1. Richard,

   I’m the Ballot Access Coordinator for Nader in WA. We’ve been officially on the ballot there since the 10th, when I got an email from the Secretary of State’s office. I hope that that’s included in your count.

2. I am making a long distance assumption that the long distance [East Coast] experts in P2008 left the local yokels alone and that is a major reason you are now West Coast ballot accessed. [They sure shot themselves in the foot [feet?] in California in P2004!] Congrats!

3. Thank you, Mike Gillis. I amended the post.

4. Thanks for the info Richard. Nader also broke the $60,000 goal in his latest fund raising effort with 34 Hours to spare. The Goal of 60K was set for Midnight Sunday EST. The goal was reached at 1:30 PM EST Saturday. Nader also stated he would be on the ballot of 15 states by that time. Which gives me the impression he will announce the submission of petition signatures in 3 more states Monday.

5. Based on the second to last donation pitch, I’m guessing those three states will be Missouri, Massachusetts and Arkansas.

6. While Obama and McCain are each around 45% in national polls, Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are each around 5% in national polls. To give candidates air time in proportion to the amount of support they enjoy, they would have to increase their coverage of the Nader and Barr campaigns dramatically. Let’s all ask them to be unbiased and to report on the various campaigns in proportion to their support/level of interest. Here is a list of contact pages and addresses for the cable networks:

   letters@msnbc.com
   Nightly@NBC.com
   http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6872152/

   http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,77538,00. html
   foxnewsonline@foxnews.com

   http://www.cnn.com/feedback/hdlns/

7. Pro-Democracy wrote: “While Obama and McCain are each around 45% in national polls, Ralph Nader and Bob Barr are each around 5% in national polls. To give candidates air time in proportion to the amount of support they enjoy, they would have to increase their coverage of the Nader and Barr campaigns dramatically. Let’s all ask them to be unbiased and to report on the various campaigns in proportion to their support/level of interest. Here is a list of contact pages and addresses for the cable networks:”

   While I admire your intentions PD your suggested action is amounts to little more than a waste of time.

   Here is why:

   Prior to 2000 the Federal Communications Commission had a law on their books that mandated broadcasters provide equal time to candidates that were attacked in programming or advertisements. In 2000 the FCC under Clinton abolished that rule. At the time I lived in Portland, Oregon, a hotbed of Nader Activity ! Well by September all of the TV and Radio Stations in the area were running paid political advertisements sponsored by NARAL attacking Ralph Nader. And there wasn’t word one that Nader could do about it. This occurred only a few months after the rule was abolished.

   Now do you think a broadcast outlet will respond to a few emails asking them to “Do the right thing” when they greedily take money from PACS that attack candidates from minor parties with no do recourse ?

8. PRO DEMOCRACY Thank you for those emails. This works. I just used those links myself. Believe e the stations listen when they get the same emails from different people around the nation. One day I got everyone to send FoxNEws emails about Barr and the next day he was on TV.

   Like Nader says:

   “There can be no democracy without daily citizenship”

   Keep up those emails and great OUT OF THE BOX thinking.

   Never pay attention to ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACKS who tell you it’s a waste of time. It is easy to do nothing.

9. Jonathan wrote: “Believe e the stations listen when they get the same emails from different people around the nation. One day I got everyone to send FoxNEws emails about Barr and the next day he was on TV.”

   Last year there was a solar eclipse across Antarctic and South America and I caused it.

   Jonathan wrote: “Never pay attention to ARM CHAIR QUARTERBACKS who tell you it’s a waste of time. It is easy to do nothing ?”

   Have you ever run for public office ?

   I have

   Have you ever served in any capacity at a broadcast station either volunteer or staff ?

   I have. I actually sat on a Station Board.

   What do you know about broadcast outlets ?

   Do you know the renewal date for the broadcast outlets in your area ?

   I do

   Do you know how to get a letter placed in the station’s public file so that it may viewed during the renewal process ?

   I do

   Do you know that without placing a letter in that file it has negligible impact on the operation of the station ?

   Nader may complain but he knows the system and knows how to make it work for him. He knows procedure and knows without following it he is just another Don Quixote.

   Without knowledge of and proper application of procedure random emails to a broadcast station is about as effective as randomly shooting an arrow into the air.

10. Bob, I appreciate realism and useful information. I don’t suspect that my sending one or two emails will have much impact. However, I do think that television stations have to be at least somewhat sensitive to the desires of their viewers–in the end they need ratings, so they have to please their viewers. My hope is that many people will write emails saying the same thing: that they expect more coverage of the candidate(s) they support. While hitting a target with one arrow shot randomly into the air is unlikely, a volley of numerous arrows just might produce a hit.

    I’m just trying to do whatever I can to support and build third party campaigns. If you have better ideas about how to make an impact, I’d love to hear them.

11. Just because you were an unsuccessful candidate Bob you shouldn’t be sour or so negative. Emails do work when enough people get involved, it’s like petitions.

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