As to the "Anyone else starting to feel like they just don't care anymore?" question above... well I don't know if I'm to the point of feeling like I don't care, more like I'm just going numb, I'd like to care, but I don't even know what to care about any more. Should I be pissed that the rich are going to continue getting their tax cut for another two years AT LEAST, should I be happy that SOME of the unemployed will continue getting their benefits for about one more year? Should I be happy or angry that the congress is what it is?

I think my confusion is being compounded by listening to the ever changing winds of progressive talk radio and the like.

I know, perhaps I'll just make up my mind here and now. I rather see the the tax cuts expire altogether. I don't think the unemployment extension will do squat, in essence we're refusing to tie the tournquet because we don't want to risk losing the limb... so we'll just bleed ourselves to death instead. It isn't an easy decision, until you look at the big picture.

N

We can still fight for change.

Call Democrats and Ask if They Support Pelosi if She Pushes Obama-GOP Tax Plan

The millionaires in the Senate voted Monday for a bill that will give the richest 2% of the country – including themselves – a huge tax break. But one in three middle class workers could actually see their taxes go UP as a result of the Obama-GOP tax plan. A vote could happen in the House as soon as today.

Democratic members of the House, led by Rep. Peter DeFazio of Oregon, were near unanimous in warning Speaker Nancy Pelosi last week not to bring the Obama-GOP plan for a vote without the support of the caucus.

http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2010/12/15/call-democrats-and-ask-if-they-support-pelosi-if-she-pushes-obama-gop-tax-plan/

@Gene Savoy, perhaps there is a parallel there... though I assume the Washingtons' doctors were actually believing they were helping, I don't think there's anyone in Washington that really believes these tax cuts are going to do the economy any good.

I'm becoming more and more convinced that a consumer based economy is just not a logical way to base an economy, it only guarantees that eventually everything will be consumed... then where will we be? We're just kicking the can down the road... and I believe that road eventually ends at a cliff overlooking an abysmal chasm.

M

I don't know if I'm giving up but let's face it when the top 1% have as much wealth as the bottom 90% it becomes obvious who is going to run the country/world. Evidence today Obama's mtg with the CEOs of top companies in the country. The CEO from Honeywell was quoted walking into the meeting saying it's not so much about what is discussed but the way or the tone of the meeting. They feel they are due more respect from the President since after all they represent the most wealth in the nation.

Re: the current bruhaha over tax cuts is a lot of smoke and mirrors and obfuscation on both sides of aisle. Why didn't the Dems just find a way to fund unemployment and forget negotiating with Republicans. We must start paying for this stuff at some point. But instead they, the Dems, loaded it up with more tax breaks for their favorite CEOs. And in the meantime all of us peons are screaming and yelling at each other. A lot of wasted energy and donated money to organizations supposedly fighting on our behalf.

When did the "free market" come to mean that successful corporations were to be "free" eliminate competition while claiming that the consumers are "free" to go elsewhere? I am old enough to remember when the post war economy was growing, businesses were opening up in the expanding communities and more market choices existed. If not so tragic, I would be amused by the younger pundits who espouse free market principles that have never been truly functioning unfettered in their lifetimes. Screaming your arguments at high volume fails to elucidate any facts or substance. I find it tragic that so many of the public are blinded by the love of these market principles that they are an enthusiastic audience for those who proclaim the philosophy.

Week of December 13, 2010 (15)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/opinion/14ledbetter.html?_r=2&ref=opinion

Ike

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/dec/11/julian-assange-jemima-khan?intcmp=239

Justice and fairness

http://www.opednews.com/articles/It-s-official--You-re-on-by-Michael-Collins-101215-942.html

You’re on your own, baby!!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/This-One-Is-For-You-Julian-by-Doug-Soderstrom-101214-806.html

This one’s for you!!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Excellent-Job---by-David-Glenn-Cox-101213-388.html

The conservatives say screw the Golden Rule!!!!!

http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-plot-to-destroy-Social-by-Michael-Collins-101214-403.html

We are now the land of paupers and slaves!!!!!

Reflection of the Week**

“Let us have the courage to believe in the bright future

and in a God who wills it for us – not a perfect world, but a better one.

Human hands and hearts and minds can create this better world.”

— The Challenge of Peace (337)

Thom, so Obama is still playing chess? Apparently, overnight you decided that he was preventing a future tax cut "victory" by the Republicans by capitulating, in a secret back door deal and without a fight, to everything the opposition wanted. This will never be remembered as a victory for the president but rather a cowardly sellout as it should be. This is really remarkable to me. That this disaster is being spun ad nauseum by the Progressive/Liberal media into a brilliant tactical move. It ain't and thinking so is dangerous and delusional thinking. I can't wait for the "new" Thom Hartmann revelation tomorrow. One thing is certain. It will be another silly waste-of-time attempt to prop up a failed and deceitful president.

Thom, I am sorry to say that you were seriously wrong today on your radio program. Your analysis that Obama is doing something really shrewd and clever is mistaken. Yes, if the REAL goal of all this is to get Obama re-elected, but definitely NO if it means something good for the country in the long run. What does it really matter if Obama get re-elected---his kind of Dems merely apply an anesthetic while the corporations operate on us. I mean just look at that Catfood commission he appointed. The Republicans did not force him into that one; nor the appointment of Geithner, Summers, etc. This is not a matter of a Black man who has to be careful in how he presents himself given the nature of the country. That unfortunately is partially true, but still look at what he has done when he DID have a free hand.

And by the way you were also seriously wrong in telling that caller about Hedges's essay that dissidents did not bring down the Soviet empire. You are disregarding that all those intellectuals became refuseniks and worked not at all or very weakly to support that society---all that brain power was wasted and therefore could not ameliorate the economic mistakes they were making. It was a society that was doomed because it lacked the intellectual wherewithal to analyze its problems and respond to them.... Beginning to sound like us?

Additional notes for December 15, 2010

Let me start by saying, “I do not believe in polls.” Obama remains popular with the American people? I am a cynic because American voters have the intelligence of a door knob. If the voters are smarter, then I give them credit the polls may be a signal to the Republican Crazy Party that Americans want answers for our many problems. The Republican crazies have created this mess from Nixon to the present crazies. The American people want ideas and leadership in resolving our economic mess and our warmongering mentality. PERSONALLY, I HOPE THAT I AM WRONG ABOUT AMERICAN STUPIDITY. If you recall, I may not always be right but I am never wrong. Will I be wrong this time? I truly doubt it.

http://news.antiwar.com/2010/12/15/red-cross-afghanistan-in-worst-state-in-30-years/

Afghan war is a lost cause!!!!!

http://reason.com/archives/2010/12/15/our-leaky-world

There are only two kinds of behavior. People are either peeing on us or leaking on us.

http://www.freep.com/article/20101215/OPINION05/101215020/1322/The-wrong-reaction-to-WikiLeaks

You betcha! Expect to be murdered!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/science/16terror.html?_r=1&hp

The American government is preparing us for the rapture and the end time.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-12-15-nuclear-fallout-test_N.htm?csp=34news&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A%2BUsatodaycomNation-TopStories%2B(News%2B-%2BNation%2B-%2BTop%2BStories)&POE=click-refer

More evidence that the rapture and the end time are near!!!

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/ostrich-america/

A worthwhile read!

This article is great and so I had to reycle it.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/This-One-Is-For-You-Julian-by-Doug-Soderstrom-101214-806.html