By:
bluegal on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 8:30 PM - PDT
This Youtube went up yesterday and it says a lot that needs to be said. Yeah, yeah, it’s Ralph Nader, and what he says is true.
No Trackbacks To “Open Thread“
191 Responses for “Open Thread”
From the Top to Bottom government is a racket.
I’m amazed, this far into 2007, the GOP can whine, “We’re afraid of being called weak” as a pretext for more illegal activity in Iran; but the DNC, despite being weak on impeachment, choose inaction rather than leadership. When will “being weak on the Constitution” mean something by way of a 5 USC 3331 indictment: For violating one’s oath of office to defend the Constitution against domestic enemies?
A Government by the Corporations, For the Corporations.
That’s what free-market economics gets you!
goddamnit - I’d vote for Ralph before I’d vote for corporate welfare lovers Hillary and Bill Clinton. Clinton gave us NAFTA and now we have CAFTA and America is wounded and dieing and they won’t call an ambulance but kick us all to the curb to die instead. Why do the Clintons hate Americans?
The only reason I can think of to endorse Hillary Clinton would be if she had truly found a way to outmaneuver man’s psychotic war-mongering impulse.
Unfortunately, she just seems to endorse more of the same.
She couldn’t figure out her husband was a cheating womanizer and she couldn’t figure out Bush was frothing at the mouth to wage imperial aggresion in the Middle East.
She’s basically given us no reason to believe she’s a leader of any kind.
True, so very and sadly true. Bye-bye Miss American Pie.
2008 is their last chance to represent the people.. One more failure, and WE will invoke our right granted by the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution, and remove this government, as a whole , and start again with a clean slate…
The Trees of Liberty are very thirsty.
What do you think America will be like 20 years from now?
I’m sorry, but I will never forgive that fucking egomaniac!
BTW, maybe what he says is true, but even a broken clock is right twice a day!
vietnow @ 7:
Are you proposing Michael Hayden, Robert Mueller, Mike McConnell, Jim Webb, Jack Murtha and Wesley Clark all join forces and arrest the entire executive branch and turn them over to the Hague? Just curious…
Right, Ralph Nader.
The same guy who said there was no difference between Gore and Bush and then proceeded to run and allow the worst qualified candidate in history seize the reigns of power.
When you’re THAT wrong about something so big, its hard to take you seriously for anything else.
you are pathetic. of course you blame gore losing on ralph nader. Nader was the only one in the race who cares about the common person and the way the two party system has our election process monopolized. You are brainwashed. Maybe you should blame your democratic party for picking a skeezer like gore in the first place.
Nader hasn’t been the same since his stroke!
The GAP actually cares
about child labor. Will Nike be next? Georgia doesn’t have a drought plan. The head of the U.N. Nuclear Regulatory Commission says there’s no proof Iran’s building nukes. Just in time for Halloween, Chalabi returns.
By the way all the democrats who went and protested at Nader’s campaign speeches make me sick. Trying to squeeze out a candidate to keep it a Republican/Democrat race is exactly why Nader runs in the first place. People like you only further the political problems of this country.
go nader! all the waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy!!!! 2008!!!!!!!!!
fuck yea bretheren
Red Sox sweep the Rockies 4 games straight. Mike Lowell the MVP.
aziz @ 16:
Don’t expect to find a whole lot of agreement with your view on this site! Truth is Nader did cost Gore the election. Doesn’t matter how you spin it, Nader (with the help of the Supremes) screwed Gore out of the Presidency!
vietnow @ 7:
keep your powder dry; aim small, miss small.
The elites/government have already declared war on the People. It’s time to fight back.
JM @ 3:
its hardly a free-market. Its manipulated by a private uber mega-bank, and the government is in the pocket of the corporations.
it was well said……but you guys should remember that george the first was the guy that pushed for nafta.in canada we wanted nothing to do with it
Do you ever remember Gore making the point that Bush was “the worst qualified candidate in history” during the campaign? I remember him agreeing with Bush a bunch of times during the debates. I remember him picking Joe Lieberman as his running mate. I remember him not pushing for a full recall in Florida, which he would have won. It was hardly news to informed people that Bush was a moron.
But I think that if Gore had spent some time cutting Bush to ribbons as he should have during the campaign, his margin of victory might have been great enough that there wouldn’t have been a chance for Bush to game the system.
GonzoD @ 20:
cry more democrats. there are plenty of reasons why gore lost and all of you choose to harp on nader. Its bad form.
darrelplant @ 24:
thats another good point. blame fucking lieberman. Look at how he does your party nowadays. jews cant be president sorry.
Goodnight, aziz!
I voted for Ralph. Face it, he was the ONLY Public Servant running. The rest were bought and sold whores.
It’s my vote and I will use it the way I want, and the Dems can go F*CK themselves. They have proven to be entirely useless. It’s not Impeachment that they put off the table–it’s the Constitution.
“When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint.
When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a communist.”
– Dom Helder Camara, Brazilian archbishop
Revised:
“When I tax the poor, they call me responsible.
When I tax the rich, they call me anti-capitalist.”
http://www.metrolyrics.com/ind.....-band.html
Steve Miller Band, “Industrial Military Complex Hex” (1970)
——————————–
“Feel like I’m livin’ under some kind of hex
Livin’ in here in this industrial military complex
Doesn’t really help when I read Time magazine
Cause they only distort the scene
The sky is so hazy I can’t even see the sun
Livin’ here is like livin’ under a gun
I really do wonder ’bout the United Nations
Why don’t they face the situations
I’m a troubadour
Lookin’ for a dream
I’m a troubadour
Lookin’ for some dream
Lord, I’m so tired of payin’ all of these dues
From Sunday to Sunday all I hear is bad news
Tired of the war and those industrial fools
Got to make it better cause I’ve got nothin’ to lose
Ain’t too clear to pay my income taxes
‘Specially when I know it goes to kill the masses
Love to hear the President make it perfectly clear
How the donkeys and the elephants are police up here”
——————————–
w00t w00t red sox!! :D
This is why I voted for him. Twice.
I have a lot of respect for Ralph Nader. His political savvy is a little weak, but his heart is in the right place. I’m glad he never shuts up.
What we need is more democracy not the usual status quo. What we are seeing for leadership is pathetic — full of campaign advisor filled half-truths and empty corporate lobbying rhetoric. The US population senses that things are terribly wrong and that the world changing without us. Americans are feeling that we are being left behind on a glitzy ship without a rudder. An excellent opportunity for a demagogue to lead people down the rat hole, or a movement of visionaries to enlightening and lead the country out of its stupor. That’s why we have everything from demagogue Ron Paul to “corporate-dealing” Hillary Clinton, to the “speaking truth to power” netroots.
Democracy is an organic process. Nader is part of that process. Crooks and Liars is part of that process. Long live a free and open Internet. Help us if we fail to keep this lifeline and hand to the corporatocracy.
Whew, I’m glad I got that off my chest.
Take a good look at Hillary’s top campaign staff. In that group is a guy named Wolfson. Wolfson is a partner in the Glover Park Group. What is the Glover Park Group? It is a powerful lobby outfit that calls itself a “consulting firm” located on K Street. In fact it is made up of people like Carter Eskew and Joe Lockhart and represents corporations like Verizon. They create advertising, and “messages” on behalf of major corporations - messages that undermine the very people these corporations purport to help and support - the American people. If Hillary has lobbyists prominently positioned on her staff, and if the new powerbrokers on K Street are well known FOB’s how much hope can one have for this cesspool of paid-for men and women we call our representatives, our government. This is not only a Republican problem, (although they excel at it) - it is a Democratic Party reality, and Hillary has the nerve to put Wolfson’s face front and center because she knows America is too f-ing stupid to get it.
She is not only a big time war enabler with blood on her hands, she is also the corrupted corporate political pig she would lead us to believe she crusades against on capitol hill.
No matter what you think of Nadar he speaks the sad truth.
We need much more Ralph Nader, and much more like him.
To the clowns who think he caused Gore to lose, please grow up. At least have something constructive to say. Yes, Bush has ruined America, but Nader is the wisest candidate in my lifetime.
While you whine about Nader costing Gore the election, remember: more Democrats voted for Bush than voted for Nader. The opnlypersion who lost Gore the election was Gore!
In just the latest example of President Bush’s mantra that “nothing succeeds like failure,” Harvey Johnson has escaped punishment for his bogus FEMA press conference on Thursday, while his PR flack John Philbin is moving on to greener pastures at the office of the Director of National Intelligence.
For the details, see:
“Never a Firing Offense: FEMA PR Frauds Move On and Up.”
One thing is for sure, the American people want regime change, and they want it now. ;)
aziz @ 13:
One thing is for sure, the American people want regime change, and they want it now.
I agree with both of you.
You won’t be able to stop it. Corporatocracy is the next big thing. We had feudalism, then we evolved communism, socialism, and democracy, and the idea of a republic.
Corporate government is next and it will be the dominant form of government for the next few hundred years. Already more people depend more on the corporation they work for than the government whose passport they carry. If the corporation wants you to travel, they arrange the visas and other docs you need. If they want you to move to another nation, you just do it, and you function within the subculture of the corporation - such as IBM, Microsoft, Exxon, or many others that span the globe - more than you merge with the local culture. Much like the American military - it’s it’s own culture spanning the globe, regardless of which country it happens to be in.
Corporatocracy, like the military, is NOT a democracy, but a strict hierarchical authoritarian structure. Dependents of the corporation are taken care of in a socialized way, with the company providing housing, schooling for dependents, and even health care.
Who you work for is going to become the defining factor, not your nationality. To a company like like IBM, HP, Microsoft, or Exxon Mobil your nationality is not really important, nor is your religion. What’s important is whether you are an employee, and what your position is inside the corporation.
The corporation is the new way that humans have found to organize their society. There’s a lot of flaws in it, and in a lot of ways it fails people.
We are going to find them out the hard way because we are going to organize ourselves according to the corporations we work for.
It is not going to solve our problems, bring peace, feed the people, or prevent disease. Nevertheless, we’re going to try it.
GonzoD @ 20:
I disagree with you, Gonzo. Respectfully, but disagree. Does that mean I don’t belong on this site?
GonzoD @ 20:
Fuck you! If I couldn’t have voted for Nader, I wouldn’t have voted for Gore. I wouldn’t have voted at all. I actually give a fuck about this country, and, like most of the people who voted for Nader, I chose him because he best represented my views. Maybe if Gore had shown as much spine in 2000, when he was running for president, as he is now that he’s selling books and movies, I might have considered him. The man is as skeezy as Clinton. He’s smart, to be sure, and he could probably talk himself out of just about any situation, but his actions generally run in the direction of watching out for #1.
If you think you are part of the 70%ers because you’re a die-hard Dem, think again. That 70% is pissed at Bush, but they’re also pissed at your people in Congress. The ones that we (Progressives, Greens, Reformers, Libertarians, and true independents) mobilized for. We made a deal with you to make a change, and you let us down, just like you always do. We’re not your “base”, we can, and will, choose to vote for whoever we want, especially when you treat us like shit.
It’s quite clear at this point that Clinton has been tapped by the media, and the old guard in your party, to win the Democratic party nomination. In 2000, when I voted for Nader, it was because I didn’t want more of the same bullshit (NAFTA, DMCA, etc.), which, as much as you’ll deny it to the grave, was just as responsible for the current shithole we’re in as the Bush tax cuts. Clinton Sr. bombed all the same places as Bush Jr. (and more). He made just as many corporate welfare concessions. Sure, bush has build the first and second floors of this shit-mansion, but the foundation was firmly laid by his predecessors. You people were so starstruck by the fact that there was a D in the office that you make me wonder if you even HAVE a plan for the country, or some system by which you plan on measuring progress.
I was just talking to my 90 year old grandmother, and she told me she and her family always voted republican because they were abolitionists, and they supported the party of Lincoln. Good god is she ever out of touch with where her party is now, but god forbid she vote for a democrat! They’re just a bunch of nutcases from the old south, who probably want to see a return to Jim Crow! Can you really tell me what either of the parties really stand for today? What issues do either of the major parties have locked down? If the candidates aren’t going to adhere to the policies set forth by the party, what’s the point of having a party in the first place. I was under the impression that political parties were the original Political Action organizations, concentrating the will of the voters into action. These days the party nomination is just a Red or Blue handstamp for members of the elitist, money-driven, one-party system that actually runs this country.
As long as I’m forced by the major parties to choose between the corporatist fascist who makes mock obescience to Jesus or the one who makes mock obescience to pop culture, I’ll take my guy who pays honest-to-god homage to the American people. Shovel your bullshit all you want, I’m fairly sure you’ll want to take it all back in a few years.
yogi-one @ 39:
the corporation will be named Weyland-Yutani
darrelplant @ 24:
Remember Gore losing his home state? Remember Gore not letting Clinton campaign for him in Arkansas? Remember what a lousy campaign Gore ran? Remember “Earth tones”?
None of that was Nader’s fault. Even Gore admits that he, himself, was a lousy campaigner. Besides, he *STILL* won!!!! Don’t blame Nader. Gore is responsible for his own campaign and his own concession.
Want to vote for a “winning” candidate? Work to ensure that your party nominates someone the majority can vote for. Don’t want Republicans in the White House? Don’t nominate Republican-lite. Otherwise, you’re just inviting defection. Democrats don’t have some divine right to govern simply because Republicans are crooks and liars. Democrats have their share of crooks and liars, too.
Don’t blame Nader just because Gore ran a shitty campaign and the hopelessly clueless ‘murrikan public are as dumb as a sack of hammers.
The dollar is at an all-time low.