Tidbits

I DID NOT KNOW HE KNEW THIS WORD: Teacher! Ralph Nader's cussin'!

"People should march over to the Post and say ‘Fuck you! What are you doing here? You cover every little blip by the right-wing and you don’t cover us?’"

Man, this is more traumatic than the day I realized my parents had quite possibly had sex at some point in their lives.

TELL US HOW YOU REALLY FEEL: That's not the only sign that Ralph was seriously pissed:

"Who could put a thousand organizers in the field...? The labor unions. They have the money. They have a lot of cash. These idiots are going down. The UAW is a paradigm of a suicidal, supplicant labor union. It is disgusting. They are a puppy dog of GM, Ford and Chrysler."

Ouch.  He is not getting an invitation to the Christmas party this year.

THE MOUSE THAT ROARED: The most hilarious characterization of Julian Assange I've seen in a news report:

Currently, his whistle-blowing website is exposing files in a 'responsible' manner, he claimed. "But if I am forced we could go to the extreme and expose each and every file that we have access to," thundered the WikiLeaks founder. "We must protect our sources at whatever cost. This is our sincere concern."

Assange is so ridiculously soft-spoken he couldn't "thunder" with a pint of sulfur hexafluoride and a double-stack of Marshall amps.  You can't blame them for stretching, though; how many times can you use "said" before you start going crazy?  And in any case, they can pass off this kind of nonsense thanks to:

THE PREFERRED WIKILEAKS NARRATIVE: Someone On The Internet describes the media's Wikileaks storyline:

Evil foreign terrorist supervillain and rapist Julian Assange (seen here with foreign-sounding name) is releasing top-secret documents stolen from world-class-super-secure US military computers.  We'll tell you what security measures the Government is taking to protect Americans and US troops who are now in danger, after the break.

It's funny 'cause it's true!

Comments

[QuizmasterChris]

People have this image of Nader as being a shrinking violet but that's really not the case. He's from a working class background and apparently is a big sports fan, a multiple-time Saturday Night Live host and from what I've heard a guy with a wicked sense of humor (if also a workaholic). It's a shame more people haven't seen or been able to access these qualities because I think more Americans would connect with him.

Interviewed by Ali G he eventually had to resort to using the word "a-hole" (I don't think the form would let me type the full word out), referencing an actual butthole and not a person.

[No One of Consequence]

I've had my differences with Nader, but those differences have been over tactics. Even when he fucks up, imo he's fucking up while still fighting for my team. I thought that was how most liberals thought of him -- until 2001.

At this point, large unions -- a conceptually excellent thing -- are bad guys. Now, there are plenty of corporate-run shops and there are still mobbed-up unions, but even if the latter are outliers, the fact of the matter is the two biggest unions in the country will ruthlessly back Democrats who have the worst policies possible. The irony is the Democrats actually need that money. Unlike the Repugs, whose funding sources aren't assailable without tremendous, mainstream political power or unprecedented violence, Democrats still need the common man. This is what makes the unions so vexing; if they'd simply stop giving money to anyone, if not a good candidate, we'd see a shift in policies tout suite.

After Clinton's NAFTA betrayal, the unions had one shot to prove they had any serious worth. They blew it.

[QuizmasterChris]

Well now there's a full-frontal assault on the remaining unions in the US, the public sector workers. And the only "response" the unions have had to this is pump money into the campaigns of neolib Democrats who have the unions in the same crosshairs as the GOP does.

So this is the one last remaining chance for them I'd say, and they are blowing it spectacularly.

I've been on the phone a few times to the state capital to talk with the state HQ of my wife's union about the daily - literal daily - libelous bashing unionized teachers get on our local Fox affiliate, and the union says they "are handling it."

Well, they're not doing a damn thing about it. Not even trying. I keep pointing out that less than 1% of their local membership showing up every day to disrupt the daily attacks of Fox would absolutely bury the station, that this is war and only one side is fighting... and all I hear is that they have their "best media person working on it."

Uh-huh.

In France there'd be a thousand organzied teachers at the station every day, shutting it down for its harmful lies. In the US everyone's paying into a fund to the salary of a "media person" who is "working on it", to no visible result.

[John Caruso]

Nader's definitely no shrinking violet, and I agree that he's got a sharp sense of humor, made all the more enjoyable by the fact that so many squealing liberals claim he's a droning bore. Yet another joke they don't get.

I looked up the quote you were talking about, Chris--it's when Ali G asked him about harnessing natural gas from farts, and Nader responded, "Well, you already have tens of millions of cattle, but they haven't figured out how to put a box on their asshole."

[Catherine]

Really? Ralph Nader said "F--- you!" Or said that someone should have said "F--- you!" I love it.

[Temet Nosce]

I was also shocked to see Nader drop an F bomb like that! I have never seen or heard the man cuss, although I agree he's not some kind of delicate flower and has no problem using strong language and inventive metaphors. Still, if any times ever deserved the use of "colorful" language, it's these...

[Temet Nosce]

Oh and yeah, I have trouble hearing Assange in most of his interviews, so I can't possibly imagine him "thundering"..

[Duncan]

Seriously, though, who has this image of Nader as a shrinking violet? I thought he was like a raving anti-business zealot and a total egomaniac.