After thinking about this for a little while, I've decided that Republican and Democrat aren't very good names for the two major political parties any more. They ought to be renamed to "The Party in Power" and "The Party Not in Power". But Nick... the two parties believe in radically different things don't they? I guess... sort of. But the reality is that no matter what they say they believe in before the elections... whoever wins tends to do the same things once in power, and the other party tends to do the same things as part of the opposition. Let's review.

On Spending: The party in power passes enough bills with pork in it to make a pig the size of the moon. The party not in power complains that the party in power is running too high of a deficit, and that balancing the budget is our nation's number one priority. Remember the "Contract with America"?

On Federalism: The party in power passes as many national laws that violates state's rights as it wants. It routinely blackmails states into doing what it wants, and doesn't apologize for it because they're satisfying enough political action groups. The party not in power always seems to love federalism while they aren't the one's passing the laws. Isn't it strange how all of a sudden it's the Democrat's who are pushing for state's rights?

On Senatorial Approval: The party in power complains that the party not in power filibusters appointees so that nobody can ever get appointed. The party not in power talks about the long and noble tradition of the filibuster. Remember how much the Democrats complained when Clinton's appointees didn't get rubber stamped?

With the latest huge spending bill that got passed recently by the House... it makes you stop and ask yourself something. When was the last time you voted your Representative because he or she got money to build a local paper clip museum, or that 2 year study on the habits of nail clipping among the elderly? So why the hell do they think that getting that pork will get them elected? The last time I listened to an election debate, the topic was usually about reducing the amount of pork, not taking credit for it.

Reading the news these days would make me laugh if it wasn't so sickening.