They do know Obama is black

And they did not notice that in 2008? His fall from grace is way more him than his color.

And who wins when the workers don’t win? The bosses win.

And in the case of the public employees, the bosses are th government? or the taxpayers? or whom?

Please, I did not say that I believed that. What I said is it looks enough Wisconsinites believe that to re-elect Walker. And we don’t seem to have a message that resonates enough to win.

Greybeard’s argument in.re. property taxes is absurd.

Holey – I am not suggesting that the services are not needed, nor am I suggesting that taxpayers do not appreciate, use and need them. And I don’t believe that there is animosity between the taxpayers and their local public servants. That, however, does not mean that the taxpayers are willing to pay any price. Benefits to public employees when the taxpayers are losing theirs will and does create questions in the minds of the home owners.

I love strawberries, and frequently buy them. But when the price is outlandish, I buy something else.

Cut the military budget by 20%

If and when that works out, we might be able to make a case in Wisconsin. Until that time, however, it is the homeowner that bears the brunt of the cost for the public employee debate and until we have something a little shorter term to offer them, I am afraid that we will lose the battle in Wisconsin and perhaps elsewhere.

What must be overcome is that every month a homeowner must write a check for their real estate tax bill which is almost totally to pay the salaries and benefits of local public employees. In this era of unemployment and foreclosures, it is quite easy to make the case that those tax bills are something that is harming the homeowners families.

But I’m still second-guessing the polls here.

what causes me to lend more credence to the polls is the size of the Walker vote in the primary. With no competition, an awful lot of folks showed up at the polls for him.

Actually, I was more along different lines. It is one thing to present the worker issues when their opposition is a private company and the negotiations are between the two. So long as those negotiations do not dive jobs overseas, we are completely in the workers corner.

It is something else when the workers are paid by the taxpayers. Real estate taxes from a lot of the 99% go to support teachers, cops, firemen and the like. While we are totally in support of the public worker unions, we often seem to completely ignore the 99% homeowners who foot the bill.

There was a day when we were equally as much in the corner of the middle class homeowners. And I am afraid that is what is welling up in the recall elections.

My concern is that with one of the most aggressive and widely supported reform movements, we still are capturing less than half of the support. If there was no widespread knowledge of the events, I would agree that political advertising could sway those that do not follow events as closely as they should. That is not the case, however. Unions have actively supported this defeat of Walker, and massive public outcry held the front page of the newspapers for months.

Are we saying that people who support the recall have been swayed by ads? I find it hard to believe that progressive voters are so wishy-washy that they are willing to change their positions based on something they see on TV.

What worries me is that over half of the voters simply disagree with us.

Pure politics!

The results of moving back to the Drachma will be much lower prices in greece relative to the Euro and the dollar. Greek goods and vacations will become more attractive. Greek citizens will see the price of any foreign goods skyrocket so they will be more limited that way.

Overall, you cannot have a currency where the nations involved have clearly different approaches to monetary policy. No rational individual or organization would buy Greek bonds under current circumstances, so the status quo doesn’t work.

It is a tad worrisome that the recall petition count exceeded that total D vote by about 50%.

Didn’t Reid refuse to entertain the house passed version of the bill?

so long as we have our cheap energy NOW.

That is, of course, the key and often unstated concern. Getting to work, heating our homes, cooking dinner, running our TV, connecting to the internet and lighting the place after sundown are problems for the poor and not the rich. Every step that we take to make energy costs a bigger portion of our budgets affect the 99% much more than the 1%.

Is fracking more dangerous than burning coal? Or is nuclear more dangerous? Or are we better off allowing the Venezuelans, Canadians and Mexicans to destroy their environment as they produce the fuels that we burn?

Until we have a viable and economical alternative to our current energy production, saying “no” to everything is not going to get us anywhere.

Thx My first question remains, however.

We use a lot of oil and gas products driving to work every day, heating our homes, burning coal to light our home and the like. There is no practical and immediate alternative. So, is it better to not frack and use coal? or drill in the gulf? or use energy products from places like Nigeria.

Where is a viable and economical alternative?

OK – so I am not a scientist, nor do I understand the implications of this, but if these checmials go into a area very far underground to replace natural gas, which is not without some danger to the indivudal, what is the scope of the danger?

And if we do not use this process, we will buy more oil from the tar sands of Canada and the wells off the Venezulian and Nigerian coasts. Which is more dangerous?

Until we develop a legit option to fossil fuels, fracking seems to me to be a less dangerous alternative.