The author neglects to mention that it was Israel that broke the cease-fire on November 4, 2008. Why is it so difficult to give them the "credit" they are due?

Although it would be nearly impossible to accomplish, America could bring peace to Palestine/Israel by the same means that the last apartheid state was ended. We could simply institute a boycott of Israel until it agrees to return to its 1967 borders and negotiate fair water rights with Palestine. I really don't think the Israelis could last very long without the 5 Billion dollars per year we give them, especially if we gave it to their victims.

The killing of innocent children with our weapons and money by Israel is a source of undying shame to this relative of a Holocaust survivor. Hopefully, Obama and Clinton can help bring some much-needed sanity and compassion to this troubled land.

Now some other country gets to be known for having a buffoon for a leader. I am feeling more post-bush with every Berlusconi utterance.

Oh yes, CA is asking for a handout. How easily people forget that CA is one of the state's that has been subsidizing all of the rest for the past 60 years. They are not so much asking for a handout as for some return on their investment in the feds. Of course, I'm sure you don't live in one of those southern red states that is a net thief of federal money (paying less than received).

Israel has a legal obligation to protect the health and safety of the civilian population in the lands it is ILLEGALLY occupying. Thus the act of launching a military assault on these people is a war crime in itself. Of course, what is really getting my goat is the fact that this killing was done with my tax dollars. It is almost enough to cause me to swear a vow of poverty.

St. Ronald was a master of the American political truism that if you repeat a lie over and over, it will become a political truth. Unfortunately, reality doesn't work that way. If we continue allow the deniers' "truth" to prevail politically, we will have some uncomfortable explanations to make to our children and grandchildren.

Did I read "higher tax brackets"? Now that is music to my ears. We were a prosperous, egalitarian (sort of) nation when we had higher tax brackets. Time to heed Lincoln and value labor over capital again.

Maybe Congress will push to bring back the Constitution, including some of those long lost Amendments like the First and Fourth. I can dream can't I?

As usual, you are spot-on. I would only add one thing: disgorgement. Since most of the wealthiest Americans got that way by getting the Reagan-era corrupt government to skew the game in the favor of capital over work, we should have no qualms about taking it back through a wealth tax. Income is easy to hide or defer, but wealth is much more easily found.

If the problem is the concentration of wealth (which was greatly accelerated under Clinton), then the solution must involve some disgorgement. How about some real progressive tax rates, like no income taxes on the first $30k, but 95% taxation on ALL income (including capital gains) above $1M. A wealth tax would be a nice way of returning our middle class as well. And why the hell are we allowing mortgage deductions on second homes when we have the shame of massive homelessness on our streets?

I may be wrong, but I remember reading somewhere that Ahnold was using Pete Wilson's advisers when he ran in the Davis recall election. Since it was Pete Wilson who engineered the electricity deregulation fiasco in the first place, it was pretty ballsy of Ahnold to condemn Davis over the electricity woes while being advised by the very people who caused them. Of course, FERC, Cheney and many others share much of the blame for the total mishandling of the situation once it occurred, but what else could we expect.

In Eugene, OR our local hospital built palatial new digs across the river in Springfield last year. Our local newspaper reported last week that they have seen a dramatic reduction in paying customers and are looking for ways to reduce costs.

On the bright side, since this hospital provides some of the worst medical care that I have ever seen, at least fewer people will be victims of malpractice while they are crumbling financially.

That would be four, five, six or seven, depending on which state the person doing the counting is in and whether thumbs are included.

Just start changing the stimulus. Start by removing any spending in any state that has two republican senators who are blocking it. Move on from there and play some hardball. If a nuclear rule change is necessary, do it. Elections should still have consequences.

There are only two real choices here. Either we socialize the losses of the investment class who hold stock in these bankrupt banks by bailing them out (guarantees, overpaying for toxic assets, etc) or we socialize these underwater banks themselves. If we do the former, we will have transferred hundreds of billions of dollars from everyone to the greediest (and wealthiest) among us while teaching and learning nothing. If we choose the latter, we can likely sell these banks off at a profit to taxpayers at a future date (as Sweden did). The only losses will be to the shareholders, and most of them saw some pretty heady profits on the ride up the irresponsibility roller coaster.

I may be a socialist, but so are these bankers. It's just that they prefer to socialize their losses while privatizing their profits while I prefer the reverse, at least when corporate greed harms real people.