No comments about Brandeis - Intimate Biography Of One Of America's Truly Great Supreme Court Justices.

No comments about The Attache; Or, Sam Slick in England.

No comments about Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Free Speech and the Living Constitution.

2 comments about What Would Martin Say?.

1. Yes, I want to thank the author for writing this book. He tells the true story of a great man and a great movement--told as only someone who was personally there and lived through it can tell it. Jones uses the very close relationship he had with MLK not to aggrandize himself but to inform and educate anyone who chooses to read this book. The book provides balanced context and fascinating and sometimes unexpected insights, told in an unconstrained, thought-provoking manner. The book seems to be written by a self-effacing man who contributed greatly to the civil rights movement and now is passing along his knowledge and insights about MLK to all of us, regardless of our age/generation. I really enjoyed reading about what would Martin say about many issues of our time, and wish the book was longer.



2. I am so impressed with Mr Jones' observations. He takes the historical Martin King and brings him to 2008, addressing topics such as Black-on-Black crime, the current status of 'the struggle', the responsibility of modern Black America, the 'Jena Six', today's modern so-called 'Black Leaders', and a host of others.
   
   Mr Jones prefaces each topic with an historical account of how Dr King addressed a similar or identical situation. Mr Jones uses each recollection as a launching pad to address current subjects pertinent in the lives of Black America today, eminently qualifying him to surmise what he believes Dr King would say on the subject in 2008.
   
   Most if not all of these journeys in time are the accounts of the man who was present with Dr King at the time. More than just interesting sidebars, they validate Mr Jones as he gives compelling, rational argument for the positions he believes Dr King would take today.
   
   Mr Jones does not shy away from topics that he could have just as easily avoided. He could have successfully written a book where he honors Dr King's memory but steps on fewer toes. Mr Jones does just the opposite - he gets his big stompin' boots out and commences to "kickin' & takin".
   
   I stopped reading this book and immediately gave it to my niece for a college graduation present. I am ordering additional copies for my son, daughter, other nieces & nephews, as well as a copy for myself to finish. I hope that I see a dog-eared, frequently read copy on their bookshelves in the years to come.
   
   Thank you, Mr Jones!
   
   -RCH Sr-

No comments about A Season for Justice: The Life and Times of Civil Rights Lawyer Morris Dees.

No comments about Justice Under Siege.

5 comments about The SEDUCTION OF HILLARY RODHAM.

1. In page after page of "facts" based on assumptions, presumptions, and lies, he produces a tale of flimsy accusations of improperity against a woman who is much brighter, quicker, and kinder than her male counterparts. It was easily apparent that he manufactured much of the "facts."



2. Almost ten years have passed since the publication of this book. From before then and until recently, David Brock has appeared now and again on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal," during which time he moved from the right to the left on the political spectrum, eventuating in his disavowal of the right-wing attack machine in which he had played such an important part. Compelled by a sudden interest in Hillary Rodham because of her possible run for president, I selected THIS book to educate myself on her because it was during the research and writing of it that Brock turned away from the dark side of the force. Something about her inspired him to take a political one-eighty, so one would assume that he shared in this book something of what it was that brought him to such illumination. I remember when it was released, right wingers were furious to learn that their heretofore reliable hitman hadn't delivered the magic bullet that would put an end to the Clintons, and Hillary in particular. Instead, Brock presented a detailed account of the influences that drive Hillary Rodham, and to a liberal's delight and a right winger's disdain, she's basically a deeply spiritual person, with her ideology steeped in Christianity, the type known as social gospel activism. It's hard to take the moral high ground in opposing her after these submissions, and you'll have to find something else to hate her for besides your affected righteous indignation.
   
   The book focuses primarily on her moral influences, and shows how they consistently affected her. She had always been personally conservative, despite the influences of the campuses she attended in the 60s, shunning the libertinism, refraining from drugs, and remaining relatively chaste; politically she rejected the destructive anti-establishment revolutionary thinking preached by the harder activists. Her activism lay in the belief in making change within the system by altering how the law is viewed. It was all very fascinating stuff, and the reader will learn to split a hair or two.
   
   What some readers in some of these reviews possibly objected to was the way Brock mentioned some of the rumors -- gossip, mostly from her detractors, alleging lesbianism or an affair with Vince Foster; the gossipers should make up their minds -- but these stories had to be discussed if the book was to have any credibility at all. Brock inserted some incredulity into the comments by putting them in the context of hardball politics played by her husband's political enemies, jealous backbiters, and sometimes just plain old Arkansas male chauvinism. When Hillary moved with Bill back to his home state, she didn't deal graciously with a male-dominated political system that resented strong women. Some of Bill's closest friends panned her. Her strenghts made them feel weak. From what I gleaned, she was committed to intelligence itself as a tool, as a gift, and as such, regarded it as an asset she was sure principled people would appreciate. This was not the case, as most people's agendas were less noble than her own. Eventually, she learned to play the political game, to take on APPEARANCES, using tactics every politician on Capital Hill uses every day, and, as in everything else she sets her mind to, she excelled in it. Lacking her practicality and her commitment to her long-range goals, some people were harshly critical of her, accused her of selling out. The truth is, she detested the political games even as she played them -- preferring instead entreaties to reason -- but she brushed aside her objections for what she felt was a greater good, the use of her gifts to make positive changes in society.
   
   More instructional to the reader is the detailed accounting of the scandals that had eclipsed everything and anything else about the Clintons. The tableu that had played out via hundreds of insinuating soundbites was revealed as just a shadow play. The financial scandals were too complicated to be appreciated through snatches of news, and Brock here lays them out in detail, connects the dots, forming a cohesive story, and you realize that a lot was made of nothing, that the whole fiasco resulted from machinations of a partisan political system, polemics gone wild. He doesn't explicitly say so here in this book, as he does in a later one, but that is indeed the case.
   
   Overall, it's a good read. Only one part was boring, an interminably long description of how people were selected for President Clinton's cabinet, a tedious detailing of the relationships Hillary relied upon to establish control. This is only a minor point. Most of the time, he moves along. Brock's criticisms were always accompanied with a mitigating point, describing Hillary in the context of a political food chain. And while Brock's criticisms seemed harsher toward the end of the book, the rest of it betrays his very high regard for her.
   
   And why wouldn't he have a high regard? She possesses a moral conviction to advance society for everyone's benefit, and a superior intelligence at her disposal to aid her in accomplishing it, qualities that would add up to greatness in any other politician. Brock's main detraction is how Hillary dealt with a hostile poltical environment, that her education and her values inhered in her a more principled approach, one based on moral arguments she might deliver in a courtroom, and this worked to her detriment in the final analysis. But she's unable to set the rules, and thereby forced to play by them as they are. That's a small detraction in my estimation. By the time I had turned the last page, I had come to see her in an entirely new light, as one fine human being with only minor character flaws. I recommend this book to anyone interested in a clearer picture of her.
   
   On the other hand, to the rabid Clinton bashers, I say this: Don't bother, as YOU won't get much out of it; it is simply not spiteful enough.



3. David Brock's Seduction is a great read, and it will be curious to see this work rise on AMAZON's sales list now that Hillary has lifted her skirts for a run to the White House (watch those cankles!).
   
   Brock's Seduction of Hillary Rodham will satisfy no one on the tails of the normal distribution of those with an opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRM HRC).
   
   Which makes it a surprisingly honest book, but one that mostly lays the blame of her political development on the round heals of her opportunistic and amoral husband.
   
   Still, Brock's prose packs a punch, and his journalism alternates between thorough and tedious to sloppy and careworn. Errors a plenty, but about evenly divided into the camp of ones that hurt HRC and ones that help her, so no prize on elevating one error over the other to prove an ideological point on the one-upmanship game.
   
   This book was originally commissioned by The American Spectator and offered as a subscription renewal premium, so it would be fair to anticipate that there might be a slant or agenda attached. Yet delivery of Seduction was delayed for a good while, both from Brock's missing deadlines, and the ultimate lukewarm conclusion the book comes to about HRC: she's not the devil incarnate, nor particularly great, nor hopelessly Lady Macbeth, but rather an intelligent ambitious pol of the old entitlement school of rule and divide spoils. The editors of The AmSpec were probably not amused, but by then articles were appearing about Brock's private life and journalistic techniques in The Washington Post. The book disappointed everyone, and eventually Brock was given the heave-ho from AmSpec (deserved) but well remembered and thanked for his great book The Real Anita Hill (also deserved).
   
   The two weakest areas are Hilary's handling of Federally subpoenaed documents for the Whitewater investigation (she hid and suppressed them is about the only logical conclusion you could come to) and her amazing 10 sigma event of earning 1000% returns on cattle futures glancing at headlines in the Wall Street Journal (I have a bridge to sell you, comes with the Eiffel Tower). But neither Hilary haters nor Hilary defenders (she doesn't need them) will be happy with this book.



4. David Brock's Seduction is a great read, and it will be curious to see this work rise on AMAZON's sales list now that Hillary has lifted her skirts for a run to the White House (watch those cankles!).
   
   Brock's Seduction of Hillary Rodham will satisfy no one on the tails of the normal distribution of those with an opinion of Hillary Rodham Clinton (HRM HRC).
   
   Which makes it a surprisingly honest book, but one that mostly lays the blame of her political development on the round heals of her opportunistic and amoral husband.
   
   Still, Brock's prose packs a punch, and his journalism alternates between thorough and tedious to sloppy and careworn. Errors a plenty, but about evenly divided into the camp of ones that hurt HRC and ones that help her, so no prize on elevating one error over the other to prove an ideological point on the one-upmanship game.
   
   This book was originally commissioned by The American Spectator and offered as a subscription renewal premium, so it would be fair to anticipate that there might be a slant or agenda attached. Yet delivery of Seduction was delayed for a good while, both from Brock's missing deadlines, and the ultimate lukewarm conclusion the book comes to about HRC: she's not the devil incarnate, nor particularly great, nor hopelessly Lady Macbeth, but rather an intelligent ambitious pol of the old entitlement school of rule and divide spoils. The editors of The AmSpec were probably not amused, but by then articles were appearing about Brock's private life and journalistic techniques in The Washington Post. The book disappointed everyone, and eventually Brock was given the heave-ho from AmSpec (deserved) but well remembered and thanked for his great book The Real Anita Hill (also deserved).
   
   The two weakest areas are Hilary's handling of Federally subpoenaed documents for the Whitewater investigation (she hid and suppressed them is about the only logical conclusion you could come to) and her amazing 10 sigma event of earning 1000% returns on cattle futures glancing at headlines in the Wall Street Journal (I have a bridge to sell you, comes with the Eiffel Tower). But neither Hilary haters nor Hilary defenders (she doesn't need them) will be happy with this book.



5. At the time of its hardcover release - 1996 - David Brock was the top-gun reporter for The American Spectator, writing several exposes on Anita Hill & Bill Clinton and penning a best-selling 1993 book, The Real Anita Hill.
   
   With a dour photo of Hillary Rodham gracing the front cover of the hardcover edition - a la Hill's picture on the less-than-flattering biography - it appeared at first glance that Brock was positioned to attack the then First Lady through new revelations and late-breaking angles.
   
   In this case, the picture is quite deceptive, as Brock writes a straight-forward unauthorized biography of Rodham, where journalism pushes sensationalism into the gutter, with a focus on the core values which led her into the political arena before her marriage to Bill Clinton.
   
   Brock depicts Rodham coming of age in the 1960s, growing up in a conservatative suburb of Chicago, Illinois, having an early education in Republican politics. Her political conversion can be summed up in a line from her 1969 Wellesley College commencement address: "And the challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible."
   
   What appeared to be a fast-track to a career in politics - after a stint as a staffer on the House Committee on the Judiciary during the Watergate investigation - Rodham abandons this quest, marries Clinton and moves to Arkansas. Brock meticulously moves through this period of professional triumph, setbacks and personal anguish within a rocky partnership caused by Clnton's peccadilloes.
   
   By striding past banner headlines and finger-pointing accusations, Brock shows a profile in courage due to following the whims of the heart, which is a timeless tale.

No comments about The Lawman: Adventures of a Frontier.

5 comments about All American: Why I Believe in Football, God, and the War in Iraq.

1. An extraordinary account of one good man standing tall for the best of American values.



2. The life story of Captain Robert McGovern, is almost "Forrest Gump" like. Rob is one of nine Irish Catholic children, born to Howard and Terry McGovern in New Jersey. Though born in New Jersey, if I were to describe his morals, character, and upbringing, I would describe it in the highest of terms, that most Americans would consider as "mid-western". One of the many, emotionally uplifting themes in this book, is the absolute, enduring, love, and respect, that Rob, constantly proclaims for his parents. He was raised from the beginning, to have high goals, and his older brothers got football scholarships to Holy Cross, as Rob also did later on, but with less fanfare. Just as importantly, he and his siblings were raised to "service" the community. To give something back, and Rob continued this process in college at Holy Cross and while in the National Football League, with outreach programs. When Rob graduated college, no one gave him a chance of making it in the NFL. But he was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs, as an undersized, underdog, linebacker, and special team's player. He lasted a few years with numerous teams, making the most of his non-star ability. The way he accomplished this, is with dogged, determination and dedication. To quote Rob: "Being the best at what you do has to be more important to you than partying or chasing girls or hanging out with your buddies. It has to be worth sacrificing the comforts and pleasures of an undirected life and replacing them with long hours of sweat and tears. In football, it also helps to be one tough character." At the end of Rob's short NFL career, he attended law school, and upon graduation, became an assistant D.A. in Manhattan. In keeping with his personal goal, of giving service to his community/country, he also joined the Army Reserves.
   
   Then, on the forever-fateful day, of September 11, 2001, Rob was on the way to work in Manhattan, when he saw the smoke, and the planes, at the World Trade Center. He couldn't get to work, so he went home and put on the TV, and heard an announcement, that military men were needed at "ground-zero" to help look for bodies. Even though he was in the reserves, he donned his uniform, and went to "ground-zero", and helped recover the remains of victims for days. Rob, happened to be there, when President Bush arrived, and shook the Commander In Chief's hand, and was so moved, he decided he wanted to go on active duty and help America fight back. Because Rob was 38 years old, they wouldn't let him go on active duty. He persisted in every way possible, and was finally accepted as a Judge Advocate General. (JAG) He proceeded to go to Afghanistan and Iraq and assisted in "Rules Of Engagement" (ROE) enforcement. From there, he went in to criminal prosecution. He wound up on the successful prosecution team, that convicted Sergeant Hasan Akbar, probably the worst, United States Military criminal, in the last 30-40 years. To refresh your memory, Akbar, was the traitor, who the night before, we were going to launch Operation Iraqi Freedom, attacked his comrades, with grenades and small-arms fire. He wounded more than a dozen troops. Two were dead.
   
   There is much more, to the life story, of a man who loves his country, loves his family, loves God, and has dedicated his life to enforcing freedom throughout the world, but let me conclude my review, by having Rob tell you why he named his book "All American". "You might wonder about the use of "All-American" in the title. First of all, let me say off the bat that I'm not talking about myself here. What is an "All-American" anyway? I've met some real "All-Americans- quiet, unassuming, heroic people who inspire students, protect us from crime, and defend our values. They are "All-American" in every sense of the phrase. I chose this title in part to pay tribute to these "All-American", I've been lucky enough to meet and work with through the years. I also chose it to pay special tribute to the men and women of our armed forces, especially those in the 82nd Airborne Division. That famous unit happens to be called the All-American Division."



3. Several reviews I have read have come down hard on the author for his stand on the war in Iraq. But this is his autobiography, the story of his life, and his opinion of the war is just one part of it. It is a well-written account of his childhood, his family, his education and his aspirations, and continues into his adulthood to the present time. He lets us know how he was trained by his parents to be unselfish and give back to the community some form of service, and this was undoubtedly the motivation for joining the Army Reserve, and eventually finding himself on active duty in Iraq.
   
   A good part of his story comes before that. He was competing with his older brothers in athletics, trying to be as good as they had been in high school football, and then in college football. He received an athletic scholarship from Holy Cross, an enormous accomplishment in his eyes, and he was grateful for the opportunity. And then came pro football, four years of it on three different teams. He was pretty good at it, but not outstanding. He simply was not big enough (hefty, bulky) to be a great linebacker. He was thankful for this chance to make the big league, but took the advice of one of his coaches to give it up. From there he decided to study law and with his law degree took a job as an Assistant DA in New York City. Then came 9/11, to which he was an eyewitness. In his role as a US Army Reserve officer he volunteered to help. Immediately following, he applied for active duty, leaving his job as assistant DA, and became a prosecutor for the Judge Advocate General Corps, and then deployed to Afghanistan and later to Iraq. His experiences there were extraordinary because he was involved in the trial of Hasan Akbar, the US Army Sergeant who killed two Army officers and wounded a number of others when he threw hand grenades into the tents of the soldiers.
   
   This is a well-written account of the life of a man who became a soldier in the US Army. Why would anyone find it strange that he has strong opinions in favor of the war in Iraq ? It is his contention that we are there as part of the war on terrorism. The patriotic feeling that he had on 9/11 was something that almost all of us shared at that time. For him it continued; for many of us it disappeared.
   
   Should we still be in Iraq? That is a matter for debate, which has been ongoing for some time now. Captain McGovern feels that we are making a difference, and that is why we are still there.
   
   This book is certainly worth reading, if only to gain some insight from a different perspective.



4. This simpleton of a jerk-off & his ilk are EXACTLY what is wrong with my country. I cannot f+cking wait to leave this country & never return. Enjoy your fascism.



5. Captain Robert P. McGovern had to work extraordinarily hard to survive roughly four seasons in the NFL. He was no more than a marginal player and had to constantly worry about being cut. It is safe to say, that McGovern was the last one picked and the first one released. He truly became the best that he could possibly be. His strong work ethic served him well as a both a prosecutor and U.S. Army officer.
   
   The leftist establishment slanders our soldiers as usually some sort of social reject or even psychotic. Capt. McGovern is living proof that this is utterly false. His story is well worth reading. You may wish to provide a copy to the younger people in your family. It should motivate them to also aspire to greatness. Those like myself who never served in the military have a particular obligation to thank McGovern for his self-sacrifice and dedication on behalf of our country. May God bless him.

No comments about Brennan and Democracy.