Friday, August 31, 2012

Ride of the Billionaire Balloteers



Billionaires & Ballot Bandits

by Greg Palast


If you're not sick and outraged and ready to vomit, then don't talk to me.

When I see a cruel bucket of garbage and winky-winky racism and bullshit and venom like Paul Ryan talk to America like he's some kind of Boy Scout, I want a gun, or a TV network where I can tell the truth or a giant washing machine to dunk America and rinse off the crud of lies and pure manipulative evil that they're feeding us.

But I don't like guns, I don't have a TV network, I just have this: A book.

It’s called Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.

An investigation of Karl Rove, the Koch Gang and their billionaire Buck-Buddies. The guys who bought Ryan.

It's the most important bullet I've ever fired.

I watch these smug jerks at the Republican Convention and I'm ill ... because I know something they won't tell you on CNN or CBS, let alone Fox. And here’s the facts, ma'am:

In 2008, no fewer than 2,706,275 ballots were cast—and never counted.

It didn't make a difference then, but it will make a difference now.

And, in 2008, no fewer than 3,195,539 legal voters were denied the right to vote. Told to get the hell out of the polling station.

Add it up. That's at least 5,901,814 legitimate votes and voters tossed out of the count.

So God Bless America. By the way, these numbers are from the raw data supplied to me by the US Elections Assistance Commission.

It's official. It's in your face. It's sick. It's unreported.

I cry. I scream. I retch. Then I make jokes — but I give you the inside info on the Koch Brothers ("Target 67C" as federal prosecutors called Charles Koch) that will make your eyes pop.

Fact: The 2012 election's been stolen. Already. Stolen by billionaires who've created data bases called "Themis" (the Kochs own that) and "DataTrust" (Karl Rove's satanic machine).

The election has not been stolen from Barack Obama — it's been stolen from you. From We the People who march to the polls believing America is still a democracy, the land of the Brave, home of The Free, and that our votes count.

The Rove-bots and the monsters behind the data bases have figured out how to fiddle, finagle and ultimately throw your vote in the garbage.

America is on the line. ON THE LINE. I have two kids and God forbid I stand here silent with my hands in my pockets whistling at my shoes.

How did a sick little monster like Paul Ryan end up on the Republican ticket? Follow the money. The big sugar daddy behind Ryan, his donor Numero Uno, is Paul "The Vulture" Singer. Singer's the guy who started the Romney super-PAC "Restore Our Future" and he's funded Ryan up the Wazoo.

Why? Because Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton told a federal court that Singer The Vulture is a "threat to the entire financial system" of the planet. And now Singer wants their blood—and your dead carcass.

Frankly, I don't care, as Shakespeare said, if Obama’s campaign "farts or flies." I do care if a billionaire can steal the votes of Black soldiers just so he can make another billion.

So I want, I demand, I insist, that you order a copy of the exposé on The Vulture and Romney's billionaires (and Obama's, too): Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps.

With a foreword by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., "The Hostile Takeover of America". RFK is as outraged as I am but a lot calmer.

And inside it, there's a 48-page comic book by Ted Rall because every cartoon is worth a thousand bullets.

Don't be fooled again. This election is about a bunch of madly dangerous financiers — "The Vulture," the "Ice Man," and guys so evil they don't even have nicknames -- who can't tolerate the idea that Americans have a right to choose our leaders, our destinies.

You want to know who owns your ballot? Then get the book right now by ordering it on Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Indiebound. Or go and pound the counter at your local bookstore and tell them that instead of another Yoga Diet Cookbook you want a HAND GRENADE MADE OUT OF TRUTH: Billionaires & Ballot Bandits.

Alternatively, make a donation and get a signed copy.
[Whichever way you choose to get it, your dollar goes to support the Palast Investigative Fund. I am donating all my proceeds to the fund.]

Can a book make a difference? Can't say. But I know this: Ballot Bandits are cowards, are cockroaches. When we turn on the lights, they run run run away.

Do this now. Get the info ammo and pass it on to your friends and mailing lists.

And for my terrible language, I apologize.

Yours,

Greg Palast

***** Palast's brand new book Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps, will be out on September 18. You can pre-order Billionaires & Ballot Bandits from Barnes & Noble, Amazon or Indie Bound. Author's proceeds from the book go to the not-for-profit Palast Investigative Fund for reporting on voter protection issues.

Or donate and can get a signed copy of the book.