----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org>; <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> Sent: Sunday, September 19, 2004 4:19 PM Subject: [lbo-talk] Ralph Nader, 2001-2003
> >2) Of course he's not going to get press coverage (though he'd get more
> >of it than you or I would). No serious reformer or radical is ever going
> >to get much press coverage, except to smear. You gotta work around that.
> >But if almost none of the subscribers to this list heard about much of
> >what Ralph did between 2001 and 2003, who did?
>>
>>Doug
>
> If LBO-talk subscribers in particular or Americans in general do not read
> newspapers, is it Ralph Nader's fault? :->
>
> <blockquote>The Boston Globe
> November 11, 2001, Sunday ,THIRD EDITION
> SECTION: METRO/REGION; Pg. B5
> LENGTH: 413 words
> HEADLINE: NADER CALLS US WAR 'RIVERBOAT GAMBLE'
> BYLINE: By Joe Spurr, and Jenny Jiang, Globe Correspondents
>
> Ralph Nader's criticisms of the federal government during last year's
> presidential race haven't shrunk. They've grown.
>
> Calling the US war in Afghanistan "a riverboat gamble," Nader said
> President Bush is "basically in the process of burning down the haystack
> to find the needle."
>
> In an interview yesterday with the Globe before speaking at a peace rally
> in Boston, Nader argued that a blend of "bribes, spies, and limited
> military action, coupled with a big humanitarian effort by the UN" would
> be more effective and minimize the costs to innocent civilians.
>
> "You have to ask yourself, 'What happens after you catch the backers of
> the attackers and you leave . . . behind an extremely devastated society
> bitter?' " Nader said.
>
> He addressed a near-capacity crowd at the 2,700-seat Orpheum Theatre
> during the "Democracy Rising" tour, a series of rallies to bring local and
> national groups together on such issues as universal health care and clean
> elections.
>
> The crowd clapped as they watched excerpts from an independent documentary
> on peace rallies in Washington and New York after the Sept. 11 attacks.
>
> "I think that Americans do feel an impulse to support their government at
> this time," said John Brett, a senior at Dartmouth College. But "even
> though the polls show that the majority of Americans support some sort of
> action, they may not support the actual measures put in place by the
> government."
>
> Sitting in the lobby of the Omni Parker House hotel before the rally,
> Nader said that not only would thousands of Afghan civilians suffer as a
> result of the US military campaign, but the strikes may foster deeper
> resentment toward the United States.
>
> "If we reconstruct Afghanistan, we could come out ahead with the people
> because the Taliban is very repressive," Nader said. "But we've never done
> that since the Marshall Plan in Europe. Every time we get involved -
> Somalia, Grenada, Panama - we back out like the Wild West tavern guys
> backing out with their six-guns flaming."
>
> History has shown that once the pressure is off, Congress is less likely
> to appropriate money for reconstruction, Nader said.
>
> "Now, maybe it'll be different this time, because they need Afghanistan
> for a pipeline and other interests," Nader said. "Suddenly, Afghanistan
> becomes strategic."
>
> He accused the Bush administration of capitalizing on the "thought
> conformity" in Capitol Hill and creating a climate where dissent is viewed
> as being unpatriotic, un-American.</blockquote>
>
> Search Lexis-Nexis with the term "Ralph Nader" in the headlines or lead
> paragraphs of articles in "major papers," and you'll get 403 articles in
> 2001, 347 in 2002, 258 in 2003. Broaden the parameters from the headlines
> or lead paragraphs to full texts, and you'll get even more: 957 articles
> in 2001, 873 in 2002, and 667 in 2003. *No leftist, not even Michael
> Moore or Noam Chomsky or Howard Zinn, compares to Ralph Nader's ability to
> draw audiences and generate media coverage* (even in the years when he is
> not running for any political office!).
> --
> Yoshie
>
> * Critical Montages: <http://montages.blogspot.com/>
> * Greens for Nader: <http://greensfornader.net/>
> * Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
> * Calendars of Events in Columbus:
> <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
> <http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
> * Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
> * Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
> * Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>
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>
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