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News Releases

  • Ballot Access Obstruction by Democratic Operatives

    DARCY RICHARDSON Richardson is completing a four-volume work on third parties. The first volume, Others: Third-Party Politics From the Nation’s Founding to the Rise and Fall of the Greenback-Labor Party, was released earlier this year; the second volume will be released in October. Richardson said today: “While pro-Bush forces helping independent candidate Ralph Nader get on the ballot have garnered headlines — most recently with lawyers in Florida representing Nader and the Reform Party who argued on behalf of Bush during the 2000 election fiasco — another important story is how pro-Kerry forces are blocking Nader from getting on the…

  • Ballot Access: Restriction on Democracy?

    As independent candidate Ralph Nader and the Libertarian and Green Parties are fighting court battles to get on the presidential ballot in various states, the following analysts are available for interviews: RICHARD WINGER Editor of Ballot Access News, Winger said today: “Since the 1890s, when ballot access laws first came into existence in the U.S., both major parties have used the ballot access laws for their own partisan advantage…. This year, though, partisan use of the ballot access procedures for independent candidates has been unusually active. Democrats have challenged Ralph Nader’s signatures successfully in Arizona, and a Democratic challenge of…

  • International Election Monitors Arrive in the U.S.

    BRIGALIA BAM Dr. Brigalia Bam is the Chairperson of the Independent Electoral Commission of South Africa. She is the former General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches. She said today: “We are civic leaders, parliamentarians, diplomats, academics, electoral officials, journalists, and veteran election monitors. We come from 15 countries on all five continents. We have worked for decades in our home countries to reform our electoral systems, to make them more responsive, more open, and more fair. We have been invited by the U.S. non-governmental organization Global Exchange with the aim of assisting Americans in the effort to…

  • Israeli Nuclear Whistleblower Vanunu on Mideast Nukes

    The U.S. government has been making demands regarding Iran’s nuclear program. On Thursday afternoon State Department spokesperson Richard Boucher was asked about “Mordechai Vanunu, the Israeli whistleblower” and his proposal that “there be a trade-off between the Iranian nuclear program and the ending of the Israeli one.” Boucher declined to comment on the proposal. When asked about Israel’s nuclear capacity, Boucher said: “I’m not making judgments or presumptions about that. We’ve had a view on the universal adherence to the Non-Proliferation Treaty that we’ve expressed many times, that applies in all cases.” Israel is not a signatory to the Non-Proliferation…

  • Will the Justice Department Enforce the Voting Rights Act?

    JOHN HICKEY John Hickey is the executive director of the Missouri Progressive Vote Coalition. He said today: “While John Ashcroft was governor of Missouri, he vetoed two bills that were designed to equalize access to voter registration between St. Louis County (then mostly white) and St. Louis City (then about 50 percent African-American). Ashcroft’s vetoes show a disturbing commitment on his part to maintaining separate and unequal access to voter registration for African-Americans. When Ashcroft was governor, the Election Commissioners in St. Louis City and St. Louis County established different policies for appointing volunteer deputy registrars (VDRs). In St. Louis…

  • With Iraq in Flames: Critical Perspectives

    KELLY DOUGHERTY Dougherty is a co-founder of the newly formed group Iraq Veterans Against the War. She was in the Colorado Army National Guard for eight years and was a military police sergeant for a year in Iraq before returning to the U.S. in late February. She said today: “When we first arrived in Iraq, part of what struck me was the poverty and desperation of the Iraqi people, but they acted friendly towards us, often smiling and waving. As we continued to occupy Iraq, I began to feel a growing sense of apprehension, as though the situation was going…

  • National Security Experts: 9/11 Commission Falls Short

    Today a group of 25 veteran former agents, analysts and other experts from a number of government agencies involved in national security are releasing a letter critical of the 9-11 Commission. Among the 25 signers are John M. Cole, former FBI intelligence operations specialist, and Diane Kleiman, a former special agent with U.S. Customs assigned to JFK International Airport. Other signers, available for interviews, are: SIBEL EDMONDS Edmonds worked as a language specialist for the FBI. After reporting security breaches, cover-ups, and blocking of intelligence, Edmonds was retaliated against and ultimately fired in March 2002. Since that time, all her…

  • Nader vs. Nader: Signatures Gathered by Republican Party Get Ralph Nader on Michigan Ballot

    “Michigan Republicans turned in 45,000 of the 50,500 petition signatures on behalf of Nader for a ballot spot.” — Detroit Free Press, Sept. 4, 2004 “We have not been accepting signatures obtained through organized Republican Party efforts in the three or four states where we have learned of such activity.” — Op-ed article by Ralph Nader in the Washington Post, Sept. 5, 2004 “The Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Friday [Sept. 3] that Nader qualified to be on the ballot as an independent, despite Democratic objections that 45,000 of the 50,000 signatures turned in on Nader’s behalf were collected by…

  • Bush With Big Lead Among Missouri Job Outsourcers

    ROBERT HICKEY Hickey is author of the just-released report “No Holiday For Missouri’s Outsourced Workers: Outsourcing, Executive Campaign Contributions and the 2004 Presidential Election.” He said today: “The report looks at all companies that have been approved for the federal Trade Adjustment Assistance program for sending Missouri jobs overseas since January 2001 when Bush became president. For each company, the political contributions made by the CEO and the directors were collected from the Center for Responsive Politics. When contributions to Bush and Kerry were compared, the company CEOs gave more than 13 times as much money to Bush as to…

  • As Problems Persist in Florida Elections, Law Students Organize for Voting Integrity

    In an editorial published on September 7, the New York Times stated: “There is no excuse for turning away eligible voters at the polls, but that is what apparently happened in Florida’s primary elections last week. Under Florida law, registered voters can vote without showing identification. But election officials at some polling places misstated the law and tried to keep eligible voters from voting.” More Information HEATHER GERKEN Gerken is an assistant professor of law at Harvard Law School and is on the advisory board of Just Democracy. She said today: “Although most Americans assumed that the problems we saw…

  • Debate Breaks Out on Efforts to Pressure Burma About Human Rights

    WASHINGTON — In the largest such effort since the anti-apartheid movement of the 1980s, the state of Massachusetts and some 20 cities and localities are effectively refusing to buy from companies that do business in Burma, where a military junta seized power and human rights abuses persist. Now, salvos are being fired about the legitimacy…

  • At the End of Sweltering Month, Denial on Global Warming

    WASHINGTON — Despite record temperatures and the prevalent view of the scientific community, some denial about global warming has not melted. In recent days, a troop of global-warming deniers journeyed to Capitol Hill. Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute was among those who testified Wednesday disputing the scientific weight of evidence on climate change. A…

  • Killing at School: Behind the Images

    WASHINGTON — In two weeks, the boys accused of the deadly shooting spree at their school in Jonesboro, Arkansas go on trial. Criminal justice and youth experts associated with the Institute for Public Accuracy say the trial — scheduled to get underway shortly before millions of students across the nation return to classes — should…

  • Claims for Privatizing Social Security Called

    WASHINGTON — While a prominent think tank claimed Monday that privatizing Social Security would help American women, a past president of the American Economic Association called the conclusions “preposterous.” Robert Eisner said the plan would actually harm women and severely damage Social Security as a system of social insurance. The Cato Institute — whose major…

  • Backers of International Court Challenge Nay-Sayers

    WASHINGTON — As discussions on the International Criminal Court treaty were coming to a close in Rome today, backers of a strong Court criticized the U.S. delegation’s end-game approach at the historic meeting. Some Court advocates took particular exception to the common argument that the Court would open a legal Pandora’s box, saying that such…

  • “Notable Hypocrisy” Cited as Prominent Think Tank Urges Funding Disclosure by Witnesses at Capitol

    WASHINGTON — A new report by one of the nation’s most influential think tanks, the Heritage Foundation, criticizes witnesses who testified on Capitol Hill without disclosing grants they had received from the U.S. government. But the report does not mention that the Heritage Foundation presented congressional testimony on American policies toward North Korea without acknowledging…

  • Alternatives to Federal Anti-Drug Policies

    WASHINGTON — With a $195 million federal anti-drug ad campaign now underway, some experts on drug policies and the law are questioning the effectiveness of the latest efforts to curb drug use. Among those available for comment are: DARRYL COLBERT Program Administrator for the Substance Abuse Network of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Washington,…

  • What Should Be Done With the Budget Surplus?

    WASHINGTON — For the first time in decades, government officials and policy wonks in the nation’s capital are talking about what to do with a federal budget surplus. The Congressional Budget Office predicts a surplus of between $43 billion and $63 billion this year. While many in Washington are pushing for tax cuts, some policy…

  • While Clinton Offers Reassurances in Hong Kong, Some Critics Dispute His Economic Assumptions

    WASHINGTON — President Clinton hopes that his public statements in Hong Kong on Friday will help to soothe jitters about economic turmoil in Asia. But some policy analysts in the United States are raising fundamental questions about the recent upheaval that has roiled the economies of many Asian nations. Despite assurances from U.S. officials, critics…

  • Critics Question Human Rights Standards

    WASHINGTON — While many applaud statements by President Clinton in China specifically citing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, analysts associated with the Institute for Public Accuracy are raising questions about selective adherence to the Declaration’s provisions. Among those available for comment are: ANURADHA MITTAL Mittal, policy director at the Institute for Food and Development…

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