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Edited on Thu Jun-09-05 09:04 AM by AlGore-08.com
http://dir.salon.com/news/col/cona/2000/10/24/nader/index.htmlSeveral months ago, Nader indignantly denied a quote attributed to him by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmental advocate and Gore supporter, to the effect that the Green maverick would actually prefer a Bush victory. But the editors of Outside magazine cited a transcript of an interview with Nader showing he had said just that in an unguarded moment.
Obviously Nader can't afford to encourage the perception that he is consciously helping Bush, no matter how predictable the result of his endeavors may be. Still, in his quest for vindication (and federal funding) he seems well aware of which voting bloc he can attract, and has mounted a much fiercer rhetorical attack on Gore than on Bush. Whenever pressed about whether he risks being a "spoiler," he quickly retreats into mushy utopianism.
After an Oct. 22 rally in Northern California, for example, Nader sounded as if he had rejected reality, telling reporters for the San Francisco Chronicle: "I want to defeat (Gore). I want to defeat Bush. I want to take more votes than I can possibly dream of."
Of such mindless dreams are nightmares made.
In their more sober moments, Nader and his supporters have tried to reassure the fearful that almost everybody can have it both ways -- casting a vote of "conscience" for him but getting a Gore victory anyway. If that sounds illogical coming from a candidate who simultaneously proclaims that there is "no difference" between Democrats and Republicans, it is only a sad signal that Nader is becoming the kind of public figure he affects to despise; that is, a politician who will say anything to win votes. (More... ) Then there's the fact that Nader spent years demonizing Gore for owning stock in Occidental petroleum. The only problems being: when Gore was in office (24 years) he did not own any stocks at all. Gore's Dad had some Occidental stock, and when he passed away, Gore's Mom inherited it. (Gore's Mom was a lawyer, and was of sound mind during the 2000 campaign; there's no reason to believe that she was not making her own financial decisions.) But the real hypocracy involved the fact that Nader himself owned stock in Occidental (and a bunch of other companies Nader had protested against anyone investing in). And he never appologized for it. http://dir.salon.com/politics/feature/2000/10/28/stocks/index.htmlInside Nader's stock portfolio
A recent financial statement shows the Green Party candidate invests in companies he rails against -- including Dick Cheney's former employers.
By Jake Tapper
- - - - - - - - - -
October 28, 2000 | MADISON, Wis. -- Supporters of Green Party candidate Ralph Nader are angrily lining the streets on the way to a rally for Vice President Al Gore. They hold up Nader signs, looking scornfully at the motorcade that passes by.
Lefties like to bash Gore for being a tool of corporate America. More specifically, Gore incurs their wrath because the trust of his mother, Pauline, owns stock in Occidental Petroleum which, according to Nader running mate Winona LaDuke, "is working to exploit oil reserves under U'wa land in Colombia." The U'wa are an indigenous tribe in Colombia, and became the champions of an anti-Gore rally at the Democratic National Convention.
"As I listen to the vice president espouse his views on campaign finance reform, I look at his investment portfolio and have to ask how that might influence public policy," LaDuke has said, slamming Gore erroneously for "own substantial stock in Occidental Oil Co."
If LaDuke is looking for Occidental stockholders to criticize, she might want to look a little closer to home. In the financial disclosure form Nader filed on June 14, the Green Party presidential candidate revealed that he owns between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of shares in the Fidelity Magellan Fund. The fund controls 4,321,400 shares of Occidental Petroleum stock.
(snip)
But even if Fidelity were to divest its holdings in Occidental, it holds shares in so many companies Nader has crusaded against, it's hard to escape the conclusion that Nader's participation in the fund is supremely hypocritical. The fund, for example, owns stock in the Halliburton Company, where George W. Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney, recently worked as president and COO. The fund has investments in supremely un-p.c. clothiers the Gap and the Limited, both of which have been the target of rocks by World Trade Organization protesters, as well as Wal-Mart, the slayer of mom-and-pop stores from coast to coast.
Nader spokeswoman Laura Jones says that only the candidate himself can answer questions about his personal investments. Nader could not be reached for comment.
In a June interview with the Washington Post about his millionaire earnings -- much of which he has donated to his public interest groups -- Nader said the stocks he chose were "the most neutral-type companies ... No. 1, they're not monopolists and No. 2, they don't produce land mines, napalm, weapons."
But this is not true. The Fidelity Magellan fund owns 777,080 shares of Raytheon, a major missile manufacturer. And this isn't the only example of his rhetoric not matching up with his financial investments.
(More... )More specifics about Nader's portfolio from BushWatch: http://www.bushwatch.net/nader2000.htmHOW NADER PROFITS WHILE HE PREACHES
Did you know that Ralph Nader has a financial interest in Dick Cheney's success and has financial ties to Enron, one of George W. Bush's major campaign contributors? While Nader attacks corporations such as Halliburton, Raytheon, Boeing, Ford, Phillip-Morris, Pfizer, MacDonalds, and Occidental as being harmful to mankind, he makes investment profits off of all of these and more. What's the point, you ask? If corporate contributions corrupt candidates, can't corporate investments corrupt candidates? And if Mr. Nader questions Mr. Gore's populist rhetoric and his mother's oil holdings, shouldn't he also question his own?
by Jeff McMahon
As you know, Greens and other activists have been protesting Al Gore because his mother's trust owns stock in Occidental Petroleum, which has been striving to drill for oil on the sacred lands of the indigenous U'wa people in Colombia. In the US, the protests have had two main targets: Mr. Gore and Fidelity Investments, one of the largest holders of Occidental stock. Fidelity holds far more shares, by the way, than Pauline Gore's trust. Fidelity controls about $500 million worth of Occidental Stock, according to the Rainforest Action Network, which accuses Fidelity of "Investing in Genocide." Protestors have urged Fidelity investors to divest from Fidelity unless Fidelity pressures Occidental to cancel its Colombia project. Apparently, Ralph Nader didn't hear them.
In the financial disclosure form he filed on June 14, Ralph Nader reported that he owns between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of shares of the Fidelity Magellan Fund. As an owner of the fund, Nader owns a portion of the stocks that make up the fund, including its 4,321,400 shares of Occidental Petroleum.
Mr. Nader has no control over the investment choices Fidelity makes in this fund, but he receives reports of fund holdings and he has his choice of funds. Unlike Mr. Gore, Mr. Nader has a personal stake in Occidental, and he has not issued any press release annoucing his divestment or pressuring Occidental to halt its project.
But wait, there's more. Fidelity Magellan also owns stock in Dick Cheney's Halliburton Company, which has been linked in a published report to the deaths of environmental activists and indigenous people in the Niger Delta. And I'm sure you will recognize the names below, just a small sampling of the companies in which Ralph Nader has a personal stake:
Exxon Corp., Royal Dutch Petroleum, BP Amoco, Chevron (Bush advisor Condoleeza Rice is a director of Chevron), Shell, Sunoco, Texaco, The Coastal Corp. (Gulf of Mexico drilling, coal mining), Total Fina (specialist in international oil exploitation), Raytheon (missle guidance systems), General Dynamics (warships), Kimberly-Clark (destroyer of forests), Louisiana Pacific (destoyer of forests, polluter of bays), Ford Motor Co. (chastised by Nader just last week), General Motors (ditto), Biogen ("bio-pharmaceuticals"), Genentech (ditto), Monsanto (pesticides incl. Roundup and bioengineering, including corn that kills butterflies), Bristol-Myers Squibb (these are all pharmaceuticals), Merck, Pfizer, Warner-Lambert, Caterpillar (don't they make bulldozers?), McDonalds (a villain of globalization), Clorox (maker of ozone layer holes), Gillette (former torturer of bunnies), Proctor & Gamble, Phillip-Morris. And the next time there's an anti-consumerism day, be aware that Mr. Nader owns stock in:, The Gap, The Limited. And these big-box purveyors of sprawl:, Wal-Mart, Target, Home Depot, Circuit City, Bed Bath & Beyond, Staples. Also a couple of energy companies: Montana Power Co. (moving from oil, gas, coal, to fiber optics) Enron (largest natural gas company).
Fidelity Magellan controls stock in hundreds more corporations. These just popped out at me. I don't think it's a sin for a man to have investments, although there is a case for hypocrisy here, but I think those activists chaining themselves to desks at the Gore campaign might want to also visit the Nader office. In 1996, Nader refused to release a financial disclosure statement or his tax return, saying it was "full of zeros." This year he filed the financial disclosure, perhaps because his contribution level triggered a requirement. Personally, I can't believe he's not in a blind trust or one of the socially conscious funds that are available, but apparently no one scrutinizes Nader. Everyone assumes he is above reproach. He still refuses to release his personal income tax return.
Documents: Nader's disclosure form: http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index/P20000527.htm, Fidelity Magellan annual report: http://personal300.fidelity.com/gen/ew/EW46241.PDF, Call for divestiture: (a href="http://amazonwatch.org/newsroom/newsreleases00/apr0300uwa.html" target=x> (http://amazonwatch.org/newsroom/newsreleases00/apr0300uwa.html), Report on Halliburton: http://consortiumnews.com/082000a1.html.
Relevant quotes: "As I listen to the vice president espouse his views on campaign finance reform, I look at his investment portfolio and have to ask how that might influence public policy. Gore owns substantial stock in Occidental Oil Co., which is working to exploit oil reserves under Uwa land in Colombia." --Winona LaDuke (http://votenader.org/issues/clinton-bush-gore.html)
1996 NPR Interview: SCOTT SIMON: Mr.- Mr. Nader, will you, would you, as major party presidential candidates do, release copies of your tax return and financial disclosure statement?
RALPH NADER: No, because I want to practice what I- I've preached for 30 years. I have advocated the privacy of medical records, income tax records, because I think that's an essential defense to corporate power and arbitrary government power.
SCOTT SIMON: I- I'm just wondering if- if American voters aren't entitled to know something about what your sources of financial support have been over the years in work which you're very clearly involved, even for the benefit of the American people, just so they can, you know, make a rational judgment.
RALPH NADER: Well, I- I've- I'm- I've said it to anybody who asks. It's not relevant because it's full of zeros. In other words, I don't take any funds from any of these non-profit groups. I don't take any funds from the potential can- campaign contributors, and it's hard to, you know, demonstrate a negative. (http://www.npr.org/hotnews/nadert.html)
--- "Nader said the stocks he chose were 'the most neutral-type companies.' 'Number one, they're not monopolists and number two, they don't produce land mines, napalm, weapons,' he said." (Washington Post, June 18, 2000) Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 777,080 shares of Raytheon, missile manufacturer (plus five other aerospace/defense corporations).
--- Nader: "I'm quite aware of how the arms race is driven by corporate demands for contracts, whether it's General Dynamics or Lockheed Martin. They drive it through Congress. They drive it by hiring Pentagon officials in the Washington military industrial complex, as Eisenhower phrased it." (The Progressive Magazine, April 2000) Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 2,041,800 shares of General Dynamics.
--- "The corporations are planning our futuresSThey are making sure grow up corporate. The kids are over-medicated, militarized, cosmetized, corporatized. They are raised by Kindercare, fed by McDonald¹s, educated by Channel One." (The Washington Post, Saturday, June 17, 2000) Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 15,694,800 shares of McDonald's.
--- "Bristol-Myers Squibb markets Taxol at a wholesale price that is nearly 20 times its manufacturing cost. A single injection of Taxol can cost patients considerably more than $2,000 and treatment requires multiple injections." -- Ralph Nader Testimony before the House Budget Committee. June 30, 1999 Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 15,266,900 shares of Bristol-Mayers Squibb.
--- "Both parties are terrible on antitrust. Look, we have Boeing now, one aircraft company, manufacturer after the McDonnell Douglas merger." (Ralph Nader, Burden of Proof, CNN, 8/9/00.) Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 2,908,600 shares of Boeing.
--- "Equally damaging, Nader said, was the Justice Department¹s failure to effectively challenge such recent mergers as British Petroleum with Amoco and Exxon with Mobil. 'The combining of these giant oil companies concentrates the oil industry¹s economic power in fewer hands and gives these merged companies greater opportunity to manipulate prices,' Nader said. 'Oil company profits are up an average of 300 percent in the first quarter of 2000 compared to the first quarter of 1999.' (Nader 2000 press release, June 28, 2000) Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 24,753,870 shares of BP-Amoco. 28,751,268 shares of Exxon-Mobil.
--- "The bearded Eddie Vedder, with chin-length hair framing his still-boyish face, launched into a tender version of 'Soon Forget,"' from Pearl Jam's latest album, 'Binaural.' He called out facetiously to find out whether Microsoft co-founder and area billionaire Paul Allen was in the audience, and then dedicated the song -- about the isolation and loneliness that accompany excessive wealth -- to Allen and Bill Gates.... After receiving a standing ovation, Vedder brought Nader to the stage, introducing him as 'someone who represents us and not the corporate interests.' (Salon, Sept. 26, 2000) Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 41,845,400 shares of Microsoft.
--- What's the point, you ask? If corporate contributions corrupt candidates, can't corporate investments corrupt candidates? And if Mr. Nader questions Mr. Gore's populist rhetoric, shouldn't he also question his own? 10/27/00
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