On Tuesday I attended a press conference held by Democratic presidential hopeful Mike Gravel, on the steps of City Hall here in New York City. He spoke mainly about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, about which we were originally warned by Dwight Eisenhower. I totally agree with him about the dangers of the military-industrial complex.
I and several other people from New York 9/11 Truth were there because he was going to sign a petition having to do with health care for the first responders. However, at the press conference, not many questions were asked about the first responders. Not sure why. Perhaps the relevant people just didn’t show up?
Anyhow, Gravel is the only presidential candidate I’m aware of who doesn’t mind holding a press conference with a few people in the background wearing T-shirts that say “Investigate 9/11.” A while back, I recall seeing an announcement urging people in the 9/11 Truth movement to attend a rally in support of Ron Paul, but specifically asking us not to wear any clothing with a mention of 9/11.
Below is more info about Mike Gravel:
- Mike Gravel for President 2008 – Official Web Site
- Mike Gravel’s Myspace page
- Nader Redux: Should Dems Fear Mike Gravel? by James Ridgeway, Mother Jones, May 20, 2007
- Washington Post on Mike Gravel (biographical info and index to news stories)
- Why Hillary Scares Me by Mike Gravel, Huffington Post, June 25, 2007
- Wikipedia article on Mike Gravel
- Mike Gravel on the issues
On the whole I agree with his views. There are just two stands of his I’m a bit leery of, though:
- He rejects the idea of trying to impeach Bush and Cheney. However, at the press conference, he did call for indicting them on various crimes, with which I certainly agree.
- The so-called Fair Tax. Gravel proposes abolishing the income tax and replacing it with a combination of sales tax plus a “prebate,” a payment to everyone, from the government, to cover sales tax on basic necessities. Presumably the prebate would be sufficient to compensate for the non-progressive nature of the sales tax itself. Personally I would be more inclined just to make the income tax more genuinely progressive and steeply graduated. But Gravel believes that that would be politically impossible anyway, and that getting rid of income tax has the advantage of restoring some personal privacy.
New York City activist 
It’s sad to see Ridgeway in Mother Jones comparing Grevel to Nader, given that Gravel is running as a Democrat and has apparently been a Democrat since he served in the U.S. Senate. Ridgway endorses a system where corporate money and media exposure is required to be a “serious” candidate, and his whole article is based on the premise of “what if” Gravel goes independent. Better not promote his candidacy and what he brings to the primaries, because people might like his ideas and give him the idea to run as an independent after he is squashed by the corporate media that Mother Jones joined on this one.
I wasn’t aware of Gravel’s sales tax idea. I like the privacy aspect. Food and maybe other items should just be exempted rather than be part of a “prebate.” I can’t see how enough revenue would be raised without taxes on corporations, cspital gains, and high incomes, so you would still need a tax agency.
Comment by dwightvw — October 29, 2007 @ 4:17 am |
It will be better to keep a watch to see if Bill Van Auken and Jim Lawrence or some other candidates of their party run again as they did in 2004
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/sep2004/prog-s20.shtml
http://www.wsws.org/us2004/candidates.html
and 2006:
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/elec-j12.shtml
Voting for a Democrat is a bad diversion.
Comment by patricksmcnally — November 10, 2007 @ 11:27 am |