The most important data point I see is that the longest depression in this nation's history was attended by the largest increase in government power and spending in history until that point.

Actually, the largest increase in government power and spending in history came with WWII. Which, not surprisingly, ended the Depression.

You rightwing nitwits keep forgetting that the Depression continued to get worse - much worse - until FDR came into office. He was able to cut unemployment in half and recover much of the lost value of the GDP even with the half-assed efforts of the early New Deal. If he'd spent money the way the Japanese did, the Depression would have been over by 1938, as it was in Japan.

Must really suck to have all the facts arrayed against you.

Consumer Reports got 22mpg overall in their testing of the 4 cylinder Outlander. You can get a fairly quiet safe ride in a Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe, along with 27mpg.

Why are people suggesting that a minivan would be a better alternative than a Mitsubishi Outlander? The 4 cylinder Outlander got 22mpg in mixed driving, according to Consumer Reports. The two most fuel efficient minivans - Honda's Odyssey and Toyota's Sienna - got only 19mpg. So the SUV gets three more miles per gallon than the most fuel-efficient minivan.

Little "SUV's" like the Outlander aren't even real SUV's. They're typically based on car or car-like platforms, not truck platforms, and many of these smaller "crossover" vehicles get better mileage than any minivan. That's because they're nothing more than jacked up wagons.

If you want something that can haul a little cargo but gets good mileage, buy a Toyota Matrix / Pontiac Vibe - 27mpg in CU's testing (well over 30mpg on the highway).

Is it greedy to want to invest your money wisely so you can have a decent cushion to live into old age on? Really? I mean, it's not like Ms. Roth made her money to begin with by evicting widows and orphans. Seems to me she sacrificed quite a bit to get to where she got to - and earn the money she earned - via her own talents and hard work.

Nobody deserves to have money earned thru the sweat of their brow stolen by a fucking thief, even if they are "greedy" for trying to maximize their return on investment.

You deserve the blame for this misjudgement. Fully and completely. Madoff did not steal your money. You voluntarily donated it to him.

"She was asking for it."

Sorry, while what Ms. Roth did was fundamentally unwise, the person who deserves all the blame is still Madoff. He didn't advertise that his brilliant investment strategy was really a Ponzi scheme.

Anybody who expects the Average Joe to be an expert in investing is an idiot themselves. You might as well expect people to perform brain surgery on themselves. These aren't skills our schools even come close to teaching the population at large - not even at the college level.

Hell, even the so-called experts were conned by Madoff. That's because finance is complicated and he was a slick, well connected crook - just like Mozillo over at Countrywide, the Arnalls at Ameriquest and all of the criminals running the moneycenter and investment banks in Manhattan.

As a dyed in the wool realist I suppose I should be happy to see my worldview validated by events of the past year, but it just makes me sad and angry - and not at the victims. Clowns like Madoff and his ilk should be strung up from the lampposts.

Obama seems to understand the Congressional Republicans about as well as he understands the likes of Reverends Warren and Wright. Obama is a rational man, and the Congressional Republicans - like Warren and Wright - are grandstanding, self-absorbed, manipulative assholes with only a tenuous connection to reality (i.e. they know how to jerk people around and get money and support from them). Accomplishing anything of material substance - beyond enriching themselves - is not something they're particularly good at, which is bad because material substance is exactly what the country needs.

Some Southern Republican is guaranteed to filibuster this budget regardless of how much Obama panders to their phony "concerns". The last thing the want is for the Democrats to possibly get any credit for a recovery. Anybody who thinks Obama can get enough Republicans onboard to overcome that filibuster is dreaming - not with any legislation that's worth passing he can't.

He might as well ask for what the country needs. At least then the gauntlet will have been thrown down.