Posted by Mary2 at dialup217f.egr-ri.ids.net on November 17, 2003 at 00:01:23:
In Reply to: Re: Moore's opinions are based on how much $$$ he posted by Runshouse21 on November 16, 2003 at 23:36:33:
Yeah, and Nader claims to never profit from the exploitation of others,
yet when the truth comes out about his investments, we find out that
he's a hypocrite and a liar.. he's against the WTO? Yeah, right.. then
why does he have over three million dollars in stock with Cisco Systems
and 3COM, both corporations have lousy human and worker rights records
in Asia, Mexico, Central and South America.. What we're learning is
that Nader feels quite comfortable in lying to us.. he profits from
Occidental Oil stock, Gore doesn't. Here are some facts and the sources
to back them up:
Let me say at the outset that you can download pdf copies of the
relevant documents using the links at the bottom of this
message.
As you know, Greens and other activists have been protesting Al
Gore because his mother's trust owns stock in Occidental
Petroleum, which has been striving to drill for oil on the sacred
lands of the indigenous U'wa people in Colombia. In the US, the
protests have had two main targets: Mr. Gore and Fidelity
Investments, one of the largest holders of Occidental stock.
Fidelity holds far more shares, by the way, than Pauline Gore's
trust. Fidelity controls about $500 million worth of Occidental
Stock, according to the Rainforest Action Network, which
accuses Fidelity of "Investing in Genocide." Protestors have
urged Fidelity investors to divest from Fidelity unless Fidelity
pressures Occidental to cancel its Colombia project.
Apparently, Ralph Nader didn't hear them.
In the financial disclosure form he filed on June 14, Ralph Nader
reported that he owns between $100,000 and $250,000 worth of
shares of the Fidelity Magellan Fund. As an owner of the fund,
Nader owns a portion of the stocks that make up the fund,
including its
4,321,400 shares of Occidental Petroleum.
Mr. Nader has no control over the investment choices Fidelity
makes in this fund, but he receives reports of fund holdings and
he has his choice of funds. Unlike Mr. Gore, Mr. Nader has a
personal stake in Occidental, and he has not issued any press
release annoucing his divestment or pressuring Occidental to
halt its project.
But wait, there's more. Fidelity Magellan also owns stock in Dick
Cheney's Halliburton Company, which has been linked in a
published report to the deaths of environmental activists and
indigenous people in the Niger Delta.
And I'm sure you will recognize the names below, just a small
sampling of the companies in which Ralph Nader has a
personal stake:
Exxon Corp.
Royal Dutch Petroleum
BP Amoco
Chevron (Bush advisor Condoleeza Rice is a director of
Chevron)
Shell
Sunoco
Texaco
The Coastal Corp. (Gulf of Mexico drilling, coal mining)
Total Fina (specialist in international oil exploitation)
Raytheon (missle guidance systems)
General Dynamics (warships)
Kimberly-Clark (destroyer of forests)
Louisiana Pacific (destoyer of forests, polluter of bays)
Ford Motor Co. (chastised by Nader just last week)
General Motors (ditto)
Biogen ("bio-pharmaceuticals")
Genentech (ditto)
Monsanto (pesticides incl. Roundup and bioengineering,
including corn that kills butterflies)
Bristol-Myers Squibb (these are all pharmaceuticals)
Merck
Pfizer
Warner-Lambert
Caterpillar (don't they make bulldozers?)
McDonalds (a villain of globalization)
Clorox (maker of ozone layer holes)
Gillette (torturer of bunnies)
Proctor & Gamble
Phillip-Morris
And the next time there's an anti-consumerism day, be aware
that Mr. Nader owns stock in:
The Gap
The Limited
And these big-box purveyors of sprawl:
Wal-Mart
Target
Home Depot
Circuit City
Bed Bath & Beyond
Staples
Also a couple of energy companies:
Montana Power Co. (moving from oil, gas, coal, to fiber optics)
Enron (largest natural gas company)
Fidelity Magellan controls stock in hundreds more corporations.
These just popped out at me.
I don't think it's a sin for a man to have investments, although
there is a case for hypocrisy here, but I think those activists
chaining themselves to desks at the Gore campaign might want
to also visit the Nader office.
In 1996, Nader refused to release a financial disclosure
statement or his tax return, saying it was "full of zeros." This year
he filed the financial disclosure, perhaps because his
contribution level triggered a requirement. Personally, I can't
believe he's not in a blind trust or one of the socially conscious
funds that are available, but apparently no one scrutinizes Nader.
Everyone assumes he is above reproach. He still refuses to
release his personal income tax return.
Nader's disclosure form:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index/P20000527.htm
Fidelity Magellan annual report:
http://personal300.fidelity.com/gen/ew/EW46241.PDF
Call for divestiture:
(http://amazonwatch.org/newsroom/newsreleases00/apr0300uw
a.html)
Report on Halliburton:
http://consortiumnews.com/082000a1.html
Relevant quote:
"As I listen to the vice president espouse his views on campaign
finance reform, I look at his investment portfolio and have to ask
how that might influence public policy. Gore owns substantial
stock in Occidental Oil Co., which is working to exploit oil
reserves under Uwa land in Colombia."
--Winona LaDuke
(http://votenader.org/issues/clinton-bush-gore.html)
1996 NPR Interview:
SCOTT SIMON: Mr.- Mr. Nader, will you, would you, as major
party presidential candidates do, release copies of your tax
return and financial disclosure statement?
RALPH NADER: No, because I want to practice what I- I've
preached for 30 years. I have advocated the privacy of medical
records, income tax records, because I think that's an essential
defense to corporate power and arbitrary government power.
SCOTT SIMON: I- I'm just wondering if- if American voters aren't
entitled to know something about what your sources of financial
support have been over the years in work which you're very
clearly involved, even for the benefit of the American people, just
so they can, you know, make a rational judgment.
RALPH NADER: Well, I- I've- I'm- I've said it to anybody who asks.
It's not relevant because it's full of zeros. In other words, I don't
take any funds from any of these non-profit groups. I don't take
any funds from the potential can- campaign contributors, and it's
hard to, you know, demonstrate a negative.
(http://www.npr.org/hotnews/nadert.html)
"Nader said the stocks he chose were 'the most neutral-type
companies.'
'Number one, they're not monopolists and number two, they don't
produce land mines, napalm, weapons,' he said." (Washington
Post, June 18, 2000)
Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 777,080 shares of Raytheon,
missile manufacturer (plus five other aerospace/defense
corporations).
---
Nader: "I'm quite aware of how the arms race is driven by
corporate demands for contracts, whether it's General Dynamics
or Lockheed Martin. They drive it through Congress. They drive it
by hiring Pentagon officials in the Washington military industrial
complex, as Eisenhower phrased it." (The Progressive
Magazine, April 2000)
Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 2,041,800 shares of General
Dynamics.
---
"The corporations are planning our futures…They are making
sure [our children] grow up corporate. The kids are
over-medicated, militarized, cosmetized, corporatized. They are
raised by Kindercare, fed by McDonald's, educated by Channel
One." (The Washington Post, Saturday, June 17, 2000)
Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 15,694,800 shares of
McDonald's.
---
"Bristol-Myers Squibb markets Taxol at a wholesale price that is
nearly 20 times its manufacturing cost. A single injection of Taxol
can cost patients considerably more than $2,000 and treatment
requires multiple injections." -- Ralph Nader Testimony before
the House Budget Committee. June 30, 1999
Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 15,266,900 shares of
Bristol-Mayers Squibb.
---
"Both parties are terrible on antitrust. Look, we have Boeing now,
one aircraft company, manufacturer after the McDonnell Douglas
merger." (Ralph Nader, Burden of Proof, CNN, 8/9/00.)
Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 2,908,600 shares of
Boeing.
---
"Equally damaging, Nader said, was the Justice Department's
failure to effectively challenge such recent mergers as British
Petroleum with Amoco and Exxon with Mobil. 'The combining of
these giant oil companies concentrates the oil industry's
economic power in fewer hands and gives these merged
companies greater opportunity to manipulate prices,' Nader
said. 'Oil company profits are up an average of 300 percent in the
first quarter of 2000 compared to the first quarter of 1999.' (Nader
2000 press release, June 28, 2000)
Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 24,753,870 shares of BP-Amoco.
28,751,268 shares of Exxon-Mobil.
---
"The bearded Eddie Vedder, with chin-length hair framing his
still-boyish face, launched into a tender version of 'Soon Forget,"'
from Pearl Jam's latest album, 'Binaural.' He called out
facetiously to find out whether Microsoft co-founder and area
billionaire Paul Allen was in the audience, and then dedicated
the song -- about the isolation and loneliness that accompany
excessive wealth -- to Allen and Bill Gates.... After receiving a
standing ovation, Vedder brought Nader to the stage, introducing
him as 'someone who represents us and not the corporate
interests.' (Salon, Sept. 26, 2000)
Ralph Nader's Fidelity Magellan fund: 41,845,400 shares of
Microsoft.
---
Nader's disclosure form:
http://www.opensecrets.org/pfds/index/P20000527.htm
Fidelity Magellan annual report:
http://personal300.fidelity.com/gen/ew/EW46241.PDF