Two Reviews

First the Movie - What Happens in Vegas

I really enjoyed this light-hearted film staring Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher. The story is rather simplistic. She gets dumped by her boy friend and he gets fired by his boss (who also happens to be his father) and they both wind up in Las Vegas where they meet, have a drunken night and wind up married. They agree to separate and she gives him a quarter which he puts in a slot machine and wins $3,000,000. Community property folks - but the Judge won't let them divorce for six months.

They were both very good in this film and there were several laugh out loud moments. If you want a fun evening go see it.

The other neat thing was I saw the trailer for Mamma Mia with Meryl Streep. I saw this at the Civic Center and really am excited that it is coming to film. It is a great story with great songs and Meryl Streep is going to be great in it. During one scene the way she was moving made me want to get up and dance.


Next the book. Great American Hypocrites: Toppling the Big Myths of Republican Politics

I was given this book and I have mentioned before. It was somewhat of an eye-opener but really I knew a lot of it. The author takes you through the things which the Republican's of today say and what they do. John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich and others come across as the phony do as I say not as I do and he exposed the myth that the Republican party is one that wants you to think that they are against spending and budget deficits and government poking their noses into peoples private business. The party that claims to be fiscally responsible but have taken the large surplus the Clinton's left into a gigantic deficit.

John McCain is described as "The Same Old Produce Wrapped in the Same Old Packaging."
From a review

Ever since the cowboy image of Ronald Reagan was sold to Americans, the Republican Party has used the same John Wayne imagery to support its candidates and take elections. We all know how they govern, but
the right-wing propaganda machine is very adept at hijacking debate
and marketing their candidates as effectively as the Marlboro Man.
For example:

Myth: The Republican nominee is an upstanding, regular guy who shares the values of the common man.
Reality: He divorced his first wife in order to marry a young multimillionaire heiress whose family then funded his political career.

Myth: Republicans are brave and courageous.
Reality: It’s a party filled with chicken hawks and draft dodgers.

Myth: Republicans are strong on defense and will keep us safe.
Reality: They prey on fears, and their endless wars make America far less secure.

Myth: The Republicans are the party of fiscal restraint and small, limited
government.
Reality: Soaring deficits, unchecked presidential power, and an increasingly invasive surveillance state are par for their course.

He concludes

" The press refuses to subject him [McCain] to critical scrutiny because of their great personal affection for hem. And he is held our as the honor-bound truth-teller despite both a public and private life that has long ceased to contain any acts of honor and truth-telling.

John McCain is a natural candidate, right at home in a political party led by Great American Hypocrites and with a press corps that reveres great American hypocrisy. The press adores him for the same vapid, personality based reasons it adored George W. Bush. And McCain's media-sustained reputation as a trans-partisan man of principle and conviction is every bit as genuine as it was in the case of Bush. If the GOP-media machinery manages to elect him, he will undoubtedly produce extremely similar -- if not worse -- results."

This is an important book and deserves a wide reading by everyone who is concerned about where our country has gone in the last 7 years.