Nader Writes Letter to Bush on Gaza Crisis

Cong. Barney Frank said recently that Barack Obama’s declaration that “there is only one president at a time” over-estimated the number. He was referring to the economic crisis. But where are you on the Gaza crisis where the civilian population of Gaza, its civil servants and public facilities are being massacred and destroyed respectively by U.S built F-16s and U.S. built helicopter gunships.

The deliberate suspension of your power to stop this terrorizing of 1.5 million people, mostly refugees, blockaded for months by air, sea and land in their tiny slice of land, is in cowardly contrast to the position taken by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1956. That year he single handedly stopped the British, French and Israeli aircraft attack against Egypt during the Suez Canal dispute.

Fatalities in Gaza are already over 400 and injuries close to 2000 so far as is known. Total Palestinian civilian casualties are 400 times greater then the casualties incurred by Israelis. But why should anyone be surprised at your blanket support for Israel’s attack given what you have done to a far greater number of civilians in Iraq and now in Afghanistan?

Confirmed visual reports show that Israeli warplanes and warships have destroyed or severely damaged police stations, homes, hospitals, pharmacies, mosques, fishing boats, and a range of public facilities providing electricity and other necessities.

Why should this trouble you at all? It violates international law, including the Geneva Conventions and the UN Charter. You too have repeatedly violated international law and committed serious constitutional transgressions.

Then there is the matter of the Israeli government blocking imports of critical medicines, equipment such as dialysis machines, fuel, food, water, spare parts and electricity at varying intensities for almost two years. The depleted UN aid mission there has called this illegal blockade a humanitarian crisis especially devastating to children, the aged and the infirm. Chronic malnutrition among children is rising rapidly. UN rations support eighty percent of this impoverished population.

How do these incontrovertible facts affect you? Do you have any empathy or what you have called Christian charity?

What would a vastly shrunken Texas turned in an encircled Gulag do up against the 4th most powerful military in the world? Would these embattled Texans be spending their time chopping wood?

Gideon Levy, the veteran Israeli columnist for Ha’aretz, called the Israeli attack a “brutal and violent operation” far beyond what was needed for protecting the people in its south. He added: “The diplomatic efforts were just in the beginning, and I believe we could have got to a new truce without this bloodshed…..to send dozens of jets to bomb a total helpless civilian society with hundreds of bombs—just today, they were burying five sisters. I mean, this is unheard of. This cannot go on like this. And this has nothing to do with self-defense or with retaliation even. It went out of proportion, exactly like two-and-a-half years ago in Lebanon.”

Apparently, thousands of Israelis, including some army reservists, who have demonstrated against this destruction of Gaza agree with Mr. Levy. However, their courageous stands have not reached the mass media in the U.S. whose own reporters cannot even get into Gaza due to Israeli prohibitions on the international press.

Your spokespeople are making much ado about the breaking of the six month truce. Who is the occupier? Who is the most powerful military force? Who controls and blocks the necessities of life? Who has sent raiding missions across the border most often? Who has sent artillery shells and missiles at close range into populated areas? Who has refused the repeated comprehensive peace offerings of the Arab countries issued in 2002 if Israel would agree to return to the 1967 borders and agree to the creation of a small independent Palestinian state possessing just twenty two percent of the original Palestine?

The “wildly inaccurate rockets”, as reporters describe them, coming from Hamas and other groups cannot compare with the modern precision armaments and human damage generated from the Israeli side.

There are no rockets coming from the West Bank into Israel. Yet the Israeli government is still sending raiders into that essentially occupied territory, still further entrenching its colonial outposts, still taking water and land and increasing the checkpoints This is going on despite a most amenable West Bank leader, Mahmoud Abbas, whom you have met with at the White House and praised repeatedly. Is it all vague words and no real initiatives with you and your emissary Condoleezza Rice?

Peace was possible, but you provided no leadership, preferring instead to comply with all wishes and demands by the Israeli government—even resupplying it with the still active cluster bombs in south Lebanon during the invasion of that country in 2006.

The arguments about who started the latest hostilities go on and on with Israel always blaming the Palestinians to justify all kinds of violence and harsh treatment against innocent civilians.

From the Palestinian standpoint, you would do well to remember the origins of this conflict which was the dispossession of their lands. To afford you some empathy, recall the oft-quoted comment by the founder of Israel, David Ben-Gurion, who told the Zionist leader, Nahum Goldmann:

“There has been anti-Semitism the Nazis Hitler Auschwitz but was that their [the Palestinians] fault? They only see one thing: We have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?”
Alfred North Whitehead once said: “Duty arises out of the power to alter the course of events.” By that standard, you have shirked mightily your duty over the past eight years to bring peace to both Palestinians and Israelis and more security to a good part of the world.

The least you can do in your remaining days at the White House is adopt a modest profile in courage, and vigorously demand and secure a ceasefire and a solidly based truce. Then your successor, President-elect Obama can inherit something more than the usual self-censoring Washington puppet show that eschews a proper focus on the national interests of the United States.

Ralph Nader

McSame And Obama Nation Some Would Rather Not Vote

Over the last six months it was pretty difficult to not hear the names of our Presidential candidates over and over again, and now with the Presidential primaries expected to launch that reality will be even more hard to ignore.

One thing I did learn on my endeavors in the past few months is the growing concern coming from a significant group who claims not to like either candidate. Today's post is to remind everyone out there that the television and corporate press does not have to rob you of your vote.

There is a big secret, a secret that both major parties are not happy about and that is there are other candidates in the running besides Obama and McCain, so if you do not like them you could perhaps vote for someone else?! The overwhelming response I get when I mention this radical idea of a third party is laughter and the snickering reply that third parties are not real candidates. Pehaps if they were the television would be all over it because lord only knows they would be going "Anna Nicole Smith" on a president that launched an illegal war, why we have a massive naval buildup in the Persian Gulf, and airing executives facing criminal racketeering by the hundreds in the wake of all these bank failures.

My point, is that the television is not your mind, it is not what is best for America, and it certainly ought not affect your opinion about who you believe is best for America. Below are the alternate Presidential Choices and their Ads. The Ads that you will probably never see. My point today, if you do not like McSame, or ObamaNation than come vote anyway and give one of these longshots a voice in 2012. If they score 10% they will be included in the debates next election.

THE THIRD PARTY LINE UP

Connecticut's Own Ralph Nader (Green Party/Independent Party)



A Voice For The U.S. Constitution Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party)



Former Republican U.S. Congressman Bob Barr (Libertarian Party)

Presidential Politics In Connecticut

This is the update on all of the action regarding the presidency here in Connecticut. The Independent party, is still vying to get Ralph Nader on the ballot as a presidential candidate. Currently Ralph won his latest appeal in the 9th circuit court. This decision was filed by the Democratic party who wanted him off the ballot. Not only does it appear that Connecticut's perennial presidential candidate will be back but he is pulling 6% in the latest U.S. presidential poll. Should Ralph gain another 4% he will be included in the Presidential Debates come November.

Party outcast Joe Lieberman has announced that he will not seek the nomination for Vice President. As we all know in the last Presidential election Lieberman was Al Gore's choice. Lieberman, neither a Democrat or a Republican has expressed his support for John McCain. Both Lieberman and McCain share the view that a hard line stance must be taken with Iran.

Senator Chris Dodd, also a former presidential candidate, and Attorney General Blumenthal's favorite is hoping to be Obama's choice of a Vice President. Chris Dodd is also the chairman of the Finance committee and often meets with Ben Bernake to discuss the latest economic events regarding the mortgage meltdown and interest rates.

As the race moves on we are all anxiously awaiting what has been dubbed the "veep stakes" to see who the candidates will chose for their VP. With George Bush having been born in Connecticut it seems like the little old Nutmeg state holds a powerhouse of leadership even to include Henri Kissinger out in Kent.

Frank and Independent Party Welcome Ralph Nader To Connecticut

America's renowned consumer advocate and presidential candidate Ralph Nader greeted a crowd of people in a Middlebury church last night. Ralph gave a speech lasting over an hour and a half on what he thought were our great nations troubles.

His speech was inspiring, and at times moving, Nader has been using his celebrity status to inform the next generation of voters as to the true nature of what he called corporate feudalism and its death grip on Washington D.C.

Nader has been critical of the Corporation who has no voting rights or in many cases no allegiance to our nation gaining complete control over our leadership in D.C. The new trend has become policy for profit, and the corporate giants employ candidates of their choosing to achieve their global financial objectives.

Nader has called the electoral system a sham, where the news covers simple soundbites that often leave out much vital news facts. He also cited the media as the machine that raises their "sweetheart" candidates to stardom building the required credibility that they need to succeed. Nader also mentioned that he had been previously sued by numerous political factions in many states to have his name removed from the ballot. He called such a practice an unethical form of legal political harassment.

Nader who is now about 70 years old will not run again in any future political office, but many of us today should be thankful for his life work of challenging automakers in the 60's-70's to make our cars safer. Nader's auto safety standards resulted in the implementation of crumple zones and safer steering columns saving the lives of innumerable young drivers and adults. The very cars we drive today are safer because of his selfless commitment and relentless efforts.

It was an honor and a privilege to hear Nader speak in Middlebury, and a greater honor to have had the time to personally meet with him after the event and discuss some of my own agenda items. Let this post stand as my sincere appreciation and testament to his hard work that has so benefited the safety of my family, not only in cars but in countless other consumer issues, including his current efforts in challenging Chinese companies for their criminal policy of placing lead and toxins in our imported toys and other unrelated products.