Meanwhile, the only citizen protests relating to this mass robbery are driven by anger at the government for treating bankers too harshly and unfairly

huh?

is there any evidence (polling, etc) that this is actually true? i'm not referring to the talking heads on the tv, but rather the people who actually showed up at the protests. insofar as there was a target for their anger, i don't think it was about how the bankers are being treated. my impression is that it was against taxes, waste and government in general while motivated by economic distress and fear. more importantly, i'd expect there are likely very different targets for the anger in different communities, regions, etc (as well as a diversity of opinions by participants at any single protest).

for example, from a protest in new england:

http://www.telegram.com/article/20090416/NEWS/904160650/1116

http://www.wtag.com/cc-common/mainheadlines3.html?feed=137313&article=5322462

see the big sign (first link) that is against corportatism and for s.604?

s.604 is bernie sanders' bill to audit the fed.

anyway, i was pretty disheartened (to put it mildly) by the way these protests were mocked in the blogosphere by focusing only on the most crazy and incoherent elements. they weren't my protests, but it reminded me of what the right (and a lot of dems among the too-sophisticated-to-be-caught-dead-among-the-rabble set) did re the antiwar protests during the run up to the iraq war (which were my protests). so you pushed a button with me by claiming, without any evidence that i'm aware of, that the anger driving the protesters this time was about the bankers being treated too harshly. i think you are just wrong about that (as always, happy to be corrected if it's me who's wrong).