Voting for Democrats is no big deal for most of you guys, I suppose. It's a first for me. I've been a libertarian for almost thirty years, and voted for Libertarian Party candidates. Then after the last presidential election I realised that the Republicans were too great a threat to liberty, and vowed to vote for whichever candidates were most likely to defeat Republicans. That meant Democrats, so I started watching the Democratic presidential candidates two years ago. A couple of them caught my eye, and I thought maybe I really was a Democrat. Went to the precinct caucus and everything; was even named as a Mike Gravel delegate to the county caucus. Sadly, mainstream Democrats, including almost everyone here on PartyBuilder, did not like my guy. He was ridiculed and laughed at (on the debate stage!) and eventually left the party to join the Libertarian Party just in time to see that party make its horrible lurch to the far right.
So Gravel's a democrat who's not a Democrat, Nader's green but not Green, and I'm a libertarian who's not a Libertarian. I'm hoping the Republicans will be swept aside and Nader will be right that the two-party lock will be broken. Maybe some sort of Humanitarian-freedom party will rise up, or maybe I'll just be a party of one.
In the mean time Democrats got my vote. This time.
(HINT: This is your opportunity for PartyBuilders to be party builders.)
(HINT HINT: I'm asking to be welcomed into your party.)
Curent Democratic "PartyBuilders" may be too busy troll-spotting and bashing each other to care about further defections from the party, but here is the Libertarian website's story about Gravel's switch. Always outside-the-box, Gravel had previously endorsed Jesse Johnson's bid for the Green Party nomination.
The following is pasted from the Libertarian party's website.
Read More »Believes Democrats are out of touch with American citizens
Washington, D.C. - Mike Gravel, a former Alaskan Senator and Democratic candidate for president, has joined the Libertarian Party. "I'm joining the Libertarian Party because...
If pro-reformers post significant results there, and Republicans lose big here in November, then maybe the world really will be a better place some day....
I respectfully ask peace-loving Party Builders to contact their representative in support CA Rep. Barbara Lee's H.R. 5056: "To provide for the appointment of a high-level United States representative or special envoy for Iran for the purpose of easing tensions and normalizing relations between the United States and Iran."
The danger of more irreversible damage in the region has faded from the media spotlight, which probably makes it even more enticing to Bush-Cheney. Please, let's keep trying to make sure they're aware that we are paying attention.
Yes, it's true. In the final tally for the Vader, WA precinct, Mike Gravel won 40% of the votes, with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton evenly split at 30% each. So, I'm on my way to the 20th Legislative District Caucus as a Gravel delegate, and to the Lewis County Convention, too.
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Which of the candidates have had the courage to stand up to an out-of-control president and stop him from extending the military draft? To do so by using the filibuster that makes enemies of fellow senators from both parties? (And couldn't the Senate use some of that courage today?)
Which of the candidates have risked their careers and their freedom by publicizing secret records that revealed the long history of deceit that misled the people into allowing their immoral leaders to extend and escalate a stupid and short-sighted war? And then had to battle the president all the way to the Supreme Court.
Which of the candidates have had the courage to stand up to the racists to push through a ground-breaking aboriginal land claims settlement?
Which of the candidates have had the courage to stand up to the military-industrial complex by organizing worldwide environmental opposition to U.S. nuclear testing in the North Pacific?
Which of the candidates have had the courage to stand up to the idealogues and xenophobes and introduce legislation to normalize relations with China months before Kissinger's secret visit and Nixon's historic visit to that country?
Which of the candidates have had the courage to stand up to the oil companies, state and federal officials, and their own party, to empower the Congress to decide on the construction of an Alaskan oil pipeline that supplied one-fifth of our oil, thus reducing the danger of oil tankers wrecking in the arctic?
Which of the candidates have the courage to stand up to the homophobes and the religious right and speak out for full marriage equality, as well as repeal of the halfway "Don't ask, don't tell" policy?
Which of the candidates have the courage to directly challenge the corporate media by holding their own anti-debate when they've been shut out of the main-stream media's pony show?
Which of the candidates have the courage to persist in the face of ridicule from the corporate media and the blinkered pundits, who refuse to look beyond their knee-jerk judgments?
Which of the candidates have the courage to trust YOU to be a law-maker, by presenting a National Initiative for Democracy?
Which of the candidates have the courage to base their campaign and their life on love, saying "The most important thing in life is love. That's what empowers courage, and courage implements the rest of our virtues."
If you want to see courage in our leader, you might want to look at the courage displayed by Mike Gravel.
ALTERNATIVE DEBATE
Senator Gravel will be holding another Alternative Debate, this time in California, on Jan. 31, to coincide with the official Democratic debate, which will be aired live 5 p.m. PT (8 p.m. ET).
You can tune in to watch the debate on Mike's Ustream.tv site. Watch the official web site, Gravel2008.us, for all of the details.
Mike Gravel has finally re-released the updated version of his 1971 book Citizen Power.
This has come out just at the same time that I got an inter-library loan copy of the original edition. It is in fact amazing how similar the situation is today to the days when Sen. Gravel was fighting Nixon; which helps to explain why he chose to enter the race this time.
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Impeachment Statement by Presidential Candidate Senator Mike Gravel:
Read More »While I've been outspoken in favor of the Impeachment of Vice President Cheney and President Bush since last July, today I'm announcing my very strong and unqualified support for Impeachment.
Not everyone wants to watch YouTube, so in the interest of helping out those who pefer to read, here is the transcript of the Real News interview posted earlier by tbutkovic:
PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: Do you distinguish between the three leading candidates coming out of Iowa and going into New Hampshire, in terms of the polling? You know, Obama and Edwards and Clinton. Do you distinguish between them in any way?
Read More »"How do you feel about torture, about countries who are no threat to us? With what's going on in the world today, if you're not angry, you have no heartbeat."
The angry firebrand is not forgotten. David Wesphal recently had this piece about Sen. Mike Gravel: Gravel the Firebrand.
Westphal failed to mention that Sen. Gravel is the one candidate with a plan to get at the root of the problems that make many of us so angry. The National Initiative for Democracy would give real legilative power to the people to counter the corporate-corrupted power wielded by our elected representatives.
Mike Gravel trusts you. Trust yourself: vote Gravel '08
Always-honest candidate Sen. Mike Gravel has admitted, in an interview with Paul Jay on The Real News, that if elected he would not know how "to take on corporate America." He also implied, in a swipe at two of the top three candidates, that any candidate who says he will do so is not being totally honest. He believes that the only way to succeed against the big corps is to enlist the people in the fight through direct democracy.
Gravel said: "Tell me how you're going to do that. No. I mean, how do you do that? I don't know how to do that. I know, if I can empower the American people, that they can sustain some policies, that, I would do that."
"Oh, Congress could do a good job, theoretically, but it can't. Why? Its owned lock, stock, and barrel by corporate America. So you think you're going to become president and you're going to turn to the Congress and say, 'Let's really straighten out corporate America.' This is foolishness. It's fantasy. But it sounds good on the stump."
Harvey Wasserman asks in the Free Press.
Amnesty International earlier in 2007 also asked the Presidential candidates to promise to pardon Peltier.
I don't mean to argue the facts of his conviction, who shot whom, or Peltier's hagiographical standing in the history of U.S. civil rights, but rather how significant such a pardon would be in this age of political imprisonment and hyperactive homeland security, with Guantanomo festering, and habeus corpus being debated in America. Looking beyond the politicization of the case over more than thirty years, the issue now is the courage needed to stand up to the Homeland Security fear mongers.
At least one candidate has taken a position: Mike Gravel has vowed to free Leonard Peltier on the day he is sworn in. Does anyone know where the other candidates stand?
Health is for the wealthy: Giuliani checked into a hospital for the flu.
He didn't wait until he was half dead and then crawl to an emergency room. I guess he's got pretty good health coverage.
How many wage-earning families can afford a hospital stay for the flu? Not mine, not even with insurance.
Can you imagine a leader who went about associating with "sinners," one who not only marched in gay pride parades, but one who even appealed for support before a meeting of a sex-industry group (warning: explicit ads on page)?
One who appealed to drug abusers?
Someone who wanted to give power to the dregs of society?
Someone who defied the authorities and fed the hungry ?
Who spoke out against the money-lenders corrupting our leaders ?
Who railed against the hypocrisy of those in power?
Who traveled around the country with a small group of supporters, spreading a message of love?
Can you imagine that?
Someone IS listening to Mike Gravel. Look who: Link
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