Jesse "The Body" Ventura jumps on Hannity from the top turnbuckle

[Eric T Cheng]

Former Minn. governor, Jesse Ventura, was on Hannity's show (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dn2M484o-k). Ventura wouldn't take any of Hannity's typical GOP talking points, which included that Bush Jr had inherited a recession from Clinton.

[Calistas]

I can't bear to watch that stuff. It's nonsense and makes me sad for America. But I can't help but ask, what contorted logic is used to claim that the US was in a recession when Bush took over?

[foogla]

The dotcom bust happened around that time.

[Aeon221]

I can't bear to watch that stuff. It's nonsense and makes me sad for America. But I can't help but ask, what contorted logic is used to claim that the US was in a recession when Bush took over?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_2000s_recession

It wasn't, but the 2002-2003 recession couldn't have been prevented by the time Bush got into office. Especially after the post 9/11 slowdown.

That said, I don't think any recession is really preventable. You just can't stop the business cycle. Nor do I think that Presidents generally have anything to do with the day to day, or even month to month, activity of the economy at large. That's more the jurisdiction of the Fed. Only with the recent crisis has it become an issue large enough to warrant the involvement of Obama.

Anyway, Bush has plenty of other issues where he was totally complicit in fucking up.

[Lizard_King]

Ventura's really into talking to idiots (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSra-McRZEc) on TV. Warning: contains The View.

[Hans Lauring]

I used to think he was just a joke, but I kinda like him.

The fact he now looks like Peter Boyle as Frankensteins Monster just makes him more awesome.

[Lizard_King]

I used to think he was just a joke, but I kinda like him.

The fact he now looks like Peter Boyle as Frankensteins Monster just makes more awesome.

My sentiments exactly. I think anyone who was waterboarded who is unequivocally and publicly against torture is worth a vote barring secret Holocaust denial or something. That and Iraq continue to be my litmus test issues, although in the current political climate the choice is between "terrible" and "not good" for mainstream leaders.

[Kaigen]

I'm a Reagan conservative! I'm a Goldwater conservative! I'm a Marvel conservative! I'm a DC conservative! I'm a Transformers conservative! I'm a Voltron conservative!

I'm not sure what the point of Hannity suddenly declaring his love for Reagan was, but I'm not really sure what the point of most anything Hannity thinks or does or says is.

[noun]

Hannity constantly declares his man love for Reagan. Most of today's neoconservatives see Reagan as just under God, and sometimes part of the actual trinity.

[wahoo]

It wasn't, but the 2002-2003 recession couldn't have been prevented by the time Bush got into office. Especially after the post 9/11 slowdown.




What 2002-2003 recession? There's little question that Bush inherited a recession when he took office. However, he left a worse mess for Obama to deal with.

[Flowers]

He did not inherit a recession, goofyshoes. The debates between Gore and Bush centered around how they were going to spend all of the free money Bill Clinton made for them, or do you not remember, "laaaahwkbaaawx."

Change this man's name to Lockbox so that he forever remembers.

[Houngan]

Reagan's the one who got us into the current deficit mess that conservatives have conveniently discovered now that Obama inherited a trillion-plus yearly deficit.

H.

[WarrenM]

Hannity is such a fucking douchebag. Thank Clinton for the 9/11 attack? Jesus Christ...

[Houngan]

Where is Hannity getting the "quadruple the deficit in one year" talking point? IIRC, it's going from 1.1T under Bush to 1.7T under Obama, due primarily to 500-600B less in tax revenue because of the recession.

H.

[Tim James]

I'm a William Henry Harrison conservative. If all presidents were like him, our nation would be in great shape.

[wahoo]

He did not inherit a recession, goofyshoes. The debates between Gore and Bush centered around how they were going to spend all of the free money Bill Clinton made for them, or do you not remember, "laaaahwkbaaawx."


Right b/c clearly the stock market hadn't crashed. The economy wasn't doing so poorly that Bush was accused of sparking a recession by talking down the economy.

I don't see how Bush, in 5 weeks, could have smoothed the economy that was suffering from capital overhang and the deflated of the equity bubble.

I believe the economic history of this era will skewer Greenspan "irrational exuberance" and the Fed. Their actions on interest rate ensured that the money from exiting the stock market merely flowed into real estate to create another bubble. The Fed didn't let the market correct from mistakes made in the late 90's.

[noun]

Right b/c clearly the stock market hadn't crashed.

That is correct. What you saw in 2000 was the stock market reacting to the realization that the remaining dotcom businesses were all bullshit. Other industries were fine. Many dotcom workers survived by fleeing the dotcom joke and getting jobs in real companies. There was no crash or recession outside of the tech industry.

Compare this with the stock market charts throughout Bush's term and it should become obvious that Clinton was not to blame.

[Eric T Cheng]

Jesse "The Body" Ventura on Fox & Friends (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tp2BnmslF8k).

[Anti-Bunny]

He was on Howard this morning.

Apparently, 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!

[GloriousMess]

From a Brit's perspective I'd have to say Jesse Ventura is an excellent weapon to fight the sheer nonsense you have the media, such as Fox News. The Fox & Friends video (also on Videosift incidentally) is a beautiful example of what I'd like to see more of in politics - questions from people who don't blindly take the first government sponsored answer to things. Yes, 11/9 being an inside job does sound a little silly at face value, but there's nothing wrong with asking. If Ventura is right in saying that there are no answers to those questions then that is a serious cause for concern.

But anyway, great viewing. Jesse is to gatling gun as Fox & Friends hosts are to jungle flora.

[Andrew Mayer]

What's great about Jesse on Fox is that he's intimately familiar with their style of bluster from his wrasslin' days.

[Sebmojo]

What's great about Jesse on Fox is that he's intimately familiar with their style of bluster from his wrasslin' days.

Excellent point!

[Trashcan]

He was on Howard this morning.

Apparently, 9/11 WAS AN INSIDE JOB!

Seriously? Ventura thinks 9/11 was an inside job? I heard the talking weepuls on Fox and Friends say that but I assumed they were just doing their blathering nonsense thing. Do you have a link?

[Anti-Bunny]

Seriously? Ventura thinks 9/11 was an inside job? I heard the talking weepuls on Fox and Friends say that but I assumed they were just doing their blathering nonsense thing. Do you have a link?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFIZwC6z4Kk

[Joe M.]

He doesn't come right out and say 9/11 was an inside job. It's more like he says:

a.) PNAC -- a document co-written by Rumsfeld and Co. -- outlines exactly what would have to happen for us to go to war in the Middle East. Then it happened, on their watch, and we aren't supposed to wonder about the coincidence?

b.) As someone trained in demolitions, he (and some of his military buddies) don't understand how the buildings collapsed the way they did.

Now maybe he's moderating his opinion but he hasn't accused anyone of anything. He just doesn't buy the official story and doesn't think its much of a stretch to believe the government is lying (whatever their motivations may be).

[Lizard_King]

He doesn't come right out and say 9/11 was an inside job. It's more like he says:

He pretty much does, though. What it sounds like to me is that his emphasis on fraudulent causes for American wars (like the Gulf of Tonkin or the Maine) combined with a radicalization resulting from the Bush presidency and Iraq lead him to favor outright conspiracy. That would be as opposed to "justified" war starters like the Lusitania or Pearl Harbor, where any serious investigation of the subject leaves you with a much less black and white understanding of who made that war necessary.

So really there's not a very strong case for believing American hands are clean in our involvement in any major war, since it's never actually happened before. That, however, is a different proposition from starting to talk about demolition inside the building and exact time windows for number 7 etc. When our country has made shit up to get into war, it's been clumsily executed off of a halfassed interpretation of real events. The simplest explanation given the evidence available is still that Bush capitalized on 9/11, not that there is murky shit and innuendo that make it an inside job.

So I'm still glad he's out there talking about torture, but he needs to look farther back than Tonkin if he's going to make these kinds of allegations. And he needs more expertise on his staff than his SEAL buddies.

[Jason McCullough]

Oh Jesse, you had to go and ruin it.

[Joe M.]

So I'm still glad he's out there talking about torture, but he needs to look farther back than Tonkin if he's going to make these kinds of allegations.

He really doesn't. It's more like it would be astonishing if the government stopped lying to us.

[Lizard_King]

He really doesn't. It's more like it would be astonishing if the government stopped lying to us.

No, he really does. There is a huge difference in the caliber and amount of government deception between the Gulf of Tonkin/Vietnam and, say, Pearl Harbor/WWII. When he directly equates 9/11 with the former while pretending the latter is still the good war of Spielberg movies and myth, he sounds ignorant and possibly a little nuts. He's no longer speaking in historical terms, he's headed straight into conspiracy theory territory. How many successfully perpetrated US conspiracies of this magnitude have ever taken place? If your answer is "many, we just don't know about them", then you are nuts and risk discrediting anything legitimate that you pursue.

Look at the way he frames his argument, with the oscillation between grand themes and what sound like the oft repeated favorite "specifics" of the truthers. There's a lot of criticism to be offered about the neoconservative strategery and the Bush administration's handling of 9/11, Iraq, and everything in between. But that doesn't mean that you can let the crazies have free rein.