Ralph Nader plans to announce this month whether he'll be running for president in 2004. Some believe that such a campaign is needed to make a strong political statement nationwide. But if Nader does run this year, what kind of support -- in the form of volunteers, resources and votes -- could he reasonably expect?

Results of a nationwide survey, released in late December, provide a stark look at the current inclinations of people who've been part of his electoral base. After receiving about 11,000 responses from readers on a core e-mail list, the progressive online magazine AlterNet reported back: "While 27 percent of you voted for Nader in 2000, only 11 percent say you would vote for him in 2004."

This year, Nader would be lucky to receive 1 million votes -- a far cry from his 2000 total of 2.8 million.

Dire as the AlterNet numbers are for a prospective Nader run, they probably overstate the extent to which he would retain voters from 2000. The survey tally came before Nader publicly ruled out being a Green Party nominee in 2004. Last time, one of the main reasons given for supporting Nader as the

Beyond the shared enthusiasm of the Fuehrer and all U.S. presidents for mass murder as an appropriate expression of national policy, I've never seen any particularly close affinity between Adolf Hitler and the current White House incumbent, but the Republican National Committee (RNC) seems peculiarly sensitive on the matter.

At the end of the first week in January, the RNC lashed out furiously at Democratic Web site Moveon.org for including in its featured entrants for robust campaign ads for 2004 a couple that offered Bush/Hitler comparisons.

One features Hitler making a speech, crosscut with footage of the Nazi blitzkrieg, while a voice-over says, "A nation warped by lies ... lies fuel fear ... fear fuels aggression ... invasion ... occupation." As the scene fades from Hitler giving a raised arm salute to Bush with his hand raised at his inauguration, the voice-over says, "What were war crimes in 1945 is foreign policy in 2003."

The second ad shows Hitler, speaking in German, with a voice-over translating the lines as "We have taken new

I am so tired of vision-speak.

Anymore, you’re not worth your sight in business, culture, politics or the breakfast table unless you talk up the vision thing.

Act like you know where the boot hill we’re going; pretend you’re sure where we should be; concoct some bullseye story to explain how we get there then - bam - you too are a certified visionary.

Command of vision-speak, (plus boatloads of money for amplification), can get you elected governor, president, heck, even mayor with little or no experience because, after all, experience is just another word for hindsight and who needs hindsight when you’ve got crystal balls?.

Whether there are any worthwhile futurescapes in your dome - or their chances of actually seeing daylight - is irrelevant.

Because it ain’t how you see it anyway, it’s how you say it.

Spout righteously, and the wish-list of everything you and your cronies ever want out of life becomes a blueprint for the good of man.

To politicians and other unholy sees, vision-speak serves vital purposes.

This issue’s column is kindly submitted by Free Press Board member Sarah Clark. Thanks, Sarah!

Recently, the U.S. government officially acknowledged the presence of a lame cow slaughtered in Washington State that had the degenerative disease, Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE). This disease is caused by the prion, a recently understood biological concept, and represents a new threat to public health. The beef industry is guilty of distributing and actually speeding the evolution of this disease due to their grossly inhumane feeding and slaughtering practices. The majority of people are complicit in this crime because they pay to run the factory farms, slaughterhouses and rendering plants that dominate cattle farming today regardless of their inhumane nature.

The Ohio Sierra Club hired expert analyst Alex Sagady of E. Lansing, MI, to review the permit and plant specifications of Universal Purifying Technology (UPT)’s proposed tire pyrolysis plant. The Club has concerns about emissions from the proposed plant, as well as its proposed location at the old trash-burning power plant site in south Columbus. The site itself is highly contaminated by emissions from the former plant. Also, the permit would allow more air pollution in an area that already has the worst air quality in the city. On Nov. 28 Sagady submitted comments to Ohio EPA on behalf of the Central Ohio Sierra Club. Below is a synopsis of Sagady’s major points.