Mike Gravel Supports Citizens' Ballot Initiative To Investigate 9/11 -- And You Can, Too!

Do you feel like doing a little volunteer work for the truth?

Former Senator Mike Gravel does; he's thrown his support behind a NYC citizens' ballot initiative to force a full investigation of the "terrorist attacks" of September 11, 2001.

He spoke with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and the transcript has been posted here.

The citizens' group supporting the initiative has a website here, and whether you live in NYC or not, they need your help to get this process moving along a little more quickly.

There aren't many ways in which ordinary citizens can chip away at the bogus foundation of the Global Terror War, so I hope you will support this initiative.

Put it this way: What have you got to do today that's more important?

Mike Gravel Joins The Libertarians

Former Senator Mike Gravel is no longer seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, but he's still running for president.

He's quit the Democrats and joined the Libertarian Party.

Gravel says:

the Democratic Party today is no longer the party of FDR. It is a party that continues to sustain war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism -- all of which I find anathema to my views.
...

I look forward to advancing my presidential candidacy within the Libertarian Party, which is considerably closer to my values, my foreign policy views and my domestic views.

Sometimes I wonder whether Mike Gravel has studied any contemporary political history. It's been a long time since the Democratic Party was "the party of FDR", and it should come as no surprise that the Democratic party likes "war, the military-industrial complex and imperialism".

I also have trouble reconciling Gravel's anti-militaristic views with the Libertarian Party's (laissez-faire, "free market") economic policy, since in my view the military industrial complex is both the inevitable result of laissez-faire capitalism and the force which precludes the existence of any "free market".

But perhaps this is a good sign; if Mike Gravel is caught in a bind between what he says he believes and actual verifiable reality, then perhaps the other candidates will begin to see that he has something in common with all of them.

No Kidding: Candidates For PEACE!!

One of the most vexing questions on the American political landscape, now and as far back as I can remember, is: "Can we ever hope to change the system from within?"

Some people believe it is possible to do so while others do not; I encourage open discussion and I'm not about to discourage any legitimate point of view.

Personally, I would love to see it happen although I do not know whether it's possible. On the other hand, just like anything else, it's definitely not possible unless somebody tries to do it -- not that it hasn't been tried, if you get my drift.

For this reason I have supported some apparently hopeless causes, such as the presidential aspirations of Mike Gravel. I never believed he could be president, or even the donkey candidate for president, but I appreciated his voice and much of what he was saying.

At this point it doesn't look like Gravel's going to be the donkey nominee, and the way in which he has been closed out of the national discussion has been most instructive; but that hasn't stopped some other people -- such as Maine's Laurie Dobson -- from trying to bring the same issues to the national scene in the old-fashioned way: by standing up to be seen, speaking up to be heard, asking fellow citizens for their votes, and hoping that those votes would be correctly counted.

It's quite a stretch for some, but not so for others; and it's definitely worth doing, in my opinion, even if only to enhance the debate.

Who's game?

How would you like a nine-month job for $160,000 a year?

No experience required, and no prerequisites! Do you think you can handle it?

If you're semi-literate or better; if you're able to speak whole sentences (or at least convincing fragments) when cameras and microphones are around; if you look half-decent in a suit (or a dress*); if you're willing to say "NO" every time the warmongers want more money: you're one of the people I'm talking to.

We want you in Congress! (* dresses for women and Rudy Giuliani impersonators only, please!)

If you're brave enough to stand up and be seen, speak up and be heard, run for office and be counted, then Peace Candidates dot Com will support you.

And if you're willing to support your fellow citizens who are brave enough to stand up, speak up, and run for office in the cause of peace, then you should visit, join and/or support Peace Candidates dot Com.

I have started a blog there which I hope will help the effort eventually; I wish the Peace Candidates all the best and I hope to be able to spend more time there in the future.

I've been otherwise detained; I'll get back there soon. But you can go there now!

Damned: The Bloody Lies That Condemn Us All

The Center for Public Integrity has compiled an infinitely searchable catalog of the 935 lies told by the president and seven other top administration officials in order to instigate war between the United States and Iraq.

These deliberate (and in most cases, scripted) lies were told over a two-year period and were built on two basic fictional building blocks: [1] that Iraq threatened us with weapons of mass destruction, and [2] that Iraq supported al Qaeda and therefore bore responsibility for the attacks of September 11, 2001.

In the intelligence community, and in the well-informed segment of the general populace, both claims were widely known to be false, yet they were used and re-used and denied and debunked and embroidered and pasted together and used and re-used again, until the Mission was Accomplished and the United States was involved in a foreign war it couldn't get out of.

The eight administration officials indicted by this compilation are: the twice unelected President George W. Bush, the twice unelected Vice President Dick Cheney, current Secretary of State and former National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, and former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.

The deliberately deceitful actions of these eight people (and the many others who followed their lead) have resulted directly and immediately in the unwarranted deaths of at least a million people, and the unnecessary destruction of the lives of millions more. And it will kill and ruin many more, no matter how or when it ends.

By any civilized standard, all eight officials listed above are obviously guilty of mass murder, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

By any civilized standard, all eight should be arrested immediately and given speedy trials, which if fair would surely result in their convictions and public executions.

People of goodwill everywhere could only hope for the executions to be as slow and as painful as possible -- and seen and understood by billions.

But we all know that will never happen. We all know nothing even remotely like that will ever happen. And by failing to make that happen -- by failing to stop everything for as long as necessary in order to force that to happen -- We The People of the United States hereby forfeit any claim to being a civilized nation.

The lies in the database condemn the eight individuals listed above, and all their sycophants. But the failure to oppose them in any meaningful way condemns the rest of us.

We could stand shoulder-to-shoulder by the millions and shut down every big city. We could sit bumper-to-bumper in far smaller numbers and shut down the whole country.

We could. But we won't. And why not? Because we don't know enough? Or because we don't care enough?

It seems to me we know more than we ever did, so we must care less than ever. And the current political races seem to bear me out.

In the Democratic party there is one presidential candidate who would stop the war in Iraq immediately and whose platform is based on letting the people make the laws of the land. And he can't get into a debate and he can't get on TV and he can't raise any money and he can't get his poll numbers above 1%.

And that's in the so-called opposition party! Damn!