It's like beating your head against the wall.

Hubby and I have known who we're voting for since before the primaries even started. We're that annoying couple who watches the news every day and looks online for the news that mainstream media doesn't put out there. We're very politically-minded, and we can't get enough of what's going on in the world. Now, most people watch the presidential debates in order to decide who they're going to vote for (or in order to re-affirm who they're going to vote for). Hubby and I watch them so that we can get mad.

(Well, that's what it seems like, anyway.)

We rant and rave at the TV. We're screaming at the set as if John McCain can actually hear us (not like he could hear us even if we were screaming right in front of him. Yes, that was an "old" joke. He's old. Get over it.). And to add insult to injury, we actually recorded it so that we can rewind and re-watch the stuff that really pisses us off. Why? I don't know. Because we like pain?

Maybe after we're done, we'll go step on some rusty nails, just for kicks.

Can we look a little deeper??

It's interesting to hear John McCain talk about how the US has the second-highest business taxes in the world and how we need to lower those taxes to save our economy. But I wonder, has he ever looked at the statistics regarding pay disparity? The average CEO in America in 2004 made 431 times what his average worker made. Now keep in mind, that's the average worker, not the lowest paid worker. When you start comparing those differences, the number becomes astronomical. And this huge disparity is NOT happening all over the world. So yes, we have higher business taxes, but let's not jump on the bandwagon to say these high taxes are hurting our economy. These businesses pass on higher prices, lower wages, and fewer benefits in order to keep their high salaries, not because of high taxes.

Greed is human nature. That's something we have to accept as a society. We evolved in a competitive environment where being selfish made the difference between living and dying. You can't just expect that people who make more money will take it upon themselves to help those who are less fortunate. You can't expect ANY species to do ANYTHING simply for the good of the species. This has been studied and documented. That's why regulation (some of it in the form of higher taxes to pay for humanitarian programs) HAS to exist.

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should completely redistribute wealth and encourage "living on the system." After all, hard work and ingenuity should always be rewarded. But what I AM saying is that 1) we cannot assume there are unlimited resources in the world, 2) we can assume that greed will more often than not prevail, and 3) regulation is one way to combat excessive greed and put an end to these outrageously enormous disparities in pay.

Of course, this will never be discussed on the news. Why? Because it's much more entertaining to talk about putting lipstick on pigs. Suuuuuuuuueeeeeeeyyyyyyyyy.

And we wonder why nothing gets done in Washington.

So this evening, Hubby and I are watching the news, and we see this ad during a commercial break:



This led us to wonder, "what exactly is Senate Resolution 636?" I, of course, being the Google-happy girl I am, went immediately to the computer and hit the search engine. I wound up on the Library of Congress website where I discovered that Senate Resolution 636 is "a resolution recognizing the strategic success of the troop surge in Iraq and expressing gratitude to the members of the United States Armed Forces who made that success possible." It was sponsored by Joe Lieberman and introduced on July 31, 2008.

And this is what we pay our senators for. To sit around and vote on this. It is a purely political move. If a senator votes for it, then he or she is acknowledging that the surge worked (which in itself is completely debatable). If s/he votes against it, then s/he hates our troops. It's a lose-lose vote, hence the completely political goal. This is a complete waste of time, money, and advertising space. Everyone supports the troops (even the long-haired, tree-hugging hippies) even if they don't support the war. This is truly stupid.

I wonder how much Lieberman got for selling his soul...