Wednesday, May 07, 2008 

Crank that Mike Gravel

A lot of stuff happened night, some of which was important, but all of which pales in comparison to this:



Discuss.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 6:14 PM | | 0 Comments

Saturday, April 26, 2008 

Story time with Mike Gravel

George got the Saturday Mike Gravel-blogging off and running with this quote, where Gravel earns special points for taking a shot at he-who-must-not-be-named. It reminded me of this excellent Politico article on how the Democrat-turned-Libertarian he is revolutionizing the production of utterly non-sensical campaign videos.

Unrelatedly, it led to a youtube search for "Mike Gravel," which is always rewarding. I recommend this video, which poses an interesting question: How do you segue a television program from Barbara Streisand to Mike Gravel? (Answer: poorly).



Note that he reveals early on that he was a former spy! And also, if you've never had the pleasure, watch the young Alaska Senator read the Pentagon Papers into the public record. This was like Robert Byrd singlehandedly fillibustering the Kansas-Nebraska act, except the exact opposite. If you put those tears (five minute mark) in a bottle, they would shine like the light of Elendil.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 2:27 PM | | 1 Comments

Thursday, April 24, 2008 

SG elections: The exit polls

The [probably rigged] online voting doesn't end for another 50 minutes or so, but we're already hearing some interesting reports from our sources in the field: In the end, we think it'll come down to whoever can carry the youth vote, which makes up roughly 99-percent of eligible voters (excepting, of course, Brad Sugarman).

Anyway, with zero-percent of precincts reporting, we're projecting Mike Gravel to be the Student Government president. It's compulsory to mention that exit polls are incredibly unreliable, but I'm pretty certain about this one. Anyway, full team coverage on this in tomorrow's Maroon. And, yes, that was all just an excuse to post this work of art:



Everyone knows that George Washington crossed the Delaware to defeat the Germans, but what most people don't know is that two days earlier, Mike Gravel attempted the exact same surprise attack. His boat capsized, killing everyone inside, with the exception of Gravel, who swam to safety and lived for days on little more than wild berries and whatever rodents he could find. To this day, he is repulsed by the sight of running water and as a result he's an adamant proponent of hydroelectric dams. THE END.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 4:02 PM | | 2 Comments

Tuesday, February 26, 2008 

Send in your resumes, ASAP!

Treasure Island is not the only place hiring in Chicago. According to his website, Mike Gravel currently has no state director for Illinois.

This is not all that surprising as Gravel wasn't even on the ballot here, but surely the Senator must have his eye on the general election.

Anyway, I'd like to encourage both of our readers to apply. Please send a cover letter, resume, and small campaign contribution ($5 is probably fine) to:

Alex Colvin
Press Secretary
P.O. Box 948
Arlington, VA 22216-0948
alex@gravel2008.us

Just imagine how great this will look on your resume!

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 8:13 PM | | 1 Comments

 

Welcome to the "Rock"

This is two weeks old, but with the telegraph wires down, news has been trickling in slowly from the California territory. That, and I don't subscribe to Google alerts about Mike Gravel.

I did, however, just make my monthly trek over to Gravel2008.us and what I found (aside from the fact that he is now on the ballot in 20 states!!!11!) made me fall out of my chair. Apparently, in addition to visiting dorm rooms and art galleries, he's now going to major universities to lecture political science classes. He spoke to a packed audience at UC–Berkeley, where he made this stunning revelation. From his site:

After gaining just 0.1 percent of California's Democratic vote on Tuesday, Gravel said that he will be remaining in the race until the end.

"I have no desire to live in the White House," he told the students. "However, I do have a desire to turn around and change your lives politically."

WHAATT!??? Come on, Mike! Don't give up the fight just yet.

That even the candidate no longer takes his campaign seriously is a bit of a letdown, but it's certainly a positive that he's begun reaching out to college students. Therefore, I'd like to extend an open invitation, on behalf of the Chicago Maroon Viewpoints blog, to Mike Gravel to address the University of Chicago. We just had Bill Gates last week, but I think we can do one better.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 2:56 PM | | 0 Comments

Tuesday, February 12, 2008 

Mike Gravel: the sustenance of life

We at the Editors Blog are big Mike Gravel fans. We've linked to his video "Rock" before, but I just discovered his follow-up feature, appropriately named "Fire." Personally, I would have preferred a rock-paper-scissors triumverate.

Anyways, here it is:



And here's a video of him explaining what the heck he was doing. Note that "Rock" apparently took two days to film. Two days! That's enough time to build three Romes. Geez. Key quote:

"The branches I have under my arm are what a person acquires in the way of wisdom. And then he reaches down, and acquires a little more experience, a little more wisdom. Reaches down, picks up a little more wisdom. And then he goes out and starts a fire. What does a fire represent? A fire represents light, heat, warmth; it's the sustenance of life. So what they have is a metaphor of what I represent in their eyes."

Whoa. By the way, Mike Gravel videos are a great way to kill 5–6 hours. Here's him debating a major policy initiative from some kid's dorm room. And of course, this.

UPDATE: It was pointed out that "Rock" required three takes, not three days. The filming did take two days, though.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 5:35 PM | | 2 Comments

Monday, January 07, 2008 

2 days in NH, part 5: The locals

Just as fascinating as the rallies and stump speeches and meet-and-greets that pepper southern New Hampshire in the months leading up to the crucial January 8 vote is what goes on outside the control of the various campaigns.

For example, we stop at a Mobile On the Run just outside of Henniker, about an hour before the 4:00 P.M. Huckabee rally Friday, where the bubbly lady behind the counter gushes that “Mike Huckleberry is speaking just down the road!” Our minute-long transaction ends with the following established as near certainty: Huckleberry is such a nice name. So is Huckabee. Chuck Norris makes us safer.

Speaking of Norris, his presence in Henniker created a stir among the 10–14 year old male demographic, but after hearing him speak, I can’t help but think that the Norris craze--both politically and socially--has run its course. People over the age of 30 just don’t care about Chuck, and people under the age of 30 who can vote stopped caring about Chuck months ago. If they do happen to enjoy his martial arts skills, it’s not likely to influence their voting or even draw them out to a rally. His speech wasn’t particularly good, he has little credibility as an endorser, and everywhere he goes he’s followed by gangs of annoying young children. At some point, Huckabee will have to jettison his free publicity and go with someone who can actually help him win votes (Romney has the state’ senior senator, Judd Gregg, and the head of Staples Co., and Hillary has Bill, for example).

There are a disproportionate number of Ron Paul signs along the roads, and almost none for Rudy Giuliani. After spending tons of money and time in the Granite State, he has almost nothing to show for it. The same cannot be said for Fred Thompson, if only because he spent almost no money and almost no time in New Hampshire to begin with, so there was really nowhere to go but nowhere. Over two days we see a grand total of six Mike Gravel signs, which is actually kind of impressive considering the only notable thing he’s done this election is get kicked out of the debates and make this video.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 5:24 PM | | 1 Comments

Monday, December 10, 2007 

Two ships passing in the night


Mike Gravel's latest campaign video is up on youtube, and this time he has outdone even himself. As the old saying goes, the only thing better than one Mike Gravel is two Mike Gravels. Either they cloned him or an overzealous aide thought it would be a good idea to use a split screen, but the end result is eerily reminiscent of the scene in Lord of the Rings where Gollum gets in an argument with himself over whether or not he should kill the tricksy little Hobbitses.

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Posted by Tim Murphy at 12:24 PM | | 1 Comments

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  • George L. Anesi is a medical student and bioethics graduate student at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH. He graduated from the University of Chicago in 2006 with a B.S. in biological chemistry and a B.A. in chemistry. He is currently the Medicine and Bioethics Columnist for The Observer at Case Western. At the University of Chicago, George served as Editor in Chief of the Chicago Maroon and Acting President of Chicago Friends of Israel. Before beginning medical school, George served as an Analyst in Middle Eastern and International Affairs for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Contacct George at at george.anesi@case.edu.
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