It is time to face reality. The Democrats in power are working together with the Republicans to keep the war in Iraq and Afghanistan going, and they have more planned. They just have to act like they are trying to stop them, but can't.

Both parties are working for the multi-national corporations who spend billions of dollars a year to bribe "our" public servants to do their bidding.

War profiteering was a crime during WWII and it should be one now. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has sponsored a bill that won't see the light of day, the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007, to outlaw profiting from any war. Even if it does pass, it is merely a guideline for war profiteers to make their fortunes without breaking any laws, keeping it "completely legitimate."

Some politicians have tried this in the past, introducing bills that would outlaw war profiteering. Two in 2003 failed in a close, valiant battle.

It's all a grand Hollywood production for our consumption, and their benefit. The politicians are merely actors, and we are their captive audience. They don't want to stop war profiteering, they want to increase it, and the only way to increase profits is to prolong the war. At the same time, they must appear to be working very hard to stop it. It's the old "Good Cop--Bad Cop" routine, the Dems playing the part of the Good Cop.

They should call themselves the "Not-Ready-For-Peace-Time Players."

The Senate Armed Services Committee last week requested $647,500,000,000.00 for the 2008 Defense Authorization Bill. That's six hundred and forty-seven billion, five hundred million dollars for the 2008 military budget, and they will get it.

The money is already in the bank for the military industrialists, and the politicians have carried out their duties well. They were bought by the corporations at a price, and they will serve the corporations, not us citizens.

For our amusement, they performed a skit last week where some of the actors stayed up all night and even had beds brought into the Senate chamber, in case someone passed out from exhaustion (see, they are working hard). The media did their part, as the headlines read "Senate Democrats fell short this morning." "After a rare all-night session, in their attempt to force President Bush to begin withdrawing American troops from Iraq. The measure, which called for troops to begin departing within 120 days, was defeated in a procedural vote on what is known as a cloture motion. It received 52 "yes" votes, to 47 "no" votes, but Senate rules require 60 yes votes to pass the motion, which would have overcome a Republican filibuster of the measure."

Every time they talk about troop withdrawal, the media portrays it as an epic battle between the Democrats and the Republicans. Another close game this week, but the "Yankees" beat the "Red Sox" in extra innings. But don't worry, they'll play again real soon, so relax, go shopping, turn on the TV, and go back to sleep. --Tony Soldo