recent political reading

US v Bush lays out a very specific case against the Bush Administration for defrauding the American people on the way to war with Iraq. The case is very straightforward and provides ample grounds for impeachment only on this very narrow issue.

Impeach the President is a collection of essays building multiple cases for impeachment. Most of the usual reasons are well covered - Iraq fraud, rampant lawlessness, human rights violations, stolen elections, etc - as well as some interesting abuses that were new to me, like US interference in Haiti.

Al Gore's book was generally very good. His rampage against Bush was heated and devastating. In establishing his broader thesis about the Assault on Reason in America, he makes some very good points about the degenerative effect that television has had on public political discourse, and sees hope in the rise of blogging and similar Internet innovations. I have some complaints about how he sometimes yearns for reason in one paragraph and then praises faith in the next, but overall this was a stimulating read.

Failed States was my first book-length delve into Noam Chomsky, and I'll definitely be going back for more. The loose thesis indicated by the title is that the United States shares a disturbing number of characteristics with the "failed states" in whose affairs it often intervenes, purportedly for the noblest of reasons. These characteristics include a government that acts as if international laws and treaties don't apply to them, that fails to act in the interests of their own people in favor of the interests of an elite few, and whose reckless use of violence endangers its own people. Chomsky is a powerhouse. I found his scathing critique of corporate marketing particularly powerful.