Greg Palast - The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization and High-Finance Fraudsters

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The first edition of this book was originally published by Pluto Publishing Ltd.,
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First Plume Printing, February 2003
First electronic edition, October 2003

Copyright Greg Palast, 2002, 2003
All rights reserved

Page iii: Sweet Dreams, copyright Winston Smith, 2000
Page 10: How Democracy Works, copyright Winston Smith, 1992
Page 82: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, copyright Winston Smith, 2002
Page 116: 2+2=5, copyright Winston Smith, 1988
Page 142: No More War, copyright Winston Smith, 1980
Page 206: The Money Tree, copyright Winston Smith, 1983
Page 236: What a Friend We Have in Cheeses, copyright Winston Smith, 1985
Page 296: Bringing the War Home, copyright Winston Smith, 1991
Page 310: America, America, copyright Winston Smith, 1988

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Palast, Greg.

The best democracy money can buy : an investigative reporter exposes the truth about globalization, corporate cons, and high-finance fraudsters / Greg Palast.
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-7453-1846-0 (hc.)
ISBN 0-452-28391-4 (pbk.)
ISBN 0-7865-1818-9 (msreader)
ISBN 0-7865-1819-7 (adobe)

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For
LINDA LEVY,
whose work is here plagiarized without mercy

We cannot trust some people who are nonconformists.

Ray Kroc, Chairman, McDonalds Corp., deceased

The thing about the Golden Straitjacket is, the tighter you wear it, the more gold it produces.

Thomas Friedman on globalization

I dont have to be nice to the spirit of the Anti-Christ.

Dr. (Reverend) Pat Robertson

You read the papers and you watch television, so you know the kind of spider-brained, commercially poisoned piece-of-crap reporting you get in America.

You could call this book What You Didnt Read in the New York Times and What You Cant See on CBS. For example:

Five months before the November 2000 election, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida moved to purge 57,700 people from the voter rolls, supposedly criminals not allowed to vote. Most were innocent of crimes, but the majority were guilty of being Black.

I wrote that expos for page one of the nations top newspaper. But it was the wrong nation: Britain. It ran in the Guardian of London and its Sunday sister paper, the Observer. You could see it on television tooin Europe, on BBC TVs Newsnight, which airs my investigate reports. (If you want to know what was in that diseased sausage called a presidential election, read Chapter 1, Jim Crow in Cyberspace.)

Something else you didnt read: After the American electorate booted the senior Bush from the White House, he landed softly on the board of a gold-mining company originally funded by the Saudi Arabian Adnan Khashoggi, arms dealer to the Axis of Evil. The former presidents gold-digger friends made a billion off changes in rules courtesy of the outgoing Bush administration. From there, the story gets more brutal and much bloodier (see Chapter 2, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy, new to this American edition).

Then theres the story of Monsantos genetically modified milk-making hormone. The stuff caused company test cows to drip pus into milk buckets. Yummy. Monsanto fixed that problem the easy wayby burying test data. U.S. officials helped out, slipping the company confidential regulatory documents. American journals couldnt cover that. They were too busy licking the loafers of Monsantos Robert Shapiro, GEs Jack Welch and Enrons Ken Lay to write something not cribbed off a company press release (see Chapter 5, Inside Corporate America).

And you didnt read how the Reverend Dr. Pat Robertson secretly, illicitly used his Christian Crusade jihad assets to boost his berserker get-rich-quick business schemes (see Chapter 6, Pat Robertson).

Nor did you get the news about Anibal Vern. In August 2000, Vern, a bus driver who hadnt received his pay for nine months, protested and was shot dead. Argentines believe the World Bank had a secret plan to force the nation to cut wages. Antiglobalization conspiracy fantasy? Ill show you the document.

Instead, American-style journalism gives you proglobalization gurus like Thomas Friedman. It tells you the new international financial order is all about the communications revolution and cell phones that will call your broker and do your laundry at the same time. Golly. And if youre against globalization, youre against the future. The kids protesting in the streets are just a bunch of unsophisticated jack-offs. And in the United States especially, theres no dissent from this slaphappy view. Im not going to argue with Friedman and guys in favor of The Future. What I will do is take you through Country Assistance Strategies, Article 133 diplomatic letters and GATS committee memos. Most are marked confidential and not for public disclosurehaving walked out of filing cabinets inside the IMF, World Bank, World Trade Organization. And theres nothing in there about cell phones for Incas.

If you read the original hardcover edition of this book, youll see here a substantially different text. An awful lot has happened since we last met between these covers, and new material arrives daily. There were letters like this: You are a freak liberal asshole! [signed] A Reasonable American. That is not news. However, there was an extraordinary note from Florida. Katherine Harris, secretary of state, wrote that my reporting was twisted. Again, no news there; but I was astonished by the evidence she provided me in her lengthy high-volume screed. In this books first edition, I disclosed that Governor Jeb Bushs office had knowingly blocked 40,000 legal voters from registering. Coincidentally, over 90 percent of those voters were Democrats. Bushs office stone-cold denied it. Now, his buddy Harris faxed me the proof (unwittingly, I presume). Youll see the documents in this new American edition.

In addition, theres the latest on how Governor Jeb fixed his own race for reelection in 2002 and how Republicans are finagling the machinery for 2004.

The first edition of this book included ten pages introducing you to a company named Enron. This is Enron. Youve never heard of them. Presumably, by now, youve heard. But if you think the truth has come out about Enron, Arthur Andersen, Global Crossing, Reliant and the host of other sharks in CEO clothing, dont kid yourself: The U.S. media is still peeing on your leg and telling you its raining. Youre now being told that Harry Pottermagical accounting is a new, short-lived game limited to a couple of corporate rogues, a few bad apples. New? Limited? The apples are dropping because the U.S. corporate tree is rottenroot and branch. Andersen should have been indicted a decade ago. If you want to know why they werent, ask our presidents daddyand read the new section on the Power Pirates in Chapter 3.