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I realize this is a pretty vague question, but can some of you folks recommend some good political books? Preferably ones that are fairly generic. I don't want anything that is Pro-Republican or Pro-Democrat.

 

Also, what's the best unbiased news source (if one exists)?

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I like Politico for much of my news. Al-Jazeera English is pretty good too. I don't know if 538.com counts as news, but I'll always recomend it.

 

In regards to political books, I got nothing for ya. It seems most books are theoretical and/or subjective, requiring folks to read as much as they can and try to form a moderated opinion.

 

Edit - "Unbiased" news is a myth. Every writer has biases, so we should all be looking for "factual & accurate" news. Admittedly, it's just as difficult to find.

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I realize this is a pretty vague question, but can some of you folks recommend some good political books? Preferably ones that are fairly generic. I don't want anything that is Pro-Republican or Pro-Democrat.

 

Also, what's the best unbiased news source (if one exists)?

 

I would suggest The Economist as the most unbiased smartest source of news. If you follow them on Twitter or like them on Facebook you can link to their articles from there without having to pay.

 

Reuters is also very good.

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I like Politico

 

Al-Jazeera

 

 

I would suggest The Economist

 

Twitter or like them on Facebook

 

Reuters article

 

Yeah, I love those books!

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Yeah, I love those books!

 

*cough*

 

In regards to political books, I got nothing for ya. It seems most books are theoretical and/or subjective, requiring folks to read as much as they can and try to form a moderated opinion.

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I realize this is a pretty vague question, but can some of you folks recommend some good political books? Preferably ones that are fairly generic. I don't want anything that is Pro-Republican or Pro-Democrat.

 

 

Your views are based on a false premise- that the truth is basically in the middle. Depending on the issue, this ranges from dubious to completely false.

 

If you actually are trying to become informed, read highly rated but "partisan" books from both sides, then try to figure out for yourself who makes the stronger case.

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I like Condi's book No Higher Honor.

 

One of the best recent books about foreign policy and the gamesmanship surrounding it.

 

I like to read books written by presidents. They just finished running things, then they get a speaking tour for a year then they are bored so they start writing. Reading Bush's book while some of the events are still in your mind is a good way of seeing things differently than you might have thought things were going.

 

Nixon has some really popular books about policy etc., but I haven't read them in a long time.

 

Thomas Sowell is a great author, and William F. Buckley has some great books.

 

 

Stay away from the books with attacks in the titles, not that they all are wrong always, just heavily partisan.

 

 

Stay away from Dick Morris, Clinton's campaign chief who now leans republican. Truth is that man sold out and saw what he needed to do to get rich. He bugs me.

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I like Condi's book No Higher Honor.

 

One of the best recent books about foreign policy and the gamesmanship surrounding it.

 

I like to read books written by presidents. They just finished running things, then they get a speaking tour for a year then they are bored so they start writing. Reading Bush's book while some of the events are still in your mind is a good way of seeing things differently than you might have thought things were going.

 

Nixon has some really popular books about policy etc., but I haven't read them in a long time.

 

Thomas Sowell is a great author, and William F. Buckley has some great books.

 

 

Stay away from the books with attacks in the titles, not that they all are wrong always, just heavily partisan.

 

 

Stay away from Dick Morris, Clinton's campaign chief who now leans republican. Truth is that man sold out and saw what he needed to do to get rich. He bugs me.

 

Definitely agree on the Presidential books - I've been meaning to pick up W's eventually.

 

And your Dick Morris comment is spot-on too. I still chuckle when I hear that if he makes a prediction, and you bet money against it, you could probably become filthy rich.

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Here are some recent books that are getting good reviews.

 

http://Plutocrats: The Rise of the New Global Super-Rich and the Fall of Everyone Else

 

There has always been some gap between rich and poor in this country, but in the last few decades what it means to be rich has changed dramatically. Alarmingly, the greatest income gap is not between the 1 percent and the 99 percent, but within the wealthiest 1 percent of our nation--as the merely wealthy are left behind by the rapidly expanding fortunes of the new global super-rich. Forget the 1 percent; Plutocrats proves that it is the wealthiest 0.1 percent who are outpacing the rest of us at break-neck speed.

 

What’s changed is more than numbers. Today, most colossal fortunes are new, not inherited--amassed by perceptive businessmen who see themselves as deserving victors in a cut-throat international competition. As a transglobal class of successful professionals, today’s self-made oligarchs often feel they have more in common with one another than with their countrymen back home. Bringing together the economics and psychology of these new super-rich, Plutocrats puts us inside a league very much of its own, with its own rules.

 

The closest mirror to our own time is the late nineteenth century Gilded Age--the era of powerful ‘robber barons’ like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller. Then as now, emerging markets and innovative technologies collided to produce unprecedented wealth for more people than ever in human history. Yet those at the very top benefited far more than others--and from this pinnacle they exercised immense and unchecked power in their countries. Today’s closest analogue to these robber barons can be found in the turbulent economies of India, Brazil, and China, all home to ferocious market competition and political turmoil. But wealth, corruption, and populism are no longer constrained by national borders, so this new Gilded Age is already transforming the economics of the West as well. Plutocrats demonstrates how social upheavals generated by the first Gilded Age may pale in comparison to what is in store for us, as the wealth of the entire globalized world is concentrated in fewer and fewer hands.

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http://Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself

 

Written by the former head of the FDIC during the financial crisis.

 

Bull by the Horns: Fighting to Save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from Itself

 

I think there are a ton of books by authors that explore the back story and evolution of politics, biases and motives in America like

 

Kahnemann's, Thinking Fast and Slow (A lot of backstory behind the creation of behavioral economics)

 

Pinker's, The Better Angels of our Nature (Explains where, when and how much of the American attitude came about regarding issues)

 

The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion by Jonathan Haidt

 

Reich has a newer book out but that is obviously a decidedly liberal slant.

 

But if you really want to read a great 2 part article on how liberalism vs conservativism has evolved, and the issues with the current psuedoconservatism check out this by,

 

Louis M. Guenin is Lecturer on Ethics in Science, Harvard Medical School. His research concerns moral philosophy, metaphysics, and the philosophy of science. His writings include The Morality of Embryo Use (Cambridge University Press), honored as Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2009, and “Intellectual Honesty,” an account of the duty of truthfulness in scholarship and public discourse.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/louis-m-guenin/why-voters-should-turn-fr_b_2005275.html

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I am surprised this hasn't come up because if anybody (or nobody) knows politics it is "The Onion":

 

 

The Onion Book Of Known Knowledge: A Definitive Encyclopaedia Of Existing Information

 

I am a bigger fan of figuring out my opinion through the rhetoric by ignoring other people's opinions and just getting a laugh out of the general un-accountability of politics itself so I would recommend the comedic side like:

 

may vary in store.

 

America Again: Re-becoming The Greatness We Never Weren't

 

(you get retro glasses the kids will even enjoy)

 

But you really need to know which way you lean to read a whole book about it. Good luck.

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