One honest private rag describes the "recovery" as a dead-cat's bounce, and asks a quite pertinent question:

"Can you name anything the optimistic politicians and bankers have done to actually correct the fundamental problems facing Western civilization, instead of merely masking them?"

Spread out and subsidize the toxic liabilities, split up the car companies, what's next?

“You're talking from the view of someone who wanted Obama, and still seems to think there's something vastly different from corruption-as-usual.”

>>I won’t argue about wanting Obama. I did. And I still think from the options we had he is the better man for the job.

“I'm talking from the view of someone who never trusted him, nor the glorious visions of post-partisanship, who didn't think we'd get out of Iraq quickly, who didn't think we'd stand up to Republicans and their media, who didn't think we'd put women's rights or ethnic equality high on the totem pole, who didn't think we'd get meaningful health care reform, who didn't think we'd hold the torture regime accountable.”

>>While I did want Obama to be president. I did not count on his being able to just walk into Washington, wave a magic wand and make all my dreams come true. As I said the things ‘we’ want, ‘we’ are going to have to fight for. I did not ever get the impression that post-partisanship was close at hand with the ugly election process we had. It seemed stronger than ever. I understand you never liked or trusted Obama but I do trust him to do the best ‘he’ can. I just did not put the expectations on him that you express here. I do not think anyone could walk into the mess that our country is in and just ‘fix’ it with the snap of his/her fingers and have all of the perfect solutions and make everything right.

It is because I don’t place the responsibility on him to make everything happen that I do believe that we can get meaningful healthcare reform but certainly not if we just offer the typical reaction of blame the politicians and change nothing/do nothing ourselves. I believe if meaningful healthcare reform is worth having, it is worth fighting for.

“In short, give me your solution minus the optimism. The people and the press have voted overwhelmingly without asking the tough questions, and as the YouTube video shows, those questions still won't be answered even if someone like Greyson or Feingold slams their purse on the table screaming, "I want my money". Instead, the last months have been full of blather about how we can't look too close at the money transactions, can't look too closely at the torture procedures - we're scared, we need someone to do something, anything, tell us when we can open our eyes. The polls say the people want the torture, just don't make them watch too much of the process. These are the mainstream voters Obama has focused his efforts on. I'm too left-wing for him, I'm a cry baby, I should grow up, become practical and pragmatic.”

>>My job is optimism, not going to quit that. Solution? Well, I have ideas like taking action to create coalitions of groups that want to see meaningful healthcare reform and where there is agreement and work to create that series of events leading up to an event/demonstration on a national scale. I think Americans are mostly unified on getting meaningful healthcare reform. I think this is a realistic option. Part of the events should include ‘setting the people’s table for healthcare reform and inviting people to come and engage in dialogue and present different plans and ideas that might work so that we can kick things around. And other people may have much better ideas than mine.

Just as I don’t feel that I should just ‘expect’ the president to fix everything, I don’t expect the media to do what it should be doing without pressure from us. Right now it is ‘us’ that is missing in all of these problems. I do not believe that we can’t just point a finger and say they are supposed to do this and they are not so it’s not going to happen. Sometimes you have to do things yourself. I think that we as a people have been lackadaisical too long about government and media and what we have now is a result of this. We have left our employees in charge of our business for far too long.

We are going to have to work for and fight for what we want. I don’t give a gd what the polls say. I know that the politicians use media, message, and mind games to try to persuade and control public perception. We know that there have been crimes committed and it is up to us to make sure that there is accountability. You are completely mistaken if you think that I am some person in la la land expecting Obama to make everything okay. I don’t think any one person can just make this mess okay and I certainly don’t have any desire to attack you personally for your perspective. I think he is doing the best he can do with his current skills, tools at his disposal, and current understanding. He just the president.

“Obama has triangulated into regions I never wanted to go. No wonder he can easily campaign for Specter, compromise with the Blue Dogs, toss Wall Street a T-bone. The Democratic Party has gone off into the land of no deep principles, no fine print, just as the Republicans have destroyed themselves by worshiping money and hard-nose process politics (aka "rub the opposition's nose in shit") above all else.

>>No doubt, I don’t like some of these things either but I still think he’s making the best of the players, problems, and territory he has to deal with. The two parties have gotten lawless and ridiculous like teenagers who’ve been left without parental supervision for far too long. It is my opinion that ‘we’ are what is missing. If we don’t change, this is only going to get worse. If we don’t change, we may not only, not get meaningful healthcare reform; we may just sit back and let our country fall apart. Parenting teenagers is hard work. Having the kind of country we ‘want’ may require more from us than we have been willing to do.

The thing is we can. We can change things. If the things we want are worth having, then they are worth fighting for. If they aren’t, well then we can just sit back, go for a ride, and take what we get because it’s all we are willing to take responsibility for. It just depends on which way we ‘choose’ to direct our attention.
If you want things to be different, if you want things to get better my suggestion is ‘be different and get better’. No we may not be able to change everything we want but we can make it better, more perfect. You seem to me like a person who wants it all which is great because then we just keep on working to make it more perfect.

"Try this on for size: no one has a fucking clue what kind of person Obama will choose for Supreme Court justice. Though I would surmise it's not going to be far to the left. Obama doesn't have to have principles because we don't demand them of him. He can do whatever he wants and people will cheer and explain and excuse if necessary. It's amazing. "He's not as bad as Bush" is not an evolved political philosophy. National health insurance that is bad can be much much worse than living with the current system, much as I'd like to see a good national health system. Has anyone predicted what our banking/finance system will look like in 5 years, and how it will be for normal citizens and the health of the country? Are we back to assuming everything will be okay? "Trust me", the worst 2 words in politics."

>>As far as the Supreme Court goes. I actually believe that President Obama has a deep passion for the law. I think he himself would like to serve on the supreme court. I actually think he will take great care in this decision and I have confidence in him to make a good choice. His choice may not be the perfection you would desire but I believe that it will be good.

We have to get involved. We have been asleep at the wheel. I think that the republicans preferred it that way so they learned how to project hypnotic messaging to get us on board and let them run the show. Bad move ‘us’. I think the democrats and republicans both have strengths and weaknesses but right now ‘we ‘ are what is missing. And we can point all of the fingers and get pissed off at everyone and afraid about everything and give up hope and just take what we get because that’s all we are willing to do.
WE could also choose to take responsibility for the mess ‘we’ have created through our participation, involvement, or lack thereof and change that, start somewhere, and get to work.

I believe that if it’s worth having, it’s worth fighting for. I believe that anything is possible, we may have to work for it, however.

“One honest private rag describes the "recovery" as a dead-cat's bounce, and asks a quite pertinent question:
"Can you name anything the optimistic politicians and bankers have done to actually correct the fundamental problems facing Western civilization, instead of merely masking them?"
Spread out and subsidize the toxic liabilities, split up the car companies, what's next?”

When I was a teenager I picked up a random book at my grandparent’s house and I opened it at random to a page that had this poem:

(Two men looked out from prison bars. One saw mud and the other saw stars.)—I do not know the author.

Where we choose to focus our attention and how we choose to respond. That makes all the difference in the world.