Speaking Truth to Power - Senator Mike Gravel
Democratic candidates for President made their introductory speeches to the Democratic National Committee on Friday and Saturday. When it comes to truth, former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel broke the mold Saturday morning. For the first time in my life, I saw a candidate challenge the political tradition of dancing around issues and instead speak the truth to power. I expected this because I have been following the work of Mike Gravel for years, but from reactions in the audience others did not. Although Gravel did not mention 9/11, he said some mighty powerful statements including:
"The Democrats controlled the Senate on October 11, 2002 and provided political cover for George Bush to invade Iraq. The Senate leadership could have refused to even take up the resolution, or a few Senators who opposed it could have mounted a filibuster.
"Given the extreme importance of any decision to go to war, and I am anguished to say this, it’s my opinion that anyone who voted for the war on October 11––based on what President Bush represented––is not qualified to hold the office of President.
"Politics as Usual is not acceptable for the presidency.
"I feel I am entitled to raise this issue because when I served in the Senate, during the Vietnam War, I spoke truth to power.
"I officially released the Pentagon Papers, and as a result, Richard Nixon sued me all the way to the Supreme Court.
"Our nation is in crisis. This crisis is greater than most people realize, and in some ways more significant than terrorism and the Iraq war.
"Fear has allowed our political leaders to spend more on military armaments than is spent collectively by all the other nations in the world.
"Who are we afraid of? Are we that paranoid?"
The text of Gravil's speech is listed here. As you can see, he has much more to say. I intend to email him on the 9/11 investigation issue. I'd like others to join me. I have previously written about Mike Gravel's National Initiative for Democracy to empower us (the people) to act where Congress is failing.
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Rearranging the House.
I agree. We should work on throwing out this group of impotent leaders and getting people like Webb, Tester, Obama, and other strong men and women elected to represent us.
These current guys can't get The War on Iraq straight. They can't get our Election System straight. They won't hardly speak out about anything of importance. We need a revolution of change at the local level all the way up to the top, and that is why I support Howard Dean's strategy to get more people involved in running for office at all levels. My hope still lies with him and his vision of a new and revitalized Democratic Party. Then I'll work to get more candidates on the ballot by instituting a form of voting like Instant Runoff Voting or IRV. I mean you know you are impotent as a party if you can't even get legislation to include Paper Trails or Random Audits on our most cherished form of liberty. Voting. Geez, we need help!
Gravel
Gravel's a good man. They don't make em (politicos) like that anymore, to our great misfortune.
Let us know what he says about 9/11.
Wayne Madsen supports this guy....
....see recent posts at the waynemadsenreport.com......
Paul, Kucinich, Gravel....after the Dodd confrontation in Vermont, I sense some possible testing of the waters with these potentially 9/11 Truth-friendly candidates .... we need to encourage all tentative steps taken toward answering the questions we all have...