Nurses Take On Corporate Cyborg Schwarzenegger by Ralph Nader

CounterPunch
March 25, 2005

Cal Nurses Take on Schwarzenegger
Corporate Cyborg
By RALPH NADER

Corporate cyborg, Arnold Schwarzenegger, must be thinking these days that it was not like this in his movies. On the screen, Arnold was the pursuer, the hunter, and the attacker. On the hustings now, it is the nurses, along with the teachers, and the firefighters, who are dogging him everywhere with their protests against his policies and actions.

When he ignored the law stipulating one nurse for every five hospital patients the opposition from the militant California Nurses Association intensified. Then Arnold made the mistake that keeps on giving. Before an audience of 10,000 women, he was challenged by a group of nurses. "Pay no attention to those voices over there. They are the special interests, and you know what I mean. The special interests don't like me in Sacramento because I am always kicking their butts."

"Kicking their butts," roars the famous grouper and fondler from Hollywood? Even-the-full-of-himself, basking-in-high-poll numbers, Arnold couldn't get away with that remark. Nurses have just about the best image around. They are there by the bedside when the doctors have left for home. They are the people who watch lives ebbing away, who hear the cries of pain and the spasms of sorrow day after day. "Kicking their butts?" Whoa! The nurses were off to the Arnold races.

Arnold moves fast , limousines, police escorts, helicopters, and airplanes. He has many fund-raisers to attend , just about every covey of corporate interests willing to shell out thousands to hear him, see him, touch him, be pictured with him, buy him. Among those interests are the hospital industry, the insurance industry, and just about every wealthy clique that is enjoying the corporate welfare, lower taxes hayride in the rich state of California. Oh how the expensive wines in delicate glasses click in unison when he is rubbing shoulders with his class in splendid hotel ballrooms or ornate private clubs.

http://www.counterpunch.org/nader03252005.html

Why are you posting screeds from Ralph Nader when he's taken the side of the fundamentalist nitwits in Florida regarding the Schiavo case? He has zero credibility left.

And I get the nurses are too!

I disagree with a statement Ralph Nader made regrading the Schiavo case and also disagree with that large group of Democrats in Congress who voted with Republicans in support of the "right to lifers" Terri Schiavo legislation.

But, perhaps you didn't see Ralph Nader's exchanges with Republican House member David Dreier on CNN's Crossfire this Monday. Not bad at all. Here are some excerpts from that transcript:

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NOVAK: Who should decide whether Terri Schiavo will have a feeding tube or be sentenced to death by starvation?

Joining us today to debate that issue, Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, and Congressman David Dreier, Republican of California, the powerful chairman of the powerful House Rules Committee.

DREIER: Chris, I totally concur with your initial assertion, that we should not be the ones to decide.

We are not trying to be the ones to decide. What we did in the middle of the night was not decide. All we did was say that there should in fact be, in federal court, an opportunity for these parent, who seem to get a smile on her face and an enthusiastic look in her eye when they go into that room, we just want to create an opportunity for a federal court to make that determination as to whether...

NADER: Let me interject. Let me interject here. Taking off from what you said, Congressman Dreier, are you prepared to do one of two things? Are you prepared to press for legislation every time a similar case to Terri Schiavo comes up? Or are you prepared to press for omnibus legislation that will give all future Terri Schiavos and their family's situation the right to go from state to federal court? In other words, are you going to go ad hoc from now on or omnibus?

DREIER: OK, I'll answer both of your questions.

And let me say, I happen to believe that what we should do is, we should be allowing a federal court in this instance to make a decision. One of the things that we've learned from this, Ralph, is very clear. Every single person should have a living will, so that no one is...

NADER: Wait a minute. You're dodging the question.

DREIER: No, no, I'm not dodging the question. What I'm telling you is that I want to create a scenario where it's not going to be necessary, Ralph.

NADER: Let me finish here. What are you going to -- answer. What are you going to do in future...

DREIER: Could we tell the audience that they should have a living will?

NADER: Fine. Fine. All, have living wills.

DREIER: Good. OK. Thank you. Thank you.

NADER: What are you going to do -- what are you going to do -- let's -- time is running short, really. Don't filibuster, please. One, if 20 more Terri Schiavos comes, same situation, are you willing to pass 20 more bills to give them...

DREIER: I hope that we don't have to. The answer is, I hope we don't have to.

NADER: That's not -- I'm asking, yes or no?

DREIER: The answer is, no, I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that, OK? NADER: All right. So, this is a single case, right?

NADER: All right. Now, would you pass omnibus legislation to let people go from state to federal court?

DREIER: We have a very unique situation here. We have a very unique situation, the likes of which we've never seen before.

VAN HOLLEN: This is not a -- this is not a unique situation. Families across America struggle with these kind of decisions every day. Why should...

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

DREIER: Of course they do.

VAN HOLLEN: And who -- no. And who are -- who are 535 people, who know nothing about the facts of the case, who..

DREIER: To simply say it should be heard in court. We're not making the decision, Chris.

VAN HOLLEN: No, to over -- to overrule the decision properly made.

DREIER: We're not overruling anything. We're not overruling anything. We're simply saying -- we're simply saying the parents should have an opportunity...

VAN HOLLEN: This is jumping in, in one case, when -- when we should not be jumping in like this in a private matter.

NADER: Congressman Dreier, Republican speeches yesterday on the House floor were full of compassion for human life.

Americans almost never hear such Republican words on behalf of hundreds of thousands wrongfully injured patients in hospitals, workers killed or disabled through on-the-job hazards.

(APPLAUSE)

NADER: Or other people -- or other people or other...
Wait. No -- or other people other suffering -- suffering from the violence of toxic pollutants or raw poverty every year.

Here's the question. Are we witnessing the beginning, perhaps, of a Terri Schiavo-induced epiphany by the corporate-controlled Republican Party in Congress to recognize some key priorities for regulatory law and order to stop these preventable losses of life and health in America?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

DREIER: That's a great question, Ralph.

Let me say that I totally disagree with your characterization. I will tell that you Republicans are very concerned about people who face challenges in every single walk of life. And we have evidence that we can point to. I mean, we disagree with your conclusion that, somehow, we want to plunder the environment, we want to jeopardize the lives of people.

NADER: So you're going to push for a stronger OSHA and EPA?

DREIER: We're -- we are -- we're strongly supporting of doing everything that we can to improve our environmental quality and the standard of living for people in this country.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0503/21/cf.01.ht ...

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Now I wish that Democratic party leaders would speak as loudly, strongly and clearly and against the Bush governments right-wing appointments and policies. At least top Democrats shouldn't vote for Bush's appointments and policies. Don't you agree?

They have become Bush enablers. Bush thanks them.

And the California Nurses Association is indeed a militant labor organization. They are proud of being called that. That's a tribute, not a slam.

No bias here, I see.

This almost sounds like a "poor arhold" story.