One of my favorite journalists, Greg Palast, has recently related to Buzzflash how the Republicans stole the 2000 and 2004 elections and how they are planning to steal the election in 2008. He also had some suggestions on how the nation might overcome this vast right-wing conspiracy to suppress the votes of millions of Democratic voters. It will take work.

Of course, the Republicans must nominate somebody that's electable, and the present herd of contenders is pitiful at best.

On the other hand, it was obvious in 2000 that George W. Bush had absolutely nothing to bring to the presidency beyond his family name, but, nevertheless, a shade under half the electorate was willing not only to overlook his monumental shortcomings but to invest him with virtues he did not even remotely possess. One can only hope that the electorate is wiser as well as sadder now that it has become impossible to ignore the bitter fruits of its willful foolishness bordering on collective insanity.

Palast is the author of Armed Madhouse: From Baghdad to New Orleans--Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone Wild in an updated paperback edition. The JP has reviewed the original edition.

Read Palast's interview with Buzzflash.