A grateful America welcomes home the troops for Christmas!

Vincent, 102d Rescue Squadron (Iraq).

America hasn't forgotten you, Vincent ... help's on the way!

And to all a good night ...

from Greg Palast and gang at the Palast Investigative Fund

Photos by GP (c) PI Fund with Vincent's permission.

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Ruling expected today to let corporations invest in politicians

By Greg Palast | for AlterNet
Tuesday, December 15, 2009

I thought that headline would get your attention. And it's true.

I'm biting my nails waiting for the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, which could come down as early as today. At issue: whether corporations, as "unnatural persons," can make contributions to political campaigns.

The outcome is foregone: the six GOP appointees to the court are expected to use the case to junk federal laws that now bar corporations from stuffing campaign coffers.

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Vote: Should Sarah Palin be allowed to keep money from Al Qaeda Inc.?

Listen to Palast talking about corporate campaign contributions

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Technically, there's a narrower matter before the court in this case: whether the McCain-Feingold Act may prohibit corporations from funding "independent" campaign advertisements such as the "Swift Boat" ads that smeared John Kerry. However, campaign finance reformers are steeling themselves for the court's right wing to go much further, knocking down all longstanding rules against donations by corporate treasuries.

Allowing company campaign spending will not, as progressives fear, cause an avalanche of corporate cash into politics. Sadly, that's already happened: we have been snowed under by tens of millions of dollars given through corporate PACs and "bundling" of individual contributions from corporate pay-rollers.

The court's expected decision is far, far more dangerous to U.S. democracy. Think: Manchurian candidates.

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Just the facts ma'am:

Donate $40 or more and I'll sign, in gratitude, your choice of my books or DVDs to you or your gifted ones.

Donate by this Thursday noon and we'll ship it out priority within 24 hours in time for Christmas.

New this week, for your tax-deductible donation ...

Orwell Rolls in His Grave - The acclaimed film that sticks its nose into that stinkiest of cesspools, the US media. Michael Moore, Bernie Sanders, and the guy who took over George Orwell's old job at the London Observer, Greg Palast.

The Yes Men - the film on DVD. The WTO's evil "Dr. Andreas Bichlbauer" is really Yes Men con man Andy B, whose foolish fakery exposes the awful truth about the New World Odor, with appearances by M. Moore & G. Palast. "Subversive and diabolically funny." - Rolling Stone.

The Secret Histories: Hidden Truths That Challenged The Past And Changed The World. The best-ever journalism in one place. Includes I.F. Stone, Seymour Hersh, Greg Palast.

Triple Play - 3 films: Palast Investigates plus The Election Files plus Big Easy to Big Empty (the Untold Story of the Drowning of New Orleans with Amy Goodman.) Minimum donation $100.

And more: John Pilger's Tell Me No Lies and signed copies of my book The Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Audio CDs too.

Also check out our Gift Packs.

YOUR donation keeps our sleuthin' crew alive. Next month I am heading to Africa, and unless I grow wings, I will have to buy plane tickets for the story John Conyers applauds as one of the most important journalistic endeavors of the decade (... though I'm not allowed to give it away).

Right now the bankers, the fraudsters, the unreconstructed empire fantasists, the corporate con men, the economic hit men... they are all getting their bonuses - from YOU. All we're asking is that you stand with good old-fashioned gum shoe investigative reporting.

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I wish you all a very happy, healthy New Year.

- Greg Palast

"Just give me some truth!" - John Lennon

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Confronting the Globalcrat
By Greg Palast

This article appears in the December 21, 2009 edition of The Nation.

You could call him the Generalissimo of Globalization. The World Trade Organization's director general, Pascal Lamy, was a bit defensive, wanting to assure us that the WTO "wasn't created as a dark club of multinationals secretly cooking plots against the people. We do things in the open. Look at our website."

Read the full Article and watch the film at The Nation.

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by Greg Palast

I was in deep, deep, hot, hot water with my editors at The Guardian in London. The paper was facing a ruinous suit by George Bush Sr.'s business buddies because of one of my stories. Then a tall Aussie of dramatic demeanor walked uninvited in my boss' offices and said, "Yes, Palast is trouble. But he's good trouble."

John Pilger's intervention helped save my sorry behind.

Now he's saved my stories, and the stories of Seymour Hersh, Eduardo Galeano, Edward R. Murrow, Robert Fisk, the assassinated investigator of the Chechen War, Anna Politkovskaya, and many others in a big, fat—626 pages!—book of what he says is, "Journalism that changed the world." It's called
Tell Me No Lies.

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on 10th Anniversary of the Battle in Seattle
Bankers' scheme to re-open finance casino worldwide

by Greg Palast for Ring of Fire

GENEVA — Apparently, one meltdown isn't enough for the World Trade Organization. They meet today in Geneva on the tenth anniversary of the "Battle in Seattle," when tens of thousands of people from around the world protested the organization's practices.

A special investigation for Air America's Ring of Fire. Listen to the report here or watch the 9-minute film here.
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From Geneva, a special investigative Report for Air America Radio's Ring of Fire on the 10th Anniversary of the Battle in Seattle.

Listen here

The Palast Holiday Pack! Take care of everyone by getting all of the Palast gifts in one package.

3 Palast dvds Signed 3 Investigations on dvd: Palast Investigates, Big Easy To Big Empty and The Election Files

New: Pilger & Palast Something new: John Pilger's Tell Me No Lies the compendium of the most important journalism ever written—including Seymour Hersh and Greg Palast.

3 Palast Books Signed Palast Best-sellers: Armed Madhouse, Best Democracy Money Can Buy and Steal Back Your Vote!

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Starting today—by making a small donation to our not-for-profit Investigative Journalism Fund—you can download Greg Palast's classic BBC Television documentary, Bush Family Fortunes.

The BBC broadcast that first exposed how Boy Bush got into the Texas Air Guard and out of Vietnam through a fix from Daddy Bush. We busted the story and got it right—including the $23 million pay-out that Dan Rather missed.

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by Greg Palast for Zeek.net

On September 11, 2001, my office building, the World Trade Center, was attacked by al Qaeda, a murder cult of Saudi Arabians, funded by Saudi Arabians. And so, in response to the Saudis' attack, America invaded ... Afghanistan. Like, HUH?

And here we go again. New York Times headline last Friday: "Pakistani Army, In Its Campaign In Taliban Stronghold, Finds A Hint Of 9/11."

Google it and you'll find the Times report repeated and amplified 5,785 times more.

Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.

Your eyelids are getting heavy. Taliban = 9/11. Taliban = 9/11.

It's the latest hit from the same crew that brought you Saddam = 9/11 and its twin chant, Saddam = WMD, Dick Cheney's chimerical tropes which the New York Times' Judith Miller happily channeled to the paper's front page.

And they're at it again.

Every war begins with a lie. In addition to Saddam = WMD, I'm old enough to remember the Gulf of Tonkin resolution authorizing the war in Vietnam, based on a fictional Vietnamese gunboat attack on our Navy. (White House recordings have Lyndon Johnson gloating privately, "Hell, those damn stupid [US] sailors were just shooting at flying fish.")
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