Recommended Listening/Reading

First, the listening... I may be late on this one, but I finally listened to this excellent 'This American Life' episode from March, entitled "The Audacity of Government". It focuses on (lesser-known) stories of the Bush Administration, its unique style of asserting presidential authority, and its quest to redefine the limits of presidential power.

What's good about it is you see how obsessive the administration has been about this, as their zeal goes down to every single issue, no matter how seemingly small or petty. It goes far beyond Guantanamo Bay and rebuking congressional investigations.

Then, the reading... Slate's Dahlia Lithwick has a new article entitled "Disarming Our Demons: The self-fulfilling prophecy of election-stealing." It's about the difference between real voter fraud and the imagined kind, and how the GOP's push for voter ID laws is chasing the latter.