Quick thoughts......

Quick point: in a week of the MSM pointing out how crappy and unprofessional the blogosphere is…..and Keith Olberman and others going on about how Dick Cheney and Karl Rove conspired to politically fuck over the Klamath salmon run for Republican reasons, and cripple the fishing and restaurants for a thousand miles in all directions…..I reported that more than a year ago. Luckily, no one reads this blog.

In the midst of the Wedding Season, and in the midst of our famous Johnny Depp/Jack Kerouac film shoot……I got word that Mike Gravel was going to be in town.

Mike Gravel is running for President. Of the United States. Of America. Most folks have not heard of him….mostly because he has been pre-marginalized by the MSM……the mainstream media. At the Democratic debates he is chained to a podium way off on the right side of the stage. He is given odd, trivial questions, and not many of them, and given little time to answer, and is interrupted when he does try to answer. Wolf Blitzer barely condescends to notice him.

I noticed Mike Gravel. Years ago.

I am an old person….so I remember stuff from back in the day. A million years ago, I was a young, radical chef with bizarre, revolutionary ideas….living in a country with a runaway, narcissistic/delusional President, and a corrupt and over-reaching Justice Department that threatened our very basic Constitutional freedoms. The country was engaged in an awful, unwinnable war that was killing hundreds of my friends each month in a faraway place for no reason than the above mentioned narcissistic complex….and some corporate financial concerns.

Hard to imagine, I know…..but try to fantasize with me for a moment.

At a certain point, a courageous man got inside documents that laid out a long-term, illegal misinformation campaign by the government to foster and support the bad war. The Narcissist in Chief and his corrupt Justice Department tried to stop the publishing and dissemination of the material and came down hard on all the traditional publishers and news organizations.

A guy from Alaska….a Senator….. stood up, and cut the Administration off at the knees by reading into the Congressional Record every word of the material: The Pentagon Papers. Once in the Record, it was a publicly available resource, and Narcissist in Chief Richard Nixon could do nothing about it.

Little known fact…..on top of the immense political, legal and economic pressure on the Alaskan was another: he was dyslexic. His personal filibuster was preceded and accompanied by grueling hours with his staff, working out the logistics and details of a non-reader reading thousands of pages of words, all by himself.

Not long after, the same Alaskan, pretty much on his own…..took another step and ended the draft that had made the war possible.

That guy was Mike Gravel. I had to meet him.

The advance for Sen. Gravel was a line in the Herald with a phone number, and a few minutes on KRXA, our local communist radio station. I called the number, and spoke to a nice older lady with a gorgeous Southern accent.

No….she had no idea how many were coming. No…..she had decided not to charge a specific sum of money to attend….leave it to the people. No…..there was no food. She assumed people would bring things. No….there was no bar or wine…..people would probably bring things, don’t you think?

I fell in love with this wack job. We decided to cover her butt and bring wine, glasses, and at least some good smoked salmon. I wangled the last legal side of local wild fish from by brothas….and smoked it that morning for Big Mike.

Of course, we had other jobs. Fuck ‘em. I snuck out. At the party I was supposed to be working was Ed Leeper…a notorious artist and activist, and my unidicted co-conspirator in the Memorial Day Cross Episode. I kidnapped Ed, and we booked it for Monterey. “Ed, they will never miss us…”

Upon arrival:

Fucking Democrats. They were fully prepared to drink box wine out of styrene while listening to an arch-environmentalist. We brought organic wine and real glasses. People, we have to elevate the Public Discourse! If you are saving The Republic, you have to drink from a goddam glass.

Fucking Democrats. They had a little basket for “Donations”. Because each individual Democrat is on the Side of The Angels…they individually don’t have to give a nickel. Their presence alone is proof positive of their political purity.

Screw that. The Big Guy was giving us seven hours of his time (2.5 hrs each way from SF, two hours on site….and only smoked salmon to show for it. Not to mention the rent-a-car, gas, etc.) Baby needs new shoes, dammit! I picked up the basket, tossed in a Franklin, and brutalized each guest for cash.

“No, ma’am. Dead Presidents are OK….but we are looking for Dead Progressives. See that Franklin in there? It takes five Dead Presidents to equal one Dead Progressive if you are talking Jackson…..and don’t talk to me about Kennedy…..”

I think I got a couple grand out of the crew. My friend Vinz….the last decent Democrat on Earth….pointed out that there should be some kind of forms to make the checks legal. Sen. Gravel’s advance team should have them…..

Mike Gravel has no advance team. He has himself, his wife, and a press guy. Vinz went upstairs and ran off some forms on Microsoft Word, just to try to keep everyone out of jail with Scooter.

Last reporting period….when John Edwards came in a disappointing third with only $15 million…..Mike Gravel also took in 15……thousand dollars. He was overdrawn $900 on his personal account.

Because he has a message. Get the citizens back in the chase. End the war. Get health care for everyone. Restore the moral high ground.

Mike had just come down from San Francisco….the first Presidential Candidate to ever ride in the Gay Pride Parade. Any Gay Pride Parade, actually.

One of my victims in my shakedown was a college student: “Dude, I am a college student….I don’t have any money.”

“I don’t give a shit. You have the most to lose here. Give me your dough!”

He opened his wallet. “Dude, I have a dollar bill and a condom. Which do you want?”

“Gimme the buck. That condom may come in handy at an Obama event.”

I took my stash over to the Senator, and gave him my report. “Sir, I am the token Republican here, so I am doing the collecting. Most of these pricks gave a little, but that college kid there gave everything he had. It was either his last dollar….or his last condom. I took the dollar.”

Mike Gravel gave me a big grin, reached into his pocket and pulled out a Gay Pride Condom.

“They were handing these out at the Parade. I can’t think of a better guy to have it. Give this to the kid, with my compliments and my best wishes!”

Think about it. Which candidate can you think of that could pull off a casual, normal, mildly humorous move like this? Hillary is not coming to the Gay Pride Parade, and she is not pocketing condoms….much less handing them back out to college kids. Or anyone else, except maybe Dennis Kucinich. Picture the outcry.

What have we come to? I want a President like this guy. Smart, gutsy, ironic, informed, passionate. And, utterly fearless.

Mike Gravel is a veteran politician with a simple message. He has the courage of his convictions beyond all reason, and he has a proven track record of the results of standing up for his convictions….and we are all the better for them. No waffling. No focus groups. No handlers.

This is a guy who may have no chance in the election, but whose voice needs to be heard. His mere presence on the stage at the “debates” shows them to be the sham that they are. He and Kucinich and Edwards are the few saying, absolutely….End the Fucking War. Now.

Mike Gravel is right now about $200 from making the cut for Federal Matching Funds to stay in the race in Massachusetts. Chump change.

Don’t believe me….Go to the website. www.gravel2008.org Check out his story. If you know anyone in the crucial states….especially Massachusetts….think about including them in this dialogue.

If you think some other guy is hot shit.....picture them handing a college kid a condom they got at the Gay Pride Parade.

Enough said.