Politics Audiobooks | LoveReading

Landmark book by the author of nine #1 national nonfiction bestsellers. Plan of Attack is the definitive account of a turning point in history as President George W. Bush, his war council, and allies launch a preemptive attack on Iraq, toppling Saddam Hussein and taking over the country. From in-depth interviews and documents, Bob Woodward provides an authoritative narrative of the Administration's behind-the-scenes maneuvering over two years and examines the causes and consequences of the most controversial war since Vietnam. What emerges is an astonishingly intimate portrait of the President, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, CIA Director George Tenet, General Tommy Franks, other members of the war council and the White House staff, as well as key foreign leaders ranging from British Prime Minister Blair to Russian President Putin. Plan of Attack relates the how and the why of decision making-including the secret meetings, secure phone calls, strategies, dilemmas, conflicts, and the raw emotions of war as they are rarely seen in contemporary history.

Bob Woodward (Author), Boyd Gaines (Narrator)

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Fanatics and Fools

As America's leaders fight pre-emptive wars abroad and ordinary Americans fight to keep their heads above water here at home, Arianna Huffington offers a no-holds-barred account of where we stand and a clear and remarkable vision of where we should be headed. Taking aim at the ruthless fanatics in the Bush White House and the feckless fools in the all-too-compliant Democratic opposition, the best-selling author of Pigs at the Trough paints a scathing picture of our contemporary political landscape—peopled with scoundrels and cowards, and awash in the constant and corrosive tow of dirty money. But the book doesn't stop there. Over the course of her run for governor of California, Arianna Huffington learned that criticism and outrage are not enough. She lays out her game plan for winning back America from our not-so-compassionately-conservative president, now firmly and happily in the grip of right-wing radicals like Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and John Ashcroft. With the 2004 election fast approaching, Arianna Huffington sees fire in the ashes of the Democratic Party and reason for hope that this can be the year that the people finally take back control of their government and their country. Fearless, funny, in full command of the facts, and ever passionate, Arianna Huffington offers not just a chapter-and-verse diagnosis of the fanaticism that drives the Bush White House but a bold vision of New Responsibility for rebuilding our broken democracy. If you want to know what you can do to restore America to the promise and moral greatness envisioned by our greatest leaders, from Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt to FDR and Bobby Kennedy, this book is required reading. These are big dreams, but, as Arianna argues, anything smaller guarantees the reelection of George Bush.

Arianna Huffington (Author), Arianna Huffington (Narrator)

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House of Bush, House of Saud

Newsbreaking and controversial -- an award-winning investigative journalist uncovers the thirty-year relationship between the Bush family and the House of Saud and explains its impact on American foreign policy, business, and national security. House of Bush, House of Saud begins with a politically explosive question: How is it that two days after 9/11, when U.S. air traffic was tightly restricted, 140 Saudis, many immediate kin to Osama Bin Laden, were permitted to leave the country without being questioned by U.S. intelligence? The answer lies in a hidden relationship that began in the 1970s, when the oil-rich House of Saud began courting American politicians in a bid for military protection, influence, and investment opportunity. With the Bush family, the Saudis hit a gusher -- direct access to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush. To trace the amazing weave of Saud-Bush connections, Unger interviewed three former directors of the CIA, top Saudi and Israeli intelligence officials, and more than one hundred other sources.His access to major players is unparalleled and often exclusive -- including executives at the Carlyle Group, the giant investment firm where the House of Bush and the House of Saud each has a major stake. Like Bob Woodward's The Veil, Unger's House of Bush, House of Saud features unprecedented reportage; like Michael Moore's Dude, Where's My Country? Unger's book offers a political counter-narrative to official explanations; this deeply sourced account has already been cited by Senators Hillary Rodham Clinton and Charles Schumer, and sets 9/11, the two Gulf Wars, and the ongoing Middle East crisis in a new context: What really happened when America's most powerful political family became seduced by its Saudi counterparts?

Craig Unger (Author), James Naughton (Narrator)

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Deliver Us From Evil

As Americans face the ongoing war against terrorists and their state sponsors around the world, Sean Hannity reminds us we must also cope with the continuing scourge of accommodation and cowardice at home. With his trademark blend of passion and hard-hitting commentary, he urges Americans to recognize the dangers of putting our faith in toothless "multilateralism" when the times call for decisive action. He believes that only through strong defense of our freedoms, at home and around the world, can we preserve America's security and liberty in the dangerous twenty-first century. "Evil exists," Hannity believes. "It is real, and it means to harm us." Tracing a direct line from Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin through Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden, he reminds us of the courage and moral clarity of our great leaders. And he reveals how the disgraceful history of appeasement has reached forward from the days of Neville Chamberlain and Jimmy Carter to corrupt the unrepentant leftists of the modern Democratic Party -- from Howard Dean and John Kerry to Bill and Hillary Clinton. Hannity's first blockbuster book, the New York Times bestseller Let Freedom Ring, cemented his place as the freshest and most compelling conservative voice in the country. As host of the phenomenally successful Hannity & Colmes and The Sean Hannity Show, Hannity has won a wildly devoted fan base. Now he brings his plainspoken, take-no-prisoners style to the continuing War on Terror abroad -- and liberalism at home

Sean Hannity (Author), Sean Hannity (Narrator)

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Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror

"The [Bush] administration has squandered the opportunity to eliminate al Qaeda....A new al Qaeda has emerged and is growing stronger, in part because of our own actions and inactions. It is in many ways a tougher opponent than the original threat we faced before September 11, and we are not doing what is necessary to make America safe from that threat." No one has more authority to make that claim than Richard Clarke, the former counterterrorism czar for both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. The one person who knows more about Usama bin Laden and al Qaeda than anyone else in this country, he has devoted two decades of his professional life to combating terrorism. Richard Clarke served seven presidents and worked inside the White House for George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush until he resigned in March 2003. He knows, better than anyone, the hidden successes and failures of the Clinton years. He knows, better than anyone, why we failed to prevent 9/11. He knows, better than anyone, how President Bush reacted to the attack and what happened behind the scenes in the days that followed. He knows whether or not Iraq presented a terrorist threat to the United States and whether there were hidden costs to the invasion of that country. Most disturbing of all are Clarke's revelations about the Bush administration's lack of interest in al Qaeda prior to September 11. From the moment the Bush team took office and decided to retain Clarke in his post as the counterterrorism czar, Clarke tried to persuade them to take al Qaeda as seriously as had Bill Clinton. For months, he was denied the opportunity even to make his case to Bush. He encountered key officials who gave the impression that they had never heard of al Qaeda; who focused incessantly on Iraq; who even advocated long-discredited conspiracy theories about Saddam's involvement in previous attacks on the United States. Clarke was the nation's crisis manager on 9/11, running the Situation Room -- a scene described here for the first time -- and then watched in dismay at what followed. After ignoring existing plans to attack al Qaeda when he first took office, George Bush made disastrous decisions when he finally did pay attention. Coming from a man known as one of the hard-liners against terrorists, Against All Enemies is both a powerful history of our two-decades-long confrontation with terrorism and a searing indictment of the current administration.

Richard A. Clarke (Author), Richard A. Clarke (Narrator)

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In The Company of Soldiers

From Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author Rick Atkinson comes an eyewitness account of the war against Iraq and a vivid portrait of a remarkable group of soldiers For soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division, the road to Baghdad began with a midnight flight out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in late February 2003. For Rick Atkinson, who would spend nearly two months covering the division for The Washington Post, the war in Iraq provided a unique opportunity to observe today's U.S. Army in combat. Now, in this extraordinary account of his odyssey with the 101st, Atkinson presents an intimate and revealing portrait of the soldiers who fight the expeditionary wars that have become the hallmark of our age. At the center of Atkinson's drama stands the compelling figure of Major General David H. Petraeus, described by one comrade as "the most competitive man on the planet." Atkinson spent virtually all day every day at Petraeus's elbow in Iraq, where he had an unobstructed view of the stresses, anxieties, and large joys of commanding 17,000 soldiers in combat. Atkinson watches Petraeus wrestle with innumerable tactical conundrums and direct several intense firefights; he watches him teach, goad, and lead his troops and his subordinate commanders. And all around Petraeus, we see the men and women of a storied division grapple with the challenges of waging war in an unspeakably harsh environment. With the eye of a master storyteller, the premier military historian of his generation puts us right on the battlefield. In the Company of Soldiers is a compelling, utterly fresh view of the modern American soldier in action.

Rick Atkinson (Author), Rick Atkinson (Narrator)

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Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency

In the months and years following September 11, Robert C. Byrd has viewed with alarm what he considers to be a "slow unraveling of the people's liberties", when all dissenting voices were stilled and awesome power swung suddenly to the president to fight a "war on terror". This path violates historical American principles, it shows no regard for the balance of power or the role of the Congress; it invades our privacy; and it eliminates public participation in and understanding of government. Swept along, we have entered a war without proper consideration and rushed dangerous legislation through Congress. Now is the time to regain the Constitution, to return to the values and processes that made America great. Byrd does not shrink from speaking the truth to an ever aggressive and imperial White House.

Senator Robert C. Byrd (Author), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

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Betrayal: How Union Bosses Shake Down Their Members and Corrupt American Politics

“Simply put, the leftist labor unions have the Democrats in their pockets. And we’re all paying the price.” Linda Chavez, President George W. Bush’s original choice for Secretary of Labor and a former union official, is one of the foremost authorities on America’s labor unions. Now, in the explosive new book Betrayal, she and fellow union expert Daniel Gray expose the corrupt bargain between the labor movement and the Democratic Party. Committed to a far-left political agenda—and to enhancing their own power—union bosses funnel at least half a billion dollars into Democratic coffers every year. And they do it, illegally, by using dues money that workers are forced to pay as a condition of their employment—dues money that each year brings the unions $17 billion, all of it tax-free. What do labor bosses get in return? The power to call the shots in Democratic campaigns and on party policy, extraordinary influence at all levels of government, billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded federal grants, and special legal privileges that leave them free to act as they please, no matter the consequences for the American people. The cycle of corruption is seemingly endless. Chavez and Gray name names, exposing the many politicians who are in Big Labor’s pocket—including the leading lights of the Democratic Party. Betrayal also reveals: • Big Labor’s all-out efforts in the 2004 election, including how just one local union has launched a $35-million campaign to unseat President Bush • How corrupt union officials use members’ hard-earned money to fund lavish lifestyles—and how their Democratic supporters let them get away with it • How unions flout the law by failing to report any of their political spending to the IRS • How a government report uncovered the Democrats’ sellout to Big Labor—but how the unions and the Democrats sued to keep the report from going public • How the U.S. government lets unions practice legalized terrorism against American citizens • How public-employee unions extort concessions from the government and put Americans at risk by refusing to provide vital services like policing and firefighting • How Americans now live under a system of legal apartheid—one set of rules for labor bosses, another for the rest of us All of us foot the bill for this corrupt system. Now it’s up to us to do something about it.

Daniel Gray, Linda Chavez (Author), Maria Theresa Longworth, Theresa Long (Narrator)

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Civil Disobedience: And Other Essays

American author, poet, and philosopher Henry David Thoreau was a passionate abolitionist. Inspired by his opposition to slavery, his illuminating essay "Civil Disobedience" presents the theory that "the government is best that governs least." A powerful testament that remains as important today as it was during its conception, this theory argues that citizens should not allow their government to overrule through taxes and unjust laws.

Henry David Thoreau (Author), Jefferson Mays (Narrator)

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Blood Done Sign My Name: A True Story

"Daddy and Roger and 'em shot 'em a nigger." Those words, whispered to ten-year-old Tim Tyson by one of his playmates in the late spring of 1970, heralded a firestorm that would forever transform the small tobacco market town of Oxford, North Carolina. On May 11, 1970, Henry Marrow, a 23-year-old black veteran, walked into a crossroads store owned by Robert Teel, a rough man with a criminal record and ties to the Ku Klux Klan, and came out running. Teel and two of his sons chased Marrow, beat him unmercifully, and killed him in public as he pleaded for his life. In the words of a local prosecutor: "They shot him like you or I would kill a snake." Like many small Southern towns, Oxford had barely been touched by the civil rights movement. But in the wake of the killing, young African Americans took to the streets, led by 22-year-old Ben Chavis, a future president of the NAACP. As mass protests crowded the town square, a cluster of returning Vietnam veterans organized what one termed "a military operation." While lawyers battled in the courthouse that summer in a drama that one termed "a Perry Mason kind of thing," the Ku Klux Klan raged in the shadows and black veterans torched the town's tobacco warehouses. With large sections of the town in flames, Tyson's father, the pastor of Oxford's all-white Methodist church, pressed his congregation to widen their vision of humanity and pushed the town to come to terms with its bloody racial history. In the end, however, the Tyson family was forced to move away. Years later, historian Tim Tyson returned to Oxford to ask Robert Teel why he and his sons had killed Henry Marrow. "That nigger committed suicide, coming in here wanting to four-letter-word my daughter-in-law," Teel explained. The black radicals who burned much of Oxford also told Tim their stories. "It was like we had a cash register up there at the pool hall, just ringing up how much money we done cost these white people," one of them explained. "We knew if we cost 'em enough goddamn money they was gonna start changing some things." In the tradition of To Kill a Mockingbird , Blood Done Sign My Name is a classic work of conscience, a defining portrait of a time and place that we will never forget. Tim Tyson's riveting narrative of that fiery summer and one family's struggle to build bridges in a time of destruction brings gritty blues truth, soaring gospel vision, and down-home humor to our complex history, where violence and faith, courage and evil, despair and hope all mingle to illuminate America's enduring chasm of race. From the Hardcover edition.

Timothy B. Tyson (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

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A Pretext For War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies

In A Pretext for War, acclaimed author James Bamford-whose classic book The Puzzle Palace first revealed the existence of the National Security Agency-draws on his unparalleled access to top intelligence sources to produce a devastating expos? of the intelligence community and the Bush administration. A Pretext for War reveals the systematic weaknesses behind the failure to detect or prevent the 9/11 attacks, and details the Bush administration's subsequent misuse of intelligence to sell preemptive war to the American people. Filled with unprecedented new revelations, from the sites of "undisclosed locations" to the actual sources of America's Middle East policy, A Pretext for War is essential reading for anyone concerned about the security of the United States.

James Bamford (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

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The Book on Bush: How George W. Bush (Mis)leads America

Not since Richard Nixon's heyday has there been a more controversial president capable of polarizing public opinion than George W. Bush. From his arrival in office through what many still regard as one of the most flagrant miscarriages of electoral justice in modern history to the long road to Iraq, liberals have vilified Bush as ardently as neoconservatives have embraced him. Both Alterman and Green are known for their doggedness in researching the media and political figures, and what they discover in the case of Bush is a consistent pattern of double standards, misrepresentation, and contradictions. The Book on Bush methodically critiques Administration policy from the standpoint of its truthfulness as well as its merit, with the characteristic wit of both writers. "Examining the Bush administration's record on domestic and foreign policy issues, Alterman and former New York City public advocate Green see a pattern of dissimulation to promote the interests of the religious right, big business and neoconservative radicals. The two progressive champions make no effort to hide their dislike of Bush, branding him an 'affirmative-action-legacy student' lacking knowledge and brain power...Expect liberal cognoscenti to back this book in droves."--Publishers Weekly

Eric Alterman, Mark Green (Author), Nick Sullivan (Narrator)

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