31 Dec 2009, on PBS's "Newhour" program, Paul Solman asks why most economists missed our recent near-Super Crash,,,It's obviously the rich potential

profiting with little risk. That is the what super-rich, very well educated, 'privileged' , ambitious and very well off have done for themselves and against society and the less fortunate since history began. The Greeks, the Romans, the French, the British colonialists, even the smart, wise, should ethically act better and should have better control of their greed and selfish avarice Americans. It is all about 'me', me, me,,, and not about democracy or the declining middle class needing a pay raise or being willing to pay your fair share of taxes.

Let's make more fun of,,,for instance ,,,Donald Trump. He thinks he is a big success. We laugh at his funny comb-over hair. But isn't his selfish super-wealthy out-of-control ambition more of a cautionary tale ? Some less wise may still want to be just as super-rich and ambitious like him and others,,,

T.S.A. has been a joke for years,,,so why do we put any trust in them!?

December 2009,,,I worked the first week of the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002,,,and left on a new Southwest Airlines plane, after going thru TSA inspection that involved my baggage going inside a machine the size of a house's kitchen,,, with the solo operator, a woman , reading a romance novel !! This was an event that the Feds promised would have "maximum security". What a farce.

When you rent a "beach house" in California, Beware of the fine print that might say "leave as clean as you found it,or lose all security deposit"

December 2009,,,Our family rented a new, huge 'beach house' in Southern California for the Christmas holiday week. It even had wi-fi and was right on the beach !!

The week went by so fast , with walks on the beach, dining at delicious local fresh and new to us restaurants, and having time together to relax and read our books or Kindles. But then the last day came and we read the 'fine print' check out proceedure: we would lose all of our security deposit unless we left it as clean as we found it, unlike a 4 star hotel room.

That meant that on our very expensive rental house Christmas vacation,,,we were ,,,sweeping and mopping the floors,,,,putting all the dishes through the dishwasher and shelving them,,,washing all the bedding sheets for a huge house and making all the beds,,,(is this normal??!!),,,and vacuuming the carpets and rag dusting all the hardwood floors,,,We even Windex-ed all the inside windows for fear of losing any or all of our large security deposit !!

Why have a "property manager" that we talked to as an owner,,,if you are going to piss-off all the renters with a too strict cleaning policy? We are civilized, all college educated, and would not think of trashing or damaging someone else's home we were guests in. But to not leave it undamaged but uncleaned like a 4 star hotel room was a SHOCK!! we definitely will watch out for on our next luxury expensive vacation home rental experience inside the USA.

BEWARE,,,

Beware of "Corelle" brand of white dishware,,,they carry dirt/stains from dishwashing to dishwashing

My 90 yr old parents thought it would be a good idea to get rid of the white plastic plates they had used for years and the shine had worn off, so they bought a cheap set of "Corelle" that was very white and very shiny, thinking it would be low maintenance and easy to clean.

Instead, the backs of alot of the dinner plates have this grey haze that you can not scrub off with a kitchen sink scrub sponge and dish soap !! So they went back to the store and bought some "Corelle" polishing cream,,,for every day dishes !!??!! But it does not work very well or at all. This is crazy,,,

They are very weak and like the light weight of such dinnerware and dishes,,,were i have glazed ceramic plates that are much easier to clean, and look cleaner, but are much heavier, tho cheap.

I voted for Obama and "Change",,,but after almost a year all i see is "small change"

The first crisis of President Obama's term was of course the neglect and incompetence and "Deregulation" of almost everything by the Republicans that almost financially and economically crashed us all back to a 1929 Great Depression. Instead of kicking the fat cats out of banking and finance and the govt agencies full of do-corporations-bidding deregulators, President Obama hired Mr. s Paulson and Bernacke and the other guy. Why a bunch of guys who profited extremely off the losses of the USA and advocated for decades in the past more of the same stupid failed "deregulation" policy that favors bankers way above consumers? Why not a more balanced ,fair-minded person like Mr. Volker ?

I was surprised and a little disappointed in new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

Then the President Obama who said he would be more honest and lead us in fairness allowed the huge bank bailout to be misnamed and misdirected as "TARP" for toxic assets, when it made the bankers rich enough to buy other banks and still have the U.S. economy on the cliff with too big to fail attitudes and policies. The toxic assets are still there and not devalued as much as they should , even tho we common Americans have paid and paid with tax dollars at low interest for bankers in the first years to score record profits and pay their secretaries at firms like Goldman Sacks $500,000.oo, for a secretary !!

I was surprised and a little disappointed in new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

Then there was the threat, still there now in Dec 2009, of the 'swine flu' or asian H1N1 flu, and the regular flu. Did the new President use the most advanced technology that had been proven for years of growing vaccines in cells versus the old slow method of growing them in eggs ? No. Remember the utter failure of Chiron? And the regular flu vaccine was at least a month late this year 2009. And most of us can not get the H1N1 swine flu deadly-threat vaccination. It is late December, 2009.

I was surprised and a little disappointed in new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

Then there was the long and strong campaign promise by the new President Obama and the now majority Democrats to do a major positive overhaul of the nation's medical care, that failed so easily in 1993-94 under President Clinton. Why all this talk about Mecicare for all, when we could have V.A. care for all, or the better Senator-Federal Health Care for all,an option, who wanted to pay for it ?? You could see Congress delaying and talking this to death, to avoid their responsibility to the public citizen electorate and instead do what the fat-cat lobbyists from the banking and insurance and medical industries. This was a central campaign promise, and the Democrats were assuming ,as usual, we got elected and the public will forget. So wrong. I am on the verge of registering as a Green Party voter!!

I was surprised and a little disappointed in new President Obama and the Democratic Party.

We still are suffering in California under a total fiscal failure state government, bankrupt, with no hope in sight from the Federal Government or Republican (failure) Governor Arnold Schwartzenegger . And the masses are frustrated enough to vote ,they say, for more do-nothing-beneficial Republicans !!

The environment is still just as much in peril as under the Republicans, with the Pebble Mine in Alaska going forward.

The cellphone market is so unfair and dishonest, unlike more civilized Europe, and where is any signifigant 'change' ?

Many thousands have lost jobs,,,and there in no massive public works program to rebuild our decades of neglect national infrastructure from roads and highways, to bridges, railroads, gps digitize airports vs inept radarmen, radio, and traditions,,,

I was surprised and a little disappointed in new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

The Republicans still think they are in charge, since 1980, back in Washington, D.C.,,,and the Democrats are letting them get away with anything and almost everything,,,with no hope in sight. Were is the public-voter-citizen march on Washington in strong protest peacefully ? Will we have to have a Constitutional Amendment making "money not equal to a vote",as the current Supreme Court says,,, and banning lobbyist money from all federal and state elections and using public free radio and free tv time and public funding instead ??!!

The T.S.A. is a total failure, proven again this Christmas Day by a known terrorist being allowed to land in Detroit with a bomb, but Congress is still one-issue delay at a time doing little or nothing about all our many backlogged problems federally and in each state.

The President has failed to live up to his campaign and lead the American people and instead has made deals with the drug industry and the medical insurance industry, behind closed doors, as historically usual. What did we vote for in this "Change" ?

I was surprised and a little disappointed in the new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

And the President promised to wind down the Iraq war, but is now increasing the Afgan war, when we do not have the American blood or taxes to pay for it. The corrupt cockeyed Republican tax cut for the rich is still in effect, making an elite class of super-rich who can not be hurt by the bad economy, massive foreclosures, job loses, and terrible state of the nation in general. I did not vote for more unaccountable Generals -from- the- Pentagon wars. Where are all the peace marches that were so effective in the last major war folly, VietNam ?

I was surprised and a little disappointed in the new President Obama and the Democrat Party.

Senator Pelosi 's office is not powerful enough to do it all,,, and lead us. Currently we have a distinct critical failure in leadership. The new President is new, and tho a lawyer, must step up to his office, his campaign, and this moment in history. We are still waiting,,,

Christmas Day!! 25 Dec 2009, and a Nigerian 'known' terrorist is allowed on a plane landing in Detroit,,,with a BOMB !!(T.S.A. is a FAILURE !! )

When will President Obama and the Congress wake up to the fact that TSA is a total strategic failure ? That harassing every American, especially war decorated American veterans , with shoe and belt removal and their current slow security checks, is just bad failed policy ??

When will the American public that flies say 'Enough is enough!" with TSA and demand that the Administrator be fired and a new computer-based, intelligence-based strategy is used instead ?

I will not choose to fly,,,but will drive,,,as much as i can, until the idiots at TSA, the the sleeping lazy Congress fix this !!