Did you EVER think you'd agree with Jesse Ventura on anything?

[Ken Burch]

That's what it's come to this week. A retired pro wrestler has a better handle on Middle East policy than the Pentagon.

[niyad]

1. I think I did once--can't remember what about, but it shocked me at the time.

do you think all those blows to the head actually knocked some sense into him?

[Ken Burch]

2. Perhaps they did create a proper cranial alignment.

N/T.

[izquierdista]

12. In, out, back in, back out

His command of the issues is like a 5-year old's command of what is in the toy box.

[sakabatou]

3. I'd agree that he used to be a pro-wrestler

I don't know about anything else.

[Ken Burch]

4. I'm talking about his comments on Afghanistan this week.

n/t.

[sakabatou]

10. I know

but your thread title was this: "Did you EVER think you'd agree with Jesse Ventura on anything?"

[phleshdef]

5. Maybe because he is more than a retired pro-wrestler. He is also a retired navy seal.

[Ken Burch]

7. OK, that too.

n/t.

[cherokeeprogressive]

11. Retired Navy Seal? No he isn't.

James George Janos was in the Navy from 1969 to 1975. How do you retire after only six years in the Navy? Janos was a member of an Underwaterwater Demolition Team, or UDT. The Navy Seals and UDT's were merged in 1983, 8 years after his discharge.

He's a tool.

[phleshdef]

15. He SERVED in Nam and UDT was a precursor the the SEALs and its the same thing.

Its the same training, the only difference is the underwater demolition soldiers were commanded as a separate entity until 1983.


Nice attempt at swiftboating there though.

[cherokeeprogressive]

21. Mmmmkay. You go on believing whatever you want to believe. I believe Janos is a tool.

"After ex-Navy SEAL officer Bill Salisbury challenged Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's SEAL credentials in a December 2nd cover story in the San Diego Reader, available online at http://www.cursor.org/, the Governor's office confirmed that Ventura had been a member of an Underwater Demolition Team (UDT), and not an elite Navy SEAL. But, they argued that because the two entities merged under the SEAL banner in 1983, UDT's can now refer to themselves as SEALs, even though in Ventura's case, his active military service ended ten years before the merger occurred--not unlike a former American Football League player saying that he had played in the NFL because the two leagues are now merged into one. Another defense of the Governor was offered by spokesman John Wodele. In a December 14th interview with Minnesota Public Radio, Wodele assured listeners that Ventura never tries to mislead reporters or the public, and that he's careful to equivocate whenever referring to himself as a SEAL.

MPR: Ventura's spokesman, John Wodele, confirms Ventura was in the UDT's, and he says the Governor has never tried to convince people otherwise.

Wodele: If you travel with the governor and spend any amount of time with him, he is very forthcoming and accurate in terms of his relationship with the United States Navy. He talks about the fact that he was in the Underwater Demolition Team. In fact, he has corrected me in the past.

Cursor extensively researched what the Governor has said on the record about his Navy SEAL past, and found that Wodele may be the only person he has ever corrected. In print articles and broadcast appearances, Ventura lets interviewers refer to him as a Navy SEAL, or an ex-Navy SEAL--which they routinely do--without correcting them. He also consistently refers to himself as a SEAL, without explaining the distinctions between SEALs and UDTs. Nowhere in the complete text or transcipts of the following articles, interviews, or television and radio programs, are the words Underwater Demolition Team, or the acronym UDT, ever mentioned." (emphasis mine)

http://cursor.org/stories/how_candid.htm

Edited to Add:

Ventura claims to have "hunted man" in Vietnam. He was awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal but was not in combat and thus did not qualify for the Combat Action Ribbon. What "men" did he hunt? Yeomen? Disbursing Clerks? Cooks?

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[cherokeeprogressive]

27. I'm afraid I was too young to have served in Vietnam, you brave soul you.

I did serve ten years in Naval Aviation though, as an Airframer (AMS1 when I was discharged). I worked as a CDI (Collateral Duty Inspector) and was assigned to QA (Quality Assurance). I've spent time on the flight decks of the USS AMERICA, the USS Constellation, the USS Ranger, and the USS Saratoga.

I would have spent my 20+, but was discharged after suffering a knee injury in 1989 (on duty) that required reconstructive surgery.

Call me what you like; Ventura/Janos is still a tool.

[phleshdef]

29. uh huh

[cherokeeprogressive]

31. And what did YOU do in the war, daddy?

What, nothing to say? Don't believe me? Ain't that just the shits. Call me a coward for belittling a hero of yours and then find out I'm a Veteran? God, I hate when that happens, don't you? Oh wait, let me take that back. I'm not exactly sure what you must be feeling right now, as I'm not stupid enough to call someone I've never met a coward.

So, Brave Soul, what branch were YOU in?

[phleshdef]

33. Oh I said it, I don't believe you, I the "uh huh" implied my message loud and clear enough...

...but if you need further clarification, there it is. At this point though, I'm laughing at the big god damn man you are trying to paint yourself as and I feel sorry for you.

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. Oh, I was no big man. I was just a cog in a great big wheel. Proud of it to this day.

I joined the Navy in 1981, less than two years out of high school. Up until the day I joined, I was a painter at the South Gate General Motors plant. I made KILLER money. I could work as much overtime as I wanted. The day the plant closed, I stopped at the Navy recruiter's office in Whittier on my way home, and told the guy behind the desk to talk me into joining the Navy. He got this glazed look in his eyes, gave me a 100 question test that included at least 20 single place multiplication questions, then told me two things five minutes later. One, NO one had ever finished the test so fast, and two, NO one had ever aced it. I did both. I should have known then and there that I was being bullshitted, but I was mad about being laid off at General Motors, and that clouded my judgment.

Whether or not you believe me isn't important. I'm not trying to paint myself as anything other than who I am, and have been.

This guy, my recruiter, promised me ANY JOB I WANTED once I had taken my ASVAB test, and cut a 92. Then the paperwork started. After a while we got to the questions, and he asked me if I had ever tried any drugs. I laughed. He didn't. Then he asked me if I had ever been arrested. I laughed, he didn't. I had been arrested about four times for "failure to appear", which means I didn't show up for court dates that arose from traffic tickets. The tickets happened before I was 18, and I was scared shitless of my father, so I never told him I got stopped in the car he bought me because he needed to be in court with me since I was a minor. That led to my nearly not being able to join. I wound up in front of a Navy Captain in downtown Los Angeles, and he tore me a new asshole (WHILE I was still a civilian) and screamed that "failure to appear" was tantamount to "disobeying a lawful order" and that the Navy didn't need me. I got up to leave, disgusted, and before I got to the door, I heard "Hey Mr. XXXXXXX, maybe I was a little too hard on you. Come on back, son, and let's talk."

I joined the Navy as a "non-rate", which means I wasn't guaranteed an "A" school after boot camp.

Skip to 360 days after my first day in bootcamp, when I was five days away from an automatic advancement to E-3 (it takes a year). I was at "Captain's Quarters", which is pretty much like criminal court. My ship (The USS America) had just left Palma, Spain, on it's way back to Norfolk after a six month deployment. On our last night in Palma, I got caught coming back from liberty with a tiny little piece of hash in a cigarrette pack. I was an E-2, and my punishment was reduction in paygrade, and restriction to the ship for 45 days. 99.9% of the other sailors who got busted for anything similar got OTH (Other Than Honorable) discharges. I worked hard and had a good reputation, so I got a pass, if you can call it that. So, I got back to Norfolk as a BRAND NEW E-1, and didn't get off of the ship with my squadron (VS-32, "The Maulers" an S-3A squadron), and didn't get to go back to Cecil Field in Jacksonville, FL for 40 days after we tied up. I had to stay on the ship and muster five times a day when I should have been back in Jacksonville with my wife of just over a year. I lied to her about why I was on restriction, and didn't tell her the truth until a couple of years later when I was drunk and feeling guilty about keeping something from her.

After that, I never missed an advancement. Three years later I was advanced to E-4 (AMS3) in the first increment after competing in Navy-wide advancement testing. Between there and my next command (VA-128 "The Golden Intruders" an A-6E squadron based at NAS Whidbey Island in WA) I took the test for E-5 and advanced in the first increment. I left VS-32 as an E-4, and checked into VA-128 as an E-5 (AMS2). God damn, it was like being in a whole different world... E-5 is "someone" while E-4 ain't. Not only that, no one there had any clue about my getting busted for THC. Advancement to E-6 (AMS1) was a breeze.

My last command was VA-145, another A-6 Squadron. In Jan 89 we were getting ready to go on a WESTPAC/IO cruise and I worked in QA. I was out on the flight line watching three kids trying to change a tire on one of our birds. If you've never done it, it's a bitch to get the keys on the inside of the wheel lined up with the slots in the disk brakes, and if three people don't know how, it's a clusterfuck. I knew how. I lined up the slots, got a good one at straight up twelve o'clock, and rotated the wheel until the key was at twelve also. Now, if you're good, you can get the wheel up onto the axle by yourself with the right motion. I squatted in front of the wheel, rested my wrists on my knees, and used my wrists to hold the tire while I used my knees and thighs to lift it. I got it up onto the axle, and lost my balance. I wound up having to sit down with the wheel in my lap, and my knees turned to the side. I tore the ACL in my left knee in half, and didn't walk again until six weeks after I had ACL reconstruct surgery at Bremerton Naval Hospital. They actually brought an ambulance out onto the flight line to get me when I got hurt. The bitch of the whole deal was that as a QA representative, I was NOT SUPPOSED to touch tools, parts, or involve myself in any kind of maintenance whatsoever. My job by that time was to sign for "safety of flight". I signed off on the work, I didn't do it. My bad for trying to teach three kids who didn't know how.

After my surgery and rehab, I was all prepared to join my squadron on the USS Ranger (they had already deployed) and was told that by virtue of having had the reconstructive surgery, I was no longer "fit for duty". My life was shit after that for a good while, and I actually attempted suicide.

Now, my friend, you can continue to call me a liar, and it matters not a whit. Your opinion of me, good or bad, doesn't pay my bills or put food on my table. I've come back, in a big way, and am now semi-retired and living in a resort community in the mountains of Southern California. In fact, I just got married last month, for the last time, and am so laid back and happy that you could probably kick me in the shin and walk away unharmed.

Don't call me a coward though. That's cowardly in itself. It doesn't make you look like a big person. It might if you called me that to my face, and got away with it, but that's not the situation we're in at the moment, now is it?

We disagree on things. On a message board. Stop trying to be the big chihuaha on the block. It's not becoming.

As far as Jesse Ventura/James Janos goes, he's a tool. The Navy Seals I know think he's a tool. Many Navy SEALS have gone on record to say he, as a UDT member, was not a SEAL.

Maybe you were a big fan of Jesse "The Body" Ventura. That's cool. Jesse "The Body" wasn't a hero until he stepped into the square circle. There's nothing wrong with being a fan though.

[demosincebirth]

25. So, he wasn't , actually a Navy Seal?

[cherokeeprogressive]

28. I guess it depends on who you ask...

If I worked for Pacific Bell for 6 years, and 10 years after I move on they merge with AT&T, could I claim to have worked for AT&T?

[niyad]

16. and, of course, a former governor (who, unlike sarah barraquitter) actually finished

his term.

[rollingrock]

18. He's also a former US governor

nt

[Ikonoklast]

39. And that gives him exactly ZERO foreign policy experience.

Unless you think he negotiated with North Viet Nam in Paris with Kissinger.

Unless he's talking about blowing up underwater obstacles or mines, or acting, or wrasslin', his opinions on any other matter are no more valid than some shmoe on the street, regarding diplomacy with a foreign power.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. He said waterboarding is torture

"Give me a waterboard, Dick Cheney and 24 hours and I will have him confessing to the Sharon Tate murders."

He also said most politicians are crooks. That, of course, is a self-evident truth.

[phleshdef]

17. Thats because he was waterboarded as part of his training.

[Jack Rabbit]

30. He still said it

And I agree.

[elleng]

8. Sure.

It was clear he was a smart guy a long time ago.

[mrcheerful]

9. Well when you really have nothing to lose you can pretty much say what

you want and suffer few if any repercussions from what you say. It's the same as posting on DU, we pretty much say what we want and about the only 2 worries is 1) someone might call us on what we post, who cares? 2) About the worst that can be done is the tomb stone order. Unlike our elected politicians who have to watch every word and every action they say or do knowing one word or act, Remember Clinton, what are they going to be that stupid enough to try to impeach me for a bj? They were that stupid. Look what happened to the macca gov, good example how a word mis pronounced has repercussions. His reason for saying it is unknown but the reaction was swift.

[stopbush]

13. It's broken clock time.

[David Zephyr]

14. I said the same thing the other night when he was on Larry King.

I never thought I'd agree with him on much, but I do.

[Mist]

19. I've always found Ventura to be spot on in many of his observations. And why do people keep

trying to dismiss him because he was a pro wrestler? He's done more than just that.

[noamnety]

20. It doesn't surprise me.

Same party as Nader last ran with, Reform Party, and some (not all, but some) of their platform is a hell of a lot closer to where I stand than the democratic party.

Similarly, I didn't vote for Ron Paul because of the being-a-bigot thing, but I'd take his stance on Iraq or Afghanistan miles before Bush's or Obama's.

[Ken Burch]

22. For the record, Ralph ran as the Peace And Freedom Party candidate last time

I always found it disappointing that a party with such a great name never really went anywhere. And I don't know that they did anything to hold the extra voters Nader brought over to them.

[noamnety]

24. My mistake, I forgot about 2008

I guess 2004 he was in the reform party.

[YOY]

23. I'm afraid I'm more of a "Randy 'the Macho Man' Savage"

OH YEAH!!!

[JVS]

38. Afghan escalation got you down? SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM!

[YOY]

42. OH YEE-AH!!!

n/t

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

32. Yes. Because he's a Libertarian on social issues. Pro gay marriage, pro choice, pro legalization

of drugs. On social issues, he's right up my alley.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. I've agreed with Jesse Ventura

on a lot of issues in the past. He is a social libertarian as I am.

[Warren Stupidity]

36. He is somewhat loopy on some things but generally

his intentions are good and his viewpoint is moderately progressive on many issues.

[HughMoran]

37. I thought that a couple of years ago when he said something I agreed with

Can't remember what is was, but he's since said a few things that make sense. BTW, he was also a Governor of a US state.

[Orsino]

40. You already agree with Ventura...

...on at least one point.

http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/love-is-bigger-than-government-jesse/

Now that he is out of office, Jesse Ventura seems to feel free to make some sense again:

"We have a representative-style government. Represent your people and vote and stand by what you believe in," said Ventura, who as a professional wrestler was known for his flamboyant costumes. "Civil rights issues should not be put on the ballot."

Currently a fellow at Harvard University's Institute of Politics, Ventura appeared at the Statehouse alongside State Auditor Joseph DeNucci, a former boxer.

"We're two tough guys here to show support for a basic human right," DeNucci said.

Clad in jeans and sneakers and wearing a full beard and a shaggy ring of hair, Ventura asked, "How is my marriage under attack if two gays or lesbians down the street want to make a lifelong commitment to themselves?"

[ensho]

41. I've agreed with more then once, in the past and now

nt

[ZombieHorde]

43. I think people have more opinions in common than not.

We just focus of the differences instead of the similarities.

[spiritual_gunfighter]

44. I agreed with The Body on torture and this n/t

[bvar22]

45. I lived in MInnesota when Jesse was Governor.

He was a passably GOOD Governor.
He hired competent professionals to run the government, and focused mostly on the celebrity aspects of Governor. He has a good Populist/Libertarian streak.

You gotta love a state where 3rd Parties offer a viable alternative...Minnesota.
Jesse was able to get elected Governor without selling his soul to the "Big Money" interests or Party Powerbrokers.

I love someone who can tell the Powerbrokers of BOTH political parties "Sorry...we're doing it our way."

Jesse once told Bill Clinton (then president) that he couldn't meet with him because it was the opening day of Fishing Season.
LOL.