*** Investigative Journalist Greg Palast replies to Internet commentary following his Exclusive Report filed here at The BRAD BLOG on Monica Goodling’s testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee last week, including her admissions concerning “Vote Caging” by former Karl Rove aide, now Arkansas U.S. Attorney, Tim Griffin.
Saturday morning, when most sensible folks were unfurling flags or taking their setters and children for a Memorial Day frisbee toss on the beach, someone using the nom d’puter of “DRATIONAL†was in his big sister’s bedroom furiously typing, “Greg Palast is Dangerous!†on her iMac.
Drat is quite right: I am dangerous, though not for the reasons in Drat’s screed.
So while the twins are off with the dog, let me respond between bites of this bagel, beginning with this immutable distinction:
There’s two kinds of illiterates in this world: those who can’t read, for whom I’m entirely sympathetic — and those who CAN read but WON’T, for whom I have no sympathy whatsoever.
Drat is of the latter. He (she/them/it?) has mounted a full-scale assault on the seven-year-long effort of my BBC and Guardian team investigating systematic suppression of the minority vote by the Republican Party and our latest revelation: ‘caging voters.’ His “evidence†is 100% limited to snippets of my conversations on talk radio or phone interviews, second-hand reports on websites and some musings of one of my good researchers, Zach Roberts, posted to this site.
Nowhere does he suggest he’s bothered reading the one hundred-page description of the attack on voters, including caging, in the new edition of Armed Madhouse. Shame that. Law professor Robert F. Kennedy Jr., using the book as a source, verified by his own corroborative work, found the matter therein convincing enough to call for putting Rove’s right hand man, Tim Griffin, “in prison, not in office.â€
Picking up a book won’t hurt you, Mr. Drat, at least until Patriot Act IV goes into effect…
Drat also fails to consult the obvious and original source of the
BBC report: the BBC. On the website is an elucidating exchange between the Republican Party and BBC producer, Meirion Jones — who placed his substantial reputation, and that of the British Broadcasting Corporation, on the line in the defense of our ‘caging’ story based on his complete and close-up knowledge of the facts.
As a former statistician, I’m a bit disconcerted to make this back of the envelope calculation: about ten times as many people will read the posting of Drat written in his jammies one night as have read Armed Madhouse. The book, unlike the blogette, is based on the work of many diligent souls over three years on three continents.
Such is the world. I won’t complain. But the speed of slanders is so fleet, and the work of our investigation so vital, I want to explain our methods in summary, not as a replacement for reading the book, but as a supplementary guide to our team’s work and professional process.
The prime criticism: Drat cannot comprehend how, from the one email and “caging†list shown on my website, we can conclude their was a massive, illegal GOP conspiracy to wipe out the votes of hundreds of thousands of legal, minority voters.
Answer: you can’t. We didn’t. Sorry, Mr. Drat, but an investigation of this type requires more than a desultory evening of noodling on the ‘Net.
When, just after midnight on October 8, 2004, researcher Oliver Shykles sent me the first ‘caging’ memo passed to us from John Wooden, I thought the prankster was pulling our leg, or the emails and lists were just the usual campaign nonsense and blather. Take a look at the confidential Griffin memo, “Subject: caging,†on page 207 of the book. He doesn’t say much, Mr. Griffin, except, “Total as of today is 1834″ with the list attached. Names and addresses of voters. Nothing more.
Mr. Drat: that’s not where our investigation ends, but where it BEGINS.
A producer from ‘60 Minutes’ had recently come to our office and looked at similar voter lists and said, “My god, it would take you HUNDREDS OF HOURS and you’d have to make HUNDREDS OF CALLS to figure out what this is.†I asked our chief investigator Ms. von Eckardt when she’d last slept. “Sunday.†It was Tuesday.
She began the calling of the ‘caged’ — by now reaching over 50,000 in Florida alone — from the missives we received, while investigators Shykles and Pascarella enlisted the work of volunteers and experts in mapping and analyzing the list against the ‘felon’ purge lists and other data we had, including physical visits to the addresses.
The list was looking very dark indeed, Black precincts, black voters, most with a peculiarity: voters unlikely to live at their home addresses. On a couple of lists (of more than 50), were soldiers including African American serviceman Randy Prausa. Prausa’s wife, reached by phone, admitted he did not live as his voting registration address: he’d been shipped overseas.
Hmm. We went to the experts, including Ion Sancho, the dean of Florida elections supervisors, and voting rights lawyer Ralph Neas among others. “It could only be a challenge list,†Sancho told us, and by the racial bent of it, “A potential violation of the Voting Rights Act,†said Neas. A felony crime.
As the evidence mounted, BBC authorized us to ask about the emails from the best source: their author, Mr. Griffin, right hand man to Karl Rove. I intended to ask, “Lose something, Mr. Griffin?â€
So with our crew from London, we set off to Washington — and were told to scram by the Rove man. We also flew to Tallahassee to confront one of the recipients, the Chairman of the state’s Bush-Cheney campaign. We were blocked at the doorway on our scheduled interview by a duo of PR flaks. They gave us a menu of contradictory answers. The lists were potential donors, one said. Oh, OK. But what about this: the ones registered at the homeless shelter? That failed, we were told the lists were just clerical stuff: “These are newly registered voters we mailed to, where the letter came back — bad addresses.â€
Wait. Cleaning up the junk-mail list required confidential missives between Rove’s top man and the chairmen of the state campaigns? I suggested these were, in fact, challenge lists.
The flack-catcher — you have to see her photo holding the lists at page 203 of the book — then said something that combined brilliance and bullshit in two phrases: “This is not a challenge list. That’s not what it’s SET UP to do.â€
Her words were crafty. If the lists were USED for challenges (and she admitted they would do that), that’s legal. But if the lists were compiled FOR THE PURPOSE OF targeting these voters, mostly African-American, that’s a crime. A big-time crime.
And she knew it. And most important, Tim Griffin knew it. In fact, the emails show he directed it. And where is Mr. Griffin today? US Attorney for Arkansas, replacement for one of the prosecutors fired six months ago.
Did Rove know that Griffin knew? This was Rove’s right hand man; the campaign was under Rove’s guidance; the caging op cost millions and involved the state chairmen and top planners of the campaign. I think a grand jury should ask; or at least a Congressional Committee. That Griffin knew was grim enough; criminal enough.
And that’s what Monica Goodling dumped before the House Judiciary Committee this past week. She said her superiors lied about their knowledge of Griffin’s knowledge of “caging voters.†She said that only after taking the Fifth and obtaining a grant of immunity.
Goodling didn’t need to take the Fifth to admit she’d looked at someone’s party registration before choosing them for a Justice Department post. But she knew that “caging voters,†and her crew’s knowledge of it and Griffin’s role, required immunity if she hoped to stay out of the pokey.
Because there’s more. Emails that Griffin and Goodling did cough up to the committee tighten the noose around their own necks.
It is both much fun and grandly ironic that one of the self-incriminating emails is Griffin’s complaint to Goodling about that “British reporter … Greg Palast,†including two dated February 5 of this year. One includes a link to an excerpt from Armed Madhouse and a PDF of a blog based on it. (Well, at least someone’s reading the book.)
In this email and others, Griffin pulls the pin out of the grenade — and swallows it. Rather than continue the party line that the ‘caging’ lists were not created to challenge voters, he says, “The real story is this: There were thousands of reported illegal/fake voter registrations around the country, so some of the Republican State Parties mailed letters welcoming new voters to the newly registered voters. … The Republican State Parties ultimately wanted to show that thousands of fraudulent registrations had been completed.â€
Uh, oh. Griffin’s now admitted the costly mailings were part of a scheme to hunt down “fraudulent†voters. That conflicts with the official version told us on camera and mailed to BBC TV (posted on the network’s website).
Further, in an August email exchange between Goodling and Gonzales Chief of Staff Kyle Sampson, Goodling strategizes about how to get around a press report that, “…in the Senate confirmation process, [Griffin is] likely to endure some questioning about his role in massive Republican projects in Florida and elsewhere by which Republicans challenged tens of thousands of absentee votes. Coincidentally, many of those challenged votes were concentrated in black precincts.â€
“Coincidentally,†my arse. Only 13% of Florida’s registered voters are African-American.
Well, that’s being picky. The key thing is that Griffin’s moaning email of February 5 combined with the others shows that Griffin knew, indeed directed, the ‘caging’ operation; that it was aimed at challenging voters who, disproportionately, are Black.
I have no doubt that when Goodling showed these incredibly ill-considered emails to her lawyer, he said, “Monica, looks like you’re taking the Fifth.â€
And note: Griffin’s sending this email to Goodling while he’s a sitting US prosecutor. How dumb can you get? This dumb: He adds, “The Republican State Parties wanted to show that thousands of fraudulent voter registrations had been completed. They ultimately did.â€
Oh, no they didn’t. And that brings us full circle: to the prosecutor firings. None of the honest US Attorneys found a single “fraudulent voter†in the hundreds of thousands that were challenged as a result of ‘caging.’ US Attorney for New Mexico David Iglesias went on a wild goose chase through 150 cases until the FBI told him to stop wasting their time. He brought no charges — and got the axe from Goodling, Griffin and Rove. Bud Cummins too: not one “fraudulent voter†charged in Arkansas. He also got the heave-ho — and Griffin stepped in himself to take over the hunt for Black voters.
I am writing this on Memorial Day, looking at a list of soldiers on Griffin’s caging list. ‘Coincidentally’ loaded with African-Americans. Coincidentally. Mission Accomplished, Mr. President.
And now back to ‘Drat.’ Karl Rove’s cousin Denny the Rat? I don’t know. I don’t care. He wants all the emails. Sure. There’s several dozen that say, “Caging list†with over 50,000 names. Then what, Mr. Drat? You’ll have to get out of your PJs and do what we did: challenge the Bush-Cheney campaign directly, make hundreds of calls, do a demographic analysis with the experts, endure vicious attacks by the Rove-bots, dismissal by the US press and ignorance of Democratic politicians.
I went through criticisms like Drat’s when I had the list of so-called “felons†purged from the voter rolls by Katherine Harris in 2000. The same damn griping came from Republican trogs and Internet poseurs: we want the whole list, all your raw data; how do you know these are innocent voters etc. Yes, I made mistakes. My initial investigation disclosed my team’s report that “15%†of the 56,000 so-called felons were innocent. I was wrong. After People for the American Way filed a suit based on our discovery, the state’s contractor, ChoicePoint, admitted it had no solid evidence on 97% of the accused, 97,000 citizens in total. And the state Attorney General told me that there were, out of the thousands disenfranchised, maybe SIX illegal voters. In the end, he charged none.
But Griffin is now in position to bring charges against the voters that Cummins found innocent.
Will that happen? Indeed, the ‘caging’ game of 2004, unchecked, looks like practice for 2008. The voters challenged, ‘coincidentally’ Black, remain subject to challenge today and for next year’s election.
Why haven’t I turned over the evidence to Congressional committees? Who said they’d accept it? Bobby Kennedy’s tried to get their attention. The Congressional White Caucus is pointedly uninterested. I’m told, “Griffin’s just an interim appointment.â€
Yes, “interim†through the 2008 election.
Well, as a journalist, it’s not my job to save the Democratic Party from itself.
It is not true, as Mr./Ms. Drat says, that I’ve accused the Democrats of wanting to use Rove’s caging tactics. Democrats have not run a mass challenge operation since the Jim Crow era. However, the party does act like an abused spouse, a group of enablers who evidence symptoms of “beaten party syndrome.â€
Nothing I can do about that.
My conversation with the Drats of this world must end here. If you want to debate me, first read my book. If you want to criticize my methods, make sure your method includes some on-the-ground investigative work.
Otherwise, let me spend my one weekend off this month with my kids before I fly off to Washington, Michigan and London where, for BBC, I’ll be meeting with the Justice Department, Chairman Conyers and others — on an investigation even more important than ‘caging,’ persecuted prosecutors, or anything Mr. Drat can imagine … something, Mr. Drat that makes me very dangerous indeed to this regime.
===
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: from Baghdad to New Orleans – Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone WILD. For more info, or to hear Brad Friedman, Ed Asner and other troublemakers read from Armed Madhouse, go to www.GregPalast.com
Greg & Brad ~ A HUGE Thank You for the work you are doing on election reform. This is the absolute foundation of our democracy ~ Each and every citizen should be supporting the goal of honest and fair elections where each citizen can and will participate to determine the future of their country. We The People have a critical role and thankfully someone is attempting to set right our obviously dysfunctional system as it now exists. Sen. Feinstein is introducing a Bill to address some of the problems.
But we still need to expose the manipulations of this basic RIGHT of ours – too many have died for that right for us to do otherwise. I commend your excellent work and honor your patriotism. Bless You!
I would like to know what other people have to say about the North American Union. I commented twice about it on another site (progressive) and they banned me and said it was conspiracy b.s.
Moral: “A little knowledge is dangerous.”
Greg – Please continue to be a threat to deceiving and lying power hungry politicians and their corporate masters. You are a rare patriot and I am inspired by your work. You have given the veterans and current soldiers the greatest present on this memorial day. The gift of truth during a time of universal deception.
You define a true American hero and your writings, speeches, and videos have awakened millions across the globe.
Because of you, a revolution of hope has taken off throughout America. Please continue with your same energy, humor, diligence, and integrity so that this movement does not get divided or hijacked.
OOOH Greg, nice teaser at the end.
I’ll be looking forward to that.
Unc Fester, they are not going to admit anything about that until it’s ready to roll, that way no one will complain until it’s too late to do anything about it.
As far as us peons know, it’s a conspiracy.
“My conversation with the Drats of this world must end here. . .
Otherwise, let me spend my one weekend off this month with my kids before I fly off to Washington, Michigan and London where, for BBC, I’ll be meeting with the Justice Department, Chairman Conyers and others — on an investigation even more important than ‘caging,’ persecuted prosecutors, or anything Mr. Drat can imagine … something, Mr. Drat that makes me very dangerous indeed to this regime.”
Hilarious, even Pulitzer winning journalists don’t talk to readers like this. Palast’s 12 minute BBC documentary is fine, but it’s a pretty sad statement that a blogger’s criticism got that deep underneath his skin.
Ah, that’s right, Greg Palast, defender of the free world, is too busy flying around the country and overseas (color me impressed!); plus he’s talking to so many important people (meaning he must be VERY important); and doing such incredibly important work (a couple books and a 12 minute anecdote filled report for BBC, very, VERY impressive!) to be bothered by the Drat’s of the world. But apparently he was.
A more seasoned professional would not be surprised to find readers criticizing their work or methodology. It comes with the territory. The appropriate response is to ignore, or engage on the basis of the point of contention.
If Palast’s reporting is solid, he has nothing to worry about. Dropping personal attacks on a reader, and throwing out the “I am so important defense that I am above criticism defense” doesn’t accomplish much either–let along speak to the points of criticism leveled by his reader.
Among some of his readers Palast may be a God among men. But among members of his profession, who pay their dues day in and day out, he still has more than a little to prove. There’s a lot more to being a journalist than flying around the country; meeting important people; and leveling sensational attacks in a news report.
Where are the 500 e-mails Greg?
Greg Palast:
So, what you said here…
https://bradblog.com/?p=4551#more-4551
(at approximately two minutes into Part 3)
… does not apply?
i.e. (short version) “…turn them over to Conyer’s committee…”
… did not happen?
Or did you turn them over?
Did you ask Conyers to investigate?
Did the committee decline to review the emails?
These are reasonable questions, especially as you invoke Conyers yet again at the end of your article above.
By the way…
“You can’t understand without recreating our researches”
and
“Buy my book to understand this investigation”
… sounds more elronish than investigative… and completely overlooks what leveraging blogosphere volunteers can accomplish.
My thanks to Brad Friedman and Greg Palast. By all means,keep reporting and meet with Rep Conyers and others. I agree it is not your mission to save the Democratic Party. Right now, there is a very substantial number of folks who want to kick their butts into gear and are trying to make our elected Dems see how out-of-touch they are. We need and appreciate any ammo you give us.
Maybe I’m naive but I tend to believe anything is possible from this fascist group. I’ve pretty much lost faith in Americans being able to use their minds for anything anymore. The characters that have taken over our country in 2000 have a really hard time ever telling the truth and have proved themselves to be capable of massive crimes against humanity. What does it take to believe they are quite capable of scheming to seize the power that got them into the position they’re in?
Way to go, Greg. Your exhaustive reporting and analysis would have put several score of political operatives in jail in any Western country except the United States. I expect, as with voter verified paper ballots, that the Democrats will eventually come around and realize the massive vote theft committed in 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and probably in 2008. Whether it is soon enough to save the 2008 Presidential election is highly questionable. The only question I’m completely unable to imagine is why mainstream Dems are in such denial and what they think could possibly be worse than having three million potential Democratic votes stolen by the reincarnation of Jim Crow? Perhaps they’re afraid of being considered conspiracy theorists: However, just because a situation looks like a conspiracy, doesn’t mean that it isn’t one.
This may be the most precarious moment in our country’s existence. How far, and to what dismal and dark extremes has this most unusual and spectacular experiment in democracy sunk to since its inception is still open to some speculation, but the evidence that has already been unearthed and vested by the extraordinary work of Greg Palast indicates a clear and present danger – a danger from within, in the form of a malignant cancer that has infested the inner tissue of this country’s very existence.
If there was ever a time to perform emergency surgery, purge the current administration,. and render justice upon those who so richly deserve such, this would be that time.
High crimes and misdemeanors worthy of impeachment?
I would respectfully suggest that the activities of this administration has crossed the line, way, way beyond mere impeachment status – serious, hard prison time at Leavenworth federal penitentiary would be far more appropriate, but that’s just one man’s opinion.
I love this country, the theoretical ideals for which it stands, which is why I am so specific and passionate in my opinions on such.
Lady Liberty is dying, facing terminal cancer.
We must purge the cancer, rescue and cure her, and let the torch that she holds be the beacon of hope, freedom, and justice to her citizens and to the world, that it once was.
I absolutely despise the Bushd administration. I have no doubt They are hiding something as part of the US attorney scandal but I’m not going to believe these charges about Palast having Rove’s e-mails until Palast turns them all over to a third party, like John Conyers, who can verify them and they can verify they are what Palast claims they are. If he has dones this work and it proves to be true then bravo. He is a hero.But if he’s misleading us to sell a book well then iti is something else entirely. all he has to do is provide the 500 emails to trustworthy thrid party and let them speak for themselves. That is not to much to ask.
for more resources about FBI agents engaging in voter fraud see
http://www.toledoblade.com/apps...038;FromPost=1
Like comments #6,7,8 and 13, I wonder what the motivation for most of this “reporting” really is. I’ve spent some time skipping around these blogs and most of what I am finding is self-promotion masked as reporting.
I can understand someone wanting to find out all that they possibly can about a person or procedure, but when it is as one-sided as this, it tends to be thrown aside as “conspiracy b.s”. Supposition and assumption do not, no matter how much it’s warranted, make it a fact. If there was this mass conspiracy to steal elections, there is no way that it would have remained buried for this long. Something as inconsequential as this U.S. attorney “scandal” has stayed in the news for weeks now–for what? Something that is technically the right of any administration! How long do you suppose it would take some disgruntled,low-level staffer with copies of a secret memo to jump in front of a camera with the proof? What happens when a Democrat wins the next presidential election(which they will)– do all of these blogs get relegated to “cyber-tabloid” status because the “top names” in the field care for nothing but who is the most important among them or how many talk shows they appear.
I enjoy reading these blogs, from all sides of the political spectrum, because, to a history teacher, it’s an invaluable tool for judging the way events really effect a nation versus basing history on what show’s up in newspapers or history texts. But I am finding it difficult to find any that are based on facts and not assumption.
Bush winning(technically) and a war in Iraq plus past professions of executive branch members does not equal a vast Oil Profiteering,Environment-Raping,Election stealing conspiracy. The whole thing reminds me of the vast conspiracy of Big Tobacco to dupe us with their vicious lies that cigarettes weren’t harmful–when only the most moronic among us did not believe that inhaling smoke was bad for you.(yes, I am a smoker) Politicians dance with those that brung them, period. If you want to reform politics, get rid of the money, not the chosen mechanism for voting. If there is no profit in it, corporations will leave it alone.
(P.S. My entire argument up top is based on supposition and assumption– see how easy it is to host a blog?)
STEP IT UP
Hay Nonbeliever, you are correct on one thing – two or more people working together to compile a list of voters based on their demographic and using that to challenge their vote IS a conspiracy. Oh wait, you meant to use ‘conspiracy b.s.’ to equate people who investigate election fraud with people who believe the moon landing was a hoax. Well then, a big fuck you to you, sir.
Greg: Keep digging and we’ll keep reading!
It amazes me that a hypocritical con-artist whore like George Tenet can receive a Presidentaial Medal of Freedom, instead of one going to someone like Palast: a person who honestly represents the views and interests of this country, and especially the soldiers and marines who put their lives on the line in our service. This memorial day weekend I am especially grateful for the service of people who defend our freedoms: Palast is on the front lines of that battle. I’m just a regular, nobody, working class America, but I want to say how grateful I am for the people who serve in our nation’s best intersts: and Palast, pursuing the truth, is in the tradition of the pamphleteers and protesters who founded this nation.
… NONBELIEVER said on 5/28/2007 @ 9:25 pm PT…
“Like comments #6,7,8 and 13, I wonder what the motivation for most of this “reporting” really is.”
Ah damn… y’see, Palast, this is why you need to act more professionally: the trolls are bad enough without giving them any actual ammunition to use.
As for this particular nitwit example of the breed: Well, nonbeliever… little things like over 600,000 Iraqi citizens dead for no good reason, a government run amok with secret imprisonment, torture, nonstop spying on its own citizens, and a political party self-admittedly hell bent on corrupting every last level of government… such niggling little items tend to cause people to ask questions.
And it was obvious that the mainstream commercial media wasn’t going to report on anything resembling actual answers as their concept of “reported reality” exited the local light cone.
Thus: the blogs. And the bloggers are actually taking up the slack, if somewhat unevenly and in fits and starts… and their successes at reporting what the mainstream media would not seem to have irked certain parties no end.
GREG SHOULD GO FURTHER
Greg’s investigations are great, but he fails to say why there’s such a push for government sponsored voter suppression – the answer is to hide government sponsored racketeering such as Sibel Edmonds describes, and to prevent a new investigation of 9/11.
It should be obvious to everyone that if someone takes the Fifth, they know they did something illegal. And since Goodling was right out of the RNC with no experience or real qualifications for the job she was given, she was just a political rubber stamp, willing to do anything the loyal “Bushies” told her to do whether it was legal or not. And it seems that it has a lot to do with voter suppression. Even WITH immunity she took the Fifth at one point. Can’t these anti-liberals see what’s in front of them?
I would like to see the e-mails too. Greg seems to want to keep us in suspense. But it may be for good reason. Let’s see how this plays out. It’s not looking too good for Bush and Rove, especially when, so far, everyone involved in these firings of the US attorneys weren’t responsible or even that much involved. Jon Stewart’s take on it was right on the nose. They were immaculate firings.
Greg, I went over to DailyKos via the link you provided. Here is a segment of that text:
(Greg’s Link). Notice that “Drat” limited the scope of your “danger” to three entities.
It struck me that Drat sees some sort of line of demarcation between “Democrats, progressives, and members of … DailyKos”. So a democrat can’t be a progressive or a member of DailyKos? Vice versa?
That bit of fragmentation puzzled me, because it was included in what appears in some degree to be the work of an apologist (Drat) for none other than Karl Rove.
It reminded me of the demise of Mike Ruppert’s From The Wilderness caused by a mole within his organization that brought him down.
My observation on anti-regime movements of various sorts has taken me to the realization that the American psyche can only handle a limited amount of criticism.
It seems that our psychological foundation (sanity) crumples if certain ideas challenge it. The only protection, it seems, is denial.
Americans assume we have the best government, democracy, election system, health care system, educational system, industry, and on and on. Any notion contrary to that is going to cause the denialists to run to the medicine cabinet for a quick gulp of denial.
This is so very real it needs to be considered.
The “moderates” many times are what happens after the gulp of denial takes effect. Their eyes then gaze upon the landscape outside their cherished notions and they see “radicals” and “conspiracy nuts” everywhere.
Even the majority (e.g. the anti-Iraq war folks) sometimes are “radicals” to these “moderates”. 🙂
The bottom line is that some solutions require a radical approach, others a moderate approach, and yet others a liberal approach. For example, Scooter Libby’s lies required a radical approach in the form of a criminal prosecution.
So does the AttorneyGate matter, and thus I think your approach is the better reasoned. Drat is a “moderate” who is in denial and can’t quite handle any notion that our government could do these bad things to Americans.
Yet the evidence leads overwhelmingly to the opposite conclusion.
JP #6
In effect you echo the words of John Kerry when he was rationalizing why he should not respond to the Swift Boat slime.
Greg gives a compelling reason for his prompt and lengthy (albeit not-yet completed) reply:
(ibid., emphasis mine). John Kerry realized his mistake too late, Greg didn’t. That is a sign of being aware of the reality around us isn’t it?
The more trolls, the more you know you’re dangerous…to those who want to keep what you’ve uncovered under wraps! Trolls = you’re on the right track! If someone wasn’t dangerous by uncovering the truth about a scam, there wouldn’t be any trolls.
Let me finish their sentence for them:
“Greg Palast is dangerous…”
(rest of sentence below)
“…to our voter suppression schemes!”
Good to see Greg’s book getting some attention.
Drat at DailyKos,
Here is an example of dangerous:
(445 Pound Judge, emphasis added).
To JP in comment # 6. Yea, you can only call yourself a journalist when you get that contract for 16 million dollars. Just ask Katy Couric…..
My heartfelt thanks to Brad, Greg, Bev and the great folks who regularly comment on this blog.Off topic, but not. Just read the definition of a majic act. Divert attention while you do the trick. Diverting attn. is Bushco while our govt. has been taken over by a fascist coup.All the outrage now at the horrible things OUR govt. is doing…And the almost total black out on so called progressive blogs of the fundamental issue of election fraud, which has enabled a dictator to sit in the WH. And the democrats in the house and senate who just want to make it look like they are addressing election fraud. When Bushco was trying to do away with overtime for nurses, fire fighters and the police, there were only a few in the senate fighting for US. Throw the rest of the bums out. They were Harkin, Dorgan and Kennedy.
“As far as us peons know, it’s a conspiracy.”
The biggest conspiracy theory of ALL is the ‘official story’. Always remember that and never, EVER, trust your government.
#30, and it shouldn’t be that way either
I really should have added ‘according to them’ to the front of your quote “As far as us peons know, it’s a conspiracy.” (them being the 1%ers).
My favorite humorous take on “them” is from the Simpsons
Springfield’s Republican party
Brad – Whether dangerous or not, there’s growing concern about whether Greg Palast is legit. Have you, Brad, personally vetted this? This same post appears on DKos with over 500 comments and no reply from Palast.
It’s a common sense question that everyone is asking: If Mr. Palast has incriminating Karl Rove emails, why hasn’t he published them or provided them to Congress. It doesn’t make sense, and there’s never a satisfactory response.
In other words, Brad, what you’re posting here is one side of a DKos flame war, and the other side, DRat, is far from having been disproven.
I don’t claim to be an expert on this dispute, nor am I ready to take on side or the other, but I would appreciate a forthcoming and complete analysis from BradBlog that clears up the confusion.
To take back our country we need to Impeach Cheney and then Bush!
Please print out the form to get signatures to Impeach Cheney!
Impeach Cheney
Obsessed #32, I would like to ask a favor from you. Can you go back to drational’s original diary on how Palast is dangerous, and elucidate for me, the precise concerns and criticisms he had?
Don’t trust the corporate media either, the fourth estate in conjunction with electronic voting machine failures, and all this corruption is what is leading us down the path to hell on earth, all while watching their noise about Ann Nicole, Britney, all the tween star druggies, these stupid whales, and all the rest of these regurgitated old non-news stories.
The attacks on Greg Palast in my opinion are just more of the war on truth, the cyberwar on folks that tell the truth, and another noise that clouds up the fact of the matter that our Constitution is gutted by a bunch of oath breakers, who are about to completely control everything.
I really don’t see how “We The People” are going to do anything about this until such time as the fourth estate is set straight again and all the electronic voting machines are place into electronic recycling chippers. Without those two things it isn’t going to matter WHO you vote for. We’ll never get our country back.
Start putting the blame where the blame belongs.
BVAC #34: Can we start with my concern? Palast claims to have received Rove-related emails because they were inadvertantly sent to him because of an error in the domain.
QUESTION: Why are we not reading these emails? It’s a simple question.
Obsessed #32, and before or after you do that favor for me, you can read these:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2.../29/121118/463
and
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2.../29/11339/3689
Obsessed #36: Is the basis of your question a sense of entitlement to read those emails, i.e. Palast releasing them publicly such as on this blog? Or are you wondering why they haven’t worked their way through the proper channels and made a big splash in the news yet?
Obsessed, now.. I would like to get back to your other concern. You said “the other side, DRat, is far from having been disproven.”
Do you want to revise those remarks?
Did someone up there say “never trust the government”? Sounds bigoted to me. Without the government, we’d all be dead from DDT.
Somehow my above link got f**ked up
Springfield’s Republican party
I’m not interested in whatever it is the DRat and Palast are arguing about. I’m interesting in getting rid of Karl Rove and I’m sick of getting jerked around. If you’ve got something on Rove, use it – and use it NOW – people are dying. This whole mess reminds me painfully of the Jason Leopold debacle.
And especially on THIS blog. This blog is the front line for voting and voting machines and it needs to have absolute purity in its credibility. If Brad starts looking like the tin-foil hatter, we’re all screwed.
Obsessed, okay I see. It’s okay to baselessly question someones credibility, but not to expect anyone to call you on it? May I ask what threatens to make Brad look like a tin-foil hatter?
In other words, Brad, what you’re posting here is one side of a DKos flame war, and the other side, DRat, is far from having been disproven.
So you claim drational has not been disproven, and then when I try to start a discussion as to why he clearly has been.. you are no longer interested?
“Brad – Whether dangerous or not, there’s growing concern about whether Greg Palast is legit”
…where is there a growing concern about Greg Palast being legit?
You know, they put a quack scientist on corporate TV, and they say, “There’s a growing concern that global warming doesn’t exist”, when 99% of legit scientists agree there’s global warming…I don’t go for that “growing concern” just by citing one person!
There is a “growing concern”…that YOU are a shill!
“Growing concern”…MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!
Big Dan: I hereby retract the implication that I am defending DRat, about whom I know nothing, other than the fact that among his now apparently disproven criticisms of Palast, was my issue, which I’ve now made clear and which has not been disproven. Sorry for the confusion. I would like nothing more than for Palast and Leopold to be proven right on all counts.
The tinfoil hatter danger stems from the fact that most people don’t want to believe that the electoral process is compromised. If Palast’s claims turn out to be false, and he thus besmirches this website’s reputation, people will be quick to say that it follows that all the legitimate points about Diebold et al are also bogus.
Note: I’m not saying that Palast is bogus – I’m saying that it defies reason that he would claim to have these emails, be challenged on it, and not produce them. I’m from Missouri. Show me.
The problem is simple: Some people pryed at apparent inconsistencies in Palast’s statements and Palast responded with a surprisingly unprofessional statement: “Go away kid, ya bother me!”
Some answers have drifted out since… amid the debris of the resulting “discussion”… but nothing that resembles the output of an extensive investigation reasonably formatted for public consumption.
So Palast is stirring up a lot of noise via blogs but apparently he doesn’t actually want our attention. (Then whose attention is he seeking?)
Whatever. With the repeated invocation of Conyers, however, Palast has himself limited the scope of how far this silliness can go. Within a week or so we should know if either of the House or Senate judiciary committees has or wants the emails.
If either of the committees say they have the emails then that’s that.
If either of the committees say that they don’t want the emails then that’s that… and World War VIII erupts because folks will suspect it’s actually because the Dems are caving in advance this time.
If the committee(s) say “What emails? We’re waiting.” then we hold the first annual ‘Palast’s Entrails Roast and Giblets Sale’ here.
I hope these 500 e-mails will be used for more than a book advertisement. I hope the information they contain prompts the appropriate response from those in a position to investigate further and apply the proper justice. And I hope those who have them do their best to ensure that this is what happens.
I think Greg said it best–think the BBC and Robert Kennedy Jr. would take a bite of something with no teeth?
Actually… things like that do happen. People make mistakes and sign on to things with no teeth, no legs, no pancreas… concepts that sound good but desperately need organ transplants under the hood. But that’s actually irrelevant to the matter at hand.
Yes, “teeth” or not is irrelevant… the matter at hand is reconciling Palast’s public statements with his professional role and with his tendency to blur references and spin things a little to hard when just stating the facts would have served him as well.
He fucked up. Not necessarily a big deal, but it happened.
Now we wait a bit while we alert the committees.
And remember: Overseers need oversight most of
all… and will actually welcome it if they’re on the ball.
“Why haven’t I turned over the evidence to Congressional committees? Who said they’d accept it? Bobby Kennedy’s tried to get their attention. The Congressional White Caucus is pointedly uninterested. I’m told, “Griffin’s just an interim appointment.â€
Yes, “interim†through the 2008 election.
Well, as a journalist, it’s not my job to save the Democratic Party from itself.”
————-
How about saving a country? How about just seeing that criminals are brought to justice? I’m sorry… I’m a long-time fan of Mr. Palast’s writing but ‘that’s not my job’ doesn’t cut it with me.
Shorter Greg Palast: buy my book and then you’ll see the truth!!
Palast is and will be a hack who makes money off poor gullible souls, just like Alex Jones and all the rest of the conspiracy theory mongers.
All Palast does is carefully frame a set of facts to make his claims seem credible – until you find the rest of the facts that he conspicuously left out.
Just like his claim that the Bush administration set out about privatizing the Iraqi oil. A careful check of what he quoted shows that he took a quote out of context to make it seem to apply to Iraqi oil rather than what it stated: privatizing the oil services industry in Iraq – not the oil itself.
Palast is just like Jason Leopold and all the other frauds out there trying to make a big name for themselves by appealing to peoples’ biases and prejudices in trying to fool them into believing sensational stories of which only they understand the importance.
Oh, and don’t forget, buy Palast’s book, because if not, Palast will personally attack you as a pajama-wearing child as he did here to drational. Palast doesn’t even have the integrity to answer his critics with their full pseudonym, adopting instead to twist the pseudonym into a personal attack.
And don’t forget to buy Palast’s book! The Most Important Story of Our Time cannot be revealed for free on the Internet!
Greg,
This is now very embarassing. Please, please update to reflect the correct information or all of your other reporting will be questioned. It is always better to acknowledge mistakes and move on. Please, please, please.