From Dictionary.com:

klep‧toc‧ra‧cy /klɛpˈtɒkrəsi/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[klep-tok-ruh-see]
–noun, plural ‑cies.
a government or state in which those in power exploit national resources and steal; rule by a thief or thieves.
[Origin: 1815–20; klepto- (comb. form of Gk kléptēs thief) + -cracy]

America under Republican rule has become a kleptocracy. The Social Security heist the Republicans are plannning is the big knockover, of course, but the Mary Beth has a smaller, but still interesting, example.

Just a little ol' $100 billion or so:

Wampum owns this story, and Mary Beth summarizes the detail. But I can't understand a story that is longer than what you can write on a postcard, so I'm going to try to summarize the story this way:

1. The Department of the Interior leases Indian lands to the oil companies.

2. The oil companies are supposed to pay royalties on the oil they drill to the Indians who own the land.

3. The royalties add up to $100 billion (one hundred billion) dollars.

4. The Department of the Interior and the oil companies screwed up the accounting, and didn't pay the Indians what they owed them.

5. The courts have agreed with the Indians, so the oil companies are on the hook for $100 billion.

6. Enter Saint John Sidney McCain (R-Torture Enablement), who is chair of the Senate Interior Commmittee.

7. McCain is pushing a settlement that will give the Indians 10 cents on the dollar.

8. McCain will thereby gain the undying gratitude of the oil companies, who will waltz off with $100 billion gross--the net to be determined by how much in campaign contributions goes to John Sidney McCain.

Which, as Mary Beth points out, will let McCain burnish his Moderate credentials by fucking the Christianists in 2008--Saint John has a much bigger patron, Big Oil, in play.

Yech. And I thought I had a big scandal with the the $450 million Softwood Lumber Agreement. $100 billion! That's not chump change!