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.