I've been avoiding talking about the current political (and economic and job) situation(s) here lately because it's got me in such a funk. With the attacks on India, the total disintegration of any kind of process in Israel, the executive privilege Bush is invoking and Ashcroft in general, I find myself bereft of hope when I think of it all. Add to that this tidbit that I didn't see in my usual news perusals of the past few days: Members of Congress set for $4,900 pay raise. You'd think in the middle of a recession and a war, with the budget surplus evaporated and unemployment on the rise, that Congress could forgo a raise this year (it "will be the third congressional pay raise in the last four years.") After all, isn't that what most people are doing, if they're lucky enough to have jobs? ('Round here you can't even get a job doing HTML for a porn site for $18/hr.) Guh. This stuff makes me sick.