I Ain t Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up (Thorndike Basic)

EUR 172,13

Die Welt bräuchte mehr Jesse Venturas - Ich habe das Buch an einem Wochenende durchgelesen, und es hat mich sehr zum Nachdenken angeregt. Politiker treiben oftmals ein undurchschaubares Spiel und mit der Wahrheit ist es oft nicht weit her. Ich zähle mich auch zu den Menschen, die von der Politik oft wenig bis gar nichts halten, denn man wird nur für blöd verkauft.In Amerika, so scheint es, gehen die Uhren doch noch ein wenig anders. Der vielzitierte American Dream kommt doch noch zur Geltung, wenn die Menschen sich dazu durchringen. Und durchringen mußte sich auch Jesse Ventura.In seiner Biographie I Ain t Got Time to Bleed erzählt er seinen Werdegang. Und als Ex-Navy Seal, Wrestler und Kommentator hat er schon in Jungen Jahren gelernt, sich durchzusetzen. Das legendäre an ihm ist aber sein loses Mundwerk. Nun, viele Leute haben Probleme mit Menschen, die offen ihre Meinung sagen. So auch die Gegner von Ventura, die aus allen Lagern kommen.Jesse Ventura, der eigentlich Jim Janos heißt nutzte seine Klappe allerdings dafür, um im politischem Establishment einmal kräftig für Furore zu sorgen. Und sein Einzug in die Politik ist als politisches Wunder zu bezeichnen, da er aus einer Schicht bzw. Berufsgruppe kommt, die nicht unbedingt für politische Ämter in Frage kommen.Ventura wurde zuerst als Bürgermeister von Brooklyn Park, Minnesota ernannt, um den politischen Machenschaften den Kampf anzusagen. Vor allem sein Auftritt als Common Man gefiel dem Volk, da er nicht zu den Republikanern und Demokraten zählte. Während seiner Amtszeit verbesserte Ventura vieles grundlegend, vor allem die Kriminalität verringerte sich in seiner Stadt. Auch die Grundrechte und dubiose Gesetze wurden verändert.Seine Popularität verhalf ihm nach seiner Amtszeit als Bürgermeister zum Sitz des Gouverneurs des Bundesstaates Minnesota. Noch nie hatte eine third party (die Reformpartei) als Außenseiter den politisch Etablierten so eine herbe Wahlniederlage erteilt. Man nahm Ventura als politischen Emporkömmling nicht ernst und bei der Wahl des Gouverneurs sollte sich das rächen.Das Buch handelt wie gesagt größtenteils von Venturas Ein- und Aufstieg in die Welt der Politik. Aber auch seine anderen Tätigkeiten sowie seine Jugend kommen in diesem erfrischend zu lesenden Buch nicht zu kurz.Man kann getrost sagen, dass Jesse Ventura wohl einmalig in der Welt der Politik sein wird. Wo hört man heutzutage noch Politiker, die der Meinung sind ein Budgetüberschuß sollte den Bürgern zugesprochen werden, da diese bereits hohe Steuern zahlen müssen? Ventura sieht nicht ein, dass ein brav arbeitender Bürger die Hälfte seines Einkommens der Regierung zuschieben muß. Wahnsinn! Soviel Ehrlichkeit ist in der Politik nicht nur selten, die gibt s in unseren Breiten gar nicht! Das Krasse ist aber, dass der Mann dies für seinen Bundesstaat aber durchgesetzt hat.Klare Sache, dass man durch diese Robin Hood Methoden nicht nur Freunde hat. Man schafft sich dadurch auch viele Feinde. Vor allem die, denen nun die Butter vom Brot genommen wird, mucken auf.Fazit: unbedingt lesen, wenn man die Ansichten eines grundehrlichen Politikers lesen will. Dies ist Jesse Venturas erstes Buch, und es ist nicht zu Unrecht auf der Bestseller Liste der New York Times zu finden gewesen. Wer Venturas Ansichten teilt, der weiß, was auf dieser Welt falsch läuft. Superbes Werk!

A straightforward look into Jesse Ventura s mind - Jesse Ventura is one of the most influential, interesting, and eccentric people in the United States today, and this autobiography is a clear cross-section of his views on wrestling, the Navy SEALs, politics, and life in general. Governor Ventura states his goal in writing this book is to give his reader a straight-shooting dose of the honest facts, and he does that with style - his own style. I Ain t Got Time to Bleed reads just like Ventura speaks, if you ve ever seen him on TV, and gives a particularly good insight into current U.S. politics from the mind of one of America s most outspoken and influential critics. Ventura praises the American system, claiming that his rise to the top in Minnesota is evidence that the American dream is alive and well. But he also criticizes the career politicians, who he claims run our country today. He passionately calls for more Americans making their voice heard at the polls to return the system to its ideal. In this book, Ventura achieves what he set out to do: take a close look at America itself through the eyes of a private citizen who has become a national public figure and tell the world what he sees.

Exciting and articulate - While I am a fan of Jesse, and support his governorship of Minnesota, I m not clouding my review with my agreement with what he says.This is a book by a politician (albeit not a professional one) espousing his views on many facets of political (and therefore social) life. Jesse is very articulate in what he believes, and says it well here. He is consistent and clear - thus gaining him 5 stars for this book. You will definitely know what he thinks, and what he is doing politically, after reading this book.I also appreciate his willingness to replay his life - what brought him to where he is, and especially I appreciate his candor and his honesty about even the not-so-glamorous things he has done. He makes no apologies for what he has done or for what he believes, which is a very welcome way for a politician to write. His book would benefit from more exposition, but he covers an awful lot of ground here, and as he often says, he just doesn t have the space to go into great detail about everything. Hopefully he will continue to write, and will concentrate on more specific items in those writings. But of course, one can also watch his governorship to learn more about the specifics, too.It is unfortunate that he gets the bad press he does - he is one of few honest politicians out there. Whether you agree with him or not, at least he tells us what he thinks and believes about the many important things he is doing as governor.

Entertaining, inspiring, horrifying and often baffling. - I read this book in two sittings, and I still pick it up to reread parts. I am not sure what to make of Jesse Ventura. But the book is fun to read and think about.Ventura s anecdotes are entertaining, and lend an air of credibility. The writing style reads exactly like he talks, so I doubt it was ghostwritten. He gives so many unsavory details about his past, I doubt that he is hiding anything. Putting it cruelly, it feels too dumb to be a lie.His politics match well with what one might call the forgotten middle, the white working and lower middle classes that make up about 50% of the electorate. Ventura has contempt for both the big-government, cultural elite Democrats and the big-business, religious right Republicans. It is not clear if this is because Jesse is just an ordinary guy who feels that way or if he just realized he could use that formula to win an election.If we take Jesse at face value, the book is inspiring. This is the story of a family man who got mad at the system and won some elections against expert opinion and long odds. On the other hand, I find it hard to take pro-wrestlers at face value, and I was often horrified that such a crude and often moronic person could be made governor. It seemed he didn t think about some issues much at all, and just spewed a mix of folk-wisdom homilies, talk-radio soundbites and self-promoting demagoguery. (Let s take on the old-boys network! Who they are and what Jesse will do differently is left unsaid.)I really hope that Jess is for real, but I don t know after reading this book. We probably won t really know until he s up for re-election. The book leaves you with some stuff to think about, like whether or not anybody who wasn t in showbusiness could pull off a third-party victory like that in a statewide election. I think that Ventura has the potential to be a very powerful force in American politics, a latter day, non-racist version of George Wallace who could win working-class southerners from the GOP and conservative Reagan democrats up north. If he gets the credibility that comes with re-election, he would be a force to be reckoned with on the national stage.

A straightforward look into Jesse Ventura s mind - Jesse Ventura is one of the most influential, interesting, and eccentric people in the United States today, and this autobiography is a clear cross-section of his views on wrestling, the Navy SEALs, politics, and life in general. Governor Ventura states his goal in writing this book is to give his reader a straight-shooting dose of the honest facts, and he does that with style - his own style. I Ain t Got Time to Bleed reads just like Ventura speaks, if you ve ever seen him on TV, and gives a particularly good insight into current U.S. politics from the mind of one of America s most outspoken and influential critics. Ventura praises the American system, claiming that his rise to the top in Minnesota is evidence that the American dream is alive and well. But he also criticizes the career politicians, who he claims run our country today. He passionately calls for more Americans making their voice heard at the polls to return the system to its ideal. In this book, Ventura achieves what he set out to do: take a close look at America itself through the eyes of a private citizen who has become a national public figure and tell the world what he sees.