"Electronic Apartheid"-- Greg Palast

[TexasLawyer]

Greg Palast is the f'ing MAN! He is on a book tour to promote his new book "Armed Madhouse" and he spoke last night to a sold out and very enthusiastic crowd here in Houston.

About three quarters of his talk was about election fraud and dirty tricks used by the RNC to purge voters and otherwise prevent voters from voting. He is a galvanizing speaker-- he had me almost crying when he talked about how the RNC, ahead of the 2004 election, successfully purged black and latino servicemen and women in the air force who were stationed in Iraq. (They sent the servicemen first class letters that said "Do Not Forward"-- so of course these guys never got the letters. The letters would then be returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as “undeliverable.”)

I had even read about this already in his weekly e-mails and heard him talk about it on Democracy Now. And I still got choked up.

Mr. Palast oversaw extensive research that shows that around 90% of spoiled/lost votes come from neighborhoods that are majority black and/or brown. He had very moving words about the Indians on the Taos Pueblo reservation where, according to the voting machines, NO ONE voted for president. The chief told Greg Palast: "We all chose a President, but we didn't choose the machines we voted on."

He urged everyone to get out there and educate the public about what is going on with our elections. At the end of his presentation, he stressed that no heros will magically appear out of the mists and take care of this issue for us.

But he reminded everyone that the New Deal reforms in the 1930s would not have happened without the trench-work of thousands of earnest people trying to make things better and very vocally demanding reform. FDR jumped on the bandwagon AFTER the little guys started the movement! We have the opportunity to do the same here and now with our own government.

Catch Greg Palast's book tour if he is coming to a city near you. Here's his website. And buy a copy of Armed Madhouse, too. Support this guy!


http://www.gregpalast.com/madhouse/index.php/order-the-book/

[MissWaverly]

1. Yes, I have my hardback from Amazon

and he is a darn good writer, he pulls you in and it's easy to read

[TexasLawyer]

2. Brisk sales

It looked like sales were pretty brisk. I just checked the NYT Best Sellers List and by God Greg Palast is on it-- number 10 in non-fiction.

But guess who is number 1 on that list?-- Ms. Ann "Fragging" Coulter! I hope that DU will do all they can to turn this situation around.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/books/bestseller/0625besthardnonfiction.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[MissWaverly]

3. I have heard her sales come from bulk sales

I wonder if someone is buying them with our tax dollars for government libraries. Just a thought.

[AuntiBush]

4. Could Use Good Summer Reading

Thanks for that tidbit. Anyone backing FDR sounds good to me!

The "New Deal" was the "best deal" that united, not divided.

[Wrinkle_In_Time]

5. Bought "Armed Madhouse" on Sunday. The service rep that

helped me locate it on the shelves knew exactly who I was referring to and even gave off a subtle vibe of approval on the choice of material. Indigo Books in the Eaton Centre. I've just started reading it.

Pimping Palast's website: http://www.gregpalast.com/

I really like Palast's work, but I have great difficulty with his promotion of Jason Leopold's "News Junkie" (PDF).