I realize that the CNBC commentator has a meme to push, but due to austerity public service employment is way down. What would the unemployment rate be if policemen, firefighters, teachers, and other public service workers were still on the job?

How many thousand additional jobs might we have added if republicans in congress hadn't blocked President Obama's jobs bill? It's difficult to fathom, but the republicans have been waging a scorched earth campaign against the President since the day he took office, and they've proven time and again that they don't care how badly they damage this country. They can do all the flag-waving they want. They can keep patting themselves on the back for being "patriots". But their destructive actions speak for them: anti-government and anti-American.

Too bad that Romney isn't running for president. It's a shame that he's trying to be appointed CEO of the USA. And he's running on his record. We've seen his CEO philosophy in action at Bain Capital. Gut struggling companies, drive them out of business and reap tremendous profits for himself and his investors. And who are his investors in this election? The wealthiest individuals and the largest corporations in America. They're INVESTING tens of billions of dollars to gain total control of both state and federal government. It seems odd to me that these people and corporations would be investing so many millions to see Romney elected. I mean, if elected he'll reduce income taxes on the wealthy. And if elected, he'll eliminate regulations that stop corporations from polluting the environment and Wall Street from robbing the middle class. But what's that worth in real dollars? A savings of a couple million dollars a year in reduced taxes? An additional savings of a few hundred thousand dollars a year, owing to the elimination of government regualtion? We're talking pocket change here. So, if these individuals and corporations are realizing a mere 2 or 3 million dollars in additional profit, what--exactly--do they hope to gain by making such an enormous investment in Romney's campaign? What is really at stake in this election? It's about time we figured that out.

Has anyone ever taken a look into this on the state level? Just as an example (yes I mentioned it before already, sheesh x3) unemployment in VA is about 5.6%, and we have a Republican governor (rather not make this partisan, but that does take a lot of wind from the Repubs ;). I think it's actually a bit lower in Ohio, certainly in other states.

But all the same, other states probably have unemployment quite above the national average, so if there ever was to be a real solution to the problem, why not look into what the states with the very high numbers are doing *wrong*, and the ones (repping VA some more lol) with very low numbers are doing *right*? There are definitely state-level policies keeping some numbers dangerously high, but introducing a uniform solution might screw up the states doing well.

Ugh, it's messy business I suppose.

Please don't have Michael Eric Dyson on the panel if he refuses to allow anyone to finish a sentence and continues to dominate the conversation. This morning we barely heard from 2 of the panelists and really it was only David Corn who could stand up to it.