Ralph Nader: “Americans Need Moral Courage!” : Miami IMC

Baltimore, MD - On Saturday afternoon, June 10, 2006, Ralph Nader, a 3rd Party candidate for the presidency in 2004, spoke at a political rally, held in a conference room at the U. of Baltimore’s Langsdale Library. (1) The primary purpose of the affair was to boost the candidacy of Kevin Zeese, who is running as an Independent candidate for the U.S. Senate in Maryland. In 2004, Zeese served as Nader’s press secretary. (2)

Nader’s message emphasized that Americans need a good dose of “moral courage” to take on the corporate controllers of this country. A vast majority of the people need to get over “their own sense of helplessness and powerlessness,” he said. Once they get over that condition, he said, “start feeling sorry for Wall St., Washington, D.C. and the Congress...Moral courage is what is needed to address the problems of our neighborhoods, our community, our city, our state, our country, our world. It is a rare commodity.” He railed against the fact that power in this country is exercised “by the few” over the many. The reason for that, he explained, is that “self-government isn’t just a slogan. People need to be in charge, but in order to do that, they need to show up!”

The longtime champion of citizens’ rights underscored how 46 million people in this country don’t have any health insurance at all and that “18,000 a year die because they can’t afford it.” He lamented the fact that we live in a society that says, “You either pay or you die.” He continued, that 48 million people in the U.S. make “less than $11 an hour” and that because the statistics are manipulated by the government, that, in reality, “half of the population lives in poverty in the richest country in the world.”

An activist’s activist, Nader, has led the way on so many different fronts, he’s hard to categorize. Trained in the law, he has for decades, championed the consumer, and the fragile environment, too, against the perpetual excesses of Corporate America. Nader’s book, “Unsafe at any Speed,” propelled his name into the public’s consciousness. Despite setbacks, he wrote that the essence of a citizen’s movement “is persistence.” Born in Winsted, Connecticut, in 1934, Nader’s parents were Lebanese immigrants. He graduated magna cum laude from Princeton and with distinction from the Harvard School of Law. From “Public Citizen,” to “Pension Rights Center,” the many organizations, which he has helped to form, and energize, have continue to be in the forefront of the struggle for social and economic justice. (3)

Zeese, who has recently won ringing endorsements for his bid for the U.S. Senate from the state’s growing Green and Libertarian Parties, also spoke. He is strongly anti-Iraqi War and pro-environment, and he also opposes any U.S. attack on Iran. Zeese criticized one of his opponents, Rep. Ben Cardin (D-MD), for telling the electorate that he’s for peace in Iraq, while he’s “voting for the war” in the U.S. Congress. Cardin, he added, is also against any “exit strategy.” Zeese was appalled, too, by the Israeli Occupation Forces’ (IOF) missile attack yesterday on a beach at the Gaza Strip, which killed 7 innocent Palestinians. He said that our “lopsided” relationship with Israel means that “the U.S. taxpayer is complicit in what is going on there,” and that the Israeli-Palestine question “can’t be ignored any longer. It needs to be debated. It’s the root cause of our own security problems. And, the root cause of terrorism against the U.S.”

Getting back to Nader. He praised the popular “Dixie Chicks,” a country music group, for standing up against those who had abused and boycotted them for criticizing some of the insanities of the Bush administration. (4) He said that they came back with an album that “stood tall and was one of defiance. They made no apologies. In their little hands, they had more courage then 150 members of the U.S. Congress.” Nader also asked this question: “Why do people vote against their own interests? The clear example of that,” he said, “is the people who voted for George W. Bush.” He ripped into President Bush, too, for funding the Missile Defense Program (MDP) to the tune of $9.5 billion a year, while allowing AMTRAK “to crumble.” He labeled the MDP, “a boondoggle, that will never work. It is too easily decoyed.” Because of the huge deficits established by the present regime, Nader called Bush, “a taxer of grandchildren,” since they are the ones who will have to “pay it off,” assuming there is still an economy around for them to do so.

As part of the event, R.B. Jones, a journalist and poet, read three of his anti-Iraqi War poems, which attacked the criminality of the Bush-Cheney Gang. Musical entertainment at the rally was provided by Bilal Salaam, a lively jambe drummer and rapper.

Also speaking at the spirited affair, was the Green Party’s nominee for governor of Maryland, Ed Boyd. (5) He’s a U.S. Navy veteran. Boyd said, “Marylanders are being ‘Enroned’ by the corporations.” One of the main problems confronting the state’s voters is that the local utility, Baltimore Gas & Electric (BGE), is planning to hike its rates a staggering 72% in July, 2006. Boyd strongly opposes such a draconian measure. He is also demanding that the incumbent GOP governor, Robert Ehrlich, a Newt Gingrich clone; and one of the Democratic challengers; Baltimore’s Mayor, Marty “Short Fuse” O’Malley; return the huge campaign contributions that they both have received from BGE’s parent company, Constellation Energy (CE). Ehrlich, who also grabbed a $16,000 contribution, in 2002, from the corrupt lobbyist, Jack Abramoff, took in $54,000 from CE; while the hypocritical O’Malley, who piously poses as a foe of Big Business, reined in $45,000. (6)

Summing up the presentation, Nader said: “The big secret in a democracy is that the people have the power. If they would realize it, exercise it, organize it and focus it, with a fraction of the their free time.” If the people want a living wage, universal health care, their public works restored to a decent level, to stop the tax cuts for the rich, to have clean water to drink and clean air to breath, he said, “they need to get involved in the political process...get motivated.” If they don’t, Nader warned, they will get “more criminal wars, fabricated wars...bringing home our dead soldiers, sick soldiers, traumatized soldiers,” while continuing to devastate “more Iraqis...” (7) He continued, that in order to turn the present situation around, “the people need to believe in themselves, believe that they have the power...and then to take action.” He finished up his remarks by calling Zeese, “a great candidate for the U.S. Senate.”

In my opinion, Nader proved again today that he is one of America’s finest sons and an outstanding credit to his Arabic heritage.

Notes:

1. This author proudly notes that he is a graduate of the U. of Baltimore and has an AA Degree (1961) and Juris Doctorate (1964) from that splendid institution. http://www.ubalt.edu/
2. http://kevinzeese.com/component/option,com_frontpage/Itemid,1/
3. http://www.nader.org/shortbio.html
4. http://www.wn.com/p/0f/b41debfadd0a61.html?id=WNAT22d8fcd7115c257835e4a6ded7fdbcad
5. http://www.baltimoregreens.org/boyd0216.php
6. http://www.thewbalchannel.com/politics/8040026/detail.html
7. Video: R.B. Jones Reading his Anti-Iraqi War Poems, can be found here: http://homepage.mac.com/bhughes2/iMovieTheater203.html

© William Hughes 2006.

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘’No’ to the War Party” (IUniverse, Inc.). He can be reached at liamhughes@comcast.net.

Please let the greatest attorney
in Philadelphia, Robert F. Simone
know that Jeff (aka Wolfie)
(aka whizkid) Fisher is going to
stop running and present the
evidence that he was going
to have Congresswoman Maxine Waters
give to the House Judiciary Committee.

I also want Attorney Willie Brown
in San Francisco and Attorney
Roger J Rosen in Century City to know
that I am thankful for their advice also.

To Mr. Nader...Remember the night
that I spoke with you from Benjamin
Roth's home. You had agreed to challenge
the vote in Florida as long as we
had found a financial source. We had
that source. A billionaire. Then
Kevin Zeese had a problem with
the news getting out to the public.

Well I didn't give up. I couldn’t
tell you everything then. That
was due to threats that I was
already receiving. That contact
person between you and I is one
of the protected twenty-two
individuals that became official
on December 8, 2004 in the
Rayburn Building.

My former third ex-campaign/communications
manager has laughed about the
threats on that person. That man
is Al Rogers. He has laughed
about too many things regarding
me being the Witness/Whistleblower
and whom I am protecting.

I ask you... If someone was going
to rape, slice and burn a person
would you laugh about it?

I didn’t think you would.

This is how sadistic the threat
was on that specific person. As
for the remaining twenty-one
the threats ranged from maiming,
raping, kidnapping, blowing up
with explosives one individual
just because they had agreed
with my peace plan and even
burn down a church in Fort Pierce,
Florida with the people locked inside.

That church was where I had recently
converted back to Christianity.

These threats came from the Mossad.
How do I know? I recognized that
specific voice from December 8,
2004 on November 9, 2005 in
Philadelphia when two Mossad agents
pistol-whipped me and interrogated
me. I never forget a voice.

I get chastised on the net
because I bring up this specific
protected individual. They rant
and rave on me saying why bring
up my personal life with the
election manipulation.

These people are so blind to
the fact that this individual
and the others were under grave
threats if I revealed the
information and evidence that
I had not told anyone.

Information found from July 27,
2004 till late October just
before the November 2, 2004 election.

This individual and the others
would not have been in danger if
I hadn’t learned of how the American
Israeli Public Affairs Committee
had a major role in the manipulation
of our elections via financing,
recruitment (drug rehab facilities)
and issuing back door channels for
funds to pay for programmers.

Specifically, Sean S. Lennon,
Mike Razar, and Dr. Piotr Blass
and Clint Curtis.

I had obtained so much information
that was mind-boggling to say the
least. Well, time has passed and
the truth is finally getting out.

I am asking again for your assistance.

Now read the letter that is being placed
all over the United States and the planet.

__________________________________________

I have called Robert Kennedy’s Hotline
number several times over the past
three plus days.

That number is 866-313-9443. I
have left numerous messages that
only the Kennedy’s would know about,
specifically information that I
have relayed to them over
the past six months.

Specifically, Congressman Patrick Kennedy.

I have informed them that I am going
to the LA Times this coming week
regarding the 2000 election evidence
I am offering to them.

This is the evidence that Congresswoman
Maxine Waters tried to quash on May 18,
2006 from getting from her LA office
to the House Judiciary Committee which
was a prearranged meeting set up by
her Chief of Staff, Mikhail (spelling unsure).

Ms Waters had the LAPD escort me
in handcuffs on a 5150. She only
succeeded for 30 hours.

I have contacts whose contacts
in "intel" had me released without
any questions asked.

I also have other reporters who now of
this meeting just in case I am stopped,
harmed or just disappear.

This conspiracy reaches beyond
the shores of the United States.

Signed,
An American Patriot Jeff Fisher

National Whistle Blower Hotline
(202) 580-8531