"What are you doing?" the child asked his father at the checkout counter.

The father swiped his credit card and answered, "I'm raising my debt ceiling."

The debt ceiling is an imaginary line. Not an imaginary line in the sand (which would make it tangible), but an imaginary we-can't-see-it-at-all line.

There is no value in it. Nothing should be traded or bartered or dealt to raise it.

And yet we witnessed grown men and women who were elected by us treat the debt ceiling like it was the greatest thing ever invented by man...and thus was worth whatever they could throw at the dart board.

So we got a "deal" that means less than nothing, won't do a damn thing to get us out of the financial problems we have, and then caused a long gestating stock crash.

The President should have just raised the thing by fiat. The Republicans can't seem to get it together to do anything, so why would they be able to do anything but gripe about something the 14th Amendment vaguely says is in the President's power?

But no, we got to watch as congress did nothing. Played some golf. Called people names. Cried. Said ridiculous things that contradicted something they'd said not too long ago. In other words, we saw congress "do" what they always do. Screw it all up even worse.

Congrats everyone, nothing will get done until the 2012 election because that's all politics are apparently about. Not about doing the "business" of the nation, nope it's all about getting elected again. And again. And yet again.

How can we not think that? We're talking about "stalled" presidential campaigns and there's still almost a year and a half till the election.

You know what's going to decide the next national election? How everyone feels when they vote in the fall of 2012.

So get back to work congress...oh wait, you're on a month-long vacation. Are you all European? No one in this country takes a month off except the rich and the elected.

If the rest of us take the month off, it means we're one of the millions of unemployed you all aren't doing a damn thing to help.

Stephen Michael Quezada, a local actor with a supporting role on Breaking Bad, was asked to support the current governor of New Mexico. His response, in the ABQ weekly Alibi this week, was this: "They called me and they wanted me to join their campaign, and here they are totally destroying the industry. And then they all tell me, she's Hispanic, you should support her. And I'm like, I want to support people who support people."

Government for the people, right? That's what governments are supposed to support, right? Right?!!!?

In real business, a person who is constantly trying to promote themselves instead of doing their job is a cancer on the heart of the business. And, to top it off, they're usually assholes.

But shameless self-promotion is the only "job" I see politicians doing these days.

No wonder this nation is in a world of shit.

Matt Worley supports real people doing real things.