While I can’t embed it in the page like I usually do for you lazy internet folk, I’m going to recommend that you flip over to this interview:
Tremendous piece by Bill Moyers’ Journal on The Wire, The Drug War, the corruption of American ideals, and the inevitable end of the American Empire. It’s all in there. You will learn more from David Simon here than in any civics or business class you have ever taken. So, click over and grow your brain immediately.