Barbara Ehrenreich question

[Eric J in MN]

Is Barbara Ehrenreich going to be writing a lot of NY Times op-eds, or is she just going to write a few while Thomas Friedman is on vacation?

[NNadir]

1. Who cares?

This is the creepy woman who in 2000 said that what she feared most was Al Gore winning the election. Does the New York Times need yet another Repuke columnist?

http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/votenader.cfm

[Eric J in MN]

2. She may be a Green, but she's not a Republican (nt)

nt

[ulysses]

5. heathen wench!

She dared dispute Gloria Steinem's dictum that all free-willed women must vote for Gore? Imprison her too!

[Warpy]

6. Better rethink that one, sunshine

Barbara Ehrenreich is a lefty columnist. Perhaps you should have read her whole column, instead of one line taken out of context.

For a better read, try "Nickled and Dimed," a first person account of what living on low wage work is really like.

For the record, she's just replacing Friedman for a month. Too bad. She's a great improvement over him.

[Eric J in MN]

7. That sucks. She's much better than Thomas Friedman (nt)

nt

[no name no slogan]

10. Agree wholeheartedly

"Nickled and Dimed" is one of my top picks for reading up on the undeclared "class war" between the haves and have-nots of this country. Unfortunately I've lent out my copies of it repeatedly, and it hasn't come back, ever. Maybe I need to purchase a reserve copy for me, and one to loan? LOL.

Did you know that one of the three parts was done in the Twin Cities? It was back in the late 90s when we had the severe affordable housing crisis (vacancy rates were 1% and lower-- next to NOTHING affordable was available). She lasted all of a month before she ran out of money, and that was with a fairly decent full-time job at Menards, too (over $8/hr, IIRC).

[BurtWorm]

8. I was hoping Friedman would be gone a LOT longer than one measly month!

I loved BE's July 4th column. I should have known it was too good to be true to have a third truth teller on the Times' op-ed page.

[NNadir]

9. That would depend on how you define "leftist." I don't regard Naderism

as being particularly "leftist."

The fact is that Barbara Ehrenreich did her best to see that George W. Bush was put in the White House. So did Dick Cheney.

I don't give a rat's ass about the rest of her crap. I note that she is really not "nickeled and dimed." She is making money by whining about her concern for the poor. I doubt she would have as much writing material if Al Gore, a bright and decent patriot who has given brilliant and unselfish service to his country and his planet, been elected.

Barbara Ehrenreich will never convince me that she, and her pig hero, Repuke neocon apologist CNN corporate whore striking breaking millionaire liar Ralph Nader are worth a damn.

[Bonobo]

11. Convincing you probably would be impossible...

I wouldn't waste my time. I'll just say you're way, way, way off in attacking Barbara Ehrenreich and calling her a Republican. Can anyone say "quit while you're behind"?

[no name no slogan]

12. Define "Naderism" please

You keep mentioning this "Naderism" as if it's a religion, like "Scientology".

Sorry, but there is no such thing as "Naderism", unless you define it as fighting for consumer rights, pointing out the problems with the present economic system, and a belief in holding corporate criminals accountable-- something that the so-called "opposition party" has all but abandoned of late to appeal to the corporate interests of this country.

Ralph Nader is not a saint, or even a very good presidential candidate, for that matter. However, he is not afraid to point out that corporate criminals who steal billions of dollars and whose products cause hundreds of deaths a year get off scott-free, while petty street thugs get life for stealing a video tape and food for their kids.

I doubt she would have as much writing material if Al Gore, a bright and decent patriot who has given brilliant and unselfish service to his country and his planet, been elected.

Um, dude, the book was written in the LATE 90s, during the CLINTON administration. Sorry to burst your bubble, but most poor people didn't get sh!t from Clinton/Gore in the 90s. They did near the end, when the "trickle down" economic policies of Clinton/Greenspan actually trickled down far enough to make a difference for the working poor. It's pretty unlikely that Gore would have done much to change this situation had he been elected president, as he was cut from the same corpo-friendly cloth as Clinton.

Nader is no saint. But even a stopped clock gives the right time twice a day.

[NNadir]

13. OK, I'll define it: Naderism is a form of Bushism, aka Doublespeak.

Naderism is a form of Bushism that relies on doublespeak.

Let's look at words and how they're used:

Bush: "My logging initiative is called "Healthy forests."

Nader: "I am anti-corporatist even though I made millions of dollars by holding corporate stock, even though I embezzled money from PIRGS and Public Citizen and got rich while making a public vow of poverty."

Bush: "My dismantling of the clean air act is called "Clear Skies".

Nader: I can't tell the difference between Al Gore and George Bush even though Al Gore introduced the political importance of addressing global warming and George Bush, well, didn't.

Bush: (2000 Campaign): "I don't have a litmus test for nominating judges."

Nader: I can't tell the difference between Al Gore and George Bush because I can't tell the difference between Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsberg.

Bush: I am really concerned about human rights in Iraq.

Nader: I am really concerned about officiating in the NBA.

Bush: I care about the economy.

Nader: I care about consumers because they are people who CONSUME, ie, people who BUY SHIT and CONSUME SHIT because as a person who claims to be "anti-corporatist" I THINK THAT CONSUMING corporate products is the issue most important on the planet.

(Does this concern for CONSUMERS, DUDE, qualify as concern for the poor? What the fuck exactly has the millionaire stock-holding embezzling rich fat cat CNN propagandist corporate whore pig Ralph Nader ever done for a poor person anywhere at any fucking time in his useless propagandist REPUKE life? I was a poor student once and Ralph Nader had finagled his way into requiring that students contribute to his little unaudited PIRG self enrichment scheme. Fortunately the courts overturned that little bit of corporate fraud in the 1980's, causing the criminal strike breaking embezzler Ralph Nader to leave the organization, as it could no longer contribute to his personal cash flow.)

Maybe, DUDE, I need to spell it out for you, but Ralph Nader is a fraud, and NADERISM = CHENEYISM = LYING.

[no name no slogan]

15. Oh, I get it. "You're either with us or your against us."

How convenient. I'm against Dubya, but I certainly do NOT share your obsession with all things Nader. Frankly, I prefer to SELL our message to the voters by showing what's GOOD about it, NOT by pointing out what it is lacking.

Does that make me "against you"?

Nader-obsessing is not only unhealthy, it's a distraction from the REAL opponents: Gee Dubya and his band of merry robber-barons. Nader has little (if any) significant support anywhere in the country: obsessing about it and continually raising the Nader spector only hightens his profile, and demeans us.

Get over it already.

[Myrina]

16. Just for the record ...

Nader is not, and never has been, a member of the Green Party.

Greens who voted for him in 96 and 2000 were voting for the candidate their party endorsed, just as some of us who are less than thrilled about John Kerry will still vote for him in November because he is the Dem nominee.

It does not mean Greens as a whole are pro-Nader.

Please do not equate the two.


Thank you.

[no name no slogan]

18. Thank you

I voted for Nader in 1996 & 2000 because I supported the Green Party, and I wanted their issues to be brought to the table. The Greens are a "major party" in my state (MN), and to maintain that status they need to get 5% or more in a statewide election every four years. That was part of the reason I voted for them too-- all voices deserve to be heard, whether you agree with them or not.

[Classical_Liberal]

17. She advocated strategic voting for Nader

so she didn't put Bush in the whitehouse. Furthermore Kerry is neocon friendly as well. He'll be an impovement on Bush on certain things, but not foriegn policy.

[Kipepeo]

19. LOVE HER!

A recent article of hers that I saw on Truthout about Michael Moore, and the so-called "liberal elite:" http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/070204F.shtml

"Nickel and Dimed" is a must read.

[Kipepeo]

20. You're lying, by the way, or unintentionally misquoting her?

She never said what she feared most was Gore winning the election.

It's right here, in your own link: http://www.organicconsumers.org/corp/votenader.cfm

She said, and I quote:

"What I fear most about a Gore victory--yes, I said victory--is its almost certainly debilitating effect on progressives and their organizations."

Italics mine, for emphasis on what you left out (deliberately? I can't tell).

I happen to agree with her. It's what I fear most about a Kerry victory...that we will suffer some kind of post traumatic stress disorder (after the celebration of course) and then stop being political...the driving force will be gone (getting bush out of office) for a lot of people. I hope people will continue to fight for progressive politics instead of becoming complacent. It should never get to where it's gotten...ever again.

Another point you missed entirely from her statement: she says "--yes, I said victory--" further emphasizing that she would view Gore winning as a victory.

[Divernan]

3. I liked her recent NYT column in defense of poor kids.

It was in stark contrast to that sameday Maureen Dowd column savaging Teresa Heinz Kerry.

[tll]

4. I liked her book, Nickeled and Dimed and heartily recommend it.

[newyawker99]

14. Hi tll!!

Welcome to DU!!