Corruption carries on.

Transparency International, the global coalition against corruption, reported in its "Global Corruption Barometer 2007" that the "general public continues to view parliaments and political parties as the institutions most tainted by corruption around the world, while the direct experience of those polled points to highest levels of bribery in the police and the judiciary." The poll found that the poor of countries suffer the most from corruption: "Corruption acts as a regressive tax that increases income inequality."

Votes by Americans ranked the United States in the bottom 10 countries, out of 60 countries total, whose citizens thought government efforts at cleaning up corruption were successful. As the Democrats and Republicans seem to take turns weekly fending off scandals, does this surprise anyone?

Incongruously, however, at the same time as people express their frustration with government, a great many Americans are calling for almost complete socialism--federal controls over healthcare, the environment, work conditions, etc.