Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy

[babylonsister]

On Democracy Now! today~

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/12/1455210

Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy


Pulitzer Prize-winning Boston Globe reporter Charlie Savage joins us to talk about his new book, “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.” Savage charts the ways the Bush administration has circumvented laws and expanded Presidential authority. The House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees approved a bill Wednesday granting federal judges greater oversight over the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program. Rejecting President Bush’s request, the bill does not provide retroactive legal immunity to phone and internet companies that shared information with intelligence officials. President Bush criticized the bill Tuesday and outlined his demands to renew the government’s broad eavesdropping authority.

President Bush.

Wednesday’s bill updates the Protect America Act that was pushed through Congress in August of this year and is set to expire in February of 2008. Although the bill restores some of the checks and balances removed by the Protect America Act it also increases other spying powers. It continues the policy of warrantless eavesdropping of overseas communications and increases the period of warrantless emergency surveillance of US residents. Also the so-called “basket” or “blanket” warrants issued by the secret Federal Intelligence Surveillance Court would only need to be reviewed once a year. The American Civil Liberties Union criticized this provision as “not anywhere close to the rigorous privacy safeguards Americans deserve.”

Charlie Savage is a Pulitzer Prize winning reporter from the Boston Globe. He has written extensively about President Bush’s signing statements and other White House efforts to expand executive branch secrecy and unchecked power. Warrantless wiretapping is one part of this story. Savage has just published a book charting the means the Bush administration devised to circumvent laws and expand Presidential authority. It’s called “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.” Charlie Savage now joins us in the firehouse studio here in New York.

* Charlie Savage. Winner of the 2007 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. Savage covers national legal affairs for the Boston Globe with a focus on 9/11 issues. He has written extensively about President Bush’s signing statements. He is the author of “Takeover: The Return of the Imperial Presidency and the Subversion of American Democracy.”

[Auntie Bush]

1. That's a book I'd like to buy!

I'd appreciate getting the ins and outs of just how this Idiot-in-Chief
grabbed so much power. It must go into the evils of Cheney too. Should be very enlightening and informative and probably make me sick to my stomach.

[babylonsister]

2. 'probably make me sick to my stomach'

:spray: You're probably right!