“If you do not turn on to politics, politics will turn on you.” – Ralph Nader
Ralph Nader can give a rousing speech after all. While I do find he sounds more like a politician in this clip than ever before, I think he has earned it. However, with 12,000 cheering supporters in Fleet Center in Boston I fear this may well have been the climax of his campaign.
Watch him speak at the rally in Portland and be moved. (RealVideo)
Truth in Advertising (requires QuickTime)
I think I may have actually been to that meeting.
Thanks to 37signals for the link.
Not only was Ralph Nader denied the opportunity to participate in the debate, they didn’t even let him sit in the audience.
Holy shit.
If the fact that the debate was boring as hell isn’t enough, I recommend you read Why voters will lose out in Tuesday’s debate by Ralph himself.
re: apple legitimizes amazon patent tomfoolery
Barnes & Noble is challenging the Amazon 1-Click Shopping patent.
Let’s see if the justice system works.
I missed Ralph Nader‘s rally in Porland, Maine by one day. Now I’m back home living under a boil-order.
While in Maine, I was encouraged to see home-made Vote Nader signs among the glossy Gore/Lieberman/Bush/Cheney signs.
Gore/Lieberman bumper stickers seemed to be the choice of discerning Cadillac drivers throughout the state.
I just ate what may have been the finest meal of my life (which may not say a lot, but it’s the greatest compliment I have at my disposal).
If you are ever in Portland, Maine be sure and check out Katahdin Restaurant on High Street. I alse recommend the mountain by the same name (I don’t climb many mountains, so I have to take every opportunity to bring it up).
While spending a few days in Portland, Maine I had the unfortunate opportunity of watching some classic in-room american television. ESPN showed a military showcase and airshow that was the year 2000 equivalent to the now hilarious and frightening US and Soviet propaganda videos of the 50s. According to the hosts of the show it is a great opportunity for the military to mingle with the public and for the public to get a see “all the wonderful things that the U.S. Military is doing”. Don’t worry, young environmentalists, the smoke generated by the showplanes is ‘environmentally friendly’. I shudder.
On a more positive note, Portland is a beautiful city (despite the hideous buildings built in the last 40 years). I strongly recommend the Basket o’ Gritty Chips at “Maine’s original brew pub” Gritty McDuffs.
Oh, they still show Full House on TV here and the Olympics broadcasts are all a day old. God bless the CBC.
Let him know he is missed. If you are going to send him foolish bluemountain “e-cards” please use his spamorama email address: rob51@usa.net
Get well soon Rob.
re: apple legitimizes amazon patent tomfoolery
Mastah programmah John Carmack (his company, Id Software created Doom and the Quake series of PC Games) on software patents:
“The idea that I can be presented with a problem, set out to logically solve it with the tools at hand, and wind up with a program that could not be legally used because someone else followed the same logical steps some years ago and filed for a patent on it is horrifying.”
Check out the rest of the interview at VoodooExtreme.
A few months ago, Amazon.com went after BarnesandNoble.com with their absurd ‘1-Click Shopping’ patent.
Now Apple has legitimized the foolish patent by licensing 1-Click Shopping for the Apple Store.
If you locked a few reasonably intelligent web developers in a room for six weeks to design a user-friendly ecommerce site and they had never heard of 1-Click Shopping (capitalization used sarcastically), they would probably develop it independently.
Boo Amazon.com, boo U.S. Patent Office, and boo Apple.