The Book of the Month is:
Shadow of Power , A Paul Madriani Novel - By Steve Martini
The Supreme Court is one of our most sacred—and secretive—public institutions. But sometimes secrets can lead to cover-ups with very deadly consequences.
Provided by Harper Collins
The Political Mind: Why You Can’t Understand 21st-Century Politics with an 18th-Century Brain
- George Lakoff
The author of Don’t Think of an Elephant! explains the science behind how we make political decisions—and shows how to put that science to work.
The Essential Chomsky --by Noam Chomsky
The Essential Chomsky assembles the core of his most important writings, including excerpts from his most influential texts over the past forty years. Here is an unprecedented, comprehensive overview of Chomsky’s thought.
The Making of FDR: The Story of Stephen T. Early, America's First Modern Press Secretary --by Linda Lotridge Levin
Though practically unknown to the public today, Stephen T. Early was one of the most influential men in mid-twentieth-century America. As the press secretary of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, he was chiefly responsible for getting the president’s message out to the press and he helped to shape Roosevelt’s image in the eyes of Americans through the dramatic years of the Great Depression and World War II. It is no exaggeration to say that, had there been no Stephen Early, the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the longest-serving president in U.S. history, would probably have been limited to one term.
Losing our Democracy --by Mark Green
With Losing Our Democracy, Mark Green reveals how the far and religious right, a coalition of big business and, most shockingly, President Bush and his White House are in the process of undermining our democracy. With careful, reasoning and brilliant style, he provides anecdotes and extensive evidence which demonstrate how our liberty has fallen under attack. Subjects include voter suppression, religious, corporate, and legislative tyranny, so-called tort reform, the problem of purchased politicians and the far right’s Stone-Age approach to race and civil rights
The Seventh Decade: The New Shape of Nuclear Danger (American Empire Project) -- by Jonathan Schell
In Hostile Takeover, David Sirota, a major new voice in American politics, seeks to open the eyes of ordinary Americans to the fact that corporate interests have undermined democracy, aided and abetted by their lackeys in our allegedly representative government. At a time when more and more of America’s major political leaders are being indicted or investigated for corruption, Sirota takes readers on a journey that shows how all of this nefarious behavior happened right under our noses—and how the high-profile scandals are merely one product of a political system and debate wholly owned by Big Money interests. Sirota considers major public issues that feel intractable—like spiraling health care costs, the outsourcing of jobs, the inequities of the tax code, and out-of-control energy prices—and shows how in each case workable solutions are buried under the lies of lobbyists, the influence of campaign cash, and the ubiquitous spin machine financed by Big Business.
Hostile Takeover: How Big Money & Corruption Conquered Our Government--And How We Take It Back David Sirota
In Hostile Takeover, David Sirota, a major new voice in American politics, seeks to open the eyes of ordinary Americans to the fact that corporate interests have undermined democracy, aided and abetted by their lackeys in our allegedly representative government. At a time when more and more of America’s major political leaders are being indicted or investigated for corruption, Sirota takes readers on a journey that shows how all of this nefarious behavior happened right under our noses—and how the high-profile scandals are merely one product of a political system and debate wholly owned by Big Money interests. Sirota considers major public issues that feel intractable—like spiraling health care costs, the outsourcing of jobs, the inequities of the tax code, and out-of-control energy prices—and shows how in each case workable solutions are buried under the lies of lobbyists, the influence of campaign cash, and the ubiquitous spin machine financed by Big Business.
The Squandering of America: How Failure of Our Politics Undermines our Prosperity - Robert Kuttner
Description: The incomes of most Americans today are static or declining. Tens of millions of workers are newly vulnerable to layoffs and outsourcing. Health care and retirement burdens are increasingly being shifted from employers to individuals. Two-income families find they are working longer hours for lower wages, with decreased social support. As wealth has become more concentrated, the economy has become more recklessly speculative, jeopardizing not only the prospects of ordinary Americans, but the solvency of the entire system. What links these trends, writes Robert Kuttner in this provocative, engaging, and necessary book, is the consolidation of political and economic power by a narrow elite, who blocks the ability of government to restore broad prosperity to the majority of citizens.
What Orwell Didn’t Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics - Andras Szanto
Description: To celebrate the 60th anniversary of George Orwells classic essay on propaganda, "Politics and the English Language," this collection contains essays from writers who explore what Orwell didnt--or couldnt--know, from the effects of television and computers to the merger of journalism and entertainment.
Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate (A Progressive Guide to Action) - George Lakoff
Description: Now more than ever, Don't Think of an Elephant is an important resource for progressives in this country. George Lakoff submits that for progressive values to reclaim mainstream America we must transform the language of American politics. "Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world." This book simply details how to reframe the political discussions and language used in the country to reflect the issues that we value. Readable and insightful, this book will open your eyes to what a powerful role language has in American politics today, and how to make your voice more powerful and effect.
Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq’s Green Zone - Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Description: Not to be lost amid the many books on Iraq, Rajiv Chandrasekaran, former Baghdad bureau chief for the Washington Post, gives us a fascinating look at what life inside the Green Zone was like in the first year of post-Saddam Iraq. Here Chandrasekaran’s tragicomic chronicle reveals the bungling of inexperienced officials employed to rebuild a war-torn Iraq. Riveting, yet painful to read, this insightful book gives us a picture of how things went so wrong so fast.
Power, Faith, and Fantasy - Michael B. Oren
Description: From the first cannonballs fired by American warships at North African pirates to the conquest of Falluja by the Marines — from the early American explorers who probed the sources of the Nile to the diplomats who strove for Arab-Israeli peace — the United States has been dramatically involved in the Middle East. For well over two centuries, American statesmen, merchants, and missionaries, both men and women, have had a profound impact on the shaping of this crucial region. Yet their story has never been told until now. Drawing on thousands of government documents and personal letters, featuring original maps and over sixty photographs, this book reconstructs the diverse and remarkable ways in which Americans have interacted with this alluring yet often hostile land stretching from Morocco to Iran, from the Persian Gulf to the Bosporus. Covering over 230 years of history, Power, Faith, and Fantasy is an indispensable work for anyone interested in understanding the roots of America's Middle East involvement today.
Whose Freedom?: The Battle Over America’s Most Important Idea - George Lakoff
Description: In Whose Freedom?, Lakoff surveys the political landscape and offers an essential map of the Republican battle plan that has captured the hearts and minds of Americans — and shows how progressives can fight to reinvigorate this most beloved of American political ideas.
Day of Reckoning: How Hubris, Ideology, and Greed are Tearing America Apart - Patrick Buchanan
Description: America is coming apart at the seams. Forces foreign and domestic seek an end to U.S. sovereignty and independence. Before us looms the prospect of an America breaking up along the lines of race, ethnicity, class and culture. In Day of Reckoning, Pat Buchanan reveals the true existential crisis of the nation and shows how President Bush’s post-9/11 conversion to an ideology of “democratism” led us to the precipice of strategic disaster abroad and savage division at home.
How To Live A Low-Carbon Life - Chris Goodall
Description: How to Live a Low-Carbon Life provides the first comprehensive, one-stop reference guide to calculating individual carbon emissions and it lays out clear plans for how individuals can reduce their emissions. Covering all aspects of modern life from transport to home heating to food sources and the vexing issue of vacations, the book provides easy-to-use tables for conducting a personal lifestyle carbon audit.
Easy reference tables enable rapid carbon footprint calculations, and a companion website houses downloadable spreadsheets to facilitate a complete lifestyle carbon audit as well as up-to-the minute information on new products and carbon-reducing technologies.
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Cracking The Code: How to Win Hearts, Change Minds, and Restore America’s Original Vision - Thom Hartmann
Description: In Cracking the Code, Hartmann breaks down the art and science of effective communication to help you begin to build a better America. While intellectuals like George Lakoff and Michael Tomasky put the “framing” issue at the center of the progressive agenda, Hartmann takes the conversation a crucial step further by showing progressives how to actually put communication theory into practice. Drawing on his rich background as a psychotherapist, advertising executive, and host of a national radio talk show, he shares with you tools to become conscious about the ways people think, sort, and understand the world. More importantly, he shows you how to successfully communicate your values and ideas to others.
The Last Days Of Democracy - Elliott Cohen
Description: In this chilling account of an America in political and cultural decline, media critics show how mainstream media corporations like CNN, Fox, and NBC (General Electric) together with giant telecoms like Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T have become administration pawns in a well-organized effort to hijack America.
Building Powerful Community Organizations: A Personal Guide to Creating Groups That Can Solve Problems and Change the World - Michael Jacoby Brown
Description: Intended for individuals who want to start, strengthen, or revitalize a group to address a community issue, this indispensable guide includes a series of practical steps that help build a successful community organization and offers sample cases that more clearly illustrate each step. In addition to addressing common problems that are often encountered, the book also discusses how to run engaging meetings, recruit and motivate community members, raise necessary funds, and turn a passion into a powerful tool for social change.
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man - John Perkins
Description: Economic hit men, John Perkins writes, are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization. John Perkins should know — he was an economic hit man for an international consulting firm that worked to convince developing countries to accept enormous loans and to funnel that money to U.S. corporations. Once these countries were saddled with huge debts, the American government and international aid agencies were able to request their pound of flesh in favors, including access to natural resources, military cooperation, and political support. Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is the story of one man's experiences inside the intrigue, greed, corruption and little-known government and corporate activities that America has been involved in since World War II, and which have dire consequences for the future of democracy and the world.
The World without Us - Alan Weisman
Description: In this far-reaching narrative, Weisman explains how our massive infrastructure would collapse and finally vanish without human presence; which everyday items may become immortalized as fossils; how copper pipes and wiring would be crushed into mere seams of reddish rock; why some of our earliest buildings might be the last architecture left; and how plastic, bronze sculpture, radio waves, and some man-made molecules may be our most lasting gifts to the universe. The World without Us reveals how, just days after humans disappear, floods in New York's subways would start eroding the city's foundations, and how, as the world's cities crumble, asphalt jungles would give way to real ones. It describes the distinct ways that organic and chemically treated farms would revert to wild, how billions more birds would flourish, and how cockroaches in unheated cities would perish without us. Drawing on the expertise of engineers, atmospheric scientists, art conservators, zoologists, oil refiners, marine biologists, astrophysicists, religious leaders from rabbis to the Dali Lama, and paleontologists — who describe a pre-human world inhabited by mega fauna like giant sloth that stood taller than mammoths — Weisman illustrates what the planet might be like today, if not for us. From places already devoid of humans (a last fragment of primeval European forest; the Korean DMZ; Chernobyl), Weisman reveals Earth's tremendous capacity for self-healing. As he shows which human devastations are indelible, and which examples of our highest art and culture would endure longest, Weisman's narrative ultimately drives toward a radical but persuasive solution that needn't depend on our demise.
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth - Tim Flannery
Description: Sometime this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all other natural factors. Over the past decade, the world has seen the most powerful El Nino ever recorded, the most devastating hurricane in two hundred years, the hottest European summer on record (which killed twenty-six thousand people in two months), the first South Atlantic hurricane ever, and one of the worst storm seasons ever experienced in Florida. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Originally somewhat of a global warming skeptic, Tim Flannery spent several years researching the topic and offers a connect-the-dots approach for a reading public who has received patchy or misleading information on the subject.
The Shock Doctrine ˜ The Rise of Disaster Capitalism - Naomi Klein
Description: In her groundbreaking reporting from Iraq, Naomi Klein exposed how the trauma of the invasion was being exploited to remake the country in the interest of foreign corporations. She called it “disaster capitalism.” Covering Sri Lanka in the wake of the tsunami and New Orleans post-Katrina, she witnessed something remarkably similar. People still reeling from catastrophe were being hit again, this time with economic “shock therapy,” losing their land and homes to rapid-fire corporate makeovers. In Blank Is Beautiful, Klein explores the deeply rooted impulse to erase what is inconvenient and start over from scratch. This journey takes her back to two formative experiments in the 1950s, both funded by the U.S. government. One was a covert university research project in Montreal that blanked the minds of psychiatric patients through sensory deprivation and electroshock—the basis of torture techniques from Pinochet’s Chile to Guantánamo Bay. The other was a program that turned the University of Chicago’s economics department into a factory for developing world politicians. Guided by Milton Friedman, students learned to remake their countries as laissez-faire utopias—but only after what was there had been wiped away.
Not on Our Watch: The Mission to End Genocide in Darfur and Beyond - Don Cheadle
Description: Shocked and enraged by the ongoing genocide in Darfur, Cheadle teamed up with leading activist Prendergast to focus the world's attention on the suffering and violence there and offer six strategies readers themselves can implement to help make a difference in the fate of a nation.
Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming - Chris Mooney
Description:In Storm World, science writer Chris Mooney follows the careers of leading scientists on either side of the global warming argument through the 2006 hurricane season, tracing how the media, special interests, politics, and the weather itself have skewed and amplified what was already a fraught scientific debate.
The Secret History of the American Empire: Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption - John Perkins
Description: In his stunning memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins detailed his former role as an "economic hit man" in the international corporate skullduggery of a de facto American Empire. This riveting, behind-the-scenes exposé unfolded like a cinematic blockbuster told through the eyes of a man who once helped shape that empire. Now, in The Secret History of the American Empire, Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world and, drawing on interviews with other hit men, jackals, reporters, and activists, examines the current geopolitical crisis. Instability is the norm: It's clear that the world we've created is dangerous and no longer sustainable. How did we get here? Who's responsible? What good have we done and at what cost? And what can we do to change things for the next generations?
The Guerilla Art Kit - Keri Smith
Description: We are living in what some have called a golden age of self-expression. The explosion of user-created content on blogs and social networking sites moved Time magazine to name "You" their 2006 person of the year. But while we may be spending a lot more time in virtual worlds, we have not lost the urge to make our physical world more meaningful. By leaving art and ideas in public places, you can affect someone’s day—change their mood or their mind—and maybe even change the world in the process!
A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency - Glenn Greenwald
Description: What will be the legacy of President George Walker Bush? In this fascinating, timely book, Glenn Greenwald examines the Bush presidency and its long-term effect on the nation. What began on shaky, uncertain ground and was bolstered and propelled by tragedy, has ultimately faltered and failed on the back of the dichotomous worldview—good versus evil—that once served it so well. In A Tragic Legacy, Greenwald charts the rise and steep fall of the current administration, dissecting the rhetoric and revealing the faulty ideals upon which George W. Bush built his policies.
A Tragic Legacy is the first true character study of one of the most controversial men ever to hold the office of president. Enlightening, powerful, and eye-opening, this is an in-depth look at the man whose incapability and cowboy logic have left America at risk.
Brilliant!: Shuji Nakamura And the Revolution in Lighting Technology - Bob Johnstone
Description:A revolution in the way we use artificial lighting is underway, one that is every bit as sweeping and significant as Edison’s invention of the light bulb. The technology of light emitting diodes (LEDs) is ready for widespread implementation. Its impacts will include a reduction in energy consumption for electric lighting by up to 80 percent.
Brilliant! tells the story of Shuji Nakamura, a gifted Japanese engineer who came out of nowhere to stun the world with his announcement that he had created the last piece in the puzzle needed for manufacturing solid-state white lights. The invention of this holy-grail product, which promises to make Edison’s light bulb obsolete, had eluded the best minds at the top electronic firms for twenty-five years. Until his startling announcement, Nakamura had not even been on the radar screen of most industry observers.
The Decency Wars: The Campaign to Cleanse American Culture - Frederick S. Lane
Description:In this critical look at current efforts to regulate indecency, the author begins by reviewing the history of cultural concerns regarding technology and decency since the invention of the camera. He then focuses on more recent campaigns conducted by such organization as the Christian Coalition and the Focus on the Family, making a number of interconnected arguments. Among these are his contention that many of these groups cynically use the decency wars as fundraisers and political mobilizers and that efforts to governmentally regulate decency are dangerous and, ultimately, untenable because of the ever- changing nature of technology.
The Stem Cell Controversy: Debating the Issues - Michael Ruse
Description:Stem cell research is headline news. Researchers are eager to move forward, state governments and private foundations are rushing to support it, and the sick and afflicted are desperate for its benefits. Yet powerful forces in our society—led by President George W. Bush—find it morally troubling and they are doing all in their powers to restrict its development beyond a very limited scale. Stem cells have the potential to develop into different parts of the body—skin, bone, nerves, blood, and more. Scientists usually harvest them from aborted fetal tissue or newly fertilized cells. This procedure has proved very unacceptable to the religious right. They argue that even a newly fertilized cell is fully human and has all of the rights of full-grown adults, and they find any use of aborted fetuses abhorrent.
Slaughterhouse: The Shocking Story of Greed, Neglect, And Inhumane Treatment Inside the U.S. Meat Industry - Gail A. Eisnitz
Description: Slaughterhouse is the first book of its kind to explore the impact that unprecedented changes in the meatpacking industry over the last twenty-five years—particularly industry consolidation, increased line speeds, and deregulation—have had on workers, animals, and consumers. It is also the first time ever that workers have spoken publicly about what’s really taking place behind the closed doors of America’s slaughterhouses.
In this new paperback edition, author Gail A. Eisnitz brings the story up to date since the book’s original publication. She describes the ongoing efforts by the Humane Farming Association to improve conditions in the meatpacking industry, media exposés that have prompted reforms resulting in multimillion dollar appropriations by Congress to try to enforce federal inspection laws, and a favorable decision by the Supreme Court to block construction of what was slated to be one of the largest hog factory farms in the country. Nonetheless, Eisnitz makes it clear that abuses continue and much work still needs to be done.
Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies - David L. Robb
Description: While it shouldn't come as any surprise, the only thing Hollywood likes more than a good movie is a good deal. For more than 50 years producers and directors of war and action movies have been getting a GREAT deal from America's armed forces by receiving access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment ad personnel for little or no cost. Of course, the Pentagon wants a few things in return—perhaps the removal of a few words; other times whole scenes must be completely revised, or scrapped. And if the director refuses the requested change? Robb quotes a Pentagon military liaison officer—"Well, I'm taking my toys and I'm going home. I'm taking my tanks and my troops and my location, and I'm going home." From The Right Stuff to Top Gun, and even Lassie, the Pentagon usually gets it way. Here's how, and why.
Bush League Diplomacy: How the Neoconservatives Are Putting the World at Risk - Craig R Eisendrath
Description: Fifty years ago, the United States founded the United Nations, promoted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, used economic aid as a tool for creating stability, and viewed collective agreements and cooperation as the principal methods of sharing the costs and the risks of security. Today, under the leadership of George W. Bush, the main tool of foreign policy is military force, not diplomacy.
In this comprehensive critique of the Bush administration’s handling of international relations, Craig R. Eisendrath and Melvin A. Goodman, both senior fellows at the Center for International Policy, demonstrate the folly and the dangers of abandoning diplomacy and relying on military force as the chief means of conducting U.S. foreign policy. The authors argue that a policy of bullying will sow seeds of resentment and mistrust among our potential allies and encourage nations hostile to our interests to seek nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction as a last-resort method of protecting themselves against a belligerent world power.
The End of America: A Letter of Warning To A Patriot - Naomi Wolf
Description: The Founding Fathers believed that the proper goal of the State was to make men and women free to develop their faculties and to pursue virtue and wisdom. Our Constitution was built around these principles, protecting civil liberties and developing a careful system of checks and balances which protected our freedom from tyranny. Naomi Wolf's latest work, The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot exposes how the escalation of Executive Power has eroded these core values and systems, limiting our Congress to make laws, and our courts to interpret them — a scenario that our Founding Fathers foresaw and warned against. Wolf outlines in this citizen call to action, reminiscent of Thomas Paine's revered Common Sense, the real threats that exist to our civil liberties and explains how working together we can solve the growing threat.
Getting A Grip: Clarity, Creativity and Courage in a World Gone Mad - Frances Moore Lappe
Description: Frances Moore Lappe--author of fifteen books, including three-million-copy bestseller Diet for a Small Planet--distills her world-spanning experience and wisdom in a conversational yet hard-hitting style to create a rare aha book. In nine short chapters, Lappe leaves readers feeling liberated and courageous. She flouts conventional right-versus-left divisions and affirms readers' basic sanity--their intuitive knowledge that it is possible to stop grasping at straws and grasp the real roots of today's crises, from hunger and poverty to climate change and terrorism. Because we are creatures of the mind, says Lappe, it is the power of frame--our core assumptions about how the world works--that determines outcomes.
Crashing the Gate: Netroots, Grassroots, and the Rise of People-Powered Politics - Jerome Armstrong and Markos Moulitsas
Description: Crashing the Gate is a shot across the bow at the political establishment in Washington, DC and a call to re-democratize politics in America. This book lays bare, with passion and precision, how ineffective, incompetent, and antiquated the Democratic Party establishment has become, and how it has failed to adapt and respond to new realities and challenges. The authors save their sharpest knives to go for the jugular in their critique of Republican ideologues who are now running—and ruining—our country.
Written by two of the most popular political bloggers in America, the book hails the new movement—of the netroots, the grassroots, the unorthodox labor unions, the maverick big donors—that is the antidote to old-school politics as usual.
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