Obama Says He'll Debate Nader!

I was just driving to work and listening to WAMC. Senator Harry Reid was on talking about how healthy he felt the Democratic Party "debates" were for the country. He was also making all the usual excuses for why the Democrats weren't fighting for the agenda of those who elected them in 2006. I couldn't help but be disgusted. The "debates" have simply been he said/she said battles between the two Democratic Senators whose views are fairly similar. I want debates but I certainly don't want 21 photo-ops between two people who basically agree on everything and thats what I've seen thus far.

Am I wrong to want substantive criticism and discussion of each candidate's "health care" plan? Is it really weird that I want a moderator to ask these empty corporate heads why, in the name of God, they and their party don't support Single Payer Health Care? I want discussion of why universal health care that is half the price we currently pay isn't even on the table. Is it really so strange that I would like to hear an actual discussion of the subtle differences between staying in Iraq for "a few more years" or "until 2011" or "until the job is done". Whatever happened to the whole "I am against this war", "Lets get the Hell out right now!" position? Which one of these pro-war candidates has a plan for peace and which one will bomb Iran as soon as they can? I want to know why nuclear power and big coal support both candidates even though each one claims to support "alternative, sustainable" energy? ets have some details about their individual policies to resolve America's energy crisis and self-created carbon emission troubles. Lets have a debate where they each discuss the mechanics of HOW their plans (for anything) will work!

Obama settled my mind somewhat recently when he said that he would debate Ralph Nader. The Nader Campaign sent this (tongue in cheek) email out (I've posted it below and you can also check it out online at "votenader.org"). If Obama really would debate Ralph, I would send him a check and a letter supporting his democratic principle. I really would. I wonder, though, should Obama become the candidate in the general election and then refuse to make good on his promise (or even mention it) .... How many Obama supporters will see the light and send Ralph a check and a letter? ;-)

Nader and Gonzalez on WAMC

Here is the wonderful hour given to democracy by our friends at WAMC. A big thanks to Ray Graff, Joe Donahue, Brian Shields (and, of course, Ralph) for making this Vox Pop happen.

WAMC's Vox Pop Podcast (Brian Shields with Ralph Nader) April 24, 2008

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1272639

My Speech at Single-Payer Health Care Rally in Albany

My name is Matt Funiciello. I am a small business owner here in the state of NY. I own a wholesale bread bakery in Moreau, N.Y. and we employ about 40 people. As wheat prices have tripled, we have had to struggle to find new ways to make ends meet. We had been purchasing terrible overpriced HMO insurance for those of our workers who chose to participate and we had been paying approximately 50% of the premiums.

Several months ago, we were forced to cancel our participation in said plan leaving our workers to find coverage elsewhere or do without. Some are lucky enough to have a spouse whose employer is better able to cover these expenses. Some are simply going without and some are trying to buy insurance on their own and now paying more because they are buying insurance as individuals and are not able to benefit from group purchasing.

I would just think of this as a hard time, a time we'll all eventually pass through but I find it very hard to do that. You see, I grew up in Canada and have lived under the care of a real health care system so I find it very hard to watch my children, my friends and my workers struggle on without something so vital as adequate and affordable access to doctors and health care. Being fully aware that greed and waste are what make their suffering possible is a terrible cross to bear.

Senator Charles Schumer said the other day, "Healthcare, I feel strongly about, but I am not sure that we're ready for a major national healthcare plan."

Schumer is not the first elected official to question our readiness for national health care. He and many others seem unable to comprehend the simple math that allows those of in small business to understand what they cannot.

Lets play the Single-Payer/Small Business Math Game for just a second ...

We are currently spending $7,129 dollars per person to cover 257,000,000 Americans badly.
This costs about $1.832 trillion dollars a year.

Now, over 30 other industrialized nations have universal health care and it costs them all about half of that amount per capita with universal coverage.

Lets take off our politician's hats for a moment and put on our Small Business Owner's hats instead.

$1.832 trillion dollars divided by 304,000,000 Americans equals $6027 dollars per person.

So, for all of you non-politicians out there who are able to do simple math, we just took the current amount actually being spent on health care in this country and divided it by the number of people who actually live here and ... the result? We see that everyone in this country could be covered for the exact same amount being spent today if we were just able to lower our per capita
costs from $7129 to $6027 per person, a difference of just over $1,100 dollars.

Well, is that possible? Could we do it? Lets keep our small business owner's hats on for just another minute and speak plainly about this dilemma. Where can we find and save this $1100 dollars per person that would allow us to cover everyone?

I bet many of you non-politicians already know the answer. We currently suffer under a system that allows for profit and administrative costs that run as high as 35%! If we could bring those costs down, that would be great, because together they amount to almost $2500 dollars per year per person! I remind you ... we only needed to save $1100 to achieve the desired result, full coverage for all!

Now, if Canadians and 35 other industrialized countries can all have health care for half of what we spend and live a year longer, why can't we? Its sure as heck not because of a lack of money being thrown at this problem.

And, if Medicare can run effectively with only a 2-3% administrative costs, why can't the private sector? I thought it was more efficient to privatize things? Apparently, its not and we need to do that other thing business does well, centralize and negotiate pricing.

Its time for our elected officials to stop telling us lies. We already spend far more than any other country does for universal care. It is time for single payer health care now! It is also time to withhold your votes from any politician who refuses to step up to the plate and hit this ball out of the park. We're virtually lobbing it to you. If you can't hit it, then lets have someone else step up to the plate who can!

The ComPost-Star Defends Its Two-Party Bias

Our "local" corporate paper is the Glens Falls Post-Star. Its owned by the publishing empire known as Lee Enterprises who currently own 51 dailies across the country. As with many small corporate papers, the Post-Star doesn't do a terrible job with local news and many good people (including some friends) work there. However, they have a monopoly in our little town and are widely hated for their bias and lack of integrity by most people I come across (regardless of their individual politics).

The P-S buried their recent advance story on Ralph Nader's April 26th visit to our little town. It was carefully placed on page B7 in Saturday's paper (which few people read). When I got them an actual interview with Ralph, hoping they would do something front page or at least, more substantive, they did do a tiny bit better, giving him a small right hand sidebar story on page B1 with a tiny photo. As for coverage of the actual event, they only came to the fundraising dinner and not to the public Wood Theater event. We had about 225 people come out to see him. There was a lengthy standing ovation and there were four TV stations there (the local Time Warner and NBC affiliates covered it). There were three other videographers and six print journalists there from different papers (indie and otherwise). The Post-Star printed a little story on the visit on Sunday and had their anonymous an cowardly sniper, Don Coyote ("Dumb Coyote"), tell us all on the front page, "No wonder way more people went to see Rachael Ray than Ralph Nader. He didn't even have an ice sculpture." (Rachael Ray was in Lake George, her hometown, that same night, at a annual fundraiser she holds at at her alma mater, Lake George High School.)

What would it be like if Ralph made a living hawking Dunkin Donuts on TV instead of working tirelessly on our behalf? Would he then warrant some substantive coverage in the Post-Star's

precious little pages? Is that what it really takes to get on their "radar" and to earn their respect? You've got to be on TV selling crap? I can easily imagine that Miley Cyrus is the editorial staff's favorite singer (they've likely never heard of KD Lang or Lyle Lovett or Blue Rodeo, those people aren't on TV often enough to be "relevant" singers). I bet McDonald's is their favorite restaurant ("Aw shucks, them burgers is on the tube all the time, dude!). These are not people one could accuse of being too bright and they control the mainstream's access to information!

Apparently, they have never heard of journalism or substance or truth. They are so caught up in their bullshit TV world, they have lost the ability to focus on things that actually matter.

Since then, their lack of coverage has caused the story on the dinner to be the "Most Commented" on their website. Check it out.

http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/04/27/news/local/13551380.txt

The editorial staff have also regularly responded to online criticisms of their biased coverage (or non-coverage in many cases) by attacking me or the others who make note of their criminal behavior. John Thomas had a great letter to the editor published about the Post Star's pathetic behavior (I've copied it below). They responded (as always, using anonymity) with an "Editor's Note" saying that they had given "ample" coverage to Ralph. They also said this to me in an anonymous editor's note ... "Just declaring yourself a presidential candidate doesn't automatically make you equal to the others. If McCain, Clinton or Obama came to Glens Falls, our readers would be expecting, and we would be giving them, much more coverage than Nader. That has nothing to do with the "corporate media" junk you keep throwing out. It's common sense. Any other paper, big or small, corporate or privately owned, would do the exact same thing."

Amazing! All I can think of is that old adage we have all heard many times over the millennia, "If little Mikey jumped off the Brooklyn Bridge, would you do it, too?"

Apparently the Post Star management will follow their corporate media "leaders" right off the bridge. Their God, the mighty Boob Tube, can do no wrong. Sad little people ... all of them. If the many other media mechanisms we often think of as more "credible" didn't also cheer lead the war, water down the issues, ignore and marginalize candidates, promote big business and parrot wire stories, I would think the Post-Star was a truly evil mechanism. Knowing that they are just following the lead of NBC and PBS and Disney and the NY Times and the Washington Post makes me feel better. If they are just stupid and easily-led ... that means there is hope for them yet! ;-)

John Thomas Writes A Letter

This is a great letter published in the Post-Star concerning their terribly sparse coverage of Ralph Nader as he visited their "hometown". Thought you might get a kick out of it. You've got to love the editor's inane comment arguing that they gave him "ample" coverage. ;-)

Nader did not get the coverage he deserves

Editor:

Attendee's at the Wood Theatre were provoked by Mr. Nader to think about the situations in our nation. Mr. Nader is a seasoned Capitol Hill activist, the American people are his constituency.

Mr. Nader offers solutions to help us out of mire we've gotten into, solutions that cost only commitment and participation in the upcoming election.

Many people will not vote, some vote the party line, some will watch exit polls, vote for projected winners; projected winners have enough votes, we have to vote our conscience.

We do not have to vote for either of the two parties, and we do not have to vote to elect the lesser of two evils. It's time to take back our streets, schools, children, censor TV shows and hobble the Internet. We are distracted from government by mindless drivel; TV, movies, Internet, trash radio and biased news reporting.

Consider -- the economy is suffering, schools are suffering, huge energy issues, and Rachael Ray gets more press in the Sunday, April 27 paper than a viable, cogent, honest and altruistic presidential candidate; none of the current three popular presidential hopefuls on their best day can make any of those claims.

What have any of them done for the American people except spend tax dollars like they were on a game show. If any of the three popular hopefuls were coming to Glens Falls, I'm sure there would have been larger coverage in the paper.

I would like to see deeper and less opinionated coverage in media than we experience. The choice to run or not run a story is critical to the integrity of the paper. The editor has license. I believe the editor also has a greater and public responsibility to go with the power of that license.

JOHN THOMAS

Hartford

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mr. Nader's visit got ample play in our publication, including a preview story last week on his upcoming visit that included a phone interview with the candidate.

I know that some of you have been waiting for me to write something up about Ralph Nader's visit this past weekend. I'm too tired to do it any real justice but it was great. We sold out our fund raising dinner and we had about 225 people come out to the Wood Theater to hear him speak. Media coverage was, as always, a mixed bag. One of the things Ralph said that stuck with me as both amusing and inspirational ... he was asked how he manages to be so persistent in fighting the good fight and he remarked that "My closet does not contain a white flag. I have looked for one before and there just isn't one in there!"

I think its safe to say that a good time was had by all and that we were all greatly energized by his visit and his speaking truth to power. Many thanks are due to this tireless champion for democracy and regular folk! If you are one of those crazy people who might actually want more information, check out the links that I've posted below.

The Glens Falls Post-Star covered it. Check out the comments! His visit made the "Most Commented Story" on their online forum. Not bad for an "irrelevant old guy", huh!?
http://www.poststar.com/articles/2008/04/27/news/local/13551380.txt

WNYT (Albany's NBC): http://wnyt.com/article/stories/S425804.shtml

Time Warner News 9: http://capitalnews9.com/Default.aspx?ArID=114971

Mountain Lake PBS from Plattsburgh is doing a half hour show. I'll send it out when it's up on their site. Glens Falls TV 8 covered the event as well.

This is a podcast of Ralph and Matt Gonzalez on WAMC's Roundtable:

http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1247783

This is a wonderful Vox Pop that Brian Shields did with Ralph for WAMC. http://www.wamc.org/prog-voxpop-archive.html

Me on the Libertarian Show "Capitol Outsider" talking about Ralph, the Greens and activism.

http://capitaloutsider.org/2008/04/show-26-matt-funiciello.html

For information directly from the man himself, check out:

www.votenader.org and www.essential.org

Hudson-Mohawk Independent Media Center filmed the whole thing. Expect a DVD of the event in the near future, I'm sure. The Glens Falls Chronicle did a great advance piece but are not available on line. The Hill Country Observer will also cover it in May's edition. Watch for it.

If you're in the mood for a good laugh, check these articles out about Hillary running as an independent ("Hillary Is the New Ralph Nader").
http://uspolitics.einnews.com/article.php?nid=461158

http://www.allvoices.com/userevents/365329-ralph-nader?gclid=CL-BstvUg5MCFRGYggodjnSkFw