"As for Russian citizens currently on vacation in
Abkhazia, there is no need to worry. Russia will
ensure their security," said a ministry press release
circulated on Friday in response to Tbilisi's
continuing threats against passenger ships sailing
near Abkhazia's coast.
>
> Nader has been subjected to an incredible torrent of
> abuse and derision for
> defying the "Anybody But Bush" sentiment among
> liberals and running for
> president as an independent candidate.
>
>
>
> One of Salon's latest hit jobs actually complains
> that Nader's new book, The
> Good Fight, was published by HarperCollins, part of
> right-wing media baron
> Rupert Murdoch's empire--and, shockingly, the
> company is spending money to
> promote the book! What about the interests of the
> mega-corporations that put
> out self-serving drivel by Hillary Clinton or Bill
> Clinton? Salon doesn't
> even ask. And the fact that the same HarperCollins
> imprint which published
> Nader put out Michael Moore's Stupid White Men? Who
> cares when there's Nader
> bashing to be done!
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Salon's implication is that Nader has abandoned
> everything he stood for in
> his many years as a liberal crusader for political
> reform and consumer
> rights--to become a willing pawn of Murdoch and the
> Republican Party. This
> ridiculous charge is usually paired with claims that
> Republican-connected
> political organizations have helped Nader in his
> efforts to qualify for the
> ballot in various states.
>
>
>
> This is certainly true--though how much help is
> another question, since both
> Republicans and Democrats have an interest in
> exaggerating. The Democrats,
> of course, need new material for their slander
> machine. And Republicans
> clearly realize that all they have to do is put out
> a press release claiming
> to be sympathetic to Nader to get Democrats
> ranting--and exposing how little
> they care about democracy when it comes to stopping
> Nader.
>
>
>
> The truth is that the Republicans are giving Nader a
> limited amount of help
> for the same reason that Democrats are working
> desperately to stop
> him--because both parties assume that Nader will win
> support from people who
> might otherwise vote for Kerry. The GOP's "support"
> for Nader wouldn't rate
> a mention if the Democrats weren't running a
> scorched-earth war to keep
> Nader off the ballot.
>
>
>
> The flip side of the anti-Nader hysteria is the free
> ride that John Kerry
> has gotten from people who consider themselves
> progressives. "Progressives
> are so angry and scared of George Bush that if it
> worked for John Kerry to
> say, 'I'm appealing to the Martian vote,' that would
> be just fine," Eric
> Hauser, a liberal political consultant, told the Los
> Angeles Times.
>
>
>
> Thus, last week, Kerry announced that he would
> launch "pre-emptive" military
> strikes in the "war on terror"--the very core of the
> Bush Doctrine that is
> supposedly so uniquely dangerous--and not a peep was
> heard from liberals.
> Skipping the vote on the constitutional amendment
> banning gay marriage;
> declaring that he is "in touch" with "conservative
> values"; admitting that
> he will appoint anti-abortion judges to the federal
> courts--Kerry can say
> and do anything without the slightest worry that the
> Anybody But Bush crowd
> will complain.
>
>
>
> This is the cost of "lesser evilism"--which reduces
> the political discussion
> to the small differences between two candidates from
> an incredibly narrow
> spectrum acceptable to Washington's bipartisan
> establishment. Of course,
> hatred for George Bush runs so deep that many people
> who detest Kerry will
> still vote for him in November. What harm, they ask,
> could possibly come
> from pulling the lever for Kerry in order to get rid
> of Bush?
>
>
>
> The anti-Nader hysteria--that is the harm. Accepting
> the Anybody But Bush
> case for voting Democratic means accepting a
> campaign of slander against a
> candidate who, whatever his flaws, represents a
> genuine, courageous and
> desperately needed alternative to the two-party
> system. Nader-bashing is
> doing long-term damage to project of building a
> left-wing political
> alternative in the U.S.--both at the ballot box and
> beyond it.
>
>
http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-2/507/507_03_AfraidofNader.shtml
>
>
> John A. Murphy
> Voting for the lesser of two evils won't save this
> country; it will only
> hasten a total collapse. If we are so afraid that
> voting for the candidate
> that best represents our values will put the greater
> of two evils in office,
> then we have already lost the right to be free and
> many will be ashamed to
> call us their fellow countrymen.
> Join Ralph's Revolution: www.votenader.org
>
>
> ___________________________________
>
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>
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