April 26, 2007
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out there and down to earth
A break in my recent routine: I won’t be able to sit here all day reading Xanga, searching for blog material, and writing. I have to shower now and get ready to go to the clinic for my semi-annual appearance, so I can keep getting the Singulair to keep me breathing.
If that doesn’t exhaust all my energy, I’ll head down the Valley to Wasilla to see Greyfox and pick up a carload of great stuff he got out of the dumpster yesterday. Some of his neighbors had been holding a yard sale for several weeks, in preparation for a move out of state. They threw out everything they couldn’t sell, including food. The Dumpster Deva provides for us bountifully.
Meanwhile, this came today from SpaceWeather:
Photo credit P-M Hedén of Vallentuna, Sweden, who was watching the new sunspot at upper left when the jet flew over between his telescope and the sun.…and this is my ideal first choice for our next president. Not that I think he has much of a chance. His position is too practical and humane to appeal to the big money sources in big business, so he won’t be able to pay for lots of TV time. Consequently, the average American voter, the ones who would be most likely to benefit if he were elected, is not likely to even know he exists.
As United States Senator from Alaska in 1971, Mike Gravel
…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. After the New York Times published portions of the leaked study, the Nixon administration moved to block any further publication of information and to punish any newspaper publisher who revealed the contents.From the floor of the senate, Gravel (a junior senator at the time) insisted that his constituents had a right to know the truth behind the war and proceeded to read 4,100 pages of the 7,000 page document into the senate record. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled that Senator Gravel did not have the right and responsibility to share official documents with his constituents.
He then published The Senator Gravel Edition, The Pentagon Papers, Beacon Press (1971). This publication resulted in litigation, Gravel v. U.S., resulting in a landmark Supreme Court decision (No. 71-1017-1026) relative to the Speech and Debate Clause (Article 1, Section 6) of the United States Constitution.
He has worked as a cab driver in New York City, a clerk on Wall Street and as a brakeman on the Alaska Railroad. He founded and served as president of The Democracy Foundation, Philadelphia II, and Direct Democracy, nonprofit corporations dedicated to the establishment of direct democracy in the United States through the enactment of the National Initiative for Democracy by American voters.
His positions on some issues:
The War in Iraq
Immediate and orderly withdrawal of troops followed by aggressive diplomacy
A Fair Tax
Eliminate the income tax and replace it with a progressive national sales tax – Fair Tax.
National Initiative for Democracy
Empower Americans and turn every citizen into a lawmaker by enacting a national initiative.
America’s System of Education
Education should be our nation’s priority. We need to foster competition and rethink the system.
Social Security
Put real money in the Social Security Trust Fund and invest it properly so Americans can leave surplus to heirs.
Veterans Affairs
Fully finance the VA and end the war on our nation’s vets.
National Healthcare
Enact a national, universal, single-payer, not-for-profit U.S. healthcare system.
Comments (5)
and you are correct…i didn’t even know he was in the running at all! It is a shame that the ones with the most money from big business are the ones that will be plastered all over the place… then for them getting that money from the big business, they have to return the favors when elected… At times i don’t like the way our system works… grease the palm policy… then the average citizen gets messed over in the aftermath…
Yes it has become a run of money and who has it which is a shame and dose not reflect the masses.
he sounds like my kind’ve candidate… is he running on the democratic ticket, or as a third-party candidate, or what? is he doing any debates?
I am passionate about the Dumpster Diva. We love her too.
Mike sounds like what we need here in the You Ess of Aye. He’ll never be elected. He’s never been to BoHo Grove, has he?
Regarding the orangutan post: I admire your connection with Greyfox and really had nothing to add except a few anecdotes about how my husband used to study getting into the dreams of his girlfriend in high school. They’d set up times to think about each other each day and meditate reaching each other at night. It was really neat. My mind went on a tangent when you talked about gifts/curses in general, though. I was thinking about the difference between people who need drugs like Singulair to function and those who are just too irritated by everyday inconveniences, like their bodies’ sensitivity, to want to do anything but take a pill. This drug is effective for many people, but I can imagine the many more who suffer the side effects of lung infections and such… because they’re blocking their senses. It’s the same sort of metaphor. Use what you have; make the best of it. I know this is what you do and I love the way you think about it. As for today’s blog… people are terrified of a truly democratic system. They rely on the republic – half-assedly electing leaders that most people don’t care to vote for, much less understand what they stand for or differentiate between candidates. I love America, but sometimes I wish it were smaller or more segmented, so that different communities would be forced to step up and self-govern, to be more interested in the issues that matter to them. I can only imagine what it’s like to live in Alaska or a place that is so geographically or even ideologically separated from the “mainland.” Town councils don’t make sense in the city… which is why a lot of people elect for smaller governments even as simple as gated neighborhood communities. I dunno. It’s a lot to think about.