The older I get and the more news I read, the less I understand it. Because either there has to be some kind of disconnect between elected people and reality, or perhaps they live in some kind of time-warp bubble in which only they function, while the rest of the world moves along in real time.

Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat from Missouri said today that we have too many pressing security issues to delay voting on a nuclear arms treaty with Russia. She claims that the Republicans wishing to wait longer are merely using stalling tactics for political reasons. Conversely, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona said any urgency in ratifying the START legislation is politically motivated by the opposition and that there are far more pressing domestic matters during the next few weeks to be considered by the lame-duck Congress.

Now, here's my confusion. Russia's already proven to be a paper tiger, and likely close to totally broke. Their top echelon of public officials and government insiders have walked away with massive fortunes, probably stealing whatever was left when their economy blew up. So, basically you have a nation that's talking to itself. Thus, if that's the case, why in the world are we in any kind of hurry to negotiate any kind of treaty about anything with them, especially regarding nuclear weapons?

Lastly, why would we ever believe what those people told us about how many weapons they've destroyed, inspectors or not? Especially considering that they've never told us the truth about anything ever before. So, if Ms Caskill wants to believe these frauds, that's okay with me. So long as no treaty gets signed, she can believe anything she wants. But as for me, I'll be much happier if we walk away from any kind of treaty and keep building weapons of our own, because I live right here in the U.S., and not in Moscow.

As far as Senator Kyl's concerned, he went on to say that Congress has to pass tax rate extensions and a budget bill for the current fiscal year, adding that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid insists on finishing up "political commitments" he made to unions, homosexuals and immigrants. Kyl stated on Meet the Press, "Of course, Harry Reid can bring the START treaty up any time he wants to. But he has a different agenda. He's made some promise to political constituencies."

The Senator was referring to Reid's positions on don't ask, don't tell policy for gays in the military, the DREAM Act to give children of illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship and a federal unionization bill for government workers.

When you add up all the forgoing blather going back and forth in Congress, I think it illustrates my point about wondering how these politicians think, how they act and poses the question as to whether or not they realize what's happening in their own nation. Because it couldn't be clearer that what's needed in this country now is jobs, and jobs and jobs. Something that might help with that is a clear, concise determination on taxes. And, instead of more legislation, cutting the size of government by half or maybe two-thirds would make things run two thousand percent better.

And that leads me to two simple words that if uttered by every politician would make this country stronger by the minute. "I quit."

That's it for today folks.

Adios