I'm not defending them. But there has to be a good reason the Democrats failed to extend the tax rates for the middle class separately the minute they took office and it isn't because the date just crept up on them. Nobody's that dumb. If they had been serious about doing what Obama ran on they could have gotten it done as an economic imperative in the early heady months. And the Republicans would have had no choice but to vote for extending the middle class tax cuts a year and a half ago when the millionaire tax cut would have still been in place. The only reasonable explanation for not doing it is that the Dems never really wanted to decouple them in the first place. link

Basically nothing changed in this report. There are still over 15 million unemployed; long-term unemployed (basically everyone who is seeing their benefits cut off right now) stands at 6.3 million, 42% of the total unemployed. Some of these people have been out of work over 99 weeks and wouldn't get benefits even if Congress passes an extension. The labor force participation rate, the employment-population ratio, the average workweek and average hourly pay are all basically the same as last month. link

I rescued a pointer bitch from a puppy mill in, oh, 1990, I think it was. For the first year and a half I had her, she would sit on a sofa in an interior room curled in a ball, then go eat, then back to the sofa. I'd let her out to run, she'd run, then return to the sofa. Didn't socialize. If I wasn't there to take her out to relieve herself, I'd find it within three feet of the sofa.

One morning, about four o'clock, I let her out to run...she had her own schedule. She somehow got loose and was hit by a car. Not bad, thank goodness! no broken bones, just a tear on the shoulder that needed stitches.

I ran, picked her up-- she was a small pointer, only about 35 pounds-- carried her to the house, and held her until the vet office opened. Stitched up, home the same day, no real problems.

But after that, I think after holding her when she would let me - forgot to mention that she shied away from human AND canine contact for the first year-- she opened up, became caring and responsive to me, and then later to my ex wife and my son.

but  the trauma from the neglect and the treatment had left permanent scars.

So I'm happy Vick is doing well. But when I'm reminded of the poor canines, I remember my experience with that particular rescue.  I forget that he's done good things, that he's reformed, and I think bad thoughts about him.

I have a pit bull now, and he's the sweetest, smartest dog I've had in my memory. I was a pointer fan before gtting this guy, and he was supposed to be a Boston Terrier mix-- had the colors as a puppy, and the size of a boston terrier puppy also! But he continued to grow, and muscle up... until he became this 50 pound pit bull as sweet with children as any animal I've seen.

He was traumatized also-- escaped under the fence as a puppy and off to the races! wouldn't listen, wouldn't come back... then WHAM! hit by a car and the terrible yelping-- I was certain he was dead or dying. No, just bruises! And a respect for automobiles.

"Tax cuts to wealthy individuals and corporations"

...means tax cuts to themselves.  

I'd run on the New Deal and run against the post 2008 democrats if I ran.

This district has been democratic since the new deal until Parker Griffith, the turncoat, switched sides. The Tea Party republican candidate didn't win, although a republican was sent to Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has agreed to work with the commission's chairmen, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, to hold a floor vote on the package next Congress. But incoming Speaker John Boehner has thus far refused to make the same commitment. TPM