Two Thursdays ago, I was deeply concerned over a vote taking place. It was epic – two sides, once bitter enemies, in violent conflict. The opposing party held the lead, and I took it upon myself to rock the vote and fight for the side I believed was right.

Namely, VH1’s Rock Show was holding an online poll determining “Which cover song kicks the most ass?” The choices were the Guns & Roses’ cover of “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door,” Van Halen’s “Pretty Woman,” Pantera’s “Planet Caravan,” Metallica’s “Turn the Page” and Megadeth’s “Anarchy in the U.K.”

The first three bands were blown away by an onslaught of Metallica fans, and I feared that even the venerable Megadeth (who had previously won “Which band made you want to jump into the mosh pit”) could suffer defeat in the melee.

Metallica commanded an astounding 89 percent of all votes cast, while Megadeth garnered only 8 percent and the others had 1 percent apiece.

I could only assume that some crazed fan set up a continuous-voting script in Metallica’s favor to control such a lead. Unfazed, I rallied for support on the Megadeth bulletin board.

After two solid days of voting (and a script or two of my own), followed by a week of vigilance, Megadeth was declared the winner on Friday’s show with 60-some percent.

Their music video was played as reward. Still savoring the victory, I found it ironic that “Anarchy” prevailed only through a coordinated and multi-tier voting effort.

While Megadeth’s 60-plus percent victory may represent a clear victory, the victor of the recent 65-35 passage of a $1.2 trillion version of President’s Bush’s tax plan at the hands of the Senate is far more ambiguous.

It should be noted that this $1.2 trillion tax cut over the next 10 years (and $85 billion earmarked for this year) is a tad smaller than the $1.6 trillion tax cut Bush spoke of during his campaign. Still, this is the largest tax cut America has seen since I was born. So Bush wins, sort of.

And yet, at a time when a Democrat majority is nowhere to be found, it’s reassuring to see that they’re still capable of preventing an all-out conservative love-fest.

The 65-35 Senate vote is misleading in that it seems to hint moderate bipartisanship (all 50 Republicans plus 15 moderate Democrats voted for). But really, Bush couldn’t garner the votes he needed to pass his original $1.6 trillion plan.

Two Republicans senators, James Jeffords of Vermont and Lincoln Chafee, were against it, and only one Democrat, Zell Miller of Georgia was in favor. The Senate chose to compromise and after much debate reduced the amount to $1.2 trillion, an amount more amicable to Democrats. (Well, at least 15 of them.)

Bush cannot claim a complete victory. He visited 22 states in an attempt to warm citizens to his tax plan and was previously hoping for “enough money in the proposed budget to not only reduce all marginal rates, but to eliminate the death tax, so that people who build up assets are able to transfer them from one generation to the next, regardless of a person’s race.”

He fell short of this goal. Democrats cannot claim victory, either, as they were initially hoping for something more in the $500 billion range.

Instead, to quote The New York Times, we find that “the Senate is a volatile body over which neither party exercises perfect control. Both Democrats and Republicans showed they could stand up to Vice President Dick Cheney’s `torture chamber’ lobbying tactics. These developments suggest that Mr. Bush will have to ease up on his harsh conservative agenda and practice the bipartisan deal-making that he espoused on the campaign trail.”

While the state of the Senate appears to be one of equilibrium, both sides are spinning this as a victory for their respective party.

Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, has fashioned quote-perfect sound bites like, “if this a victory, there ought to be more like them,” and Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas has taken to football analogies.

Not that it matters which political party “won.” The real winners here are the American people.

I’m already looking ahead to how I plan to enjoy this tax cut for the next 10 years. The cut, which I hope to get a sizeable piece of, is something I’m actually looking forward to.

I mean, given all the things that Bush is doing or plans to do – reverting to a decades-old arsenic standard for our drinking water, drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, backing off on a pledge to curb C02 emission or servicing big business – this tax cut strikes me as the most agreeable of his proposals.

The best part of the plan is that the cuts start out small and gradually increase over the years. This is important to me, because I’ve got two more years here at Iowa State before I strike it rich.

During this time, the tax cut will only be starting up, like a lethargic black bear named Gary waking up from hibernation, or my mom’s 1986 Volvo going from zero to 60. I’ll hop in once it really starts rolling.

This means I’ll still have the meatier eight years of meaningful tax relief when I will hopefully be raking in the big dollars. During this time, I’ll be programming metallic, die-cast puppies to flop their ears and yip or developing video games with graphic violence and sexually explicit content.

Bush will reward my efforts by mercifully shearing tens of thousands of dollars off my taxes, which will only increase as my wealth skyrockets exponentially.

With any luck, I’ll die with countless millions of dollars and thousands of acres of estate, the entirety of which I’ve decided to donate to the ISU Foundation. After all, Kildee Hall must live on.

Sam Wong is a sophomore in electrical engineering from Ames.