During a ‘5-Minute Interview’ with The Independent, Chaka Khan made a statement that Barack Obama was a puppet.

“Hopefully [Barack] Obama will bring in some change, but really he is just a puppet. Any person that runs as president is a servant of the big corporations.”

Before you start boycotting Chaka Khan, think about it. The statement is completely true.

As much as we’d all like to see some miraculous changes in the dynamics of politics, things probably will not change too drastically.

Technically, Congress makes the laws of the land and the presidents are just figureheads who carry out those laws. As you know, a two-thirds vote in both the House of Representatives and the House of Senate, will override a presidential veto.

So why haven’t the Houses vetoed Bush’s decisions involving Iraq or Afghanistan? I’ve often wondered this over the last seven years since 9/11.

I’ve come up with the notion that perhaps Bush’s predecessor, Bush Sr., still had friends in the White House. It’s as if they have cronies in Congress who are blindly signing our safety, our national deficit and our way of living away. Or maybe they are just afraid of change? You’d think so the way they are fighting Barack’s ideas for new policies.

My aunt recently had to move out of her home because she just couldn’t afford it anymore. Property taxes in Mass are no joke. Not to mention the cost of fuel to keep the house warm, the fact that her light bill has increased 30% and all the other day-today expenses affected by the rise in transportation costs. Her job doesn’t believe in ‘price of living’ increases, so she’s had to make some serious adjustments - as we all have.

Some people don’t believe that the gas prices have affected some in such drastic ways. They think that if you use store brands rather than name brands, or if you cut off your cable, you should be able to make ends meet. So what happens when you’re a widow with no children and you never had cable, you always used name brands and your middle name is ‘coupon clipper?’

You learn to leave your past behind and start over … like my aunt did. And you turn off the TV and stop watching the figureheads fuss and argue over things they’ll never change.