Ralph Nader // Current

Ralph Nader "There Are Hundreds Of Thousands Of People In Jail That Shouldn't Be There!"

I'm not holding my breath for a billionaire to save me. Corporatism is the problem... more

Jenime
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7 days ago
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BECOME A PUBLIC CITIZEN

http://www.citizen.org A film by Chris Mumford, a student in the Digital Media... more

asherp
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1 month ago
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The anti-"Atlas Shrugged" Book by Nader

Today sees the publication of Ralph Nader's utopian future/alternate history, Only The... more

remanns
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2 months ago
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Join the 'Green Party' Group on Current.com

Do you support: Green Jobs? Direct Taxes on Pollution? Localizing our agriculture?... more

asherp
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2 months ago
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5 comments

Dennis Kucinich: "The 'Public Option' is Dead"

HEALTH CARE WANTED: DEAD OR ALIVE The masquerade is over! The "public option"... more

asherp
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3 months ago
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Ralph Nader on Healthcaare Reform: YOU DON'T CUT DEALS WITH A SYSTEM THAT NEEDS TO BE REPLACED

The Obama administration admitted last week it promised to oppose proposals to let the... more

asherp
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3 months ago
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4 comments

Obama admits US can’t insure all Americans without single payer

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I want to cover everybody. Now, the truth is that unless you... more

asherp
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4 months ago
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74 comments

The Punk Patriot * I'm Not Mad at Obama. I'm Mad at You.

I'm Mad at you. Not you specifically. I like you.

asherp
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6 months ago
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Wall Street Time Bomb?

Or a misrepresentation by the pundits and spin-doctors? What really happened on... more

asherp
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6 months ago
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5 comments

Pelosi and the CIA Briefings: Why all the Fuss Over Old News?

Strangely absent from the recent coverage of Pelosi's past knowledge of U.S. torture policies is any acknowledgement that this story is old news. Really old news. Way back in December, 2007, the Washington Post ran a piece headlined, "Hill Briefed on Waterboarding in 2002." It hit Pelosi with the exact same allegations that have been so breathlessly reported as of late:

In September 2002, four members of Congress met in secret for a first look at a unique CIA program designed to wring vital information from reticent terrorism suspects in U.S. custody. For more than an hour, the bipartisan group, which included current House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was given a virtual tour of the CIA's overseas detention sites and the harsh techniques interrogators had devised to try to make their prisoners talk.

So what's new? For one, Republicans are under intense moral and political threat and see a chance divert responsibility for their misdeeds back to Democrats.

To be sure, Pelosi should have taken action against U.S. torture policies as soon as she was briefed on them. And she's now paying the price for being too politically cowardly-or opportunistic-to address this issue head-on when the Post broke the story back in 2007. But it's disingenuous for the press and Pelosi's political rivals to feign outrage over what Pelosi knew and when. What did they know and when? Assuming they read the news, why didn't they make an issue of this back in 2007?

One politician did make an issue of the Post story at the time.

Cindy Sheehan, the Peace Mom, ran a quixotic campaign against Pelosi for her House seat last year, and garnered 16 percent of the vote and very little press. Key to her electoral strategy was capitalizing on liberal outrage-surprisingly tepid outrage, it turned out-over what Pelosi knew. She even called for Pelosi to be stripped of her leadership post over the news. "I was appalled and really saddened," Sheehan told me at the time. "We can't be represented by a person like this."

Seventy two percent of San Francisco voters thought otherwise.

With Sheehan's failed challenge in mind, it's hard to put credence in today's New York Times story on Pelosi's political fate, which quotes Bay Area resident Delphine Langille of San Ramon: "I'm very skeptical of what she's saying, Langille told the Times on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, "and when she goes to get re-elected, this could really damage her credibility." Yeah right. There's simply no way a Republican could ever mount a viable challenge in San Francisco, no way the Democratic establishment would ever try, and no way--as we've seen--that a third party outsider will take her down.

Politics is morally mushy business. The political climate was clearly more pro-torture back in 2002 than it is now. A braver politician might have spoken out sooner, but also might not have risen to the Speaker post. The interesting thing about San Franciscans is that they are politically sophisticated enough to entertain a race like Sheehan's while also voting for a pragmatist like Pelosi. And they can certainly distinguish between the moral clarity-or absolutism-of someone like Sheehan, and the immoral opportunism of liberal-come-lately Republicans. Let's hope the press and the rest of the nation eventually figure this out too.Strangely absent from the recent coverage of Pelosi's past knowledge of U.S. torture... more

asherp
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6 months ago
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Pew Poll notes Significant Rise in Independant Voters

For the past two years, centrism has dominated Americans' political views. That's the conclusion of the latest survey, released Thursday, from the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

Pew President Andy Kohut says the number of people reporting that they are political independents reached a 70-year high, but there was little movement regarding people's values. That's even though President Obama's election marked a watershed moment for the United States.

"Even though it was a big Democratic win and the Republicans are in free-fall, there's no sign of an ideological shift," Kohut tells NPR's Melissa Block. "Values are pretty much the same. It's not like the mid-'90s, when we were showing the public becoming more conservative, or the beginning of this decade, showing the public was more partisan. Public remains pretty much where it was two years ago on very basic values."

Of the independents surveyed, more described themselves as "leaning" Democratic than Republican (17 percent vs. 12 percent.) But in surveys conducted this year, 33 percent of independents described their views as conservative, up from 28 percent in 2007 and 26 percent in 2005, according to Pew.

Kohut says this just means that independent voters are "unbalanced centrists" — they tend to have conservative views about government and regulation, and more liberal views regarding the hot-button social issues, national security and religion, he says.

He also says African-Americans reported having a more positive view of American society than they did two years ago. Sixty-two percent of African Americans — vs. 40 percent two years ago — say the country can solve its problems, Kohut says.

"Among whites, there's an even larger percentage saying that African-Americans are making progress," he says.

But the biggest surprise for Kohut was people's attitudes toward business and the free market, and Wall Street. He says they haven't changed "all that much" in two years.

"The public continues to think that business is what continues to make this country successful," he says. "They are very reluctant about regulation. This is mostly the views of Republicans, but independents joined them in this perception — some Democrats, but less often Democrats."For the past two years, centrism has dominated Americans' political views. That's the... more