Tired of business as usual?

There was just a commercial on television for Dino Rossi, the Republican running for governor in the fine state of Washington. And in it, he says that he'll bring "change" to the government.

Does anyone really believe this? I can't count the number of times I've heard politicians promise to bring change, and it's probably the lamest empty promise a candidate can say. First, they don't say what kind of changes they're promising. Secondly, they aren't dictators so the changes they can implement are limited.

And while I'm at it, I hate those commercials when politicians say they're for education, for health care, for small business, for [fill in the blank]. Really? Is that the best they can do to distinguish themselves from their opponents? And does anyone really believe that such opponents would actually be against such things?

It would be so wonderful if politicians actually explained what they would try to change, and perhaps why they feel such changes are important. I just want to vote against them whenever I see their commercials that are full of empty promises.

But the part that annoys me the most--I have to assume that there actually are a large number of people who DO believe all these empty promises. After all, why would they spend millions of dollars on them if they didn't work?

In this case, I'm complaining about Rossi's ads, but Christine Gregiore, the incumbent governor hasn't done any better.

Her ads tend to focus on how well Washington state is doing, despite all the troubles in the rest of the country, seeming to imply that she's single-handedly for everything that has gone right in the last four years. Yeah, sure. And there's a bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell....

I'd rather know what sorts of changes she'd like to focus her efforts on if she were to be reelected. Now that's the type of information one can make a quality decision with.

I Hate Oil

Anyone that reads this blog knows I don't worry too much about oil prices--that's not the part I hate. My hate is directed to the obsession people have about it. I have the 11:00 news on right now, and they reported that gas prices went down one cent per gallon overnight in the Seattle area.

Really? Is that news? I have a hard time believing that there's a large number of people who were breathlessly waiting to find out how much gas prices dropped over the course of a single night. Even when oil isn't news, it still makes the news. Enough is enough.

I vote that the news media should not be allowed to report the change in oil prices more than once per week. Perhaps Monday at high noon, because everyone hates Monday already, so reporting the gas prices shouldn't make the day any worse. =)

In other news..... I've been losing a boatload of money in the stock market lately, but I can't help but be thrilled at how low some of those stock prices have gone. Buy! Buy! Buy! I can't remember a time when I've felt that stocks as a whole have been trading at such desirable levels, and I'm sending my government rebate check to my IRA! Woo-who! Now I just need to decide.... which stock to buy? So many choices.... So little money to buy with. *sigh*