Amazon.com
Establishment scions rarely speak so loudly. In this scathing critique of George W. Bush's administration, former Clinton senior aide Sidney Blumenthal lets loose. Despite his long service in government and journalism, often as a relatively quiet behind-the-scenes player, Blumenthal with this book reveals himself unleashed. Whether the topic is intelligence gathering, the Iraq war, the Middle East peace process (or lack thereof), or other topics, Blumenthal doesn't waver. His tone is unrestrained, his dismay palpable, as he catalogs the history of what he terms the Bush administration's "radicalism."
The work consists of an introductory 23-page essay, a compilation of articles that Blumenthal originally authored for Slate.com and British newspaper The Guardian between 2003 and 2006, and finally a short epilogue. Taken together, the writings paint a damning picture of a befuddled, lazy, incompetent, and at times deliberately malevolent administration. No figure in the Bush White House escapes. As Blumenthal summarizes in one passage: "The president aggressive and manipulated, ignorant of his own policies and their consequences, negligent; the secretary of state [Powell] proud, instinctively subordinate, constantly in retreat; the vice president [Cheney] a Cardinal Richelieu, the conniving head of a neoconservative cabal, the power behind the throne; the national security adviser [Rice] seemingly open, even vulnerable, posing as the honest broker, but deceitful and derelict, an underhanded lightweight." In different contexts, with different storylines, these essential portraits come through on almost all of the book's 403 pages.
Blumenthal's former position in the White House and his numerous connections throughout Washington show in telling ways. He quotes from a variety of private sources - for example, contacts within the CIA and NSC on intelligence matters, different levels of military hierarchy on the Abu Ghraib scandal, and national party leaders on domestic political skirmishes - to enrich his perspectives. Among his more explosive revelations are the military's discontent with the Bush team's strong-handed policies, for instance - one essay titled "The American Military Coup of 2012" stretches readers' imaginations and prompts serious reflection about where events in Iraq may lead.
The inherent design of this book - with dozens of short, to-the-point essays - compensates for Blumenthal's one weakness as a writer, which is his occasional tendency towards long-windedness and overly complex prose. Whereas his previous book, The Clinton Years, veered at times towards long and tiring monologue, the pace of this one is livelier and readable. In both its sharp tone and pragmatic readability, it represents a strikingly atypical offering from the normally genteel Princeton University Press.
As the body of serious analysis on Bush's administration builds, Blumenthal's work will take its place alongside other journalistic-type memoirs as credible first drafts of history. Where Paul O'Neill's The Price of Loyalty lacerates the Bush administration's decision-making from the Republican side, and with a focus on fiscal policy, and Richard Clarke's Against All Enemies provides a centrist critique around national security, Blumenthal's book offers a view from the respectable political left with both bark and bite on a number of Bush's policies. It's a perspective worth heeding.--Peter Han
A Note from Author Sidney Blumenthal
"My newly published book, How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime, is a first draft of the history of the Bush presidency in and an analysis of its unprecedented radicalism. The fifth anniversary of 9/11 illustrated in many ways how Bush has exploited the trauma to pursue his radical agendas. The public was supposed to remember the event as the occasion of the president's heroism. Not only are we to forget "My Pet Goat" but also Bush's dismissal of the Aug. 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Brief, "Bin Laden Determined To Strike In United States." We are encouraged to recall the iconic pose of Bush on the rubble of the World Trade Center, bullhorn in hand, arm wrapped around a fireman, but not the giddy president in airman's uniform striding on the deck of the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln to stand before a sign proclaiming, "Mission Accomplished." Photo credit: Ralph Alswang
Book Description
In a series of columns and essays that renowned journalist and former presidential adviser Sidney Blumenthal wrote in the three years following the 2003 invasion of Iraq, a unifying theme began to emerge: that Bush, billed by himself and by many others as a conservative, is in fact a radical--more radical than any president in American history. In How Bush Rules, Blumenthal provides a trenchant and vivid account of the progression of Bush's radical style--from his reliance on one-party rule and his unwillingness to allow internal debate to his elevation of the power of the vice president.
Taking readers through pivotal events such as the hunt for Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, the rise of the foreign-policy neoconservatives, Abu Ghraib, the war on science, the Jack Abramoff scandal, and the catastrophic mishandling of Hurricane Katrina, the book tracks a consistent policy that calls for the president to have complete authority over independent federal agencies and to remain unbound by congressional oversight or even the law.
In an incisive and powerful introduction, Blumenthal argues that these radical actions are not haphazard, but deliberately intended to fundamentally change the presidency and the government. He shows not only the historical precedents for radical governing, but also how Bush has taken his methods to unique extremes. With its penetrating account of a critical new era in American leadership, How Bush Rules is a devastating appraisal of the Bush presidency.
Customer Reviews:
Concise Gems.......2007-09-06
I will agree with the other reviewers that the author doesn't look at Cheney as deeply as he might. And, yes, the book is a collection of short columns--but that's one of the things I like about it. I've been able to share many of them with friends who, after reading them, have gotten angry and interested enough to start reading some of the books that go into depth on the Bush regime. I also want to mention that Mr. Steele's review misnames Greg Palast as Greg Pabst. Though I find Palast's style of writing rather juvenile in tone too often, he is a great investigative reporter.
Concise and Level-Headed.......2007-09-01
Blumenthal's "How Bush Rules" (an introduction and epilogue, surrounding a series of short essays between the post 9/11 period and the 2006 election) provides a concise and level-headed summary of the Bush years. Its easy reading provides a valuable antidote to the "boiled frog syndrome" in which many of us have become accustomed to Bush's new interpretation of American democracy.
Blumenthal begins by telling us that no one predicted how radical a president Bush '43 would be. His support of Arab-Americans in a debate with Gore seemed to suggest continuation of non-partisan Arab-Israel peace efforts (it was instrumental in winning an overwhelming share of the Muslim vote, about 90,000 of which were in Florida), he touted a record of bipartisan cooperation in Texas - stressing he'd be "a uniter, not a divider," and promised that he would be "humble" in foreign policy. Even the battle for Florida (setting loose a mob of mostly Republican staff members from Congress flown down to intimidate the Miami-Dade Board of Supervisors form counting votes there) was seen as a minor aberration.
However, immediately on assuming office Bush began to undo bipartisan traditions - we withdrew from efforts to persuade North Korea's leadership to control and limit its nuclear weapons, rejected the Kyoto Protocol, withdrew form negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians, reversed his promise to reduce CO2 from power plants, pushed a large tax cut through that redistributed income and drained the Clinton surplus, limited stem cell research, and antagonized the Russians with aggressive Star Wars pursuit and an intent to withdraw from prior treaties.
By 9/10/01, Bush's approval rating was the lowest of any president at that point. Rove then went on to strategize demonizing Democrats over false issues of national security (eg. unionizing of TSA staff), while Bush moved to concentrate power in the Executive Branch, asserting that he had complete authority over federal agencies. Secret prisons were established, the Geneva Conventions ignored and described as "quaint" (Gonzalez), spying authorized without the required warrants, false and misleading information regarding Iraq and Saddam used to stampede public opinion, and the doctrine of preemptive attack launched. Government scientists were muzzled to muffle global warming concerns, and the opinions of others misstated; stem cell research (even when drawn from umbilical cords) also was targeted, this time to benefit Bush's religious-right base. Critics outside the (eg. Joseph Wilson) were smeared (eg. anti-Semitic, or worse), and media executives were leaned on to provide "more objective" coverage.
Bush hoped to undo the New Deal, beginning with Social Security, after the '04 election using his newfound "political capital." However, the effort failed to even garner a single congressional hearing, and his descent began. Katrina and the leveling of New Orleans exposed administration incompetence, and people began to wonder aloud about other major Bush actions/non-actions.
Bottom Line: Bush contends that being reviled is proof of his righteousness, comparing himself with Truman and Churchill during their down times. Closer to the truth, however, is Blumenthal's observation that Bush's legacy is an American democracy in crisis.
Sad, but true.......2007-01-22
This is a shocking look into just how this administration goes about business. The more you read, the more you can key in on specific things that are reported in the news or that is said in Bush's speaches. This is a commentary on the sad state of current politics - we need to take these things seriously and get our government back to the checks and balances that our Constitution provided. To continue the way things are going, will be the effective dismantling of our Constitutional guarantees and protections
another attempt to tell the truth.......2006-12-31
No one in the Bush administration will read this book. Most of the readers will already know what is included - I did, without even opening the cover. It is a quick read, and very little speculation, but it would be too painful for President Bush to admit, ever that he was and is totally incompetent, inept and without a single doubt the worst President in our history and the damage he and his henchmen have done will take decades to repair. The saddest part is that they just don't seem to care about the mistakes they continue to make. They refuse advice from wiser, more intelligent public servants, and never will. Books like this are frustrating to read because you know going in that those who should read it and learn from it won't, and neither will their blind supporters.
Chapters Short Enough Bush Could Almost Read this Book.......2006-12-16
I'm giving Sidney Blumenthal's new compendium of political essays and columns a qualified 4 stars. The writing is good, the target well-chosen, the barbs well-aimed. My problem with 'How Bush Rules: Chronicles of a Radical Regime' is that it is simply a collection of short columns (generally 2-3 pages) that Blumenthal wrote while commenting on the Bush Administration between November 2003 and April 2006 in Salon and the Guardian of London. Two or three pages is just not long enough to develop the facts or ideas that I look for in a book. The benefit, and some may find it to be a big plus, is that you can pick it up and read a 'chapter' in just a few spare moments. 'How Bush Rules' amounts to a diary of the past three years of lies, incompetence, religous extremism, destruction of civil liberties, and a breathtaking concentration of power in the Whtie House.
The chapter-length introduction, however, raises my rating of the book by a full 'star'. It is nothing less than a concise and convincing indictment of Bush's rule. Congress could use it as an outline for a bill of impeachment.
Recommended.
Amazon.com
"I first visited Cambodia in 1975," Ben Kiernan writes. "None of the Cambodians I knew then survived the next four years." In The Pol Pot Regime, Kiernan presents the first definitive account of the four-year reign of terror known as "Democratic Kampuchea." Working very closely with Cambodian sources, including interviews with hundreds of survivors and the archived "confessions" extracted by the Khmer Rouge from political prisoners just before their execution, Kiernan depicts the horrific nature of Pol Pot and his thugs with chilling specificity, and his historical analysis makes a valuable contribution to understanding how they were able to come to power in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Book Description
What was the nature of the regime that turned Cambodia into grisly killing fields and murdered or starved to death 1.7 million of the country's eight million inhabitants? In this riveting book, the first definitive account of the Khmer Rouge revolution, a world renowned authority on Cambodia shows how an ideological preoccupation with racist and totalitarian policies led a group of intellectuals to impose genocide on their own country. This edition includes a new preface recounting the fatal disintegration of the Khmer Rouge army, the death of Pol Pot, the United Nations' foray into the struggle to bring his surviving accomplices to justice, and the damning new evidence they could face.
Customer Reviews:
How Much Does Vietnam Pay Kiernan?.......2007-07-09
Kiernan has made a small fortune writing lies and half-truths on behalf of his masters, the Vietnamese revisionists, who subjugated Kampuchea and reduced it to a colony of Vietnam. Take anything Kiernan says with a huge grain of salt, providing you can wade through his turgid writing style. Much, much better for info on this period is Phillip Short's bio of Pol Pot which is also available at Amazon.
Important But Not Written Well.......2006-01-30
I wish this book were written better. I'm awarding 4 stars on the basis of the importance of the topic and the enormous amount of valuable data collected by the author. This is a very detailed attempt to reconstruct the experience of Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge period. This is difficult because of the paranoid secrecy of the regime and lack of much formal documentation. A great deal of the primary data for reconstructing the history of Cambodia during this period comes from interviews with survivors, a large number of them collected by the author. Kiernan's efforts to collect data and to assemble it into a reasonable narrative are admirable. A defect of this book, however, is that Kiernan seems to be writing primarily for his fellow Cambodia specialists, not for a general audience. You really need to already know at least the basic narrative history to get the most out of this book. Kiernan proceeds through the tragic history of the Khmer Rouge period with a detailed effort to reconstruct events at the center of power and in all the provinces. This is admirable and the level of detail is convincing but to be really effective in terms of increasing reader understanding, it is necessary to regularly take a step back, provide a narrative summary, and also to give readers some understanding of the relevant regional and international context for these events. Kiernan also scants analysis in favor of his fine grained narrative. Important points like the importance of Cambodian nationalism and the putative role of racism emerge almost implicitly. Kiernan would have done better to discuss these issues and the evidence for and against his interpretations explicitly. In some ways, this book is an effort to write political history as social history. This history from below aspect makes this book an excellent source for other scholars in this and related fields. This is admirable and Kiernan's scholarly dedication deserves respect, but this book could have been much more than what it is.
Hypocrite historian... beware and read below!.......2005-12-31
"Ben Kiernan, a leftist Ausrtalian academic and former apologist for the Khemer Rouge [...] in 1977 declared, 'There is ample evidence in Cambodia and other sources that the Khmer Rouge is not the monster that the press have recently made it out to be.' After renouncing this view, Kiernan was appointed director of the Cambodian Genocide Program, a tax-payer funded institute located at Yale University (it is as though a former Nazi sympathizer and Holocaust denier had been appointed to direct Washington's Holocaust museum.)"
"Notwithstanding the attempt of Kiernan and others to turn the Red (communist) Khmer into the Brown (fascist) Khmer, the origins of Khmer Rouge policies are easily traced to the Marcist ideology of the chinese Cultural Revolution in the mid-1960s."
These are extracted from pgs. 170-171 of Michael Lind's 'The Necessary War. Lind is a an anti-Bush democrat, by the way.
People must know what kind of people they are putting their money on when they buy. If you want to know about the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot there's no better (and more honorable) place than the books of (real intellectuals, not intellectual-prostitutes) Philip Short or Karl D. Jackson.
You are very welcome.
The reference work on the khmer rouge.......2005-10-22
Quite simply the most authoritative work on the pol pot led khmer rouge. If planing a visit to Cambodia Kiernan's book will provide excellent background and explain much of what you see today in rural Cambodia. Further details can be obtained from the website of Sage Insights who support local disadvantaged children by their work in tourism.
Atrocities in Cambodia.......2005-09-17
This book are outstanding as one that explained the Cambodian war and its atrocities. It explained the rise of the Pol Pot's party and much of the atrocities in detail.One must be able to stomach its atrocities which is quite mind-boggling as inhuman treatment are occured around the country.For a number of times,i'd got to stop reading halfway because of its Holocaust-like atrocities.Its ideology of Marxism madness are spread thru' out its regime.
Customer Reviews:
Why France like to forget this period.......2004-10-06
I found this book to be one of the most complete history of Vichy France I have read in a long time. The premise of the book appears to be very straight forward, Vichy France was an not only a collaborator ally of Third Reich but continued with unusual zeal, their persecution of the Jews within their borders. Vichy France's zealous anti-Semitic practices apparently surpassed most of Hitler's other allies including Italy. What seem to be so sad was the this phenomonen was not restricted to the government officials but to the French population overall within the Vichy borders. The book also shows how readily Vichy France supported Hitler's Germany and such supports seem to be a collective effort.
The book proves to be well written and superbly researched. It was easy reading as history book goes and I enjoyed the prose and flow of the writing. Its definitely is a very uncompromising look at a nation and people who actions have been overlooked too long simply because some of them were actually our allies during the Second World War.
After reading this book, its pretty clear why every French who lives through this period quickly associated themselves with the resistence movements which many of them were helping to suppressed during the war. Its a sad story of a nation who sold their soul to the devil and used their defenseless Jewish citizens to appleased that devil.
Book Description
Rogue states pursue weapons of mass destruction, support terrorism, violate human rights, engage in acts of territorial aggression, and pose a threat to the international community. Recent debates and policy shifts regarding Iraq, North Korea, Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan reflect the uneven attempts to contend with regimes that pursue deviant behavior. In this timely new work, Miroslav Nincic illuminates the complex issues and policy choices surrounding clashes between international society and states that challenge the majority's espoused interests and values. As conventional approaches to international relations lose their relevance in a changing world, Nincic's work provides new and necessary frameworks and perspectives.
Nincic explores recent events and develops theoretical models of contemporary asymmetrical power relations among states to offer a systematic account of the genesis, trajectory, and motivations of renegade regimes. He discusses how the pursuit of policies that defy international norms is often motivated by a regime's desire for greater domestic control. From this starting point, Nincic considers states' deviant behavior through two stages: the first is the initial decision to defy key aspects of the international normative order, and the second is the manner in which subsequent behavior is shaped by the international community's responses.
In addressing attempts to control pariah states, Nincic assesses the effectiveness of sanctions and military responses. He provocatively argues that comprehensive economic sanctions can lead to a restructuring of the renegade regime's ideology and economy that ultimately strengthens its grip on power. In his chapter on military intervention, Nincic argues that force or the threat of force against a rogue state frequently triggers a protective reflex among its citizens, inspiring them to rally around the government's goals and values. Military threats, Nincic concludes, produce several kinds of consequences and their impact needs to be better understood.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent book.......2006-01-12
In light of current activity from rogue states, such as Iran and North Korea, Nincic's book breaks new ground in the debate between the use of force and the use of peace. In a carefully crafted argument, Nincic demonstrates the benefits of using "carrots" over the futility of using "sticks" in coercing those adversaries of the United States to comply.
Book Description
In this timely book, Charles Derber argues that the current regime - the American system of corporate control born two decades ago and now led by President Bush - is destroying the American dream by outsourcing millions of jobs, turning American employment into a "one-night stand," undermining the security that created the American middle class, and turning the forces of law against citizens. The book outlines specific strategies, including how to approach 2004 and how to move the country in a new direction over the long term. Part I discusses the history of the corporate regime and the damage it has done to American workers and the country. Part II examines the bad faith at the heart of the regime today, and why it must resort to wars of deception to survive. Part III looks at 2004 and battling Bush as a step toward regime change. Part IV lays out a vision and strategy for regime change over the long haul.
Customer Reviews:
A Ruinous Domestic Regime.......2005-09-09
This review is a modified version of my original one published in the Autumn, 2005 issue of the journal, Personnel Psychology, pages 815-818.
Charles Derber, a prolific author (nine books since 1988), media commentator, and professor of sociology at Boston College had hoped this book might help derail the Bush administration. Alas, it was not meant to be, apparently. Nevertheless, Derber's book is still essential reading for thoughtful citizens worried about the status and direction of our nation, for much remains to be done, and Derber gives us the rationales and imperatives for acting and some suggested directions.
The general public is conditioned by its government and media to think of "regimes" as bad governments abroad to be neutralized if not overthrown by our country's might. Derber refutes this notion. The dictionary's definition, after all, is a nutral one-a regime being "any `system of rule' at home or abroad." There have been, in his assessment, two good and three bad regimes in the course of our history. The bad ones, including the current one, have all been "corporate regimes."
In the first of the book's three parts, he portrays the first four regimes, starting with the corporate regime that "was built by the robber barons" of the Gilded Age. The public backlash to it ushered in the trust busting regime of Teddy Roosevelt. Big business responded with the second corporate regime presided over by corporate toady's Harding and Hoover. FDR bowled it over with his New Deal regime. The corporate reaction to it ultimately created the third and current corporate regime, the subject of the second part of the book, with President Bush carrying this regime to the extreme in Derber's opinion.
Derber claims the current corporate regime was "conceived in the 1970s and shaped by the election of President Ronald Reagan. Yet Derber acknowledges that the current regime's self-preserving strategy of "marrying the enemy" (Iraq) had its precedents in the Cold War and the Vietnam War. Thus, I think he erred in not dating the start of the current regime with President Eisenhower. I personally think the latter's valedictory address about the military-industrial complex was as much a mea culpa as a warning and that the defense industry together with its demagogic and tenure-loving allies in Congress had a self interest in America's militaristic actions after WWII, the fear (hyped as it was) of the Soviet Union notwithstanding.
Derber likens regimes to "political houses designed and run by groups or organizations that control the money." Carrying the analogy further, he says the "house rests on five pillars; a dominant institution, a mode of politics, a social contract, a foreign policy, and an ideology." Each has a distinctive form in the current corporate regime.
The dominant institution is the transnational corporation, headed by the "top ten" (e.g., GE), with their total assets alone worth around $4 trillion, more than the whole economy of many countries. Look at the book's subtitle to see just how dominant Derber thinks big corporations really are. They rule America. Many other authors whose books I've read share his views or are even more critical of Corporate America. David Korten, a former Harvard economics professor, for instance, believes big corporations are ruling and ruining the world, not just America (Korten, 2001).
Like the other authors, Derber marshals considerable arguments and evidence on how such corporations through their actions are predatory, domineering, and destructive of the common welfare. These actions include sacrificing American labor by downsizing and outsourcing work, causing "one-third of all workers to resort to tempting, freelancing, part and timing; privatizing government for profit (e.g., the grabbing of public wilderness forests by mining and timber companies; abandoning the conservative foundation of democratic capitalism through speculative financing and lobbying for corporate subsidies and tax breaks (e.g. seven of the largest corporations paid no federal taxes at all in 1998); controlling the mass media to indoctrinate the public; eroding countervailing forces, such as unions; and making the public passively dependent on corporations for almost every sphere of life; etc., etc.
The current regime's mode of politics is the "corpocracy," in which big government and big business exchange roles, except, big government keeps getting bigger. Derber illustrates this pillar with the familiar revolving door of Bush appointees from big business who while there helped write lax federal regulations overseeing their business and then, with a tour of "duty" in government, ensure that the regulations remain lax or not enforced.
The third pillar, social contract, is actually an antonym, social insecurity, in the current regime that intends to trade "the social security of workers and citizens for profit maximization." While Bush's plan to commercialize part of the safety net appears at least temporaily to be dead in the water as a result of the staggering costs accumulating from hurricane Katrina, don't write off determined neo-conservaties' persistence to downsize government, or "starve the beast," as they callously put it.
The fourth pillar supporting the current corporate regime is an imperialistic foreign policy. Its aim, Derber charges, "is to shape a global corporate order under the political and military direction of the United States." The policy reveals a disdain for international law, a proclivity for military intervention, contempt for American civil liberties, protectionism of US businesses from foreign competition, and, through such captive organizations as the World Trade Organization, a push for "inviolable corporate rights" anywhere in the world.
The last pillar is the current ideology that Derber calls the "corporate mystique," a government and corporate propaganda campaign that trumpets personal liberty and "free market" capitalism all the while pursuing an "unimagined freedom for big business and big problems for the rest of us."
The first two corporate regimes were undone by public backlash to "terminal socioeconomic crises." Derber believes the same fate awaits the current corporate regime and points to several developments that are facilitating a grass-roots civil rebellion, including the networking of activist groups via the Internet locally and globally, activist students "sprouting up on campuses," and the rising voice of such groups as "Janitors for Justice."
If bad regimes inevitably self-destruct then why, one could ask, does Derber bother to write this book, or at least its third part that is chock full of ideas for ending the current regime? My answer is that I do not think his scholarship and professionalism would have allowed him not to write this book. As for its third part, he explains that he wrote it because "most political books attack a problem but offer no solutions."
In introducing his ideas, he returns to his analogy of the political house by proposing new pillars for it; an active citizens' network, a new democracy of ordinary people, real social security, a foreign policy of collective security, and an ideology of citizen empowerment. He then suggests numerous ways for freeing America from corporate rule, some of which would require legislative or regulatory changes such as the rewriting of state corporate charters, slowing the revolving door with a ten-year freeze on reentry, and taxing short-term, speculative global investment. He also provides good rationales for uniting disparate groups such as conservatives versus progressives into grass roots social movements all "under a big tent" aimed at ending the current regime. Finally, he urges the reader to become active and lists the websites for five activist groups, each targeting one of the five pillars.
I hope my review motivates you to read his book. We all should know what thoughtful critics have to say about the corporate role in and its effects on our society, and we all should decide what we think about it and what if anything we should do about it.
Reference
Korten, DC. (2001, 2nd Ed.). When corporations rule the world. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler and Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press.
A book about our lack of, and potential for, true democracy .......2004-08-09
The author writes that the costs of the Vietnam war weakened American economic power ; in the meantime West Europe/Japan had grown into full-fledge economic competitors with the U.S. In order to better compete in this environment, corporations decided that they couldn't tolerate the New Deal concessions to unions and other measures, so America began its rightward shift.
He writes, quoting the New York Times and Paul Krugman in The Nation(see endnotes), that from the early 1970's to 2000, the average income in real terms fell by seven percent for the bottom ninety percent in this country. Meanwhile, the income of the top one percent rose by 148 percent, the top tenth of one percent rose by 343 percent, and so on. The unemployed and "working poor" today comprise 40 percent of our employed class. Reagan's tax cuts helped this upward redistribution. In 1998, General Motors, Pepsi, Chevron, Texaco and Enron paid no federal taxes. Bush tax cuts have targeted the wealthy in obvious ways: taxes on capital gains and dividends,, which the vast majority of Americans do not report on their returns. Then there was the estate tax...Meanwhile a treasury department report suppressed in Bush's 2004 budget report projected the national debt reaching eventually reaching 44 trillion dollars. . Bush has proposed the further draconian measure of allow tax-shelter savings accounts where if enough money that only the rich can afford to save is placed it will be tax-free forever.
He should have quoted David Stockman's admission that the Reaganites embarked upon their insane military spending produced deficit in part in order to have an excuse to slash social programs. Bush is repeating this. Bush has already set in motion a partial Medicare privatization. Our political order encourages companies to move overseas to exploit repressed third world labor while leaving in wake a horde of workers who have to grasp for short term/temp jobs and have no health insurance, etc. It allows speculators to move two trillion dollars around the globe a day and leave financial disaster in their wake. It allows for companies to manipulate their stock value with their accountant's complicity. Now mutual funds are getting ready to have the government give them social security funds, so they can gamble with them on the stock market, an alarming prospect giving the recent accounting scandals on Wall Street. He quotes Fortune magazine as saying that the Enron-style chicaneries were quite widespread, not a few bad apples. Meanwhile the trade deficit may become completely unmanageable. The rich continue to get their corporate welfare, speculative bonanzas, etc but the country in the long term is heading towards a catastrophic debt.
He notes that the Cold War was a cover to support right wing dictators and death squads that repressed third world workers for the benefit of corporations. He mentions the flat tax imposed by Bremer on Iraq and the giving away of Iraq's economic assets to foreigners. He notes that Bush later admitted that there is no evidence of an Iraq-9/11 connection; for the Iraq war, he invoked a law that allowed the president to move against countries who played a role in the 9-11 butchery. Obviously the law didn't apply here. The "war on terror" is mainly about distracting Americans from Bush's draconian domestic measures and a cover to increase support for such pro-American, pro-oil and gas company murderers as Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan. He observes that Wolfowitz, Feith, etc. set up a Pentagon body (OSP) that would feed them the bogus intelligence for the war they needed.
Kerry would be somewhat better than Bush, but both are supporters of the current monstrous corporate order, though less extreme than Bush. The Republicans can gerrymander themselves into congressional victories.. They can throw voters off the rolls. But student, labor and other currently growing grassroots groups can affect a great change. He points to Moveon.org mobilizing its grassroots to get congress to repeal an FCC deregulatory measure . "An amazing organization!" he gushes about Moveon(but will they treat a democratic president as harshly when he does similar things as Bush?). He observes that Dennis Kucinich is one who has been overwhelmingly re-elected by the "Nascar Dads", "Reagan Democrats," by strongly articulating a populist economic message. Half of Americans don't vote; the dems could mobilize them but....
The author is a little simplistic in his invocation of American nostalgia. Teddy Roosevelt preached that corporations needed to be controlled in the public interest but that was mostly fraud. Corporations may have been paranoid about FDR but they were still very much in control. Inequality stayed the same from the beginning to the end of his rule. But his empowering to some extent of unions did play a role in eventually creating the American Middle Class. Gene Debs was a much better American hero.
The author's "new democracy" scheme for America, though accepting capitalism, goes a long way towards expanding democracy in this country.
I think the author should have made his factual points less vague; as it is, his main concentration seems to be to exhort the reader.
Another bulls-eye.......2004-06-14
Derber has hit the nail on the head again - in this case it's a bulls-eye, with Bush in the center. But much more important than Bush the individual is Derber's penetrating analysis of the corporate/political elites' control of our democratic processes. By exposing the underlying structure of this control, Derber gives us a meaningful vantage point to understand how the unabashed self-interest of a powerful minority negatigvely impacts the vast majority. I found Derber's upbeat style and witty presentation ultimately hopeful. It's a complicated topic, but this is a readable and important book. We need to wake up ourselves and our country to the reality of what's really happening under Bush (not to mention whoever wins in Nov) - let's demand our leaders and institutions do a much better job of implementing the fundamental ideals and human rights that our country was founded on and that we teach school children to believe in.
The political landscape will never again look the same.......2004-06-09
When I first heard that Charles Derber's new book was entitled "Regime Change Begins at Home," I chuckled, and figured that he'd joined the Al Franken/Michael Moore wing of political sloganeering. Not that I have anything against Franken and Moore -- far from it -- but I expect greater depth from Derber, whose fine "Corporation Nation" was the first book to not only sound the alarm against corporate power but also dig into its roots.
So I got a copy of "Regime Change Begins at Home" -- and found not only the hoped-for depth but also a entire new perspective on politics that, once seen, is obviously true. This is quite simply the most important political book I've read in years. I urge you to get a copy as soon as you can, read it, and spread the word to your friends to do the same. This is a book that can make a difference in the direction of our country and the world, but only if lots of people read it. Happily, Derber writes not like the academic he is but in a clear, simple, populist style.
I won't go on and on. Suffice it to say that Derber, a sociologist and political economist at Boston University, uses the word "regime" not as an epithet but in its deepest meaning. He says that American political history since the Civil War has had only five regimes, each spanning several presidencies; we are now living in the Third Corporate Regime. The First Corporate Regime lasted from 1865 to 1901, when it was supplanted by the Progressive Regime; that was supplanted by the Second Corporate Regime during the Roaring Twenties; it gave way to the New Deal Regime, which lasted longer than any other but ended in 1980 as the Third Corporate Regime took power with Ronald Reagan. Regimes come and regimes go, Derber makes clear, and he delves into why they go and the necessary ingredients of regime change. Read this book and you will see George Bush, John kerry, and Howard Dean in new light.
The good news is that Derber sees and describes wide cracks in the Third Corporate Regime, and suggests how to stick crowbars in them and get on with regime change. It all makes elegant sense. Please, for the good of our nation and the world, get this book and read it -- and act on its wisdom.
A spirited and inspiring wake up call.......2004-05-28
If you have read either Corporation Nation or People Before Profit, I am sure you will want to read this new book by Charles Derber. In my opinion his new book provides an even more readable introduction to the ideas of an author who is on the path to becoming one of the nation's foremost public intellectuals. As far as I am concerned this is not a good book, it is a great book.
According to Derber we are currently in the midst of the "Third Corporate Regime," a political regime that began with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980 and continues to the present. In case you were wondering, the "First Corporate Regime" ran from 1865-1901 (the Gilded Age) and the "Second Corporate Regime" ran from 1921-1933 (the Roaring Twenties). Thus regimes, as Derber uses the term, refer to broad swings with major realignments of power. All three are referred to as corporate regimes reflecting the marriage between corporate and political power, with big corporations having a great deal of control over the national government. A distinctive aspect of the Third Corporate Regime is that is has power that can be compared with that of both the British and the Roman Empires. It rules "not only America but much of the world."
If Bush wins in the 2004 election, Derber's view is that this will further solidify the Third Corporate Regime, particularly if he wins with substantial majorities in both houses of Congress. The fear is that the nation will become even more of a "corpocracy," his name for a pseudo-democracy in which a formally democratic government become a vehicle for corporate control. Kerry's election would reduce the damage done during the next four years, but it would not, by itself, represent genuine regime change.
A strength of this book is that Derber offers solutions. The entire third section of the book is devoted to what can be done to bring about the needed regime change. The election of a Democratic president and a Democratically controlled Congress might prove to be a regime-tipping election that would help create the conditions under which social movements dedicated to regime change could flourish and set the stage for eventual regime change down the pike.
While this book is written primarily for a Democratic and progressive audience it will inform and be of use to traditional conservatives and even some corporate elites. Those who are in close contact with corporate elites would be well advised to read this book because it provides a roadmap as to how progressives could topple the Third Corporate Regime. It also makes a very persuasive case as to why there is likely to be a strong movement to do just that in the not too distant future.
This book is a very easy read. It is hard to put it down and it could not be dealing with a more important set of issues. If enough people read this book, together we are going to be able to make a difference.
Book Description
In this fascinating new account of Old Regime Europe, T. C. W. Blanning explores the cultural revolution which transformed eighteenth-century Europe. During this period the court culture exemplified by Louis XIV's Versailles was pushed from the centre to the margins by the emergence of a new kind of space - the public sphere. The author shows how many of the world's most important cultural institutions developed in this space: the periodical, the newspaper, the novel, the lending library, the coffee house, the voluntary association, the journalist, and the critic. It was here that public opinion staked its claim to be the ultimate arbiter of culture and politics. For the established order this new force was to prove both a challenge and an opportunity and the author's comparative study of power and culture shows how regimes sought to keep their balance as the ground moved beneath their feet. In the process he explains, among other things, why Britain won the 'Second Hundred Years War' against France, how Prussia rose to become the dominant power in German-speaking Europe, and why the French monarchy collapsed.
Customer Reviews:
Very illuminating.......2005-03-12
I am fairly knowledgeable about the 18th century, but this book brought me some brilliant new insights and new viewpoints - especially on 18th century Prussia, on the popularity of George III and (oddly) of Joseph II. Superb illustration through the history of culture of how the 18th century monarchy in France, unlike that of Prussia and England, failed to connect with the "public sphere". I found the omission of the Dutch Republic regrettable and a few passages a little tedious; but for me the book ranks with Orlando Figes' Natasha's Dance (see my review) as one of the few books about periods with which I am pretty familiar that has given me so many new angles to think about.
Average customer rating:
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Nested Political Coalitions: Nation, Regime, Program, Cabinet
Terrence E. Cook
Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Non-US Legal Systems
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ASIN: 0275973956 |
Book Description
Cook's principles of coalition politics are really rules of thumb followed by boundedly rational actors, and can predict much coalition politics behavior. Agents prefer to create marginally winning coalitions with like-minded groups in the expectation of receiving rewards commensurate with investments. Four distinct types of coalitions--country, regime, agenda, and cabinet--are explored, along with a thorough examination of current coalition literature. Normally nested, the broader coalitions give rise to narrower ones, revealing diminishing bases of support and duration. Also, barring political catastrophe, change in coalitions at the program or cabinet level usually do not harm, and may actually strengthen, the regime or country coalitions from which they arise. Students and scholars in comparative politics and political theory will benefit from Cook's ability to rise above the usual divisions and limitations of sub-fields. A distinctive and refreshing mix of theory and empirical material, Nested Political Coalitions provides a sensible digest of diverse theoretical literatures, a good overview of coalition dynamics from one level to the next, and illustrates all this with breathtaking empirical coverage.
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The Apartheid Regime: Political Power and Racial Domination (Research series - Institute of International Studies, University of California ; no. 43)
Manufacturer: Univ of California Inst of
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0877251436 |
Average customer rating:
- Deep, intellectual and profound
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Civilization and Violence: Regimes of Representation in Nineteenth-Century Colombia (Borderlines)
Cristina Rojas
Manufacturer: University of Minnesota Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0816634300 |
Book Description
Civilization and violence are not necessarily the antagonists we presume-with civilization taming violence, and violence unmaking civilization. Focusing on postindependence Colombia, this book brings to light the ways in which violence and civilization actually intertwined and reinforced each other in the development of postcolonial capitalism.
The narratives of civilization and violence, Cristina Rojas contends, play key roles in the formation of racial, gender, and class identities; they also provide pivotal logic to both the formation of the nation and the processes of capitalist development. During the Liberal era of Colombian history (1849-1878), a dominant Creole elite enforced a "will to civilization" that sought to create a new world in its own image. Rojas explores different arenas in which this pursuit meant the violent imposition of white, liberal, laissez-faire capitalism. Drawing on a wide range of social theory, Rojas develops a new way of understanding the relationship between violence and the formation of national identity-not just in the history of Colombia, but also in the broader narratives of civilization.
Cristina Rojas teaches Latin American politics and international political economy at the Norman Paterson School of International Affairs at Carleton University in Ottawa.
Borderlines Series, volume 19
Customer Reviews:
Deep, intellectual and profound.......2002-12-30
Scholar Cristina Rojas is not afraid of challenges. She takes on an explosive subject and attempts to reshape traditional thinking. Moreover, she is not reluctant to point to weak assumptions by other scholars or to excuse local political or economic elites of liability. Ultimately, "Civilization and Violence," is a clinical examination of nineteenth-century regimes of representation in order to explain the long pattern of conflict within the borders of Colombia.
By no means is this a knock on this fine work but it is important to note that the language throughout this text is excessively highbrow. Rojas is a brilliant scholar but writes this study for the exclusive benefit of the academic community. Consequently, journalistic readers be warned...there is little pragmatic flow in the language of the analysis. Nevertheless, this is a valuable book. Rojas painstakingly connects many valuable theories in helping explain the complex relationship between civilization and violence. She also documents how domination by local hierarchies result in "hate dynamics" that has set "the battle lines" of the future.
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- Interior Design with Feng Shui: New and Expanded
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