Indy Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader in Tulsa

[two lumps of shugh]

Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader
comes to OSU-Tulsa campus

WHO: Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader. Attorney, author, and consumer advocate Ralph Nader has been named by Time Magazine one of the "100 Most Influential Americans in the 20th Century." For more than four decades he has exposed problems and organized millions of citizens into more than 100 public interest groups advocating solutions. He led the movement to establish the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and was instrumental in enacting the Safe Drinking Water Act, the Motor Vehicle Safety Act, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and countless other pieces of important consumer legislation. Because of Ralph Nader we drive safer cars, eat healthier food, breathe better air, drink cleaner water, and work in safer environments. Nader graduated from Princeton University and received an LL.B from Harvard Law School.

WHAT: Press Conference and Campaign Rally

WHEN: Thursday, September 18, 12:45 pm News Conference; 1 p.m. Rally

WHERE: News Conference, Room 156; Rally, Auditorium. North Hall, 700 N Greenwood Ave, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK 74106.

PRE-EVENT MEET-UP: Activists are invited for some light fare and carpooling at 11:15 to 12:15 at Peace House~Tulsa 1314 North Greenwood Ave. inside the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Restoration.


PRESS RELEASE
Contact: Mike Welch (National Office) 202-471-5833, mike@votenader.org,
Peter Lewis (Local) 630-947-5708

RALPH NADER CAMPAIGNS IN TULSA WITH NEWS CONFERENCE, RALLY

On Thursday, September 18 at 12:45 p.m., Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will hold a news conference in room 156 of North Hall at Oklahoma State University. Following the news conference, he will be holding a rally in the auditorium, also in North Hall, 700 N Greenwood Ave, Oklahoma State University, Tulsa, OK 74106.

The theme of the rally, "Open the Debates," reflects the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign's call for inclusive, democratic Presidential debates. Right now, they are limited to the candidates from the two corporate parties. The debates are controlled by the so-called Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), a private corporation created by the Democratic and Republican Parties in 1987, which Walter Cronkite called an "unconscionable fraud" because the CPD format "defies meaningful discourse."

Mr. Nader's remarks will include the onerous ballot access restrictions in Oklahoma for independent and third party candidates. The state has one of the harshest ballot access laws in the nation, requiring 43,913 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot. A greater injustice is that write-in votes are not permitted, effectively limiting the voting choices of the population of an entire state.

Oklahoma has the fifth highest uninsured rate in the nation. While Obama and McCain offer health care plans that would enrich private insurance companies at the expense of tax payers, the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign advocates a public health insurance system with private  delivery and free choice of hospital and doctor.

Mr. Nader will also address these and many other critical issues the major party candidates have taken "off the table" that the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign has put on the table, including:

- a comprehensive, negotiated military and corporate withdrawal date from Iraq;
- a single-payer, private delivery, free-choice public health insurance system for all;
- a living wage and repeal of the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act;
- a no-nuke, solar-based energy policy supported by renewable, sustainable, energy-efficient sources;
- a carbon tax to deter global warming;
- an end to the corporate welfare and corporate crime that has resulted in millions losing pensions, savings and jobs and squandered tax dollars; and,
- more direct democracy reflecting the preamble to our constitution which starts with "we the people," and not "we the corporations."

About the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign
According to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll conducted from July 27-29, Ralph Nader is at 6 percent nationally (equivalent to about 10 million eligible voters), higher than his highest major poll numbers during the same time period in 2000 and approaching the 10 percent threshold required for eligibility to participate in "America's Presidential Debate in New Orleans," a Google-sponsored event scheduled for September 18. In the key swing state of Michigan -- whose Democratic voters were partially disenfranchised by the Democratic National Committee -- an EPIC-MRA poll found Nader at 8-10 percent.