GRAVEL TRAITOR / RON PAUL MOLE - MODS READ NOW!

Jennie is still a staunch Gravel supporter. She meant that she would hate to take her "i support mike gravel" name down but that she thinks Mike may have to drop out due to $. I have suggested that she consider how it looks when she says something like that but it's not like she's revealing some sort of top secret info. Oh no, the Gravel campaign only has $5 million left he might have to drop out:) We're broke and we've always been broke. Thankfully Gravel knows how to keep running on empty. Crystal made some valid points and announced that she was now supporting Ron Paul because she believes that he has a chance at winning. She got a lot of hate mail for it. Jennie was being supportive of her decision to back another candidate and affirming her friendship with her. I also sent Crystal a letter of support; does this make me a Ron Paul mole??? This type of trivial interfighting and drama is not going to get any of us anywhere at all. I am sure that Crystal, if not alienated by Gravel supporters, will continue to support the National Initiative after the election is over. I'm sure that Jennie will do a much better job promoting Gravel if she doesn't feel like people are attacking her or she has made some huge mistake. Attacking people is not going to gain us any ground or get us any closer to the White House or to enacting the National Initiative. Be nice to everyone, even Ron Paul, heck extra nice to Ron Paul Supporters. Instead of calling them stupid, give them praise for being smart enough not to be fooled by the front runners. Find out if they consider themselves progressive, then point out Gravel's progressive stances. Tell them about the National Iniaitive and get them to go vote for it! DO NOT flame or argue with them, it makes us all look bad when someone goes to see a video and reads those argumentative comments. Reach out and see if you can make a friend rather than an argument. After this election the National Iniative could use every single one of those people's support! Rather than argue with people who know who Gravel is and have made up their minds you could be spending your energy finding new people to tell about him. Rather than fighting with one another or getting involved in drama you could be thinking of new ways to get the word out. Don't fight, UNITE!

 Well... party purges are silly. Surely Ms Bledsoe ought to have the decency to resign any "official" positions she has with The Campaign, but the campaign ought still to love and welcome all the people.

And look, there are issues at stake, and the issues are life and death.

Number One in my estimation, and in Mike's estimation if the post under his name on this site is after all to be believed, is end The War. The war in Iraq, the war in Palestine, the war in Iran, the war in Afghanistan... The War.

Number Two in my estimation, and in Mike's if that same post is to be believed, is the National Initiative.

As president Mike, or Ron Paul, could accomplish Number One. As president Mike would have The Bully Pulpit from which to accomplish Number Two.

But I and Mike and all of us will work for Number One and for Number Two regardless the results of primaries, independent runs, or general elections.

Ron Paul does not seem able to capture the Republican Nomination. Mike does not seem able to capture the Democratic Nomination. I'll still vote for Mike in the TX primary and, I hope, in the general. That does not preclude me from speaking favorably of Ron Paul as a Republican nominee. And I do so. There are three real candidates in the contest : Gravel, Kucinich, and Paul. Center, Left, and Right. There is an alternative available for any and everyone. Americans just don't seem to be looking very hard for an alternative.

The only one of those in the running I would rather see as president than Ron Paul is Mike Gravel. Mike Gravel is, like the baby bear, "just right". Not in every one of his proposals but "it is enough for me that Maurice Gravel is at the head of a great movement, and is in living and earnest sympathy with that movement, which, in the nature of things, must go on until the right of the people to govern themselves should be utterly and forever established in the United States.”, to paraphrase what Frederick Douglas said of Abraham Lincoln.

It is not irrational to support Ron Paul. Stan Goff recommended registering Republican and voting for him in the primaries and presumably the general as the most effective anti-war candidate.

At this point I am contemplating what I have know to be true for a long time : one campaign does not make a spring.

Although I personally find The War, whenever the war mongers and criminals manage to fire it up again, to be the most pressing and despicable failing of my country, my countrymen and countrywomen do not share that feeling. In fact they are quite content for The War to continue, in "East Asia", for they feel in their guts that their personal prosperity, however meager it may be, is tied to the continued dominance of the military industrial complex in the US of A. So they are willing to accept the human sacrifice which that false god demands. As long as its someone else's sacrifice. Preferrably a non-American's but unfortunately some other, "unfortunate" Americans "must" lose their lives as well. As long as its not me.

Long term the battle is to get all of us to accept responsiblity for our government's actions and to make them conform to the dictates of our consciences. Mike has been in that fight longer, and more steadfastly, than I have. I am honored to be able to say that I want to stand with him. But I want to stop The War. I want the National Initiative. Like Mike, I'm sure, I want to be ends-driven, not means-driven. I try to keep my eyes on the prize.

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Times have changed. We are going to empower the American people. Let’s work together. I am tough. I’m not afraid. None of this politics as usual. Mike Gravel