Rating: 
Summary: What about property rights under assult RIGHT NOW!
Review: I am concerned about the many, many citizens in our country that are losing their property AS WE SPEAK under the so- called eminent domain right, and I am more concerned about that right now than any "threat" of losing rights under Ashcroft. What is being done right now for those who have lost their homes already to county commissioners who force property owners to sell their homes and property so someone with more money can build bigger homes for more tax revenue?! Or businesses like the New York Times forcing homeowners out of their property to build a new building! Let's focus on what's going on in the real world right now!
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST FOR REPUBLICAN/DEMOCRAT/INDEPENDENT!!!!!!
Review: I hate writing reviews, but here's one for this book. I picked it up over holidays and read it in a few days. The book summarizes various violations to the Bill of Rights focusing on 1st and 4th amendments. It asks the so called "unpatriotic" questions, and thus exposing many things that are overlooked by mainstream media and consequently majority of Americans.Hentoff might as well send his book to all of the senators save Russ Feingold who was the only one to dissent on USA PATRIOT Act pushed so hastily by the Justice Department a month after 9/11. I don't care who you are a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent; you should always ask questions! Don't let anybody tell you that questioning your commander in chief is unpatriotic! America was born out of dissent. America should always question their leaders' decisions; that is what makes this country so great-the ability to do so. Read this book and after do not just put it down, but make your phone call, email your senators/representatives and let them know: YOU WANT YOUR RIGHTS BACK!
Rating:
Summary: A MUST FOR REPUBLICAN/DEMOCRAT/INDEPENDENT!!!!!!
Review: I hate writing reviews, but here's one for this book. I picked it up over holidays and read it in a few days. The book summarizes various violations to the Bill of Rights focusing on 1st and 4th amendments. It asks the so called "unpatriotic" questions, and thus exposing many things that are overlooked by mainstream media and consequently majority of Americans. Hentoff might as well send his book to all of the senators save Russ Feingold who was the only one to dissent on USA PATRIOT Act pushed so hastily by the Justice Department a month after 9/11. I don't care who you are a Republican, a Democrat, or an independent; you should always ask questions! Don't let anybody tell you that questioning your commander in chief is unpatriotic! America was born out of dissent. America should always question their leaders' decisions; that is what makes this country so great-the ability to do so. Read this book and after do not just put it down, but make your phone call, email your senators/representatives and let them know: YOU WANT YOUR RIGHTS BACK!
Rating:
Summary: Repetitive, unorganized, unthoughtful
Review: I usually do not write reviews but I needed to share my thoughts on this book. First off I bought it because I'm very interested in this topic and have enjoyed similar books in the past, however this book was not that good.
The book just does not have enough information to be a book!!! The author, while he is respected (in some circles) he just seems to repeat himself over and over again in order to fill the pages! It is so unorganized that it's got 35 chapters in 160 pages!!! Did you hear that, that's about 4 pages a chapter, and that gets so annoying because nothing is tied together, just repeated in the next chapter.
The information is also just terrible, it's message board info, not material for a book, let me explain: most of the text is actual clips and quotes from other news sources like the New York Times! It just ends up being a book of other people's ideas about this. Not much originality at all.
I did give it 2 stars because this is an important topic and I'm glad Hentoff is writing about it but it was just too forced and felt like he wrote it fast and didn't read the final copy!
Rating:
Summary: Repetitive, unorganized, unthoughtful
Review: I usually do not write reviews but I needed to share my thoughts on this book. First off I bought it because I'm very interested in this topic and have enjoyed similar books in the past, however this book was not that good.
The book just does not have enough information to be a book!!! The author, while he is respected (in some circles) he just seems to repeat himself over and over again in order to fill the pages! It is so unorganized that it's got 35 chapters in 160 pages!!! Did you hear that, that's about 4 pages a chapter, and that gets so annoying because nothing is tied together, just repeated in the next chapter.
The information is also just terrible, it's message board info, not material for a book, let me explain: most of the text is actual clips and quotes from other news sources like the New York Times! It just ends up being a book of other people's ideas about this. Not much originality at all.
I did give it 2 stars because this is an important topic and I'm glad Hentoff is writing about it but it was just too forced and felt like he wrote it fast and didn't read the final copy!
Rating:
Summary: important warning for americans
Review: Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. Why is it the time? Because our basic constitutional rights are under the most vigorous full frontal assault since the Civil War, and possibly of our whole history. Previous assaults have all taken place in time of war. But always in time of a real war, that is to say, military actions undertaken against identifiable enemy states, ending in clear victory or withdrawal. The "war on terror" is a struggle against a permanent class of shadowy enemies. Al Qaeda is a serious threat, but while there may not always be an Al Qaeda, there will always be terrorists. Any freedom we relinquish only for the duration of the "war" on terror will be a freedom we lose forever. Hentoff wastes no words. He doesn't rant, preferring to quote the sober judgments of the Supreme Court and the Founding Fathers. He gives us a quick but reasonably thorough overview of the many blows Ashcroft's Justice Department has rained on the Bill of Rights, the separation of powers, and the principle of an open government accountable to the people. He provides the dates and notable contents of the bills, the executive orders, and the arrogations of power, usually sufficiently sourced to follow the dots in Google to the full texts. He brings the story right up to date (including the Justice Department's own stinging inspector general's report from June of 2003). And though the crisis is urgent, Hentoff offers a lot of hope. Because, as he also documents, Americans from the grass roots to Congress, of all political persuasions, have started waking up to the danger and taking action. Don't be confused by the one-star reviews. This is in no sense a partisan book, except to the extent that Franklin, Adams and Jefferson were partisans of liberty. Ashcroft is thoroughly bashed, but Bush hardly comes in for a mention. There are as many Republican heroes credited here - Dick Armey, Charles Grassley, Bob Barr, even Grover Norquist - as there are Democratic ones. The Bill of Rights, after all, is the common glory of every American. Ashcroft's claim, for example, (sustained by the fourth Circuit Court of Appeals on December 8, 2002) that any President and any Attorney General have the right, on their sole say-so, to imprison any American citizen indefinitely without charges or legal representation, is a declaration of war on the spirit of America, and of everyone who values freedom. That's Democrats, Republicans, Greens, Libertarians, and independents alike. It's short. It's alarmed because the times are alarming, but it's measured in tone. It's packed with information you *should* have been reading in your paper. Do yourself and your country a favor, and read it.
Rating:
Summary: Those who give up freedom to have security deserve neither!
Review: The point of the book is to assess the current state of civil liberties in America in light of legislation enacted and attempted by Bush-Ashcroft. In Hentoff's typically tight yet thorough journalistic style he documents the case that indeed, American's 4th Amendment (regarding unreasonable search and seizure) and 5th Amendment (regarding due process of law for suspects) rights have been and are being egregiously violated. Furthermore, these violations are hastily being codified into law. He commends Republicans and rebuffs Democrats (and vice-versa, when appropriate) for standing up for the Constitution, so he is not simply acting as a shill for the Left, as some might be inclined to assume. The question that should plague the reader after finishing the book is this: if in our war on terror we destroy the values which make America what it is (e.g. Bill of Rights) are we not then losing the war? And what way of life are we trying to preserve by the war, if we compromise our defining document - the Constitution
Rating: 
Summary: Essential Reading for All
Review: This book focuses on a document that was drafted more than 200 years ago, when terrorism wasn't a word in any language. Mr. Hentoff is an extremely intelligent person (and a nice man, too!), but society today cannot rely on laws from centuries past concerning acts of evil that have been "created" in the present. More essentially, it should be understood that the U.S. Constitution is not applicable to non-U.S. citizens. Taking these facts into consideration, I disagree with the author regarding the rights of such prisoners as the detainees at Camp X-Ray, anyone who perpetrates an act of terror on the soil of this country, and anyone the U.S. Government deems guilty of such and found overseas. If we do not take proper action against such people to protect this country, then we might as well rewrite the Bill of Rights anyway, giving those rights to citizens of the World as opposed to the U.S. There is no other country on this planet that would offer criminal or terroristic perpetrators of other nations the same rights as its own citizens.
This is a good book, and recommended reading for all, but yet another alarmist point of view screaming extreme partisanship. The few examples that the author gives of politicians from the Right disagreeing with certain actions of the Bush Administration would exist in any such situation, and are not formidable in supporting the author's core argument.
Rating:
Summary: Exposing Bush's war on the Constitution
Review: This is a chilling record of the government assault on basic American civil liberties by a cowardly Bush administration that is increasingly relying on a climate of fear to hold onto power. Net Hentoff, of course, is an immediately suspect writer. He has an impeccable record of defending, explaining, respecting and advocating civil rights. He is one of those precious few in every society with the courage to challenge the power of government to boss people around. He functions at the level of you, me and us. Some politicians have a different outlook; they think they deal in great national and global issues on which the future of all mankind hinges. They are wrong, of course. It's not because they are evil, though some are certainly evil. It's because the nature of representative democracy requires politicians to represent all of the people. Like any "averaging" system, it excludes anyone who is not in the white bread and vanilla pudding "middle" of society. In a free society, individuals are free to choose such exotic ideas as Thai red-curry chicken or a sunny Provencal daube. The US Constitution and its Bill of Rights wasn't handed down to us by ancient wise politicians; it is a set of values of the American people. Personally, I have great faith in the individual wisdom of Americans. Even if everything Hentoff says comes true, I'm confident a new "American Revolution" will root out such tyranny. Hentoff is not so sanguine, he stresses the "grass roots of the Constitution" and urges freedom loving Americans to act now. Ashcroft needs to be reminded his sworn duty is to uphold the Constitution, not to cave into the fears of the chicken-hawks in the Bush administration. Normally, civil rights is a liberal issue. But not this time. Hentoff repeatedly quotes the leading conservatives in Congress, plus right-wing papers such as The Washington Times. A lot of people across the politiocal spectrum are genuinely upset about the threat to our basic rights. It is an issue that concerns all those interested in individual freedom, and his book draws from an eclectic range of sources. Okay, so Attorney General John Ashcroft says his trashing of civil rights is necessary to fight terrorism. Under the new laws, Hentoff points out that a person who stands peacefully outside an abortion clinic to urge women not to have an abortion could technically be charged as a terrorist and lose all of their civil and legal rights. Will this happen? Well, it's not likely (cross-your-fingers) under Ashcroft -- but he (hopefully) isn't Attorney General-for-life. Far-fetched? Well, remember the 1930s when mobsters weren't convicted of being killers? Convictions were based on income tax charges. Remember the Mississippi murders of civil rights workers in the 1960s? Their murderers were not convicted of murder; they were nailed for violating the civil rights of the victims. The lesson is that if the government wants to convict a person, they will find a way. In this book, Hentoff shows how the government now has hundreds of new ways of convicting any individual who upsets these new absolute monarchs of madness. King George III should have been so lucky!!! Hentoff offers enough examples to frighten everyone who values American rights. What can you do on an individual basis? Well, people who love liberty in many communities have persuaded local governments to enact policies refusing to cooperate with the police state envisioned by Ashcroft. This book provides dozens of reasons to take such action.
Rating:
Summary: An essential work for today's times
Review: This work is not nearly as disorganized as the Amazon.com review would suggest, but would have gotten five stars if an editor had tightened it up a bit. Nat Hentoff offers a succinct and revealing view of the 2001 "Patriot Act" the Bush II administration rushed through congress. In many cases the provisions of this law come in direct conflict with several of the first ten amendments and give our government, specifically the executive branch, frighteningly broad powers over the citizenry it is supposed to serve. Particulary scary is the President's new power to hold people indefinately without charging them, without access to attorneys and without the knowledge of anyone, including their family. The comparisons to Abraham Lincoln's suspension of the writ of habeous corpus during the Civil War are inevitable. However, the strugle to hold our country together had a distinct end, which is something the current administration's war on terror lacks. The executive branch may hold this power forever. Mr. Hentoff extends his analysis to "Patriot Act II" which has not yet been passed, but could grant this power against U.S. citizens. He examines other portions of the bills which allow the siezure of property merely on suspicion, rather than reasonable evidence and the installation of the "magic lantern" into peoples' computers, allowing government agencies to track all activity without their knowledge. Your records from public libraries and booksellers may be seized and examined not only without your knowledge, but the acts make it illegal for these organizations to tell you the records have been accessed. The U.S. government is slowly removing many of the protections that make the United States unique and free. As quoted from the third season of The Simpsons, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." This book arms you with the knowlege to help protect your freedoms. It is a quick and gripping read.
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