Palast address on disenfranchisement of black votes (Democracy Now!)

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* Investigative Reporter Greg Palast on the "Apartheid Ballot Counting
System in America" *

As Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell certified President Bush's
reelection on Monday, we hear an address by investigative reporter Greg
Palast about the disenfranchisement of black votes in the Nov. 2nd election.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/08/1520204

AMY GOODMAN: Well, at the same forum that Richard Clarke spoke at last night at the New York Society for Ethical Culture, investigative reporter Greg Palast also spoke, who has investigated the 2000 election for the BBC and continues to do that work in Ohio. He spoke about the fairness of the 2004 election.

GREG PALAST: I actually came here tonight to warn you that there are cooks and cranks and crazies out there on the internet who think that John Kerry won. Now, I know because one of those articles on the internet called “John Kerry Won” on tompaine.com, I wrote it. To warn you. But you have to understand, I mean, some things – well, maybe you can explain this to me. See, this is – I got the CNN exit polls, and it said that in Ohio that Kerry defeated Bush among women 53 to 47%, and among men, by – Kerry defeated Bush by 51 to 49%, so who’s the third sex that put our president over the top? So I thought I’d investigate, which is unusual. See, I’m a reporter. My reports appear on BBC Television. I’m a mainstream guy, as they say. And for the big newspaper of Britain, I used to have – the Guardian Observer, I have – I used to write George Orwell’s old column there, and he’d enjoy this, though that information. And so I wrote a story called, “Kerry Won: Here’s the Facts.” And I got a – I actually got a letter, an e-mail, from the New York Times. Here it is. They wanted to follow – they wanted to investigate! Cool! And they asked me, question 1, asking BBC investigative reporter, they said, “Are you a conspiracy nut?” Question 2: “Are you a sore loser?” Question 3: there is no question three, that was the end of the interview. And so they ran a story on the front page saying, “Internet Theories of Bush Loss Easily Debunked.” Okay, but see, that – remember the subtitle called – of “Kerry Won” – “Here’s the Facts.” And since they won’t tell you, I thought maybe I’d share them tonight. And here’s the facts. See, George Bush was declared victor today, by the way, by a Secretary of State of Florida, who – uh, Mr. Blacksick -- and of, excuse me, I said Florida. You know, Florida of the North. I was just in Colu—you know, New Kiev, Ohio, two days ago so I get confused. ..more..

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1. Go Greg!