Well…listening to all of the talk, talk, talk that is going on about the budget negotiations, I have a piece of advice for both sides but for the dems in particular. Stop using loaded words when you talk about the negotiations….watching the news last night all I heard from the commentators on the left and in the middle was that the repubs were going to “cave” or “buckle” on tax increases on the wealthy to start to work on the deficit…and I think that these kinds of words mean something and are making any such deal even harder. I think it goes back to the Japanese concept of “face”, and it would be a good idea for the dems to think about how they can work to help the repubs save face in these negotiations and stop rubbing the fact that they got smacked in the last election in their faces. Of course, I would propose that this would only go so far as the repubs actually governing for the entire country and not their rich bosses….if they can come to the table with facts and be adults, I think it would be good for those of us on the left to help them…and go back to governing the country, not just fighting all the time…