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Can Democrats Landslide Republicans?

February 7, 2012
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By Ralph NaderI often ask Congressional Democrats these days is: “If you agree that your Republican counterparts in Congress are the most craven, corporatist, fact-denying, falsifying, anti-99 percent, militaristic Republicans in the party’s history, then why are you not landsliding them?” Their responses are largely in the form of knowing smiles and furrowed brows. There…

Letter to Nestle Pure Life Regarding Their Use of the Denver Public Water Supply

February 2, 2012
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January 26, 2012 Nestle Waters 11700 E 47th Ave, Denver, CO 80239 Dear Mr. Franceschetti, The bottles of water you call Nestle Pure Life discloses on its label that the source is 1. What is the source for the Public Water Supply in Denver that you tap into for your bottled drinking water business there?…

Follow the Bills

February 1, 2012
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Looking at millions of individual bills that makeup the 2.7 trillion dollars of annual health care costs opens a gigantic window on the massive waste, redundancy, profiteering, fraud and sometimes criminal over-billing. Here is a partial example of what I mean, in the words of Philip M. Boffey, the estimable science writer for the New…

The Jirga Medal of Honor

January 24, 2012
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The U.S. war in Afghanistan is testing so much futuristic detect and destroy weaponry that it can be called the most advanced all-seeing invasion in military history. From blanket satellite surveillance to soldiers’ infra-red vision to the remotely guided photographing, killer drones to the latest fused ground-based imagery and electronic signal intercepts, the age of…

Letter to President Obama Re: The State of the Union Address

January 23, 2012
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January 20, 2012 Dear President Obama: As you prepare your State of the Union address, please be advised that those who support you are very cognizant of what you do not mention in such annual presentations to the Nation. For example, last year, environmentalists were shocked that global warming-climate change received no attention. Nor did…

Congress Needs to Get to Work

January 18, 2012
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The editor of The Hill, a newspaper exclusively covering Congress, said that Congress was not going to do very much in 2012, except for “the big bill” which is extending the payroll tax cut and unemployment compensation, which expire in late February. That two month extension will likely reignite the fight between Democrats and Republicans…

Iran: The Neocons Are At It Again

January 11, 2012
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The same neocons who persuaded George W. Bush and crew to, in Ron Paul’s inimitable words, “lie their way into invading Iraq” in 2003, are beating the drums of war more loudly these days to attack Iran. It is remarkable how many of these war-mongers are former draft dodgers who wanted other Americans to fight…

Third Parties Are Not Spoilers

January 10, 2012
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Open Letter to the Wall Street Journal By Ralph Nader How unbecoming it is for the self-styled freedom-loving Wall Street Journal (“Ron Paul Nader?” Dec. 21) to use the politically bigoted word “spoiler” to describe a hypothetical Ron Paul-Libertarian party presidential run. Why is a third-party candidate called a “spoiler” when the nominees of the…

Ballot Access Concerns

January 10, 2012
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Open Letter to the New York Times By Ralph Nader Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. followed his declaration in the New York Times in late December that ballot access for voters “must be viewed not only as a legal issue but as a moral imperative” with a lawsuit to block an allegedly discriminatory South…

The Politics of Lowered Expectations

January 3, 2012
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By Ralph Nader Ezra Klein, the bright, young, economic policy columnist for the “Washington Post” believes that Obama came out ahead last year in the “administration’s bitter, high-stakes negotiations with the Republicans in Congress.” He cites four major negotiations in 2011 with the Republicans that Obama won. Obama won the game of chicken played in…