A Drinking Liberally Philadelphia Special Announcement:
Meet author and blogger Glenn Greenwald and discuss his new book How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok
Monday, June 19, 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Higher Grounds Café in Northern Liberties
631 N 3rd Street / www.highergroundscafe.com
Close to the Spring Garden stop of the Market Frankford El, and right on northbound bus routes #5 & #57 on 3rd St. and bus route #43 on Spring Garden. Decent on and off street parking options in the area- you may have to walk a block.
About Glenn:
Glenn Greenwald is the author of How Would a Patriot Act? Defending American Values from a President Run Amok. He is a Constitutional law attorney, and author of the political blog, "Unclaimed Territory." Greenwald has written for American Conservative magazine and appeared on a variety of television and radio programs, including C-Span's "Washington Journal," Air America's "Majority Report" and Public Radio International's "To the Point." His reporting and analysis have been credited in The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Salon, Slate and a variety of other print and online publications.
(Glenn will also be on the Al Franken Show at 1:30 Monday afternoon)
More about the book:
Glenn Greenwald was not a political man. Not liberal, not conservative. Politicians were all the same and it didn't matter which party was in power. Extremists on both ends canceled each other out, and the United States would essentially remain forever centrist. Or so he thought.
Then came September 11, 2001. Greenwald's disinterest in politics was replaced by patriotism, and he supported the war in Afghanistan. He also gave President Bush the benefit of the doubt over his decision to invade Iraq. But, as he saw Americans and others being disappeared, jailed and tortured, without charges or legal representation, he began to worry. And when he learned his president had seized the power to spy on American citizens on American soil, without the oversight required by law, he could stand no more. At the heart of these actions, Greenwald saw unprecedented and extremist theories of presidential power, theories that flout the Constitution and make President Bush accountable to no one, and no law.
How Would a Patriot Act? is one man's story of being galvanized into action to defend America's founding principles, and a reasoned argument for what must be done. Greenwald's penetrating words should inspire a nation to defend the Constitution from a president who secretly bestowed upon himself the powers of a monarch. If we are to remain a constitutional republic, Greenwald writes, we cannot abide radical theories of executive power, which are transforming the very core of our national character, and moving us from democracy toward despotism. This is not hyperbole. This is the crisis all Americans—liberals and conservatives--now face.
In the spirit of the colonists who once mustered the strength to denounce a king, Greenwald invites us to consider: How would a patriot act today?
Praise for How Would a Patriot Act?
"The Bush administration has openly declared its right to violate any law or provision of the
Constitution it chooses in the name of national security, nullifying the rights of citizens in
the process. This is not a paranoid conspiracy theory; it is, in fact, something they have
been surprisingly open about. Greenwald explains clearly and plainly the dangerously radical
views of presidential power held by the Bush administration and how they threaten to
destroy the fundamental principles on which our nation was founded. Richard Nixon once
said, 'When the President does it, that means that it's not illegal.' While few have bothered
to take note, the Bush administration has made this claim as well."
— Duncan Black
a.k.a. Atrios, founder of the political blog, Eschaton
"It's not about liberal. It's not about conservative. It's about the Constitution. 'To be an
American means that you cannot be imprisoned without charges, that you have a fair
opportunity to defend yourself in a court of law, and that you have a right to be judged by a
jury of your peers,' Greenwald writes. Goodbye to all that — unless you and I start acting
like patriots. Reading this book — and then passing it on to a friend — is a great way to
start."
— Rick Perlstein
Author of Before the Storm: Barry Goldwater and the Unmaking of the American Consensus
