Nader Still Hammering Away

Consumer advocate Ralph Nader vowed to wage an active campaign for president on Tuesday as he slammed elected officials in both parties for subsidizing corporations.

During a series of campaign stops, the Green Party candidate called for a grass-roots movement to enact such reforms as universal health care, public financing of campaigns and stronger labor laws.

"When are we going to get sufficiently upset to roll up our political sleeves and start a progressive movement to take our democracy back?" Nader said. "Our politicians are increasingly bought and sold."

He accused Democrats and Republicans of catering to corporate interests and cited efforts to lure the New England Patriots football team to Hartford and the Adriaen's Landing riverfront development as examples.

"The program of the Green Party is to get the rich off welfare," Nader said, adding that corporate subsidies amount to hundreds of billions of dollars annually.

He said those who think the economy is healthy fail to realize that 20 percent of children grow up in deep poverty and that a majority of workers earn less money today than 25 years ago when inflation is taken into account.

Nader, a lawyer who first gained prominence taking on the auto industry in the 1960s, also ran for president in 1996. He got 1 percent of the vote.