How Would a Patriot Act?

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Doug
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How Would a Patriot Act?

Post by Doug »

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This book is a scathing critique of the Bush administration's erosion of our liberties. It is #1 on Amazon.com and it hasn't even come out yet! It's due out May 15th.

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Book Description
Glenn Greenwald was not a political man. Not liberal, not conservative. Politicians were all the same and it didn’t matter which party was in power. Extremists on both ends canceled each other out, and the United States would essentially remain forever centrist. Or so he thought.
Then came September 11, 2001. Greenwald’s disinterest in politics was replaced by patriotism, and he supported the war in Afghanistan. He also gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt over his decision to invade Iraq. But, as he saw Americans and others being disappeared, jailed and tortured, without charges or legal representation, he began to worry. And when he learned his president had seized the power to spy on American citizens on American soil, without the oversight required by law, he could stand no more. At the heart of these actions, Greenwald saw unprecedented and extremist theories of presidential power, theories that flout the Constitution and make President Bush accountable to no one, and no law.

How Would a Patriot Act? is one man’s story of being galvanized into action to defend America’s founding principles, and a reasoned argument for what must be done. Greenwald’s penetrating words should inspire a nation to defend the Constitution from a president who secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a monarch. If we are to remain a constitutional republic, Greenwald writes, we cannot abide radical theories of executive power, which are transforming the very core of our national character, and moving us from democracy toward despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is the crisis all Americans—liberals and conservatives--now face.

In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald invites us to consider: How would a patriot act today?

About the Author
Glenn Greenwald is a Constitutional law attorney, and author of the political blog, "Unclaimed Territory." Greenwald has written for American Conservative magazine and appeared on a variety of television and radio programs, including C-Span's "Washington Journal," Air America's "Majority Report" and Public Radio International's "To the Point." His reporting and analysis have been credited in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Slate and a variety of other print and online publications.

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Here it is on Amazon.
"We could have done something important Max. We could have fought child abuse or Republicans!" --Oona Hart (played by Victoria Foyt), in the 1995 movie "Last Summer in the Hamptons."
Barbara Fitzpatrick
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Post by Barbara Fitzpatrick »

Well, this patriot is acting by writing letters to editors, and on blogs, sending letters and emails and making phone calls to Senators and Reps - and occasionally other functionaries, donating regularly to ACLU, PFAW, UCS, Mother Jones Investigative Fund, DCCC, & DNC (I'm still ambivalent about the last) and periodically to other political and environmental organizations, registering voters in election years, and voting. And, of course, trying to escape the abject depression that saps strength and leads to fatalistic acceptance.
Barbara Fitzpatrick
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