Greg Palast, author of the recent book, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy: The Truth About Corporate Cons, Globalization, and High-Finance Fraudsters, was on hand Monday night at Left Bank Books, to talk with fans about the state of the world and rally the troops in what has become his international fight for revival of solid, investigative journalism.

A native of Los Angeles, Palast now works primarily in London for The Guardian, a daily newspaper, and the BBC–because hardly anyone will publish his controversial reports in the United States.

Palast’s most stunning reports lately have been about the 2000 presidential election, namely the shady dealings of Florida Governor Jeb Bush and his Secretary of State Kathrine Harris. In brief, the state of Florida hired a private company to remove felons from its voter rolls and, through a series of orchestrated mistakes, ended up removing more that 50,000 voters–many of them black–from the list.

Palast spoke of how reports like this make page one in London and page zero in America. He actually took these reports to the U.S. media–no less than The New York Times, The Washington Post and CBS News–before George W. Bush was declared the winner and no one wanted to run it.

One CBS producer told Palast his story didn’t hold up: they called Jeb’s office and he denied it. Palast writes: “I wasn’t surprised by this type of ‘investigation.’ It is, in fact, standard operating procedure for the little lambs of American journalism. One good, slick explanation from a politician or corporate chieftain and it’s case closed, investigation over.”

A true remnant of a time most Americans probably forgot ever existed, Palast told the crowd of about 40 people that had assembled at the bookstore in the Central West End, that the most important thing a reporter can do is follow the money. Pure Watergate–American history, right? Well, as he noted, “All the President’s Men was so unusual they had to make a movie out of it.”

Palast had some amazing stories to tell, like of the FBI investigators who visited his office in London and accidentally left a folder full of confidential information. The agents had been trying to investigate two bin Laden brothers who were operating in the U.S., yet the FBI was blocked by the U.S. government because of sensitive links between the Bushes and the bin Ladens. The government finally granted investigative permission on Sept. 13, 2001.

There’s also the letter Harris sent to Harper’s Magazine, one of Palast’s American allies, calling Palast’s reporting “twisted and maniacally partisan,” but also admitting she had falsely abridged the rights of more than 50,000 voters and Jeb Bush essentially told her, in writing, to do it. Where was the letter? A phone call and a fax away Palast had it in his hand.

It should be noted that Palast is not a theorist and he does not merely float wild allegations. For example, he has never found any evidence, he told the crowd, that President Bush knew about the Sept. 11 attacks; nor, in the case of Florida, does he think the crime was one of commission, but of omission–a failure to fix a mistake. And Palast stressed the need to always find hard evidence.

“I love documents–especially ones like these,” he told the crowd, laughing, as he pulled the FBI document from his folder, “that say ‘Confidential’ at the top.” He later pulled out his laptop and showed the crowd the actual Florida felon lists used to scrub innocent citizens from voter rolls. Best Democracy is loaded with such documents, which for some reason, he said, have annoyed American critics.

Encouraging the crowd to sign onto his mailing list and acting enthusiastic at any mention of other investigations people said they had read or undertook, Palast was clearly concerned with one thing: verifying the truth and getting it out.

Anyone who wants to learn more or contribute should visit Palast’s Web site, www.gregpalast.com.