My big concern here is the "easier said than done" thing. I remember listening to President Carter address the nation on the need for an energy policy, the need for our reducing energy demands, etc. That speech sounded sensible and persuasive to me. Whoops, was I wrong. In this country, the majority spoke very loudly against it by turning their back on what was dubbed the "malaise speech."

The country seems to be wanting "big daddy"--to go "presto chango" in the BP catastrophe, to make $$$ flow quickly when the imbalance had been obvious the past 10 years, to resolve climate change in the next few months when we can't get people to wash their kids diapers or stop driving  behemoth vechicles (or driving everywhere)or scale back the size of houses or or or. Yes, I'd like the magic speech and I still believe magicians sometimes do what they lure us into imagining. Sorry, MT, I don't think the magic speech exists to have a near-term extrication. From where I sit, it looks like a gradual, step-by-step (and incremental) movement forward.

As far as principal goes, isn't it the responsibility of our elected leaders to reflect the will of the majority?

But we can't even get an extension of unemployment benefits.  

We are not going to get more fiscal stimulus.....

One option:  a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts one more year in return for more fiscal help--this time, visible projects like buildings and rail, etc.

The Republicans might go for such a deal as they really don't care about deficits (Cheney famously saying that Reagan proved that deficits don't matter.)

The problem was the original desire to compromise with Republicans when Democrats were at the height of their power.....no need to offer tax cuts then....

Now, a compromise may be only option left.....Unless 60 Senators get a big desire for more spending all of a sudden.....Maybe next year's budget can pick it up--which would need less than 60 votes--assuming the Dems still control the Congress.

And if the amount of recycling, garbage, etc., is reduced by widespread followers of kdog's economic recovery plan, then even more city workers will be laid off.  (Yes, I actually have sat through municipal meetings where alderpersons cite stats of garbage tonnage to suggest more "furloughs" aka pay cuts as well as layoffs.  Such meetings are about as fascinating as watching paint dry . . . that is, if it's not city paint bought too cheap that just runs with the next rainfall.)

All that said, it is so sad to see people up and down our streets, diving into our recycling dumpsters.  Problem is that they are coming onto private property and removing private property, until the city retrieves it -- or so the police say when they sometimes warn or even arrest the dumpster divers.  

I know, I've been there. And just as, on another thread, many of you don't know the psychological dynamics of sexual harrassment and assault, yet talk as if you do, you don't know what it is like to be seriously down and out.

"There is no right to the job of your dreams, or even a job...ya gotta hustle." True. But it is a full-time job to look for jobs for which you are qualified.  

I was in my 50s when I was out on my can. I wasn't turning away any jobs that were "beneath" me -- I was working full-time against the job for jobs I was qualified for.  It was one of the toughest things in my life -- and I fully understand that others just don't have my moxie. It was really really grinding and humiliating!  And I won!

Employers know when you are overqualified; you are likely to leave when a better offer comes, or be bored, or otherwise not fit in with the team. It's not a matter of "turning away" jobs beneath you.

And who can pay the rent by collecting cans?  Seriously!

Or did you miss that?

You claim that we need long term solutions yet tell me that drilling and shale are long term.

I guess there is PC long term and non-PC long term.

The congresscritters will save the corporations nothing. The increase it costs will be passed to the consumer. The decrease it business will throw millions more out of work and put corporations out of business. But you call that savings?

The environmental movement, like MADD and other "do good" movements, have went from doing good to doing harm.

I find it amusing, but instructive, to see you defending a monopoly.

If I wasn't an Independent I would be a poor Repub and a worse Demo.

That also means that there hasn't been any Democrats worth voting for in the past 10 years. That also means that the vast majority of people who now call themselves liberal are, in fact, "progressives." Progressives, in my view, can be identified by a burning desire to enact what can only be described as socialist agendas. They are as far Left of center as the John Birch Society was to the Right of center.

Obama is a Progressive trying to act like he is a Liberal. He is not. The somewhat mixed messages he has sent is the result of him trying to please his base while not completely losing the country.