Damn, this guy IS the best candidate for President!

[ProudDad]

My girlfriend just sent him some money so I checked up more closely on his record.

This guy's absolutely the BEST candidate in the whole steaming pile!!!

If he had $50,000,000 to spend he would DEFINITELY win!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Gravel

"During his first term in the Senate, Gravel wrote a book titled Citizen Power, in which he advocated the implementation of numerous populist ideas:

* a guaranteed annual income (dubbed the "Citizen's Wage"),
* public financing of elections,
* 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 America's imperialistic foreign policy.

The book also contained the complete text of the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the complete platform adopted by the Populist Party during the 1892 presidential election."

[lse7581011]

1. I'd Have To Agree ! n/t

[MADem]

2. Have you seen his campaign ads? I think he's a bit nuts.

He adds a certain flavor to the proceedings, but he's not a viable candidate. IMO.

That said, enjoy supporting him. It would be boring if it were only frontrunners in the contest.

[ProudDad]

11. He definitely keeps it from being boring

I loved the fact that he wore white pants while the rest looked like they were stamped out of a cookie-cutter.

[Hippo_Tron]

29. If I had the money I'd send him a contribution so that he could run his ad on TV

It would only need to run once before the media would pick it up.

[MADem]

31. The media did pick it up...but not in a good way.

A number of outlets have played it, and used words like 'flaky' to describe it. Even the Daily Show had fun with it: http://www.sacbee.com/341/story/245012.html

[ProudDad]

34. Checked your link

Funny video.

No where in the article was the word "flaky" or even "flakey" used...

[MADem]

39. Of course not. But I never said that, did I?

There are two completely distinct and separate thoughts in my post. Nowhere in it, if you actually bothered to read it and understood what it said, does it suggest that Stewart USED the word flaky.

Go on--have another go at trying to 'get it.' Youll see that I FIRST, noted that the word flaky was associated with the event. I didn't say Stewart used it though. I heard the term on the radio, actually, and on a commentary by a pundit on one of the talking head shows.

AND THEN....using the word "even" which separates the 'flaky' thought from the Daily Show sentence, I said "EVEN THE DAILY SHOW HAD "FUN" WITH IT." I didn't say "Even the Daily Show said this was flaky."

RIF.

[ProudDad]

40. Jeez

lighten up. :shrug:

[MADem]

41. Light as a feather...

But you suggested I made a connection where I hadn't.

Simply correcting the record... :hi:

[ProudDad]

43. No problem

I probably shouldn't have pulled the trigger on that post. :hi:

Sometimes these "internet tubes" can be a terrible medium...

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. Well, if he is...

He'd better get busy, and get better known out there...

Otherwise he doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell.....:shrug:

[wildhorses]

4. i like gravel but, too many OTHER people think he is goofy.

he is ahead of his time and that scares people. he is a credit to the race and, i think he will be a big asset in the next administration.:patriot:

[EFerrari]

5. I know nada about him. Does he have a site?

[ProudDad]

12. Yep

http://www.gravel2008.us/

[EFerrari]

19. Thank you, ProudDad.

:hi:

[saracat]

6. I think they should bar him from future Dem Debates.All he does is

attack the other candidates and say they aren't fit for office.We don't need that kind of messgae .Sorry.

[ProudDad]

13. What a wonderful

republican suggestion.

Bar anyone we don't like.

[saracat]

27. I don't really mean "Bar " him, but I really don't appreciate his RW talking points

regarding the other candidates.He knows he can't win but does he have to drage everyone else down too? Why hand the other side ammo? Just wondering.

[ProudDad]

35. Excuse me

but any right-wing talking points in those debates would be coming from the DLC candidates.

Just about everything Gravel has said, with the admitted exception of his tax proposal (sales taxes are Horribly Regressive) has been anything but right-wing.

End the War Immediately
End the phony "war on drugs" immediately
Universal Single Payer Health Care for all
Opposed to "preemtive" war against Iran
Full rights for LGBT persons
Fully fund education for all
Woman's Right to Choose

Yeah, right-winger all the way...Not!

[saracat]

36. By which I mean his trashing our candidAtes. He should stick to his own views

and offer his solutions NOT trash the others implying they are not "fit for leadership" All our Dems are better than any of the GOP.Period.

[Telly Savalas]

38. e.g. Kucinich pushes for a pretty left-leaning agenda without being negative.

He points out how different he is from the other candidates, but he's not an asshole about it.

[mitchtv]

23. He will end the drug war

Keep him in. He has my vote. Truth hurts doesn't it?

[youngdem]

7. A guaranteed annual income?

What the fuck?

What a stupid idea. How about you work for a living?

You cannot have a guaranteed minimum income because it would remove the incentive to work for the bottom. STUPID IDEA. STUPID. Fantasy land. Crazy talk. This is welfare on steroids, and our current welfare system traps people in poverty - imagine what this silliness would do, if we could afford it (which we could never)

And getting rid of voter registration? How in the hell would you ever know if you have massive voter fraud or not if you don't know how many voters there are in each district? You are just asking for MASSIVE voter fraud that would be IMPOSSIBLE to detect. That is just a stupid overreaction to the voter ID laws being pushed, and shows that Gravel thinks NOTHING through. How's about we have voter registration, but make simple ID cards (not driver's licenses) FREE in all states, that way we can have voter registration, insure the person voting is the person voting, and NOT have an effective Poll Tax or impediment to the poor voting? Nah, that makes too much sense. Let's just pass a law saying you can vote as many times as you want....that makes much more sense :eyes:

Otherwise, he's just a cute optimist with early stage dementia and no grounding in reality...but on the guaranteed wages, voting registration (and on the ad where he stares into the camera for a full minute), he's a bona fide moron.

[ProudDad]

16. You seem well and fully programmed

with the right-wing bullshit that's been drilled into the public's heads for the last 30 years.

Congratulations.

Thanks for playing the game, now go back to Free Republic with this screed... :hi:

[youngdem]

17. Eat me.

I don't have to buy that a guaranteed minimum income for all is necessary to be a good, card carrying Dem.

Take your patronizing bullshit elsewhere.

Ignore.

[ProudDad]

21. "Eat me"

Already have a girlfriend...don't need another.

Your post could have been lifted verbatim from AEI or "The Weekly Standard" or "the Free Republic".

What the f*ck am I supposed to think of your thought processes when you post right-wing boiler plate?


"Ignore" -- ah the last refuge of the cowardly...

[Mz Pip]

47. RIght wing bullshit??

I see none of that in that post. What part of wanting people to work for a living is right wing?

Why imply someone is a freeper because they don't agree with Mike Gravel's ideas? Definitely unnecessary. :thumbsdown:

Mz Pip
:dem:

[RaleighNCDUer]

25. How about opening your mind to progressive ideas?

Guaranteed minimum income.

How many people want to go to college, but they just can't afford to not work, and they have a loathing of taking out crippling loans? How many people work at mind-numbing jobs just to pay the rent, but want to follow other paths that pay even less, such as writing, music, art, archeology? A guaranteen minimum income would be a poverty income - nobody gets rich on the dole - but it guarantees that the mentally ill, the stupid and yes, the just plain lazy, won't have to turn to crime to survive. It would wipe out homelessness. The overwhelming majority would not rely on it, but there is a crucial minority that absolutely need it - people who have good hearts but are incapable of holding down a job (like my ex-wife, severly bi-polar). Our welfare system traps people in poverty not because it gives them money, but because it doesn't give them enought to make a real change in their lives, and if they supplement that by working, it takes their housing/healthcare/food stamps away. With the guaranteed minimum, they lose nothing by supplementing it, and can thereby pull themselves out of poverty.

Voter registration: how about purple thumbs? No ID required, but nobody can vote more than once. I'd much prefer to have a purple thumb for a week than to have a national ID card.

There's more to these ideas, if you actually consider them.

[truedelphi]

37. Now wait a minute - As an American, even a crack smoking non working

Lethargic pee in my own pants I'm so lazy I never move out of bed kinda American, there are still all sorts of things that this country has to offer to industry that have been given away.

I'm thinking of timber on the Federal Lands, oil, coal, gas and other energy resources forked over to the lowest bidder, the airwaves on the Radio and TV Spectra -- all of this would generate enough income for everyone were it not just being handed over to a few for percentage of a penny on the dollar.

For starters, we have a war that has cost us already about half a trillion dollars - Had it never been waged, the money could have been used as income for Americans. How much are we talking - just divide 500 billion dollars up among the number of households in the USA and that would give each household a bit of spare change.

[riqster]

8. He'll push the platform to the left

That's all he'll accomplish, but that's enough.

[durtee librul]

10. I watched him on Tavis Smiley last night

and he really gave a zinger at the end to the rest of the candidates about not having moral authority and it was proven by their votes....he was grumpy, but beat the hell out of harpy hillary, babbling biden, doddering dodd,righteous richardson, kudos kucinich, effervescent edwards, and odacious obama......

I really liked that forum last night and wish they would all be like that.

Gavel didn't come across really well tho overall sad to say.

[riqster]

15. Politics is sometimes a team sport,

And Gavel doesn't play that way. I like the guy, and his being in the race is a positive thing for our country.

But no way he'll be President. He's pissing on his would-be teammates, and they will sideline him in matter of seconds (to overuse the metaphor).

[ProudDad]

22. That was a very interesting "reality" moment

Did you hear the gasps and the huge sucking sound as the air left the room.

Interesting unexpected theater.

[truedelphi]

9. I do like him - also like Dodds

Do you know Gravel's stand on the gay marriage issue?

It's a shame that we are so many months away from the election - yet the media have set it up that we should only be talking about the top runners.

In Europe, the television would be giving full one hour biographies of each serious canddidate.
Balanced and honest appraisals.
(At least that was how TV was set up there twenty years ago)

[ProudDad]

18. It's here

http://www.gravel2008.us/issues

"LGBT RIGHTS

Senator Gravel supports same-sex marriage and opposes the Defense of Marriage Act. He supports expanding hate-crime legislation and opposes laws that allow discrimination against sexual orientation, as well as discrimination on the basis of one's gender identity or expression. In the absence of full marriage rights, the senator supports domestic partner benefits for all Americans. He strongly opposes the military's 'Don't Ask Don't Tell' legislation on the grounds that it is unconstitutional, as it restricts the rights of gay Americans, and he opposes any state or national constitutional amendment that restricts the rights of the LGBT community."

[bellasgrams]

14. I see some things on your list

that I can't agree with.

*guaranteed annual wage, how many more would that encourage not to look for work.

*do away with voter reg., that could really open a bag of worms.

*school vouchers, no way. Would hurt our public schools.

Glad you called my attention to these facts.

[ProudDad]

20. Some Issues

Guaranteed annual wage -- works pretty damn well in Europe... Back then, even nixon was for it...the Dixiecrats weren't 'cause it would have gone to too many ni... black people for their racist tastes...

Do away with voter reg -- the "Voter fraud" red herring is just that, a republican LIE designed to keep people from noticing the massive election theft and voter suppression that used to be perpetrated by the Dems and the pukes and now seems to be the exclusive province of the repukes.

Hell, we can't even get half the people to vote once. How the fuck you gonna' get them to vote twice??? :)

School Vouchers -- Yep, that's the one sticky bit in his platform. I'd have trouble with that one. I also wonder about his national sales tax. However, since he's the only one other than Dennis who's not in the pocket of the corporations I think one can sit down and reason with him.

I truly believe he cares about the public good rather than private gain so, unlike the others, one could work with him on school vouchers and a potentially regressive taxing mechanism.

[Hippo_Tron]

30. Voter fraud was rampant before voter registration...

They just used different methods. IMO, we need a national voter registration system of some sort so that you don't have to re-register every time you move.

[ProudDad]

32. I like the purple thumb idea (n/t)

[Ian David]

24. No... THIS guy is...

Jonathon Sharkey
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey (born 1964-04-02 in Elizabeth, New Jersey as John Albert Sharkey) is a self-proclaimed satanist, "sanguinary vampyre", Hecate Witch and professional boxer as well as wrestler (under the name Rocky "Hurricane" Flash) and perennial candidate for public office.

He has filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for President of the United States twice as an Independent candidate (in 2004<1> and in 2008<2>) and for Congress in at least three states -- his home State of New Jersey (1999-2000, Republican)<3>, Indiana (Reform Party, 2000)<4> and Florida (2001-02, Republican)<5>. In 2006, he ran for governor of Minnesota.

It is difficult to pin down definitive facts relating to Sharkey, partly because of his numerous aliases, but also due to his authorship, over time, of many autobiographical websites which have included conflicting and unsubstantiated assertions of fact. A Federal judge in Indiana has remarked about Sharkey that "his view of reality and attendant behavior is nothing less than bizarre."<6> Sharkey claims that this was because Sharkey had previously "cursed out" the same judge.<7>

Philosophically, Sharkey professes a hatred for the Christian Supreme Being, God the Father, but claims that he has no disrespect for followers of the aforementioned. He says that this hatred began when his grandmother died, and fully consumed him in 2004. He claims that he became an angry and violent person as a result of his grandmother's death. However, Sharkey maintains that he is a religious pluralist and professes respect for all creeds as well as the US Constitution. His Minnesota gubernatorial campaign slogan was "A New Deal for Minnesota," and his 2008 Presidential campaign slogan is "The New Deal and Hope for America," reflecting his professed respect of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. He has proposed impaling "any one found committing an act of terrorism in Minnesota"<8>, and advocates many additional unorthodox approaches to crime and other public issues.

Sharkey lived for a time in Florida under his wrestling name of Rocky Hurricane Flash. While there, he also used the assumed name Kathleen Sharkey and claimed that this Kathleen Sharkey was either his half-sister or his wife. He filed reports with the Federal Election Commission which listed Kathleen Sharkey as a member of his campaign staff. Eventually, a letter was filed with the Federal Election Commission, purportedly by Kathleen Sharkey, which implied that he had died.<9> Documents from a lawsuit filed in the Indianapolis District Court mention that Sharkey attempted to commit suicide. It has been suggested instead that he attempted to fake his own death.<10>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathon_Sharkey


Seriously, though... I'm leaning toward a Gore / Gravel ticket myself.

[yourout]

26. Sharkey would be left of Cheney.

Maybe Georgie boy could dump Dick for this guy. It would be move toward the center compared to Dickie boy.

[Beaverhausen]

28. Sorry- not with him on school vouchers. and didn't he want to make English the "official" language?

[ProudDad]

33. Neither am I

but 8 out of 10 is better than those other DLC clones are giving me...

And, as I said before, I think his heart is in the right place, for the people, and one could sit down and talk to/negotiate with him. I doubt that the others (except Kucinich) could hear you over the river of corporate money and the loud megaphone of the corporate lobbyists and their fellow travelers blasting into their ears...

------------------

I know Gravel ain't got a chance -- it's all about corporate money and our capitalist masters' desires.



But I can dream, can't I?

[w4rma]

42. Getting rid of the income tax is progressive? Not true. (nt)

[ProudDad]

45. I don't think the sales tax is "progressive" either

But...

Gravel is proposing that there be a VAT type sales tax levied on all goods and services at the point of origin. The amelioration is his suggestion that everyone receives a check every month from the Gov. for a reasonable rebate of the tax for basic human needs.

I'm not sure it can be made to work but, as I suspected, he does have the people's needs in mind.

I think he primarily would like to get rid of the 7 1/2 feet of loopholes contained in the 8 feet of tax code that the current system is built from ...

[proud patriot]

44. I did not know he wrote a book

thanks for posting :hi:

[ProudDad]

46. No Problem

:hi: :bounce: