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Unchecked And Unbalanced

Unchecked And Unbalanced PDF Author: Schwarz O.
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1595587454
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Thirty years after the Church Committee unearthed COINTELPRO and other instances of illicit executive behavior on the domestic and international fronts, the Bush administration has elevated the flaws identified by the committee into first principles of government. Through a constellation of non-public laws and opaque, unaccountable institutions, the current administration has created a “secret presidency” run by classified presidential decisions and orders about national security. A hyperactive Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice is intent on eliminating checks on presidential power and testing that power’s limits. Decisions are routinely executed at senior levels within the civilian administration without input from Congress or the federal courts, let alone our international allies. Secret NSA spying at home is the most recent of these. Harsh treatment of detainees, “extraordinary renditions,” secret foreign prisons, and the newly minted enemy combatant designation have also undermined our values. The resulting policies have harmed counterterrorism efforts and produced few tangible results. With a partisan Congress predictably reluctant to censure a politically aligned president, it is all the more important for citizens themselves to demand disclosure, oversight, and restraint of sweeping claims of executive power. This book is the first step.

Unchecked And Unbalanced

Unchecked And Unbalanced PDF Author: Schwarz O.
Publisher: The New Press
ISBN: 1595587454
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

Book Description
Thirty years after the Church Committee unearthed COINTELPRO and other instances of illicit executive behavior on the domestic and international fronts, the Bush administration has elevated the flaws identified by the committee into first principles of government. Through a constellation of non-public laws and opaque, unaccountable institutions, the current administration has created a “secret presidency” run by classified presidential decisions and orders about national security. A hyperactive Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Justice is intent on eliminating checks on presidential power and testing that power’s limits. Decisions are routinely executed at senior levels within the civilian administration without input from Congress or the federal courts, let alone our international allies. Secret NSA spying at home is the most recent of these. Harsh treatment of detainees, “extraordinary renditions,” secret foreign prisons, and the newly minted enemy combatant designation have also undermined our values. The resulting policies have harmed counterterrorism efforts and produced few tangible results. With a partisan Congress predictably reluctant to censure a politically aligned president, it is all the more important for citizens themselves to demand disclosure, oversight, and restraint of sweeping claims of executive power. This book is the first step.

Unchecked and Unbalanced

Unchecked and Unbalanced PDF Author: Arnold S. Kling
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9781442201248
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 142

Book Description
In Unchecked and Unbalanced, Arnold Kling provides a blueprint for those who are skeptical of political and financial elitism. At the heart of Kling's argument is the growing discrepancy between two phenomena: knowledge is becoming more diffuse, while political power is becoming more concentrated. Kling sees this knowledge/power discrepancy at the heart of the financial crisis of 2008. Financial industry executives and regulatory officials lacked the ability to fathom the complexity of the system that had emerged. And, in response, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke, said that they required still more power, including $700 billion to purchase "toxic assets" from banks. Kling warns that increased concentration of power is a problem, not a panacea, for our modern world and suggests reforms designed to curb the growth of government and allow citizens greater control over the allocation of public goods. Published in cooperation with the Hoover Institution

Presidential Power

Presidential Power PDF Author: Matthew A. Crenson
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393064889
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 448

Book Description
This book explores how American presidents--especially those of the past three decades--have increased the power of the presidency at the expense of democracy.

Democracy in the Dark

Democracy in the Dark PDF Author: Frederick A. O. Schwarz
Publisher: New Press, The
ISBN: 162097052X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 299

Book Description
“A timely and provocative book exploring the origins of the national security state and the urgent challenge of reining it in” (The Washington Post). From Dick Cheney’s man-sized safe to the National Security Agency’s massive intelligence gathering, secrecy has too often captured the American government’s modus operandi better than the ideals of the Constitution. In this important book, Frederick A.O. Schwarz Jr., who was chief counsel to the US Church Committee on Intelligence—which uncovered the FBI’s effort to push Martin Luther King Jr. to commit suicide; the CIA’s enlistment of the Mafia to try to kill Fidel Castro; and the NSA’s thirty-year program to get copies of all telegrams leaving the United States—uses examples ranging from the dropping of the first atomic bomb and the Cuban Missile Crisis to Iran–Contra and 9/11 to illuminate this central question: How much secrecy does good governance require? Schwarz argues that while some control of information is necessary, governments tend to fall prey to a culture of secrecy that is ultimately not just hazardous to democracy but antithetical to it. This history provides the essential context to recent cases from Chelsea Manning to Edward Snowden. Democracy in the Dark is a natural companion to Schwarz’s Unchecked and Unbalanced, cowritten with Aziz Huq, which plumbed the power of the executive branch—a power that often depends on and derives from the use of secrecy. “[An] important new book . . . Carefully researched, engagingly written stories of government secrecy gone amiss.” —The American Prospect

Bush, the Detainees, and the Constitution

Bush, the Detainees, and the Constitution PDF Author: Howard Ball
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 296

Book Description
Focuses on the recent "Enemy Combatant Cases" to provide a stern critique of the legal and constitutional basis for the enormous expansion of presidential power during the Bush administration's "War on Terror," and the challenges (especially in the Supreme Court) that such expansion has inspired.

Madison's Nightmare

Madison's Nightmare PDF Author: Peter M. Shane
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226749428
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
The George W. Bush administration’s ambitious—even breathtaking—claims of unilateral executive authority raised deep concerns among constitutional scholars, civil libertarians, and ordinary citizens alike. But Bush’s attempts to assert his power are only the culmination of a near-thirty-year assault on the basic checks and balances of the U.S. government—a battle waged by presidents of both parties, and one that, as Peter M. Shane warns in Madison’s Nightmare, threatens to utterly subvert the founders’ vision of representative government. Tracing this tendency back to the first Reagan administration, Shane shows how this era of "aggressive presidentialism" has seen presidents exerting ever more control over nearly every arena of policy, from military affairs and national security to domestic programs. Driven by political ambition and a growing culture of entitlement in the executive branch—and abetted by a complaisant Congress, riven by partisanship—this presidential aggrandizement has too often undermined wise policy making and led to shallow, ideological, and sometimes outright lawless decisions. The solution, Shane argues, will require a multipronged program of reform, including both specific changes in government practice and broader institutional changes aimed at supporting a renewed culture of government accountability. From the war on science to the mismanaged war on terror, Madison’s Nightmare outlines the disastrous consequences of the unchecked executive—and issues a stern wake-up call to all who care about the fate of our long democratic experiment.

Remaking the Presidency

Remaking the Presidency PDF Author: Peri E. Arnold
Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 070061818X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 289

Book Description
In a period of American history marked by congressional primacy, presidential passivity, and hostility to governmental action, Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson became iconic presidents through activist leadership. Peri Arnold, a leading presidential scholar, goes beyond the biographers to explain what really set Roosevelt apart from his predecessor William McKinley, how Wilson differed from his successor Warren G. Harding, and how we might better understand the forgettable William Howard Taft in between. This is the first comparative study of the three Progressive Era presidents, examining the context in which they served, the evolving institutional role of the presidency, and the personal characteristics of each man. Arnold explains why Roosevelt and Wilson pursued activist roles, how they gained the means for effective leadership in a role that had not previously supported it, and how each of the three negotiated the choppy crosscurrents of changing institutions and politics with entirely different outcomes. Arnold delineates the American political scene at the turn of the twentieth century, one characterized by a weakening of party organizations, the rise of interest groups and print media, and increasing demands for reform. He shows how the Progressive Era presidents marked a transition from the nineteenth century's checks and balances to the twentieth's expansive presidential role, even though demands for executive leadership were at odds with the presidency's means to take independent action. Each of these presidents was uniquely challenged to experiment with the office's new potential for political independence from party and Congress, and Arnold explains how each had to justify their authority for such experimentation. He also shows how their actions were reflected in specific policy case studies: the Northern Trust and naval modernization under Roosevelt, tariff reform and the Pinchot/Ballinger debate over conservation under Taft, and the Federal Reserve and Federal Trade Commission under Wilson. Ultimately, Arnold shows how the period's ferment affected both the presidency and its incumbents and how they in turn affected progressive politics. More important, he helps us better understand two presidents who continue to inspire politicians of differing stripes and relates their leadership styles to the modern development of the presidency.

History in the Making

History in the Making PDF Author: Kyle Ward
Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com
ISBN: 1458729923
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 606

Book Description
In this thought-provoking study (Library Journal ), historian Kyle Ward-the widely acclaimed co-author of History Lessons-gives us another fascinating look at the biases inherent in the way we learn about our history. Juxtaposing passages from...

Insanity Defense

Insanity Defense PDF Author: Jane Harman
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
ISBN: 1250758785
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

Book Description
An insider's account of America's ineffectual approach to some of the hardest defense and intelligence issues in the three decades since the Cold War ended. Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again but expecting a different result. As a nation, America has cycled through the same defense and intelligence issues since the end of the Cold War. In Insanity Defense, Congresswoman Jane Harman chronicles how four administrations have failed to confront some of the toughest national security policy issues and suggests achievable fixes that can move us toward a safer future. The reasons for these inadequacies are varied and complex, in some cases going back generations. American leaders didn’t realize soon enough that the institutions and habits formed during the Cold War were no longer effective in an increasingly multi-power world transformed by digital technology and riven by ethno-sectarian conflict. Nations freed from the fear of the Soviets no longer deferred to America as before. Yet the United States settled into a comfortable, at times arrogant, position as the lone superpower. At the same time our governing institutions, which had stayed resilient, however imperfectly, through multiple crises, began their own unraveling. Congresswoman Harman was there—as witness, legislator, exhorter, enabler, dissident and, eventually, outside advisor and commentator. Insanity Defense is an insider’s account of decades of American national security—of its failures and omissions—and a roadmap to making significant progress on solving these perennially difficult issues.

The Little Book of Stress Relief

The Little Book of Stress Relief PDF Author: David Posen
Publisher: Firefly Books
ISBN: 1770881344
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 102

Book Description
This interesting, easy to read, and useful book can make a great gift to a friend or colleague who leads a hectic and demanding life and who wants to 'get control.' -- Journal of Family and Community Health (on the first edition) Intense stress is an integral part of modern life and it seems to be getting worse. In controlled doses, stress helps individuals to think faster and perform better but left unchecked and unbalanced it leads to fatigue, helplessness and a variety of unfortunate health complications. With people working harder, anxious about job loss and the faster pace of life, stress is increasing. The Little Book of Stress Relief is a practical book that changes the fundamental thinking and habitual lifestyle choices that contribute to heightened stress levels. There are helpful tips for making informed choices, adjusting how we think and taking the necessary steps to regain control. Organized into 52 short chapters -- one for each week of the year -- of 2 to 3 pages in length, the book uses stories and analogies to describe specific causes of stress, and provides simple concrete things to overcome them. Easy-to-follow activities and exercises lead to the right amount of sleep, deal with procrastination and perfect the art of setting priorities. The book's layout allows readers to follow the tips in any order. Here is a sampling of the topics in The Little Book of Stress Relief: Do You Know Your Signs of Stress? Unrealistic Expectations Peer Pressure and Corporate Culture How to Leave Work at Work Burnout Dealing with Information Overload and Technostress Dealing with Clutter Money and Stress Reframing Other People's Problems Dealing with Anger New Year's Resolutions The Little Book of Stress Relief is a helpful, inspiring and practical guide to alleviating a big problem.