I just finished reading Glenn Greenwald's post regarding his new book "How Would A Patriot Act?"

Glenn writes:

What I hope will be the book's principal impact is to cast a very bright light on the fact that all of these Bush administration scandals which are always discussed in isolation -- lawless detentions, secret prisons, the use of torture, illegal eavesdropping, etc. -- are merely symptoms of a profound political crisis which our country faces, brought about by the fact that this administration has adopted radical theories of power whereby the President literally and expressly claims the right to act without restraint, including those imposed by law. The powers seized by this president are exactly those powers about which the founders most urgently and explicitly warned, and which they sought, first and foremost, to prevent.

I am sure everyone who knows me is aware of the fact that I have enomorous respect for Digby . He has written a review of Glenn's book that is really worth reading in and of itself. Towards the end, Digby again in his own unsurprisingly way says:

As we go into this election season we are going to be talking a lot about what we stand for, what we believe and who we are as a party and as a country. This book is, in my view, necessary reading for everyone in the party who is working on our message. Unless we insist upon accountability for what these people have done, I fear that the country will not be able to recover. People need to see that our system of government can not only survive such assaults on its integrity, but that justice and the rule of law will reassert themselves under responsible leadership. It must be publicly demonstrated that this doctrine of unlimited presidential authority is unacceptable and Unamerican.

A distorted, authoritarian undemocratic view of American government has persisted now for more than a generation among certain conservatives. This philosophy has taken us from Watergate to Iran-Contra to Impeachment to the supreme court deciding a presidential election and the last five years of unprecedented assaults on the constitution in the name of a war that has no end. We need to drive a stake through the heart of this philosophy once and for all before it kills us. Greenwald's book is one of the first stabs at doing that and it's vital that the rest of us do our part.

If you believe as I do that this is the issue of our time, this book lays it all out in stark, clear prose. Send one to your Senator or congressman. They need to read it.

The heart and soul of the Democratic party lies in its committment to freedom and equality for all Americans. I wish I could say the same about every American but we have all seen what the dangerous government of Bush can do to a country and to the world. I look forward to reading Glenn's book and will hold close to me the idea that Dissent is Patriotic at this point in time.