Posted on 07/09/2002 2:49:02 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HAVANA (Reuters) - Consumer advocate Ralph Nader said on Tuesday that President Bush was in a unique position to clean up corporate America because he had been an "irresponsible corporatist" himself a decade ago.
"If it takes one to know one, he should be in a very experienced position to advocate a comprehensive corporate reform package and get it through Congress," Nader, the Green Party 2000 presidential candidate, told reporters on a visit to Cuba.
The president went to Wall Street on Tuesday to announce measures to make corporate officers more accountable and boost criminal penalties for corporate fraud in response to scandals that have shaken investor confidence.
Bush is facing questions about his integrity as a director of Texas-based Harken Energy Corp. a decade ago, when the company faced an inquiry by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for masking huge losses. Democrats in Congress have called for full publication of records of the SEC's 1992 investigation of Bush's trading in Harken shares. The SEC concluded he did not have access to insider information.
"Bush was an irresponsible corporatist with Harken Energy. He managed to sell his stock for hundreds of thousands of dollars two months before the bad news came out," Nader said. "He was on the audit committee. He was on the board of directors. He clearly knew about the bad news."
While Democrats have questioned Bush's qualifications for leading the charge against corporate corruption, Nader said the president was just the man for the job. "Coming out of the corporate world, having done some of these things, having associated with people like Kenny Boy -- Ken Lay of Enron -- he is in the best position possible to enact very fundamental structural systemic corporate reform, and unleash major prosecution against these companies and their bosses through the Justice Department and the SEC," Nader said.
"Mr. Bush seems to think that elections that are for sale and government that is for sale to the corporate commercial interest conform with democratic processes," he said.
"I think that putting our elections and our government up for sale nullifies the votes of the American people," he said, urging Bush to press for public funding of U.S. elections.
Nader, who won 3 percent of the vote in the 2000 presidential elections, said free trade negotiations in the Americas lacked provisions to protect labor and environmental standards and would only benefit multinational corporations, an anti-globalization view shared by Castro.***
Under the accords -- which ended the last rafter exodus in 1994 -- the regime accepts Cubans who have been interdicted by U.S. cutters at sea, and the United States provides 20,000 visas annually to Cubans who wish to come here.
Breaking the accords and unleashing an uncontrolled exodus could easily backfire. President Bush isn't Jimmy Carter or Bill Clinton. Indeed, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush warned that his brother's administration would react strongly to such an exodus, which would be considered ``an act of aggression.''
How might the U.S. government react?
o It could stop U.S. remittances to the island.
o It could send ships to cordon off South Florida, block boats from going to pick up Cubans and interdict Cubans attempting to enter U.S. waters.
The emergency plan exists.
The first measure would wreak economic disaster. The regime is already desperately short of hard currency. Its two biggest revenue sources, tourism and remittances, already are down because of the recession. Per-capita sugar production is approaching the lowest levels since the 1890s independence war.
Venezuela has cut off cheap oil shipments, and no other country wants to lend the regime money because it has stiffed so many. Castro has alienated even once-close allies such as Mexico and Canada.
Combine economic desperation with a drastic cut in the steady outflow of disaffected Cubans, and the conditions are ripe for an internal explosion. Imagine the hot Caribbean summer, power outages, food shortages, increasingly repressive crackdowns. In 1965, 1980 and 1993, Castro relieved pressure by allowing Cubans to take to the seas. [End Excerpt]
the man, his politics and his economic views are all in-line.
Dear INS: Give Naders visa a "special inspection" when he returns.
Yes!
Bump!!
LOL
2002 - 07 - 02...
< /SARCASM >
Gee, you mean Ralphie-boy didn't condemn his Leftist buddy's wholesale confiscation of businesses?!
It must not have been an important point...
President Bush was in a unique position to clean up corporate America because he had been an "irresponsible corporatist" Ralph Nader
When will this man’s 15 minutes of fame be over?
[Jimmy and Ralph take their shows on the road. But they're only playing to the dictators.]
Political Feuding Wrecks Carter Trip to Venezuela*** The American trouble-shooter arrived in Venezuela on Saturday on a mission to broker a dialogue between the government and opposition.***
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