Tag: Mike Gravel

Jan 25 2008

Do we REALLY want change?

One of the key buzzwords of this Presidential race is change. The voices of change cumulated in a Democratic victory in 2006, and since then, the voices of change have only gotten louder and louder. Supposedly. And yet, when we look at the front-runners for the election, we see that the conventional candidates — Hillary Clinton and John McCain — are poised to take the nomination starting with Super Tuesday. A showing below 15% in South Carolina could doom John Edwards, while both Hillary and John McCain are leading by substantial margins in California. While the Republican primary is a lot messier than the Democratic primary, it seems that with his wins in South Carolina and Louisiana, Mike Huckabee’s home turf, it seems that McCain is an odds-on favorite to take over the Republican nomination.

This brings us to the question of change — do we really want change? The buzzword of this election has been change, yet we see the two establishment candidates, Hillary Clinton and John McCain, establishing themselves as frontrunners in the primary. It seems that people on both parties say that they want change, yet saying that they want change and actually having the courage to vote for change are two different things. It is a lot like a bad relationship — we say that we want to break up, yet when it comes time to actually do it, it is much more comfortable to stay in the relationship than it is to make a clean break and start over. We say that we don’t like where we are and want to move and make a fresh start; however, when it comes down to do it, we are more afraid of the unknown than we are of staying in a bad situation.  

Dec 27 2007

Mike Gravel!

Dec 13 2007

Des Moines Register bars Kucinich and Gravel from Debate

Oh the Fear of the Corporate Controllers and Managers of our world!

I wish I had a photo of a gnarling tiger to put here.  But I can only say,

DO SOMETHING!  DO SOMETHING NOW!

The “Des Moines Register” has banned Dennis Kucinich and Mike Gravel from tomorrow’s Democratic debates.  Here’s the reason, as reported in 12/13/07 USA today:

Kucinich protests exclusion from Des Moines debate; should he get an invitation?

Six-term Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich is crying foul over tomorrow’s Des Moines Register debate for Democratic presidential candidates. The campaign today issued a lengthy protest against his exclusion from the debate, the last before the Jan. 3 caucuses.

The newspaper’s standards for participation include at least 1% in its statewide poll and an office and paid staff in Iowa. Republican Alan Keyes, who has not been in any debates this year and has done little if any campaigning, has made the cut for today’s GOP debate, which we’ll be live-blogging here at 2 p.m. ET.

Kucinich’s campaign said today he has been excluded because “his Iowa field director operates from a home office rather than a rented storefront.” The campaign quoted newspaper editor Carolyn Washburn as saying, “It was our determination that a person working out of his home did not meet our criteria for a campaign office and full-time paid staff in Iowa.”

Kucinich’s campaign says Marcos Rubinstein, its field director and state coordinator, runs the campaign from his home office in Dubuque, “bolstered by a dozen-or-so other senior campaign staff who have traveled the state over the past several months.”

The campaign also notes that Kucinich is the top-ranked candidate in online polls conducted by Democracy For America and Progressive Democrats of America and both groups plan to advertise for him.

What do you think? Should Kucinich get an invitation? Should Mike Gravel get an invitation? Was it right to include Keyes in today’s debate? We welcome your (polite, civil and thoughtful) comments.

(above from:  USA Today, “On Politics” by Mark Memmott & Jill Lawrence, 12/13/07)

I’ve got to go to a doctor’s appointment, so I can’t write any more than this.  But you know how to find it.  Go there and leave your comments.  I did.  I’ll also mail the DMR later.

Feel free to add a Gnarling Tiger if you wish.

Dec 03 2007

Quit giving $$$ to politicians; give the gift of peace

We’ve been regularly donating to two presidential candidates — not large amounts, but smaller contributions about once a month – for the past year.

But we’ve declared a moratorium on those checks and online contributions until after there is a Democratic nominee.

Instead, we’re going to put that money somewhere that is more likely than any politician to end the war in Iraq.

Whether we max out to Obama, Edwards, Gravel, Kucinich, Clinton or whomever isn’t going to have the slightest impact on their policy stance.  Our contributions are a drop in the multi-million dollar campaign bucket.

The same amount of  money, given to an organization working to stop the war, is far more likely to actually accomplish something.

Nov 30 2007

Iraq Moratorium goes mainstream; well, kind of

Who’s the guy with the big Iraq Moratorium button?

Could it be a presidential candidate?

Indeed, Sen. Mike Gravel joined tens of thousands of others who observed Iraq Moratorium #3 on Nov. 16.

The Alaska Democrat, former Senator and presidential hopeful wore a big, black Iraq Moratorium button all day, the Moratorium website says. It’s in the Moratorium Day #3 reports.

That makes him the first presidential candidate to actually get on board the peace train, although a would-be First Lady beat him to it by two months.  

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