The Pentagon says it is only following the wishes of families and that it has not changed its procedures. But there are serious reasons to doubt both protestations.
Two New Nader Videos
Here's is your task for today.
Drop a $20 bill on Nader/Gonzalez.
Why $20?
Because we want to get to $20,000 by the end of the day.
On our way to 15 states.
And $60,000.
By July 20.
We are now at over $15,000.
In just two days.
So, $20,000 by the end of the day shouldn't be a heavy lift.
(If we get there early, take us to $25,000. We're easy.)
On our way to 15 states.
And then 45 states.
By September 20.
Nader/Gonzalez is the positivo campaign.
Two rules here at Nader/Gonzalez headquarters:
Rule Number One: No whining.
And Rule Number Two: Get it done.
It's not that we don't take our world seriously.
We do.
But whining and negativo man attitude doesn't get us where we need to go.
Which is 45 states by September 20.
Take the telecom immunity/spying bill that Obama voted for, McCain dodged, and Bush signed into law.
It's an unconstitutional law.
Did we whine and cry about it?
No, we did not.
We spoke out against it.
We're running this campaign, in part, to defend the Fourth Amendment and the Constitution.
And we've produced an awesome video denouncing the new law.
Or take ballot access.
Our young roadtrippers are busting it all around the country to leap the ballot access hurdles the Democrats and Republicans have erected to make life miserable for us.
But we refuse to be miserable.
Check out this neat video about our roadtrippers in Nevada.
No whining there.
We tried to get on the ballot in 2004 but only made it on 34 states. (We're shooting for 45 this time around.)
Why only 34 states?
One reason: The Democrats organized an underground campaign to knock us off.
When we say this, people don't believe us.
But just yesterday, a grand jury in Pennsylvania indicted twelve Democratic political operatives for the illegal use of millions of dollars in taxpayers' funds, resources and state employees for political campaign purposes. (See Nader/Gonzalez press release here.)
The grand jury found that as many as 50 Democratic House Caucus staff members contributed “a staggering number of man-hours” to successfully knock Ralph Nader off the ballot in 2004.
A House Democratic employee testified before the grand jury that “everybody was working on this.”
“A veritable Army” of Democratic staffers were enlisted in the effort to deny Nader ballot status, the grand jury found.
It was virtually a caucus-wide endeavor and many of the employees spent an entire week on the Nader petition challenge, the grand jury found.
This is a scandal of immense proportions.
And twelve Democrats in Pennsylvania now stand charged with crimes.
Attorneys General Oregon, Illinois and Ohio - three states where Democrats successfully knocked us off in 2004 - should launch similar investigations.
This year, we're not taking no for an answer.
We're building our funds to secure ballot access and to fight back if they come after us again.
So, please, drop a $20 bill now on Nader/Gonzalez.
We're fighting not just for 2008 - but for future generations of independent citizen activists, candidates and campaigners.
(In case you missed it, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals knocked out a requirement that only residents of Arizona be allowed to petition in the state. Ralph Nader challenged this requirement as unconstitutional We're hoping to carry this victory to other states that have similar requirements. See story here.)
We're a positivo locomotive.
We've got the Big Mo.
Nothing will stop us now.
Together, we are making a difference.
Onward
The Nader Team
PS: We invite your comments to the blog.
Your contribution could be doubled. Public campaign financing may match your contribution total up to $250.
