How Would a Patriot Act?: Defending American Values from a President Run Amok

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Working Assets, 2006 - Biography & Autobiography - 128 pages
Glenn Greenwald was not a political man — neither liberal nor conservative. To him, the U.S. was generally on track and would remain forever centrist. But all that has changed.

Over the past five years, a creeping extremism has taken hold of our federal government, which threatens to alter our system of governing ourselves and our national character. This extremism is neither liberal nor conservative, but is driven by the Bush administration's radical theories of executive power. Greenwald writes that we cannot abide these unlimited and unchecked presidential powers if we are to remain a constitutional republic. Because when you answer to no one, you're not a president — you're a despot.

This is one man's story of being galvanized into action to defend his country, and his concise and penetrating analysis of what is at stake for America when its president has secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a king.

From 9/11 to the question of nuclear war in Iran, Greenwald shows how Bush's claims of unlimited power play out. In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald asks: how would a patriot act today?

From inside the book

Contents

CHAPTER
9
CHAPTER
38
CHAPTER THREE
61
Copyright

3 other sections not shown

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About the author (2006)

Glenn Greenwald is a former constitutional law and civil rights litigator. He was a columnist for The Guardian until October 2013 and is now a founding editor of The Intercept. He has won numerous awards for his NSA reporting including the 2013 Polk Award, the Esso Award for Excellence in Reporting, and the 2013 Pioneer Award. He also received the first annual I. F. Stone Award for Independent Journalism in 2009 and a 2010 Online Journalism Award for his investigative work on the arrest and detention of Chelsea Manning. In 2013, he led the Guardian reporting that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for public service. He has written several books including How Would a Patriot Act: Defending American Values from a President Run Amok, With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful, and No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U. S. Surveillance State.

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