Yep, darn obvious to all that work in the private sector. For those that don't, they seem to think life is quite rosy, namely politicians.

This is what the third world looks like, and making America a third-world country has long been the goal of the GOP, aided and abetted by a spineless and brainless GOP-lite party that threw in with the GOPsters for good with Slick Willie C. GOP-lite party is now led by a former "community organizer". Ha! Who knew that it was the business community that he was interested in organizing only? He's going to be like Bill C, sucking up every dollar and getting himself reelected while his party melts down below, which he will then use as his excuse for why he is taking all the GOP positions that he wanted to take anyway.

The anti-union rage so often expressed in these parts is a sign of how successful the GOP's Third World At Home project has been, with corporate criminals treated as "bad apples" and individual grifters, but union workers are all bad, all the time, and politicians are all corrupt unless they are like the NJ gov.

It isn't right that overall, citizens have had a 6.1% decrease in income per this IRS report, but Kitzhaber gives state employees over a 3% raise. What is he smoking and why are taxpayers putting up with it?

How can this be? Mr Obama started duty in January 2009 and according to the Oregonian and this blog, the dark days of Bush are over, a new sheriff is in town and great days are ahead.

Can someone say when these days will start?

Kitzhaber gives state employees over a 3% raise. What is he smoking and why are taxpayers putting up with it?

Indeed. Our most important policy goal is to make sure that public sector employees get down below the poverty level as fast as everyone else.

I find it interesting this article appears in Reuters - whatsa matter, NYT or WSJ - don't want to highlight the increasingly massive gulf between rich and middle class/poor in this country? And, in the meantime, many corporations are making massive, even record-setting profits, and sitting on billions in cash.

Decline and loss of income/jobs is a major part of the problem. There's also a growing underground economy with folks working off the books, money paid under the table in cash and it's back to the mattress stuffed with money (even though the Federal Reserve play money is worth less and less). I find it darkly hilarious that while private citizens have less and less faith in the government and are doing whatever they can to avoid losing what little income they have to it, stockholders are now beating a panicky path to Treasury bonds after jettisoning their high-risk stocks. With all of the rats currently trying to climb onto the sinking ship, we'd better hope funding for the lifeboats is not cut.

Jack, if you have insights or 'insider' connections into the IRS, was there any 'press announcement' explaining Why SCOTUS Justice Clarence Thomas's tax evasion -- about $750,000 household income covered-up over 10 years -- was NOT prosecuted?

George A. Seldes, ("a former "community organizer" ... getting himself reelected") and pj, ("according to the Oregonian ... great days are ahead"), please consider reading sources of credible reporting after you read (or, better yet, instead of reading) totally false narratives for dupes of The Oregonian or any other massmedia, especially broadcast (TV) liars.

Obama's 'cover story' is that he was a Chicago-area 'community organizer' activist at one time, in among some relatively radical (however harmless) notorious names. Truer investigation finds documentation showing he was in those underground groups and their closed-door meetings on assignment as a FBI/CIA informant -- he wasn't a 'community organizer,' he was an infiltrated snitch on African-American community organizations.
And he does not get "reelected" but he might be reselected, since ballots are no longer actually counted in States with Touch-the-TV voting equipment, (everywhere else but Oregon, the only State with all paper ballots hand-marked). HAVA (Help America Vote Act) supplied computer equipment which is pre-programmed with the pre-determined result of federal elections. Whether Obama does or does not get re-selected is the choice of Powers That Be in the shadows, already decided (this year) in advance, and nothing Obama does as 'campaigning' and nothing we do as voters 'deliberating' makes any difference at all -- when the outcome is already set.

The Oregonian and all massmedia news items, and analyses, have become these days as bogus and pre-emptive biasing as folklore about the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy. Massmedia contents today is saturation propaganda.

The encompassing and longer description (supplied by named and linked sources) of 'What's going on?' is spelled out here, in bojack.org previously. (Sidebar: that linked description, by the way, also happens to answer the rhetorical question I started at: Justice Thomas evaded lots of federal taxes a long time; Why was he NOT prosecuted?)

Uh, Tenskwatawa, do you think there might be the teensiest difference between a financial disclosure form and a 1040?