two Nader articles

Subject:
[NDRCALNEWS] Nader on silent theft
Date:
Wed, 3 Jul 2002 14:15:48 -0700
From:
"Nader 2000 | California"
<nader-cal-news-owner@...>
To:
<nader-cal-news@...>

The silent theft

by Ralph Nader

(SF Bay Guardian, July 3) -- HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars of the
nation's
wealth -? the people's resources -? are being openly confiscated by
corporations. Government, the presumed protector of the public's
property,
has become, instead, the enabler of this plunder and theft. The media,
the
nation's self-professed watchdogs, are apathetic at best in sounding the

alarm about the people's loss of control over resources they have paid
for
or inherited from previous generations.

As a result, corporations have found it easy to lay claim to a wide
range
of public resources: publicly funded medical advances, national forests,

public spaces in cities, the Internet, software innovations, the
airwaves,
and the DNA of animals, plants, and humans. Surprisingly, corporate
appropriation, or privatization, of public resources has proceeded
quietly
with only sporadic public outcries against the most blatant thefts.

One public interest activist and author, David Bollier, is making a
valiant effort to change that. As Bollier argues, the abuses go
unnoticed
because the thefts are generally seen "only in glimpses, not in
panorama,
when [they are] visible at all." Bollier's new book, "Silent Theft: The
Private Plunder of Our Common Wealth" (Routledge), is a loud wake-up
call
for citizens interested in halting the steady exploitation and erosion
of
the nation's resources and values for short-term gains by the few.

"We have become a nation of eager consumers ?- and disengaged
citizens -?
and so are ill-equipped to perceive how our common resources are being
abused," Bollier writes. He moves quickly to specifics: our tax dollars
helped develop breakthrough cancer drugs, but pharmaceutical companies
acquired the rights to those drugs for a song ?- and the companies now
charge exorbitant prices. An archaic 1872 law gives mining companies the

lucrative right to mine valuable mineral resources on our public lands
for
$5 an acre -? a right the mining industry preserves through what Bollier

describes as "well-deployed campaign contributions."

Bollier is especially critical of the federal government's role in
giving
away its most promising drug research and development to the drug
companies.
"It is a sweet deal for drugmakers, but an outrage for millions of
American
taxpayers and consumers," Bollier says. "It is a scandalous fact that
the
fruits of risky and expensive scientific work typically do not accrue to
the
sponsors/investors -? the American people -? until drug companies have
extracted huge mark-ups of their own. The American people pay twice,
first
as taxpayers, reaping a lower (or nonexistent) return on their
investments,
and second as consumers paying higher drug prices charged by
pharmaceutical
companies."

Bollier reminds the reader that Americans own collectively one-third
of
the surface area of the country and billions of acres of the outer
continental shelf. The resources are extensive and valuable: huge
supplies
of oil, coal, natural gas, uranium, copper, gold, silver, timber
grasslands,
water, and geothermal energy. The nation's public land also consists of
vast
tracts of wilderness forests, unspoiled coastlines, sweeping prairies,
the
Rocky Mountains, and dozens of beautiful rivers and lakes.

"As the steward of these public resources, the government's job is to

manage these lands responsibly for the long-term," Bollier argues. "The
sad
truth is that the government stewardship of this natural wealth
represents
one of the great scandals of the 20th Century. While the details vary
from
one resource to another, the general history is one of antiquated laws,
poor
enforcement, slipshod administration, environmental indifference and
capitulation to industry's most aggressive demands."

Despite his vigorous criticism of the exploitation and neglect of the

public's resources -? "the commons" -? Bollier remains optimistic that
people can be galvanized to reverse the current trend. "Americans have a

long tradition of creating innovative vehicles for ensuring fair return
to
the American people on resources they collectively own," he writes. "It
is
time to revive this tradition of innovation in the stewardship of public

resources and give it imaginative new incarnations in the twenty-first
century."

--------------------

Ralph Nader's column appears weekly in the Bay Guardian. For more
information on "Silent Theft", go to www.silenttheft.com.

Subject:
[NDRCALNEWS] Nader Wants Renewed Probe of Bush Stock Sale

Date:
Sat, 6 Jul 2002 11:33:09 -0700
From:
"Nader 2000 | California"
<nader-cal-news-owner@...>
To:
<nader-cal-news@...>

Nader Wants Renewed Probe of Bush Stock Sale

WASHINGTON (CNN, July 6) -- Consumer advocate Ralph Nader Friday called
on
the Securities & Exchange Commission to re-open its investigation into
President Bush's 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock, just two months
before
its value sank under the weight of bad earnings reports.

Bush has recently criticized companies for bookkeeping scandals and
plans
a policy speech on the subject Tuesday. Bush, who was a member of
Harken's
audit committee, sold the stock for about $848,000. The SEC at the time
investigated for possible insider trading law violations but did not
charge
Bush.

"I think it would be wise for the SEC ... to reopen that
investigation in
order to get the full facts before the American people," said Nader, who
ran
for president against Bush and former Vice President Al Gore. "When
President Bush was asked about this by a reporter earlier this week, he
brushed it aside, saying the he had been adequately vetted. That's not a

sufficient answer."

Nader said Bush's 1990 stock sale was unethical. "He engaged in very
late
filings with the SEC," Nader said. "He sold the stock just before some
very
damaging news was disclosed." The White House this week blamed the late
filings on a mix-up among corporate lawyers. Bush's representatives in
the
past had said the SEC lost the documents.

Nader and his group Citizenworks are calling for reforms in the
corporate
world, including an end to off-shore tax shelters, tightening of laws
governing corporations' financial reporting, and jail time for those who

violate them. The group also calls for investors to group together to
protect their interests from what it calls predatory and greedy
management.

-- Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria island
http://www.anaphoria.com

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