TONIGHT ON THE TERRORDOME: Greg Palast on Voting Fraud, Iraq and Bush Imperialism

6 PM
CJSR FM-88.5 Edmonton
www.cjsr.com

In 2000, the results of the American presidential election hinged not, as many critics charged, on the candidacy of Ralph Nader. The actual axis was racial profiling in voting. Thousands of African-American voters were purged from voter lists without their knowledge and did not find out until they arrived to vote.

In other cases, thousands of ballots from majority African-American voting precincts were simply not counted. In 2004, touch-screen electronic voting machines manufactured by Diebold, a company linked to the Republic party, helped deliver the White House to George W. Bush.

In each case, substantial evidence pointed to the theft of the election, events which obviously shaped the world for the last six and a half years. Yet corporate press ignored the vast body of evidence, in fact dismissing those concerned about it as “conspiracy nuts.” It remains fascinating that corporate journalism is dominated by what should be called “coincidence nuts.”

Had similar events occurred in Lebanon, Russia, Nigeria or Brazil, journalists would have draw the obvious preliminary conclusions—that one must thoroughly investigate the appearance of fraud in order to deduce whether such fraud was committed. In corporate US media, such due diligence never materialised.

Few people are better equipped to discuss the crises of American democracy and imperialism than tonight’s speaker. He’s one of the most acclaimed journalists alive. He’s won numerous commendations, including the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Freedom of Expression Award, the George Orwell Courage in Journalism Award, and the National Press Club's Arthur Rowse Award for Press Criticism. Tribune Magazine calls him “The greatest investigative reporter of our time.”

The CBC called him “The world’s greatest investigative reporter you’ve never heard of.” The Baltimore Chronicle says “No one has exposed more truth about the Bush Cartel and lived to tell the story.” Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz said his work was “Excellent on the WTO,” and even The Wall Street Journal’s Jude Wanniski called his work “Extraordinary reporting on the IMF.”

His website says: “He’s reported on the truth behind George W. Bush’s theft of the 2000 presidential election, the attempted theft of Venezuelan democracy, the World Bank’s willful destruction of Argentina, Enron’s looting of California, and the cozy relationship between the Bush and Bin Laden dynasties.”

He’s Greg Palast, the author of The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: the Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization, and High-Finance Fraudsters. He’s also created the DVD Bush Family Fortunes based on that book.

Greg Palast began his career in the 1970s, having studied under Milton Friedman and other thinkers behind the march of so-called free-trade. He’s worked for the United Steelworkers of America, the Enron workers' coalition in Latin America and consumer and environmental groups across the planet. His investigation of a nuclear plant operator led to one of the largest jury judgments in US history. His most recent book was Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild, published in 2006 by Penguin.