Government & Politics

Franks, formerly the commander in chief of the U.S. Central Command, led the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq. He says the United States did not anticipate the insurgency that followed the invasion of Iraq, and he warns against underestimating Osama bin Laden. He's written a new memoir, American Soldier.

Maher hosts the HBO show Real Time with Bill Maher, which just began a new season. Like his previous show, Politically Incorrect, he features a roundtable of guests who make jokes and talk politics. The show is broadcast Friday nights at 11 p.m. Maher is also the author of When You Ride Alone, You Ride with Bin Laden.

Jackson is the director of Annenberg Political Fact Check, a project that aims to reduce deception and confusion in U.S. politics. Jackson will talk about present-day political ads. Jackson reported on Washington and national politics for The Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal and CNN. He is the author of Honest Graft: Big Money and the American Political Process.

The new online exhibition at The American Museum of the Moving Image is called "The Living Room Candidate: Presidential Campaign Commercials 1952-2004". Schwartz is the chief curator of film at the museum. He'll talk about the history of political commercials from their inception in 1952 to the present.

The Fresh Air critic has written a new book, Sore Winners (And The Rest of Us) in George Bush's America. Powers is critic-at-large for Fresh Air, and deputy editor for L.A. Weekly, where he writes a media/culture column called On. He's also an international correspondent for Gourmet magazine.

The Democratic senator from West Virginia has served in Congress for 51 years, 45 of them as a senator. Byrd is ranking minority member of the Senate Appropriations Committee and has twice been president pro tempore of the Senate. He is also a former majority leader. Byrd is author of a new book called Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant Presidency. Byrd is a vocal opponent of the Iraq war and has criticized the most of the Bush Administration's post-Sept. 11 policies. He is also author of a four-volume history of the Senate.

Film critic David Edelstein reviews the new Matt Damon movie The Bourne Supremacy. It's a sequel to the 2002 hit The Bourne Identity, shot in a fast-paced style that heightens the tension of the storyline.

The son of the late President Ronald Reagan has been invited to speak at the Democratic convention next week. He and his mother have become outspoken proponents of stem cell research. Reagan has edited the book, If You Had Five Minutes with the President.

His new book is America the Vulnerable: How our Government is Failing to Protect us From Terrorism. Flynn is a senior fellow in national security studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Coast Guard, and served in the White House Military Office during the senior Bush administration. He also was director for global issues on the National Security Council staff during the Clinton administration.

Los Angeles Times journalist Greg Miller and military interrogation supervisor Chris Mackey talk about The Interrogators. The book provides an inside look at methods used to extract information from prisoners in Afghanistan.

What does it say about electoral politics that "values," formerly a political bromide, is now a battle cry?

Allen writes for the National Catholic Reporter. He's a Vatican analyst for CNN and NPR, and he writes a weekly Internet column called The Word from Rome. His new book is called, All the Pope's Men: The Inside Story of How the Vatican Really Thinks.

Moore is the president of the Club for Growth and contributing editor for National Review. The Club for Growth has a political action committee dedicated to elected conservative politicians who carry on the Reagan vision of "limited government and lowered taxes." Moore was the Cato Institute's director of fiscal policy studies, and is now a Cato senior fellow.

His new book is Politics: Observations and Arguments, 1966-2004. He's a writer and editor for The New Yorker magazine and frequently contributes to its "Talk of the Town" section. Hertzberg was on the staff of the New Republic magazine for much of the 1980s. Hertzberg also spent time in the White House from 1979 to 1981 as Jimmy Carter's speechwriter. In the introduction to this book, The New Yorker's David Remnick says "as a writer he has tone control the way Billie Holliday had tone control."

Exum's new memoir, Man's Army: A Soldier's Story from the Front Lines of the War on Terrorism, recounts his experiences fighting in Afghanistan. In 2002, Exum fought with the 10th Mountain Division in Afghanistan, where soldiers were often fighting a brutal guerilla war against the Taliban and al Qaeda.

Diamond is a professor of political science and sociology at Stanford University and an expert on democratic development and regime change. He is the coordinator of the Democracy Program of the new Center for Democracy, Development and Rule of Law at Stanford's Institute for International Studies. Diamond spent three months earlier this year advising the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.

Trippi was the campaign manager for Howard Dean during his bid to be the democratic presidential nominee. Using the Internet, Trippi turned a little-known candidate into a frontrunner. His new book is The Revolution Will Not be Televised: Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything. Trippi worked on his first presidential campaign for Sen. Edward Kennedy in 1980. He also worked with the presidential campaigns of Walter Mondale, Gary Hart and Richard Gephardt.

The Fresh Air linguist comments on the speaking styles of 2004 presidential candidates John Kerry and George Bush.

His new book is Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar. It's a biography of the former Soviet leader. Stalin was often described as an enigma. This exhaustive account of his life seeks to banish the mystery. Montefiore has traveled extensively through the former Soviet Union, and has written for many publications, including The New York Times and The Spectator.

He'll address the strict drug regulations that put Elaine Bartlett, the subject of the book, Life on the Outside, in jail. The regulations are known as the Rockefeller Drug Laws. Clyne is the son of Albany County judge John Clyne, who handed Bartlett a sentence of 20 years to life in state prison.