Sure, Conason show his bias here, but if you just read the facts presented, cut out the extraneous matter, and forgive his blind spots, this is a useful recitation of recent events that every US citizen ignores at his/her own peril. Caution: if you get all your news through FOX network, you'll either be shocked at what you've not been told, or you won't believe most of what's in this book.

Os. ( )

Conanson's point is well taken: it can happen here. It is happening here, as he ably documents. Ironically, I think the reason I felt this book was somewhat scattershot and needed a tighter focus on some of the more urgent issues, is that Conanson tried to touch on the vast range of the Bush Administration's corruption and mendacity; the sheer volume of scandalous misconduct meant a description of what scurried out each time a rock was turned over had to be brief in order to accommodate a description of the next rock. ( )

Sinclair Lewis's 1935 novel It Can't Happen Here envisaged a right-wing populist president, advised by a cunning political strategist and backed by a cynical alliance of religious fundamentalists and corporations, who uses security threats to consolidate dictatorial powers, destroy civil liberties and establish folksy fascism. This is a virtual blueprint for the current Bush administration, a "corrupt and authoritarian ruling clique" that accords the president "the prerogatives of a king," argues political columnist Conason (Big Lies) in this lively, if overwrought, j'accuse. He surveys a long list of what he sees as Bush administration affronts to freedom and democracy: military tribunals, torture, warrantless wiretapping, politically motivated terrorism alerts, a war based on fraudulent pretexts, the Abramoff scandals, the handover of policy making to business interests and Christian zealots, tight secrecy coupled with a dissemination of propaganda through the right-wing media and a lawless contempt for constitutional constraints on the presidency. His indictment often hits home, but it's broad and indiscriminate, treating biased journalism, religion-tinged politics and lobbying scandals as signs of creeping fascism rather than age-old commonplaces of democracy. Conason delivers his usual cogent, hard-hitting critique of Republican misdeeds, but his insinuations of authoritarianism, coming just as the Republicans have been voted out of power in Congress, seem badly ti ( )