An Unreasonable Man

As part of their "VOTE DEMOCRACY!" campaign, an attempt to get young people involved in voting and the democratic process, PBS will air An Unreasonable Man, a documentary on the legacy of Raplh Nader, on December 18th. The documentary film, which was released earlier this year, largely aims to dispell the myth that Nader's presidential bid in 2000 led to the election of George W. Bush, rather than Al Gore. The film begins with Nader's rise into the public spotlight back in the 1960's, when an attempt by General Motors to discredit his book, Unsafe at Any Speed, blew up into scandal which landed Nader at the head of the Consumer Movement. It covers the span of Nader's career, including his work that led to mandatory seatbelts, airbags, and product labels, but by the end of the film, Nader is estranged from the groups that he founded and hated by Democrats because of the belief that he caused Gore's loss in 2000. The airing of the documentary may, for better or for worse, return credibility to Ralph Nader should he decide to run as an independent in next year's election.

Nader Visits Boston University

On December 4th Ralph Nader spoke at the University of Boston Univerisity. Here he critized the youth for not going to vote and said "There's a great deal of apathy here at BU. It's a generic deprecation of the human mind." He said this in front of 200 BU students and teachers. Nader has not yet announced that her wilil run fro president but told the news that he will have made a decision in one or two months. In his speech Nader mainly critized the youth that does not vote and seems to be rallying them up for his behalf. Nader bluntly stated, "We're not generating our own civic culture anymore." Nader seems to be really passionate towards getting the young people to vote and perhaps it is part of his strategy if he does in fact run for president.

Nader's $80,000 Court Battle

Last week, Ralph Nader's ongoing court battle with a law firm that challenged his 2004 Ballot Petition in Pennsylvannia heated up again. The case began back in 2004 when Pennsylvannia Democrats filed a lawsuit challenging the authenticity of many signatures on the petition to get Nader on the ballot. Democrats, who were worried that Nader would "steal" votes from John Kerry, noted that "Mickey Mouse" and "Fred Flintstone" were among the many dubious signatures collected on the Nader Petition. Nader lost the case and the Pennsylvannia Supreme Court ordered that he pay $81,000 in legal fees to the law firm. However, in typical 'Ralph Nader' fashion, he launched an investigation which found that three of the justices had recieved contributions from the law firm and that two more had previous connections with the firm. Consequently, Nader appealed to a Washington D.C. court, claiming that the justices acted unethically and that he should not have to pay the legal fees. The law firm filed a response this past week admitting that the allegations are true, but claims that no wrong was committed. For further developments, the ongoing case is Serody v Nader, 2007 CA 003385F, D.C. Superior Court.

Ralph Nader endorsing Ron Paul?

On the Nader.org website, Nader published an article, this past week called 'Greening the Corporation', questioning corporate legitamacy in new environmental policy. In the article, Nader claims that green is becoming the next 'profit center' but still maintains that hydro-carbon and greenhouse gas emissions remain increasing due to the lack of an obligatory company 'green' policy. "This overall persistence of corporate intransigence needs to be kept in mind as the blizzard of green announcements by companies continues." He suggests mandatory federal standards in order to significantly cut down on the pollutants. Corporations will and are claiming vast 'greening'. Consumers beware.

On November 13, Nader posted his generous support of Candidate Ron Paul, stating that "He won’t admit it, but Ron Paul is practically running on my third-party ticket." The article seemed fairly reminiscent of Nader's 2008 election woes and even though he doesn't agree with everything Ron Paul advocates, he did say that if he wasn't running he would vote for Ron. On the website with the article is a very intriguing youtube video endorsing the Ralph Nader campaign which admires Ron Paul's 4,000,000 million dollar fund raising effort. So don't count Nader out just yet but know that the next best thing is Ron Paul.

*Links are listed below:
(Ron Paul endorsement) http://www.newsgroper.com/ralph-nader/2007/11/13/ron-paul-enima-america/
(Nader.org) http://www.nader.org/template.php?/archives/1231-Greening-the-Corporation.html#extended

Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader recently (October 31) filed a lawsuit against the DNC (Democratic National Committee) last week against unfair campaign practices that sought to undermine his own campaign. Much of Nader's frustration in the 2004 campaign was apparently a result of the DNC's ability to undercut his campaign in the Democrats efforts to bid John Kerry for Presidency in the election of 2004. We have yet to find out for sure if Nader will be a presidential candidate in the 2008 Presidential Election.
In an interview with the New York Times back in June, Nader stated that he would wait until fall to make his decision on whether or not to run. Its fall and there is still no sign of Nader just buzz about him potentially running. As is seen in his lawsuit against the DNC their is much hostility between Nader and the Democratic party who, he feels, seek to eliminate his campaign in order to maintain voter who might otherwise have strayed to the Consumerist, Nader Green party. Despite complaints from some Democrats who feel that Nader takes away votes from Democratic Candidates, we'll have to wait and see if Nader's consumerist policy and personal conflict with the Democrats lead to him announcing his candidacy.