This is a graphic novel adaptation of Zinn’s famous history book, “A People’s History of the United States.”

It doesn’t cover everything in “A People’s History...”, but starts with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, when American soldiers killed or wounded 300 Native Americans in about an hour. In the 1890’s, America was going through a depression, so a foreign enemy was needed against which to rally the public (along with finding new markets to exploit). The Cuban Revolution was attempting to throw off four centuries of Spanish rule. The sister of a Cuban rebel leader told the story of being searched for secret documents by a Spanish matron while on a US steamer. The American press turned it into an accusation by Spain that America was too weak to defend the honor of its women, and that women on American steamers were being strip searched. Calls were made to annex Cuba. The spark needed to start the Spanish-American War was the destruction of an American battleship in Havana harbor (“Remember the Maine”). Spain was blamed, but the US government was skeptical.

During World War I, the Espionage Act was passed to criminalize any antiwar talk that could be interpreted as discouraging enlistment. The law also secretly empowered private associations to spy on “disloyal” Americans. After World War II was won, but not officially over, the new American empire decided to start testing its new weapons on defenseless people. Zinn was involved in a bombing raid on a French town where several thousand German soldiers waited for the end of the war. On that day, over 1200 planes dropped nearly 400,000 gallons of napalm on the town of Royan.

Did you know that during the war, the wearing of zoot suits was considered dangerous, and was a kind of draft resistance? This book also looks at Vietnam, the Civil Rights era, the Pentagon Papers, the Contra War in Nicaragua, and the Iranian Revolution. It has a bibliography for those who want to read further.

For those who have never read “A People’s History of the United States,” perhaps intimidated by its several hundred page length, this is a wonderful alternative. For those who have read Zinn’s book, this helps to put a face to the names, and is still very highly recommended.

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Where is the world’s deadliest conflict since World War II? Try the Democratic Republic of the Congo, right in the middle of Africa, where nearly 4 million people have been killed in the last six years. Huge deposits of gold, diamonds and copper, all over the country, have not helped the situation. The term “blood diamonds” came from the simultaneous civil wars in the west African countries of Cote D’Ivoire, Liberia and Sierra Leone (also paid for with diamond mining).

Burma is full of various ethnic groups who have had a hard time getting along with each other. Currently, it is like a Third World Soviet Union, a group of diverse lands controlled by police state tactics. Did you know that the official calendar in North Korea says that time began with the birth of Kim Il-Sung? While it’s 2008 in the rest of the world, in North Korea, it’s the year 97.

In a way, America is financing both sides in the civil war in Colombia. On one side, the US Government sends millions of dollars in aid, usually military, to the right-wing government. On the other side, Colombia produces 80% of the world’s cocaine, of which America consumes more than half, so American drug users are financing the rebels.

The national motto of Scotland, translated into English, is “Nobody provokes me with impunity.” Seriously. The nationalist symbol of Wales is the leek, a type of large green onion. Nobody knows why.

Who Hates Whom? may be intended as a humor book, but it does a really good job at explaining the various wars and insurrections that sometimes reach the evening news.

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The Founding Fathers intentionally created a "godless Constitution," because they knew that establishing any sort of state religion, or mandating religious tests as a prerequisite for holding public office would ultimately be a really bad idea. But that doesn’t mean that religion was not an important part of their lives, because it was. Everyone talks about the line of separation between church and state; it would be helpful if there was one overall definition, on which everyone could agree, as to just where that line is located.

Liberalism and secularism espouse that religion should play no major role in public life. They also promote the neutrality of the state toward religion, and the autonomy of the individual to worship any way they wish. They may sound reasonable, but they certainly haven’t worked that way.

In the late 20th century, the US Supreme Court ruled on several high profile cases concerning expression of public faith. Among them were cases which looked at religion in school. Part of the justification for bringing the cases through the legal process was that the students involved were coerced into participating, or made to feel different if they didn’t take part. The truth is that there was no coercion at all, and the students were more than free to not participate. The author also thinks very little of present-day immigration, which started courtesy of a law passed more than 40 years ago, and is leading to the destruction of Anglo-Christian culture. Multiculturalism says that all religions, and therefore, all religious practices, are equally valid. Does that include female genital mutilation, and the stoning to death of women convicted of adultery?

The author is not advocating that America be turned into a Christian fundamentalist, or any other type of religious regime. But, is some expression of public faith in American life really such a bad idea? It is an interesting book that does a good job at staying non-partisan.

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Prior to the invasion of Iraq, the US Army had no counter-insurgency strategy. Part of the reason was to not resurrect unpleasant memories from Vietnam, and part of the reason was the absolute belief among top officials of the Bush Administration that it would not be needed, that the US troops would be greeted as liberators. It wasn’t until four years into the war that General Petraeus was asked to put together a counter-insurgency strategy.

In Iraq, there is a nearly equal number of US troops and civilian contractors. There is a similar ratio between government and private intelligence analysts here in America. The author thinks that should change, now. Analysis should be brought back under government control. Analysts also have no access to public sources of information. Some public bit of information may be all that is needed to, for instance, turn a satellite photo into a photo of secret missile bases.

The author also feels that the percentage of ambassadorships and high-level defense and security jobs available to big political contributors and former elected officials should be reduced by a lot; those jobs belong to the professionals. Other countries are better than America at getting human spies on the "inside." That part of the US intelligence business should be downsized, and America should focus on the technical part of intelligence gathering. But, America needs to resist the temptation to launch more and more sophisticated satellites into orbit, when a simpler satellite will do the job.

Clarke feels that the next major battleground will be in cyberspace. The current staff of the Office of Management and Budget working on federal IT security is 2 people. That should be increased to more like 200 people, and they should get the clout to force agencies to take proper security precautions.

Clarke has spent many years in high government positions, so he knows what he is talking about. Here is a fascinating, and eye-opening, book that will help to explain large parts of recent US foreign policy.

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For many years, there has been speculation about secret, shadowy groups who actually control the world. As far as America is concerned, the authors examine groups like Skull and Bones, the Illuminati, the Freemasons and the Bilderberg Group, but none of them really fit as the Group In Charge. According to the authors, a much more plausible place to look is the New York based, and un-secret, Council on Foreign Relations. For most of the 20th Century, it has been the place to go for new administrations to fill their defense and foreign policy jobs.

The book also looks at the role of money in the present day (money really does make the world go round). America’s central bank was founded in the early 1900s by a group of bankers during a very secret meeting at a place called Jekyll Island, Georgia. The new institution was specifically called the Federal Reserve System to get away from the words "central bank." Banking and secrecy seem to go together perfectly. That is part of the reason why governments and corporations move hundreds of billions of dollars around the world at any time, in search of the most favorable tax rates. Sometimes, banks are formed specifically to hide, or finance, illegal activities; two recent examples are BCCI and the Nugan Hand Bank from Australia.

Another avenue for corporations to reinforce their power is through institutions like the International Monetary Fund. It was intended to provide short-term loans to member countries. After the 1980s debt crisis, it now imposes harsh financial conditions on member states alongside its loan packages. It serves Wall Street and wealthy countries; it promotes corporate welfare and has no accountability, and it hurts workers, women and the environment.

This is an excellent book with a lot of information that will not be found in the mainstream media. It is really easy to read, and will certainly keep the reader interested.

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Obama was born in 1961 in Hawaii to a Kenyan father who was studying economics at the University of Hawaii, and a mother who came from strict Kansas Methodist stock. Their marriage lasted only a few years. In 1967, Obama moved to Indonesia when Ann, his mother, married an oil company executive. He attended an elite primary school, and saw firsthand the huge chasm between the average Indonesian and American. Ann impressed upon him that education was the way to stay on the right side of that divide. Even though he was registered at the school as a Muslim, there is no evidence that Obama was ever a practicing Muslim.

Attending high school back in Hawaii, Obama began to realize what being a black man in America was all about. He sought answers through the writings of black intellectuals, and release through drugs. Moving to California, to attend Occidental College, Obama was not a conscientious student. After a night of partying, he had an epiphany. He transferred to Columbia University, and threw himself into his studies. After receiving his degree in 1983, he wanted to get involved in community organizing. In 1985, he drove to Chicago for a paying job as an organizer on the South Side.

After a couple of years learning "the system," Obama felt that having a law degree would be a big help. He excelled at Harvard Law, and was named to the Law Review. After graduation, he became a lecturer at the University of Chicago, and joined a small activist law firm in Chicago.

The book goes into his rising through the ranks in Chicago politics, and his election to the State Senate. Those in power knew that he was a rising star, so many important bills were sent his way. The logical next step was the US Senate, and the book ends with his primary fight against Hillary Clinton to receive the Democratic nomination for President.

This book was written with no assistance from Obama or his campaign; all information is from public sources. For anyone who wants a short, and non-partisan, look at the life of Barack Obama, this is the book. It is easy to read, and very much worth the time.

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It stems from two huge misconceptions made by the Bush White House and the neo-cons. The first is that, on 9/11, the world did not change. It certainly changed in that America suddenly found itself more vulnerable than ever before. But the nature of power, politics and warfare did not change. The second is that, after the Cold War, America found itself as the world’s only superpower. With its superior military technology, America thought that it was now free to topple unfriendly regimes, ignore treaties and generally do whatever it wanted around the world. Now that the Soviet Union was gone as an enemy, Cold War allies no longer felt compelled to see things America’s way. An American president could deal with this new landscape in one of two ways: emphasize the military, and don’t hesitate to use American power around the world, or, emphasize diplomacy, and restructure old alliances (and create new ones) around the world.

The invasion of Iraq was supposed to be the example of Bush’s belief that, with Saddam Hussein out of the way, Iraq will suddenly turn into a democratic country, and that democracy will spread throughout the Mideast. The Pentagon cared more about the military part than about the aftermath. Turmoil in Iraq was practically guaranteed by the first two decrees issued by Paul Bremer in the early days of the occupation: disbanding the Iraqi army, and removing all Baathists from the government.

The author also looks at the Administration’s decision to abrogate the ABM Treaty with Russia, and resume deployment of Ronald Reagan’s missile defense shield, despite the fact that its operational capabilities are somewhere between questionable and non-existent.

This is a really good book, and I learned something from it. There is more than just facts and figures here; the author profiles people in the military world, some of whom do not get their names in the media. It’s worth reading.

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After a lot of diligent planning and preparation, the group, led by Cat, is able to enter the IRS Building in Washington, DC, and spends a few minutes throwing chairs, files and computers out the windows. They quickly leave before the police, distracted by a stripper’s parade across town, show up. The entire news media is then blanketed by faxes and emails from "The Grandsons of Liberty." The revolution will be totally non-violent, they say, but they are saying Enough to excessive taxation and trampling on people’s rights. The group is surprised by the amount of sympathy they receive in the news media.

The group then spreads out along the East Coast, and kidnaps eight members of the House of Representatives, and brings them back to Virginia. There is no violence, except for a couple of taserings. The captives are well fed, but they are given homework to do concerning what America is all about.

A day or two later, after more planning and preparation, Washington, DC suddenly finds itself hosting a huge parade. Starting at various points in the city, groups ranging from the Boy Scouts to 4-H to VFW to NORML converge on the Capitol, where the eight Representatives are released unharmed and where Cat calls for Citizen’s Arrests on all members of Congress.

This is a very short novel, and even the author admits that it is hardly a polished work, but in this political climate it packs a wallop, and is very much recommended.

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First of all, the authors do not question that Israel has the right to exist within secure borders, or its right to lobby Washington for its interests, or that America should aid Israel if it is attacked. But, the current unconditional level of US support for Israel ($154 billion since 1948) cannot be justified on moral or strategic grounds.

Perhaps Israel was a strategic ally during the Cold War, but now it has become a growing liability. America’s one-sided support for Israel has helped fuel America’s terrorism problem, it has reinforced anti-Americanism around the world, and relations with key allies have suffered. The moral case for unconditional US support also is not compelling. Israel is a democracy, but no other democracy gets the same level of US support. Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians and its Arab neighbors have helped to destroy the myth of Israel as victim and the Arabs as aggressors.

Why does Israel keep receiving such one-sided support from America, even when its actions directly contradict US interests? Why is the discussion of Israeli actions more wide-ranging in Israel than in America? The "Israel Lobby" is a loose confederation of groups like AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and Christian Zionists, with Israel at the center. They don’t just lobby Washington and write newspaper op-eds, they also publicly smear anyone who says something of which they don’t approve.

An actual discussion of Israel’s influence in America, free of charges of anti-Semitism, is long overdue here in America. This book does a fine, and non-partisan, job of starting that discussion. It is very much recommended.

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The first step is to visit http://www.goooh.com ("Get Out of Our House"). It costs money to sign up at the site, to weed out those who are not serious. Those who are serious will have to answer over 100 questions about how they will vote on various issues. They are Yes/No questions, designed to provide no political wiggle room. If enough people from a certain Congressional district sign up and pledge money, the special interests used to buying elections are bypassed. The people who signed up get together to choose a Congressional candidate, the person who best represents that district. After being elected, if, at any time, the person votes contrary to the way they voted on the questionnaire, they are obligated to resign.

The answers to the questions coming from Cambridge, MA or San Francisco are going to be different than the answers coming from Dallas. That’s the idea; the object is to find the person who best represents that district. Among the questions: Will you vote to replace the current tax system with the Fair Tax as proposed by Linder and Boortz? Will you vote for a government-controlled National Health Care System that offers "free" health care to all? Will you vote to amend the Constitution to exclude people with a law degree from serving in the House? Will you vote to make birth control pills available for free to every girl under the age of twenty-one? Will you vow to support a completely free press at all times? Will you vote to declare that a person who commits a crime, and is subsequently found guilty of said crime, has forfeited all but his most basic rights from the moment his crime was committed until the moment he is released?

The problem is not getting this or that member out of the House of Representatives, and then everything will be all right, but getting everyone out, and starting from scratch. Many proposals have been put forward to do just that; this one deserves serious consideration.

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Americans remember the Korean War as a limited "police action." North Koreans remember it as a time of total annihilation, when everything and anything was bombed. The seemingly irrational North Korean fear of an American invasion becomes much more rational considering that, in 1994, the Clinton Administration was very close to declaring war on North Korea, because of its nuclear program. The use of nuclear weapons to destroy North Korea’s nuclear facilities would have spread radioactivity over most of the Korean peninsula, and killed hundreds of thousands of people, a fact which really didn’t bother the Clinton Administration.

North Korea, in the midst of a huge energy crisis, has been willing to scrap its uranium reprocessing capabilities, in exchange for a couple of light water reactors (which are not good for reprocessing), and shipments of heavy oil until the reactors are finished. America and North Korea signed an agreement in 1994, which America promptly ignored. The American bargaining postition, from then until now, is full of bullying, and threats, and demanding that North Korea totally scrap its nuclear program, before America will agree to any kind of talks (with no guarantee that America will agree to do anything for North Korea).

The justification for the bombing and invasion of Yugoslavia was that hundreds of thousands of Albanians were being thrown out of Yugoslavia. The problem is that there was no evidence of thousands of people in mass graves, and the exodus of refugees started after the bombing. The 77 days of NATO bombing was supposed to target military facilities; nearly anything was considered a military target. Industrial plants were targeted, to cause maximum economic hardship, and all sorts of toxic materials were released into the atmosphere. In Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe’s "crime" was to put the interests of his people ahead of those of Western investors.

I thought that I knew my way around present-day international relations, but this book was a huge eye-opener. Using local media sources (Korean, Yugoslav and Zimbabwean), Elich has written an amazing book. See for yourself what "democracy" from America means to the rest of the world.

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Most of today’s news media is controlled by half a dozen companies, so the American people are only being told what they want us to know. The penetration of the TV networks by the intelligence agencies has been going on since the early 1900s. Of course, a well known technique for manipulating mankind is through eugenics, "perfecting" humanity through genetics (along with sterilization and murder for the "unfit"). Another technique of control is to destroy traditional morality, and to normalize deviancy. Enter Alfred Kinsey of the "Kinsey Report."

Experiments began during World War I to create mind-controlled intelligence agents and assassins through hypnosis. If it can be used to cure a person of multiple personalities, then hypnosis can be used to create multiple personalities (like "The Manchurian Candidate"). Much research under the CIA’s program MKULTRA took place in Canada. It was conducted by a psychologist who wanted to see if, through drugs and electroshock, a person’s behavior patterns can be totally erased, then replaced with new behavior patterns.

Another famous MKULTRA figure injected an elephant with a huge dose of LSD supposedly to provide insight into animal behavior. The elephant collapsed in a stupor, and while trying to revive it with other drugs, Dr. Louis "Jolly" West killed the animal. This book explores the role of the occult and religion in world control, electronic brain implants, mind-controlled sex slaves, electronic mind control and psi war.

This is a really interesting book, though it may also seem more than a little bit spooky. It will give the reader plenty to think about.

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Philip Dru is your average, smarter than normal, West Point graduate. Stationed in the desert Southwest, Gloria, his girlfriend, and sister of Jack, his best friend, comes for an extended visit. Philip nearly destroys his eyesight when he and Gloria get lost in the hills, and almost die. Forced to retire from the military, Philip dedicates his life to social causes, and Gloria is happy to follow. In New York City, they get an up close and personal look at life in a tenement. Philip stays in New York to work for the poor and downtrodden, while Gloria (who comes from a rich family) goes to places like Newport and Palm Beach to convince the rich that, for instance, giving to some charity yearly isn’t enough.

Every five years, the military holds a contest, open to all. Whoever submits the best solution to an intractable military problem will win a medal, and become a national celebrity. Philip wins, and uses his celebrity to write a series of newspaper columns on the subject of poverty. Later, it is revealed that a puppet government has been installed in Washington. It is actually controlled by Senator Selwyn and industrialist John Thor, and its intention is to keep the trusts and moneyed interests in power. The country quickly chooses sides, and over a million soldiers mass near Buffalo, NY for what will be a one-battle civil war. Philip is leading the anti-government forces, and the previous winner of the national military medal, a real general, is leading the other side. After winning the battle, Philip, along with tens of thousands of troops, heads for Washington.

The illegitimate government panics and flees the capital, leaving Senator Selwyn in the White House to do the actual surrendering. Philip declares himself Administrator, and proceeds to totally reform the American government. For instance, he takes the entire judicial system, throws it in the trash, and appoints a high-level commission to start over from the beginning, and make things a lot simpler. He does the same with the railroads, medicine, the tax system, and even the funeral business. There is a new Constitution, dealing with the composition of Congress and the state legislatures. Philip says from the beginning that he does not want to stay in the job permanently, just long enough to fix what is broken, and then give the government back to the people.

Read this book for what it says about America, present and future (as of 1912); don’t read it for the quality of the writing.

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