Election Deception Dollar

Deception Dollars tackle 9-11, the Stolen Election, the Media

An eighth edition of the popular Deception Dollars is hot off the press, in addition to the traditional Deception Dollar with links to the key websites challenging the official narrative of 9-11, an Election Deception Dollar features websites that question the 2004 Presidential Election, and a Media Deception Dollar questions the press, in general (and features both POTLANDINDYMEDIA.ORG and INDYMEDIA.ORG.) The great art and live links to the featured websites can be found at http://www.deceptiondollar.com.

Over 4,500,000 are currently in circulation and in museums in four countries. 1,500,000 were printed last Friday, publisher and activist, Carol Brouillet, cut hundreds of them by hand to pass out at rallies against a “stolen election” in San Francisco and Sacramento, and at a Code Pink Mad Voter’s Pink Tea Party where Deception Dollars received one of many Pink Badges of Courage awards from Code Pink.

Canadian artist, and 9-11 activist, Blaine Machan created the front of the Deception Dollar in 2002, as well as a number of striking satirical movie posters along the theme of 9-11. He emailed Brouillet with a link to his website which featured his art.

“He told me his mom thought he should get a real job, instead of wasting his time doing political art.” said Carol, “I told him we needed the art and sent him some money to use his images on the flyers that I was passing out in the streets at my weekly ‘Listening Project.’ I suggested that he do the back for the Deception Dollar, so that we could pass them out at the anti-war rally in October 2002. He figured out how to add websites to the bill.”

The first ones were just green, because Carol couldn’t afford to do them in four colors; they printed 10,000 Deception Dollars and gave them away very quickly. The publisher of The War on Freedom, John Leonard, helped to finance the second printing which featured Nafeez Ahmed’s excellent book on 9-11, and 100,000 Deception Dollars were printed in black and green. Those ran out before the next big anti-war rally.

Brouillet raised enough money to print with half a million using a four color process and sent them to activists all over the country. The demand for them was so high that they printed another million, a month later, and realized that donations towards their printing costs could actually fund the 9-11 Truth Movement.

Blaine Machan does the art with the input from activists, publishers, researchers, and other webmasters. Together, Blaine Machan and Carol Brouillet have used the money raised to put on major events- the Bay Area premiers of Aftermath-Unanswered Questions from 9-11, by the Guerrilla News Network, the comedy event- Behind Every Terrorist- There is a Bush, and the San Francisco International Inquiry into 9-11, as well as rallies, marches, flyers, pamphlets, videos, DVDs, posters to help raise consciousness about “The Big Lie- 9-11” which has been used to justify illegal wars of aggression, trash the Bill of Rights and the Constitution, and threaten the civil rights of every person in this country, and throughout the world.

Peguin Books commissioned Blaine to do a bill for the cover of Guerrilla News Network’s book, True Lies. Brouillet thought they should create a Media Deception Dollar and worked out agreements with Penguin, Zeitgeist Films, TVNEWSLIES.org, to create a Media Deception Dollar which featured websites challenging the big lies, and helped to promote GNN’s new book, and the film by Mark Achbar- The Corporation. They printed 250,000 Media Deception Dollars last May, and are printing a second edition, which has included Project Censored’s website and is titled- The Project for a Censored America.

Blaine came up with the image for the Election Deception Dollar at the time of the election; in the aftermath of what appeared to be a stolen election, Brouillet began networking, again, to create the Election Deception Dollar. This time she couldn’t get a penny from any of the websites doing the work on exposing the truth about the election, but they printed over half a million of the new bills, trusting that activists would want them, and use them this winter to bypass the media censorship, and get more people involved in the work for social change.

“People keep asking, ‘What can I do?’ Passing out beautiful, creative, funny, informative flyers is so easy and fun, a great way to open conversations; they are the most empowering tool we have come up with for activists.” says Brouillet who thoroughly enjoys her “in the streets, outreach efforts.”

Brouillet recently spoke at the International Conference on the Gift Economy and is a strong advocate of the “gift economy.”

“Giving promotes cooperation and the peaceful paradigm which we hope will replace the “exchange/hierarchical/war” paradigm currently wreaking havoc on the planet. All our activism has been funded by the generosity of people who appreciate our work. The word ‘community’ comes from ‘the free exchange of gifts’ and our deception dollars have helped to nurture a spirit of community within the 9-11 Truth movement which we hope to merge with the growing Peace and Justice movement, and now (with the debacle of a blatantly stolen election) the ‘Genuine Democracy movement.’says Brouillet.

People are encouraged to “buy” Deception Dollars from the links at http://www.deceptiondollar.com; the Northern California 9-11 Truth Alliance will also be distributing them. Their monthly Oakland meeting will be held Thursday night. For Details check- http://www.communitycurrency.org. Donations are appreciated to offset printing and shipping costs.