Greg Palast makes some remarkable claims, corroborated by Monica Goodlings recent testimony before the House Judicial Committee about the Federal Attorney firings. He backs up these assertions by producing emails (some of the missing Carl Rove emails), obtained from emails missent by Tim Griffin while Griffin worked for the re-election of George W. Bush in 2004. Griffin is the current interim US Attorney for the eastern district of Arkansas, groomed by Rove to replace Bud Cummings during the attorney purge — the current Justice Department scandal embroiling AG A. Gonzales.
According to Palast, Griffin goofed and sent email to “georgebush.org” instead of “georgebush.com” and some of this email from August ’04, refers to “caging” of votes. This is a process — for those unfamiliar — of writing letters (do not forward) to select voters. Any letters returned to sender are ear-marked for “caging” — a challenge to the veracity of a voter’s registration based on false home address. This is the twisted logic, working an ugly method, which fuels the Republican party rail against “voter fraud”.
So who are these miscreants defrauding the American public with their vote? How about the homeless, vacationing students and soldiers of color stationed in Iraq. That is, folks less likely than most to vote Republican. Voter fraud in these terms, is Orwellian speak for voter disenfranchisement. One point of importance, if voter rolls were parsed demographically before mail was sent to confirm current voter address, a more egregious case of discrimination could be made. Yet even without a pre-screened mailing list, the exclusion of homeless folks and students could be taken as a statistical gain for the Republican party. Without knowing the racial makeup of overseas soldiers or any allowance for voter registration, the bias of military exclusions might yield less benefits. Recent history has favored the Republican party among military personnel.
Read more about Palast’s evidence and view samples of the mentioned emails HERE . This is remarkable stuff, and Greg Palast – reporting for the BBC – is either a lying scoundrel or the world’s foremost investigative reporter. Reading his year-old book, which offers much damning evidence behind the invasion and continuing occupation of Iraq, Armed Madhouse , one is inclined to believe the latter. I did a search on Palast, attempting to debunk his journalism. Nothing jumped out at me. Here’s a positive review, with some explanation why the American press has found Palast too incendiary and mostly will not report his stuff: Greg Palast: The Last Muckraker? .
If there is credible evidence that Greg Palast is just blowing smoke — much like Matt Drudge on the right — then please let me know.
As always, use your own judgement.
Tags: conservative anxiety, liberty, voter disenfranchisement