[nader-colo-students] GreenGrafix; Greeley debate; LaDuke; Rock 'till you Ralph; Campus Reports

["Damon Haley " <dhaley@greens.org>]

Hello,

Before I begin, I wanted to correct a mistake I made in the last 
letter regarding CU's "Mock Presidential Debate" on Tuesday, October 
24th.  The debate will be in Benson 169, not Benson 186.

Also, collect names and phone numbers of any likely Nader voters.  
This will be so important the last three days of the election.  Just 
because someone says that they'll vote for Nader now, doesn't mean 
they will on Nov. 7th, and they might not even vote, or know where to 
vote.  It is our job that we answer any questions likely Nader voters 
have and remind them to vote and tell them where the polling place 
is.  Send these names and phone numbers to me because the D.C. office 
want to use them for analysis of where they will spend their campus 
money.  The D.C. office will also use these names to help the Green 
party after the election.  Start sending them to me now.  I'll call 
all campus reps next week to see how this is going.

In the last three weeks I've gotten to attend Nader meetings at 
Regis, CU, and CSU campuses.  All these schools and the 14 other 
campuses are doing well.  Additionally, I participated in a debate 
representing Nader against Mike Coffman, the State Treasurer who 
represented Bush, and Steven Bachar, an attorney representing Gore.

I just have to say this, "I kicked their asses."  They didn't even 
believe in their candidates.  You can read about it at:

http://www.greeleytrib.com/news/news_story.html?rkey=0000387

One of things that got a lot of cheering besides calling Bush a joke, 
is when I said a vote for Gore in Colorado is a wates.  Bush is ahead 
11% in the polls, so voting for him is a complete waste.  At UNC, I 
had some young Democracts come up to me and say that they are voting 
for Nader, because they can't stand Gore.  You should try to form 
coalitions with the Young Democrats for a "Get Out the Vote" drive in 
two weeks.

Additionally, I picked up more volunteers at UNC, so hopefully we can 
get some Nader votes in this Republican stronghold.  I saw so many 
Bush signs, so we have to get Nader signs up.  Let me know if you're 
out of yard signs.

On Wednesday, we had our "Beat on the CPD" protest.  We had about 60 
people come out with a wide assortment of percussion instruments.  
Unfortunately, the media chose to ignore us except this one reporter 
from the Denver Post, who did publish a photo in yesterday's Post.  
Did anyone see other coverage?  If anything, we got a lot of honks 
from passing cars and made Lincoln and Colfax sound like a cross 
between African rain forest music and techno with sirens.  I think we 
really annoyed some of the media, when we discovered our bullhorn had 
a very loud siren.  Oh, and we had police escorts.  We'll have to get 
the pictures on the Colorado Nader website.  Who says politics can't 
be fun?

I know many of you are making home made Nader posters and fliers.  
For those of you that aren't artists, I just discover a great site 
for free Nader/green art for posters, T-shirts, fliers, and web sites.

Check it out!
http://www.GreenGrafix.com

Also I found a great Winona LaDuke website for anything you want to 
know about this amazing activist.
http://adot.com/WinonaLaDuke.html

Talk to you all soon.  

Below are your missions for this week.  Below that are some Colorado 
campus reports (Fort Lewis, Mesa State, CSU) and a way to register 
with Zogby polling to represent Greens.  And last but not least are 
some letter's to the editor that were submitted by Andrew Trexler 
from the CU Greens.  Please send me any letters the rest of you have 
written to your campus papers.  We currently have 20% of the student 
vote.  If every student knows Ralph is running, we can easily get 50%.

If any of you can make it down to Denver don't forget about:
"Rock 'till You Ralph"
Local bands for Ralph Nader - Featuring: N.C.S.M, The Saturn Landers, 
The Nobel Gasses, The Pin Downs, Abdomen and Devotchka 

Fri. Oct 20th 2000
7:00 pm - ???
Bluebird Theater
3317 E. Colfax Ave.
Denver, CO
303.322.2308

Go We Go!

Damon
(303)675-5841
dhaley@greens.org
www.coloradonader2000.com
-------------------------------------------------------------  

PARTY MISSION 

Begin planning an "Absentee Voting Party" for some time at the end of 
next week.  The Absentee Voting Night will be a great way to make 
sure that people registered absentee request their ballots and cast 
their votes.  Invite other political groups, and bill it as a night 
of political dialogue for those absentee voters who're still
unsure 
about their vote to get together and make informed and confident 
decisions before sending in their ballots.  Provide food, drinks, and 
Nader 2000 materials. 

It is important that you begin planning and sending invitations out 
for this event now.  In your invitation, which you should send to as 
many student lists as possible, invite people to the party under the 
condition that they have their absentee ballot.  Remind them that 
they still have plenty of time to acquire their ballot in time to 
vote, and can request it by going to 
http://www.moveon.org/tovote.htm, or by calling the local board of 
elections of the county in which they're registered. 

Hopefully, the politics, the atmosphere, and their casting of their 
vote for Nader /LaDuke will inspire new supporters to volunteer for 
the final week and a half of your Get Out the Vote Drive. 

WEB MISSION  

So how much "lesser" is the "lesser of two evils"? 
Check out our new 
"Gore's Broken Promise of the Day" section of our website
at 
http://www.votenader.org/goresbrokenpromises.html, and use the
"send 
to a friend" feature at the bottom of the page to send it to
people 
you know who like Nader, but are planning to vote Gore because they 
think that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush.  Send them these 
broken promises to make sure they know exactly who they're voting
for 
when they vote for Gore. 

CONTRAST OF THE WEEK 

Ralph Nader supports campaign finance reform as well as other 
electoral reforms, such as public financing of campaigns, same-day 
voter registration, a binding "none of the above" option on
electoral 
ballots, instant run-off voting, free air time for all viable 
political candidates, and open presidential debates.  Although both 
Al Gore and George W. Bush talk the talk of campaign finance reform, 
neither of them walk the walk.  They have each accepted hundreds of 
millions of dollars in soft money for their campaigns. Nader 2000 is 
accepting no soft money, no corporate money, and no political action 
committee money.  Period. 

LETTER TO THE EDITOR 

The following are talking points for a letter to the editor about 
cleaning up our country's elections. 

· Big business invests millions of dollars into political
campaigns 
each election cycle, and they expect a return on that investment in 
the form of tax breaks, corporate welfare, and other special favors. 
· Al Gore and George W. Bush both claim to support some kind of 
campaign finance reform, but neither have initiated or supported any 
significant legislation to this end, and both have accepted huge 
amounts of soft money for their own campaigns. 
· Al Gore claimed that his campaign would stop accepting soft
money, 
but only if George W. Bush's campaign does so first.  Bush
responded 
to this by saying that it wasn't fair because he has not yet
accepted 
as much soft money as Gore.  This childish response to a campaign 
finance system in desperate need of reform is an insult to the 
American people and to those like John McCain, Russ Feingold, and 
Ralph Nader who have been fighting for this reform for so long. 
· Ralph Nader has said, "The biggest single obstacle to
honest, just 
government action - government of, by and for the people - is the 
corruption of special interest money in our election campaigns." 
· Ralph Nader's presidential campaign is not accepting any
soft 
money, any corporate money, or any political action committee money.  
The overwhelming majority of Nader's campaign money has come from 
individual's small donations, averaging around $25. 
· If the two major party presidential candidates are truly
interested 
in reforming our country's electoral system, they should give
their 
soft money back! 
  
-------------------------------------------------------------
Report from Fort Lewis College:

Our non-partisen vote reg coalition registered about 850 people or 
so.  Mainly I am just using word of 
mouth with the pins and stickers.  We are using the material with our 
voter education drive and just around campus in general.  There are 
also some people that want to screen shirts that say "Bush and Gore 
make me want to Ralph" so we are looking into that.  Also thinking 
about leaving/posting some literature in some local shops.

Aspen
ajfink@fortlewis.edu 
------------------------------------------------------------
Report from Mesa State Collge:

Things are going well. We are attempting to set up a table and show
nader videos on the 23rd and the 31st. There is also going to be a 
meeting at a library on the 23rd. 

Collin Weller
cweller@mesastate.edu
-------------------------------------------------------------
Report from CSU


On Tuesday, October 24th, the CSU camups Greens will be holding a 
rally on campus.  It will be conducted in the Ramskellar, the 
basement of the Lory Student Center from 6:30-11:00 p.m.  We have 
three bands, are coordinating other progressive campus groups to set 
up informational tables, showing Nader's presidential nomination 
speech(a condensed version), a Rage Against the Machine video, and a 
few speakers.

Please spread the word around the Denver and Boulder area.  We really 
want this to be a blow out!
--------------------------------------------------------------
Register with Zogby polling to represent Greens

this is the link for the Zogby polling group...they're
the independent poll that a whole lot of news organizations
and the CPD use.
Just go to
"online polls" and then  "register" and answer their questions.

http://www.zogby.com/main.cfm
----------------------------------------------------------------
From: TREXLER  ANDREW STEVEN <trexler@ucsu.colorado.edu>

Dear Editor:

Al Gore and George Bush have made it quite clear that they have no
desire to debate Ralph Nader. To steer clear of such a debate, they
have ignored invitations from other organizations and insisted on
only attending the Commission's debates, which exclude other 
candidates such as Nader and Pat Buchanan. This Commission is 
undemocratic because its intent is to keep out viable 3rd party 
candidates who offer strikingly different opinions on domestic and 
foreign policy. However, What is truly reprehensible is the police 
presence that met Mr Nader at the door when, ticket in hand, he tried 
to enter a separate auditorium to watch the debate and hold 
interviews with members of the media. Such tyrannical behavior is 
frightening. What, may I ask, are they so afraid of?

We should all be disgusted by this uncalled-for display of
force and should contact the Commission to let them know that they 
will never get away with this again. As well, we should pressure the 
major television networks to call for Mr. Nader's inclusion in the 
last two debates. We live in a democratic country, we should demand 
that other views be expressed.
**********************************************
Dear Editor:

several month ago, I decided to start campaigning for Green Party
Presidential candidate Ralph Nader, not because I believe he will 
win, but because I support the revolutionary political reforms that 
he is calling for. These include, among other things,  universal 
healthcare, withdrawl from the WTO (until it changes the current 
rules of global trade), public funding of public elections, an end to 
the War on Drugs and the legalization of marijuana, and several other 
radical changes. As well, he is the ONLY major presidential candidate 
that I respect- Bush and Gore have sold their souls to big business; 
oftentimes to the exact same companies. 

Since deciding to campign for Nader, I've gotten a lot of flack
from friends. "A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush", "Don't waste your
vote!", "You're going to help overturn Roe v. Wade" etc, etc. For such
folks as these, I've compiled a little "Myth/Fact" sheet about this
election:

Myth: A vote for Ralph Nader is a wasted vote
Fact: If Nader gets 5% of the national vote (nearly the same as his
current poll numbers), the Green Party gets nearly $15 million in 
public funds to run a strong campaign for the Presidency in 2004. In 
other words, five million Nader votes changes the American political 
landscape for decades to come.

Myth: A vote for Nader is a vote for Bush
Fact: Each candidate has to earn every vote, and millions of Nader
supporters are one-time non-voters. I, for one, would be sitting out 
this election if Nader weren't running. Even if Nader does attract 
would-be Gore voters, Colorado polls show Bush with a strong lead 
over Gore: the race here is over already.

Myth: If Bush wins, Roe v. Wade will be overturned
Fact: All of Bush's Texas Supreme Court appointees have supported a
woman's right to choose, A Nixon appointee wrote the Majority opinion 
in Roe v. Wade, and Ford, Reagan, and Bush Sr. appointees have all 
supported it since. This is nothing more than a scare tactic. 

Myth: Gore is a stonger environmentalist than Nader
Fact: Gore let a shopping Mall be built over fragile wetlands in 
exchange for $31,000 in campaign contributions, owns $500,000 in 
stock in the infamous Oxy Oil Co., and supports the WTO, the biggest
threat to the environment that the world has ever seen. Nader was
instrumental in creating the Environmental Protection Agency, 
protested against the WTO in Seattle, and has been endorsed by David 
Brower, Founder of League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the 
Earth, and the Sierra Club

Myth: Nader has no popular support, and he won't get 5%, so you might 
as well vote for Gore
Fact: Nader drew 10,500 people who paid to hear him speak in 
Portland, and plans to do the same in Boston, Seattle, Minnesota, and 
maybe even Denver.
Thousands have volunteered time to his campaign in every state, and 
he's at right around 5% in the polls.

Myth: Most Gore voters are really excited about his campaign, because 
he's going to be a progressive, populist president. Didn't you hear 
his acceptance speech?
Fact: When I was in LA, even delegates used the "lesser of two evils"
argument to get me to vote for Gore, and I've seen one Gore-
Lieberman Bumpersticker in the last month, as compared to about 50 
Nader stickers and signs all over town. 

Myth: You should vote for Gore, because he's the lesser of two evils
Fact: If we continue to buy this argument, politics will only get more
odious and someday, there will be even less difference between the 
"bad guy" and the "good guy"

In this election, vote your hopes, not your fears!

Sincerely 

Andrew Trexler
******************************************************
Dear Editor:

Your August 25th editorial on third parties contained some some 
errors in regards to Ralph Nader's candidacy on the Green Party 
ticket. You write that "Nader doesn't buy much of the Green Party 
platform" and that he is only "loosely connected" to the party. These 
allegations are simply not true. Mr. Nader has endorsed the 
Association of State Green Parties' platform that was created in 
Denver in June. Furthermore, the major planks of his campaign 
(available at Votenader.org) advance the Ten Key Values of the Green 
Party (available at greens.org.) He remains a registered Independant 
because he has no desire to get involved in the squabbles between two 
factions in the party, but has raised awareness of and money for this 
growing party and has promoted the Green vision at every campaign 
stop. I have every reason to believe that he will continue to be 
active in the party, even if he is not elected in November. 

You also write that "the obvious effect of his campaign" is "to aid 
Bush at the expense of Gore." The Nader campaign appeals to liberals,
independants, non-voters who are disgusted with the corporate buyout 
of our democracy, and even conservatives. In 1996, 2 out of 5 votes 
for Nader in California came from registered Republicans. This should 
not be shocking- what conservative doesn't want clean air, safe 
drinking water, and fair elections? Yet both parties have sold our 
interests down the river in favor of the interests of their corporate 
paymasters. Nader is fighting to break the grip that money has on our 
political process, and his campaign is good for democracy. Every vote 
he gets in November is earned and doesn't belong to any other 
candidate. 

*******************************************************
Dear editor:

I agree with Ms. Sudow that we should all vote for Al Gore. I do not,
however, believe that a vote for George W. Bush is all that bad, 
either.  Both these fine candidates support increased military 
spending, and both are for an increase in the construction of 
privatized prisons. This helps both the prison industry and gives 
other corporations access to cheap and/or slave labor. Both are for 
continuing the war on drugs (can you say more $$ for defense 
contracters?!) Both are in favor of corporate-managed trade (as run 
by the WTO) which is bad for human rights and the environment, but 
good for Wall St. Finally, and this really goes without saying, more 
than 80% of donations to the candidates have been from the richest 1% 
of the population and each will receive well over $100,000,000 in 
soft money from corporations, so you know who these "two" will answer 
to.

We ask all voters to be most concerned about Roe v Wade in this 
election.  True, Ford, Reagan, and Bush, Sr. all appointed pro-choice 
judges, but we're sure that if George W. Bush wins, he will overturn 
this decision.  This is the most important issue of the campaign- DO 
NOT consider other issues. 

While we approve of the "two" major candidates, we do NOT approve of 
Ralph Nader. You should not challenge Mr. Bore/Gush by voting for 
this man.  He doesn't support corporate plutocracy at all! He's at 8% 
in the polls (Jesse Ventura was at about 5% two years ago today) and 
no one knows what might happen if he gets in the debates (he needs to 
get 15% in opinion polls to get in right now, but some crazy "pro-
democracy" types want that figure lowered to 5%.) Please DO NOT log 
onto VOTENADER.ORG and sign a petition to let Nader debate, please DO 
NOT email INFO@DEBATES.ORG and tell them to let Nader in, and 
whatever you do, Don't vote for Ralph Nader on November 7th!

Andrew Trexler

Corporate Fascists for Gorebush
Boulder Chapter 









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