Monday

Greg Palast

The Republican Party does not believe in Democracy.

Politics has always had a certain of lack of ethics. But the conservative Republicans have brought politics to a new low: A complete absence of morals.

Whitewater, the farce of Impeachment, the racist purging of the voting rolls in several states that led to the Florida 2000 debacle, the California recall... they all showed that the GOP does not believe that the will of the people should prevail. They look down on you, but they should be looking in a mirror.

The US news media hasn't practiced real journalism for decades. The money wasn't in it. Tabloid journalism, rumor-mongering and outright lying sell papers. No one wants to hear an unpleasant truth... about themselves. They'd much rather hear an oft-repeated lie about the other people (that is, us). All too often, it's up to the foreign press to provide objective coverage of US politics. It was a foreign newspaper that broke the Iran-Contra scandals. It is the British press that is doing the best job covering the Bush administration scandals.

Greg Palast has been fighting the good fight for us. As the article reprinted on his web site says, "Investigative journalism, the pride of the reporting profession, can be an exercise in pure masochism these days: As a big story takes one closer and closer to power, the costs and consequences mount." Investigative journalism is non-partisan, and his stories have gotten him sued by Bush cronies and Mario Cuomo alike. But "non-partisan" doesn't mean "if I do a story exposing one side, I HAVE to do a story from the other." A good investigative journalist follows the leads and reports what he finds out. The sleaze, corruption and moral cowardice of the Bush administration is clearly the story of the new millennium, and that's the story Palast follows. Many stories, as it turns out, mostly related to each other. As Deep Throat said of the Watergate cover-up, "follow the money". Not all the dots are connected, but the pattern of deceit, oil money and treason is emerging.

The Best Democracy Money Can Buy was about the stolen 2000 election, and has been updated for the 2004 campaign. If there's one thing we know about the upcoming elections, it's that the Republicans are going to cheat. Palast shows, with documentation, how they did it in 2000, why they did it and who benefited. As the site says:

In this polemical indictment of globalization and political corruption, Palast updates the muckraking tradition with some 21st century targets: the IMF, World Bank and WTO, plus oil treaties, energy concerns and corporate evildoers of all creeds. In particular, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy addresses the following:

 

• How Bush killed the FBI's investigation of the financing of terrorist organizations by Saudi Arabia.
• How the Bush family stole the election in Florida.
• How Enron cheated, lied, and swindled its way into an energy monopoly.

Also available are a New World Disorder poster; a VHS documentary on how 180,000 votes were not counted in Florida, largely people of color or poor people (ie, people likely to vote for Gore); Democracy and Regulation: How the Public Can Govern Privatized Essential Services; several other Palast works and the CD Weapons of Mass Instruction.

I was fortunate to acquire a copy of Weapons of Mass Instruction (thanks again guys!), and have played selected cuts on the air. It's the full speech Palast made to an audience in Boulder Colorado on April 29, 2003. While some of the comments about the Iraq War are a bit dated (though also a bit prescient), the speech remains a powerful (and annotated) indictment of "The Bush Family Frankenstein Factory", "The 2000 Selection", "Ground Zero as a Profit Center" and many other topics. Palast gets introduced and then gives one speech, which the CD divides into tracks. Highly recommended. I would recommend you listen in your car as you drive around, but it might make your blood boil and you should vent your rage at the Bush administration, not the idiot driver who cuts you off.

A few Greg Palast links:

• Greg Palast Website
• Greg Palast Blog (from the 5/6/04 entry, "I'm an American, an L.A. kid sent into journalistic exile in England.")
• From Mediachannel.org, Palast's, The Silence of the Lambs: The Election Story Never Told.
• Buzzflash's interview with Greg Palast 11/04/02.
• Transcript of BBC news report with Palast 2/16/01.
• Vanishing Votes , an article by Palast in The Nation 4/29/04 on how Bush and co. are trying again to steal elections by targeting people for a "scrub" list.
• Interview with Palast by the Bully Magazine 4/27/03.
• Transcript of BBC report by Palast on the relationship between the Bushes and the bin Ladens and the connections to 9/11.
• Palast interview with Mike Hesh on why we shouldn't "get over" the stolen 2000 election, 9/11, Bush's lack of character and other topics.
• Interview with Palast by Bad Subjects magazine 5/3/04. "To get to what wasn't asked. The entire 9/11 commission seems allergic to saying two words: Saudi Arabia. To mention Saudi Arabia in the presence of the President is like passing gas at a debutante's ball. You're not supposed to do it. (Laughs)".
• Palast's prescient article in salon.com from 11/1/04 (before the 11/5 election) on Jeb Bush's secret weapon, "94,000 people on a voter "purge" list -- half of them African-American -- continue to be banned from voting in Florida, even though the state knows the list is wildly inaccurate." (requires Premium membership)

To be a Republican these days, you have to believe lies and not believe the truth. Real Americans shouldn't fall into that trap. It's treason to let treason go uncovered, and patriotic to demand accountability of the people leading us. Greg Palast is a thorn in the side of a lot of people, and he is a hero as much as any of our brave soldiers in Iraq. He is fighting for us.

Another Bumpersticker

The Worried Shrimp

from that Mad Cat, JD

Last Night

Moose & Squirrel

'American Idol'

Tibet

'We Are the Future'

'Raymond'

Michael Moore

Bill Murray

F U G W

David Carradine

Cats