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.”

Obama may be raising more corporate money, but he’s also drawing larger crowds. The day after Nader’s traipse across the Bay State, more than 100,000 people assembled to hear Obama speak in Denver.

Nader believes we need a strong three-party system to have true representation of the electorate. But neither John McCain nor Barack Obama was the conventional-wisdom choice for his party. Obama defeated the Clinton machine during the primaries, and McCain’s campaign was left for dead in the summer of 2007. Voters had plenty of choices during the primaries, and Mitt Romney learned you can’t buy a nomination, no matter how much of your personal fortune you spend.

Yes, we all know our political system is flawed. But sometimes you’ve got to go along with the rules to make your point. Ron Paul, the libertarian congressman from Texas, ostensibly could have run as an independent and not competed in the primaries, but far fewer people would have heard his message. Paul participated in the primary debates and grew legions of fervent fans, despite opposing the two-party system. After bowing out of the Republican race, he had much more influence among independent-party circles.

Ralph Nader has always fought against the system. He got 2,882,955 votes in the 2000 election and, many argue, stuck the country with George W. Bush. In 2004 Nader’s fortunes had changed. He wasn’t even on the ballot in Ohio, the key swing state that year. He only received 463,653 total votes. Will he break 100,000 this year?

Nader is making campaign stops across the country in the final days of the campaign, with many visits at college campuses. Too bad the students will be waiting for Obama instead.

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?

As of last month, a two-year moratorium has been placed on the construction of solar energy projects on public land despite the fact that bolstering its presence could be a fantastic way to catalyze the energy industry.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Holly Gordon, vice president for legislative and regulatory affairs for Ausra, a solar thermal energy company in Palo Alto, Calif. “The Bureau of Land Management land has some of the best solar resources in the world. This could completely stunt the growth of the industry.”

No, people! I mean don’t you want this? And this?!

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada said: “This is the wrong signal to send to solar power developers, and to Nevadans and Westerners who need and want clean, affordable sun-powered electricity soon.”

According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, photovoltaic solar projects grew by 48 percent last year in comparison to 2006. Currently, there are eleven functioning solar plants in the United States, and 20 are in various stages of planning or permit-seeking.

The majority of the 119 million surface acres of federally administered land across the West coast is primed for solar energy, particularly in Arizona, Nevada and Southern California, where bare flatlands are drenched in sunshine.

Solar companies have filed more than 130 proposals with the Bureau of Land Management in the past three years. These proposals center on the companies’ desire to lease public land for construction of solar plants to ultimately sell the energy to utilities.

According to the bureau, the applications, which cover more than one million acres, are for projects that could power more than 20 million homes.

In the early 1930s, Thomas Edison had a conversation with Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone. Edison quipped, “I’d put my money on the sun and solar energy. What a source of power! I hope we don’t have to wait until oil and coal run out before we tackle that.”

Oops.  Solar-powered turbo sunglasses will have to wait.

On another note, did you hear the one about the nuclear physicist that had a sign on his door that said… “Gone Fission”?

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.

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