Jesse 'The Writer' Ventura has penned a new book. He hints at a possible run for president. 'The Body' has given this a great deal thought too.

He and I share some of the same ideas. So I would give him some serious consideration for president. 

Vintage Ventura on Display in New Book*
 
Jan 5, 3:59 AM (ET)

By PATRICK CONDON
 
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - Former Gov. Jesse Ventura may prefer Mexico to Minnesota these days, but his ex-constituents will still recognize his style if they pick up his upcoming book, "Don't Start the Revolution Without Me!"

Ventura uses the book - part personal memoir, part political rant - to rail against organized religion and the media, detail his brushes with celebrities and suggest that he should be viewed as a possible presidential candidate.

"Is it worth it to put my family and me out there, to take on a force that most of the American people are willing to go along with?" Ventura writes in the book, due in stores in April. "The government is supposed to be us, and it's not us anymore. It's been hijacked. Just when is somebody going to do something?"

The former pro wrestler hasn't reined in the outrageous opinions that often got him in trouble when he was governor from 1999 to 2003. The book is constructed as a loose travelogue of his and wife Terry's drive from Minnesota to Baja California, Mexico, where they now spend much of their time, but it leaves plenty of room for Ventura to digress into his obsessions.
 
He discusses at length the assassination of President Kennedy. He scorns the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, and claims that during a trip to Dallas as governor a police officer warned him to avoid talking too much about "things that certain people don't want brought to light."

Ventura also airs his suspicion that "somebody in the government" sent people to infiltrate a government course he taught at Harvard University in 2004, on a day he discussed Kennedy's assassination. He repeatedly shows a fascination with conspiracy theories and surveillance, recalling several encounters he had with CIA agents while governor and claiming that his wife found an electronic listening device at their private home during his term.

He also discusses what he sees as the folly of organized religion. He argues that Catholic Church leaders should face racketeering charges for covering up sexual abuse by priests, then writes: "If Jesus came back today, I think he'd throw up."

Ventura recounts meeting Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, with whom he spent time during a trade mission and found to be engaging and perceptive. He says he asked Castro about Kennedy's assassination and that the Cuban leader denied involvement but also believed Oswald did not act alone.

A harsh critic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, Ventura says his doubts "have grown steadily" about the backstory to the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

"I think that bin Laden and al Qaeda were responsible for September 11th," Ventura writes. "But I also think it wasn't without some knowledge from our side."

Still, for someone who scorns all sides of the political debate, Ventura speculates on how his presidential bid would unfold. He ends the book with a series of fictional newspaper articles describing an insurgent 2008 campaign, with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr. as his running mate.

While the scenario starts off lighthearted - Ventura kicks off his candidacy at a Wrestlemania event - it takes a macabre turn in the end when he is shot by a Cuban exile upset over his opposition to the U.S. economic boycott against Cuba.

"While independent presidential candidate Jesse Ventura - in a coma for the fourth consecutive day - clung to life with family members gathered at his bedside, a White House press spokesman denied mounting allegations that accused assassin Raul Santana was part of a wider plot," one entry reads.

I am getting turned off by Clinton & Obama camps have become rival gangs. Both fighting for control of our playground. 

Honestly, I am dead set against the republicans and I am not sold on the democrats in general. But, I would consider Edwards or even Gore  at this point.

- Paul

Have you heard about the One Laptop Per Child program? An effort to bring computers to kids in poorer countries. This is certainly a noble effort.

Well, they decided to keep their enemy closer. They use AMD chips and gave Intel a seat n their board. The same company that makes Classmate PC.

Laptop Project Blames Intel for Breakup
 
Jan 4, 4:32 PM (ET)

By BRIAN BERGSTEIN
 
BOSTON (AP) - The founder of the One Laptop Per Child project claimed Friday that Intel Corp. undermined his group's effort to sell $188 computers for schoolchildren in the developing world even after the chip company got a seat on the nonprofit's board.

A day after learning that Intel was abandoning his project over "philosophical" differences, the laptop group's founder, Nicholas Negroponte, said Intel's sales representatives had been disparaging One Laptop Per Child as they pushed Intel's sub-$300 Classmate PCs.

Negroponte said Intel even tried to undo a deal One Laptop had already sealed in Peru by citing flaws in the One Laptop "XO" machine and telling government ministers "we ought to know, because we are on the board." Such hostile comments were prohibited, Negroponte claimed, under the July peace treaty that brought Intel into the One Laptop Per Child camp.

"I want to say we tried, but it was never a partnership," Negroponte said. "There's not one single thing in their contract or agreement that they lived up to."
 
Intel spokesman Chuck Mulloy denied that his company did anything that violated its agreement with One Laptop Per Child. He reiterated that Intel could not live with Negroponte's demand for the company to stop selling its Classmate PCs overseas.

Because Intel rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. supplies microprocessors for the XO laptops, Negroponte had said - in press interviews, at least - that he had not expected Intel to actively advocate for the XOs until Intel chips made their way into the computers sometime this year. In fact, Intel and Negroponte had planned to display an Intel-powered XO at next week's International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but that is now off.

The brief dalliance with Intel and this week's breakup enhanced the drama surrounding the "$100 laptop" project, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology spinoff that originally had intended to have sold millions of innovative little green laptops in the developing world by now.

Instead the group has sold 300,000, with many countries that initially expressed interest later changing their minds. One hurdle has been the XOs' higher-than-originally advertised price and lack, for now, of support for the ubiquitous Windows operating system. But another hindrance has been its own buzz, because the group's plans to spread computers for developing-world education awoke rival vendors to get interested in the market.

Perhaps the most aggressive competitor was Intel, which Negroponte accused of showing interest merely to fend off an AMD machine. Then Negroponte made his peace with Intel CEO Paul Otellini last July, hoping to get an enemy close.

Negroponte said Friday that no longer having Intel on his team wouldn't hurt his efforts to find more international buyers.

"No, it probably restores some momentum," he said. "We were being extraordinarily distracted."

http://www.laptop.org
http://www.classmatepc.com

While this is a noble effort, I do have a problem with this. We have kids and even schools here at home in need of computers. How about we care for our own?

I given this example and it bares repeating. Charity begins at home. Would you allow your own child to starve while you fed the neighbor? I hope not.

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying the programs should be dropped. Every child shoud have a PC for school -- even an American child!!!

- Paul