Killer Politics


Book Description

The middle class, where the greatness of this nation is rooted, is under siege by an increasingly unethical system, managed by economic vampires who are sucking the lifeblood out of the American family and ripping the heart out of democracy itself. Big money-and the politicians who are swayed by it-play both parties against each other, using this false battle to distract most of us from the real war, which is a war against the American family. This is it, folks . . . the moment of truth. This will be the moment historians will look back upon and either say it was the moment this great ship of state corrected its course, or the moment it sailed completely away from its democratic ideals. To succeed, we have to reach back and rediscover our greatness. Progress may not come as fast as we, in our impatience and impertinence, demand. But if we are patient and persistent, it will come. All good things in life require a heavy lift, so roll up your sleeves. We are not done yet. --from Killer Politics According to a 2008 Pew Report, more than half of all Americans self-identify as middle class -- but the actual number of Americans with middle-class incomes is declining. The middle class is going away. As increasing numbers of Americans are faced with obstacles to education, health care, jobs, and equity, the middle class as a financial bracket is being replaced by the middle class as little more than a state of mind. The richest Americans are growing exponentially wealthier, while the rest of us struggle to bear the financial and emotional burdens of an increasingly broken system. In Killer Politics, Ed Schultz pulls the wool back from our eyes, shows us what the state of the middle class really is, and gives us the tools we need to fight back.




Programmed to Kill


Book Description

The specter of the marauding serial killer has become a relatively common feature on the American landscape. Reactions to these modern-day monsters range from revulsion to morbid fascination--fascination that is either fed by, or a product of, the saturation coverage provided by print and broadcast media, along with a dizzying array of books, documentary films, websites, and "Movies of the Week". The prevalence in Western culture of images of serial killers (and mass murderers) has created in the public mind a consensus view of what a serial killer is. Most people are aware, to some degree, of the classic serial killer 'profile.' But what if there is a much different 'profile'--one that has not received much media attention? In Programmed to Kill, acclaimed and always controversial author David McGowan takes a fresh look at the lives of many of America's most notorious accused murderers, focusing on the largely hidden patterns that suggest that there may be more to the average serial killer story than meets the eye. Think you know everything there is to know about serial killers? Or is it possible that sometimes what everyone 'knows' to be true isn't really true at all?




Demosclerosis


Book Description

It is no secret that Americans are dissatisfied with government. But while the frustration and anger are real, the way we tend to view the problem is all wrong. Rauch reveals the real problems with government, and offers a bracing tonic for unclogging the public arteries. From the Trade Paperback edition.




Day of the Assassins


Book Description

‘Written with Burleigh’s characteristic brio, with pithy summaries of historical moments (he is brilliant on the Americans in Vietnam, for example) and full of surprising vignettes’ – The Times ’Book of the Week’ In Day of the Assassins, acclaimed historian Michael Burleigh examines assassination as a special category of political violence and asks whether, like a contagious disease, it can be catching. Focusing chiefly on the last century and a half, Burleigh takes readers from Europe, Russia, Israel and the United States to the Congo, India, Iran, Laos, Rwanda, South Africa and Vietnam. And, as we travel, we revisit notable assassinations, among them Leon Trotsky, Hendrik Verwoerd, Juvénal Habyarimana, Indira Gandhi, Yitzhak Rabin and Jamal Khashoggi. Combining human drama, questions of political morality and the sheer randomness of events, Day of the Assassins is a riveting insight into the politics of violence. ‘Brilliant and timely . . . Our world today is as dangerous and mixed-up as it has ever been. Luckily we have Michael Burleigh to help us make sense of it.’ – Mail on Sunday




Fall Guys


Book Description

Too young to prosecute, Charlie Zubryd was adopted after his confession and a brief stay in a mental ward. A childless couple gave Zubryd a new name and identity. It would be twenty years before Charlie Zubryd - now going by the name Chuck Duffy - would have any contact with his blood family. When Zubyrd/Duffy made an effort to get his real family back, he was rejected because his relatives still believed he had murdered his mother. Until Fisher began to investigate the case in 1989, Chuck Duffy was not sure he had not killed his mother during some kind of mental blackout.




The Politics of Murder


Book Description

The Politics of Murder is a history of organized crime in Arizona from the heady days of prosperity after World War II to the end of the 20th century. It is a history of unsolved murders that include figures like Willie Bioff, a society gangster who was killed for double-crossing a Tucson kingpin on an unpaid loan. Another was Phoenix crime boss Gus Greenbaum, a friend of the state's most powerful politicians, who helped develop the Las Vegas casino industry. He was rewarded with a grisly murder that is still officially unsolved. Land-fraud king Ned Warren stole nearly a billion dollars from veterans and retirees. The Phoenix political network protected him even as he hired saboteurs and Mafia hit men to eliminate a dozen witnesses. All of these killings remained unsolved at the time of the most notorious murder in the state's history, the 1962 car-bombing death of Arizona Republic reporter Don Bolles. The newsman was investigating a tip that one of the most powerful businessmen in the state was working with the Chicago Mafia to launder Las Vegas casino skim through Phoenix racetracks. The motive for killing Bolles was directly related to evidence the reporter uncovered about the Las Vegas money laundering, but his murder remained unsolved for other reasons.Solving Bolles? death would have revealed a carefully kept secret: When Bolles was assassinated, Barry Goldwater's political operation was in the process of removing from office by covert means the president of the Navajo Nation. It was a case of domestic regime change imposed on a sovereign Indian government that refused to submit to policies imposed by Washington to benefit non-Indian interests.The connection between the Bolles case and the Navajo plot was a strange and ruthless man, an assassin who made a living by building dynamite bombs. Before he killed Don Bolles, he built a bomb for the Goldwater political operation as it set out to remove the leader of the Navajo Nation. The connection was never revealed to the public. It had to remain a secret at all costs, and it was-- until now.




The Politics Of Murder


Book Description

In July of 1995, Eddie O'Brien, a 15-year-old boy, was charged with the first-degree murder of his best friend's mother. His case went to trial and he was convicted. The only problem was-he didn't do it. Attorney Margo Nash shows how justice was cast aside with the power and ambition of politicians.




Political Terrorism


Book Description

While there is no easy way to define terrorism, it may generally be viewed as a method of violence in which civilians are targeted with the objective of forcing a perceived enemy into submission by creating fear, demoralization, and political friction in the population under attack. At one time a marginal field of study in the social sciences, terrorism is now very much in center stage. The 1970s terrorist attacks by the PLO, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Japanese Red Army, the Unabomber, Aum Shinrikyo, Timothy McVeigh, the World Trade Center attacks, the assault on a school in Russia, and suicide bombers have all made the term terrorism an all-too-common part of our vocabulary.This edition of Political Terrorism was originally published in the 1980s, well before some of the horrific events noted above. This monumental collection of definitions, conceptual frameworks, paradigmatic formulations, and bibliographic sources is being reissued in paperback now as a resource for the expanding community of researchers on the subject of terrorism. This is a carefully constructed guide to one of the most urgent issues of the world today.When the first edition was originally published, Choice noted, This extremely useful reference tool should be part of any serious social science collection. Chronicles of Culture called it a tremendously comprehensive book about a subject that any who have anything to lose--from property to liberty, life to limbs--should be forewarned against.




Demosclerosis


Book Description

It is no secret that Americans are dissatisfied with government. But while the frustration and anger are real, the way we tend to view the problem is all wrong. Rauch reveals the real problems with government, and offers a bracing tonic for unclogging the public arteries. "From the Trade Paperback edition.




Dirty Politics


Book Description

In recent years, Americans have become thoroughly disenchanted with political campaigns, especially with ads and speeches that bombard them with sensational images while avoiding significant issues. Now campaign analyst Kathleen Hall Jamieson provides an eye-opening look at the tactics used by political advertisers. Photos and line drawings.