Ralph Nader to Hold Rally and Press Conference at University of Louisville
Monday, September 15, 2008 at 12:00:00 AM
News Advisory
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Mike Welch (National Office) 202-471-5833, mike@votenader.org, Marty Krase (Local) 312-208-4687, marty@votenader.org
RALPH NADER TO HOLD RALLY AND NEWS CONFERENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF LOUISVILLE
On Friday, September 19 at 6 p.m., Independent Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader will be holding a press conference in room W312 of the Floyd Theater, at the University of Louisville followed by a 6:30 rally in Suite W310. Address: University of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292.
Mr. Nader's remarks will cover a broad range of issues, both national and state-wide. Mr. Nader was the first presidential candidate to pledge to end the destructive practice of coal strip mining and mountaintop removal mining. This practice continues to endanger the ecosystem of Eastern Kentucky.
Further, a 2004 report by the Courier-Journal found Kentucky to be among the nation's sickest states. Kentuckians die at a rate of 18 percent above the national average. The Nader/Gonzalez campaign maintains that this alarming rate is compounded by the lack of a National Single-Payer Health Care system. While Obama and McCain offer health care plans that would enrich private insurance companies at the expense of tax payers, the Nader/Gonzalez Campaign favors a system with private delivery and free choice of hospital and doctor. A 2008 Kentucky health issues poll found that healthcare issues were the third most important item to Kentucky voters, only coming in after the economy and the war in Iraq.
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 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."
WHO: Ralph Nader
WHAT: News Conference and Rally
WHEN: Friday, September 19, 6 p.m. News Conference; 6:30 p.m. Rally
WHERE: News Conference: Room W312, Swain Student Activities Center; Rally: Floyd Theater, Suite W310, Swain Student Activities Center, U of Louisville, Louisville, KY 40292.
About 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.
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.
For more information on the Nader/Gonzalez campaign, visit: votenader.org.
