title: Unchecked And Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror
author: Frederick A. O. Schwarz Jr.
description: Though another book criticizing the Bush presidency is of questionable necessity, Schwarz (Nigeria: The Tribes, the Nation, or the Race) and first-time author Huq, both of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, offer a clear look at what history has to say regarding controversial decisions made by the current administration. Covering "what went wrong," "why untrammeled executive power" is bad for America and what can be done "to reestablish the checks and balances that define our government," this call for transparency and accountability has a satisfying reach and focus. The first section traces abuse of presidential power throughout the Cold War, particularly in regard to intelligence communities. The second section demonstrates how efforts to correct that abuse were tragically reversed following 9/11, resulting in an executive branch that enacts policies of questionable legality in the name of fighting terrorists. The third section takes those policies to task, holding them up to the light of the Constitution, but ultimately just keeps hitting the same note. The authors' conclusion doesn't propose much of a plan for saving the republic, but the essential ingredient-citizens who demand more oversight, less obfuscation and greater access to information-should get a smart, historically adept kickstart here. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  * * *
  
  THE DICTATOR
  
  
  CHAPTER I
  
  CHAPTER II
  
  CHAPTER III
  
  CHAPTER IV
  
  CHAPTER V
  
  CHAPTER VI
  
  CHAPTER VII
  
  CHAPTER VIII
  
  CHAPTER IX
  
  CHAPTER X
  
  CHAPTER XI
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  
  
  
  * * *
  
  # THE DICTATOR
  
  
  ### Stanley G. Weinbaum
  
  
  This page formatted 2004 Blackmask Online.
  
  
  http://www.blackmask.com  
    
  
  * CHAPTER I
  
  
  * CHAPTER II
  
  
  * CHAPTER III
  
  
  * CHAPTER IV
  
  
  * CHAPTER V
  
  
  * CHAPTER VI
  
  
  * CHAPTER VII
  
  
  * CHAPTER VIII
  
  
  * CHAPTER IX
  
  
  * CHAPTER X
  
  
  * CHAPTER XI
  
  
  
  
  
  ### CHAPTER I
  
  
  
  
  
  STEEL JEFFERS, PRESIDENT OF America, was not a large man. But no one
  
  
  thought of size, when confronted with his fiery eyes, his thin
  
  
  implacable lips, and his firm jaw.
  
  
  At the moment, however, as he sat at his desk in the bay window of
  
  
  the Blue Room of the White House, he permitted himself to relax a
  
  
  little, and his face lost some of its grimness. No one else was present
  
  
  except his athletic military aide, Lieutenant Jack Adams, i