Mike Gravel, former senator from Alaska, will be the first Democrat to formally declare candidacy for President 2008

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

NEW YORK -- Mike Gravel, a former U.S. senator from Alaska, will next week become the first Democrat to formally declare his candidacy for president.

[...]

Gravel served in the Senate from 1969 to 1981, during the turbulent last years of the Vietnam War and the Watergate scandal. He is hoping voters respond to his anti-war stance, drawing on the parellels being made between Vientam and Iraq.

Gravel is perhaps best known for staging a one-man filibuster leading to the end of the military draft as well as for reading the Pentagon Papers into the record at a hastily arranged Senate committee hearing at the end of June 1971. A day after he did so the U.S. Supreme Court lifted the Justice Department’s prior restraint on the publication of the papers in the press.

[...]

Gravel advocates a constitutional amendment and federal statue establishing legislative procedures for citizens to make laws through ballot initiatives on most national and local issues.

“The American people are frustrated with the level of dysfunction of government,” Gravel said. “And if you ask the American people, they want to be empowered. But people are giving their power away on Election Day to politicians.”

He supports the Fair Tax, which would eliminate the IRS and all corporate and individual income taxes, replacing them with a 23% national sales tax on new goods and services.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash6.htm

[almaty 19]

i like him already...power to the people

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

i like him already...power to the people

I don't know... can you imagine havign to pay 23% sales tax on a new house?

[mercuryroad 0]

i like him already...power to the people

I wouldn't mind seeing Feingold give it a go.

[Jenn! 918]

i like him already...power to the people

I don't know... can you imagine havign to pay 23% sales tax on a new house?

Definitely beats income tax!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

i like him already...power to the people

I wouldn't mind seeing Feingold give it a go.

The best he can do is be Hillary's Veep candidate. The race, really, is for Hillary's Veep position.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

i like him already...power to the people

I wouldn't mind seeing Feingold give it a go.

The best he can do is be Hillary's Veep candidate. The race, really, is for Hillary's Veep position.

I really hope she doesn't win. Hillary is not the solution to our current problems...

[Jasman0717 9]

Its like Christmas ads, they are starting earlier and earlier!

[I'm Gone 60]

Just what we need some artifact from the Vietnam era.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

i like him already...power to the people

I don't know... can you imagine havign to pay 23% sales tax on a new house?

If I don't have to pay any income or any other tax, seems fair and like a good deal to me.

He ain't got a chance, though. I read the papers and I have not ever heard of this dude before.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Whatever candidate we see up for election you can bet your aunt fanny that they'll be neck deep in corporate special interests.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

i like him already...power to the people

I don't know... can you imagine havign to pay 23% sales tax on a new house?

If I don't have to pay any income or any other tax, seems fair and like a good deal to me.

He ain't got a chance, though. I read the papers and I have not ever heard of this dude before.

How many people had heard of Dean before he announced in 04?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

i like him already...power to the people

I don't know... can you imagine havign to pay 23% sales tax on a new house?

If I don't have to pay any income or any other tax, seems fair and like a good deal to me.

He ain't got a chance, though. I read the papers and I have not ever heard of this dude before.

How many people had heard of Dean before he announced in 04?

Dean? Did he actually get to run where it counted?

Whatever candidate we see up for election you can bet your aunt fanny that they'll be neck deep in corporate special interests.

True that, dude. True that.

[I'm Gone 60]

I would like to see our governor here in Maryland run. He is fiscally conservative and somewhat in the middle on other stuff. For a Republican to be elected here in the Peoples Republic of Maryland I think he has a good shot at going national.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

True that, dude. True that.

So realistically speaking whomever gets in will make little or no difference - its the system itself that needs to be changed!

Interestingly noone seems interested in what's going on in Europe right now. The last gasp of the thoroughly corrupt Silvio Berlusconi (assuming he doesn't do a Bush/Gore2000, which he seems to be trying to engineer!). After Tony Blair Berlusconi Bush's last ally in Europe. If he get's the boot it could signal some pretty big changes in European politics - an EU that isn't in Bush's pocket.