Update: Greg Palast Responds to Criticism

Greg Palast has already responded, it seems I've been under a rock. He basically argues that all anyone can do with all the raw data is fact check it to death and do exactly what he and the BBC is doing. He's not a rouge blogger with no credentials, he's an investigative reporter with the best news agency in the world. He goes on to say that large portions of the evidence and investigative work are laid out in his book and none of that was disputed because none of it was considered. For now I'm placing my trust in Greg Palast. If he's over selling himself, it's a bold gambit.

Controversy Over Palast Claims

the community over at Daily Kos is having a heated debate regarding the validity of Greg Palast's claims. Some people, perhaps more rational than me, have argued for a bit of scepticism since Greg Palast has only produced dozens of the "500 e-mails" and only 1800 of the "tens of thousands" of names on "Caging Lists". I don't think this is meant to downplay the seriousness of this accusation, its merely meant to demand evidence before judgement, a worthy sentiment.

LA Mayor Supports Clinton

Raising Democratic Star, LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa threw his support behind Senator Hillary Clinton last week. It’s the latest in a series of endorsements that have come for the front runner.

This news means we should get used to Villaraigosa, The Guardian story points out that he is a popular Latino politician in a state with an increasingly Latino electorate. Combine that with his intimate relationship with party elites and state or national office seems to be in his future.

Why “Vote Caging” Should Have You Rioting in the Streets

3 million votes were challenged AFTER they were cast in the 2004 election, and it turns out that many of them may be from a GOP tactic called “Vote Caging”, here’s how it works. Bare with me, this is a thick and tangled web of scandal.

When ex-Alberto Gonzales aide Monica Goodling testified in front of the House Judiciary Committee she mentioned the term “Vote Caging” several times, in reference to Karl Rove’s protégé Tim Griffin (more on him later). The term was unfamiliar to many and it prompted Rep. Linda Sanchez, D-Calif., to ask Goodling, to explain the term. Goodling fumbled and muttered something about it being a “direct mail” term.

Monica was right; Vote Caging does use direct mail. But she left out the most important aspect of vote caging; it’s used to suppress votes.

This is how it works;

Step One: Send registered, first class mail to black people. Mark the letter “do not forward” so if they happen to be fighting in Iraq it will not go to them.

Step Two: Every letter that comes back “undeliverable” can then be challenged as being fraudulent. Voters are purged from the rosters, and the ones that demand their right to vote cast provisional ballots, which are less likely to be counted anyway.

Step Three: Repeat in every tight race in the country.

It’s a complicated GOP tactic that’s been used since the 80’s to win races with slight margins of victories.

You might remember that Tim Griffin was installed as a U.S. Attorney for Arkansas after Bud Cummings was fired. Of course Griffin immediately went to work “vote caging” and the focus of Monica’s testimony was in exonerating him from wrongdoing. She claimed there were good reasons for it, and that he did not believe anything he was doing was wrong.

If that’s the case then why did Tim Griffin resign? Because it seems like he’s worried that a contentious confirmation hearing might draw attention to the fact that the GOP has been subverting democracy.

This story was cracked open by BBC reporter Greg Palast. He’s an American but has to travel across the Atlantic to find a worthy news agency the hire him. I could tell you what he did, but let’s just listen to him. The part at 5:20 is particularly relevant.

I suggest watching the whole series, its long, but FUCK, your country is being stolen.

These articles are the base of this story.

Here is one on Greg Palast’s site

Here is another on Think Progress

Fred Thompson Running

He has to be, apparently he quit his job at Law and Order, started an exploratory committee, and lets not forget the most important thing of all, he is still polling higher than many declared republicans, despite not formally announcing.

He's begun campaigning, sort of... In a video response to Micheal Moore's new film sicko, Fred Thompson tells the film maker to seek help at a mental institution, all while holding a large, ridiculous Cuban cigar. Check it out



But what do we know about Fred Thompson? For instance, why did he quit the senate, the most powerful law making body in the world, for Law and Order? Pay too low? Not a taste for Government? what is it that made him quit that job, but go for this one?

NPR ran a story that saying he "[...] isn't keen to do the hard work of getting elected." If that's the case it might explain his step out of congress, and the slow start his presidential campaign.

Either way he enters a crowded field, and will have to fight the rest of the Republican candidates for political talent and donations. But more importantly, he's the only staunch conservative and the one most likely to carry on the ideological legacy of George W. Bush. Personally, I think this is an asset in the primaries, and POISON in the general. While Republican rank and file might be clamoring for another Reagan, America wants change, and their thirst will be quenched.

Bush Starts New Russian Arms Race

In 2001, President Bush, apparently possessed by the spirit of Ronald Reagan’s long dead Star Wars defense plan, opted out of the thirty year old Anti-Ballistic Missile Pact to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe. The treaty was designed to stop the massive arms race during the cold-war that drained both economies, and placed the world on the brink of destruction.

Current President of Russia, ex-KGB officer, and accused radiation poisoner Vladimir Putin believes the target of Bush’s missile defense shield is Russia. In response he announced a new mutli-warhead ICBM and an advanced cruise missile adding, "We are not the initiators of this new round of the arms race."

I don’t know what is more ridiculous, the fact that we spent any money trying to deter a nuclear attack with a “shield” or that Russia thinks it can keep up with us in an arms race. Russia has thousands of war heads capable of overwhelming any defensive shield, and Russia has a GDP slightly less than Mexico utterly incapable of sustaining an arms race. Besides, didn’t we already play this game? The following photographs indicate a clear victor.

Here is a picture of Check Point Charlie
It was a flash point inthe Cold War, American and Russian forces actually faced off here

Notice the area indicated in each picture

"Snack Point Charlie"
Capitalism 1, Communism 0