Why Hillary Scares Me - Sen. Mike Gravel

[RC]

Posted June 25, 2007
Our founders' legacy did not stop Hillary from voting for the Patriot Act and then supporting its renewal in 2006 despite revelations that the government was using it to infringe on the very liberties that our founders held sacred. Where was her commitment to our founders when she voted to gut our habeas corpus protections?

As for cronyism -- Hillary has repeatedly authorized billions that the Pentagon gave in no-bid contracts to Halliburton. Even though the Democrats have been in control of Congress for months, they still haven't summoned Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the other usual suspects to account for the missing millions in reconstruction funding.

>SNIP<

In the same frightening speech, Hillary went on the blame the Iraqis for the mess in their country: "The American military has succeeded. It is the Iraqi government which has failed to make the tough decisions that are important for their own people.''

Let me get this straight. The Iraq disaster is not the fault of the delusional neo-cons, the greedy oil companies, or the gullible and cowardly Congressional warhawks. (Most senators including Clinton didn't even bother to read the 90-page National Intelligence Estimate). According to Hillary, the real culprit is the Iraqi government that we created virtually overnight and left to govern a fractured, impoverished society. Talk about blaming the victim!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sen-mike-gravel/why-hillary-scares-me_b_53586.html?view=print

So why are so many people here still rooting for Hillary? Hillary is no Democrat. She is a DINO!

[ursi]

1. right on, Mike!

[Tarc]

2. Wow. There's actually someone further off in the fringe than Kucinich?

You stay classy, Mike Gravel.

[fascisthunter]

33. lol...You Need to Tell Yourself That

because you are the fringe. People like Mike Gravel and Dennis Kucinich make people like you look ridiculous and that makes you project. You need to...

Having balls to do what's right for and by the people isn't fringe. Being a corporate tool is...

[K Gardner]

3. Power to the Peeeeoplllle !!! I. Like. Mike.

[Hippo_Tron]

4. I still don't like Mike Gravel for the campaign he waged against Ernest Gruening

And they say that us 20 somethings have no knowledge of history...

[Blue_In_AK]

9. I'm impressed.

Really.

[RC]

14. When you have lived history, you have a different take than what the history books

have to say about it. I can add JFK, Nixon & Viet Nam to 9/11. Can you?
If you were paying attention on 9/11/2001 then you know what the history books say about it now is different than what was being shown on tv and in the news at the time.
You have a different take if you have lived it. That is all he is saying. You will understand better when you have lived more history.

[Hippo_Tron]

19. Gruening was one of the two senators brave enough to vote against the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution

And Mike Gravel waged a campaign against him based on his age and that vote, although now he claims that in fact he was actually to the left of Gruening on Vietnam.

What particular point am I missing because I wasn't alive at the time?

[papau]

40. You are correct - Mike had one shinning moment-and a lot that didn't shine-Hill will cutoff my balls

is one of those moments that does not shine.

[RC]

15. When you have lived history, you have a different take than what the history books

have to say about it. I can add JFK, Nixon & Viet Nam to 9/11. Can you?
If you were paying attention on 9/11/2001 then you know what the history books say about it now is different than what was being shown on tv and in the news at the time.
You have a different take if you have lived it. That is all he is saying. You will understand better when you have lived more history.

[RC]

16. When you have lived history, you have a different take than what the history books

have to say about it. I can add JFK, Nixon & Viet Nam to 9/11. Can you?
If you were paying attention on 9/11/2001 then you know what the history books say about it now is different than what was being shown on tv and in the news at the time.
You have a different take if you have lived it. That is all he is saying. You will understand better when you have lived more history.

[Hepburn]

5. K&R

:applause:

Nice to see that he has Hillary's number!

[Whisp]

6. Mike has it going on. kick.

[Kitty Herder]

7. kick

:kick:

[jackson_dem]

8. He's also said Obama is worse than Hillary because he gets people's hopes up

Clearly he doesn't see much of a difference between Hillary and Obama (as well as Edwards in Gravel's view).

[FormerDittoHead]

18. Exactly. Obama supporters best not look for support from this... KOOK.

Sorry. I heard him on Mike Malloy for an HOUR. Whatever he was in the "roarin'" SEVENTIES, he's now a KOOK.

The FairTax is my personal "kook detector" and ANY ONE who supports is either ignorant of taxation and economics, stupid, or some kind of bullshitter shilling for the rich. I put Gravel somewhere in all three categories.

>Democrats have been in control of Congress for months, they still haven't summoned Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld and the other usual suspects to account for the missing millions in reconstruction funding.

Oh, dear people, tell us about the Obama "hearings"...

PS: Woo hoo! Last I checked, Clinton wasn't in the CONGRESS, IDIOT.

Oh? Hillary deserves to be criticized for her mistakes? Am I saying no? Sure she is, but don't take this screed from this FairTax kook as ANY kind of support of Obama!

Sorry, I've got a real bug up my butt about the "FairTax"...

Info on Fairtax:
http://www.citizenreviewonline.org/nov2004/22/fairtax.htm
http://fairtaxfraud.com

[Neo-wobbly]

22. Fairtax aside

Clinton's not in congress? When did this happen?

[FormerDittoHead]

23. Hillary Clinton was never in the Congress. She's a SENATOR, and Gravel KNOWS the difference. n/t

[slick8790]

24. Uh I'm sure he does. Do you?

The congress is composed of the House of Reps. and the Senate. Any member of either body is a member of Congress. Don't be a condescending prick if you don't know what you're talking about.

[FormerDittoHead]

31. OK, I can see it that way.

I'm still against the FairTax in every dimension.

I think Gravel's health care plan was a joke.

I didn't like how he didn't offer anything to the GLBT community.

The only thing he had going was his approach to Iraq.

[stimbox]

41. gravel is very pro-LGBT rights...

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 on the basis of sexual orientation or one's gender identity or expression. Senator Gravel 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. He opposes any state or national constitutional amendment that restricts the rights of the gay community.

http://www.gravel2008.us/issues

[FormerDittoHead]

49. I didn't know that. But did you ever LISTEN to him?

First off, excuse me for not combing through his website because I really didn't realize there was that much support for Gravel, considering he hasn't garnered as much as one HALF of ONE percent of any of the primary votes...

I will say I didn't know his record, but my opinion is not uninformed, as I listened to his interview with Mike Malloy to hear all I really needed to know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWdY0e7mzX8&feature=related
All I really knew about his stand on GLBT rights was his answer to the caller at the top of this clip, and his advice for all gay people to come out of the closet didn't sound very realistic...

Out of respect to you, I did check out his record, and I would agree his GLBT record is much more liberal than most (all?) of the other candidates, but that message really didn't come through for me in this interview, and I should say, it's lost in the mess of his other positions - medical vouchers and such.

He's got the Iraq thing right, but then so does Ron Paul.

I'm not calling him a kook to be mean. He's somewhat "eccentric" as he babbles on, jumping from one non-sequitur to the next in that interview.

In this primary, however, he's does nothing but lash out at Obama, Hillary and if you listen to that interview, he even referred to Dennis Kucinich as a "business as usual" candidate...

Mike Malloy and I are on the same page with Gravel, and I'm pretty comfortable with that.

[stimbox]

50. Listen to him? Yes, I met him. Really nice guy. Very intelligent to boot.

Yeah, he is eccentric, so is Kucinich. I don't mind that, so am I.
Check out Gravel's you tube videos. There are a ton of them. He spells out his issues in them.
He wasn't my first choice (Kucinich), but he was the only progressive anti-war voice left by the time the primary rolled around.
Does he have a chance at winning? Not a chance, but his voice is needed.
Do I support every plank in his platform? No.
The flat tax doesn't interest me much, but everything else is spot on.

[Carolina]

37. touche

I was about to let the poster know the meaning of the US Congress, too!

[Hart2008]

26. No flat tax will ever be enacted because it deprives Congress of the power to make loopholes.

These members of Congress like having special interests donating money and looking for tax deductions.

If they enact any kind of flat tax, that power disappears.

They will never enact a flat tax!

It would take a constitutional amendment to make it law.

It will never happen.

[New Dawn]

10. K&R!

[Hart2008]

11. Gravel Rocks!

:yourock:

[TexasObserver]

12. The gravel throated Gravel is right. She has betrayed Democratic principles.

[Ichingcarpenter]

13. The man needs to be given the medal of FREEDOM

He stopped the last fucking stupid war.

[robbedvoter]

17. June 25, 2007? Didn't have enough time to see the other guy!

You probably dismiss him anyway. Not me:

[bunnies]

20. I heart Gravel. He rocks. Tell it Mike! nt

[Neo-wobbly]

21. And this is why he's not a leading candidate:

Too much common sense.

You'd have my vote, Mike.

[Maat]

25. Go, Mike!

Address the facts!

Hillary voted for the IWR, the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, and the Patriot Act. She declined to vote for the cluster bomb preclusion amendment. She is a HAWK, and I do not want to be voting for a hawk. Thus far, she has consistently avoided talking about restoring habeas corpus.

And, so far I haven't seen her fans DIRECTLY address this.

[ShortnFiery]

27. Yes! Mike is spot on! "Hillary is no Democrat. She is a DINO!" eom.

[SmellsLikeDeanSpirit]

34. I've called her a DINO for years.

[mtnsnake]

47. Umm, I hate to tell you, but Gravel didn't say that. The OP did. Good gawd. n/t

[BigDDem]

28. Who???

:rofl:

[lastliberalintexas]

29. Because she supports progressive taxation?

:shrug:

[Bucky]

30. Get lost, Mike!

Hillary is not a "Dino" and she doesn't stare through the ceiling at me when I'm... uh.... never mind.


Hillary is NOT a dino.

[fascisthunter]

32. Thank You....

These last two years have been a ride... a ride that has opened my eyes to what folks like Noam Chomsky have been writing for years. Party politics can poison its own well sometimes, too many Democrats falling for feigned sensationalism over a "name" while a criminally insane sitting President is NEVER held accountable. People like HIllary and Obama are compromised... Hillary much more so. It's time Democrats act like they give a damn about their party of we will be repeating the Bush years.

Lastly, party politics is a noble thing, but is also equally blinding.

[BlackVelvet04]

35. Gravel is a kook. n/t

[Carolina]

38. of course, you'd say that

the truth hurts

[BlackVelvet04]

39. No, I said it because he's a kook. n/t

[Carolina]

36. this sums it up for me

Thank you for posting it.

I can't stand HRC because of the war, specifically her IWR vote and ongoing support of it. Only when it was clear to her that public opinion and her political aspirations were at odds did she change her tune... albeit slightly, by saying the war had been managed wrong rather than it was wrong in the first place because IRAQ was never a threat.

She has gone along with Bush to get along and get ahead. She's a phony corporate tool who triangulates, equivocates and has demonstrated a complete lack of judgment, leadership and morality.

Mike Gravel nails it.

K&R

[L0oniX]

42. This is an example of why I was originally going to vote for Gravel.

He said ..."follow the money"

[southerncrone]

43. I love Gravel! Just wish he'd run in '88. We might have won then.

[Arctic Dave]

44. never at a lose for words

Mike reminds me a lot of the old timers we used to have up here. Cantankerous as the day is long and never afraid to tell it like they see it, even if it was just howling at the moon sometimes. These type of people are what gave Alaska its character.:D

[Desertrose]

45. Right on , MIke!

She scares me too.....

actually so does the other one.....

[mtnsnake]

46. I can't believe you're all getting excited over a bunch of gogglydogloop like that

He doesn't even make sense and you're all creaming your jeans. Good gawd, it doesn't take much to impress you, does it.

[Cha]

48. hilary is a dissembler.. and it

turns out she has quite a gaggle of enablers.

[David Zephyr]

51. I hope John Edwards reads this.

n/t