Whoa! John Stewart Criticises The Obama Administration

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I think Stewart is right here. Blocking pictures of the American military torturing foreigners to me says 'Doing this is ok because we sometimes get information that we need from it, but um..don't look at us while we do it, because it's totally wrong and we know it really'. Former Governer of Minnesota Jesse Ventura (yes, Jesse 'The Body' Ventura) made some pretty good points of on Fox this week. He asked that if waterboarding is so incredibly central to information gathering and attack prevention then, why doesn't America do it to domestic criminals and even domestic terrorists like Tim McVeigh? It's a good question, with an obvious answer and if a former wrestler can work it out, then more fool Fox right? This guy was a Navy Seal in Vietnam and had his lungs fucked up by Agent Orange (this is irrelevant - but this this guy is double hard) and is probably the only talking head who has actually been waterboarded (apart from Christopher Hitchens), shouldn't we be listening to him when he says it's torturous? Hmmm.

Also the dismissal of Dan Choi and 53 other openly gay servicemen (Arabic translators no less) is beyond ridiculous. Don't Ask Don't Tell is hopelessly flawed, it doesn't protect gay servicemen and women from discrimination and doesn't make the military any safer for gay soldiers to work in. I mean, what are they expecting to happen? Widespread military gaybashings? Isn't that happening already? If so, then problems in the military go deeper than homosexuality. It also angers me that President Obama has changed his mind on the issue, which he was so vehemently against while campaigning. I don't mind 'flip flopping' in itself, I think it's good that politicians learn more about an issue and change their minds. (I hate the way the public and media act as though listening to protest and changing your mind is a sign of weakness when to me it's a sign of good government and representation - but what do I know?) But simply refusing to get involved when you promised that you would is a whole bunch of bullhockey.

I have a very biased view of servicemen, everyone I speak to who lives in a garrison town has had problems with squaddies or knows someone who has, a mate of mine was thrown through the window of a restaurant in the middle of Colchester at midday by a squaddie who thought that he was 'looking at his bird'. Shouldn't we picking the best of the best to serve our countries? Not the violent and bigoted ones who just happen  to graduate West Point and Sandhurst*. The left must be pretty airaited about this as John Stewart is a dyed in the wool Obama supporter and to criticise him on television must have been a difficult decision to make. This is the kind of media analysis I like to do, it's clear, transparent doesn't take unnecessary potshots

Following American politics is much more interesting than following our own, mainly because I don't feel as depressed because these douchebags don't look after my interests, unlike the people we elected.  I feel sorry that Michael Martin is taking the fall for the expenses scandal. He didn't take the cash and stuff it into the pockets of the MPs, he shouldn't be taking the rap alone. Obviously.

*I'm a liberal, of course I am pre-programmed to hate the military. But you know, all the rapes (like this one, this one, oh and this one), murders (and don't forget the rapes AND murders) and Deepcuts don't help matters.