Hedges opens his piece with a patently false premise- “Ralph Nader’s descent from being one of the most respected and powerful men in the country…”

He is respected only by the loony left and is completely powerless, unless you call killing the Corvair an example of power.

Nader in fact wallows in, embraces and forms his political identity around powerlessness. He would not know what to do with power. Take Obama and increase by an order of magnitude- that would be Nader.

He will forever be just a gadfly.

It is worth remembering the hate campaign the Dems
launched against Nader ten years ago when you see
Dems giving lectures to the Tea Party people about civility in our civic discourse. Dukakis, and
believe Hilary as well, made death threats against
Nader should Bush win.

Nevermind the actual facts of the election. That
ten times as many Democrats voted for than voted
for Nader. This happened all over the country and
yet here the Democrats were screaming at Nader and
his supporters. Party members in the millions
ended up actually voting for Bush and it never
seemed to really upset the Dems. They were clearly
more worried about a third party movement gaining
a foothold in the political process and that
scared them more than Bush.

Screaming at Nader was a way for Democrats to
avoid the reality that they had a lousy candidate
in 2000, as they did in 2004 once again.

Multiply that by a fifty thousand, these deaths were not an isolated incident.
Choosing a president because he is a criminally negligent buffoon that
escaped prosecution is silly.

By ofersince72, April 5 at 5:56 pm #

That is most silly excuse for not liking Nader I have
heard yet.

Nader killed those two kids.

That is most silly excuse for not liking Nader I have
heard yet.

Nader killed those two kids.

Nader’s new novel was being used to prop the window open
so my cat could come and go,  the cat bumped into the
book,  the window chopped the cat in half!!!!!

That damn Nader killed my cat !!!!!!

Thanks Chris for a decently precise chronology of corporate take
over of the U.S. by corporations though I am sure it is evident
that just from what the framers of our constitution created was,
at the beginning, something to deal with big business, especially
when a lot of effort went into preventing, stopping and shutting
down attempts to create CENTRAL BANKING.

And I think is was late in the 19th century that those misleading
creeps in big businesses when ‘big business’ was able to obtain
‘bill of rights’ recognition of ‘big business/corporations’ of sorts,
really a substantial move down hill toward corporatocracy
oligarchy aristocracy which is exactly what Thomas Paine wrote
so fervently about and what the framers of the constitution tried
to deal with for the CITIZENS of the new country.

And of course by the end of WWII, the military industrial
congressional complex was about to come out of puberty as
Eisenhower tried to warn us all as he left office; and here is as
good as place as any(since I don’t know the history of how
LOBBYING-criminal bribery & influence peddling) became an
accepted way of ‘doing business’ making both lobbyists paying
out the money AND the government officials criminals, whether
any were elected or appointed or just plain hired.

Then it was when nixon became what was obviously what those
oligarchs did not want that the most insidious of the corruptive
subversive ways, popped up all over the place, probably
beginning with adoph coors putting up the cash that started
those treasonous organizations called think tanks, an out and
out attempt to end the representation of, for and by the people
to the rule by what can be said to be the
aristocracy/corporations or just plain MONEY.

The next really bad thing was to allow a very wicked hate
monger, abe rosenthal, to take up position at a very large
market newsprint to start dictating control and dispersal of
information and ideology which eventually has become so
corruptive that the very people that still rely on the now
mainstream media are rabidly defending and supporting the
people, ideology and the creation of legislation that is
continually ‘boxing’ us all into a feudal state or 3rd world and
that includes those msm addicts so taken in completely hook,
line and sinker.

I am amazed that otherwise well informed men like Nader and Hedges use phrases like “right wing” and “liberals” as if they have any meaning. Especially in light of what these two men know, or at least, I hope they know, those terms are inventions of corporate managers and insiders who use them to marginalize or otherwise manage the public who think that by voting in a Palin or Bush or Obama or Clinton, they are really voting for different choices. And that, of course, is utter nonsense. It’s the same (corporately owned) face, but a different mask. Wake up Hedges. As good as you are, you are still in the matrix, and still more part of the problem than the solution.

As a fireman I watched two kids die as we feverishly tried to defeat the ‘Nader
pin’ that had jammed their car door shut after an accident. There are very few
people that I think less of than George Bush, Nader tops that list.

Money Split the I & We     empirePIe   April 5th, 2010

Money split the I and We,
cushioned by the big ‘to be’;
nurtured on the big TV,
as iPad yuppies gloat with glee.

The black hole sucks the split of me
the Union of the we that failed to be

Since all you that voted for Gore are pointing fingers…
at those of us that voted for Nader in 2000,

Maybe some fingers ought to be pointed back at you for
not helping elect Nader in what was probably the last
election that we had a chance to save our republic from
complete takeover by the corpostacracy.  IT’S YOUR FAULT!!

It will be imposible now to vote ourselves out of fascism.
We are stuck because of fools that voted for Gore !!!!!
Who has never been anything more than another Dixicrat
corpocrat and still is and distorted the Climate Collapse
for his patrons, the Nuclear Power Industry.

It’s the ruling class up against the rest of us and it might be a winnable battle to take our country back if there weren’t so many easily manipulated sheep in this country who consistently vote against their own self interests.

Anyone like Nader who comes along and wants to expose any part of the ruling class will be gone after big time.

This particular kind of Capitalism has been linked to the founding of this country and to their god who they say founded it for a reason. [As the new Jerusalem and the new Jews so-to-speak, the Promised Ones etc aud nausem.] So in a way it is a characteristic of their particular god, but not god itself in their eschatology.

Thanks Chris,

As Moore recently expressed, “there is no democracy, only capitalism”.

In a not so funny way,  this term “capitalism” has encompassed all, yet no one is allowed to discuss it and finally give it definition or understanding, improve it, assumed to be perfect perhaps. It permeates all life and we are to participate with it on faith. The term “Capitalism” has taken on the stature of the term “God”,  when the “God” term was used during the most radically religious episodes in history.  No understanding allowed, only faith in it, or be destroyed, or mortally marginalized.
Some kind of progression here, from, let the non-believer beware, to, let the buyer(consumer) beware, to, let the citizen beware. 

It truly is the time of “let the citizen beware”.  Ironically, “beware” can only be handled with “aware”.

Unfortunately, the success of our form of “capitalism” relies on dismantling any practices or learning which promotes neutral awareness, or disinterested awareness, un-bought awareness, unfettered awareness, etc…, It is truly time to “enliven the buddha”.

What left is a-wariness, forcing a vile capitulation, through the complete exhaustion of the mind’s expectation for freedom and justice.

The corporatization of the Constitution, makes the Constitution nothing more than legal-actuary-table, not unlike the insurance actuary tables that control the access and delivery of medical services.

So then, practice your freedom and justice in a closet, and do not question the blending of state and the corporate. Keep your ideals and aspirations of freedom and justice to yourself,  since that is now the only place where it will be tolerated, a place where it will be unseen and unheard, strictly a personal matter & practice.

Will freedom and justice ever go public again?

I suspect that it will take a renaissance of a kind, among individuals, to cultivate awareness.  Awareness which is very unlike the limited results of acquiring popular and conventional knowledge and understanding.  Since what passes as knowledge and understanding in this period’s corporate takeover, well, are regulated, packaged and allocated by the same corporate. 

This current, corporate-constitutional coup, relied heavily, counted on, the fundamental belief of its’ targets, customers and/or constituents,  that their identity is outside themselves, that it gets its’ worth, security, and depth by accumulating outside ma-ter-i-als,  a form of “stuff-self, or “stuff-identity, stuff-actualization.  And the corporate , have successfully used this misproduction of the general citizen identity,  to convince their prey that corporate ideology could come to reflect accurately and adequately freedom and justice expectation.

Well, that’s my rant for the day.  At this time I do not see freedom’s and justice’s way out of corporate box it is in.

The ideals that Ralph embodies are not destroyed, simply it is that Mr Nader has but one life, as we all are limited to, whereas our form capitalism/consumerism seems, at this time, and coming off the last two decades of “forever-reganism, well, at this time our form of capitalism/consumerism does seem eternal, and we are infinitely infected by it. 

Rhuen Phreed
11 Marlborough Street, #22
Boston, MA 02116

Dear samson,
I left out the green votes in my number of people who may or may have not voted against the system of rule.
I cld be wrong ab where greens stand on change of the system. So, yes, i had been guessing.

U did not read my post carefully or have forgotten what i wrote.I said: IT SEEMS, nader neglected the study of the structure of US governance.

Which means that he may have. But decided that at this time to let the study go? And what it all means?
It cld be noted, that the moment a viable second party is established,US system of governance is changed.
No number of think tanks, movements, or orgs, etc., can alter constitution nor governance because in the main they are part of the system.

We know that there is free speech in US; however, never an equal opportunity to speak.

I am not an american; i am a canadian. I vote for NDP which was more socialistic than now.

It cld be noted that in more sane-timocratic [honest] countries, there are more than two distinct parties.
I hope i have clarified the post in question. Thanks for prodding me to write another post.

thebeerdoctor, April 5 at 2:13 pm #

Just having some fun ITW, I know you are not really sour or you wouldn’t post your thoughts. I may disagree with you on many subjects, but I welcome your perceptions. May I make a beer suggestion? Samuel Adams Noble Pils and Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock are two of the more interesting offerings of this spring.
***********************************

Yeah, I know. Notice I didn’t argue with the knuckle head part!

Noble Pils (that would be Belgian or Dutch) and Glissade Golden Bock?  Cool!

Want to try a fun micro-brew? It’s called He’Brew, The Chosen Beer.  It’s for real and they have Genesis Ale and Messiah Lager (or is it Genesis Lager and Messiah Ale? Who remembers?)

I didn’t drink beer for many years until the micros came out or I could get Guinness.

Outstanding, Mr. Hedges, outstanding as is the norm.

To all those uncouth louts who still wish to blame the 2000 debacle on Ralph, please think for one brief moment in your lives: that election was preordained from the getgo, with Lieberman on one side and Cheney on the other (in case you twits still haven’t gotten the memo, Lieberman the swine agreed with Cheney on each and every of Cheney’s platforms, opinions, beliefs, strategies, etc., etc.) the was ONLY one outcome.

Since the ‘70s and on, we now have over 50,000 foundations to “engineer consent” along with endless number of shill tanks (erroneously referred to as “think tanks”) and now we have endless numbers of NGOs, and online diversionary web sites.

Anyone who believes firedoglake, any number of so-called populist sites and economics sites are anything other than diversionary sites, is sadly bamboozled (but they have been quite clever at such things).

Nope, whether it was Lieberman/Gore, or Cheney/Bush, the outcome would have been the exact same.

Just as in getting Obama, we still end up with Diana Farrell, and original Geo. H.W. Bush (Bush #1) appointees Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner, and original Geo. H.W. Bush appointees Robert Gates (SecDef) and Robert Mueller (Bush appointed him head of the criminal division at the Dept. of Justice during that BCCI investigation, which Mueller conveniently quashed when it began getting to close to Georgey H.W. hisself).

Remember when George W(easel) Bush attempted to appoint neocon Linda Chavez (it turned out she was “employing” too many illegals at below minimum wage)?  Recall she was first a Jimmy Carter appointee.

And who writes Obama’s position papers?  Whey, the Center for a New American Security (hello Richard Armitage—that name sound familiar???) and the Markle Foundation.

Yup, whichever candidate the banksters’ run, it always turns out to be the exact same administration personnel.

Funny about that…...

“The big books they [Nader and associates] put out were serious, first-rate journalism. Corporate America was terrified by this”. When Ralph spoke at his alma mater (’58) Harvard Law School in Feb., he exhorted the audience to get the “fire in your belly” to spark a new generation of activism. Unfortunately, despite the eloquence and passion of the address, there were barely two dozen in attendance in Pound Hall to hear his urgent message. The inestimable Nader brought a stack of his new big book (700+ p.), ‘Only the Super-Rich Can Save Us!’, taller than the one in the photo, crying out to be read by all the missing students in those empty seats in the cavernous Ames moot courtroom.  Nader is still putting out big books but corporate America not only went to school on Nader, they went into school, and their influence is great. As Nader declared that day in a fitting conclusion that could be applied to almost any educational corporate incubator, “Harvard Law School is a lie.” When Nader himself went to school during the somnolent 50s it was a period of near total conformity and political quiescence. The cultural conformity of that era has now been replaced by a sterile, self-conscious ‘identity politics’ that for all its showy surface diversity has resulted in a new type of political quiescence every bit as stultifying and subservient to corporate power. Class politics is as alien to the ‘new poitics’ as it was to the old. “’The problem is that most liberals are estranged from the working class. They largely have the good jobs. They are not hurting.’” So why should students be sitting in a conference room listening to Nader when they can be prepping to earn the big bucks and assume some of that corporate power themselves?  Except for that brief interregnum in which the Naderites flourished in the 60s – 70s, there has been an unbroken continuum of corporate control throughout the post-war era of which the Obama (Harvard Law ’91) mirage is only the latest variation. Nader, of course, had Obama pegged all along, and on election night, in an interview with Fox questioned whether Obama might not turn into a corporate Uncle Tom. The reaction from both liberal and neo-con commentators was predictable. Tim Goodman, media critic for the SF Chronicle commented at the time: “As if Ralph Nader wasn’t a big enough tool already, he went on Fox News on election night - the very night Barack Obama broke the racial barrier on the presidency - and uttered the words ‘Uncle Tom.’ Not only that, after being called out on the words by Fox News anchor Shepard Smith - and given a point-blank chance to apologize and take them back, Nader said he wouldn’t. It’s a stunning bit of television, and a lot of people missed it… Up until he spewed out the words, the biggest shocker in this scenario was A) That anybody still cared enough to talk to a washed-up political hack like Nader and B) That Nader could actually hear Smith call him on the offensive language. Nader rarely stops his mouth moving - he’s always so caught up in his monotonous blather and meritless belief that he’s making points people want to listen to. Give Shep Smith a lot of credit here… So, let’s go to the big board here for the tally: Nader helps the Democrats lose the election in 2000 and then slanders the Democratic winner in 2008? Well played, Ralph. At least this moment brings you (temporarily) back out of obscurity and irrelevance. “ Typical media response from both the ‘liberal’ Chronicle and the neo-con Fox, the issue is not the corporate control of political candidates but the presumed violation of the politically correct language code?  You can be “called out” on squeamish words but not on squelching corporate power?!!  Indeed,“ It’s a stunning bit of television, and a lot of people missed it.” “The right wing has won through intimidation” – and with a lot of help from politically correct prigs.

One thing is sure:  Mr. Nader can rest in the comfort that none of these commenters were part of his supporters over the years.  Otherwise he might have given up and committed hari-kiri. 

I applaud Ralph and his efforts and his noble life mission in service to others.  If only the greedy corporate world he has striven against had yielded a bit more, we citizens would be even better off. 

Unfortunately, Nader’s virtues pale in comparison to the vitriol expressed by his many naysayers and critics.  The paranoia his efforts induced in his corporate and political opponents are a tribute to his tenacity.  Go, Ralph !!!

Face reality…

If you believe that there is a substantive difference between the parties could you explain what happened since January 2009?

The Obama administration is functionally similar to a continuation of the Bush administration.  At least it is to the progressives. On issue after issue, Obama has stayed on the same path Bush was walking.  We still have domestic spying, largely secret government with plenty of bullshit coming out of the official pronouncements of Gibbs, financial bailouts for the rich, no accountability for torture or Iraq war lies, escalation of Afghanistan, faith based initiative, the whole foreign policy agenda is based on American Exceptionalism.  Don’t you ever get tired of it?

Back to Nader.

Nader not only got blacked out by mainstream media, he got blacked out by so-called “progressive” sites as well.  I was working on Obama’s campaign until early 2008 when I switched to Nader’s campaign.  You couldn’t find a word anywhere about Nader running.  You couldn’t find a single editorial, an article, you couldn’t even tell he was alive.  He was on the ballot in 45 states and polling about 5% at one point.

This shows us how effective the GOP/Dem machine has been at suppressing third party movements.  They control the press, please put aside any doubts you might have had about that.  And they control the most of the high traffic internet news sites as well.  (I should name some names here but I hate to be spiteful unless it’s going to change something.)

-Wexler

Just having some fun ITW, I know you are not really sour or you wouldn’t post your thoughts. I may disagree with you on many subjects, but I welcome your perceptions. May I make a beer suggestion? Samuel Adams Noble Pils and Sierra Nevada Glissade Golden Bock are two of the more interesting offerings of this spring.

Certain assumptions come into play whenever anyone starts arguing about an election. As someone from a family who did vote for Nader in 2000, there was no way in hell that the people in this house would have voted for Al Gore. A pro war idiot who had the temerity to put Senator Lieberman on his ticket… how could any self respecting conscious person live with that? People who engage in wishful daydreaming think that people who voted for Ralph Nader were trying to ‘spoil’ the election results. No, many people who voted Green in that election were simply sick and tired of the nonsense put forward by the blessed two-party system. So now the Democrats are in charge… how is that working out for you? And the Democrats, such as Sec. of State Clinton, pray each night that Nader is “reduced to the ash heap of history” (to quote Barack Obama’s favorite President Reagan).
There is no conspiracy if you shoot yourself in the foot. Face it: The Republicans are determined to do evil. The Democrats are so frightened of them, they have no backbone at all to stop them. So it is quite fitting that President Obama, as leader of his party, keeps bending over to the GOP until there is no back at all. How else can you explain why the president called the largest banksters in the country “savvy businessmen”. What kind of clown offers up such a ridiculous statement?

thebeerdoctor, April 5 at 7:49 am #

ITW, being the sour puss knuckle head of legend, is in the case of Joan Claybrook, quite correct. The woman has a thing against motorcycles. Her letters on this subject reveal that.
Chris Hedges championing Ralph Nader? Give me some news I don’t know.
****************************************

I am NOT sour—unless some beer low-life bring Buttwiper or Manure Light, rather than Sam Adams, or Brooklyn Lager.

With all due respect to Mr. Nader he obviously did not take to heart President
Wilson’s advice of “a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so interlocked,
so complete, so pervasive that they better not speak above their breath when
they speak in condemnation of it”.

Everyone is invited to name their “bete noir” foreign ownership of the US
Federal Reserve, Wall Street, members of skull and bone; banks, ownership of
members of Congress and the Senate, pacs, etc.

Another President, James Garfield is quoted as stating. “Whoever controls the
volume of money in any country is master of all its legislation and commerce.”
and paraphrases a Baron M.A. Rothschild [banker of the British Empire]
statement of ,” Give me control over a nation’s currency and I care not who
makes its laws”.

Mr. Hedges does all TDs a great favor by his commentary about Mr. Nader.  A naive and idealistic non-adjetivised American.

Thank you ,  Samson !!!!

Obama has made no secret he is for “clean” coal and nuclear energy. Just look at what he actually supports and which he doesn’t really fight for should tell you where his head is.

No need to be mocking Inherit The Wind but you can twist anything you want. He was targeted, the more prominent you are the sooner you will be hit, and he was at the head of the list back then. That is fact though now it is others. Hedges didn’t say Nader “was the only one,” that’s just you being a sarcastic lack wit. What did Nader ever do against you? Are you one of those who still erroneous believe he cost the 2000 (sel)election and not the US Supreme Court? To me that is like the “Birthers” of today.

Nader‘s views are still right on but in an increasingly more corporate country it is heard less and less. But it is distorted more and more. Our enemies have access to the vast information sphere and the money to bankroll any astroturf organization they want and have numerous times. Until that is broken we will continue to slide down into the abyss.

dear G.Anderson ....

Back in 2008, I read Paul Street’s excellent book on Obama.  What was striking in the introduction was how the book constantly refers to how ‘lucky’ Obama was in that in his stepping stone campaigns all the candidates that might have beaten him suddenly had ‘scandal’ issues.

For instance, when Obama ran for the Senate, the sitting Democrat Senator, Ms. Brown, suddenly had major scandal issues and had to withdraw.  Meanwhile, the Republicans somehow nominated the worst Senate candidate in recent history with the crazy Alan Keyes.  Surprisingly, Obama cruised to victory, and got the rare feature of a mere Senate candidate getting the Dem convention keynote speaking spot along the way.  A very ‘lucky’ fellow.

Yes, you should be very interested in watching which candidates are suddenly hit by ‘scandal’.

dear balkas .... the things you say Mr. Nader did not see have been regular features of his campaign speeches for a decade.

The answer he promotes is more involvement by the citizens.  So, besides sitting here telling us all that Mr. Nader does not know, maybe you should tell us what you’ve been doing for the last ten years to help change this?

Mr. Nader does of course have the right answer.  Its only by the power of a grassroots movement by the citizens that the power of the corporations can be overturned.  From where I sit, Mr. Nader has done about all he can on his own.  All he can do is to try to help start a movement. Its not his fault if no one has the sense to listen or follow him.

——————————-
Mr. balkas also misrepresents the last election results, although he does get the gist of it correct.  According to wikipedia, 1.24% of the American voters are counted as voting against the corporate candidates. 

Still a tiny percentage to be sure, but its a common propaganda technique to cut numbers of opposition to a fraction of the real number .... you see this all the time with protest turnout numbers.  Now you see the true ‘opposition’ vote only being given 1/3rd credit.

It sems that nader’s expectations of econo-military-political change for better were too high.

He, seems, neglected to study the structure of US governance. Which, of course, is structured in such a way, that it allows even use of military force in order that it remains the same.

Once any structure controls education, which includes all schooling, MSM, advertising, holliwood, it can misteach; mostly by omission.

For the US warlords, this worked ‘brilliantly’. In recent election, 98% of americans voted for the system of rule. Only ab 0.4 voted against it.

Note please that i am not dichomizing masters of war into warlords [hekmatyar, dostum] and non-warlords [bush, clinton].
Warlords in US=warlords in iraq,israel, afgh’n. Surely, some americans order wars.
And the system of rule does not allow for knowing who these people are.
We can only guess. But that is very nature of US democracy.
The system remains. And no movement or an organization wld ever even nick it let alone structurally change it! tnx

The unreasonable man or it it the unseasonable man?

Manipulation of the media and public opinion has
always been, probably before Nader happened on the
scene, even if his ego says otherwise. Nader never
had the right hand in his cards. 

Corporations do twist reality to fill their coffers,
everyone knows that, it seems to me Nader should
have stayed a consumer advocate instead of running
for president, were he was much more effective.  His
ego is known to pre-seed him into a room.

It is telling that the Democratic party attacks Nader with a vehemence they would never use against the Republicans. Guess they know where the true threat lies.
It is sad how so many are so easily manipulated into echoing such manipulated perceptions as truth. And that is why the MSM and Corporate party officials don’t worry too much about delivering to voters—they know they can always sucker them with a well-timed PR blitz. Healthcare being the latest most notable example.

ITW, being the sour puss knuckle head of legend, is in the case of Joan Claybrook, quite correct. The woman has a thing against motorcycles. Her letters on this subject reveal that.
Chris Hedges championing Ralph Nader? Give me some news I don’t know.

Yeah, right.  The WHOLE Conservative/Corporate think tank structure and right wing “conservative” movement was ALL constructed just to destroy Ralph Nader.

Just to destroy Ralph. 

Notice that Hedges, in his usual reductionist fashion, neglects to mention that under Jimmy Carter, one of Nader’s Raiders, Joan Claybrook, was a Cabinet member as head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 

There, she presided over the development of a rear-wheel steering, front-wheel drive motorcycle (nobody could ride it) and proposed limiting motorcycle displacement to 400cc and requiring seat belts on same.

If anything made Ralph Nader irrelevant it was Claybrook’s tenure at NHTSA where she showed how a Nader’s Raider could run a Federal agency.

But Hedges omits that, instead cranking out one of his crazy conspiracy theories. The Right and the Corporations had far bigger fish to fry than Ralph Nader.  But Hedges takes Nader (and Nader’s ego) at his word.

It has often been noted that the United States is rapidly becoming a ‘third world’ nation. I think the becoming is matter of geographical distinction. May I suggest a reading of Matt Taibbi’s RS piece about what happened to Jefferson County, Alabama, after the largest banks found a way to make $millions off a sewer system project.
I detect sadness when Mr. Nader speaks of a by-gone era when news was actually somewhat important. It is tough to realize that all of the so-called principles that were once believed to be in play, have been exposed to be meaningless. That is why fantasy is so important. Entertainment allows the bewildered ordinary citizen (who actually pays the final bill) to pretend that orderly justice still exists, and denies the fact that the game is totally rigged.

When I was a girl, I heard Ralph Nader’s name often, and spoken of with respect.  I was too young to understand the issues, but my parents were liberal, and Nader was part of our family dialogue.

I just read his new book about the rich solving world problems by financing socially progressive programs.  When I told a friend about it, he said,

“Ralph Nader??????” in a mocking tone.

That’s it in a jist.

This article does touch upon several important points. While I am happy to read the exposure of the falsehood of Nader’s impact upon the election (selection) of George W. I think most reasonable folks already understand that fiction.

The death of the free press, the silencing of investigative journalism in fact, is perhaps the single most significant symptom of the fascist takeover of our governance. A real democratic society simply cannot flourish without a free press available to combat the ready access that wealth gives to opinion making.

That Ralph Nader notes the fact that even a small percentage of progressives, if given access to infrastructure, can make a significant difference is a very important point, one I fear will be lost upon most as we continue our slug fest here and elsewhere.

“The long-term unemployment rate, which in reality is close to 20 percent, the millions of foreclosures, the crippling personal debts that plague households, the personal bankruptcies, Wall Street’s looting of the U.S. Treasury, the evaporation of savings and retirement accounts and the crumbling of the country’s vital infrastructure are taking place as billions in taxpayer subsidies, obscene profits, bonuses and compensation are enjoyed by the corporate overlords. We will soon be forced to buy the defective products of the government-subsidized drug and health insurance companies, which will remain free to raise co-payments and premiums, especially if policyholders get seriously ill. The oil, gas, coal and nuclear power companies have made a mockery of Barack Obama’s promises to promote clean, renewal energy. And we are rapidly becoming a third-world country, cannibalized by corporations, with two-thirds of the population facing financial difficulty and poverty.”.....                              This is the reality we face as a nation. Once and a while the plutocracy deign to throw us a few crumbs…and we cheer… instead we should be cheering their incarceration…
    I wonder how many liberal political leaders have been set up with sex scandals by the right, seems like that’s a favorite tactic, since once the acusations are made, hysteria begins and they are done..