Campbell

Scott Campbell doesn't let an Arctic hurricane stand between him and the crab!

In 2001, two Seattle alt-weekly writers teamed up to run a city council race that sought to challenge the local political structure and empower ordinary citizens. The duo -- campaign manager Phil Campbell, a recently fired political reporter at Seattle's The Stranger, and upstart candidate Grant Cogswell, a music reviewer for the paper -- had the whole deck stacked against them. They were outspent, a municipal law prevented them from criticizing their opponent in a voters' guide, and they had no institutional backing. Despite all this, they mounted a clear challenge to an incumbent council member -- and, in the end, lost 45 to 55 percent.Their story is told in the new movie 'Grassroots,' which is based on Campbell's 2005 book, 'Zioncheck for President: A True Story of Idealism and Madness in American Politics.' The movie is directed by Stephen Gyllenhall and stars Jason Biggs as Campbell, Joel David Moore as Cogswell, and Cedric the Entertainer as incumbent Richard McIver. It's a story, according to the film's website, about how 'one person really can make a difference, and that standing up for what you believe in is a victory in itself.' Or as Campbell (who now works for AOL, The Huffington Post's parent company) told HuffPost, the movie and the real events behind it show 'the necessity of grassroots in everybody's life.''If you are informed and you are passionate and you have your antenna up to what is going on in the world, you are qualified to run for public office,' Cogswell said.Before entering the city council race, Cogswell had been engaged in Seattle politics for nearly a decade, most notably as the co-author of a successful referendum that created an agency to build a citywide monorail system in 1997. He had also been active in the World Trade Organization protests. By 2001, he concluded that the only way to really change things was to enter the halls of government himself

In 1970, John Wayne earned an Academy Award for his larger-than-life performance as the drunken, uncouth and totally fearless one-eyed U.S. Marshall, Rooster Cogburn. The cantankerous Rooster is hired by a headstrong young girl (Kim Darby) to find the man who murdered her father and fled with the family savings. When Cogburn's employer insists on accompanying the old gunfighter, sparks fly. And the situation goes from troubled to disastrous when the inexperienced Texas Ranger (Glen Campbell) joins the party. Laughter and tears punctuate the wild action in this extraordinary Western which features performances by Robert Duvall and Strother Martin.