Greg Palast interview in City Beat--great read!

[Liberty Belle]

Something is wrong in America’
An interview with investigative journalist Greg Palast
by Daniel Strumpf
San Diego City Beat
Sunday, January 16, 2005

Interviewing Greg Palast is a bit like rummaging through your mother’s nightstand—you’re bound to learn some things you’ll wish you hadn’t. As an investigative journalist seen on the BBC’s Newsnight and England’s most influential newspaper, The Guardian, Palast is most famous for exposing racist scheming behind the 2000 Florida election scandal nearly a year before the mainstream American media got around to it.



If you’ve never heard of Palast, an American himself, it’s probably because his muckraking investigations cause nightly newscasters to question their manhood and make bespectacled editors cower beneath their desks as they consider the possibility of retribution. But plenty of others have taken note.



Michael Moore used Palast’s articles about the 2000 elections as well as those probing links between the bin Laden and Bush families as the backbone of Fahrenheit 9/11. Palast chronicled his own investigative exploits in The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, a tome that spent more than a year on The New York Times bestseller list. He also produced the critically acclaimed documentary Bush Family Fortunes. Most recently he landed a gig as a contributing editor with Harper’s magazine, and his articles regularly appear in Hustler magazine, in addition to various Internet sites.



CityBeat caught up with Palast last week, a day after the U.S. House and Senate certified the 2004 electoral vote, and he had plenty to say about the state of the American electorate. Palast will speak Monday, Jan. 17, at 7 p.m at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Hillcrest. But be forewarned: you might have trouble looking your country in the eye afterward....

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=408&row=0

[JoMama49]

1. Really good article - thanks for posting it --

I've been a fan of Greg's since the beginning!

[Liberty Belle]

9. He gave a great speech.

One thing I didn't know--he talked about the "independent" panel that CBS had investigate the Rathergate memo situation. Turns out one panelist was a former cabinet officer for Papa Bush, and the other is an AP exec implicated in covering up the Iran-Contra scandal.

Yep, that sounds independent to me.

Also some interesting quotes from Dan Rather, who told the BBC a while back he felt bad for not asking more hard questions of the president, and that he planned to start doing so.

Then Rather came home and broke the story about the Bush being AWOL from the National Guard--and we all know how CBS rewarded Dan for his efforts at some actual investigative journalism.

[Cherie59]

2. awesome article!

You can also read about the Bush plans for corporatizing
Iraq, in the book "The Price of Loyalty" by Ron Suskind.

[Liberty Belle]

10. Corporatizing Iraq? That will be a challenge.

Doesn't appear there will be a whole lot left of the country after Bush gets done bombing every square inch of the place.

[BigBearJohn]

3. Man! This guy is too much. I LOVE HIM. Read the article!

[Liberty Belle]

11. Yes, and he's funny, too.

I'll post some of his one-liners another time. Unfortunately my car got wiped out on the way to the Palast speech. A truck tire came off, flew over the freeway section above and landed on top of my hood. Smashed the front end, engine, radiator, not to mention giving me a hell of a headache/neckache.

How the **** does a tire fly off a frigging truck?????

[Melissa G]

4. kick

[candy331]

5. "A National Party No More" by Zell Miller, he gave the Democrats

advice that thy seem to love. So many here thinks blacks want vote repug but i tell you they want vote at all which equal the same, Repug control of all gov't.

The Democrats don’t stand up for the same reason that jellyfish don’t—they’re invertebrates. I found out from a member of the Democratic National Committee that what they were concerned about were people like Zell Miller and others in the party who were telling them that if they start defending the black vote, they are going to lose the white vote. I think that they are concerned of being seen as a defender of the black voter and would rather simply quietly take the black vote for granted and pander to the racism of the system.

[genieroze]

6. That guy makes me laugh, not a happy ha ha but a Oh My Gosh

ha ha.

[Liberty Belle]

12. Sign up for his e-mail updates at his website.

gregpalast.com, I think it is.

I signed up and he sent back a message promising not to share your private information with anyone except John Ashcroft, ha ha.

I do love this guy's sense of humor--along with the fact that he actually does investigative reporting, a dying art in this country.

[genieroze]

19. a dying art in this country?

investigative reporting already has the maggots eating away at it.

[Carolab]

7. F'ing RIGHT, Greg

And they have gotten us to the point where we actually accept this stuff. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, we don’t count those votes because someone didn’t check a box. Get into the goddamn streets! Close down the 405!


If Americans want to have elections where all the votes are counted, they have got to stop thinking that they can change the future by hitting that remote-control button. That’s one thing the Ukrainians did—they went out into the street in below-freezing weather and shut the country down. The Yugoslavs, the Peruvians, the Nigerians all went out into the street at gunpoint and said, “We aren’t tolerating this.”


If you want to have a regime determined by manipulation and games, then you deserve it. It isn’t good enough to vote and say, “Well, if you feel like counting it, that’s OK.” Get fucking mad. Get angry because if you don’t stop them on this, it builds. When the Democratic Party didn’t take a stand in Florida, they were asking for Ohio—they were begging for it. And we see it in San Diego and Washington State. It’s the same thing.

Someone asked, “How do you explain what we do next,” and I said, “Dance. Fuck. Fight.” Make yourself indigestible to the system so that if you are ever swallowed up, you will be vomited out. I really think so. Make yourself unemployable. You’ll never get an interesting job if you’re employable. Get arrested, form a punk band and go to Indonesia and fall in love with someone who doesn’t speak your language. I’m not kidding.


*************

WHO are we waiting for? Let's start the dance.

[fooj]

8. Direct and honest!

Stand Up America!:bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

[fearnobush]

13. The MSM still has never interviewed him on US MSM TV.

"Palast is most famous for exposing racist scheming behind the 2000 Florida election scandal nearly a year before the mainstream American media got around to it."

P.S. They (MSM) still have NOT "got around to it."

[fearnobush]

14. Sad but TRUE!!!

"The Democrats don’t stand up for the same reason that jellyfish don’t—they’re invertebrates."

[GetTheRightVote]

15. I have met the man & I too am a fan, he is a straight arrow

tells it like it is, no hiding from him but I still like him.
Read is book too, "Best Democracy Money Can Buy", very good.

:kick:

[WeHoldTheseTruths]

16. Ummmm, Greg . . .

Really, I saw this in 1989 and moved to Thailand. Been there, still here, done did that, still doing that. (No, believe me, I haven't watched TV in decades. Took a pass on the punk band and getting arrested though.)

While I do appreciate being undigestable / not as yet swollowed up, I looking forward to your insight as to the next steps. I'm not kidding.

[Carolab]

17. Greg is dead serious.

If there is a march you can bet he'll be there. He really resents that he had to move to Britain to report on America and is po'd that his kids are getting English accents. He wants his country back!

[WeHoldTheseTruths]

18. I am too

I too want my country back too. Want my kid to go to a school at least as good as the one I went to. If I could afford it, I'd be there for marches.

Maybe if you think you are seeing something I'm not here you could elaborate.

I'd love to hear Greg's thoughts on what I said. What I said is true.

Best Regards. - I like your posts, Carollab

gotta be away from keyboard for an hour plus now

[newyawker99]

22. Hi WeHoldTheseTruths!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[nomatrix]

25. Greg's website

http://gregpalast.com/

Welcome to DU!

"The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" is a wealth of information by Greg who IS an investigative reporter. You could he mail Greg at his site.

[McCamy Taylor]

20. Now that is journalism! Too bad the MSM is scared to interview this guy.

[Owsley]

21. The ironic thing...

...is that the only time I have seen him on MSM was when he was being interviewed on Fox News by Sean Hannity. Hannity was pulling the usual "...are you on the Democratic party's payroll?...:" bs, but Palast managed to hold his own talking about the 2000 election fix. It would be pretty interesting to see him interviewed on MSM in a non-hostile situation.

Owsley

[TexasLawyer]

23. kick

[corbett]

24. Kicking For The Truth

P for Palast, P for Patriot!

[meganmonkey]

26. Greg, will you marry me?

I actually asked him that in Columbus in December at the symposium. How embarrassing.
But he said he'd have to ask his wife, so I'll take that as a 'maybe'
:P

He is an excellent journalist and an inspiring, entertaining speaker