Ralph Nader: Obama will be like Bush

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US third parties fight to be heard

Two US presidential candidates have gone head-to-head over issues including the economy, the “war on terror” and flaws in the nation’s healthcare system.

But neither man represented the Democrats or the Republicans.

Although they run much lower-profile campaigns than the two presidential contenders, Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama, they are the third-party candidates in this year’s race for the White House.

Ralph Nader, a longstanding consumer activist, and Chuck Baldwin, a former Baptist priest, took to the modest flag-rimmed stage in Washington DC’s Mayflower Hotel on Thursday as cameras fed their images live.

But while the two candidates stand on opposite ends of the political spectrum – Nader a progressive independent and Baldwin representing the conservative Constitution party – no heated words were exchanged and no verbal barbs were directed at the other’s platform.

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Iran’s foreign minister slams US foreign policy

Iran’s foreign minister said Friday that the United States should conduct a “serious review” of its foreign policy after the presidential election — a signal that Iran is leaving open the possibility of improved relations with Washington.

The comments by Manouchehr Mottaki — in an interview with The Associated Press — extended no clear offer for greater dialogue and included numerous jabs about the U.S. role in the Middle East and its global standing.

But the undertones of statements are often just as relevant in the nearly three-decade diplomatic freeze between the two nations. Mottaki’s suggestion that the November election could signal a new course for U.S. views on the Middle East could also hint that Tehran may be ready to soften its stance.

“We don’t want to make a problem for the American presidential candidates, but this election is among a limited number of American presidential elections where foreign policy plays a key role,” Mottaki said a day after a U.N. conference on Iraqi reconstruction held outside Stockholm.

“The American people need change,” he added.

Mottaki did not go deeper into Iran’s impressions of the remaining candidates seeking the White House. But Barack Obama has expressed a willingness to open new channels with Iran — a position that has drawn fire from Republican John McCain and Obama’s Democratic rival Hillary Rodham Clinton.

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Libertarian Party selects Bob Barr as 2008 presidential nominee

The Libertarian Party has nominated former Congressman Bob Barr as its candidate for president for the 2008 election.

“I’m sure we will emerge here with the strongest ticket in the history of the Libertarian Party,” Barr stated in his victory speech shortly after being selected as the Party’s nominee. “I want everybody to remember that we only have 163 days to win this election. We cannot waste one single day.”

More than 650 Libertarian delegates met in Denver from May 22 till the 26 for the 2008 Libertarian National Convention. After six rounds of voting Sunday afternoon, Barr was selected as the Party’s presidential nominee.

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Fears grow over US Republican ‘attack ads’

Election Year: Democracy Circus

As we all know, it is election time again in the United States, the great bastion of democracy. And I must admit that I am pretty cynical when it comes to the democratic process in this country. In fact, I am pretty cynical about democracy in general no matter where it exists, but more on that later.

The United States is in an election year and we are being bombarded by news from the campaign trail as the controllers of democracy have pre-selected for us which candidates to vote for. If it were not so amusing, it would be truly depressing. In fact, I sometimes think I have some sort of natural, mental defense mechanism that allows me to find amusement in the election process. My god what a crazy spectacle it is.

Not a day goes by where we are not reminded about what Hillary Clinton said about Barack Obama or what one of Barack’s advisors said about Hillary. Or what John McCain did or didn’t do in response. The he said she said juvenile banter goes on for a very long time during an election and the controlled media is happy to facilitate the entire process.

Every day we get video clips and sound bytes from one candidate or another discussing hypothetical situations that are apparently designed to clarify one candidate’s superior position, qualifications, or opinions about one seemingly important issue or another. It is the proverbial, time-honored, baby kissing political process that has always accompanied the domestic election process. And of course it all amounts to inconsequential, hollow campaign promises that are rarely remembered after the election. And to some extent, the people entitled to vote in this country, the electorate, understand this. The rest of the electorate doesn’t care about these campaign promises or they actually think some of them will be kept.

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A Brief for Whitey by Patrick Buchanan

How would he pull it off? I wondered.

How would Barack explain to his press groupies why
he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah
Wright delivered racist rants against white America for
our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS
to infect and kill black people?

How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about “the U.S. of K.K.K. America,” and howled, “God damn America!”

My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.

Yes, Barack agreed, Wright’s statements were “controversial,” and “divisive,” and “racially charged,” reflecting a “distorted view of America.”

But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.

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