Reminder to our DFW members, Amy Goodman will be in Irving, Texas Friday as part of her Exception to the Rulers' tour.
Here are the dates for this weekend and next (click on them for more details):
2/18: Irving, TX
2/19: Austin, TX
2/23: Santa Cruz, CA
2/24: New York, NY
Let's also note an interview with Amy Goodman that Alertnet has:
AlterNet: Everyone has a pet theory on why Bush won. What's yours?
Amy Goodman: If he won.
If he won, right.
Well, we know he didn't win in 2000, and we don't know about now. Because we are increasingly going towards a system that can't be verified and since, in the U.S., elections are held up as the symbol of democracy, it's very important that we be able to verify these elections. The fact that people are suspicious is a very big problem. The fact that you can have places in Ohio where there are 360 voters and 4,200 votes for Bush -- this is a big problem. And that's just the places we know. There's also the huge amount of voter suppression and intimidation that goes on for Election Day.
Whether or not he won, even by their count, he's got something like 30 percent of the vote -- this isn't very impressive. It is hardly a mandate and I think that's what matters because I think we have a situation in this country where, for example, most people are opposed to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and yet the person who is behind that invasion and occupation has won, so I don't think that this is a mandate, certainly [not] for Bush foreign policy.
Given the predisposition of the American people and the media, do you think it's worthwhile to try and track down exactly what happened and the possibility that Bush didn't win, or do you think the energy would be better spent working toward reform?
Well, I think this is also an indication of the way the press works in this country, because if the press got worked up over it, this is precisely the kind of situation that the press investigates very well when it wants to. But the way the press operates in the United States is they express the spectrum of opinions . . . of the establishment, between the Democrats and the Republicans.
But right after the election, the Democrats once again joined with the Republicans -- this is not an issue that they wanted to explore, the issue of the vote. And so the press simply didn't go further than the Democrats did. I mean, there's hardly an opposition party in this country and the press, which should be there to hold those in power accountable -- and that's both parties -- simply does their bidding, it simply acts as a conveyer belt for their lies.
Information on Goodman's Exception to the Rulers book and tour can be found at the Democracy Now! website.
