Gravel gets down

Former Alaska Sen. Mike Gravel the Democratic presidential candidate that poses the biggest threat to Dennis Kucinich has a rap video set to a techno version of Give Peace a Chance. He has been excluded from the joint press conferences that are billed as debates and he asks why?

From Raw Story:

Phony patriotism is jingoism." Gravel raps...with flashy animations interspersed with clips of Democratic candidates and President Bush playing behind him. "Why won't you let me say what I want to say? Power to the people. Give peace a chance."

Gravel... has been denied the opportunity to appear alongside Democratic candidates in any more debates this year. In earlier debate appearances, Gravel excoriated Democratic lawmakers who voted to let President Bush invade Iraq and now are criticizing the war, and he spoke out against the government's war on drugs, a topic most other candidates have avoided.


"Why are they afraid of the truth?" Gravel asks.




power to the people vs give peace a chance

Lou Dobbs in Hazleton

Dobbs is hosting what he calls a town meeting about immigration with his favorite Mayor tonight at the Penn State Hazleton campus that will be broadcast live on CNN at 6PM tonight.

But the real must see TV is Mike Gravel on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central at 11:30PM.

Gravel Rocks

In the joint press conference that was billed as a debate the goal for the big 3 of Hillary, Obama and Edwards was to avoid saying anything stupid or anything at all that wasn't scripted. For the most part they met that goal. The rest of the field had to find a way to get noticed. Dodd and Richardson sounded smart and Biden had the best line of the night when asked if he had the discipline to keep his mouth shut simply said "Yes." But Mike Gravel wasn't timid. He called the Iraq war a crime and said the United States should not look at other countries as enemies. Things are not always black & white and the trick is to deal with the grey. At the end something came up about nuclear weapons and asked the question of "Who the hell are we going to nuke?"

Mike Gravel for President

The last time (2004) we voted for President in the primaries the Democrats chose John Kerry. Supposedly he was "electable." That worked out well. I went through the whole year saying "if we only had a candidate." In the Pennsylvania primary that year I voted for Howard Dean and Mrs. G went with Dennis Kucinich because they were the candidates that we agreed with even though the contest had been long been decided -almost 2 months.

This year PA is looking at moving up the primary to February 5th to create more or less a national contest. My advise would to move it up but have a week or two later. The chances are no one candidate will win every contest on February 5 so the next big contest could decide it. That could be us. The last time the PA primary was decisive was 1976 when Jimmy Carter beat the field in a big industrial state after winning the early skirmishes. It clinched the nomination for him.

My early favorite is Mike Gravel because he says what's on his mind because he has nothing to lose. Novel huh, take a position and defend it.

The Barack Obama 1984 ad

Mike Gravel for President

The Hillary 1984 video

Mike Gravel for President

Mike Gravel for President

I know what you're saying. Who? Mike Gravel is a former Senator from Alaska (1969-1981). We've never had a President from Alaska. From his bio:

In 1971, he waged a successful one-man filibuster for five months that
forced the Nixon administration to cut a deal, effectively ending the draft in the United States. He is most prominently known for his release of the Pentagon Papers, the secret official study that revealed the lies and manipulations of successive U.S. administrations that misled the country into the Vietnam War.

I caught his act on CSPAN at the Democratic Winter meeting and liked what I heard. More background:

During his first term in the Senate, Gravel authored a book titled Citizen Power. In it, he advocated the implementation of numerous populist ideas, including a guaranteed annual income (dubbed the "Citizen's Wage"), public financing of elections, a progressive tax with no deductions or exemptions, steps against the military-industrial complex (which he calls the "Warfare State"), a national law to do away with voter registration and other barriers to voting, abolition of the death penalty, universal health care, school vouchers, a drastic reduction in government secrecy, and an end to what he viewed as an imperialistic foreign policy.

I'm not ready to commit to any candidate for President yet but I always have a softspot for the underdog. Mrs. G is backing Dennis Kucinich again and LeftIndependent likes him too.

A transcript of his speech to the DNC is on his website. h/t to A Big Fat Slob.