Category Archives: Debunking Politicos Pundits + Spin

Memorandum
To: Ralph “Nadering Nabob of Negativism” Nader
From: Schädelmann.com
Date: Right Now
Subject: Time To Take A Blowtorch and a Pair of Pliers To Your Sorry Ass
Mr. Nader, it’s come to my attention you have chosen to run for the Presidency of the United States of America in 2004. That’s great. I am sure you’re full of all kinds of bile and vinegar, and have plenty of insult-laden attacks on Democrats worthy of a Rove. Woo hoo.
You still have the nerve to blather you were “right” in 2000. Even your past supporters have told you not to run, and rational people agree that your basic thesis – that electing Gore or Bush would make no difference – has been blown to smithereens by four years of war, corruption, and corporate rule under President Bush. If you honestly think we’d be in the same situation today with a President Gore, you’re either insane or stupid. Pick one.
Don’t get me wrong. If you want to run again, that’s fine with me. I’m all for free speech and if you want to sound like the egomaniacal fool that you are, go forth and rant. The 1st Amendment still protects stupid speech (unless you’re Justin Timberlake…but I digress) and the Republic is not threatened by you this time, despite what some may think.
However, I’m going to exercise my free speech rights and demand you be held accountable for your shadowy past and answer for your missteps just as we should with Sen. John Kerry and President Bush. To paraphrase a popular film by Mr. Tarantino – it’s time to take a blowtorch and a pair of pliers to your ass. You may have gotten a free pass from the corporate-think Washington Insiders at the DNC, but no more. Since they seem to have an almost congenital inability to put up a fight, I’m sparking up the torch right now.
I’ve read and heard your negative, angry, bitter ranting, aiming your hatred at people like Gov. Howard Dean, who built in mere months what your sorry ass has tried to do for decades – build a national movement organized for change based on small donations raised through honest means. I’ve heard you say a lot as an activist and a candidate about how money corrupts politics. Interestingly enough, your own fundraising schemes provide little alternative to our current corrupt process.
What’s the Nader way of doing business? Run a record-club like scam on college campuses (AKA the PIRGs) to get the money you need. I’ve seen these operations up close as a former canvasser for CalPIRG, and the shady fundraising, along with some of the lousiest work conditions this side of Bangalore, aren’t pretty. Any job that makes staff pay for office supplies out of their pocket while raking in millions is no progressive workplace.
I’m not the only one who has seen behind the curtain and Ralph, it ain’t pretty. Too many others have come forward as well with their allegations, and your witty rejoinder is to attack them personally, or avoid talking about the issue altogether. Not exactly full and frank disclosure, is it?
It’s bad enough your fundraising operations are so shadowy, but even more troubling is your long record of union busting activities at your various organizations. At a time when organized labor is taking it on the chin from all sides, the last thing we need is an avowed enemy of labor organizing proclaiming them to be the true friend of working men and women in this country. The fact that you still refuse to fully explain how and why you take money and support from hiding behind a web of corporate-style organizations that’s not the case. Mr. Nader, you make activism into a business that profits you and you alone. Worse, you’ve gotten a pass from the media for investing said funds into consumer friendly operations like Halliburton Corporation, no friend of the environment or the taxpayer. Not this time, though. You can’t keep hypocritically demanding the government and other candidates put out a full and frank disclosure of their interests but only do so yourself after years of denial and evasion. Feel that heat? That’s the blowtorch cutting it really close right about now.
The corruption and lying would be bas enough, but your egomaniacal lack of support of up and coming progressive leaders like San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez is really astonishing. When the election was getting close, Mayor Newsom had President Clinton and Vice President Gore helping him out as an up and coming Democrat. When an up and coming Green Party politico needed help, you were AWOL. I’m sure you have some bullshit excuse, but it won’t wash with me, and it certainly doesn’t wash with the Greens.
Filmmaker Michael Moore found time to give support and a contribution to Matt’s campaign – it’s strange that a self-appointed Green Party leader couldn’t do the same. You might have been of some use in an election that mattered – but I think you were too busy screaming insults and witty barbs at the Democrats to pay attention. (That’s the pliers making their appearance about now).
So go forth and run, Ralph. Your bid won’t generate nearly the enthusiasm or the support it did just a few years ago, and the fact is, you won’t be on enough ballots to make much of a difference anyway. Rational and free-thinking people know that this election’s too important to screw around with a self-appointed cult leader whose main contribution to American politics of late has been nasty and rude comments about the personalities of Democratic politicians, while offering no record of accomplishments since you took on the Chevy Corvair.
Not any more. If the Democrats and the media won’t do their job, I will do it for them. I have plenty of pairs of pliers and a good blowtorch, and have no problems using both, and more, this time around Ralph. Consider yourself warned. The Nader-ing Nabob of Negativity ends now and Schädelmann.com plans to lead the charge.
© 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com

Reading the news this morning I have but one question for President Bush: “Why sir, do you mock me so?”
What do I mean? Well, President Bush has this weird habit of saying things I like that make good headlines. Just when I think perhaps I’ve misjudged, or at least underestimated Our Fearless Leader, I read the fine print and then I feel conned.
For example, Today the White House announced more of President Bush’s ongoing plans for outer space, today stating that America will build a new spacecraft to go to the moon, build a moonbase, and eventually send someone to Mars.
Now, on the surface this sounds really cool. Building a moon-base (albeit years past the Space: 1999 deadline), going to Mars, all that sounds great. But then I read the details – and I realize that this isn’t a manned mission to Mars – this is going to be a Corporate Mission to Mars, with Halliburton, Bechtel and the Gang who pay for the re-election effort in 2004 in charge. Judging by their performance rebuilding a small Third World country (Iraq) I can only imagine how much we’ll be paying for fuel, let alone a whole new spaceship and moonbase.
Plus there are endless questions about how this initiative will get funded, if at all, given the bloated debt a small war in Iraq has already cost us. If it is costing a trillion dollars or more to pay for Iraq, how much money will it cost to occupy the moon? And once the realities of paying for this bold, well written speech come to pass, how likely is it we’re going to actually go to the moon?
Reality sets in. President Bush has burned me again. A great headline, a great talking point, a debatable “issue” that will most likely disappear post-election 2004. If we actually get to the point of funding such an initiative, it’ll be scaled back to the point of ineffectiveness (similar to what President Nixon did in the early 1970s, giving us the half-assed Space Shuttle program in the first place). Corporations will get lots of money for “feasibility studies.” Nothing will happen.
Take another example: President Bush’s “bold” immigration proposal. It sounds great: finally addressing the swiss cheese that is immigration reality in this country, and dealing with the fact that most people who are here illegally are here to work at jobs provided by US employers. It seems to provide some sanity to the debate. And of course Mr. Rove has made sure that Latino voters read all about it.
Then the fine print: There really is no plan – just an outline with many loopholes and open ended pieces which if altered by Congress or the President can take what at first glance is a reasonable proposal, and distort it into something really nasty, or unworkable.
Of course, that’s not anyone’s concern today – we have Mr. Rove’s soundbites to “debate” as “issues” and once the election is over, we can toss these bite-sized factoids out the window, and President Bush can do whatever he feels like, free of any worry about the fallout.
Especially irritating is the ultimate mission of such an initiative – to “link up U.S. employers with willing foreign workers” – aka cheap workers – not the well-being of said individuals, or the well-being of states who have to contend with a large foreign population such as California or Texas. It’s more about making sure no one gets carted off to jail for hiring illegal immigrants and making sure wages are low for everyone (including U.S. Citizens), not about ensuring a workable situation for the people involved.
It’s almost a bait-and-switch, but the switch is so nebulous, and so hard to pin on the actual President himself, it’s easy for him to deny there was a switch in the first place – just “unforeseen new obstacles.” It’s a neat trick, something I would have never thought Bush was smart enough to pull off, but this more of Rove’s fingerprints than Bush or Bush the Elder’s.
The list goes on and on. Bush supports hydrogen fuels for future use by the US – great! We can finally tell the oil companies and the OPEC nations to go to hell and save what’s left of the environment with something cheap and clean. Then I read it’s to be derived from petroleum products, not sea water or other sources, thus defeating the purpose and advantage o such a plan. Fooled again.
The big one of course was that whole Iraq war thing we had sometime last year. The headline was great – save the world from WMDs and make the world safe for democracy at home and abroad. Sounds great – then you find out it’s more about securing oil reserves and spending money on donors to the Presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.
Is it even physically possible for this President to propose a policy that’s altruistic, for the people, and not connected to a future benefit for Halliburton, et al? Hmm.
And people wonder why Howard Dean speaks so passionately about why we need to replace the president, and wonder how his supporters can be so irritated at the president…I only wonder why it is more Washington Democrats and “Democratic” political insiders don’t.
PS: Friday’s column will be posted late as I’ll be on the road to the California Democratic Party convention in San Jose. The kind folks at the CDP have given me a press pass so I plan on writing short updates throughout the weekend as I get access to the Web. If I get access to a digital camera, I’ll be posting pictures as well!
� 2003-2006 Greg Dewar | All Rights Reserved | Originally Published at www.schadelmann.com