Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader to Speak in Baton Rouge, Wednesday September 17
Monday, September 15, 2008 at 12:00:00 AM
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Welch, 202-471-5833, mike@votenader.org (National HQ);
Joe Alfone, 504-319-9312 (local)
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RALPH NADER TO SPEAK IN BATON ROUGE
On Wednesday, September 17, at 7 p.m., Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will host a news conference in Room 105 of the LSU School of Music. Following the news conference, at 7:30 p.m., Mr. Nader will hold a rally in room 115. The LSU School of Music is located at 229 East State Street, Baton Rouge, LA 70802.
The theme of the rally, "Open the Debates," reflects the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign's call for inclusive, democratic Presidential debates. Right now, they are limited to the candidates from the two corporate parties. The debates are controlled by the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a private corporation created by the Democratic and Republican Parties in 1987, which Walter Cronkite called an "unconscionable fraud" because the CPD format "defies meaningful discourse."
Mr. Nader's remarks will include the failure of the federal government to adequately respond to the disaster of Hurricane Katrina. It is absolutely shameful that some New Orleans residents are still without homes, and that corporations are seizing the opportunity to displace former residents and gentrify disaster-vacated real estate. More than 35,000 individuals are still living in FEMA trailers. Only 11 percent of Lower 9th Ward residents have been able to return to the city. Populations made vulnerable by disaster should not be ignored or exploited for corporate profit. The Nader campaign maintains that this is yet another example of the disastrous collusion of corporations and politics.
Mr. Nader will also address these and many other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:
- a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a single-payer, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming;
- an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the corporations."
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: Press Conference and Rally
WHEN: Wednesday, September 17, 7:00 p.m. Press Conference; 7:30 p.m. Rally
WHERE: News Conference, Room 105 (Faculty Room); Rally, Room 115 (Choral Room)
About Ralph Nader
Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.
About Matt Gonzalez
Matt Gonzalez was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 2000 representing San Francisco's fifth council district. From 2003 to 2005, he served as Board of Supervisors President. A former public defender, Gonzalez is managing partner of Gonzalez & Leigh, a 7-attorney practice in San Francisco that represents individuals and organizations in mediation, arbitration, and administrative proceedings before state and federal regulatory bodies. Gonzalez graduated from Columbia University and received a JD from Stanford Law School.
About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
The Nader/Gonzalez independent presidential candidacy will be on the ballot in 45 states, is polling at 5-6 percent nationally, and a new Time/CNN poll shows Ralph Nader polling 8 percent in New Mexico, 7 percent in Colorado, 7 percent in Pennsylvania, and 6 percent in Nevada -- all key battleground states.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org
