The Nader Page

Katsuko Nomura: Consumer Champion

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:16:15 -0400

Katsuko Nomuraa builder of consumer, labor, cooperative and womens rights groups for over 55 years in Japanpassed away this month at the age of 99. She was one of the most remarkable civic leaders anywhere in the world. With her range of activities, she could be called a world citizen.

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For Whom The Bell Tolls

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:36:17 -0400

Bell, California, a working-class town of some 38,000 ten miles outside of Los Angeles, is a unique place. Its local government has proven to be citizen-proof, media proof, city-council proof and even leak-proof from inside its self-enriching top officialdom.
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Where Left and Right Converge

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:12:44 -0400

Don't miss Ralph's latest op-ed on the rise of anticorporatist views. The op-ed was published in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, and can be found online here.

Of Big Banks and ShoreBank

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:59:51 -0400

The Obama Administrations treatment of its current majority ownership of bailed out General Motors and its standoffishness toward the pioneering but troubled ShoreBank, a community bank based in Chicago, are lessons in how the Big/Bad fare in Washington, D.C., as compared with the Good/Small.

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New York's Rebatable Bailout

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 06 Aug 2010 10:29:46 -0400

You cant make up the following realities in New York State! Note the following series of events driven by the preposterous plutocrats and see if you get steamed.

Greed, power, reckless speculation and theft of other peoples money by Wall Streeters collapsed the U.S. economy into a deep recession that started in 2007-08.

These super-rich Wall Street banksters looted and drained trillions of worker pensions and mutual fund savings while nationwide eight million jobs were lost.

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Letter to President Obama Regarding the Talmadge Creek Oil Spill

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Mon, 02 Aug 2010 14:03:43 -0400

Dear Mr. President:

The spill of nearly one million gallons of oil from Enbridge Energy Partners pipeline into Talmadge Creek in Michigan on July 26 further demonstrates the necessity for you and Secretary LaHood to pay immediate attention to the hapless, industry-indentured Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS), which has been, like the Minerals Management Service, in a long fraternal relationship with its industry.

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Out of Afghanistan

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 18:35:49 -0400

The war in Afghanistan is nearly nine years oldthe longest in American history. After the U.S. quickly toppled the Taliban regime in October 2001, the Taliban, by all accounts, came back stronger and harsher enough to control now at least 30 percent of the country. During this time, U.S. casualties, armaments and expenditures are at record levels.

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California Enshrines the Duopoly

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 17:49:42 -0400

by Ralph Nader

Last month, Big Business interests shamelessly dealt our already depleted democracy a devastating blow by misleading California voters into approving Proposition 14, without their opponents being able to reach the people with rebuttals. This voter initiative provides that the November elections in that state for members of Congress and state elective offices are reserved only for the top two vote-garnering candidates in the June primary.

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Letter to President Obama on Professor Elizabeth Warren

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 12:23:41 -0400

Dear President Obama:

It is time for you to give taxpayers, consumers, and investors a reason to believe that you are truly interested in consumer protection by nominating Professor Elizabeth Warren to be the Director of the much-anticipated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

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The 2010 Summer Reading List

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 09:49:57 -0400

Summer time is reading time. Here are ten suggested new books:

1. Toxic Talk (Thomas Dunne Books) by Bill Press, the liberal talk show host, unloads in his words, on how the radical right has poisoned Americas airwaves. The five major syndicates are dominated by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Mark Levin, Sean Hannity, Michael Savage and Bill OReilly. Using their own statements, Press applies indignation, satire and humor to demonstrate the bigotry, the falsehoods and the propaganda that sustain the concentrated power of corporate oligarchs who fan far right-wing flames with advertising revenues.

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Learning from Iran

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 10:44:13 -0400

An article in the current issue of the AARP Bulletin is likely to get a Whats this? reaction from many of its millions of readers. It is titled Iranian Cure for the Deltas Blues, with the eye-opening subtitles: Mississippi Looks to Irans health care system That model has improved health dramatically; Will it travel well to Baptist Town?

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Letter to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Fannie and Freddie

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:07:18 -0400

Dear Chairman Bernanke:

On July 17, 2008, David Rogers, the respected Congressional reporter for Politico wrote an article titled Pelosi-Paulson tension Rises, in which he had the following paragraph:

Earlier in the day, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke assured lawmakers that Fannie and Freddie, the two government-supported enterprises, are adequately capitalized and in no danger of failing.
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Letter to Bud Selig On "The Worst Umpire Call Since the 1850s"

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 17:05:19 -0400

Dear Mr. Selig:

Now that you have had over a month to absorb and digest the reactions to what a sports writer called the worst umpire call since the 1850s, it is time for you to respect the vast majority of the fans, players and coaches who either believe that umpire Jim Joyces call should be reversed as false or who have no objection to such a ruling.
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Hammering the Poor and Vulnerable

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:24:09 -0400

There is a reason why, so many centuries ago, every major religion warned its adherents not to give too much power to the merchant class. That reason is still here the commercial drive knows few self-imposed boundaries, especially when it resides in large corporations.

A cruel manifestation of this singular drive for maximizing profit is how companies treat those who are most powerless, most vulnerable or most preoccupied.

Here are some illustrations that highlight the serious failures of law enforcement:
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Questions for Supreme Court Nominee Kagan

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 13:37:33 -0400

Supreme Court nominations are a rare opportunity for millions of Americans to watch, learn and converse about what the Court, the Constitution and the Justices mean for their way of life, their freedoms and their livelihoods.

Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee should consider asking Solicitor General Elena Kagan, who has been nominated to be an Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, some or all of the following questions.
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Naked Insecurity

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 15:30:15 -0400

If you are planning to fly over the 4th of July holiday, be aware of your rights at airport security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has mandated that passengers can opt out of going through a whole body scanning machine in favor of a physical pat down. Unfortunately, opting for the pat down requires passengers to be assertive since TSA screeners do not tell travelers about their right to refuse a scan. Harried passengers must spot the TSA signs posted at hectic security checkpoints to inform themselves of their rights before they move to a body scanning security line
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Washington: Theater of the Absurd

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 18:34:43 -0400

The festering corporate government in Washington, DC, is a theater of the absurd. Some of the acts of this tragedy follow:

1. Start with the often hapless Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the agency that administers Medicare. Medicare pays $1,593 per injection of Lucentis for wet age-related macular degeneration as well as $42 per dose for Avastin, a drug that has a similar molecular structure, used by ophthalmologists.

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Cashiering Helen Thomas

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 11:07:52 -0400

The termination of Helen Thomas 62-year long career as a pioneering, no-nonsense newswoman was swift and intriguingly merciless.

The event leading to her termination began when she was sitting on a White House bench under oppressive summer heat. The 89-year old hero of honest journalism and womens rights, the scourge of dissembling presidents and White House press secretaries, answered a passing visitors question about Israel with a snappish comment worded in a way she didnt mean; she promptly apologized in writing (see http://www.democracynow.org/2010/6/8/veteran_white_house_reporter_helen_thomas). Recorded without permission on a hand video, the brief exchange, that included a defense of dispossessed Palestinians, went internet viral on Friday, June 7.

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Planning for Disaster

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 18:09:58 -0400

When the Executive Branch does not have worst case scenario planning for each kind of energy sourceoil, gas, coal, nuclear, wind, solar and efficiencythe people are not protected.

Enter the 24/7 oil gusher-leak by BP and Transocean the rig operator and the impotence of the federal government to do anything but wait and see if BP can find ways to close off the biggest and growing oil leak in American history. Where is the emergency planning or industry knowhow?

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Time for OTA

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 28 May 2010 18:48:31 -0400

When the Republican Gingrich devolution took over Congress in 1995, it stripped the Congressional Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) of all its funding and left it a shell with no experts to advise committees and members of Congress.

Whereupon Congress was plunged into a dark age regarding decisions about trillions of national security, offshore oil drilling, transportation, energy, health, computer, biotech, nanotechnology and many other executive branch programs in science and technology.

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Letter to President Barack Obama on Problems with Airport X-Ray Scanners

nospam@example.com (winsted) — Fri, 28 May 2010 17:15:32 -0400

May 28, 2010

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama,

It is important for citizens to give their President cautionary alerts about serious potential risks to the publics health.

Enclosed is a letter from members of the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) science faculty (including a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an internationally known and respected cancer expert) sent to your science adviser, Dr. John Holdren on April 6, 2010. These scientists express their deep concerns about the rapid deployment of the full-body backscatter x-ray scanner in U.S. airports without sufficient safety review by an impartial panel of experts. A call to Dr. Holdrens office reveals that he is studying the letter and has not yet responded to the UCSF scientists.

Another highly respected radiation expert, Dr. David Brenner of Columbia Universitys Center for Radiological Research has also raised serious concerns about exposing millions of airline passengers to radiation without an independent scientific review.

Security experts have also questioned the effectiveness of these scanning devices concluding that the devices can be easily defeated by concealing explosives in body cavities.

It was wasteful enough for the Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) to install the puffer security devices at U.S. airports and then withdraw them because they were found to be unreliable at a cost of $30 million to taxpayers. Now, a far larger amount of taxpayer money is being spent on these scanning devices by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which claims it is not obligated to observe the Administrative Procedures Act.

I suggest that you give your attention to this emerging risk. Preventing cancer should be a presidential priority.

Sincerely yours,

Ralph Nader
PO Box 19367
Washington, DC 20036

Letter from UCSF faculty to John Holdren

No Time For Consumer Power

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:22:44 -0400

In the end, late on Thursdays Senate passage of the financial regulation bill, the Senate had no time for independent, non-government consumer power. In the end, after listening to swarms of corporate bank, brokerage, hedge fund, private equity, and insurance lobbyists, the Senate had no time for Senator Chuck Schumers amendment to create a non-profit Financial Consumers Association (FCA, SA 3772).

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Getting to Know Elena Kagan

nospam@example.com (winsted) — Fri, 14 May 2010 15:44:58 -0400

Given the Niagara of commentary on the nomination of Elena Kagan to become an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, we know very little about the nominee. For friend and critic alike, the predominant view of Ms. Kagan is that she has publically uttered or written remarkably little of her own views on any subject that directly or remotely relates to her forthcoming position.
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Empower The People

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 13:52:29 -0400

Dear President Obama, Senator Dodd, Senator Schumer and Senator Shelby:

On the eve of the portentous Senate debate over the extent to which the financial industry is to be held accountable so as to avert future megacollapses on the backs of taxpayers, workers and consumers, a great gap has been left unattended.

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Wealth for Justice

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 14:46:39 -0400

There are signs that some super-rich are revolting against their wealth fraternity. Last fall, mega-billionaire, Warren Buffett, traveled to Washington to meet with Democratic Senators and urge them to raise taxes on the wealthy like him. He pointedly said he pays at a lower rate than his secretary.
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No Interest In Saving

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:10:14 -0400

Within the burgeoning tonnage of business pressprint and electronicprecious little has been written about the near zero interest paid on savings and money market accounts that total trillions of dollars.

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The Miserable State of Mine Safety

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:28:21 -0400

The tragedy at the Massey Energy Companys very profitable Upper Big Branch coal mine at Montcoal, West Virginia, which so far has cost 25 miners lives, is another reminder of the immense human and environmental cost of this fuel.
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A Win for Whistle Blowers

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:49:26 -0400

Why would Pfizer, the worlds largest drug company, so mistreat and silence one of their top molecular biologists that a federal jury in Connecticut awarded her $1.37 million in damages last week?

The unraveling answer promises to tear open the curtain covering hazards confronting tens of thousands of scientists and assistants in corporate and university labs doing genetic engineering work with viruses and bacteria.

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Attention Deficit Democracy

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 14:35:23 -0400

A society not alert to signs of its own decay, because its ideology is a continuing myth of progress, separates itself from reality and envelops illusion.

One yardstick by which to measure the decay in our countrys political, economic, and cultural life, is the answer to this question: Do the forces of power, which have demonstrably failed, become stronger after their widely perceived damage is common knowledge?

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Israel & Aid

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 13:57:18 -0400

On July 10, 1996, at a Joint Session of the United States Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a standing ovation for these words: With Americas help, Israel has grown to be a powerful, modern state. But I believe there can be no greater tribute to Americas long-standing economic aid to Israel than for us to be able to say: we are going to achieve economic independence. We are going to do it. In the next four years, we will begin the long-term process of gradually reducing the level of your generous economic assistance to Israel.

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In the Shadow of Power

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 17:59:55 -0500

Our just published In the Shadow of Power is a penetrating collection of 92 black and white photographs about life in Washington, DC, by Venezuelan photographer Kike Arnal.

After scores of books and reports by our groups over forty-five years, where the premise was that a thousand words is worth one picture, I am reminded of the impact of the reverse saying a picture is worth a thousand words.

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The Filibuster Flim Flam

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:15:13 -0400

The U.S. Senate has become the graveyard of Congress! Dozens of bills passed by the House of Representativesto improve the health, safety and economic well-being of Americansare locked up in the Senate month after month.
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Nader Excoriates Dodd For Lack of Fidelity on CFPA

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:29:15 -0500

March 2, 2010

The Honorable Senator Christopher Dodd
Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs
448 Russell Building
Washington, DC 20510

Dear Senator Dodd:

On January 19, 2010, I wrote to you about news reports that you were considering dropping the proposal to create an independent and free-standing Consumer Financial Protection Agency (CFPA). In the last few days news reports indicate that you are advancing the notion that the CFPA should be housed within the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve is always a step short and a day late in protecting consumers. To house the CFPA within the Federal Reserve is to doom it to failure.

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Empire, Oligarchy and Democracy

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 11:28:57 -0500

The twin swelling heads of Empire and Oligarchy are driving our country into an ever-deepening corporate state, wholly incompatible with democracy and the rule of law.

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Consumer Advocate Ralph Nader Calls President Barack Obamas Loan Guarantee for Nuclear Power Plants Monumental Mistake

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:36:16 -0500

President Obamas support of loan guarantees for the construction of new nuclear power plants is a monumental mistake. It is a decision that is bad for consumers and taxpayers, and it is wrong-headed from an environmental and national security perspective.

Providing $8.3 billion in loan guarantees to help the Southern Company build two reactors in Georgia is the last thing the Obama Administration should be doing. There is no place for new nuclear power plants in our countrys energy future.

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King Obesity's Realm

nospam@example.com (nimda) — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:56:48 -0500

King Obesity sat grandly on a huge hassock atop a throne composed of solidified animal fat surveying his domain. The last thirty years have been bullish for Obesity, during which the number of seriously overweight children in America tripled. Eating fat, sugary and salty food while sitting for hours daily looking at video screens, being bused to and from school, and not having to bother with physical education, millions of lads and lassies were following orders.

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