Independent presidential hopeful Ralph Nader is pressing the case that presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama is another corporate candidate who won't really change Washington - a claim Nader has made about every presidential candidate in all of bids for the presidency in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008.

Nader - the longtime consumer advocate told the Rocky Mountain News that Obama is trying to "talk white" and to appeal to "white guilt."


Said Nader, "There's only one thing different about Barack Obama when it comes to being a Democratic presidential candidate. He's half African-American."

Demonstrating a remarkable lack of self-awareness, he blathered on. "Whether that will make any difference, I don't know. I haven't heard him have a strong crackdown on economic exploitation in the ghettos. Payday loans, predatory lending, asbestos, lead. What's keeping him from doing that? Is it because he wants to talk white?"

In one fell swoop, Nader lost the black vote, the white vote, the KKK vote, and the conservative vote - none of which make up his constituency.

Unabated by his own remarks, Nader added: "I mean, first of all, the number one thing that a black American politician aspiring to the presidency should be [doing] is to candidly describe the plight of the poor, especially in the inner cities and the rural areas. . . . Haven't heard a thing. As a presidential candidate for the democratic party, Obama is obligated to talk exclusively to black issues."

"He wants to show that he is not . . . another politically threatening African-American politician," Nader said, sneeringly. "We need a politically threatening African-American politician!"

Now, on a roll, Nader continued, frothing at the mouth. "He wants to appeal to white guilt. You appeal to white guilt not by coming on as, 'black is beautiful, black is powerful.' Basically he's coming on as someone who is not going to threaten the white power structure, whether it's corporate or whether it's simply oligarchic. And they love it. Whites just eat it up. Just like they ate up Eminem!"

Asked at a news conference in Chicago yesterday about Nader's comments, Obama said he has been addressing the issues that Nader raised.

"Ralph's trying to get attention," Obama added. "He's become a perennial political candidate - and a very bad one at that. It's a shame, because if you look at his legacy in terms of consumer protections, it's an extraordinary one."

Obama paused, the continued.

"Perhaps I should say this in a way in which Mr. Nader would approve. Home boy got game. Whitey ain't g'wan brin' down da black man no mo'."

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Yeetle Box - Green Government and Gax Tax Holiday Revisited

Sen. John McCain has pledged to make the federal government more environmentally friendly. Honest. Honest, he did.

In a speech in Santa Barbara, Calif., McCain vowed to "put the purchasing power of the United States government on the side of green technology" by buying fuel-efficient vehicles for its civilian fleet of cars and trucks and by retrofitting federal office space - a move that will have little no impact on global warming, but would demonstrate to voters that he can "think small."

The pledge comes months after Sen. Barrack Obama outlined a more detailed and ambitious proposal on the subject, virtually ensuring that the next administration will take significant steps to lower the government's output of energy and pollution - again, with little or no effect on the American consumer.

Obama, who first set his targets last October, has promised that he would make all new federal buildings 40 percent more efficient than current ones within five years, and carbon-neutral by 2025. He has also pledged to increase efficiency of existing federal buildings by 25 percent within five years and to ensure that the government derives 30 percent of its electricity from renewable energy by 2020 -- none of which McCain has promised to do.

Of course, a champion in environmental issues, President Bush has already instituted energy-efficiency measures for the White House and the government. In January 2007, the president issued an executive order calling on the government to "increase purchase of alternative fuel, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles when commercially available." To date, those commercially available vehicles have not been purchased.

He and the First Lady, Laura Bush, have also made changes in the White House, replacing all incandescent bulbs in hallways with compact fluorescent lights, installing low-consumption toilets in many places and putting in energy-efficient cooling units - similar to former President Jimmy Carter.

Question: Where were you guys in 1976?

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Yeetle Box - Obama Woos Women

Democrat presidential nominee Barack Obama, determined to win over and woo female voters, talked Monday about the women who helped shape his life in arguing that he would be a better proponent of equal pay than Republican presidential nominee John McCain. The presumed Democratic nominee toured a baking facility and chatted with female workers about their economic challenges, promising to take them out dancing if they pledge their support and $25 to his campaign.

Sen. Obama told how he was raised by a single mother and his grandmother, who made sacrifices to support their family - circumstances unique to any other past US citizen. He told them that Sen. McCain opposed legislation earlier this year that would have made it easier for women to sue their employers for pay discrimination. Obama supported the bill.

"I'll continue to stand up for equal pay as president — Senator McCain won't, and that's a real difference in this election," Obama said. "I believe that whichever candidate is elected president, that candidate should receive the same pay that the other candidate would have made if he were elected president."

McCain has said he supports equal pay for women - and presidential candidates - but had said the measure would lead to more lawsuits. "Consider that blow to our economy, at a time when we are trying to drive down wages, should women of all stripes - blondes, brunettes, redheads - demand equal pay. This country will see an explosion of lawsuits of volcanic proportions! When I was a POW in Vietnam, we were not tortured equally. I was tortured more than most of the POWs because the Vietnamese knew I was their worst enemy. Like torture, life's not divided equally."

Since he clinched the Democratic presidential nomination earlier this month and Clinton abandoned her bid, Obama has praised her most often in the context of what her campaign did for women, often mentioning his two daughters as examples of those who will benefit from the barriers Clinton broke - the barriers many powerful and wealthy women face when up against less powerful and less wealthy men.

Obama praised Clinton as a trailblazer, saying the nation has come closer to one where women have equal opportunities "because of the extraordinary woman who I shared a stage with so many times throughout this campaign — Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton." Asked to clarify the causal relation between standing on a stage with a powerful and wealthy woman and advancement toward equal pay for all women, Obama walked away.

The former foes will campaign together on Friday in Unity, N.H. The name evokes the candidates' desire to unite the party (duh!), and the place is symbolic, too — each candidate received 107 votes there on Jan. 8, when the state held its primary that Clinton ultimately won, 107 to 107.

Get it?

The Yeetle Box