Ross Mackenzie
Tribune Media

Brief comments on a garden variety of issues in the news....

Pollsters at the Pew Research Center asked 1,500 adults to use one word to describe their current view of Congress, now with about a 25 percent approval rating — "just the first word that comes to mind." The most frequently volunteered response: dysfunctional. Others with a strong frequency rating: corrupt, self-serving, self-centered, selfish, self-absorbed, inept, confused, incompetent, ineffective, lazy, bad, suck(s), crook(s), crooked, disappointing, gridlock, deadlock, idiots, idiotic, slow, mess, messed-up, messy, lousy, terrible, disorganized, unorganized, divided, good, not good, stupid, children, childish, childlike, do-nothing, failure, inadequate, greedy, joke, jokers, partisan, socialist, useless, worthless, bull(expletive), chaos, clowns...

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A leading Iranian mullah has located the cause of "earthquakes" in the promiscuousness of "many women who do not dress modestly (and) lead young men astray." So should we dismiss, as well, the blandishments offered by similar Iranian lofties about their peaceful intentions for the nuclear weapons they are now (the CIA says) capable of building?

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Andy Stern recently announced his retirement (after 14 years) as president of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU), government's leading union by membership. Visitor logs released by the White House in October showed Stern to have visited 22 times in the first nine months of the administration, clearly making him a favored Obamian ideological soulmate. So the President has named Stern to a federal commission weighing how to reduce the fast-rising federal deficit. He's an apt choice, having told Congress he believes "we need more...deficit spending."

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Here's one: Florida Congressman Kendrick Meek is the Democratic nominee for the same (Florida) U.S. Senate being sought by Republican Marco Rubio and former Republican (now independent) Charlie Crist — the state's governor. To defeat the dread Republican Rubio, will the Democratic Obama administration support Crist and ditch Democrat Meek — the single serious African-American candidate for the Senate this year?

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Bulletin: The Hillary Clinton State Department, evidently believing profoundly that American taxpayers should pay any price to showcase — in Italy — the work of American artists and architects, has committed $450,000 for two exhibitions in Venice. Says a deep-thinking State Department spokesman: "The U.S. presence at the (54th) Venice Biennale, one of the world's premier art and architectural fairs, is a demonstration of our commitment to engage with the world in the realm of culture and ideas." OK — but for nearly half-a-million dollars?

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The other day, the New York Stock Exchange delisted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, those federally backed mortgage lending companies so responsible for so much of the turmoil in real estate markets nationwide. The reasons for the delisting are no secret: Now effectively run by the federal government, Fan and Fred are incompetent. They're (a) in hock to the government for $145 billion in bailouts (and counting), and (b) long protected by Sen. Chris Dodd and Congressman Barney Frank — two foxes drawing up yet another federal bill to rehabilitate the nation's financial regulatory chicken coop.

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North Dakota's Board of Higher Education has issued a fatwa stripping the University of North Dakota of its sports teams' nickname and logo -- the Fighting Sioux. Among those outraged by the board's actions, and distinctly uninterested in smoking any peace pipe: UND's students and North Dakota's Sioux themselves. Never mind, says the all-knowing board; in these sensitive days and times, Fighting Sioux is politically incorrect and has to go. In contrast to, oh, you know — the Washington Redskins.

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Ross Mackenzie may be contacted at rmackenzie@tribune.com.