He’s the man who caused Sep. 11, war in the Gulf, a million Iraqi deaths and probably mad cow disease too. Of course I’m talking about Evil Incarnate, consumer advocate and political gadfly Ralph Nader.

As evidenced by the comments to my piece on him way back when, he’s still roundly feared and loathed by countless Democrats for supposedly helping George W. Bush, no matter how indirectly, steal the 2000 election from Al Gore and allowing everything that followed to pass. Well, he’s running for president again, and his anti-bigwig rhetoric has grown more pointed and caustic, just as the general lefty revulsion for him and his supporters has.

Having the cojones to show up in Denver amid the Dem Convention, Nader gave a closed-door, packed press conference at Magness Arena that also featured anti-war icon Cindy Sheehan, Green Party vice presidential nominee Rosa Clemente, actress Brooke Smith, always-animated punk legend (and Colorado native) Jello Biafra and others.

The Nader et al. rally was nominally a demand to open the presidential debates to third parties and major independents, but as might be expected, the press conference and the subsequent rally featured plenty of denunciations of the Republican and Democratic parties, and the obligatory excoriations of the Bush White House.

I’ll include transcribed quotes from Nader in this post soon, but for now, here was his money quote: “The youth vote needs a kick in their ass.”

I managed to get a question in at the very end of the press conference, asking Nader what his reception in Denver had been like so far. He had only arrived that day, but said that during his brief appearance at the Convention site, he was treated politely and there was not much hubbub. He quipped that it was probably due to Sen. Clinton’s dramatic appearance at the same time for the roll call which gave the official nomination to Obama.

Cindy Sheehan (Ed. note - No relation to me) spoke, discussing her congressional run and reinforcing the theme of the rally. “I want Nancy Pelosi to debate me,” said Sheehan as she began her press conference. She is running against powerful incumbent Pelosi (”the queen of the corporatists,” as Sheehan later called her) in California’s 8th U.S. House District. “We have a system in this country that supports the two-party duopoly,” continued Sheehan. “Alternative voices to the corporate war party are stifled in the media.”

The hallowed anti-war activist who famously ensconced herself in President Bush’s home of Crawford, Texas, later made an impassioned appearance at the rally that followed the press conference, thundering, “Power to the people!” and calling Bush “the boil on the ass of democracy.”

Jello Biafra didn’t hold anything back at either his press meet or the rally. “I come here as a heartbroken former Democrat who’s being reminded yet again as I look around Denver at how anti-democratic the Democratic Party really is,” said the legendary Dead Kennedy to journos, who clicked and filmed away. “They spent $15 million on so-called security for this convention!”

Later, at the rally–with an announced attendance of over 4,000–Biafra shrieked, “What are so they afraid of?!” Challenging the major party candidates to action, Biafra wondered what they would do to end the drug war, repeal the Patriot Act, and bring a close to the military and economic occupation of Iraq. “Iraq is not ours to sell!” he shouted, to cheers and applause.

Biafra also observed that Hillary Clinton’s pantsuit during her key speech on Tuesday “was the same color as a prison uniform” and drew loud boos when he brought up Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar’s vote to approve torture.

Whether it was unconscious or brashly intentional, Biafra kept raising his middle finger as he waved his hands around time and again.

Others were scheduled to follow Biafra, such as Tom Morello, Val Kilmer and Nader running mate Matt Gonzalez, but by this time I had almost run out of audiotape, space on the digicam, and what was left of my energy reserves after several straight days of intense working, walking and writing. I was saving what I had left for one last participant.

Sean Penn is famous for being an intense actor, a scrappy foe of the paparazzi, and a former Mr. Madonna, but he’s gaining quite of bit of notoriety as a ballsy social activist. He went to Iraq before the invasion to see for himself what was going on, attended a prayer meet in Tehran, met with Hugo Chávez, and paddled a boat around flooded New Orleans while Bush was sharing cake with John McCain. His intense dislike of the Bush administration is palpable the minute he opens his mouth.

Perhaps the most anticipated of all the rally guests, Penn declared he supported no candidate but rued the general national tendency to exclude third parties from campaign coverage. “The solution,” he asserted, “is to put all challengers on an open table — and to do that we must have open debate.” He called Nader “an American hero.”

Penn ripped the two main parties: “I’m sick of this high school with suits on called the Democratic and Republican parties.” Of Obama, Penn said, “He’s an elegant man who has great potential,” but “his record is so dominantly status quo.” As for McCain, Penn called him “the man who would be George Bush the Third.”

He saved his harshest words for the White House, indicting various members of the Bush administration as “elitist terrorists” and “traitors” and warned Americans that to prevent the same tragic mistakes of the Bush years, “whoever you vote for, you better hold his ass to the fire.” ∞

What follows are a few shots from the press conference and the main event, taken by Jack Shaftoe, as are all other photos in this piece except for the one at the top, taken by the author.

Jello Biafra

Sean Penn

Nellie McKay

Cindy Sheehan

Rosa Clemente

At the press conference…

Jello Biafra

Brooke Smith

Cindy Sheehan

Outside Magness arena

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3. DNC Tuesday protest parade
4. DNC visual - August 25th recap
5. DNC - Tent State, the people (3 of 3)