ralph nader

Ralph Nader Breaks Guinness World Record For Most Useless Presidential Candidacy

Monday, October 27th, 2008

Ralph Nader is back in the news, but probably not quite in the way he hoped. He hasn’t convinced millions of voters to support his independent campaign for president. His rhetoric against “McBama” hasn’t won him frequent press coverage. But attempting to break a Guinness record for the most speeches in a day will earn you an article or two, just like any other schmo.

Nader traveled across Massachusetts on Saturday, speaking in 21 different locations for more than 10 minutes to more than 10 people. He stopped in cafes and colleges and, of course, a Dunkin’ Donuts. His message? ”Barack Obama has raised more corporate money than any candidate ever before in the history of the Democratic Party,” Nader said. “He has told these business interests he’s their man.”

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Go, go solar rangers!

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Question: What do you call a religious gathering with hell-fire preaching?
Answer: A thermal mass.

I’ll understand if you stop reading now. But wait!  I hear that solar energy could generate 2.5 percent of the world’s electricity by 2025.  (Yawn.)

Two billion people in the world have no access to electricity and for most of them, solar photovoltaics would be their cheapest electricity source.  (Mehh.)

Renewable energy-notfeasible-don’t care, forever 21 is having a sweet pleather belt sale, rosco wants to play flip cup tonight but he didn’t want to see kung fu panda with me- blah lol blah rofl blah, yes?

(Alright, complacent stereotypes end here.)

A few years ago, the Green Party’s own ray of sunshine, lil’ Ralphy, retorted that solar energy was kaput because the oil industry does not own the sun.

If they did, they would have a flourishing film career! In any case, over 7,100 drilling permits utilized for more than 44 million acres of coal development were approved by the Bush administration last year. That is the most in history.

The rub: while G-Dub was going bananas signing drilling permits in all their short-sighted glory, guess which alternative, renewable energy source suffered a massive legislative setback?

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Please Elect This Man

Friday, December 10th, 2004

His name is Howard Dean, and he’s running for Democratic National Committee Chairman.

Now when conservative like for example, Sean Hannity, says, “Please elect Howard Dean…” he’s obviously being facetious. Hannity and many others believe that Dean is the kind of candidate that scares Middle America and thus will always lose elections. However, it’s guys like Hannity whom can’t see the forest for the trees. If the Democratic Party ever figures out that it is the party of progressive economic policies, that guy will be the last to figure out why the DNC is sweeping elections.

I’ve said many times before, for progressives, they lost the election in January of 2004. They lost when the pretender, John Kerry, beat the true progressive candidate. If you listened to people in Iowa and New Hampshire state why they voted for Kerry instead of Dean, they all pretty much said the same thing. “We like Dean but he can’t win in a national election.” They said the same thing about Nader. You know, if all of the people in this country actually voted for the candidate they liked instead of employing some weird marketing strategy, one party wouldn’t have a monopoly over all the houses of government right now. There was a bumper sticker I saw which summed this all up and was once funny and sad: “Dated Dean, Married Kerry”.

The rate of divorce is rather high in this country wouldn’t you say?

The DNC has a chance to redefine itself in the eyes of America. They’re not going to accomplish anything by putting forth mealy-mouthed centrists with no real agenda other than seeking power…like Kerry. There are fine economic progressive policies out there that are just screaming for someone to champion them. I think Dean in the guy. At least you know where he stands.

Finally, the marriage between Move.Org and the DNC has become most interesting of late. I read this morning that, “Liberal powerhouse MoveOn has a message for the “professional election losers” who run the Democratic Party: “We bought it, we own it, we’re going to take it back.” Whether you’re a staunch conservative or a bleeding heart liberal, I think we can all agree, for the sake of our democracy, there needs to be strong opposition party. If MoveOn is the catalyst for that change then God Bless.

Third Parties — Who Are These People?

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2004

I just voted and while filling out my choice for president, I noticed that Ralph Nader was not on the ballot. But Leonard Peltier was. Isn’t he in jail? That’s fascinating that you can run for president, but not be able to vote.

And who are Michael Anthony Peroutka and Chuck Baldwin of the American Independent Party? Or Michael Badnarik and Richard Campagna of the Libertarian Party? Is anyone going to vote for these guys?

-Jean Chen
San Francisco, CA