Special Features

The tightening two-party duopoly has been moving relentlessly in the direction of common funding of candidates by the same privileged interests. The exclusion of independent or third party competitors through costly ballot access hurdles (see: opendebates.org for more information), litigious harassment, and barring them from debates has been well-documented. Gerrymandering into one-party districts has eliminated…

By Ralph Nader and Lori Wallach The standards ensuring the safety of our food, medicines and cars, the energy and climate policies needed to save our planet, and the financial regulations designed to prevent banks from creating another crisis all involve decisions that should be made in open, democratic venues. Yet the Obama administration is…

November 21, 2013 Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe United States Postal Service 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW Washington, D.C. 20260-0010 Re: Revenue Expanding Activities Dear Mr. Donahoe, Last week the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) released its financial results for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2013. Despite some promising indicators, the USPS ended the year with a…

October 2, 2013 Dear Senator Feinstein, This summer protests broke out over the upcoming closure and sale of a historic post office in downtown Berkeley, California. This century old post office represents a piece of our collective history. It contains New Deal-era murals, architecture and artwork. Not to mention, it was paid for by the…

One would have thought that exposing high level criminal and other abusive behavior by government would have been received with reforms and compensation for victims. Instead, the exposed perpetrators managed the torturing and prosecution of a civil disobeying patriot as a traitor. It is time to recall the words of Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and…

Dear friend, Thirty million Americans are making less today, adjusted for inflation, than they did 45 years ago in 1968! If the 1968 minimum wage grew with inflation, it would be $10.67 today. Unfortunately the federal minimum wage is a miserly $7.25.  According to the Economic Policy Institute, U.S. CEOs of major companies earned 18.3…

If Walmart Used Money It Has Set Aside for Stock Buyback on Workers, Each Walmart Employee in the U.S. Could Receive a $7,000 Annual Raise and Bring Home At Least $10.50 Per Hour July 15, 2013 On Monday, Ralph Nader sent a letter to Walmart President and CEO, Mike Duke, urging him to reconsider the…

“The former Winsted Savings Bank building on 654 Main Street, Winsted, Connecticut will be the new home of the nation’s first law museum – the American Museum of Tort Law,” Ralph Nader announced today. The law of torts, invoked by plaintiffs when there is wrongful injury to persons and property, traces back centuries to the…

July 9, 2013 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20500 Dear President Obama: Ever since your ringing announcement that you favor lifting the federal minimum wage from its frozen $7.25 per hour to $9.00 in your State of the Union Address on February 12, 2013, there has been little…

Labor unions are far more inclined to publically express their patriotic commitment to the Pledge of Allegiance than U.S. chartered large corporations. In a survey by the Center for Study of Responsive Law, twenty of the largest unions and twenty of the largest U.S. Chartered corporations were asked on three separate occasions: Do you think…