Smells Like Dead Elephants (text only) by M.Taibbi

by M.Taibbi

Smells Like Dead Dispatches from a Rotting Empire [Paperback]Matt Taibbi (Author)

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, Humor, History, Journalism, Audiobook, Essays

Paperback

First published October 10, 2007

Reviews

[Phil Szyjka · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Elephants" is an critical, often harsh firsthand account of some of the most important political events/stories of the recent past: Abu Ghraib, Abramoff, Katrina, Enron, etc. Hilarious, insightful, and with a voice sorely needed in an era of media conglomeration and corporatism, "Smells like dead elephants" is "a shocking portrait of our government at work, or rarely working." His 4th is collected work of articles compiled form his column in Rolling Stone. Although still reminiscent of H.S. Thompson, "Smells like Dead Elephants, Dispatches From a Rotting Empire" strays a bit thankfully from Taibbi's more overtly Thompsonseque title' "Spanking the Donkey." Written In true Gonzo form (noted twice on the cover)"Elephants" is Damn good and Further defines Matt's place in that style championed by Wolfe. Damn good

You can catch his appearances on Real time With Bill Maher as a "real time political correspondent."

[Meave · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'd appreciate this collection of anti-Bush-government-follies essays much more if Matt Taibbi didn't use such disgusting, msogynist language to describe the disgraceful actions of the lawmakers and lobbyists who were running our country into the ground between 2000 and 2006.

Maybe if he hadn't essentially called them all BIG FAT UGLY GREEDY WHORES, or NASTY SLOPPY SLUTBAG SELLOUT CUNTS, I might've been able to focus on Taibbi's on-scene reporting, like when he participated in day-one post-Katrina boat rescues, or managed to spend three nights in Abu Ghraib post-scandal but pre-shutdown.

Too bad Taibbi's essays are so filled with his "trademark" lazy, unnecessary ugly talk. He and his fans can call it "attitude," but I find it revolting, distracting, demeaning, and tedious. Anyone can string some he-man woman-hating curse words together; grown-up writers don't have to lean on them to assert their personal style.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like probably pretty much everybody else on the planet, I needed a bit of a break from reading about the incompetence, buffoonery, and sheer insanity of the Trump era - so I picked up this 2007 collection of a bunch of Taibbi's Rolling Stone columns skewering various aspects of the incompetence, buffoonery and sheer insanity of the Bush era for a change. Hilarious, brutal, and dealing out plenty of well-deserved criticism.

[Geoff Glenister · Rating 4 out of 5]

Towards the end of the year 2006, this former "Conservative Christian" Bush/Iraq War apologist began to have second thoughts. Iraq was really the big issue that made me rethink - I still thought we did the right thing by going and removing Saddam, but the fact that we were still there just didn't make any sense to me any more. In the lead-up to the 2008 election, I actually began listening to the other side a bit, and kind of liked that Obama guy. When McCain argued that we needed to stay in Iraq, it was all over for me. That began my trip from Conservative to the fully credentialed Liberal that I am today.

This book by Taibbi is a collection of storied about the corruption, greed, lies, and just full blown idiocy that went on during the Bush years. Taibbi gives us a tour of the House of Representatives, and we see how they have completely shut out democracy - pushing through bills that would never survive a popular vote by writing them in fascist committees in dark backrooms and then presenting them for a last minute "emergency" vote with no time to actually read the bill that is being passed.

It was surreal going back and reliving some of the events of these years that I was practically asleep for. I was sitting at Champy's Chicken - a joint in Chattanooga that looks like it was air-lifted out of the bayou's of New Orleans into the center of town - reading about how Taibbi went into post-Katrina New Orleans with Sean Penn and observed the dystopian reality the town had become. If for no other reason, that chapter makes the whole book worth it. But it is amazing to me how far on the inside Taibbi was able to get for so many of the events during this period, and the resulting look behind the curtain is powerful and important.

[Todd N · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of mid-2000s Matt Taibbi articles from Rolling Stone, pre-vampire-squid fame.

Except for one article covering the Michael Jackson trial, these articles cover politics during the latter half of the Bush era. There is another article in which Mr. Taibbi accompanies Sean Penn(!) rescuing people in the days after Katrina that is not directly about politics, but the subtext is clear.

A lot of it feels dated, not because of problems with the writing or coverage, but because things actually sort of got worse in all the directions he was pointing. It's hard to believe that some of these things only happened five years ago. Didn't the Jack Abramoff scandal happen during the Eisenhower administration?

The overall theme is the decline of America, which most casual but thoughtful readers of articles like these may have already gotten their fill of. So if you aren't already a fan of Mr. Taibbi, or weren't working long hours at Google when these events transpired, you may want to find something more recent.

Or just buy it to read things that you wish you had written. Two random examples flipping through the book:

Describing (former White House press secretary) Scott McClellan: "...a cringing yes-man type who tries to soften the effect of his non-answers by projecting an air of being just as out of the loop as you are, starts pimping lies and crap the moment he enters the room. He's the cheapest kind of political hack, a greedy little bum making a living by throwing his hat on the ground and juggling lemons for pennies."

And this is a breakdown of how the Democrats select their candidates for Congress: "...after much verbose and solemn discussion, the earnest and idealistic candidate the public actually likes is dismissed on the grounds that "he can't win." In his place is trotted out the guy the party honchos insist to us is the real "winner" -- some balding, bent little bureaucrat who has grown prematurely elderly before our very eyes over the course of ten or twenty years of sad, compromise-filled service in the House or the Senate. This "winner" is then given a lavish parade and sent out there on the trail, and we hold our noses as he campaigns in our name on a platform of Jesus, the B-2 bomber, and the death penalty for eleven-year-olds, consoling ourselves that he at least isn't in favor of repealing the Voting Rights Act."

[Lyle]

My first reaction when I read Matt Taibbi was that
he's a little too similar to H.S. Thompson, right down
to the syntax.

On the other hand, I could think of worse things to be than
similar to H.S. Thompson. You literally cannot do politics better than 'Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail'. But you sure can try, I suppose.

I could probably pay a handsome sum to have Thompson at his prime writing about the Bush years, but since he's dead, I guess Taibbi would be the next best thing.

As it is, I love the way Taibbi savages all the idiots we have for leaders, and does it so effortlessly. There really is a severe lack of acknowledgment for the sheer absurdity in so much of the writing and coverage of what has happened to this country, and I love when it happens.

[Teri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally, I ordered this book because I appreciate Taibbi's insight when he contributes to Bill Maher's Real Time on HBO. This collection of his columns from Rolling Stone did not disappoint. He's a careful thorough journalist who writes with a very entertaining tone; his dry sense of humor offsets the really bad news that his stories convey about some of the most evil-doings in the White House and Congress during the Republican reign. His explanation on Enron, his deliniation of the machination of the House Rules committe, and his extensive description of Jack Abramoff's corruption, in particular, provided helpful information to events that I knew were bad, but more horrifying than I'd realized. I had a hard time putting this book down, so I was excited to pre-order his newest book, The Great Derangement, which I am now reading and cannot put down either. I'll have a review of it as well.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Episodes or dispatches from the disasters of Bush’s second term. Taibbi retains interest whether reporting on the corrupt do nothing congress, or where the thin veneer of civilization is wiped away to reveal the uncaring face of reality. For these later parts his trip into post-Katrina New Orleans with Sean Penn is piece of reporting worthy of Heller or Thompson, a piece of apocalyptic comedy equal parts satire and deadly serious, and three surreal days in Abu Ghraib.

[Peacegal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alternately laugh-out-loud funny and deadly serious, we should be glad to have a political bloodhound like Taibbi. Whether he's exposing rampant environmental corruption by posing as a Big Oil rep who wants to drill in the Grand Canyon, or writing the most heartbreakingly real dispatch from Hurricane Katrina we may ever read, the author is truly a live wire.

[Public Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Matt Taibbi is one of my favorite living writers. Here one finds a collection of his best work for the Rolling Stone in the mid-2000s. Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war, and Jack Abramoff ... all the lowlights of the George W. Bush era get the blistering Taibbi treatment. Full of insight and hilariously brutal wordplay, this is Taibbi at his best.

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Flashback to the time when Taibbi was a major contender. Oh well, it's his life, he gets to live it.

[Jim · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection pulls together some of Taibbi's best work from his Rolling Stone "Road Work," column. These all were written during the eight years when Bush occupied the White House.

Taibbi writes with a style and chops that few journalists possess. At times both raw and raucous, Taibbi never takes himself too seriously, and is never not cynical in his outlook. Offering neither solutions, or excuses for American excesses, both culturally, militarily, or politically, his work pulls the scab off, and shines a searchlight brightly on whatever it is we've become.

The essays on Congress and Iraq are unflinching. For anyone who is paying attention enough to really know what time it is in these days of our diminished empire, Taibbi's investigative style just has you shaking your head, knowing it didn't have to fucking be this way, yet knowing what you know about America, basically that we're a nation of hucksters (it's in our cultural DNA) it was inevitable.

To compare Taibbi to H.S. Thompson is too easy. Taibbi occupies his own unique place as a writer/journalist. There are few others that write as unflinchingly about the U.S.; Chris Hedges comes to mind and maybe Morris Berman.

Taibbi is sure to piss off the flag-wavers and Kool-Aid drinkers among us. But if you are open to the signs and signals of an empire in decline, these broadsides about the failures of neoliberalism will ring true.

[Jack · Rating 4 out of 5]

There really aren't more eloquent words for it: Matt Taibbi is just extraordinarily good at what he does. This book, coming out between Spanking the Donkey and The Great Derangement, is I think his most leftist. Spanking the Donkey was to a great extent about the absurdity of the '04 election and Great Derangement, my favorite, was full of bipartisan outrage at the corruption of the entire federal governmental process. This one's strictly about flogging the Republicans, and creating airtight arguments for why they have it coming; Katrina, abramoff, Abu Gahraib, etc. I wish I had read these as they were coming out as individual articles, when the wounds to both the Republican image and the American psyche were still fresh. But there's something to be said for the gut impact that reading a topically organized list of outrages arouses in you. And that's exactly what Taibbi's going for; this is also by far his most muckraking book, and perhaps consequentially, the one where I think he also betrays a touching faith in the power of the American voter to fight back against the entrenchment of the bush era federal government's institutions and practices. Apparently his subsequent experiences, leading up to Great Derangement not much later, left him a little less sanguine.

[Connie]

I have been very remiss in updating my Goodreads list. Since I last posted, I have read somewhere in the neighborhood of 90-100 books, only one of which was a work of fiction.

I'm going to try to go back and list as many as I can think of and attempt to write a short review of each and I will be sure to recommend the ones that I think are required reading for any thinking person.

Taibbi is always worth the time. In addition to his spot on research and reporting, his well-developed sense of irony, along with sarcasm, makes him a very enjoyable read.

As for his topic (this book was written in 2005, so I read it from the perspective of having watched how all of this has turned out), as far as I'm concerned, the Republican Party has done incredible harm to this country, especially since the election of GWB in 2000,, and for it to die out entirely would be a downright miracle.

As it is, the damage done by the Bush administration, as well as the horrendous damage done by the Republicans in Congress throughout the eight years of the Obama presidency, has pretty well destroyed the country in so many ways. I don't think we will ever recover, and if by some horrible chance Trump is elected to the presidency, the complete and total destruction of the country will be imminent.

[Tom Schulte · Rating 3 out of 5]

At times, it feels to me like we could be in the final day of the GOP, or at least on the cusp of a necessary apotheosis. I saw this title and figured it was Taibbi documenting that decay into fecundity of some new growth. I have read other books I liked of his and recalled liking his wit on Real Time with Bill Maher , MSNBC's The Rachel Maddow Show and other programs back when I had cable. This book is a collection of pieces more dated than I expected and recalls to me how I first lost faith in the GOP during the Dubya years of Iraq-Afghanistan, Jack Abramoff, etc. Taibbi emits an off-putting desperation to promote a gonzo journalism in the style of Hunter S. Thompson, who also covered politics for Rolling Stone. However is unnecessarily crude characterizations diminish the light he can shine on how our partisan government works through a tour of the sausage works by Bernie Sanders, weeks of patient embedding with troops, sitting in the galleries of the legislature, etc.

[Bridget Guildner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a well-written and hilarious/terrifying inside view of US politics. Matt Taibbi writes great pointed essays in which, for example, he is as disturbed by spending 3 days in Congress as he is spending 3 days in Abu Ghraib. Now, Taibbi is certainly no Hunter S. Thompson, but his grotesque descriptions of tie-choked, sweat-soaked, jowl-mongering politicias and his searing disdain for the "powers that be" make this book a natural successor to Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72. Highly recommended as long as you think you can make it through a whole book about the sorry state of US politics without succumbing to abject hopelessness and despair.

[Melanie Hierholzer · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thing that struck me about this book is the fact that the stories were written in 2005-2006 and here we are, six to seven years later dealing with the same issues and worse. Which only goes to prove, I guess, that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Most of the politicians come off in a bad light - not a big surprise, but I didn't realize just how underhanded they are. There are exceptions - Representative Bernie Sanders is one who deserves a medal and/or sainthood.

Matt Taibbi is a pissed off but thoughtful writer and he covers everything from the Michael Jackson trial to the Jack Abramoff scandal to the aftermath of the levee failures in New Orleans. The last story is titled, The Worst Congress Ever, but it's dated November 2, 2006. I'm wondering how Mr. Taibbi would categorize our latest Congress?

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a collection of Taibbi's writings for Rolling Stone from the past few years, and if nothing else, it proves how he's singlehandedly made that rag worth reading again (by being the only political writer worth reading). Iraq, post-Katrina/failure-of-the-federal-levees New Orleans, and, most terrifyingly of all, Capitol Hill-all are touched by Taibbi's poison pen and prodigious capacity for bullshit. Must-read.

[Todd Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

As you might be able to tell by the title (Smells Like Dead Elephants) Matt Taibbi has a quick witted writing style and a gift for colorful metaphors. The book consists of a collection of essays from Rolling Stone, largely addressing political topics such as: the governments response to Hurricane Katrina, the Republican congress, and the Jack Abramoff trial.

While entertaining and, at times, insightful, the book is a bit thin on actual reporting and new information.

[Jenine Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

I guess I should have paid more attention to the cover of this book. The reviews state it's gonzo journalism at it's finest, which isn't necessarily my cup of tea.
I don't agree with many of the stories in this book, but that's to be expected. I don't read things just to agree with them. I just find the writing style annoying and flippant.
I began reading the book with every intention of reading it cover to cover but find myself skimming or skipping past articles after the first page.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the tradition of Hunter S. Thompson (and that's high praise coming from me), Matt Taibbi fills this tome with his political columns from Rolling Stone. He beautifully examines the aftermath of Katrina (twice), how lobbyists are helping to ruin our democracy, and a wonderfully written column about the downfall of that filthy degenerate Tom Delay. I LOVED this book.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Taibbi's weakest book. His outrage over Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent clusterfuck are palpable and real, but some of the reprinted writings have lost the visceral impact they no doubt had when they were more immediate. There is plenty to admire here, but a lot of dull wasted space as well.

[Seth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Taibbi's articles and essays from 2001 to 2006. It's fun to look back on this era of no hope and crippling depression, before we were presented with the opposite when Obama got elected. Now that we know Obama was basically Lucy, and we progressives were Charlie Brown trying to kick the football... Eh.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

man oh man oh man... i keep reading Taibbi's stuff because it's so eye-opening, but it is very upsetting.

our government is completely f'ed up.
let taibbi show you how!
this is a collection of essays written during the last of the horrible horrible W Bush years.

it makes me want to vote every single member of congress out.

[Dick Harding · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just read this book. It was mostly a compilation of stories that Mr Taibbi had done previously or so I assume. Although it is a bit dated now, nonetheless the book was good. I particularly liked the section on New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina. The sections on the congress are just disheartening. I admire this author for bringing these things to light.

[Benjy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like Hunter Thompson, who he obviously worships, Matt Taibbi is kind of an asshole. He's also a great writer, so as long as you can tolerate the times he occasionally crosses the line from telling-it-like-it-is to just sort of being a dick, it's a good read.

[Fritz Schneider · Rating 4 out of 5]

This collection of essays from the Bush years catalogs with great precision the ways our democracy is falling apart. The last essay, The Worst Congress Ever, should be required reading for the American public.

[Janet Zehr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mind boggling indictment of the Bush years

Matt Taibbi has written a series of essays for Rolling Stone that perfectly show the ultimate corruption and stupidity of government and society in 2006. Be prepared to be totally blown away.

[Ian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of interesting though dated essays on a range of subjects varying from quite interesting (Hurricane Katrina reporting) to tedious (Michael Jackson). The author's tone and writing style are enjoyable, which makes putting up with his frequently objectionable political views an easier task.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hate to learn, so this is good because it doesn't teach you anything. funny as hell. him & sean penn in New Orleans saving lives post Katrina is quite a tale.