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I'm just glad my grandfather who fought against this kind of shit in WWII isn't around to witness this shit. WTH has happened to this country? When you have BOTH parties voting AGAINST the people while at the same time practically tripping over themselves to give away the future of this country to special interests for literally pennies on the dollar?

This is why I'm making a call out to every one here at /. since WE are the geeks, the smart ones, the ones our friends and relatives and coworkers listen to I urge EVERY SINGLE ONE HERE to not only vote Green and New Whig straight down the ticket but do everything in your power to get everyone you possibly can to do so as well.

A true multi party system is the only chance this country has short of our own Arab Spring and it is clear that BOTH the Ds and the Rs are not gonna listen to the will of the people. The New Whig Party is made of Iraq vets thinking we should get our boys home and the Greens believe in a true safety net for the poor along with affordable housing and health care, things I bet many here would support.

So let us change the system, so that horseshit like this won't be the status quo. I'll even give out a slogan for free "A vote for a Democrat or Republican is a wasted vote" because that is EXACTLY what it is, as they no longer listen to the will of the people. So vote Whig and Green, and push everyone in your sphere of influence to do so as well. Let 2012 be a REAL case of "Hope & Change" and not just more empty slogans!

I wish it was a strawman argument, but have a look at the Green Party's Platform page

Under "Progressive and Ecological Taxes":

Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.

That means the maximum wage would be $65.50/hr, or about $130,000/yr.

If you're not going to vote for either main party, could I convince you to either vote Green or Libertarian? In my personal opinion, I believe that voting for a nearly mainstream '3rd' party sends the most effective "middle finger" to the ruling cabal.

Personally, the Green Party platform is something I can support, they even support the kind of feminism I can get behind (the equality kind, not the men are pigs kind). Having said that, the more support we can get to the major '3rd' parties (I hate that term if you can't tell by the quotes), the more of a message we can send that the 'bipartisanship' that only seems to come about when screwing the populous is no longer acceptable.

I'm guessing that the Green Party is for all technology that's designed by minorities for the explicit purpose of saving endangered species, but against almost anything else. By the way, that's the same party who split one vote among two candidates in a recent county race.

I've voting Libertarian this year. McCain will almost certainly win my state anyway, so I'm trying to give a third party a good showing.

I suspect our young poster is a Naderite. Green Party USA espouses such insanity as a welfare payment of $16250.00 per year (in 2000 dollars) for individuals - all individuals - and a substantial ramp-up for families; $12.50 (in 2000 dollars) minimum wage; and a 30-hour work week where the government chips in an extra 10 hours worth of income so that you get paid for 133% of time actually worked. That works out to a base income of $42250.00 per year (in 2000 dollars) for a 16-year-old flipping burgers at his first job. I suppose they pay for that all with a 90% income tax.

Are you kidding! Have you actually read their platform http://www.greenparty.org/Platform.php

No, they really do mean, work 30, get paid for 30, and get a bonus for an additional 10 hours for free each week. Take a look here: http://www.greenparty.org/Platform.php

30-Hour Work Week: A 6-hour day with no cut in pay for the bottom 80% of the pay scale.
Social Dividends: A "second paycheck" for workers enabling them to receive 40 hours pay for 30 hours work. Paid by the government out of progressive taxes so that social productivity gains are shared equitably.

In fairness, the 10 hours is not paid by the employer.. but by the richer people in the country.. I don't think this would work very well IMO:
avg wage (more than $16/hr.. we'll just say $16 to make it easy) * 25% bonus * 140 million currently employed people = 1.120 trillion dollars

Current government revenues (currently.. who knows what it will be after they destroy the economy): $2.119 trillion

So it would cost 50% of the current budget.

Rather than support the ACLU, the people would be much better off in supporting any organization which seeks to throw BOT the Democrats AND Republicans out of office. 99% of Congress (both House and Senate) need to be voted out as well as the President. The same thing also needs to happens to just about all state and most local governments. For decades we have been electing both Democrats and Republicans to office only to watch our taxes go higher and higher, be subjected to more and more rules and regulations, and watch our voices get weaker and weaker. I for one am tired of the endless crap being spewed out by the Democrats and Republicans. Isn't it time yet for alternative parties such as those listed below?

Constitution Party http://www.constitutionparty.org/
Green Party http://www.greenparty.org/
Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
Reform Party http://www.reformparty.org/
Socialist Party http://www.sp-usa.org/
Veteran's Party http://www.veteransparty.us/


With the Democrats and Republicans in office, more and more people have quit registering to vote because they believe that it does not matter which one of these candidates get into office (People are going to be screwed each way). This is one reason I blog this message because I want people to spread the word that we actually do have a choice. I believe that throwing out the Republican-Democrats is a better way to obtain justice than what Marvin Heemeyer did in Granby, Colorado (although I do not frown on his efforts to punish local officials). Another way people can have influence in doing away with the oppressive governments in the P.S.A. (Police States of Amerika) is by excercising their powers to judge the law as well as the facts when serving on a jury. People should look at the Fully Informed Jurors Association . In the P.S.A. we will only gain ou freedom by TAKING IT BACK from those who have usurped the rightful power of citizens.

As a Founding Father of the United States, he recognized the need for a REASONABLE patent and copyright system in order to make sure that authors and product creators were able to recoup the costs of creating their works. The patent and copyright system today rewards mostly corporations. Individual creators are left out. As a Founding Father of the U.S. he also stood for for individual right. This is something tht very few mainstream party affiliated politicians think about today. If we want to try to restore the protections of our right by voting, then we need to vote for members of alternative political parties such as the ones listed alphabetically below: Constitution Party http://www.constitutionparty.org/ [constitutionparty.org] Green Party http://www.greenparty.org/ [greenparty.org] Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/ [lp.org] Reform Party http://www.reformparty.org/ [reformparty.org] Socialist Party http://www.sp-usa.org/ [sp-usa.org] Veteran's Party http://www.veteransparty.us/ [veteransparty.us] Even though I am not a Christian, I prefer the Constitution Party. I can deal with looking at 10 Commandments posted in a court room, they will not jump out and shoot me. I can even stand still while leaders pray as long as I am not forced to join in. If you do not like the ideas put out by the Constitution Party, look at a party that fits what you believe in. Just don't fall for the bullshit spewed by the Democrat or Republican parties. We already know what they are about (taking bribes and serving their special interests). As another not, we can also judge the law as well as the facts. Visit http://www.fija.org/ .

Benjamin Franklin was an absolute genius. Not only was he responsible for the rediscovery of electricity. he was also responsible for many other scientific advances of historic proportions. Not only that, he was also partly responsible for drafting the founding document of one of the greatest nations in history. Unfortunately he would mostly be fighting mad at how his genius has been misused by the main two political parties of today along with their corporate and special interest paymasters. These entities have distorted the intent to help pay for innovation with laws that has brought innovation to a standstill. Both Democrats and Republicans have destroyed the legal protections which the U.S. Constitution provided for the inhabitants of the U.S. In fact, the U.S.A. should be no longer known by that name. It is more appropriate to call it the "Police States of Amerika." With not only free speech stifled by the abuse of copyright and patents, property rights are now virtually unprotect as any major corporation can have a local government force people to give up their own land for a pittance. Things can be changed though. It has to be done by people not doing what they normally do. In order to make any significant change for the better and have laws passed that protect freedom to hack and free software, people will have to register to vote. Not only will have have to register, they will have to register under an ALTERNATIVE political party instead of the republicrats or demicans. There are many parties out there that fit the different agendas of many who are Slashdotters. These parties are listed below in alphabetical order:

Constitution Party http://www.constitutionparty.org/
Green Party http://www.greenparty.org/
Libertarian Party http://www.lp.org/
Reform Party http://www.reformparty.org/
Socialist Party http://www.sp-usa.org/
Veteran's Party http://www.veteransparty.us/

Some of these parties I disagree with, however, I list them to give voice to diverse ideas. Isn't it time to register and vote for candidates based on their ideas and character instead of by which one will stand a chance of winning in order to keep out the "greater evil?" The corrupt, bullshit and lie spewing Democrats are just as bad as the corrupt bullshit and lie spewing Republicans. There are much better choices. Get behind them and support them while we have a few legal protections left.

Arandir is correct. In America, being "green" has become political. In fact, the idea of being green has been hijacked by a bunch of socialists. Don't believe me? Check out the Green Party website and read for yourself. http://www.greenparty.org/

Stop voting for Democrats and Republicans, for starters.

This is a cute suggestion, but not very practical. I agree that both political parties are corrupt beyond repair and that democracy needs more than 2 dominant political parties, but what should we do? Vote for some candidates who have barely spent the energy formulating a coherent policy? Let's see... we have the Green Party, the Libertarian Party, the Constitution Party, plus a cadre of smaller ones. I certainly am not going to vote for third party candidates merely because they are a third party candidate. I consider myself more knowledgeable about the current state of American politics, and I am at a loss of suggestions. I would love to find a political party that actually represents my political views, rather than finding the best fit among the big two. Does anyone have any suggestions about what to do? I mean I could go into politics, but I am quite sure I am not suited for such a job.

We have more than to parties in the U.S. as well.

We've got the Greens.

We've got the Libertarians.

We've go the Socialists.

We've got the Communists. (Who seem to have abandoned the hammer for a gear, but they're sticking to the sickle.)

We've got the Constitution Party.

Now, there is some collusion between the two entrenched parties and the media to create a de facto two-party system. Furthermore, plurality voting creates the environment for a two-party system.

Some are willing to fight it.

-Peter

Surely you don't actually believe no one supports Bush? Don't vote Kerry because he's the lesser of two evils, vote Badnarik (Libertarian Party) or Cobb (Green Party) if that's what tickles your fancy.

Be careful to remember that there are actually 2 distinct parties that call themselves the Green Party.

One the G/GPUSA is not the "traditional" Green Party that we know and love. They have never ran a national candidate for office AFAIK.

The other is the ASGP (the REAL Greens), which endorsed Ralph Nader in 2000 and is endorsing Cobb in 2004.

The G/GPUSA tends to have more unreasonable views (such as the one you quoted above), which is what reminded me of the difference.

In short, make sure you are using the ASGP platform when using its text to aid in your questions.

And why would you take it on good faith that some woman who would obviously have an agenda to push wouldn't mislead anyone?

Yeah, there may not be any real way to know without being there but I'll place my bet with the gov't/airline. Why?

A.) As I said she obviously would have an interest in perpetrating this lie. The Green Party want Bush out of office (among other wacky ideas) and events like this certainly wouldn't hurt their cause. Check out their website for some of their crazy ideas - here. It's mostly anti-corporate BS and "no blood for oil!" childish garbage.

B.) If any of her story were true, why can't anyone corroborate it? Why hasn't she sued? None of the news networks have covered it? It just doesn't make any sense. I'd also like to see a source for the 1200 people missing statistic.

I just wonder why anyone would believe her before they believe their own common sense. Some of you need to get back in touch with cold, hard, boring reality. Sorry but the government does not know what you do with your (ample) free time nor does it care (again, barring anything illegal). There are not government agents plotting against you. I suggest seeing a psychiatrist (for serious).

...would be that this makes it easy for rednecks and CEOs to hand over their PINs to the GOP, then blacks and union members can give theirs to the DNC, while the pock-faced greenpeacer at the health food store sends it to the Green party. Weeks before the election we will already know who wins based on who has the largest collection of proxy votes in hand.

That's the way proxy votes come out in business, there is rarely any suspense about how it will come out because everyone knows before hand who has the blocks of proxy votes needed. Also, you would expect a new PIN for each election, but if you signed up for the right program, each of your PINs could be delivered straight to the party headquarters of your choice.

Many states with lotteries already do something like this. Sign up and have your same favorite numbers played every week and charged against your credit card. Voluntary taxation made easy.

Any technology distinguishable from magic is not suficiently advanced.

Well, actually we didn't.
Considering the fact that most of the people who voted for other would have leaned towards Gore, it could be said that our weasel was helped into office by a weasel with presumably good intentions.
However in the end, the election was decided in another manner entirely.

You're the only person (anywhere, not just here) that I've seen link to the actual Green Party website, and not this one. Is there a reason for that? The confusion has been bothering me since the 2000 election, when the linked site released a party platform that included things like '100% income tax on all income over 10 times the minimum wage'. The site would have to be the most dedicated hoax in history if it weren't at least representing some other green party, but during the election the site thanked Nader on the front page, and their platform spread to every news program from CNN's live talkshow to Good Morning America, where Nader said, after being asked about the segment I mentioned, that the platform was released by a "dissident group." In my opinion, it did a lot of damage to the buildup that had been going on around his campaign. I had planned not to vote for him until Michael Moore himself responded to an email I sent asking how he could endorse a platform like that (this was before the GMA interview) and set the record straight.

Anyway, I don't suppose you have any other information?

Why bother? By the time any such impeachment process would come to any fruition, you could already be filling out your ballot in November, 2004. Instead of circulating completely pointless petitions for impeachment, circulate the agenda of some other candidate for president.

You clearly haven't tried reading one of the platforms chosen by the Democrats, the Republicans, the Reform Party, the Greens, the Libertarians, or any of the dozen other groups that run national candidates.

These are not trivial documents, and they're chosen at the same time as the party's official candidate (at the national convention). The candidates themselves also publish volumes of press releases and opinion papers. These papers might not be quite as pleasant the DPL platforms, but they cover more material on more difficult issues, and they're influenced by many more people. But then, given the development model of any national organization, could you really expect them to be as nice?

OK, then, which of the Four Green Pillars do you disagree with? They are...

I disagree with "Social Justice". It didn't work in Russia, and I doubt it will work here. If you think I'm exagerating, read the link. Look for the parts about a 100% income tax, nationalization or dissolution of all fortune 500 companies, direct government control of broadcast media, and the dissolution of the Senate.

On the political spectrum, the Green Party is about as far away from Libertarianism (and Republicanism) as two parties can get.

What do you get when you cross the Libertarian Party with the Green Party?

A quick Google search turns up the Libertarian National Socialist Green Party.

Godwin's Law, offtopic discussion ended. Let's get back to talking about ACPI.

An open letter from the man who advocates a 100% tax bracket.

Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.

This party also want's to ban "Righ-to-Work" yet says that it's pro-labor. IMO unions are just big business by another name.

Nader can keep his party. But I want him to stay away from my business and my right to succeed or fail on my own merits. What he proposes certainly is neither democracy, or capitalism, more like facism.

Time for a different party?

Indeed it is. I vote Green.

> Anyway, it looks so socialist to demand guaranteed jobs from government...

No no no... the term "socialism" is soooo passe. Now we refer to it as The Green Party Platform

and yes... jobs are guaranteed. A decent economy and industrial base, however, are not.

Yes, I am supposed to follow somebody who sayz there is a limit on how much money I can earn--Right

Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income, regardless of source, over ten times the minimum wage. With this Ten Times Rule in effect under today's extremely unequal distribution of income in the U.S., a 100% tax on income above ten times the minimum wage would allow us to cut the income taxes of everyone in the bottom 99%, by over half for the top brackets, by over three-quarters in the middle brackets, and totally for the lower brackets-and still generate about 40% more tax revenues than under the current income tax structure.

Crippeling finical motivations is not adequate to fix the problem. Companies and the people are trying to protect their way of doing business. this has happened everytime there has been a technological breakthrough that changes the way people live.

They need to learn to take advantage of things and re-align to do business rather than wasted billions of dollars trying to fight innovation and change.

According to Leadbeater the "first Internet" failed because the technologists and geeks,

Failed? It was awesome!

I was just talking to a guy on the train about this last week. I was reminiscing about the high-signal-to-noise days of the early days of Usenet over the Arpanet (late 1980's). He was yacking on about some new startup making pay-as-you-go chips that was gonna be the next e-boom, .... yeah yeah yeah. He was telling me that I should "load up" on this stock and that I would be rich.

I was telling this guy that I thought e-commerce was a big capitalist gang-bang, and that it (and advertising) has ruined then internet. And reminded him that the Internet was originally a SOCIALIST program, meaning, government "controlled", funded with tax dollars... and it worked real well!

I couldn't belive that I was saying this, as I'm a Green/Libertarian, and the term "socialism" is anathema to the Libs, (as well as the Dems and the Repubs).

But think about it: Certain things SHOULD be funded by a socialist model. The roads, for example. In a "free market" system, you'd have 2 toll roads going between the same 2 points, with the toll takes competing/colluding for your money. Look at the Cali energy crisis: public utilities should be severely regulated!

Look at the capitalist/commercial media in America. It sucks. It does not inform, it does not provide a balanced view of things, the corporations control the elections... the capitalist media does nothing well, but produce/distribute SPAM.

The socialst media in Canada and England produce some wonderful art (Imagine Monty Python or The Young Ones being produced in America?). The only thing like it in America is Public Access TV, or community radio (like what Pacifica is/was/tries to be) which has a socialist funding model with a decentralized authority (just like DNS).

I say its time for a return to the Socialst (economic) internet model, with the goals of decentralization and free speech, get the profit-seekers off the 'net, and immediately delcare the Deja archive a national treasure, with the goal of an UNCENSORED archive being restored/preserved for the good of mankind.

Call me a dreamer ... ;^)

Nader - on his positive side, he's addressing issues that the others have barely considered in hindsight: Cable-and-Internet Content Discrimination, Corporate Crime and Anti-Trust, present issues with poisoning neighborhoods in further discrimination... He'd have kicked serious butt in the debates! His running mate, Winona LaDuke, is even more cool to vote for... a Minnesota Chippewa woman whose strong record stands for minority equality and opportunities. If there's any downside to this platform, it's the implication that the Green Party which has such cool people (and there are two parties of Greens, one he runs with and one he doesn't) is sometimes called the watermellon party, green on the outside, red on the inside. Still, since it is near impossible to agree with a party 100%, I see them as less an evil.

Hagelin- A learned man who can stately present the issues. His positions seem similar to Nader on some topics, but they're stated will less angst and more educated finnesse. My only qualm with him is his overuse of Transcendal Meditation(tm) as the answer: Kosovo got you down? Let's send 4000 TMtm Instructors to pacify things. Naivate' aside, I like to see such a civil, refined highbrow in the choices.

Browne- true to the principals of liberty this counrty was founded on. The Libertarian Party in general can be taken more seriously than most third party options: There are more Libertarians in career political offices than the other third parties (Green, Natural Law P, etc.) combined!

...But in the long run I voted for Nader. Strategically, he's fighting the states for the freedoms we need if we're to see these 'Third' Choices given a fair shake. Why can't the "big two" parties come up with such plausible choices without the obvious coattail-riders?

You're probably conflating the socialists and greens based on the Green Party USA platform, which is different from Nader's much saner Association of State Green Parties platform. You can compare the two on the GPUSA website

btw I know the subject line has messed up precedence.

And please -- the Libertarians couldn't put power in the hands of big corporations if they tried. The second they are elected, they intend to fire everyone and sell everything! They won't have any power to give. Good. That's the idea. - Mark Roberts

"The most important political question you can ask yourself is simply this: Do you want smaller government? ... Do you want an end to... government intrusions into your life and your business? ... Ralph Nader wants to tell you whether you can drive a car at all. But that's the least of his many plans to make government much bigger. ... I want to make the federal government so small you won't pay any income tax. (The tariffs and excise taxes already being collected are enough to finance the constitutional functions of government.) I want to free you immediately and completely from the Social Security system. I want to sell off government assets to finance private retirement accounts for anyone now dependent on Social Security -- so you and I and every other American can immediately stop paying the 15% Social Security tax." - http://www.harrybrowne.org/

So powerful and rich corporations are gonna take care of the handicapped and homeless? They are going to school the population, and invest in sustainable and non-profit ventures?

By all means by his $17.5 book, and vote Libertarian, but at least admit that you're a right wing capitalist (and everything that goes with that).

If however you believe in direct grassroots democracy, and protecting our only habitat, vote Green.

I admit, I was confused. I had entered http://www.greenparty.org into my web browser, found the Green Party USA's web site, and read their platform. In that platform, it calls for a maximum wage and the nationalization of large corporations.

I should have realized that I wanted http://www.gp.org, the Association of State Green Parties. Their platform is more moderate.

Of course Nader/LaDuke don't fully agree with either, so that's a little bit confusing.

Silly me, my bad. ;)

Yours truly,
Mr. X

...almost as fractious as the Reform Party...

You got Ralph Nader confused with Jello Biafra who was a candidate for the Greens nomination, but lost it to Nader.

Perhaps the reason why you got confused was you also failed to read the disclaimer on the beginning of the Greens website here that states "This platform is not binding for candidates on any level".

For more information on the Green party, check out this link. Notice on this website that it has a link to Ralph Nader's platform, as ratified at the Green Party National Convention, June 2000.

This is the platform Ralph Nader supports, don't believe the rumor mongers.

Bah, sounds like someone's stupid enough to actually believe Rush Limbaugh. News flash: the Republicans are not, and never have been, defenders of your rights (unless you believe you have a right to force your christian morals on other people, to dump your shit in my backyard, or to have my tax money pay for your company's fuckups). Up until the mid '80's, the Democrats did a moderately decent job of supporting free expression. Then, they decided to out-Republican the Republicans, and we end up with the system we've got today, where there's no substantive difference between the parties. Each is pushing basically the same Christian-supremacist corporate feudalistic agenda in slightly different words.

You want your rights protected? Vote Green. Vote Libertarian. Vote New Party. But neither of the Weasel Twins (my apologies to weasels) is going to do jack shit to protect your rights.

--

ASGP was founded after the 1996 elections. They are the partner of the european greens, and they nominated Nader/LaDuke.

Part of the problem is that Green Party USA (the more radical group, but older) is supporting Nader, and make almost no mention of the difference, so most people can't tell.

There was an article in the New Republic some weeks ago, and the writer made the same mistake in confusing GP USA with Nader's green party.

More on the history of ASGP here.

Well, I have a philosophical difference here. The problem with our system is that it has a bug: the mathematical relation of "preference" is nontransitive when measured over the populace. That is to say the public as a whole may prefer A to B, B to C and C to A in rock/scissors/paper fashion. This means it is possible for candidate A to win an election with a plurality even when if he were matched against B or C head to head he'd lose badly. The "vote your conscience" position simply ignores this bug, like a program that's running on and OS too stupid to know it seg faulted. I believe the rational thing is to vote in the way which contributes to the best possible outcome. It makes no sense to "vote your conscience" when doing so may actually work against your priorities.

Voting for a position you know is going to lose might make sense if you believe your party is going to be strengthened over the long run by gaining credibility, or reaching the 5% federal funding threshold. But that only applies if you actually support the party's positions.

Have you actually looked into what the green party stands for? Nader is running as their candidate, but he's really not one of them, or at least he disavows some of their positions and doesn't run on their platform.

I recommend that people who are considering voting Nader read the party platform, because while many of these positions it takes are sensible, some a very extreme. For example the platform espouses mandatory break up of the largest 500 corporations and effectively nationalizing the 200 largest banks. While Nader disavows his own party's platform, it doesn't mean the platform of the party is irrelevant, because the Nader "conscience voters" are throwing away their ability to affect a historically tight race in order to build that party. You may never get a chance to vote in an election where your vote is so powerful.

By the way, I think there are ways to fix the system, for example by allowing people to vote for as many candidates as they please. This would do away with the mathematically impossible fiction of the "favorite" candidate in favor of electing the most widely supported candidate.

How is the corporate control of government benefitting you?

Everything is not black and white. Why is it that people like you have paint everything with a broad brush? Nothing in life is that simplistic. Are there politicians that are "paid off" by corporations? Of course. Are there ones that aren't? Of course. Should corporate interests be involved in politics? YES!

I know you don't want to accept it, but corporations are not these eeeevil entities that you seem to think they are. They are owned by real people, with just as important rights as you have. Quite simply, economies could not run without corporations.

And where the hell are you getting this idea of nationalizing corporations? As I said before, there is no "green party platform".

You really, really need to do some research before backing someone. You want frightening? Check out this Green Party platform. Here are some of my personal favorites:

Democratic Conversion of Big Business: Mandatory break-up and conversion to democratic worker, consumer, and/or public ownership on a human scale of the largest 500 US industrial and commercial corporations that account for about 10% of employees, 50% of profits, 70% of sales, and 90% of manufacturing assets. [heck, why not have the government sieze 90% of the manufacturing assets? It worked for the USSR!]

Workplace Democracy: Establish the right of workers at every enterprise over 10 employees to elect supervisors and managers and to determine how to organize work. [Gack!]

30-Hour Work Week: A 6-hour day with no cut in pay for the bottom 80% of the pay scale. [Yeah, let's just legislate wages! Yeah, that's the ticket!]

...and finally my very favorite...

Maximum Income: Build into the progressive income tax a 100% tax on all income over ten times the minimum wage.

Now, Nader claims that he doesn't support all of the Green Party's platform. So then tell me, why is he running as a Green? This reminds me of the old Groucho line about being caught in bed with another woman: "who are you going to believe, me or your own lying eyes?"

--

If you want a candidate who won't nationalize the Internet, who won't take 80% of your income in taxes, and who won't destroy technological innovation in transportation, check out Harry Browne.

• Workplace Democracy:
  Establish the right of workers at every enterprise over 10 employees
  to elect supervisors and managers and to determine how to organize work.
• Worker Control of
  Worker Assets-Pension Funds and ESOP Shares: Pension funds representing
  over $5 trillion in deferred wages account for nearly one-third of financial
  assets in the US. 11 million workers participate in employee stock-option
  plans (ESOPs). Reform ERISA, labor laws, and ESOP tax provisions to enable
  workers to democratically control their assets.
• Democratic Conversion
  of Big Business: Mandatory break-up and conversion to democratic worker,
  consumer, and/or public ownership on a human scale of the largest 500 US
  industrial and commercial corporations that account for about 10% of employees,
  50% of profits, 70% of sales, and 90% of manufacturing assets.
• Democratic Conversion
  of Small and Medium Business: Financial and technical incentives and
  assistance for voluntary conversion of the 22.5 million small and medium
  non-farm businesses in the US to worker or consumer cooperatives or democratic
  public enterprises. Mandate that workers and the community have the first
  option to buy on preferential terms in cases of plant closures, the sale
  or merger of significant assets, or the revocation of corporate charters.
  
• Democratic Banking:
  Mandatory conversion of the 200 largest banks with 80% of all bank assets
  into democratic publicly-owned community banks. Financial and technical
  incentives and assistance for voluntary conversion of other privately-owned
  banks into publicly-owned community banks or consumer-owned credit unions.
  

Uhhh.. Nader is the canidate for the Green Party, not the Libertarians. There's a big difference there..

Dispite that, I agree that this was more of a lucky decision to pick a host with brains more than a political move.

--

More importantly, the guy is way ahead of all the other third party candidates, is on the ballot in 30 states already (including Montana :-) Thank you Mr. Wachs and co.) with more to come, and he has eight percent popularity. If enough people vote for him, the Green Party (I was a staunch Democrat before I found the Greens) will become a "recognized" political party.

There are several opposition parties, of which the most well-known are the Libertarians, the the Reform Party, the the Greens, and the Socialists. I myself am a Libertarian, but I would rather that you vote for any opposition party rather than voting for the regime (Democrat or Republican) or not voting at all.

Some Americans feel that it is "throwing their vote away" to vote for a candidate who is not likely to win -- and instead vote for the "lesser of two evils" among the Democrat and Republican. The problem with this is that, as you point out, the Dems and Reps really are not very different! Because of this, a vote for either a Democrat or Republican is basically a vote for their combined regime -- which, if you don't support the regime, is worse than throwing your vote away. Voting for even the tiniest of opposition parties, in contrast, registers your opposition to the Dem/Rep regime, and brings us closer to a real political debate in this country -- even if your candidate doesn't win this time.

Americans, please help bring real issues, real debate, and real differences back to our nation's political process. Give up on the Democrat/Republican regime. Vote for the opposition.

www.ralphnader.org is running Apache/1.3.6 (Unix) on Linux

www.nader2k.org is running Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) on Linux

And as he'd probably run under the Green banner.. www.greens.org is running Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) on Linux www.greenparty.org is running Apache/1.3.4 (Unix) on Linux Hmm.. makes sense. I've always thought that the best way for the Green Party to get the message out would be through the Internet. "Grassroots democracy" is one of their ten key values, and what could be more "grassroots" than the Internet? All in all, I'm fairly suprised no one has mentioned the anti-MS Public Citizen Nader.

• Libertarian Party
  
• Reform Party
  
• Green Party
  
• Socialist Party