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Spoiler or Exposer of a Spoiled System: Nader Announces Presidential
Bid
Haiti in Crisis: Armed Gangs Capture Second Largest City
Michael Parenti On the Bush Administration, Nader's Bid and
Ancient Rome
Spoiler or Exposer of a Spoiled System: Nader Announces
Presidential Bid
Democracy Now! interviews longtime consumer advocate Ralph
Nader who announced he was running for president as an independent.
Nader calls Washington "corporate-occupied territory"
but democrats as well as leftists and independents accuse
Nader of being a "spoiler" who will only increase
President Bush's chances of reelection. Longtime consumer
advocate Ralph Nader announced Sunday he is running for president
as an independent. Nader ran on the Green Party ticket in
2000 and placed third, winning about 3 percent of the vote.
At the time, he was accused by many Democrats as playing the
role of the spoiler and giving George Bush the election.
The reaction by many Democrats to his announcement to run
this time around has been harsher. New Mexico Democratic Gov.
Bill Richardson said, "It's his personal vanity because
he has no movement. Nobody's backing him. The Greens aren't
backing him. His friends urge him not to do it. It's all about
himself."
Appearing on Meet the Press, Nader said, "Washington
is still corporate-occupied territory, and the two parties
are ferociously competing to see who's going to go to the
White House and take orders from their corporate paymasters."
Nader, who turns 70 years old this week is to lay out his
campaign themes at a press conference today in Washington.
Haiti in Crisis: Armed Gangs Capture Second Largest
City
Armed gangs captured Haiti's second-largest city Cap-Haitien
and are threatening to march on the Haitian capital Port au-Prince
within 15 days. We go to Haiti to hear a report from the ground.
Gangs of armed groups captured Cap-Haitien, Haiti's second-largest
city on Sunday claiming their biggest victory in weeks-long
violence that has driven government forces from half the country.
Gang leader Guy Philippe told the Associated Press "I
think that in less than 15 days we will control all of Haiti"
and fears are increasing that the democratically-elected government
of Jean Bertrand Aristide could soon be overthrown in a violent
coup d'etat.
A total of 12 known people were reportedly killed in a gunbattle
when a force of about 200 insurgents met slight resistance
at the Cap-Haitien airport.
All four police stations in the city were looted and set
on fire, while hundreds of prisoners were reportedly set free.
A day earlier, Aristide accepted a U.S.-backed peace plan
in which he would remain president with diminished powers,
sharing a government with his opponents. The opposition reacted
coolly to the proposal saying any plan must include Aristide's
resignation. They will make an official announcement later
this afternoon.
- Kevin Pina, an independent journalist and filmmaker who
has spent the past 4 and a half years living and working
in Haiti. He joins us from the Haitian capital Port au-Prince.
Michael Parenti On the Bush Administration, Nader's
Bid and Ancient Rome
We speak with renowned author, political analyst and activist
Michael Parenti. His latest book is "The Assassination
of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome."
From Iraq to Afghanistan to Haiti and beyond, many parts of
the world are in turmoil. The US occupation of Iraq has seen
more than 540 US soldiers killed in less than a year. Perhaps
as many as 10,000 Iraqi civilians have died. In Afghanistan,
where the US military has a sizeable presence, the situation
remains unstable and violent. In Latin America, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez has accused the US of seeking to overthrow
his government. Cuban leader Fidel Castro charged recently
that the Bush administration was planning to assassinate him.
In Haiti, the armed gangs who are now occupying almost half
the country and threatening to overthrow the government, are
being led by some of the leaders of the paramilitary death
squads that terrorized Haiti in the early 1990s. This November's
presidential election is certainly one of the most significant
in recent history. Some international observers say that the
whole world should be able to vote in the elections because
US policy has such a dramatic impact on countries across the
world.
- Michael Parenti,
author and political analyst. His newest book "The
Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient
Rome" has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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