the coffers of our elected officials in Washington and their party committees. For their money they get an estimated $160 billion a year in tax breaks, subsidies, and other sweet deals. That’s $160 billion lifted from taxpayers’ pockets–or about $1,500 per taxpayer per year! But that’s not the worst of it. Their money also buys them the opportunity to shape public policy to suit their bottom lines. And the cost we pay for that is much dearer. Blending satirical bite with mountains of eye-opening research, this rollicking call to arms breaks the issue into manageable, kitchen-table topics and makes it accessible with graphs, tables, sidebars, quizzes, and fascinating factoids. "Sifry and Watzman lay it all out with no bark on it in this devastatingly straight-forward book–the overt corruption of our country through what we politely call ‘the campaign finance system.’ Legalized bribery is the root of our political rot and few people know more about how to fix it and have done more to fix it than the good folks at Public Campaign." –Molly Ivins, author of Bushwhacked "Sifry and Watzman are two of the most astute observers of political influence in this country. Their important new book names names and cuts through the bull about the issues that affect our daily lives, in a wonderfully amusing but drop-dead accurate way!" –Charles Lewis, author of The Buying of the President 2004

In the wake of structural adjustment programs in the 1980s and health reforms in the 1990s, the majority of sub-Saharan African governments spend less than ten dollars per capita on health annually, and many Africans have limited access to basic medical care. Using a community-level approach, anthropologist Ellen E. Foley analyzes the implementation of global health policies and how they become intertwined with existing social and political inequalities in Senegal. Your Pocket Is What Cures You examines qualitative shifts in health and healing spurred by these reforms, and analyzes the dilemmas they create for health professionals and patients alike. It also explores how cultural frameworks, particularly those stemming from Islam and Wolof ethnomedicine, are central to understanding how people manage vulnerability to ill health. While offering a critique of neoliberal health policies, Your Pocket Is What Cures You remains grounded in ethnography to highlight the struggles of men and women who are precariously balanced on twin precipices of crumbling health systems and economic decline. Their stories demonstrate what happens when market-based health reforms collide with material, political, and social realities in African societies.

The Cost of a Deadbeat is a thought-provoking study that takes both a humorous and cynical approach to identifying and defining the major types of deadbeats, and the hidden monetary and emotional costs they bring to society. With over forty years of experience in the workplace, author Michael Webb applies his business knowledge and observation skills to illuminate what most of us unknowingly tolerate each day from the selfish and lazy in our culture. In each chapter, Webb provides personal examples of DNA (Deadbeat Negligent Activities) and categorizes the types of deadbeats, such as: Workplace deadbeats--slackers, sickies, tenure train riders, and slacking supervisors Criminal deadbeats--pilferers, prisoners, cyber slugs, scam artists, and petty thieves Daylight deadbeats--porky politicians, bumbling bureaucrats, and deadbeat voters Cheater deadbeats--fraud finders, tax evaders, and bankruptcy bums New generation deadbeats--poor parents and weak schools The Cost of a Deadbeat will encourage you to join the fight against deadbeats by examining your own behavior and contributing common sense and decency to your own life.

All Too Human is a new-generation political memoir, written from the refreshing perspective of one who got his hands on the levers of awesome power at an early age. At thirty, the author was at Bill Clinton's side during the presidential campaign of 1992, & for the next five years he was rarely more than a step away from the president & his other advisers at every important moment of the first term. What Liar's Poker did to Wall Street, this book will do to politics. It is an irreverent & intimate portrait of how the nation's weighty business is conducted by people whose egos & idiosyncrasies are no sturdier than anyone else's. Including sharp portraits of the Clintons, Al Gore, Dick Morris, Colin Powell, & scores of others, as well as candid & revelatory accounts of the famous debacles & triumphs of an administration that constantly went over the top, All Too Human is, like its author, a brilliant combination of pragmatic insight & idealism. It is destined to be the most important & enduring book to come out of the Clinton administration.

How Social Security Picks Your Pocket, written by an MBA-CPA, exposes how Social Security is implemented - who wins, who loses, and how the game is played; and offers suggestions for improvements to the system.

"Politics is no laughing matter - unless you've got Fred Metcalf's Dictionary of Humorous Political Quotations. From the wit that made Boris a contender to the best of George W. Bush, this book will have you in stitches. Bankers to bin Laden, bumper stickers to Biden, and even a few topics that don't begin with B, Metcalf has them all covered. Churchill's gravitas meets Jon Stewart's modern parody - if you have a political (or a funny) bone in your body, you need this book. I loved it!" Louise Mensch. With this brilliant anthology of mieux mots used in the theatre of politics over the centuries, Fred Metcalf has conjured an indispensable tool for both the seasoned public speaker and the armchair quotation-collector alike. Combining politics with a liberal dose of sex, drugs and Frank Zappa, Metcalf has produced a hearty panoply of memorable political rhetoric to cover any occasion - a remedy for those improvising amid impassioned response as well as those polishing their argument with the choicest of truisms.