Political Class Dismissed: Essays Against Politics, Including "What's Wrong With Buffalo" [Paperback]

Mr. James Ostrowski (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

Political Class Dismissed is an unrelenting assault on America's (and Buffalo's) political class: the people who have seized political power and used it to advance their own private interests--domestic and foreign--at our expense. The author is uniquely qualified to expose the political class, growing up in a political family, being a former liberal Democratic activist and candidate, and practicing law in state and federal courts for twenty years. His trenchant and unprecedented critique of today's courts is alone worth the price of the book. He has been fighting the political machine for over twenty-five years, culminating with this broadside.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Ostrowski's collection of essays . . . deserves publicity. . . this book is worthy of a read. -- Buffalo News, October 17, 2004

Political Class Dismissed sparkles with iconoclastic writing. . . . Ostrowski has developed into something of a modern-day Thomas Paine. -- The Freeman: Ideas on Liberty, January/February 2005

[A]n enlightening book . . . an eye opener . . . both informative and interesting. . . outstanding. -- Speakupwny.com, June 2004

About the Author

James Ostrowski is a trial and appellate lawyer and libertarian writer from Buffalo, New York. He graduated from St. Joseph's Collegiate Institute in 1975 and obtained a degree in philosophy from the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1980. He graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 1983. In law school, he was writing assistant to Dean David G. Trager, now a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York. He was a member of the Moot Court Honor Society and the International Law Moot Court Team. He served as vice-chairman of the law reform committee of the New York County Lawyers Association (1986-88) and wrote two widely quoted reports critical of the law enforcement approach to the drug problem. New York Newsday described his report on drug-related AIDS as "superb." He was chair of the human rights committee of the Erie County Bar Association (1997-1999). He has written a number of scholarly articles on the law on subjects ranging from drug policy to the commerce clause of the Constitution. He has written several bar association reports and given continuing legal education lectures on habeas corpus, lawsuits against government officials and jury nullification. His articles have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Buffalo News, Cleveland Plain Dealer and Legislative Gazette. His policy studies have been published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, and the Cato Institute in Washington, D. C. His articles have been used as course materials at numerous colleges and universities including Brown, Rutgers and Stanford. Presently he is an Adjunct Scholar at the Ludwig von Mises Institute and a columnist for two of the largest political websites in the world, Mises.org and LewRockwell.com. He is editor of the blog, PoliticalClassDismissed.com. He and his wife Amy live in North Buffalo with their two children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 370 pages
• Publisher: Cazenovia Books (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974925306
• ISBN-13: 978-0974925301
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #747,562 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Worthy Successor to Rothbard's _For a New Liberty_, September 19, 2004

By 

LR "Libertarian Reviewer" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Political Class Dismissed: Essays Against Politics, Including "What's Wrong With Buffalo" (Paperback)

_Political Class Dismissed_ is a collection of 50 hard-hitting essays on the disastrous consequences of government intervention by James Ostrowski, a libertarian attorney and vociferous critic of the "war on drugs." He ranges from local politics (in this case, a searing indictment of statism and judicial corruption in Buffalo) to foreign policy ("Will Iraq Have Democracy or Peace?" offers a way out of the current morass). A section on current and past luminaries highlights Bill Clinton's presidential library, FDR's demagogic inaugural address, Noam Chomsky's economic illiteracy, the contradictions of Michael Moore's worldview, Thoreau's libertarianism, and the high crimes perpetrated by the 16th American president that have been enshrined in the Lincoln Myth. Two closing essays review _The Black Book of Communism_ and provide an overview of how a government strictly limited to defending life, liberty, and property can best ensure peace and prosperity.
It ends with a bibliography of books helpful in understanding libertarian arguments.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars James Ostrowski : A Champion of Radical Decentralization, February 11, 2005

By 

Ilana Mercer "Author, Broad Sides: One Woman'... (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Political Class Dismissed: Essays Against Politics, Including "What's Wrong With Buffalo" (Paperback)

At this juncture in the catastrophe that is Iraq, I'd like to give credit where it's due. James Ostrowski's readers ought to know that he was one of the first writers, if not the first, to stipulate the solution to blood-soaked Mesopotamia: radical decentralization. In other words, "Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis should each form their own separate republics."

Kind of like the republic Americans once enjoy before the federal government occupied the States, isn't it? Indeed, it's this "libertarian localism" that I find particularly appealing and laudable in James' work: his firm grasp of-and commitment to-the long-lost American virtues of radical decentralization and local autonomy. For when all is said and done, the real freedom lover doesn't sit on a lofty, holier-than-thou, intellectual perch. Rather, he gets down to the messy business of reclaiming his neighborhoods, as James does in "What's Wrong With Buffalo."

And as James has done (with verve and vim) throughout "Political Class Dismissed."

But even more than this volume's blistering attack on Leviathan, the thing I most appreciate about James Ostrowski is ... James Ostrowski himself. Here's why: "Essays Against Politics," the subtitle of this book, emphasizes not politics (the source of our bondage), but life, private life (the source of our renewal). James practices in life what he preaches in these "Essays Against Politics." He fights injustice as a litigator (and still finds time to write prolifically). He is a devoted family man, whose love and admiration for an inspirational father lights up his work. And he is unusual among libertarians (we are indeed a fractious bunch) for being intellectually honest-James gives credit where and when it's deserved, and in the face of intellectual disagreement and difference.

In addition to a sprinkle of wry humor, James exhibits throughout "Political Class Dismissed" an uncanny knack for distilling the issues: "freedom means doing what you will with what you own," he writes. To our overlords in government, such words are pearls before swine, but they'll resonate with freedom-loving Americans.

James's hero-Thomas Jefferson, the author of "the greatest secessionist document in history, The Declaration of Independence"-is also mine. This is just one of the reasons I call James a friend, and a fellow literary comrade-in-arms.

And why I recommend his book.

Ilana Mercer
Author, Broad Sides: One Woman's Clash With A Corrupt Culture

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Libertarian Agrees, March 10, 2005

By 

John M. Wadsworth (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Political Class Dismissed: Essays Against Politics, Including "What's Wrong With Buffalo" (Paperback)

Jim Ostrowski writes on many matters in "Political Class Dismissed" , but the thread that binds these essays together is his doubts about the usefullness and honesty of government. He focusses much energy on the local scene, here in Buffalo, where politicians both local and statewide have destroyed our economy. His family vignettes, and the battles both he and his father have been through, personalize the book in a very meaningful way.
His defense of DiLorenzo's "The Real Lincoln" is incisive and accurate, and catches the spirit of this new breed of Lincoln critics. Jim summarizes the book nicely, and adds his own spin to DiLorenzo's commentary. Lincoln's excesses as a president are amazing to see laid out so graphically. Others have done the same for our twentieth century demigods, Wilson and Roosevelt, leading more and more of us to wonder about how political power is used and abused.
He covers many other areas, but one of my great interests has been the activities of our Communist brethren, especially in the area of murdering their citizens and neighbors. The "Black Book of Communism", while attacked by the left in France and here for being hard and nasty, does what has been needed for a long time. I doubt it will silence the noisy left on college campuses, but it will give some very graphic documentation to the accusations that have long existed against the Communist governments.
I expect that everyone will find many meaningful articles in this collection, and will especially enjoy Jim's humor and energetic writing style.