Excerpts

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The Plot Against Liberal America

By Thomas Frank, The New Statesman. August 18, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: Conservatives don't want to debate, they want to destroy their opposition.

How Washington's Right-Wing Wrecking Crew Robbed Us Blind

By Thomas Frank, Tomdispatch.com. August 6, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: Conservatives have turned a vast government built for our protection into a device for exploiting us.

Let's Call 'Sex Tourism' What It Really Is: Slavery

By Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, Rodale Inc. August 1, 2008.
Reproductive Justice and Gender: The new book Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated exposes the gravity of sexual slavery -- evil in its extreme.

Scary Politics in Alabama: How the GOP Framed Gov. Don Siegelman

By Larisa Alexandrovna, Ig Publishing. July 21, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: Once a popular governor of Alabama, Siegelman was framed in a crooked trial and sent to prison by the corrupt Bush administration.

It's About Time for Online Voting

By Allison H. Fine, Personal Democracy Forum. July 3, 2008.
Media and Technology: Historians will undoubtedly consider our current era of voting machines the technological equivalent of the 8-track tape machine.

Ignorant America: Just How Stupid Are We?

By Rick Shenkman, Tomdispatch.com. July 2, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: Millions of Americans are embarrassingly ill-informed and they do not care that they are.

The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America

By Robert Scheer, Twelve. June 27, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: The huge "defense" spending going on in our name is irrational and costly, but there are powerful vested interests that want to keep it that way.

Laura Ingraham: Right-Wing Radio's High Priestess of Hate

By Rory O'Connor, AlterNet Books. June 7, 2008.
Media and Technology: Shock radio host Ingraham is a master of sounding funny and appealing while dishing out the same hate speech as Sean Hannity.

How Scarce Energy Resources Can Quickly Lead to Deadly Wars

By Michael T. Klare, Metropolitan Books. May 31, 2008.
ForeignPolicy: Shows of force by nations competing to control dwindling energy supplies could trigger conflict in hot spots across the globe.

(Not) Keeping Up with Our Parents: Just Being Middle Class Is Becoming out of Reach

By Nan Mooney, Beacon Press. May 20, 2008.
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Why does it take two incomes to support a middle-class lifestyle that used to require one?

If Cheney & Co. Had Really Plotted the 9/11 Attacks ...

By Matt Taibbi, Spiegel & Grau. May 19, 2008.
Media and Technology: Matt Taibbi's hilarious re-enactment of the secret govt. conspiracy (that never happened) to conduct the attacks.

Moyers: 'Democracy in America Is a Series of Narrow Escapes, and We May Be Running Out of Luck'

By Bill Moyers, Doubleday. May 17, 2008.
Democracy and Elections: For all of America's shortcomings, we keep telling ourselves, "The system works." Now all bets are off.

How Pot Became Demonized: the Fine Line Between Good Medicine and 'Dangerous Drugs'

By Wendy Chapkis, Richard J. Webb, NYU Press. May 13, 2008.
Health and Wellness: A history of the battle between politics and science over the use of marijuana as a medicine.

The Military's Pricey Restaurant Tastes: Gone Are the Days of Grunts Peeling Potatoes

By Nick Turse, Metropolitan Books. May 8, 2008.
ForeignPolicy: Judging by the Pentagon's own accounting, the army, navy, air force and marines have been very hungry -- and they've been chowing down.

The Violent Language of Right-Wing Pundits Poisons Our Democracy

By Jeffrey Feldman, Ig Publishing. May 6, 2008.
Media and Technology: On TV and the radio, conservative pundits infuse violence into their arguments, destroying our precious culture of civil debate.

An Atheist Goes Undercover to Join the Flock of Mad Pastor John Hagee

By Matt Taibbi, RollingStone.com. May 5, 2008.
Rights and Liberties: In this excerpt from his new book, Matt Taibbi shares his experiences at a Hagee's boot camp for new converts.

The Marriage Revolution

By Nancy D. Polikoff, Beacon Press. April 25, 2008.
Sex and Relationships: How the law changed to accommodate evolving sexual practices and gender roles.

How Republicans Quietly Hijacked the Justice Department to Swing Elections

By Steven Rosenfeld, Ig Publishing. April 15, 2008.
Election 2008: The GOP may have committed massive vote fraud in plain sight by encouraging widespread voter purges and restricting registration campaigns.

The Military-Leisure Golf Complex

By Nick Turse, Metropolitan Books. April 12, 2008.
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Pentagon elites and high government officials are tee-ing off at taxpayer expense at hundreds of courses all over the planet.

Did McCain Avoid Voting on a Key 9/11 Bill Because He's Afraid of the Neocons?

By Cliff Schecter, PoliPoint Press. April 10, 2008.
Election 2008: McCain's official calendar says he was in California on the day of a key security vote, but he was actually in the Senate, voting on 15 other bills.

The Man Who Hated Work and Loved Labor

By Les Leopold, AlterNet. April 9, 2008.
Corporate Accountability and WorkPlace: Long after the Democratic Party abandoned labor interests, Tony Mazzocchi continued to fight for the working class.

If America Declines, Don't Expect Anyone to Talk About It

By Kevin Phillips, Viking Press. April 8, 2008.
Is our political system too far gone to even discuss the predicaments of the volatile dollar, run-amok debt and Middle East disasters?

Three Words Progressives Can Use to Win Elections

By Bernie Horn, Berrett-Koehler Publishing. March 27, 2008.
Progressives have allowed right-wing extremists to hijack our ideals. It's time to right that wrong.

The Dangerous Atheism of Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris

By Chris Hedges, Free Press. March 22, 2008.
Rights and Liberties: From demonizing Muslims to believing we can use science for our own moral advancement, the New Atheists preach a dangerous faith.

The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance

By Donna Jackson Nakazawa, Touchstone/Simon & Schuster. March 19, 2008.
Health and Wellness: Scientists worldwide puzzle over an alarming and unexplained rise in the rates of autoimmune disease. Yet the media remain mute on this crisis.

How Could So Many People Buy into Bush's "Patriotism Sweepstakes" War?

By Robert Parry, Sam Parry, Nat Parry, Consortium News. March 19, 2008.
War on Iraq: The Iraq War represents a systemic failure of American political and journalistic institutions.

Who Is Rev. Moon? 'Returning Lord,' 'Messiah,' Publisher of the Washington Times

By John Gorenfeld, PoliPoint Press. March 15, 2008.
Media and Technology: "True Father" to some, madman to others, Sun Myung Moon is one of the strangest and least scrutinized figures in the conservative media world.

Cheap Oil Is Over: Kiss the Gas-Guzzling NASCAR Era Good-Bye

By James Howard Kunstler, Chelsea Green Publishing. March 11, 2008.
Environment: A suburban nation of snowmobilers, dirt bikers and NASCAR races -- all of it was made possible by the one-time blessing of cheap oil.

Swim Against the Current: Ordinary Americans Can Make Change Happen

By Jim Hightower, AlterNet. March 7, 2008.
The fight for our country's future is still in our hands. Grass-roots movements are breaking free from corporate control.

Intel Analyst: Don't Bother with U.S. Media If You Want to Know About Iraq

By Alex Rossmiller, Presidio Press. February 22, 2008.
War on Iraq: In this stunning book excerpt, the author explains that he virtually ignored U.S. media coverage when collecting information on Iraq.

What the Hell Are Democrats So Afraid of?

By Glenn Hurowitz, Maisonneuve Press. February 22, 2008.
As this excerpt from "Fear and Courage in the Democratic Party" shows, if Dems want a lasting majority, they have to stop caving in.

How the Spooks Took over the News

By Nick Davies, The Independent UK. February 19, 2008.
Media and Technology: A controversial new book argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda and the media simply swallow it wholesale.

The Most Important Fish You've Never Heard of

By H. Bruce Franklin, Island Press. February 5, 2008.
Water: Ocean ecosystems are nearing the verge of collapse because of the over fishing of one of the world's most important and little known species.

God's Profits: Faith, Fraud and the GOP Crusade for Values Voters

By Sarah Posner, PoliPoint Press. January 22, 2008.
A look into the shady finances and manipulative politics of America's leading televangelist hucksters.

A Heathen's Guide to the Rapture

By Jim Gerard, Nation Books. January 17, 2008.
Media and Technology: How to navigate your way through born-again America, with tips on how to avoid being Left Behind.

The Poor Get Diabetes, the Rich Get Local and Organic

By Mark Winne, Beacon Press. January 9, 2008.
Health and Wellness: From the War on Poverty to new farmers' markets, a food expert tackles America's dangerous dietary split.

What Does the ‘08 Election Hold for Gay Republicans?

By Deb Price, Creators Syndicate. January 2, 2008.
Election 2008: If you were (or are) a gay Republican, which candidate would you be supporting during the primaries?

Is the Hydrogen Age Just Around the Corner?

By Jerry Brown, Rinaldo Brutoco, James Cusumano, Ode. December 28, 2007.
Environment: Hydrogen fuel cells will never be a practical source of power, right? Wrong. The technology is set to take off sooner than you think.

Is Rocky Anderson the Country's Greenest Mayor?

By Kevin Danaher, Shannon Biggs, Jason Mark, PoliPoint Press. December 11, 2007.
Environment: A conversation with Salt Lake City's super green mayor and advocate for Bush's impeachment.

We Are What We Eat

By Jamey Lionette, South End Press. December 10, 2007.
Environment: Mass production of food is ruining our health, environment, and taste buds. How did this happen?

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