Best of
Government

2007

Separation of Church & State: What the Founders Meant


David Barton - 2007
    Where did this phrase originate? Was it always meant to prohibit expressions of religious faith in public settings as many claim today? Learn the answers to these questions and discover the Founding Fathers own words and intents in this book! With all these resources, you will be able to clearly understand the original intent of the Founding Fathers and be able to share those beliefs with others! This book is the accompaniment to the DVD/Video/CD/Cassette "The Foundations of American Government."

The Nine: Inside the Secret World of the Supreme Court


Jeffrey Toobin - 2007
    An institution at a moment of transition, the Court now stands at a crucial point, with major changes in store on such issues as abortion, civil rights, and church-state relations. Based on exclusive interviews with the justices and with a keen sense of the Court’s history and the trajectory of its future, Jeffrey Toobin creates in The Nine a riveting story of one of the most important forces in American life today.

Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation


F. William Engdahl - 2007
    Control the food and you control the people. It's no ordinary book about the perils of GMO. Engdahl takes the reader into the corridors of power, into the back rooms of labs, behind closed doors of corporate boardrooms. He cogently reveals a diabolical world of profit-driven political intrigue, government corruption and coercion, where genetic manipulation and the patenting of life forms are used to gain control over food production worldwide. If it often reads as a crime story, that should be no surprise: that is what it is. Engdahl's carefully argued critique goes far beyond the familiar controversies surrounding the practice of genetic modification as a scientific technique. An eye-opener and must-read for all those committed to social justice and World peace. http: //globalresearch.ca/books/SoD.html

A Young People's History of the United States, Volume 2: Class Struggle to the War On Terror


Howard Zinn - 2007
    A Young People's History of the United States is also a companion volume to The People Speak, the film adapted from A People's History of the United States and Voices of a People’s History of the United States.Beginning with a look at Christopher Columbus’s arrival through the eyes of the Arawak Indians, then leading the reader through the struggles for workers’ rights, women’s rights, and civil rights during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and ending with the current protests against continued American imperialism, Zinn in the volumes of A Young People’s History of the United States presents a radical new way of understanding America’s history. In so doing, he reminds readers that America’s true greatness is shaped by our dissident voices, not our military generals.

The Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution with Bill of Rights plus The Articles of Confederation


Various - 2007
    Constitution (text only)Preamble and Articles | Bill of Rights | Subsequent Amendments II. Constitution (with analysis)Constitution: Preamble | Article 1 | Article 2 | Article 3 | Article 4 | Article 5 | Article 6 | Article 7Amendments: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 III. History, Clauses, and Interpretation Founding Documents: Declaration of Independence (1776) | Articles of Confederation (1777) | Constitution (1787) | Bill of Rights (1789) Formation: History of the Constitution | Articles of Confederation | Annapolis Convention | Philadelphia Convention | New Jersey Plan | Virginia Plan | Connecticut Compromise | Signatories Adoption: Massachusetts Compromise | Federalist Papers Amendments: Bill of Rights | Ratified | Unsuccessful | Conventions to propose | State ratifying conventions Clauses: Appointments | Case or controversy | Citizenship | Commerce | Commerce (Dormant) | Confrontation | Contract | Copyright | Due Process | Equal Protection | Establishment | Exceptions | Free Exercise | Full Faith and Credit | Impeachment | Natural-born citizen | Necessary and Proper | No Religious Test | Presentment | Privileges and Immunities (Art. IV) | Privileges or Immunities (14th Amend.) | Speech or Debate | Supremacy | Suspension | Takings Clause | Taxing and Spending | Territorial | War Powers Interpretation: Congressional power of enforcement | Double jeopardy | Enumerated powers | Incorporation of the Bill of Rights | Nondelegation | Preemption | Separation of church and state | Separation of powers | Constitutional theory | Executive privilege III. Government Before Constitution: Colonial Government in America | US under Articles of Confederation | Constitutional Convention | Ratification Constitution: Three Branches of Government | Federal System | General Provisions | Bill of Rights | Later Amendments Present Government Structure: Legislative Branch | Executive Branch | Judicial Branch President: Vice President | Cabinet Congress: Senate | House Federal courts: Supreme Court | Chief Justice | Associate Justices Elections: Presidential elections | Midterm elections Political Parties: Democratic | Republican | Third parties - Features Clear and concise explanations. Search for words or phrases. Add Bookmarks Text annotation and mark-up Access the guide anytime, anywhere - at home, on the train, in the subway. Use your down time to prepare for an exam. Always have the guide available for a quick reference.

Bill of Wrongs: The Executive Branch's Assault on America's Fundamental Rights


Molly Ivins - 2007
    Sadly, today we’re living in a time when dissent is equated with giving aid to terrorists, when any of us can be held in prison without even knowing the charges against us, and when our constitutional rights are being interpreted by a president who calls himself “The Decider.” Ivins got the idea for Bill of Wrongs while touring America to honor her promise to speak out, gratis, at least once a month in defense of free speech. In her travels Ivins met ordinary people going to extraordinary measures to safeguard our most precious liberties, and when she first started writing this book, she intended it to be a joyous celebration of those heroes. But during the Bush years, the project’s focus changed. Ivins became concerned about threats to our cherished freedoms–among them the Patriot Act and the weakening of habeas corpus–and she observed with anger how dissent in the defense of liberties was being characterized as treason by the Bush administration and its enablers.From illegal wiretaps, the unlawful imprisonment of American citizens, and the undermining of freedom of the press to the creeping influence of religious extremism on our national agenda and the erosion of the checks and balances that prevent a president from seizing unitary powers, Ivins and her longtime collaborator, Lou Dubose, co-author of Shrub and Bushwacked, describe the attack on America’s vital constitutional guarantees. With devastating humor and keen eyes for deceit and hypocrisy, they show how severe these incursions have become, and they ask us all to take an active role in protecting the Bill of Rights.In life and on the printed page, Molly Ivins was too cool to offer a posthumous valedictory (or even to take a victory lap for her many triumphs over inane, vainglorious, and addlepated politicos). But in Bill of Wrongs, her final and perhaps greatest book, the irrepressible Molly Ivins really does have the last word.From the Hardcover edition.

Man of Letters


Thomas Sowell - 2007
    These letters begin with Sowell as a graduate student at the University of Chicago in 1960 and conclude with a reflective letter to his fellow economist and longtime friend Walter Williams in 2005.

The Impossible Patriotism Project


Linda Skeers - 2007
    Molly dresses up like the Statue of Liberty and Kareem draws a map of the United States. But Caleb can’t think of a single way to show what patriotism means to him. Besides, his dad can’t even come to Parents’ Night because he is far away, serving as a soldier. Then, when Caleb really starts thinking about his dad and what he is doing for the country, inspiration finally strikes! Here is a book that celebrates the men and women serving the United States in the armed forces today, as well as the families that give up so much to support them. First-time author Linda Skeers and Ard Hoyt, illustrator of John Lithgow’s I’m a Manatee, have created a classic story, full of warmth and humor, that will resonate with families all across the country.

State of the Union Addresses of Ronald Reagan


Ronald Reagan - 2007
    State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan January 26, 1982State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan January 25, 1983State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan January 25, 1984State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan February 6, 1985State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan February 4, 1986State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan January 27, 1987State of the Union Address Ronald Reagan January 25, 1988

The Fate of Major André: A Letter from Alexander Hamilton to John Laurens


Alexander Hamilton - 2007
    Of Hamilton's numerous historical sketches, the most celebrated is this letter to Colonel Laurens giving an account of the fate of Major André, in which refinement of feeling and inflexible impartiality of view are alike conspicuous.Hamilton was with Washington when he was first apprized of the flight of that traitor Benedict Arnold and the arrest of Andre. In reference to the fall of the British officer who was thus involved in the punishment which Arnold deserved, Hamilton, moved by a generous sympathy for the fate of one so young, so chivalrous, and so promising, exerted his utmost efforts to discover some legal and honorable expedient to save him. When all proved unavailing, he felt deeply for the unfortunate officer, and published a narrative of the facts in the case, in a letter to his friend Laurens, which reflects equal credit, both upon his intellect and his heart. It was a model of elegance, clearness, simplicity and force in the art of narration.The fate of Major Andre made a profound sensation in England, though as little as possible was said about it publicly. The King made such poor amends as he could; he conferred a baronetcy on Andre's brother, and erected a monument to him in Westminster Abbey, with an inscription in which the nature of the service in which Andre perished, and the fate which befell him, are alike concealed beneath a decent veil of words. It was many a long year before the question of whether or no he came under the description of a spy could be approached with even the appearance of calmness, and many more before his death ceased to be called "the only blot on Washington's fame." His enemies had wept for him; his friends might be excused if they found it hard to be just. Many of us have stood before his monument in the Abbey. As one stands there and thinks of Andre's story, those great words, Duty, Glory, and Honour, take a more solemn meaning, and treachery and infidelity are seen in all their hideous nakedness. It is said that Benedict Arnold was once seen standing there.Hamilton was against the harsh decision, and it is well known that a majority of these officers themselves, catching the wide-spread sympathy of the hour, were inclined to revoke the sentence, had it not been for the counter and too ascendant influence of Greene and Lafayette.

God and Government: An Insider's View on the Boundaries Between Faith and Politics


Charles W. Colson - 2007
    How should Christians live their faith in the public arena? This updated edition of Charles Colson's blockbuster Kingdoms in Conflict includes a new foreword, new stories and recent court cases in place of older examples, and a revised opening that depicts today's current international climate marked by terrorism and the conflict with radical Islam.

Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy


Charlie Savage - 2007
    For anyone who cares about America’s past, present, and future, Takeover is essential reading.

Who Was Jesus?: Fingerprints of the Christ


D.M. Murdock - 2007
    Murdock, also known as Acharya S, author of the controversial book "The Christ Conspiracy," examines evidence for the life of Jesus Christ, revealing that with Christianity what you see is not always what you get!

Great Debate: Advocates and Opponents of the American Constitution


Thomas L. Pangle - 2007
    6 Audio CD's Total.

Factions and Finance in China: Elite Conflict and Inflation


Victor C. Shih - 2007
    Drawing from interviews, statistical analysis, and archival research, this book is the first to develop a framework with which to analyze how elite politics impact both monetary and banking policies. This book serves as an important reference point for all subsequent work on Chinese banking.

ABCD: When People Care Enough to ACT


Mike Green - 2007
    Enriching each other, the book and the DVD provide clear exposition of ABCD organizing principles and best practices, examples of ABCD organizing in action, learning exercises, worksheets, and reflections from experienced practitioners of ABCD organizing. Main topics include: ABCD Principles & Practice Discovering What People Care About Mobilizing A Community's Assets People & Programs: We Need Both Leading By Stepping Back: The Role Of Governments & Agencies Inclusion: There Is No One We Do Not Need John McKnight's Reflections On ABCD organizing. Lessons from Ashville NC, Marque.e, MI, Laconia, NH, Savannah, GA, Ames, IO."

From Foot Soldier to Finance Minister: Takahashi Korekiyo, Japan's Keynes


Richard J. Smethurst - 2007
    Takahashi is considered Japan's Keynes in many circles because of the forward-thinking (and controversial) fiscal and monetary policies--including deficit financing, currency devaluation, and lower interest rates--that he implemented to help Japan rebound from the Great Depression and move toward a modern economy.Richard J. Smethurst's engaging biography underscores the profound influence of the seven-time finance minister on the political and economic development of Japan by casting new light on Takahashi's unusual background, unique talents, and singular experiences as a charismatic and cosmopolitan financial statesman.Along with the many fascinating personal episodes--such as working as a houseboy in California and running a silver mine in the Andes--that molded Takahashi and his thinking, the book also highlights four major aspects of Takahashi's life: his unorthodox self-education, his two decades of service at the highest levels of government, his pathbreaking economic and political policies before and during the Depression, and his efforts to stem the rising tide of militarism in the 1930s. Deftly weaving together archival sources, personal correspondence, and historical analysis, Smethurst's study paints an intimate portrait of a key figure in the history of modern Japan.

Darwin Day in America: How Our Politics and Culture Have Been Dehumanized in the Name of Science


John G. West - 2007
    In criminal justice, these experts denied the existence of free will and proposed replacing punishment with invasive “cures” such as the lobotomy. In welfare, they proposed eliminating the poor by sterilizing those deemed biologically unfit. In business, they urged the selection of workers based on racist theories of human evolution and the development of advertising methods to more effectively manipulate consumer behavior. In sex education, they advocated creating a new sexual morality based on “normal mammalian behavior” without regard to longstanding ethical and religious imperatives. Based on extensive research with primary sources and archival materials, John G. West’s captivating Darwin Day in America tells the story of how American public policy has been corrupted by scientistic ideology. Marshaling fascinating anecdotes and damning quotations, West’s narrative explores the far-reaching consequences for society when scientists and politicians deny the essential differences between human beings and the rest of nature. It also exposes the disastrous results that ensue when experts claiming to speak for science turn out to be wrong. West concludes with a powerful plea for the restoration of democratic accountability in an age of experts.

Broken Government: How Republican Rule Destroyed the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial Branches


John W. Dean - 2007
    Dean, an outspoken and perceptive critic of the current Bush administration and author of the New York Times bestsellers Conservatives Without Conscience and Worse Than Watergate, faults Republican mismanagement for the current government crises.

The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy: And How to End It


David Icke - 2007
    His latest book is an extraordinary and unique compilation of his 20 years of research in more than 40 countries, as he connects the dots between apparently unconnected people, events and subjects to show how everything fits together -- and to what end. The interest all over the world in David Icke's work is simply exploding and, with this book, the world's most controversial man is destinated to reach a still greater audience.

America's Survival Guide


Michael Warren - 2007
    Supported by extensive research and fuelled by a true passion and respect for the profound vision of America's Founding Fathers, Michael Warren proves how they have guided us in our journey to become the greatest and most free nation in the world. He exposes how our knowledge of our principles and history has eroded to the point of near non-existence-and that this is a threat to our survival much more serious than what may come to us from outside our borders. Warren proposes thoughtful and needed reforms to enable America to rise above the impending doom from within and reclaim the greatness envisioned by the Founding Fathers.

Young J. Edgar: Hoover, the Red Scare, and the Assault on Civil Liberties


Kenneth D. Ackerman - 2007
    Edgar Hoover was 24 years old, a New York City postal clerk discovered sixteen bombs wrapped in individual packages — America's first instance of homegrown terrorism. Then-Attorney General Palmer vowed a crackdown and enlisted Hoover as his deputy. Amid the hysteria, details of abuses emerged, Palmer fell, and the rise of J. Edgar Hoover began. Hoover's drive to gain immense power, as well as his coolness and calculation, is explored in Young J. Edgar. With the Palmer raid a as a lens through which to view the terror–hysteria of post-9/11 America, Young J. Edgar reaches the heart of our modern debate over personal freedom in a time of war and fear.

The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration: Principles and Challenges in America


Edward J. Erler - 2007
    Character_the capacity to live a life befitting republican citizens_is, as the Founders knew, crucial to the debate about immigration. The Founders on Citizenship and Immigration seeks to revive the issue of republican character in the current immigration debate and to elucidate the constitutional foundations of American citizenship. Published in cooperation with the Claremont Institute.

Deterrence and Crime Prevention: Reconsidering the Prospect of Sanction


David M. Kennedy - 2007
    Deterrence, whether through preventive patrol by police officers or stiff prison sentences for violent offenders, is the principal mechanism through which the central feature of criminal justice, the exercise of state authority, works it is hoped -- to diminish offending and enhance public safety. And however well we think deterrence works, it clearly often does not work nearly as well as we would like and often at very great cost.Drawing on a wide range of scholarly literatures and real-world experience, Kennedy argues that we should reframe the ways in which we think about and produce deterrence. He argues that many of the ways in which we seek to deter crime in fact facilitate offending; that simple steps such as providing clear information to offenders could transform deterrence; that communities may be far more effective than legal authorities in deterring crime; that apparently minor sanctions can deter more effectively than draconian ones; that groups, rather than individual offenders, should often be the focus of deterrence; that existing legal tools can be used in unusual but greatly more effective ways; that even serious offenders can be reached through deliberate moral engagement; and that authorities, communities, and offenders no matter how divided share and can occupy hidden common ground.The result is a sophisticated but ultimately common-sense and profoundly hopeful case that we can and should use new deterrence strategies to address some of our most important crime problems. Drawing on and expanding on the lessons of groundbreaking real-world work like Boston 's Operation Ceasefire credited with the "Boston Miracle" of the 1990s "Deterrence and Crime Prevention" is required reading for scholars, law enforcement practitioners, and all with an interest in public safety and the health of communities.

The Citizen's Almanac: Fundamental Documents, Symbols, and Anthems of the United States


U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services - 2007
    civic history, rights and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship, biographical details on prominent foreign-born Americans, landmark decisions of the Supreme Court, presidential speeches on citizenship, and several of our founding documents including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

Conservative Party and Anglo-German Relations, 1905-1914


Frank McDonough - 2007
    Drawing on a wide variety of original sources, it examines the Conservative response to the German threat, and argues that the response of the Conservative Party towards Germany showed a marked absence of open hostility towards Germany. Overall, this important new study provides a powerful and overdue corrective to the traditional depiction of the Conservative Party in opposition as 'Scaremongers' and the chief source of Germanophobic views among the British political parties.

Utter Incompetents: Ego and Ideology in the Age of Bush


Thomas Oliphant - 2007
    Bush touched, from the very early flop on energy policy to the walking fiasco named Alberto Gonzales. Even adding the tragicomedy of Hurricane Katrina doesn’t come close to describing the governmental catastrophe of the Bush administration. The collapse of the Bush presidency is a broadly acknowledged fact. Everyone who’s anyone, from politicians to comedians, has taken shots at this ever-growing target. By any fair assessment, much of the past seven years has been disastrous. The challenge is to understand why.Few analysts have stepped aside, abandoning easy hits and quick gibes, and analyzed the totality of the Bush Administration.  Now, bestselling author Thomas Oliphant does just that.  With his keen, experienced eye, he asks the simplest of questions: “How could some of the smartest, most experienced and politically savvy people in Washington screw up so badly?”After all, this was the team led by a man with an MBA.  They came to Washington with the mission to run the government in an orderly, businesslike manner.  Instead, chaos has ensued.  How did this happen?From domestic policy to international goofs, from soaring energy prices to the health care crisis---Thomas Oliphant tackles it all, closely inspecting the initial projections and promises of Bush and his key senior officials, and the ways in which they lost control of these well-publicized and overconfident plans.  By comparing their rhetoric to their dismal record, Oliphant provides a historic analysis of the Bush administration---showing how a system so seemingly competent and mechanized could fail so miserably, and with such frequency.In the wake of the Republican loss of Congress  and unmet promises for future change, and as the presidential campaign to choose Bush’s successor heats up, Oliphant provides a rigorous examination of what went wrong and what this means for the next administration. Utter Incompetents is at its heart a searching look at the George W. Bush administration, its policies, and the legacy that it will leave behind on January 20, 2009.It is also the substantive backdrop for the next president.

Richard Ross: Architecture of Authority


John B. MacArthur - 2007
    From a Montessori preschool to churches, mosques and diverse civic spaces including a Swedish courtroom, the Iraqi National Assembly hall and the United Nations, the images in "Architecture of Authority" build to ever harsher manifestations of power: an interrogation room at Guantánamo, segregation cells at Abu Ghraib, and finally, a capital punishment death chamber.Though visually cool, this work deals with hot-button issues—from the surveillance that increasingly intrudes on post-9/11 life to the abuse of power and the erosion of individual liberty. The connections among the various architectures are striking, as Ross points out: "The Santa Barbara Mission confessional and the LAPD robbery homicide interrogation rooms are the same intimate proportions. Both are made to solicit a confession in exchange for some form of redemption." Essay by "Harper's Magazine" publisher, John R. MacArthur, also a columnist for the Toronto "Globe and Mail."

America's Presidents: Facts, Photos, and Memorabilia from the Nation's Chief Executives


Chuck Wills - 2007
    Bush-their personalities, their politics, and their significant contributions.

Dictatorship


Jennifer Fandel - 2007
    Dictatorship looks at the core beliefs of its government, considers the pros and cons, and introduces the leaders that have embodied it across the globe.

Wiring Vietnam: The Electronic Wall


Anthony J. Tambini - 2007
    Army deployed electronic sensors along the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos, Cambodia, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam in order to detect and track troop and vehicle movements. At approximately 8,100 miles in length, monitoring this sophisticated logistics network--consisting of roads, trails, vehicle parks, petroleum pipelines, and storage areas--was no mean task. Since the work was classified as "Secret" until only recently, a comprehensive story of the electronic sensors used in Southeast Asia has never been completely told. Wiring Vietnam: The Electronic Wall relates the history of the electronic detection system that was deployed during the Vietnam War. Author Anthony Tambini covers everything from the sensors used to detect seismic signals from nearby troop and vehicle movements to audio sensors that were deployed to pick up conversations of troops as well as traffic noise of vehicles to engine ignition detectors. Beginning with the conception, development, and implementation of these sensors, Tambini then relates how, ultimately, the various signals the sensors collected were transmitted to orbiting aircraft that would process and retransmit the signals onward to a base in Thailand. There the data underwent further analysis for possible targets that could be attacked from the air. Anthony Tambini, a member of the 25th Tactical Fighter Squadron based at Ubon, Thailand in the late 1960s, was part of an organization that dropped these sensors. His firsthand perspective, along with rarely seen photographs of the actual sensors used, will provide those interested in the Vietnam War and modern warfare with a clear picture of an undocumented side of history.

The Declaration of Independence & The Constitution of the United States: An Unabridged Production (Includes the full text of each document)


Frank Langella - 2007
    As justification for severing ties with England, The Declaration presented a list of grievances against the King and declared the colonies to be sovereign states.We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.Ratified in 1788, The Constitution remains a shining example of patriotism and compromise. In outlining the power of the three branches of government and establishing the rights of all Americans, The Constitution united the 13 independent states and set forth the official viewpoint of a newly unified nation. Its most significant and insightful feature is that it can always be amended.