Bad for democracy

Sample

Jack Goldsmith

Conventional wisdom holds that 9/11 sounded the death knell for presidential accountability. In fact, the opposite is true. The novel powers that our post-9/11 commanders in chief assumed--endless detentions, military commissions, state secrets, broad surveillance, and more--are the culmination of a two-century expansion of presidential authority. But these new powers have been met with thousands of barely visible legal and political constraints--enforced by congressional committees, government lawyers, courts, and the media--that have transformed our unprecedentedly powerful presidency into one that is also unprecedentedly accountable. These constraints are the key to understanding why Obama continued the Bush counterterrorism program, and in this light, the events of the last decade should be seen as a victory, not a failure, of American constitutional government. We have actually preserved the framers' original idea of a balanced constitution, despite the vast increase in presidential power made necessary by this age of permanent emergency.--Publisher description.

Sample

Jerome R. Corsi

Posits that John F. Kennedy was not killed by a lone assassin. At the height of his popularity, John F. Kennedy was gunned down in a Dallas motorcade--a tragedy widely regarded as the end of America's post-war "age of innocence." At the time, a concerted effort was made by the Warren Commission, appointed by the Lyndon Johnson White House, to officially lay the entire blame on "lone gunman" Lee Harvey Oswald. Fifty years later, recently declassified documents shed new light on what really happened. In decades of meticulous research, investigative journalist Jerome Corsi has sorted through mountains of evidence--hundreds of books, tens of thousands of documents, several films, and countless photographs. Dissecting the Warren Commission's conclusion, he carefully separates the unlikely from the real, and speculation from facts. Having personally known or met many of the key players in the assassination drama, including a former top Soviet bloc intelligence official, Corsi reveals shocking information for the first time. He sets a new standard for JFK assassination research, demanding that future researchers understand the political forces leading up to an unthinkable event that marked a profound change in America and the world.--From publisher description.

Sample

Steve Freeman and Joel Bleifuss

According to the official count—the number of votes tallied, not necessarily the number of votes cast—George W. Bush beat Kerry by a margin of three million votes. The exit polls, however, had predicted a margin of victory for Kerry of five million votes. Occurences of vote manipulation, vote suppression, and outright election fraud were alleged at the local level in many precincts throughout Ohio and other "battleground" states. Where the controversy of the 2000 presidential election had come about as the result of an extremely close race, in 2004 the irregularities were widespread and appeared to follow a clear pattern. Why then did the Democrats concede the election early the next morning? Why has there been no investigation by any major news organization? What does it say about our democracy when the slot machine industry is more strictly regulated than our electronic voting machines? Freeman and Bleifuss analyze the available data, and attempt to answer the question of whether America's sitting president was inaugurated after winning, or losing the 2004 presidential race. – from publisher description.

Sample

Gleaves Whitney

"The volume is prefaced by a detailed introduction discussing the importance of the valedictory address and the power of presidential rhetoric, and each speech is preceded by a brief contextualizing statement. In the last official words of each president, readers will find cautions, hopes, and suggestions relevant for today's world and future generations. American Presidents is an invaluable reference, especially for scholars of the presidency, but also for anyone interested in the history, politics, and culture of the United States."--BOOK JACKET.