Your Call 040209 What's the state of civil liberties in the U.S.?

What's the state of civil liberties in the U.S.? On the next Your Call we talk with Naomi Wolf, author of The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot and Bruce Fein, author of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy. Fein was one of the most prominent conservative critics of the former Bush administration and Wolf's book makes a chilling comparison between the rise of the Third Reich and America today. What do we mean when we say "civil liberties"? How are they distinct from human rights? How do democracies weaken over time, and how are they brought back from the brink? It's Your Call with Rose Aguilar and you.

Guests:
Bruce Fein in Virginia
Fein was one of the most prominent conservative critics of the former Bush administration. He was appointed by President Reagan to be an associate deputy attorney general from 1981 to 1982. He was the general counsel to the Federal Communications Commission and minority research director for the Joint Congressional Committee on Covert Arms Sales to Iran. He recently served on the American Bar Association's Task Force on Presidential signing statements. Fein called for the impeachment of former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and former U.S. vice-president Dick Cheney and writes regular columns for The Washington Times and Slate devoted to legal and international affairs. He is author, most recently of Constitutional Peril: The Life and Death Struggle for Our Constitution and Democracy.

Naomi Wolf in NYC
Wolf, an essayist and provocateur, was born in San Francisco. The Beauty Myth, her first book, was an international bestseller and each of her books since then has maintained her place as one of the premier feminist critics of American political culture. She is author most recently of The End of America: A Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot and its sequel, Give Me Liberty: A Handbook for American Revolutionaries. The End of America was adapted into a documentary by the same name. Ms. Wolf joins us from New York.

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