You heard about it here first (unless you watched Wolf Blitzer's show on Sunday)
Completely ignored by the national news media among the 2008 Presidential campaigns has been that of former Senator Mike Gravel. The Alaska Democrat is still most famous for having officially released the top-secret Pentagon Papers in 1971, reading approximately 4,100 of its 7,000 pages into the Congressional record during a one-man filibuster against renewing the draft, and promptly being sued by President Nixon in the aftermath of his action. Gravel has been campaigning full-time in New Hampshire since announcing his White House bid last April.Gravel's campaign received a nice mention from Ralph Nader on CNN over the weekend, following a rousing speech by the candidate to the Democratic National Convention, in which he outlined his support for the National Initiative for Democracy, a proposal to amend the Constitution to allow for national ballot initiatives.
The Senator's campaign is not well-funded or publicized, of course, because of his sharp opposition to the legalized corporate bribery of our electoral system, and the lockstep media's equation of campaign war chests with voter appeal. Gravel may ultimately be excluded even from the eventual televised campaign debates, thanks to a crowded field and a system in which Dennis Kucinich, a six-term Congressman representing one of America's largest cities and one of its most populous and moderate states, is viewed as a radical extremist.
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What a nice moment for African-Americans with both black head coaches equating themselves so well during the Super Bowl buildup and action this year. Thank goodness we still have the Queers and religious minorities to laugh at and exclude during the Sunday of one of more popular unofficial national holidays. I counted three TV ads in which effeminate men were the butt of tired gags, and then the winning coach used the winner's podium and microphone to congratulate the winning Christians in both locker rooms. Coach Dungy will next be headlining an event in March for the Indiana Family Institute, an off-shoot of Focus on the Family, which opposes gay adoption and marriage rights.
For the record, Bears head coach-- and former St. Louis Rams defensive coordinator, I'm proud to say, Lovie Smith told reporters this week that his team would not oppose a gay teammate, "We don't get into people's personal lives that way. We judge players based on one thing: Can they play football? If you can play football, you can get into the locker room."
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There was only one great Super Bowl ad (one more than usual), and it was technically a network promo: Letterman on the couch with Oprah.
posted by CM @ 3:08 PM
3 Comments:
How about that Prince? For me, the halftime show was the highlight. I noticed the NY Times called it "one of the best halftime shows ever". In his usual medley fashion, we got a couple Prince classics, then some Creedence via Ike and Tina Turner, some Bob Dylan via Hendrix, and even a Foo Fighters cover, before delivering "Purple Rain" in a driving rain storm - utterly inspired, brilliant and enigmatic.
I've seen Prince in concert 3 times and for years he's been the only living artist that's kept me from referring to Bruce Springsteen as a peerless live pop music performer.
I saw him one of those times, too. He's the only guy other than Hugh Hefner who can wear pajamas in public.
I liked the careerbuilder.com add and the workers battling in the jungle with office supplies.
I heard Prince is a Jehovah’s Witness and a Vegan. Go figure.
TA
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