Would I be out of line if I say every American who is unemployed should march on Washington and demand jobs?

It is interesting that the current unemployment rate of 9.8 percent is the only number quoted in the "mainstream" media. The U6 number of 17% quoted above is never reported on TV (at least that I have seen). The current unemployment situation is usually presented as "the worst since the 1980's". Ironically, if the BLS calculated the U6 as they did in the 80's the rate would be 21%--approaching depression-era levels.

One of my biggest disappointments came when Pres. Obama told a woman at a town hall meeting some time ago that many of the jobs would not be coming back. I must ask why not? There will be no recovery without jobs. The stimulus will not take up the slack, especially since many of the stimulus jobs are temporary in nature. Yet bringing jobs back in the private sector is not even being discussed.

Jobs must come back if the economy is going to recover, and yet what we are seeing is companies using the recession as an excuse for more offshoring and outsourcing. Even companies that are receiving taxpayer bailouts are retaining their foreign workers and offshoring operations while they lay off American workers. And congress is still allowing the import of H1B and L1 workers from cheap-labor countries as the corporations cite "shortages" of skilled workers.

This is disgusting and much more shameful than the Wall Street bonuses and CEO salaries. The irony is "We the People" are financing the movement of our jobs overseas and the destruction of our economy. I find myself thinking like a tea-bagger. "I want my country back." But I want it back from the corporations that control it today, and have run it into the ground.

Precious, I think you're on the right track. I got so fed up Friday that my 14 year old son and I boarded an Amtrak train from Portland to DC to deal with the health care issue. Along the way I have been told by everyone that coming here was useless, there's nothing to do here I can't do at home, and most of the things I hoped to do you can't do here. Apparently soap boxes have gone the way of the dinosaurs.

So I'm reformulating my plan, digging in my heels, and I'm going to find a way to make a difference while I'm here.

I can't think back on the founding of this country and believe there is not still a way to participate directly in the process of Democracy.

Amtrak is a nice way to travel, and affordable. If you feel called, just come here. Obama's OFA site can help you get connected when you're here, and after making some local contacts, you might be able to get some local folks helping you with unemployment as well.

BTW, I can't help but to wonder, if we had everyone covered, and health care was adequately funded, how dramatically the rate of unemployment might drop, what with all the new PAs, and RNPs, and RNs, and MAs, and imaging techs, and respiratory techs, etc we'd need to actually care for sick people instead of allowing them to become sicker.

At the end of Wednesday’s show, Thom hastily mentioned that one possible reason that we may remain in Afghanistan for an indeterminate amount of time is that we want to get our hands on its untapped resources. I wrote here last week that this isn’t a practical excuse for us to remain. For one thing, its major untapped resources are natural gas and coal (not oil), which we already have in abundance, and in the case of natural gas, its export potential would remain largely a regional commodity. There are mineral resources including high-grade iron ore and copper in the mountains of Afghanistan, but the dearth of Afghans with the needed skills, the lack of infrastructure (governmental or otherwise), the difficult terrain and constant conflicts between factions (to say nothing of our efforts to alienate as many people there as we can) has prevented projects that might have properly developed these resources. Outside of natural gas, Afghanistan exports almost no mineral resources at all, save maybe on the black market; what was “mined” has been used to finance inter-tribal warfare over the years.

The question then is are we there to stabilize the country enough to develop mining operations ourselves? The former Soviet Union tried to do it, and were unsuccessful, and they had more technical resources readily available. I rather doubt that the Bush administration coveted the country’s resources because of the additional cost it would entail (not to mention causing an international backlash if resource looting was our true purpose there), or else it would have made a more concerted effort to develop the Afghanistan’s infrastructure. We are, after all, about to pull out of Iraq, having done little of what we promised to do on the ground.

If anyone hasn't see Keith Olbermann's hour-long special comment delivered tonight (10/7) on Health Care -- you really must. It is Shakespearean and completely stunning.

Thom -- you have worked tireless to lay the foundation for a national (and global) Renaissance -- and I truly believe it is beginning. You did get me through the despair.... when all I could hear in the middle of the night was the wailing of widows and the weeping of children. I hear music now in the distance and it is coming closer....

Everyone should hear Wednesday's The Story on NPR, with Dick Gordon. He interviewed a couple who had United Healthcare, but had their policy cancelled retroactively after their premature twins were out of the hospital. Nearly a half a million in bills, and to really redefine chutzpah, United Healthcare kept all the money they had paid in premiums. The Mroz family should be wall to wall on TV and Radio. Maybe Tom could get them on.