for the British Broadcasting Corporation as well as the British newspaper The Observer
. His work frequently focuses on corporate
malfeasance
but has also been known to work with labor unions and consumer advocacy groups. Notably, he has claimed to have uncovered evidence that Florida
Governor Jeb Bush
, Florida Secretary of State
Katherine Harris
, and Florida Elections Unit Chief Clay Roberts, along with the ChoicePoint
corporation, rigged the ballots
during the US Presidential Election of 2000 and again in 2004 when, he argued, the problems and machinations from 2000 continued, and that challenger John Kerry
actually would have won if not for disproportional "spoilage
" of Democratic
votes.
Palast spoke at a Think Twice conference held at Cambridge University
and lectured at the University of São Paulo
.
"A couple of years ago, Michael Isikoff|Mike Isikoff passed me truly disturbing information on Bill Clinton|President Clinton, not your usual Monica Lewinski|intern-under-the-desk stuff. I said, Mike, why don't you print this?' And he said, 'Because no one gives a shit.' Where are you, America? Don't you want to know how your president was elected? How the International Monetary Fund|IMF spends your money?"
"Come by my town today and count the strip malls and fluorescent lamp|fluorescent signs directing you to, 'Bagels Hot! Cars Like NEW No Down-Payment! Dog Burger!', where corn once grew."
"Every landlord of fenced-in intellectual real estate began life as a thief. As Isaac Newton would say now, 'If I see further than others, it is because I stand on the shoulders of giants too dumb to patent their discoveries!'"
"Globalization|Multinational corporations, many you've never heard of, may soon have extraordinary control of your health, your culture, and your Freedom (political)|freedom."
"One in eight American adults has worked at a McDonald's. This acts as a kind of morality|moral instruction for the working class, as prison|jail time does for ghetto residents."
"In the free market|deregulated market, profits are privatization|privatized and losses are socialism|socialized."
"The purpose of every industrial revolution is to make craft and skills obsolete, and thereby make people interchangeable and cheap."
"Quietly tucked into George W. Bush|Bush's budget is a big fat zero for the key Environmental Protection Agency|EPA civil enforcement team. This has no connection whatsoever to the petrochemical industry dumping $48,000,000 into the United States Republican Party|Republican U.S. presidential election, 2000|campaign."
"The spiky-haired WTO Ministerial Conference of 1999 protest activity|protesters in Seattle, Washington|Seattle believe there's some kind of grand conspiracy between the corporate powers, the International Monetary Fund|IMF, the World Bank, and agencies which work to suck the blood of Bolivians and steal the gold from Tanzania. But the tree-huggers are wrong; the details are far more stomach-churning than they imagine."
"Who owns America? How much did it cost? Was the transaction cash, check, or credit? Or a donation? Or a consulting contract? What do you give a billionaire who has everything? A gold mine? Immunity from prosecution?"