RAGING AT NADER

I stayed up all night and watched Ralph bloody Nader announce his run for the White House on Meet the Press this morning. Refraining from screaming “Egomaniac weasel shithead!” more than four or five times – I contained my thoughts into three basic points.

1) Nader is attempting to take the progressive, anti-corporate high ground. This means that, if Kerry (or whoever) attempts any bold or radical initiatives on health care, prescription drugs, oil dependancy etc., the door will be wide open for accusations by the Bush campaign that the Dems are merely caving in to pressure from the Nader left, and cry "how can you elect a president who can be pushed around by Ralph Nader."

2) Where will Nader get his money? He says from web appeals, but it would be all too easily possible for Bush to keep him in the race as a spoiler and energy drain, by covertly channeling funds, with or without Nader even knowing it.

3) Nader gives the impression that he believes he can pick up many of the young and idealist Dean supporters to be his campaign grunts, almost as if he had some divine right to their support. As one who is not so young but still shamelessly idealistic, I'm disgusted, because, bottom line, what he betrays by this is nothing more than a cynical contempt for their idealism.

Right now I’m lobbying for print space to expand this analysis.

THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY BUSHWHACKERS (LEB)

The matter of Bush’s monstrous heap of cash money is pointed up by a webclip from some girl...

Specifically, while the president attacks Senator John Kerry (D-MA) for accepting money from lobbyists, a new study shows "the president accepted more in direct contributions from lobbyists in one year than Kerry did in the past 15 years." All told, Bush collected at least $6.5 million in "bundled" contributions from lobbyists last year alone.
Full story – http://www.misleader.org

And some girl also spotlights Bush’s under-the-radar attacks on women’s rights...

Thumbing his nose at the Senate for the second time in recent weeks, President Bush today appointed one of the most virulently anti-choice and anti-privacy judicial activists, Bill Pryor, to the Eleventh Circuit federal bench. Just a month after his surprise appointment of anti-choice Charles Pickering to the Fifth Circuit bench, Bush proved today that he'll go to any length, violate any rule, and upset any precedent to pack the courts with anti-choice extremists. Mr. Pryor has called Roe v. Wade an "abominable decision." The truly abominable decision is to give this hardened anti-choice crusader a seat on the federal bench. This outrageous appointment puts a judge who opposes abortion even in cases of rape or incest in a frightening position of power over women's lives in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.
Full story – http://prochoiceaction.org

Which brings us back to Nader and his totally cavalier attitude to abortion rights in the 2000 campaign, retold on the Headblast website – http://davidcogswell.com/

In that campaign his response to a question about whether the Republican Supreme Court would endanger the right to abortion, Nader said if the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs Wade it would just go back to the states, as if the lives of women in Bible belt states were not a concern to him.

BLIMP LIKE AN EAGLE

Kaymo sends another of his military-industrial horror tales, which fits quite neatly with the revelations on last night’s edition of 60 Minutes that the Patriot Missile System (PMS???), so touted by Bush Sr, as a Scud-buster in the first Gulf War, is in fact better at shooting down US planes that enemy missiles. In Pentagon-speak it has “high fratricide levels”.

You heard about this one?
USAF is working on the Evolutionary Air and Space Global Laser Engagement, or EAGLE, a gigantic blimp about twenty to thirty times as big as a Goodyear blimp. Slung underneath it would be an array of huge mirrors designed to reflect high power laser beams that would be directed from either ground based transmitters or from orbiting power satellites. The reflected laser beams would be used to destroy enemy missiles, planes, limousines, you name it. This monstrosity is being created at the Air Force Research Lab's Directed Energy Division. At first glance this looks like just another Pentagon mega-turkey. A way of spending lots of taxpayer dollars and allowing young, right thinking science types to have rewarding careers. But apart from the grotesque mismatch between acronym and gas bag there's also the Pandora effect to consider. If the US can do this, so can others and do we really want colossal airships patrolling the stratosphere ready at a moments notice to fry just about anything chosen as a target to a crisp?

CRYPTIQUE – It beats working.

– AND IF YOU FIND DOC40 QUAINTLY AMUSING, FOR FUCK’S SAKE SEND A LINK TO A FRIEND!