by Greg Palast

excerpted from Armed Madhouse

January 5, 2009

Bill Richardson is out:  Caught with his hand, if not exactly in the cookie jar, at least you could say his sticky finger were near it.  I'm not surprised.

For years I've been investigating the second-most corrupt state in the USA (after Alaska). I like to check in on the enchanted state with my bud Santiago Juárez.

I knew it was not a polite question, but it was really bugging me, so I asked HIM, “Exactly how does a Mexican get the name William Richardson?”

Governor Richardson’s dad, Santiago explained, was a Citibank executive assigned to Mexico City. There he met Governor Bill’s mom, and—milagro!—a Mexican-American was born. Richardson gets big mileage out of his mother’s heritage, and that makes him, legitimately, a Mexican-American, a politically useful designation. But it’s just as legitimate to say that Richardson is a Citibank-American.

But Governor Richardson is more than that. Between leaving Bill Clinton’s cabinet where he was Secretary of Energy and grabbing a Hispanic-district seat in Congress, Richardson became a partner in (Henry) Kissinger and Associates. That would make Richardson a Kissinger-American as well.

IN 2004, John Kerry won New Mexico—if you counted the votes. But they didn't - and George Bush won the state and the presidency by just 5,000 ballots.

Everyone was talking about the theft of Ohio by (Show me more...)

Donate $50 to the Palast Investigative Fund and get John Ennis' Free For All and Greg Palast's Bush Family Fortunes, or Free For All! and The Election Files.

Check out the trailer for Free For All!

FOUL CHOICE OF BASKETBALL BUDDY FOR EDUCATION SECRETARY

by Greg Palast

[New York. Tuesday, December 16, 2008]

Hey, you Liberal Democrats. You may have won the election, but you're getting CREAMED in the transition.

Today, President-elect Barack Obama stuck it to you. He's chosen Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education.

(Show me more...)

by Greg Palast
for the Huffington Post

Has Barack Obama forgotten, "Way-to-go, Brownie"? Michael Brown was that guy from the Arabian Horse Association appointed by George Bush to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brownie, not knowing the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain from the south end of a horse, let New Orleans drown. Bush's response was to give his buddy Brownie a "way to go!" thumbs up.

We thought Obama would go a very different way. You'd think the studious Senator from Illinois would avoid repeating the Bush regime's horror show of unqualified appointments, of picking politicos over professionals.

(Show me more...)

Is that George Bush under the mistletoe, waiting for your good-bye kiss?

Well, give'm the kiss-off they won't forget:

For the holidays, give the films that got us busted, censored, threatened. (Oh, what fun!) Make a donation to our investigative reporting foundation for as little as $40 and we'll get you autographed copies of our DVDs made for BBC and Democracy Now!

(Show me more...)

On September 12, 2001, George Bush asked Americans to go shopping.

I've got a better idea: Don't buy - DONATE - and I'll send out your gifts.  Give a tax deductible donation to support my investigations crew. Donate to the not-for-profit Palast Investigative Fund and I will sign and send, in gratitude, a gift to you - or your friends or family. I'll sign each item - just tell us the names of the gifted ones by December 14.

Make your tax-deductible donations at www.PalastInvestigativeFund.org and get the following:

"Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild." The bestselling book, signed. "Great fun," says the New Yorker. $75 min donation. $100 Hardbound.  "Palast's stories bite ... they threaten to alter history.* - Chicago Tribune

Film on DVD: Big Easy to Big Empty: The Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans ["The most important documentary of the year" - Air America.] Signed.  Min. donation $40 signed. Watch an excerpt here.

Film on DVD: "The Assassination of Hugo Chavez" - A new documentary based on the investigations for BBC and Democracy Now - from Mexico, from Ecuador and, from, Venezuela, Palast with Chavez. $50 min. donation. Signed. Watch the trailer.

Gift packs: For a $500 minimum donation, get a crate-load of info-loaded DVDs and books. Give me the names, I'll sign them all to you and yours.

Special: Audio CD: "LIVE from the Armed Madhouse." Palast takes you on a wild truth ride. My talk in Florida - plus Ed Asner reading from the Armed Madhouse to a hip-hop beat. Ho-ho-ho! $40 min. donation.  Signed.

Besteseller: "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Signed.  The book Howard Zinn calls, "one of the most important political tomes of our time." Min. donation $75.

Film on DVD: "The Elections Files: The Theft of 2008." The award-winning reports - seen on BBC Television - and reports not yet seen anywhere. $50 minimum donation. Watch the trailer.  Signed.

And more: The Armed Madhouse audio book with Larry David, Jim Hightower, Amy Goodman, Randi Rhodes and many more reading on five disks. (min. $100 donation).  Signed.

And less: Make a donation to the Palast Investigative Fund in someone's name - and we'll send them a thank you card. You get a tax donation - and 'just the facts, ma'am.']

DVD: "Bush Family Fortunes" - the in-your-face Palast report from BBC documentary min. donation $50, ["Courageous reporting" - Michael Moore].

100% of proceeds go to support the staff and expenses of the Palast investigative fund.

My best wishes to you and your family,

Greg Palast

(Show me more...)

The Pits: Georgia's GOP Swipes the Peach State

by Greg Palast

for SuicideGirls.com - November 5, 2008

The evil little &*%$'s are doing it again.

Even as they drown in the anger of platoons of pissed-off voters, Republican operatives are swiping ballots with both hands.

Ground zero is Georgia.  It's here where the sick little vulture named Saxby Chambliss won the US Senate seat six years ago by calling his Democratic opponent, a guy who'd lost three limbs in Vietnam, a friend of Osama bin Laden.

There's no way in hell that Chambliss can slime his way back into the Senate in the face of over half a million newly registered voters (Black and young - 69% for Obama) without jacking them out of their votes.  That's what the Republicans are up to.  Right now.  As we speak.

Over 50,000 the new voters in Georgia have been blocked from voting by using a nasty little new law, the Help America Vote Act signed by George Bush.  (Bush is helping us vote - look out!)

I just got this from Christina Rush in the Peach Pit state:

"They really have stolen my vote and I don't know what to do about it at this late stage. I just found out 2 days ago that I do not exist on the voters rolls in Georgia. I have disappeared. After calling 866-OUR VOTE and the Secretary of State (for GA), it has been determined that the last vote I was accounted for was the 1996 General Election. That's awfully strange to me, considering that I voted in the recent Primaries and that last two General Elections (2000 and 2004)."

"Everyone is 'very sorry' this is happening, but no one can tell what I can do to make my vote count for THIS election. The only advice I've been given is to fill out a new voters registration form and I'll be eligible for any future elections, just not THIS one."

"So, what can I do except tell anyone and everyone who will listen?"

And no one is going to listen to you or the other 50,000 dumped voters in Georgia.

But here's the good news:  it won't save them.  The GOP is toast. Paint the White House black and blue and Congress the same hue.

But the steal in Senate races may allow the GOP to savage, obstruct, (Show me more...)

by Greg Palast

No question, Mr. Bruce was my favorite teacher in junior high.

I went to this Loser-ville school in the San Fernando Valley.  It was all Chicano kids and working class white losers like me.  Everyone had to take 'metal shop' so we could work the bottom-end jobs in the Chevy plant.

My brain was dying - until Mr. Bruce showed up, the new science teacher.  DOCTOR Bruce, actually - the only Ph.d teacher in the place.

At lunch hour, instead of hanging out in the teachers' lunchroom, Mr. Bruce would invite me and my friends into his classroom.  Over coffee made on a Bunsen burner, he would talk about topics from Einstein to Buddha while munching on this strange stuff called "organic" food. (Show me more...)