Oh, now we are supposed to encouraged by the fact that Obama did not propose cutting Social Security? Talk about lowering expectations!
A huge majority of Americans do not want any changes in Social Security payments. Cutting social security is an issue that never should have come up in the first place.
I suspect that, with the Obama administration lowering expectations, social security will indeed fall prey to the financial industry sooner or later, notwithstanding Obama's "courageous" decision to not (yet) cave in during the State of the Union address.

i tried to watch and listen. could not do it.

i knew it was theatre for the re-election campaign.

i knew he would blow off the jobs problem, which he guaranteed when he stressed the importance of exports to the hiring of american workers.

i know obama is intelligent, perhaps smarter than clinton, certainly smarter than either bush or reagan.

therefore, understanding who runs the country, and how he will need them to get re-elected, he made sure there would be no talk of what a democratic society and economy should look like.

talking about global competitiveness with official unemployment near 10 percent and real unemployment closer to 25 percent is obscene.

the drive to become globally competitive is not the drive of a democratic society. the drive of a democratic society is to design and develop an economy that serves its citizens. the drive to create a globally competitive economy is wall street's drive.

unless obama talks about what a democratic society's economy should look like, i do not want to listen.

obama is the perfect blend of clinton's neoliberal economics with reagan-bush's neoconservative militarism. and that, my friends, is a presidency of the few, for the few, bought and paid for by the few.

meanwhile, some weak version of a slightly more representative democracy sinks deeper and deeper into the memory hole of america.

even the rest of the world no longer believes american mythology of the chosen one, the city on a shining hill, the exceptional empire (cough cough gag gag)...

obama has become a parody of himself. change we can believe in? funny catchy brand, no?

we look and act more and more like a decadent corrupt empire of the oligarichs, militarists, and friendly and not so friendly fascists.

the recent shooting in tucson was not an aberration, but the new dysfunctional normal when the Right controls the discourse of an America Armed, Dangerous, and Paranoid (not without some cause, ironically) to the Hilt.

How ironic that in a city where there really are more or less black helicopters flying overhead all day and night doing surveillance ops of the civilian population below, and where military intelligence training exercises and barhopping novices from their base camp intermingle with the sheeple (as many tucsonians refer to their fellow unenlightened ones unawares of the government plot to control them and take away their rights), and where fighter jets conducting daily joy rides break the silence of the desert paradise for clueless senior snowbirds on a five to ten minute regular interval....why should we be surprised if such an environment produces more than its fair share of tea party social deviance manifesting itself through a well known fascist cultured local police force, among other forms of institutionalized expression. oh and the joke is tucson natives are "too stoned" to know any better or do anything about it...luckily, mexico is just south and tucson traffics heavily in stolen cars going south, arms going south, and drugs coming in and going north, east, and west.

but it was nice of the president to give a positive spin on the community of tucson, since no one who actually lived there could honestly walk away from it without wondering how such a dystopian right wing nightmare could have manifested itself so fully in the heart of the 120 degree desert heat.

democracy needs great theatre to renew civilian vows of obedience and submission to their leadership class. the tucson massacre reminded us all that even among the political elites themselves, the monster the empire is unleashing at home and abroad in the name of the cleansing power of militarism and its wholesale and retail expressions of violence cannot easily be put back inside the bottle. the toxic potion spreads fast, and goes places we thought were safe.

but if a totalitarian stage of the national security corporate state is to emerge, we must all become convinced none of us have a right to be safe, secure, economically or physically.

obama is the carrot of persuasion after the heavy stick of bush jr, as clinton was the carrot after the heavy stick of bush sr.

obama can only act the part of democracy's president. deep down, he knows democracy is way too dangerous a political platform for those who will keep him in power, if he remains useful and faithful to their purposes.

"But it still is unconscionable to accept the idea that 25 million workers will go unemployed or under-employed, with millions more losing their home, because of the economic mismanagement by the country's leaders."

Of course Obama could not discuss WHO was responsible for the world-wide financial meltdown, since he has brought two of them into his administration in the past two weeks!

Is Obama TRYING not to get re-elected?! Sure does look, and sound, that way.

Your own position is actually valueble for me personally. Many thanks!

So where ought to people commence?

helping other people find their path ' and keep on it.