Take him out, Jesse

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cyiD6rjX7Q&NR=1

I know this is old news but I think I want to start the vkfletch chapter of the Jesse Ventura fan club. If he runs for President, then I'm in.

Ventura takes on Fox news and a Brian whatshisface.

I'm having problems with the embed so all you get is the link.

For being such a big and bad country, somehow we let the bed wetters get in charge.

At the end of the interview, when the former Governor goes into the 9/11 thing, I couldn't quite follow him, but whether I agree with him or not on his conclusions, I empathicaly agree that the right to ask questions should not ever be abridged/squelched/or given away.

There is no meeting in the middle when the middle is advocating a position that is the moral equivalent of a three year olds perspective.

The woman in blue on torturing terrorist, '....but if we don't torture them, how will we get the information?!!...'

oh my gosh, golly gee, what will we do?

Dear Miss News Anchor/Entertainer,

After we discuss how you don't pull wings off of bugs, or torment small animals, then we can discuss some basic human decency, and don't worry I will talk slow and go back over any of the parts you have difficulty with....

I feel sorry for her. This episode is now on file for perpetuity.

This last week I was at an old site of a WWII POW camp. It was still largely intact, and smaller than I expected. I had been exposed to a small piece of its history, when I did some volunteer work up at our local museum. Story went that because of our humane treatment of the POW's the enemy was quicker to surrender, and it saved lives all around. And of course, it kept us in the good guy category. Which may not be important to you, but it is important to me. Down the street from me lives a couple, both Japanese-Americans by descent, who were babies in the internment camps in WWII. They tell stories some times when we have neighborhood bonfires.

Our history lives on all around us.

That looking forward and not back policy of the current administration is bullshit. I still think our new President is very smart, but a number of really well pedigreed individuals in the last decade have done some pretty horrible things. I'm hoping the Mrs. is sticking some cold toes in the small of his back at around 3am in the morning and reminding him that he is still just a guy. Maybe a guy in super expensive suits, with a really cool house, but still just a guy in a world filled with other human beings who are worth just the same as him.

It will be very unfortunate if the first black president of the US of A, goes down in the history books tarred with the shame of policies like torture/preventative detention. Very unfortunate.

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This is embarrassing to admit, but I get a perverse sense of enjoyment out of conversations with people, especially young men or even other moms/dads, who are going on about 'supporting' the war and the troops, and the inference is that because I don't believe in this war that I'm not supporting my family or country. And I will ask them how old they are and then mention that I joined back up and how old I am, and then I really don't have to say much at all after that.

I know its wrong, and no, if that was the only reason I came back in, then I wouldn't have lasted this long. Its not that much fun.

But I'd be lying if I said I didn't do it.

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On the flip side of that is the sincere and heartfelt thank yous I get almost every time I head out for lunch in uniform. Mostly its the older generation, sometimes elderly women, sometimes older vets who will stop and share their stories and say thank you and wish me well. I shake their hand and thank them for the sentiment and tell them I appreciate it very much.

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I spend alot of time these days with soldiers, and mostly my contact with the peace movement is next to nil, with the exception of reading on the Internet. Every once in a while another soldier in my unit will ask me about the article I did with the paper a year or so ago, that told about my family and also about my opposition to the war, and they will always ask, 'but why...?"

Alot of the older soldiers I have talked to will sometimes talk about why they came back in, and I hear alot that they are there for the other soldiers, not any ideological reason. Sometimes I hear the younger soldiers teasing about them having a hard time, either physically or mentally. I don't tolerate much disrespect as a rule. Sometimes I want to remind them that they are gazing at their futures, so maybe they might not want to make so much fun of it.