Relevance of George W. Bush into the Obama era and other critical issues in Walter Brasch’s new book
Special to USAfricaBOOKS Review, USAfricaonline.com, USAfrica The Newspaper, Houston, CLASSmagazine and The Black Business Journal
With wit and wisdom in his latest book titled Sinking the Ship of State, Walter M. Brasch, professor of journalism at Bloomsburg University, author of 16 other books, and columnist for USAfrica The Newspaper and USAfricaonline.com since 1996, digs deep into the Bush–Cheney Administration and extracts the truth.
In Sinking the Ship of State (2nd ed.), a well-documented 550-page book, Brasch looks at innumerable political and social issues, including violations of six Constitutional amendments, well-established federal law, and international treaties. He also looks at media performance since 2000, and the current campaign for the presidency.
Although it’s tempting to “think forward” with a new Administration, what happened in the past is the prelude to understanding what is happening today in the economy, the environment, and the abuse of constitutional power. Hopefully, says Dr. Brasch, by understanding our past, we might be able to chart a better course for our future.
Sinking the Ship of State has been named Best Non-Fiction book by the Pennsylvania Press Club, was named the best current events: political/social issues book in the USA Book News awards competition, and was a finalist in the Indie Book Awards.
Brasch’s hard-hitting reporting, as presented within Sinking the Ship of State, with significant annotation and new information never before published, broke new and important information about economic issues, the destruction of the environment, the use of power to reward friends and place significant debt upon all Americans, weapons of mass destruction, the invasion of Iraq, the attack upon civil liberties, the nation’s inability to deal with terrorism, and its vulnerability to natural disasters.
Brasch reports upon a secret meeting in the White House in which Bush Administration officials showed members of Congress photos of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Brasch interviewed several of those present at that meeting and used a plethora of documents to conclude that the photos may have been faked, and that the Administration willfully and deliberately gave incorrect information to members of Congress and the public.
In several columns as much as two years before Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Brasch pointed out that the nation, and especially the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), was unprepared. His reporting during and after Katrina is considered some of the finest analyses of that tragedy.
But it is his reporting about civil liberties that has brought Brasch some of his strongest acclaim. In column after column, Brasch documented Constitutional violations. He is especially strong in his reporting and commentary about free expression issues.
Nationally-syndicated columnist and best-selling author Jim Hightower notes, “When most Americans and the mainstream media were accepting whatever they were told by the Bush Administration, Walter Brasch was meticulously peeling away the incompetence, deceit, corruption and, most of all, their cavalier attitude to the Constitution.”
The Midwest Book Review agrees, pointing out that “Brasch is a master at weeding through the political lies, deceit, corruption, rhetoric, and hyperbole to help us find the truth. If you’re interested in politics, this book should be on your table beside your bed.”
Brasch “does not spare the media in his well-informed and well-written account of the real-time history of this benighted era,” says Alice Cherbonier, editor of the Baltimore Chronicle. Syndicated columnist Don Kaul says Brasch “lays the whip to an indolent press, ‘cash register patriots,’ and a corrupt Congress.”
He is, says Regina Huelman, editor of Liberal Opinion Week, “an articulate and entertaining writer who was one of the first and most consistent columnists to warn about the Bush Administration’s plans for a pre-emptive attack on Iraq and the drummed up evidence of WMD, as well as the Administration’s consistent attacks upon Constitutional rights.”
Jeffrey St. Clair, co-editor of the popular website, CounterPunch, says Brasch’swriting “is propelled by a lively sense of humor and an acute sensitivity to the darker ironies of our times.” Ron Kall, editor of OpEd News, calls the book “powerful, compelling and accurate,” and Joe Shea, editor of The American Reporter, calls Brasch “a unique American with a very creative mind that grapples with the most basic of political problems.”
Brasch’s “intense passions for liberty and enlightenment make him one of the best voices we have to combat the worst who rule over us,” says syndicated columnist and best-selling author Chris Floyd who notes that Brasch is “probing, witty, insightful and learned.”
Brasch also receives high praise from major conservative critics for his unyielding attention to pointing out factual error and Constitutional violations by the Bush Administration. Alan Caruba, whose column appears in more than 50 conservative publications and is a frequent talk-radio guest, named Sinking the Ship of State his Pick-of-the-Month for July 2008 for his own website, BookViews.
The book is available through amazon.com, bn.com, and other online stores.
Dr. Brasch is also the author of America’s Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government’s Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights (Jan. 2005); ‘Unacceptable’: The Federal Response to Hurricane Katrina (Jan. 2006); and Sex and the Single Beer Can: Probing the Media and American Culture (3rd edition, August 2009).
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Nigeria, a terrible beauty. By Chido Nwangwu, Founder & Publisher of USAfrica multimedia networks, Houston.
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USAfricaonline.com goes richly interactive with new look, content….
By Alverna Johnson. Corporate Affairs, Houston:
On 10/10/09, the major redesign and addition of richly interactive options will go fully live on the award-winning web site of the first African-owned, U.S-based professional newspaper published on the internet, www.USAfricaonline.com
“The importance of this latest interactive re-positioning of USAfricaonline.com is to fully tap into the advantages of the digital world to benefit our community and readers. Especially, the key issue and leverage is that we have and own unique content; and with this initiative, USAfrica advances, further, the immigrant African views and news into the international media and public policy mainstream. It leverages the global resources of USAfrica, again, into the electronic frontline of critically informed, responsible discourse and seasoned reportage of African and American interests as well as debating relevant issues of disagreement”, notes Chido Nwangwu, the Founder & Publisher of USAfricaonline.com, AchebeBooks.com, The Black Business Journal, USAfrica.TV and CLASSmagazine.
“Some of the new features on USAfricaonline.com have enabled for our readers and bloggers, the live texting of pages and page links to phones and other multimedia devices, instant sharing across all the leading social networks especially Facebook, Twitter, digg, myspace, Mixx, Technorati, LinkedIn, AIM, LiveJournal and Yigg.”
Chido Nwangwu, recipient of an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in May 2009 and analyst on CNN, VOA, SABC, highlights other advantages as “live RSS feeds and e-syndication of the USAfrica reports and premium content. In terms of graphics and structure, the new USAfricaonline.com has visually refreshing headers and crisp pictures. We’ve also added more columnists, regional news correspondents and incisive special features writers. The site will be updated regularly, especially for significant breaking news.”
The flagship of the American media, The New York Times, several public policy, media and human rights organizations have assessed USAfrica and USAfricaonline.com as the most influential and largest multimedia networks covering the bi-continental interests of Africans and Americans. The first edition of USAfrica magazine was published August 1993; USAfrica The Newspaper on May 11, 1994; CLASSmagazine on May 2, 2003; PhotoWorks.TV in 2005, and dozens of web sites and e-groups/blogs.
The Houston-based USAfrica has a formidable, experienced network of editors and correspondents across the U.S and Africa. Its Publisher served as adviser on Africa business/community to Houston’s former Mayor Lee Brown. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.html
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