www.salon.com

When then-freshman Vermont Congressman Bernie Sanders first arrived in Washington, D.C., he didn’t first tend to the great social democratic causes that he spent his life working on: a national living wage, health care for all, or expanding labor unions.

Rather, the very first bill he introduced was H.R. 695 – the Guard and Reserve Family Protection Act of 1991. The purpose of the bill was to make sure that reserve and National Guard soldiers who were deployed to serve in the Gulf War were entitled to any pay they may have missed as a result of going to war, to ensure that their deployment wages were equal to their civilian wages.

Kyle longed to return to the war, to the world he knew the best, where everything made sense and he was in the company of others who understood him and appreciated his talents. His wife, however, said that if he reenlisted she would take their two young children and leave him. Trying to find a sense of purpose outside of combat, Kyle participated in various activities for veterans, primarily hunting trips. In addition, he started a company that provided security at the 2012 London Olympics, helped guard ships near Somalia from pirates, and served briefly as a bodyguard for Sarah Palin.

How The Tea Party uses fake charities to get rich

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Meet Sal Russo, the man accused of running a faux veterans charity and Tea Party PAC -- to shadily pocket millions