So the Bitter controversy continues, with Obama on the backfoot, burbling and carrying on

you should see the apologetics from folks on his side and the earnest fixes they are proposing. The point is that his dismissive characterization has hit a nerve with folks.

Also the furor over the so called ABC debate, with Staphylococcus and Gibson. Staphylococcus is a known trouble monger, but Gibson after a period as an aging whitish majority male, kind of stuck in the mud groove person seems to have found a new persona.

I dont mind the time they spend on finding out whether Barack is dismissive of a major constituency, can you imagine if Gloria Macapagal had said something nasty about her constituents, or Manmohan Singh in India dismissed the concerns of Indian farmers.

In fact, I find Kamal Nath the Indian guy who goes to Davos and bawls against foreign farm subsidies more than a little annoying. Becoz the point is not abolishing farm subsidies, it is making farmers more secure. I have been bawling about this for a decade now, and luckily the American people approve of farm subsidies despite the hysterical media attempts to portray farmers as freeloaders. And now with the global food crisis, the importance of having a farm cader that is secure is more than ever emphasized.

Plus there is the inadequate farm support in the India budget, where loan forgiveness is not enough, even assuming it trickles down to the poor farmers. The one billion dollar subsidy they announced last year barely made an impact, I guess it all disappeared into corrupt official pockets. Plus, where are the subsidies and seed and transportation support, that is the big question. It is a horrible thing that the country of Jai Kisan, Jai Jawan not only ignores its jawans, but then makes a mockery of farmer support and this Kamal Nath dude, who BTW, the young media folks think is a big Hero at Davos, and you never hear of him in the Western Press when Davos is going on, is still bawling about abolishing farm subsidies, as if the problem is over supply of food, rather than under supply.

But the point is can you imagine if Manmohan Singh or somebody else made nasty remarks about how farmers are bitter. By the way, we can say that about Raj Thackeray stirring up bitterness against non Maharashtrians. There is a way to raise all boats, and the way is to work for the protection of migrant workers, once we guarantee their wages, security and health and get them IDs, automatically, there will be less incentive to use them as a source of semi legal or cheap labor and Maharashtrians will get their due share.

Same goes for the hysteria against migrant workers in the USA and elsewhere, the point is not to scare them silly, but for labor unions to insist on protections and minimum standards and that will cause domestic labor to be just as cost effective.

The recent actions of the Southern Poverty Law Center in supporting the Indian workers who were being exploited by the Mississippi boat building yard is a case in point. Instead of vilifying victims, you have to protect them, that will raise all boats.

It's also interesting that the corrupt Buffoon, Bollinger who is a big ship builder in Louisiana and apparently sold the United States a bunch of boats with huge problems was talking some rot to Stephen Sackur of BBC, who sounded duly impressed with him. Bollinger, a big Bush buddy, was bawling how they want workers in New Orleans. Apparently they meant cheap workers who will work in slave like conditions, that's what it looks like.

Yeah, so talking about bitterness is not a good idea, what will Barack do to improve people's lot, we dont know. So far, the answer seems to be trust me, I am cute and charismatic and my Mama took care of poor people with micro finance, so I too will hand out a couple bucks and help people start their own moonshine and meth stills in the backyard.

No hard leftie stuff about tackling the finance industry, oh no, not a word about usurious interest rates and the bilking of Main Street, oh no.

BTW, I am just as disappointed in Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Mary Landrieu, David Vitter and Larry Craig.

And let me say, it was a real pity that the SFgate article by Garofalo or Garofali on the ABC debate for some reason had all 84 of its comments removed.

For heaven's sake why, just a week or so after I commended sfgate for its resilience in keeping comments rather than scrambling to remove them or making stuffy preconditions like the NYT.

These are tough times people, we are not intimidated by a few hysterical or over heated remarks, we are offended by laissez faire and public cowardice and lack of initiative in fixing the major problems that keep people in poverty and even in rich countries like USA and Germany keep people in insecurity and unhappiness, while the few get richer and richer.

Richness is when all the people in the country are doing well.

Bye bye