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Mary McAleese: Former President Of Ireland

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:30:43 +0000

Mary McAleese, was born Mary Patricia Leneghan, in Ardoyne, Belfast, on June 27, 1951. The first born of a family of nine other children.

Mary McAleese grew up in Northern Ireland, at the height of ‘the troubles’ and just like other families, at the time, her own family suffered attacks and murder attempts. In the end they were forced to leave the area by the paramilitary violence.

In 1973, she graduated in Law from Queen’s University Belfast, and was called to the Bar in 1974. In 1976, she married Dr Martin McAleese, a dentist and accountant. They have three children Emma, born 1982 and twins Justin and Sara Mai, born 1985. She was appointed Reid Professor of Criminal Law, Criminology and Penology at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1987.

Mary McAleese returned to Belfast’s Queen’s University to take up the position of Director of the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, in 1987 and in 1994, she became the first female Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queen’s University Belfast.

Broadcasting Career

During that time Mary McAleese, also worked as a journalist and broadcaster with RTE television, reporting for the News, and other political programmes.

Her impressive CV also includes Director of Channel 4 Television; Member of Catholic Church delegation in 1996 to the North Commission on Contentious Parades; founder member of the Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas; Director of Northern Ireland Electricity Delegate to the 1995 White House Conference, on Trade and Investment in Ireland and to the subsequent Pittsburg Conference.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_J4zBW3Pwk

Irish Presidency

In 1997, Mary McAleese, famously defeated former Fianna Fail, Taoiseach (or Prime Minister as the office is referred to in other countries) Albert Reynolds, in an internal party election to be nominated to run for the Presidency. The nomination cause quite a stir, with many believing a Belfast Catholic, President could harm relations with Britain.

Nonetheless, Mary McAleese won the election, beating off opponents, Mary Banotti, of Fine Gael, Labour candidate Adi Roche, former Eurovision Song Contest Winner, Dana Rosemary Scallon, and Derek Nally.

In 1997, she was inaugurated the eighth President of Ireland, and the second woman President. She also made world history by being the first woman to succeed another woman, the first being Mary Robinson.

The theme, Mary McAleese adopted for her presidency was, ‘Building Bridges’.

President McAleese travelled widely, during her Presidency, meeting with heads of state from other countries. She was a frequent visitor to Northern Ireland, where she was warmly welcomed by both sides of the political divide.

Courting Controversy

No stranger to controversy, in 1997 she incurred the wrath, of the Catholic Church by receiving communion in an Anglican Church in Dublin. With Archbishop Desmond Connell describing as a ‘sham’ Catholics receiving holy communion in a non-Catholic church.

In January 2005, at a ceremony to commemorate the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp President McAleese once more courted controversy.

Northern Ireland Unionist politicians were furious when President McAleese made reference to the manner in which Protestant children in Northern Ireland, had been reared to hate Catholics, just like German children had been brought up to hate Jews under the Nazi regime. She later apologised, for her remarks, describing them as unbalanced.

Nevertheless, with a doubt the most contentious thing she did during her Presidency was signing the Credit Institutions Stabilisation Bill into law, a move which saw billions of euro being injected into the banks.

Historical Visits

Known to be an admirer of Queen Elizabeth II, whom she came to know, while she was Pro-Vice Chancellor of Queens, President McAleese welcomed the Queen to Ireland in May 2011. The historic visit was a huge success and Mary McAleese was widely praised and admired for the way she carried out her duties marking the occasion as one of the highlights of her Presidency.

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

A week later President Barack Obama also arrived in Ireland and President McAleese was called on once again to meet one of the most powerful men in the world. But as always she carried out her duties with her usual aplomb.

In November, 2011, President McAleese completed her second term in office and was succeeded by President Michael D. Higgins.

On one of her final engagements she said she had loved every day of her Presidency and felt extremely grateful for the honour.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysmQEIZp478

John F Kennedy: The Man Behind The Image

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 31 May 2011 01:14:46 +0000

As people, we have a habit of placing our more successful and famous peers upon pedestals. We cherish them, we worship them and we create their image to suit our desires.

Essentially, those that are deemed worthy are distorted and sanitised into perfect people. We make them into something that they never were or could never be. John F. Kennedy was such a person.

Untimely Plucked From The Earth

One of the most powerful forces to govern humanity isn’t peace or war. It isn’t justice or injustice. It is martyrdom. Martyrs have shaped the world in revolutionary ways. Just ask any follower of Christianity.

John F. Kennedy was perhaps one of the most popular presidents in the modern era. But his popularity transcended into a lasting legacy due to his untimely and tragic death.

The Man Behind The Mask

The real man was very different from the santised version that was available for public consumption. John F. Kennedy was a keen proponent for assassinating Fidel Castro, such aspirations jarred with his campaign idealism and optimism.

Incredibly charismatic and memorable, John F. Kennedy was a master of oratory and rhetoric. Ostensibly from the outside, he was one of America’s greatest presidents. However, delve closer and some painful truths begin to emerge that rip apart the ideal and restore the human.

John F. Kennedy was an extreme womaniser, even going as far as having an affair on his honeymoon at the expense of his wife, Jacqueline.

One of his most famous affairs was with the famous Hollywood actress, Marilyn Monroe, a highly intelligent but deeply insecure woman. Their relationship came very close to being made public when she sang her famous ‘Happy Birthday, Mr. President.’ Their tryst was quickly ended following that close call.

Please check out Yellow Magpie’s Marilyn Monroe: The Original Blonde Bombshell for further insight.

A Deeply Unhealthy President

To those looking on from the outside, John F. Kennedy seemed to espouse the desired characteristics of vibrancy. He was very young for an American President and appeared to be fit. Certainly, this was also helped by his good looks.

But those closer to him knew that the truth was very different. If one took a close look at John F. Kennedy’s face they would have noticed that this was a man who looked much older than his years suggested. His face look tired and worn.

The truth is that Kennedy concealed a fact that may have made him unelectable in the public’s eyes. Kennedy had Addison’s disease. This affects the adrenal glands causing them to produce insufficient quantities of hormones.

Addison disease has a whole raft of symptoms that have serious effects on those that suffer from it. Some of the main symptoms include fatigue, muscle weakness, weight loss, profuse sweating and muscle and joint pain. One of the most common identifiers of Addison’s is a deep tanning of the skin, even if the person is not exposed to the Sun at all.

The fact that Kennedy persevered and carried on his duties is a testament to his commitment and courage as a politician.

The Surrounding Conspiracy

A man whose name will be forever inked in infamy on December, 1963, is Lee Harvey Oswald. Yet many people believe that Oswald did not actually kill President Kennedy.

A former marine, Oswald has contributed to one of the most horrific and controversial assassinations in the world’s history. To this day, many people have doubts as to whether or not, one single gunman could fire so many shots in such a quick succession from such a difficult vantage point.

The Sunday Times published an article mentioning an international team of men who they claim were really responsible for Kennedy’s death. The article goes on to state that the assassination team were arranged at the behest of the then U.S. Vice-President, Lyndon Johnson.

Jackie Lee Bouvier

In the history of the U.S. presidency only two men have ever been elected while unmarried. It seems unlikely that JFK would have become president if he remained single. Jacqueline Lee Bouvier was the woman that Kennedy needed to bedrock his election bid. She provided domestic credibility which was necessary for a successful campaign.

Jackie, as she was affectionately called by the public, put up with Kennedy’s numerous affairs, including a desperate phone-call from Marilyn Monroe, and nursed him to health during the period when Addison’s sapped his strength.

During his presidential bid she was a rock offering support and doing all she could to ensure that her husband would become America’s next leader.

Check out Yellow Magpie’s Jacqueline Kennedy: Wife Of President John F Kennedy to read more about this remarkable woman.

The Dark Cloud

All throughout Kennedy’s life there was a shadow lurking over him. This shadow was in the form of his domineering, manipulative father, Joe. Joe Kennedy coloured the lives of his children in horrific ways. He constantly had indiscreet affairs with other women, including a nine-year affair with his secretary. He would also have illicit relationships with the girlfriends of his sons.

Joe Kennedy was so brutal that he had his own daughter, Rosemary, who suffered from development difficulties, lobotomised. Under this malign influence John F. Kennedy was brought up in a world that on the surface looked wholesome but underneath was very different from its idyllic portrayal.

Check out Yellow Magpie’s Joseph ‘Joe’ Kennedy: The Patriarchal Shadow That Hangs Over The Kennedys for further insight into Joe Kennedy.

The Same But Strikingly Different

One can never fully escape the past and your upbringing. Certainly Kennedy inherited some of his father’s traits including his womanising habits but he was a far cry from Joe’s relentless egotism and quest from power.

Whereas his father only cared about self-positioning, his son could see from other’s perspective and was highly thoughtful. He would use both of this characteristics when undertaking his greatest challenge.

One other area that John F. Kennedy differed from his father was that of oratory. Although his father was used to public speaking, John F. Kennedy is widely recognised as one of the greatest orators of the 20th century.

The Cuban Missile Crisis

By far the biggest test of Kennedy’s career, and arguably the biggest in human history, was the Cuban Missile Crisis. The Soviet heavyweight, Nikita Khrushchev would test the resolve of the rather young Kennedy in an ordeal that terrified millions. Khrushchev misunderstood and underestimated Kennedy who he saw as a light touch.

It was under Khrushchev that the Berlin Wall was erected after serious blunders By the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow, Charles Bohen, who publicly stated that the USSR had a rest to restrict movement in East Germany.

Emboldened by Bohen and other American foreign diplomats’ foolhardiness, Khruschev set his sights on supplying missiles to Cuba in an attempt to build a Soviet base. Backed into a corner by Khrushchev, Kennedy would have to face a gauntlet that twenty years previously had not existed.

The nuclear arms race and the presence of the fusion bomb, meant that Kennedy could not afford to back down and let the USSR have a base so close to American soil. Yet, he could not directly engage with the soviets either and risk a full-scale nuclear war. He settled for the only option that worked. A military blockade of Cuba to prevent the USSR from arming the island.

Kennedy: Saint Or Sinner?

In the end the question of whether Kennedy was a virtuous paradigm of human behaviour must be asked? This has been the way he is portrayed. The answer must be that he was neither an angel nor a devil, he was just another human who rose to tremendous prominence. John F. Kennedy secured his place in history when his mortality was cruelly and crudely cut short on that faithful winter’s day in November.

The ultimate legacy of Kennedy is easy to understand if we remove him from the equation. If he was not president, if the United States had selected someone less capable and with a heavy trigger finger then the world would now be a heavily scarred and entirely different place to live. The human race could be a dying species ill-equipped to deal with radiation poisoning and tainted food sources.

Our lives rest on the decisions we make. Whether we decide to excel our careers or flounder in a sea of underachievement. Whether we choose to be better citizens or plunder from others. Whether we pick ourselves off the ground or whether we lay there permanently. The choice is ours.

Generally our choices affect ourselves and those we interact with. At the most a single decision that we make will on average affect perhaps one thousand people both directly or indirectly. John F. Kennedy made a decision that affected billions and future billions. With one gesture, a few spoken words he cast in motion a sequence of events that guaranteed our safety for a few more decades at least. It was but one call but it was the right one.

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

Highly Recommended Get The Book Through Amazon

Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years is an engrossing and thrilling read that highlights the roles the unruly FBI and CIA played in both the brother’s lives. It also details the dangerous trigger-happy joint chefs of staff and their desires to go to war with the USSR.

An absorbing book – your eyes will be firmly ajar after reading this.

You can obtain Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years here from Amazon.

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For people living in Ireland or the United Kingdom you can access Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years here.

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For those living in Canada you can obtain Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years from here.

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For Germany: Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.

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For France: Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years.

Barack Obama: New Leader Filling The Void

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:10:34 +0000

Barack Obama has cut almost a revolutionary path through politics. A highly skilled orator, he has managed to do the seemingly impossible, give politician’s credibility and respect. As life in the presidency has become increasingly difficult, Obama’s diplomacy skills are being tested increasingly more and more.

Already a trailblazer in so many ways, the 44th President of the United States will always be remembered for being the first African American to lead America.

Early Life

Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, at the Kapi’olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital, in August 4, 1961, to Stanley Ann Dunham and Barack Obama Sr.

Dunham and Obama Sr. were an unusual couple in the highly racist 1960s as she was white and he was black. Dunham was an anthropologist named after her father who had wanted a boy.

Obama Sr. was a Kenyan economist who travelled to study in America at Hawaii University, under a scholarship. Barack Obama would later write that this was a result of an initiative of the Kennedy family.

Drawing a link between his father and the Kennedy’s, Obama noted. ‘The Kennedy’s decided: “We’re doing an airlift. We are going to go to Africa and start bringing young Africans over to this country and give them scholarships to study so that they can learn what a wonderful country America is. This young man named Barack Obama got one of those tickets and came over to this country.“‘

However, the connection between the Kennedy’s has been dismissed by Michael Dobbs in the Washington Post. Dobbs notes that the Kennedy’s did not become involved with African scholarships until Obama Sr. was in his second year of study having already obtained a scholarship one year previously.

During his time at Hawaii University, Obama Sr. met Dunham and they became married on February 2, 1961. However, unbeknownst to Dunham was the fact that Obama Sr. was already married to another woman with whom he had four children.

In August 4, 1961, Barack was born to the couple and Dunham subsequently dropped out of University to look after her child.

The couple divorced in March 20, 1964, and Obama Sr. returned to Kenya and would visit his son just once before his death in November 24, 1982 from a car accident. He was 46 years of age.

His mother subsequently married an Indonesian by the name of Lolo Soetoro. The newly married couple, with young Barack, migrated to Indonesia where Obama went to school in Jakarta.

In 1971 Obama was sent back to Hawaii to be raised by his grandparents, Stanley Armour and Madelyn Dunham.

Education

Obama, having transfered from Occidental College in Los Angeles in 1981, enrolled in Columbia University to study Political Science with a special emphasis on International Relations. He graduated in 1983 with a B.A. Later in 1988 he returned to formal education and attended Harvard Law School.

In his first year he was selected Editor of the Harvard Law Review. The following year he became President of the Harvard Law Review, a prestigious position in which he became the first ever African American to do so. He graduated with a Juris Doctorate in 1991.

Early Career

After graduating from Columbia University Obama worked for the Business International Corporation and the New York Public Interest Research Group. After moving to Chicago in 1985, Obama was employed as Director of the Developing Communities Project. The project consisted of trying to alleviate the social problems of the Black Community in Chicago’s South Side.

David Moberg of The Nation retells what Obama perceived of his time spent with the Communities Project: ‘I can’t say we didn’t make mistakes, that I knew what I was doing..Sometimes I called a meeting, and nobody showed up. Sometimes preachers said, “Why should I listen to you?” Sometimes we tried to hold politicians accountable, and they didn’t show up. I couldn’t tell whether I got more out of it than this neighborhood.’

In 1992, after graduating from Harvard Law School, Obama led a charge to get many of Illinois’s unregistered African Americans to register to vote.

From 1992 to 2004, Obama served as Professor of Constitutional Law at University of Chicago Law School as both Lecturer and Senior Lecturer.

In 1993, while he already was lecturing in law, he started his law career when he joined Davis, Miner, Barnhill and Galland as associate and latterly counsel until 2004 when his political career took precedence.

A law firm with a social dimension, Obama was part of legal team which sought to redress the imbalance between white and black candidates in City Council Elections. Obama was also part of the legal team which successfully challenged Citibank for making too few loans to African Americans who had identical economic circumstances as their Caucasian counterparts.

Family Life

While working at Sidley Austin, a law firm in Chicago, Obama met his future wife, Michelle Robinson. After some initial refusals, Robinson finally consented and the couple began dating the summer of 1989. The couple got married on October 3, 1992 following a year of engagement. Malia Ann, their first daughter, was born on July 4,1998. Their second daughter, Natasha (known as Sasha) was born on June 10, 2001.

Politics

Obama began his career in politics by being elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996. Favouring a bi-partisan approach, he supported Republican Governor George Ryan’s regulations directed at reducing defaults on mortgage repayments.

In 1998 Obama was once again re-elected to Illinois Senate having defeated Yesse Yehudah, the Republican candidate.

In 2003 Obama was nominated chairman on the Illinois Senate’s Health and Human Services Committee. He successfully sponsored legislation requiring police to record the race of motorists that they detained. This had unanimous bi-party support. Under Obama Illinois also implemented the mandatory use of video recording homicide interrogations, the first state to do so.

Obama resigned from the State Senate in 2004 upon successfully being elected to the US Senate.

US Senate

In January 2003 Obama announced that he would be running for the US Senate having commissioned a poll to assess his potential to win the previous year. David Axelrod was hired to be his election adviser. In March 2004, Obama won a landslide victory in the Democratic Primary. With 53% of the vote, he received more than twice the votes of his nearest Democratic challenger. This set him apart in Democratic Circles and he was highlighted as being one to watch.

His opponent in the general election was Republican Alan Keyes, who was chosen after Jack Ryan’s withdrawal. In the November 2004, general election Obama received 70% of the vote in a one-sided affair. With a 43% winning margin, this was the largest margin of victory in Illinois State history.

US Senate Voting Record

Obama voted in favour of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. The act sought to diversify sources of energy in the US and provide alternatives to those which emit carbon emissions.

However, Obama also supported the Secure Fence Act of 2006 which has received some criticism. The act which was passed into law in October of that year provides provision for the construction of 1,100 km (700 miles) of fence along the Mexican border.

This has been criticised for many reasons. Chief among them is the financial cost of sometime that is not effective at preventing people from climbing over, crawling under or breaking through the fence. Some have commented on the irony of illegal immigrants being used to build the fences and the irony of a man who came into existence because of his Kenyan father, an immigrant.

Obama also sponsored safeguards in cases of military personal being discharged with personality disorders which was passed by the Senate. A bill criminalising deception in federal election was also put forward by Obama but this has yet to be signed into law.

US Presidental Campaign

On February 10, 2007, Obama declared his nomination for the US Presidential Election. This was to be the start of a remarkable election in which world-wide attention would be directed towards America. Obama was considered by many to be a long shot and started out in the shadow of Hilary Clinton.

His election focused on three key areas, ending the war in Iraq, overhauling America’s poor healthcare system and taking care of the underprivileged and marginalised in what became known as ‘spreading the wealth’.

Despite Obama’s seemingly long odds, the Democratic Primary nomination quickly became a duel between Clinton and himself. Clinton enjoyed an early sizeable lead. However, over time Obama gradually eroded her advantage and overtook her.

In a bitter drawn out campaign in which Obama was clearly winning, Clinton refused to surrender, polarising the Democratic electorate in the process. Finally, on July 7, with no alternative, Hilary Clinton endorsed Obama for President.

John McCain, a former Vietnam War Veteran and Senator, was Obama rival in the main election. Both candidates held similar right-wing economic policies matched with left-wing social concerns. However, despite the similar policies between the two there were several key differences.

Obama was the better organised and better funded of the two. He successfully leveraged the power of the Internet to an extent which had never been done before. His campaign managed to raise an estimated half a billion from online donations alone.

The younger, fitter, Obama was seen in stark contrast to 71-year-old McCain and concerns were raised over McCain’s age. McCain also faced the problem of being a member the same party which put one of the most unpopular presidents of all time, George W. Bush. This mere association with Bush meant that McCain would have an uphill task trying to win the election.

Finally, McCain’s nomination of an unknown Alaskan Governor as his vice-presidential nominee compounded matters. Sarah Palin had relatively very little experience in politics, very little understanding of foreign policy as a television interview revealed and was Governor of a state with a population of just over 600,000.

To make matters worse, while she polarised America, she was scorned by Europeans thus making it more difficult to repair already frayed international relationships. This contrasted sharply with Obama’s vice presidential candidate, Senator Joe Biden, a seasoned political veteran.

All of these differences were to prove too great to overcome and Obama cruised to victory with almost 53% of the vote compared to McCain’s 45.7% on November 4, 2008.

Barack Hussein Obama was inaugurated as the first African American and 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009.

Productive Narcissism

Obama has been classified by Michael Maccoby, an anthropologist and psychoanalyst, as a productive narcissist. One of the main characteristics that productive narcissists have is visionary leadership. Productive narcissists are often raised with either a weak or absent father figure. This absent father figure usually means that they create their own unique worldview.

Offering ways to inspire people, they usually come into political power when their is great upheaval and a need for desperate reform. One of the key differences that distance productive narcissists from other politicians is that they are willing to take risks to achieve their visions.

Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, as well as Obama, have all being deemed productive narcissists by Maccoby.

Oratory Skill

One of the things that Obama is most noted for is his debating and oratory skill. Described as one of the best speakers currently in politics, Obama’s ability to talk and connect with the audience was one of the reasons why he was elected president. He uses many of the same techniques that the Ancient Greeks used and as a result has been called the Cicero of our time.

The following examples of Greek rhetoric that Obama uses are courtesy of Charlotte Higgins of the Guardian. Anaphora and epistrophe are two simple but yet powerful techniques. Anaphora is the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of a sentence while epistrophe is repetition at the end of a sentence. ‘It is the answer told…It’s the answer spoken…It’s the answer...’ is an example of Obama’s use of anaphora while his most famous catch phrase ‘Yes we can.’ is often used at the end of the sentence as epistrophe.

Obama also uses the tricolon very effectively. That is saying things in threes. One of the most famous of which is ‘he came, he saw, he conquered’.

Finally, autonomasia is another ancient technique that Obama uses remarkably well. A specific form of metonymy, autonomasia substitutes a name with a phrase. Obama used it when he spoke of Martin Luther King being the ‘young preacher from Georgia’. This has the effect of creating intimacy between the speaker and the audience.

Obama’s rhetorical competence has being highly documented and his speech on race has been credited by some as being the single greatest speech of all time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrp-v2tHaDo

Jesse Ventura: Wrestler Turned Controversial Author and Politican

Yellow Magpie — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 20:06:37 +0000

Jesse Ventura is one of Americas most fascinating political figures. Known for his controversial views, Ventura has a pragmatic approach and has never been afraid to speak hide.

Born James George Janos, Jesse Ventura was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota on July 15, 1951, to Bernice Martha and George William Janos. Under the adopted name Jesse Ventura, James has led a colourful and at times controversial life. Actor, politician, professional wrestler, Navy SEAL, television and radio presenter are just some of the many hats that Jesse has worn.

Early Life

Like most Americans, Ventura’s parents were immigrants. His mother family came from Germany while his father parents were from modern-day Slovakia. From 1969 to 1975 Ventura served in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War. He became a Navy SEAL and was part of a Underwater Demolition Team.

In his book, Do I Stand Alone?: Going to the Mat Against Political Pawns and Media Jackals, Ventura reflects upon his time in SEAL training as the most difficult period in his life. During his time with the US Navy Ventura was awarded two medals. The National Defense Service Medal and the Vietnam Service Medal.

Ventura was briefly a member of the Mongols Motorcycle Club in San Diego, California, for a nine month spell in 1973. He also briefly served a spell as a bodyguard for the rock band Rolling Stones. During the same period he began to wrestle and started a weight lifting regime. To further his education he also attended North Nennepin Community College in Minnesota.

Wrestling And The Body Persona

Ventura created the persona of Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura as a brash, bullying, ‘bleach blonde from California’. He picked the surname Ventura from a map of California.

A physically imposing man of 193 cm (6′ 4″), ‘The Body’ Ventura was one of the more memorable villians of wrestling. ‘Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat!’ became his calling card. He based his wrestling persona on the wrestler, ‘Superstar’ Billy Graham.

Ventura ended his wrestling career in 1984 when it was discovered he had blood clotting in his lungs. He maintained that these were caused by exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide and defoliant used by the United States army to reduce the dense foliage. It claimed the lives of thousands of people in Vietnam due to exposure contamination and it continues to cause birth defects to this day.

However, Ventura has admitted taking anabolic steroids during his wrestling career, something which also causes blood clots. After his stint as a wrestler was over he became a commentator for the WWF (World Wrestling Federation).

In 1987 he became embroiled in a legal action over royalty representation. Ventura was awarded over $800,000 in damages for fraud, misappropriation of publicity rights and unjust enrichment in an action against Titan Sports, the company which owned the rights for the WWF. The case involved a misrepresentation in which Ventura waived his rights to royalties on the sales of video after being told he was told that only featured performers received royalties.

Acting Career

Ventura has appeared in many films including Predator, Running Man, No Holds Barred, Demolition Man, Batman and Robbin, and The Ringer. He also appeared in film about his own life entitled Jesse ‘The Body’ Ventura: The Man, the Myth, the Legend. He also appeared in many series including The X-Files.

Political Career

Ventura, on advice from his former high school teacher decided to run for the office of Mayor of Brooklyn Park, Minnesota in 1990. His opponent had held the position of Mayor for 18 years. In an unlikely result, Ventura won and was Mayor for four years from 1991 to 1995.

In 1998, Ventura’s ambitions broadened when he sougth the nomination to run as a candidate for Governor of Minnesota for the Reform Party of Minnesota. He later joined the Independence Party of Minnesota after the Reform Party splintered from its parent group. He was successful in gaining the nomination. Ventura ran a highly effective and original campaign.

A decade before Obama used the Internet to win the 2008 US Presidential Election, Ventura pioneered the capability of the Internet to communicate a political vision. His campaign was based on attending localised events and running television ads.

In November 1998, the seemingly impossible happened and Jesse Ventura was elected Governor of Minnesota defeating Republican Mayor of St. Paul, Norm Coleman and Democratic Minnesota Attorney General, Hubert Humphrey. What was most unusual about Ventura’s campaign was its cost effectiveness. Generally, the winning candidate of gubernatorial elections have to fork out multi-million amounts in order to be successful. Ventura’s campaign only cost the relatively small amount of $300,000.

His was the first non-major party governor elected in Minnesota since 1938, and his win was marked with the slogan ‘My governor can beat up your governor.’

Political Controversy

Ventura was heavily criticised for closing down the governor’s mansion losing local jobs. He opted instead to stay at his home because of a refusal of the House of Representatives to grant increased funding for security for the governor’s mansion. During his term, journalists were dubbed ‘media jackals’ by Ventura.

Views On Religion

Ventura is a firm opponent of organised religion. ’Organised religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people’s business.‘ He later qualified this by stating:

‘I don’t have any problem with the vast majority of religious folks. I count myself among them, more or less. But I believe because it makes sense to me, not because I think it can be proven. There are lots of people out there who think they know the truth about God and religion, but does anybody really know for sure?
That’s why the founding fathers built freedom of religious belief into the structure of this nation, so that everybody could make up their minds for themselves. But I do have a problem with the people who think they have some right to impose their beliefs on others.’

Twin Tower Attacks

Ventura has expressed reservation and concern over the handling of the inquiry into the September 11 attacks. He finds it hard to fathom why the results of the report were suppressed by the George Bush administration. He is also sceptical about the cause of the collapse of the towers.

‘How could this building just implode into its own footprint five hours later? That’s my first question.‘ He noted that no other building damaged by fire had collapsed in this manner before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=071dlJmfQA0

Torture And The Iraq War

Although initially in favour of the Iraq War, Ventura views on the subject have changed in the intervening years. He believes that living in Mexico for six months of the year has given him a better perspective on the United States. Completely dismayed at the use of torture, he draws attention to the fact that most proponents of tortuous practice have either not unlisted in the US army or deferred from active duty such as Dick Cheney.

In May 2009, during a broadcast of right-wing programme ‘Fox and Friends’, Brian Kilmeade stated that he would stop supporting waterboarding when ‘they’re dead‘ referring to the detainees. Ventura in response said ‘Really? Have you enlisted? Have you enlisted or are you just talking? Go walk the walk, don’t talk the talk.‘ Kilmeade walked off the set shortly afterwards.

Stance on Prostitution

Ventura is in favour of legalising prostitution. He claims that doing so will protect the health of both workers and clients noting that it will inevitably exist irrespective or whether or not it is legal or illegal.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SoxTEn833I

Hillary Rodham Clinton: U.S. Secretary Of State

Yellow Magpie — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:26:40 +0000

Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton the eldest daughter of Dorothy and Hugh Rodham, was born in Chicago, Illinois, on October 26, 1947. Hillary’s brother Hugh was born in 1950, and Tony, followed in 1954.

Hillary Rodham was brought up in a happy disciplined home in Park Ridge, Illinois, where she was encouraged to study hard. She was a keen sports enthusiast and was also heavily involved in her local Methodist Church.

Early Drive

On graduating from High School, Hillary Rodham, entered Wellesley College, where she excelled in her studies, and was a member of the school government. On her graduation, she said ‘The challenge now is to practice politics as the art of making what appears to be impossible, possible‘.

During her summer holidays, Hillary Rodham, worked at various jobs. One of these summer jobs was in 1971, when she got her first taste of Washington, D.C. working on Senator Walter Mondale’s committee on migrant workers.

She then went on to study at Yale Law School. There she served on the Board of Editors. It was at Yale, that she met future President, Bill Clinton. She graduated with honours from Yale in 1973.

Married Life

Hillary Rodham and Bill Clinton married on October 11, 1975, and moved to live in Little Rock, Arkansas. That same year she joined the faculty of the University Of Arkansas Law School. In 1978, Bill Clinton became Governor of Arkansas, and Hillary became the First Lady of Arkansas but lost her position in 1981, when Bill Clinton failed to be re-elected.

Nevertheless, she regained her title in 1983 when he was elected Governor once more and held it until 1992. Meanwhile in 1980, their daughter, Chelsea, was born.

She was twice named as one of the top 100 powerful lawyers in America by The National Law Journal.

1992 Presidential Election

During the 1992 Clinton Presidential Campaign, Hillary Clinton, was a tremendous positive source of strength to her husband. When Bill Clinton was elected President he appointed her to head the Task Force on National Health Reform. However, an initiative, the ‘Clinton Health Care Plan’, failed to win the approval of the U.S. Congress in 1993 and was abandoned, in September, 1994.

Bill’s Sex Scandal

In 1998, the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal broke. Though publicly Hillary Clinton supported her husband, it’s understood that privately, she was considering leaving him. President Clinton was impeached but the U.S. Senate failed to convict and he remained in office.

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

U.S. Senate

Hillary Clinton then set her sights on the U.S. Senate. The seat from New York was held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who was retiring after four terms. Hillary Clinton beat off stiff competition from popular Republican Rick Lazio to win by a margin of 55% to 43%.

This was the first time a wife of a former President had ever sought and won a national office position. She was also the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Senate from New York. In November, 2006, she was re-elected to the post.

Hillary For President

In 2007, Hillary Clinton, decided to throw her hat into the ring and again attempt to make history by becoming the first female President. However, she conceded her nomination to Barack Obama, who held the majority of the delegate vote.

Obama went on to win the Presidential election, making him the first black President of the United States. He nominated Hillary Clinton to become Secretary of State. She was officially approved by the senate on January 21, 2009.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeFMZ7fpGHY

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