Sunday, March 30, 2003

Fiddling Around While Rome Burns

Just got back from a French Solidarity potluck where everyone brought French food and ate under a banner reading: "Faites l'amour, pas la guerre."

I never fail to be surprised at the silliness that some political figures in this country appear proud to display. We've already been entertained by the House of Representatives voting to change the name of French Fries to Freedom Fries. And Senator Byrd (D-WV) has the nerve to say that Congress isn't debating the war!

Now some of our political leaders seem to have risen to an even higher level of stupidity. But wait, let's set the scene: lousy economy, high unemployment, exploding deficit, illegal war -- just to name a few. All of these problems being tackled by our fearless elected representatives you think? Check this out in today's Washington Post:

Inventing the term "freedom fries" may have failed to impress folks in Paris, so now several dozen members of Congress are proposing a more tangible means of conveying American anger toward France: cutting off U.S. military contracts with Sodexho Inc., a French-owned food service firm.

Fifty-nine House members signed a letter sent yesterday to Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld urging the cancellation of Sodexho's dealings with the Pentagon, which include an $881 million contract to feed U.S. Marines at 55 facilities, according to the letter's author, Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.). "My colleagues and I abhor the idea of continuing to pour American dollars into a French based firm," the letter says.


Oops. Seems that although Sodexho is owned by the French, the company has 110,000 employees in the United States, including more than 4,000 in Kingston's home state of Georgia.

This is why these guys are elected? These are the guys running the most powerful country in the world? Bah! Let them eat snails.