The reason why only the stock market stays afloat while unemployment rises is that Obama has provided only half-assed solutions to economic problems and even those (solutions) are half-assed having been inspired and structured by neoliberal thinking; the same thinking that cause this entire de-regulated mess to happen in the first place. But to wish Obama to be different is to fail to understand who Obama is, the grand deception that he is. Obama is a dyed in the wool conservative Republican from the eighties.

Never fun to be denied as an American, but then too much easy credit is what helped get us where we are.

Umm-hmm, and they will probably vote Republican.

yeah, love to be making $12 an hour with help from your brother when you were fired 5 weeks before you got your pension and your 60 years old? Yeah, I would love to be in his position....Can't wait to work for home depot in my golden years...
MODERN DAY SLAVERY! It goes deeper than the banks and corporations...

I'll take an entrenched Democrat over an entrenched Republican any day. Supreme Court decisions are very important to me. Yeah sure I'd love to see a more progressive congress, but we get the government we participate in making.

Just what do The People expect? That a half-ass vote every four years is going to shift the Beast your way? That a disgruntled email conveniently written for you in advance and sent from the comfort of your home computer is going to have some cosmic impact on an ossified system? Ha. Grow up and get involved with the same effort you expect from your resentfully elected officials.

Why would any decent person want to run for office anyway? There's an entrenched system at top and a mass of whiny, demanding, do-nothing constituents at the bottom.

EAT THE RICH...THE POOR ARE TOUGH AND STRINGY!

This may be incorrect, but does anyone besides me see that the big boost to the stock market is the automatic retirement deductions coming from our paychecks? What happens when we start to take it out?

This is so funny. You should be writing sitcoms for Hollywood.

"What I do know is that true public servants - Democrats, progressives, whatever the affiliation"

You mean people like Charlie Rangel? or Chris Dodd? or Ben Nelson? or Mary Landrieu?

And who did Wall Street give money to in the last Presidential race? Some guy named Obama, I believe...

Obama has been at least as big a friend to the large banks as the Republicans. Just take a look at the economics team he chose: Summers and Geithner.

And lets not forget Obama's recent groveling at the feet of his good friend Jamie Dimon. And Dodd is doing his best to water down any financial regulation.

Both parties are captured by Wall Street. Throw them all out.

Actually if you look at just about any landscaping crew, they're almost all immigrants. Construction, probably 1/3 to 1/2 immigrants. Farm workers? Immigrants.
Are they legal? Who knows. I can't blame them. I can blame politicians and liberals who harp on immigrant rights.
Poor immigrants are used as a wedge to undercut wages. In my experience Black workers have been hurt the most.
NeoLiberals hate paying a living wage which is why they've done everything they can to crush the working class.
They say "US workers won't do the dirty jobs." Tell that to my plumber.

DonJon back again... Hey, I meant to ask why you are borrowing more just to fix a garage door?

If you seek change, then it is our duty to get off the treadmill. When the consumer says "enough, we will buy when the market values Human Being above profit," there will be real change. We must bring down this economic system just like communism was brought down.... "Mr. Obama, Tear down this bank..." Oh, no.. I see a new speech, DonJon

www.molochtheplutocracy.us

"I'll take an entrenched Democrat over an entrenched Republican any day. Supreme Court decisions are very important to me. Yeah sure I'd love to see a more progressive congress, but we get the government we participate in making."

Uh, sure. I guess you still buy into the Hope'n'Change marketing campaign, eh?

You've got to get over the high school civics version of American government. We get the government that the wealthiest 1% can buy. The **only** significant difference between the Dems and their supposed opponents is that the Dems like to cluck about how they'd rather not hand everything over to the oligarchy -- right before they do it. The Republicans are at least candid about their fondness for a plantation-style society.

The rich get richer & the masses dumber. Politicians are the "front" men. They play the "judas
goat " & we peasants think because we "VOTE" and
elect politicians that they represent the people! WRONG! THEY REPRESENT BANKSTERS & CORPORATIONS! The PAYMASTERS are the Lobbyists! HE WHO PAYS THE PIPER CALLS THE TUNE! The sham is the world over, England, Canada, France, Italy, Iran, Iraq, Russia, Poland, Ukraine,
Afghanistan, China etc including the USA,

We have a two party system all right, A guns-&-butter party and a guns-can't-afford-the-butter.

Affluence, by making people more independent & freer in their minds, also made them more resistant to authority in general & to the power of the State in particular. This was the lesson learned from the anti-war & anti-authority turmoil of the sixties which was started & spread by students who, at that stage of their lives, did not need to work for a living. The revolution of the 60's was financed by the excess wealth of the middle class paid through their educated youth who were in the schools & streets instead of being chained to a work bench. A prosperous middle class is the single greatest threat to an authoritarian State & needs be destroyed. The so called 'war on the middle class' is only one battle in the greater war on prosperity itself. Got troubles with labor unions? Cut them off at the roots. If we can't control the workers then we'll get rid of the jobs. No workers no unions. This battle has already been won. To sglover 22:39, high schools don't have civics classes anymore & not much education either. Americans learn geography war by war. Critical thinking? Subversive by definition, a tool too dangerous to place in the hands of the general public. Prosperity & democracy are interdependent. They go hand-in-hand. Lose one you lose the other. We've already lost our democracy & now we are losing our prosperity as well. This is not an accident. It is consciously deliberate. Yes, Textynn 06:29, there is something the rulers know that we don't. Terrorists are not a threat to the totalitarian state, in fact they justify tighter controls. If terrorists didn't exist they would have to be (& were) created. The dirty dark secret is that general prosperity itself is a threat to the State & the State has resolved to destroy it.

NM $8.93/hour for healthcare workers w/ power of life & death.& they sorta wonder???

Thanks Devon J. Noll! You tripped something in me I have been trying to get written down. Here is my best shot at it:
As I chat with average Americans during these turbulent times, an undercurrent of dissatisfaction mixed with confusion comes across. Most people do not know where this comes from or why. Since Obama is our current President it must be his ‘fault’. Just as the cause of the 1929 crash was Herbert Hoover’s ‘fault’ and not the regressive pro-money policies of the previous eight years.
Because most people do not think in terms of historical perspective, the ‘why’ is replaced with “I hurt today and I am scared of the future”. The lashing out begins to take the form of movements designed to get even with someone or something. Most of this ‘lashing out’ causes more problems than it ever fixes. The American public took it out on the technocrat Hoover and the system he was in charge of failed as he was unable or unwilling to lead.
The reason Franklin Roosevelt is the hero of the Great Depression, is not because of his ‘new’ ideas (The New Deal) but because of his willingness to be a positive action based leader. He led our country’s way out of the depression. Leadership. FDR actually started his administration with ideas formulated under Herbert Hoover but Hoover was afraid to implement. FDR’s leadership was; throw everything at the problem to show the people we are at least trying and (even if by accident) something might work.
Obama started out doing throwing everything into the mix to show positive, aggressive movement but has so far failed to succeed because it appears he loses interest, meaning weak. This weakness in our government’s primary leader filters down through each level.
When the primary leader in any organization is weak and rudderless, each layer below will also be rudderless. When we are on a rudderless ship, we become the massive WWII German, the Bismarck. A tiny biplane drops a single tiny torpedo, jams the rudder and the mighty battleship circles in the Atlantic Ocean with no hope until it is cornered and sunk.
Our government and system have become the mighty battleship because we are not building for the future. No one knows what is to happen next, no one knows what to expect, no one is painting the picture, because there is no one pointing to the goal, we do not know where the finish line is. So why should stick my neck out. Obama is the only one who can fix this, he must lead for the future and not only the news cycle.
Herbert Hoover’s answer to the unemployed WW1 vets was to send in Douglas MacArthur to force order, get rid of them and if we kill them (within eye site of the White House) at least they are dispersed. Out of sight, out of mind, problem solved for today.
FDR’s answer was put the unemployed to work building America in the CCC or in factories, making the things the CCC and a rebuilding American economy needed. Give people real work to rebuild their egos and confidences. Secure the banks so people could feel safe saving again. Once the people were secure in saving, they felt like spending again.
Our current governments, (Local, State and Federal) Republicans and Democrats only run their positions for the current news cycle. Those who try to do more are allowed to be shut down or shouted down by the corporate medias. Leadership is operating for the long view, throwing everything at it and leading 24/7. Leadership is needed, actually not just leadership, Positive Leadership. Positive Leadership builds up the power of the people; negative leadership builds the special classes, the top 1%.
Think positive leadership in organizations, business, governments and families; what do they have in common? Leadership taking us into the future where are building and not tearing down. We members of the group being lead are willing to go with and not fight kicking and screaming because we see a better future. We are willing to be led, when we feel our leaders are helping the majority of us and not just the special interests.
I am not trying to be partisan; it might appear so on the surface but it is a look through lessons learned from history. Everything old is new again. Since both parties are at fault our problem is structural. We the people have allowed our governments to grow because they are leaderless. We may have people in charge but they are just going through the motions rudderless.