Volume 3 Issue 13
February 23, 2004
Ralph!
Nader wants to destroy the rest of his reputation, Colin Powell and the Crown Princess of Japan have breakdowns, and those whiny unemployed
Who cares if you can throw the presidency to a man you detest, when running for it makes you feel important? That's right kids, America's former favorite corporate gadfly is in the race! Ralph Nader, to no one's surprise, announced yesterday that he will run as an independent. He rejected Democratic calls to stay out of the race, because it was "a contemptuous statement against democracy, against freedom, against more voices and choices for the American people. You'd never find that type of thing in Canada or the Western democracies in Europe." Actually, Ralph, you find it all the time, it's called party coalitions, and it's something that your former party, the Greens (who have disavowed him), even entered to in Germany. Secondly, in those countries, you vote for parties, not for the leader, and many of them allow you to have proportional voting, where you can vote for multiple parties or candidates at once. All this time, Ralph, and never a comparative politics class? In fact, this is fun...let's look at some of Nader's other arguments for running...
Nader says neither the Democrats or the Republicans are:
- Articulating his concerns for a more involved electorate: So those thousands of Deaniacs that joined politics this year are what? Yes, there's a challenge to keeping them involved, but why should these people, who joined the race specifically to see Bush booted, vote for someone who guarantees Bush stays in?
- Campaigning for a Better Living Wage: So the minimum wage increase and health insurance provisions in both Edwards and Kerry plans do what, exactly? Maybe it's not the solution Ralph would like, but they are addressing it, which he says they're not.
- A crackdown on corporate crime: Um, has he been to an Edwards or Kerry rally? Ken Lay and his buddies aren't exactly high on the likability index there. John Edwards' plan has 17, count 'em 17, proposals to help clean up corporate America and make corporate governance more public. By increasing the odds of a Bush re-election, he seemingly kills any crackdown whatsoever.
- Taking a strong stand against "unpatriotic corporations" making money from the war and tax cuts. You mean the "Benedict Arnold" corporations Kerry refers to? Or perhaps the ones Edwards is talking about when he wants to end the "Bermuda loophole". No, perhaps he's talking about Dick's company Halliburton. I mean, the Democrats haven't questioned that at all.
- For stronger controls on the influence of money in politics: Considering the McCain-Feingold law was held up in the Supreme Court by the smallest of margins, what exactly does he plan to do, knock off some Supreme Court justices? Further, Dean and others in the party have made multiple proposals for more restrictions on lobbyist activities. Then again, Nader seems to think it's ok to stand on this faulty principle, and allow Dick Cheney 4 more years of duck hunting with Anton Scalia.
That's just things that he mentioned on Meet the Press yesterday. His website is full of more, like better access to banks for low-income people (in Edwards' plan) and a reply to the DNC that seems to only advocate Instant Runoff Voting, an argument that has some merit...but is the failure of the Democratic Party to back a voting method that would decrease its power a reason to re-elect George W. Bush?
It's not like Nader doesn't have some valid points. Many Democrats did roll over to the President in the past 4 years, and they do need to stand up for progressive values more. But Howard Dean was able to make that argument from within the party, in a way that has seen the party invigorated, dedicated to beating Bush, and true to it's goals once again. If Dean could do that from within, couldn't Nader as well? With everyone from Bernie Sanders to The Nation telling him not to run, the answer must be no, for one reason. As Bill Richardson remarked, it's personal vanity. And any man who puts himself over his ideals or the preservation of his country is not fit for public office.
The campaigns are now releasing fundraising info monthly, as the election year is upon us. It will still be reported quarterly, but the 1st Quarter numbers will just climb as February and March come in. The numbers now are just for January. The total is the total money raised by that candidate. This is all under the fundraising tab on the scorecard (which is on the website for those of your reading the e-mail version)
Ralph Crashes the Party: He's back!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61902-2004Feb22?language=printer
Nader blasted "unpatriotic corporations" today -
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/23/elec04.prez.main/i ndex.html
Man, when Bernie Sanders, the only Socialist in Congress, says really nasty things about you, you have to be worried -
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/politics/campaign/22CND-NADE.html
Nader obviously doesn't care about his causes either, as Public Citizen, the organization he founded, faces bankruptcy as many pull their support (seemingly unaware that Nader is no longer involved with them.). The backlash is pretty strong and pretty comprehensive -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61124-2004Feb21?language=printer
TIME looks at Nader and says he will be much weaker than in 2000. But...he could still throw the election -
http://www.time.com/time/election2004/article/0,18471,593543 ,00.html
Nader's official campaign website -
http://www.votenader.org/
Colin, We Hardly Knew Ye: An excellent piece by Fred Kaplan on Colin Powell, and his fall from power and gradual breakdown -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2095756/
The Booming Bush Economy: In their latest attempt to try and fudge the economic numbers, the Bushies are now considering classifying fast-food workers as "manufacturing jobs" -
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/02/20/politics/main60133 6.shtml
And a GOP Congressman recently criticized US workers for complaining about unemployment -
http://www.politicsnj.com/njdsc021804.htm
The Vaunted Front Runner: Is Kerry making the same mistakes that almost derailed his campaign once all over again?
http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name =News&file=article&sid=14831&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0
Kerry recently took Secret Service protection. Brendan Koerner explains how candidates qualify for protection, and why many don't want it -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2095824/
Dean Postmortems: There everywhere! What did Dean mean stories filled the weekend papers. Here's a few -
http://www.usatoday.com/usatonline/20040219/5939360s.htm
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/22/weekinreview/22PURD.html
And The President: Bush will start running campaign ads earlier than planned -
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/politics/campaign/23BUSH.h tml
Bad John Edwards Photo of the Day:
Man, this guy stinks.
Your FBI, Working for You: The FBI says they may never solve the anthrax case. Hell, let's just attack everyone then -
http://www.washtimes.com/national/20040223-121746-6577r.htm
Redistrict This: Partisans are awaiting a Supreme Court decision that could put an end to all this Congressional Redistricting bullshit -
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/02/23/politics/23REDI.html
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahnold Wants to be Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeesident: That's right kids, California's governor yesterday endorsed a constitutional amendment to allow citizens not born in the United States to become President. Question...if the founding fathers didn't want non-native born folks becoming president in 1789, when the country was 15 years old...why should we allow them now, when an American character has built up over 225 years?
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/02/22/elec04.prez.schwar zenegger.ap/index.html
Global Warming: More reports on the Pentagon report that predicts catastrophic consequences of the Bush administration's environment policies -
http://www.guardian.co.uk/climatechange/story/0,12374,115353 0,00.html
RIP: President Bush's dog Spot, daughter of Millie, died last week at 14. Do you know you've made it as a dog when your obit runs in the Washington Post?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61138-2004Feb21.html
And you Thought Your Job was Tough: The Crown Princess of Japan is apparently suffering from a nervous breakdown over her failure to provide a male heir to the throne. Unlike other monarchies, a woman can not ascend to the imperial throne -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/3512483.stm
