Aaaammeeerrr......iiicccaaannn....Pppollliii...ttiicccsss

I'm debating on whether or not to discuss the p word here because politics make people ugly. I'm just going to make one point that bashes everyone.

The main problem with American Politics is complacency and the fear of change too soon. Those are two things, but they go hand in hand.

(And no I'm not going to go all Barack on you because I said change.)

I have no idea if the same issue occurs with our friends across the pond, but American politics are limited from ever really get things done because of these two things.

When problems arise, as they always do, Congress (the opposite of progress) springs into action. Though springs is more like crawls. If you read a news magazine, you may see that it touts some whistleblower article on some major issue. If you read it and Congress is mentioned, the author usually gives a date of when the passed bill on whatever goes fully into effect. That date is usually in 15 years.

Fuel efficiency in cars, for example. The United States has some of the lowest efficiency standards in the world, behind China even. And so, the state of California, in all its progressive wonder, decided to motion for a bill raising the state efficiency requirements to that above the federal level. Of course, the automakers and their politican lackeys raised a big fuss. The bill was shot down, which would've eased standards to a level below China's current level by 2012. Now that's a start, but that's just the problem.

It's only a start.

The lawmakers in this country are afraid to make things happen now. I'm not saying everything should happen instantly, for a few things, easing is the only way to prevent disaster. But on some of the most trivial things, we have to wait 10 years for it to take effect, almost surely when a similar problem will arise that makes that band-aid useless. The complacency of the American people (which had a prime example until recently in gas prices), coupled with the lawmakers' fears of not being reelected because they did too much too fast that hurt a little causes things to seemingly never get done.

If Capitol Hill were full of Napoleons, however, that wouldn't be an issue. Nuclear war would be.