Christ Frank, give it a rest, will you? If Nader is so damn "cultish" why did so many people support him in 2000? What is so "cultish" about Jewish Marxists and African American socialists anyway? That they aren't Kerry Democrats?

Lenora Fulani was the first African American to get on the presidential ballot in all 50 states in 1988 as the New Alliance Party candidate, and she did so with a lot of support from African Americans who had supported Jesse Jackson's 1984 run, but didn't like Jackson being so closely aligned with the Democratic party. Fulani has also worked with Rev Al Sharpton, a candidate in this year's Democratic primaries.

In 1994, Fulani joined the Patriot Party, which has ties to Ross Perot's Reform Party, with whom Nader was working this year to get on the ballot as their nominated candidate in a number of states.

So why shouldn't Nader be working with these former New Alliance Party activists? The New Alliance Party was a socialist party made up of working class African Americans, Chicanos, Arab, Jewish, GLBT, and feminist activists looking to expand their base beyond the International Workers Party. The New Alliance Party has plenty of people of color, Frank. And Nader doesn't need the endorsement of the extremely conservative Congressional Black Caucus, because their politics are very far to the right of Nader's and his progressive supporters.

What the hell is wrong with that? New Alliance Party activists would be natural allies with Nader, as would Ramsey Clark and International ANSWER, who organized and led the biggest anti-war demonstrations in the US prior to the Iraq invasion. Or the Million Worker March which was completely ignored by your man Kerry. Nader/Camejo at least endorsed the march.

Andy why on earth wouldn't Nader seek advice and support from the New Alliance Party or ANSWER or any other socialist and progressive individuals and organizations that are his natural political allies?

What you are doing Frank, is using the incredibly vicious and filthy political smear tactic of guilt by association, and trying to paint these people, and Nader by association, as bizarre cultists that All Red Blooded Patriotic Americans should fear and loathe. What you are doing is despicable. You sure are looking like you've joined ranks with the modern day McCarthyites, calling the New Alliance Party a cult, instead of a communist front. You were there in the 50s Frank, so you know just how it works. You ought to be ashamed of yourself, stooping to this despicable level.

I undertand that to conservative Democrats, only the extremely conservative Congressional Black Caucus will do for African American electoral support. After all, they are just as opposed to the GLBT agenda as Kerry, the Democratic Leadership Council, and the Republican Party is. I'm not afraid of radical African American, Jewish, Arab, Chicano, GLBT, or feminist political activists who aren't working for the Democrats Frank, but apparently you are.

As to citing The Nation, don't make me laugh. The Nation has been one of the leading liberal journals trying to discredit Nader this year. For a more balanced account of Nader running this year, try some journals that aren't tied quite so closely to the Democratic Party (ie steer clear of Alter Net, Common Dreams, Working Assets, New Republic, The Nation, Mother Jones, ballot-access.org, and the other liberal mainstream journals).

Try CounterPunch, New Left Review , Democracy Now, IndyMedia, or lefthook.org instead.

The Democratic drive to discredit Nader is fueled with large amounts of unregulated money, much of it funneled through the National Progress Fund, an ostensibly independent group led by Toby Moffett, a former Democratic congressman who is currently a partner in a largely Republican lobbying firm called the Livingston Group.

National Progress Fund and other so-called independent 527 organizations (named for the section of the tax code under which they incorporate) were operating openly at the Democratic National Convention. They held meetings to discuss the best strategies and tactics to push the Nader-Camejo ticket off the ballot and they raised money from Democratic fat cats to accomplish their goals. It is evident that these "independent" groups are actually not independent but working closely with the Democratic Party.

In addition, chair of the Democratic Party of Maine, Dorothy Melanson, testified under oath in a public hearing before Maine's secretary of state that the national Democratic Party is funding efforts throughout the country to stop Nader-Camejo from appearing on ballots.

These ties with Democrats don't prevent the 527s from accepting help from entrenched corporate interests, or even Republican quarters, to finance challenges of the signatures we have collected to meet the requirements of ballot access. According to reports filed with the Internal Revenue Service, Robert Savoie, president of Louisiana-based Science & Engineering Associates, donated $25,000 to the National Progress Fund in June. A month before, Savoie gave $25,000 to the Republican National Committee.

As for Nader using signatures gathered by Republicans to get on the Michigan ballot, Democrats challenged more than 45,000 of the 50,500 signatures submitted on Nader's behalf claiming they were collected by the Michigan Republican Party.

The state appeals court ruled the board had overstepped its authority and dismissed challenges to the petitions. Nader got on the ballot despite the Democratic challenge. Nader isn't a Democrat and nor are his supporters, so why should any of us care if Nader was able to get on the Michigan ballot by playing the Republicans against the Democrats? Nader has been fighting both Democrats and Republicans his entire career, and both parties have been harrassing his campaign ever since he got into the race. It doesn't bother me one iota that Nader used the Republicans, but I'm sure it bothers died in the wool Democrats like you, Frank.

The Congressional Black Caucus thing was idiotic. They yelled at him to quit the race. He said no. They yelled some more. So what? And if you think your list of list of celebrity dilettantes is going to convince any of Nader's supporters to change their votes, or should, you are seriously delusional. Why the hell should ANYONE give a damn what Phil Donahue says about Ralph Nader? Those pathetic liberal sellouts for Kerry have crushed the progressive agenda and movements, and now think they can come to us at the 11th hour to save Kerry's ass in Michigan and Wiconsin? I think not!

Despite all those Democratic efforts to keep him off the ballot, Nader is still holding his own, and may end up doing as well as he did in 2000, despite the unprecedented legal harrassment campaign being waged by the Democrats to keep him off the ballot. Here is the progressive answer to Noam Chomsky, et als' 11th hour call the progressive left to arms call, Frank.

Deal with it.