Boehner's Clown Show Returns

Thank God Congress has returned to Washington. Frankly, it was quite boring while they were on an extended vacation on Caribbean beaches and exotic ski slopes. (They were doing research on what the rest of us "free-loaders" are missing out on.)

Since the political scene was so boring. I was reduced to writing book reviews -- not nearly as much fun as writing about the the foibles and insanity of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Granted, there was the bigotry and hatred of the "Duck Dynasty" and the vile rhetoric of Ted Nugent, but in spite of some of the silliness that accompanied it, it was not humorous, it was despicable and un-American. In a somewhat lighter vein, Governor Chris Christie's tap dance around the truth was mildly entertaining, but I would not make fun of the big guy. He is too damn vindictive

Now don't get me wrong. I do not expect the GOP House of Representatives to do anything other than obstruct attempts by Obama to improve the economy, pass legislation to get people back to work, develop a sensible immigration policy, or redo the dysfunctional tax code. No these high paid "public servants" want to disable the country and then blame the President for the sorry state of affairs they have created.

But on the other hand, we the tax payers are paying these "public servants" a nice salary for not only doing nothing but preventing anything from happening. This is the Congress that has decided to limit their 2014 work days to 97!  Some of these same"hard working" legislators have complained that teachers have a 6-8 week summer vacation while they have given themselves 268 vacation days. They complained about needy school children receiving free lunches (even suggesting the kids clean toilets in exchange for lunch), while they have been receiving free lunches. They want to deprive working Americans of affordable health care, while they are receiving free health care. Although the price of stamps has just increased, they receive free postage. And for all of this (not to mention free travel expenses) they receive the paltry salary of $175,000. (That's $1,804.00 a day based on their 97 days of work.) But since over half of the members of Congress are millionaires, $175,000 may seem like chump change to them.

Although the unemployed would love to have a 40 hour week job and two weeks vacation, we cannot be too contentious with our "public servants" in Congress. They do not know they are "public servants," They think they are a privileged class because huge corporations and oligarchs like the Koch brothers throw tons of money their way as long as they follow orders. They are content to take legislation written by ALEC and introduce it  as legislation although they are not aware of its ramifications.

Today (1/29/14) the House passed a so-called Farm Bill which reduced the funding for food stamps by $8.6 billion while it continues very generous subsidies ("welfare for the wealthy") to corporate farmers and agribusiness.** (As the chart above indicates, many legislators benefit directly from those "subsidies.") Sorry about that, poor working families. We can't afford all that food for your families; we have to take care of the corporations -- after all they are people too, according to the Supreme Court.

The clowns have returned to Washington. Guys like me have silliness to write about, but the country should be crying.

* I admit not all craziness is in the House. After all, the Senate has Ted Cruz.

** Interesting that many corporate media organizations failed to report on the subsidies.

"Lone Survivor" Plus

Movie Poster

The world perhaps should be spared another review of Marcus Luttrell and Patrick Robinson's Lone Survivor, but I have read too many reviews that do not tell it like it is and I am going to do that.

In the first place, the reader should be advised that the first 160 pages of this 380 page book are a somewhat self-aggrandizing biography of the young Marcus Lutrell -- perhaps a luxury we tolerate in the young -- as well as a detailed (boring?) description of the training of Navy SEALs -- the best warriors in the history of the world according to Marcus. In addition, these pages are loaded with right-wing propaganda which could have been written by Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney. Luttrell wants us to believe that Iraq must have had weapons of mass destruction and was allied with al-Qaeda. Really? Not even George W. Bush believes those lies. At one point he even suggests that the abuse of prisoners at Abu-Graib was not a serious problem until the US press and Al Jazeera blew it out of portion. He also uses this part of the book to attack "liberal" politicians and press, although he never bothers to identify either. Probably for good reason, because there were few politicians or members of the press who had the balls to question the invasion of Iraq.

Also, young Mr Luttrell  questions our government's ROE (rules of engagement) and certain provisions of the Geneva Convention. He believes that these bleeding-heart, civilian, liberal-sponsored regulations are a hindrance to the efficiency and efficacy of his beloved SEALS. Perhaps Marcus is too young to remember the massacre at My Lai as well as other atrocities in Vietnam. In fact, he goes so far as to suggest that the rules of engagement were responsible for the deaths that occurred in Operation Redwing.

Another interesting conflict for Marcus is that in the beginning of the book he comes across as being extremely critical of Islam and Muslims, but at the end of the book,  after he tells us how Pashtun villagers endangered their own lives to save him, he is of course very grateful to these Muslims.

However, the real story of the book, "Operation Red Wings," is an amazing story of heroism, courage, and endurance on the part of SEAL Team 10 on the mountain border of Afghanistan and Pakistan. If the book had focused exclusively on this story, it would have been an excellent book. It is unfortunate that Luttrell felt compelled to use his story to preach his gospel.

I have yet to see the recently released Peter Berg movie version starring Mark Wahlberg, but I would hope that it tells the story of the ill-fated mission to capture or kill the Taliban leader, Ahmad Shah, and avoids those parts of the book not directly related to Operation Red Wings and its aftermath.

(For those who pay attention to such things, the movie was nominated for two Academy Awards -- Best Sound editing and Best Sound Mixing.)