Everyone knew it was a losing battle, but everyone showed up anyway. In an uprising virtually unprecedented in its size, scope and diversity, malcontents united across Greece to push back against the government’s assault on working people.

This weekend, the public will mourn a site of loss, recasting the painful memories and haunting fears that still hover over the aftermath at Ground Zero. But the people who worked and breathed that tragedy in the days and months following September 11 won’t be at the primary commemoration ceremony for the families of victims. The Mayor’s decision to limit the attendees by excluding the 9/11 first responders is an unnerving metaphor for an unhealed scar of 9/11. Many of the rescue and recovery workers who labored at Ground Zero have been plagued by a metastasizing medical crisis, aggravated by chronic political failure.

It really is incredible to see such a concerted effort to rewrite history in front of our faces. There is not much ambiguity in the story of the housing bubble. The private financial sector went nuts. They made a fortune issuing bad and often fraudulent loans which they could quickly resell in the secondary market. The big actors in the junk market were the private issuers like Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Lehman Brothers. However, George Will and Co. are determined to blame this disaster on government “compassion” for low-income families.

While we have been frantically playing defense against relentless assaults on multiple fronts, from anti-union legislation to draconian anti-choice laws to the attempted privatization of Medicare, the selling off of public assets to the private sector has received little attention.

Hungering only for a taste of justice, only for a world of truth, one day we’re gonna elbow one another and say about the train we’ve been waiting on, “Come on Jack that son-of-a-bitch is coming.”

Buckle up, FirePups, it’s going to be a bumpy ride into the second week of May.

David Brooks’ column today reads like a therapy session for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. It seems there are lots the monsters lurking in Geithner’s nightmares, and the scariest for him — and for us — is that after struggling with the financial crisis for more than a year, neither Geithner nor the Masters around him are sure how to solve it.

President John F. Kennedy called Inauguration Day “a celebration of freedom – symbolizing an end, as well as a beginning – signifying renewal, as well as change.” This year, that is dramatically true. President-elect Barack Obama will place his hand on the same Bible President Abraham Lincoln used to take the oath of office. When he does so, at noon on Tuesday, Americans of every party will celebrate both renewal and a long-needed change.