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Bill Moyers & Thomas Frank: How America's Demented Politics Let the GOP Off the Hook for Their Giant Mess


Bill Moyers interviews Thomas Frank on how our short attention span has allowed conservatives to escape blame for their role in the economic meltdown.



Editor's note: In the following interview Bill Moyers and Thomas Frank, author of "What's the Matter With Kansas" and "The Wrecking Crew," talk about why conservatives can get away with blaming Obama for the past decade of conservative failures.
Bill Moyers: There were hands in the air in Washington this week, but it wasn't a stickup. The new Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, appointed by Congress to find out how America got rolled, began hearings this week. These four are not the victims of one of the greatest bank heists in history - they're the perpetrators, bankers so sleek and crafty they got off with the loot in broad daylight, and then sweet talked the government into taxing us to pay it back.
Watching that scene on the opening day of the hearings, it was hard enough to believe that almost a year has passed since Barack Obama raised his hand, too -- taking the oath of office to become our 44th President. Even harder to remember what America looked like before Obama, because we've also been robbed of memory, assaulted by what the Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz described as a "fantastic proliferation of mass media." We live in a time "characterized by a refusal to remember." Inconvenient facts simply disappear down the memory hole, as in George Orwell's novel, "1984."
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http://www.alternet.org/story/...or_their_giant_mess/
''Freedom of the press is not an end in itself but a means to the end of [achieving] a free society.”
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"Thomas Frank: ...Because if you look back any further than the Obama Administration, since, I mean, 1980 in this country, we have been in the grip of, you know, of this pursuit of ever-purer free markets. That's what American politics has been about. That's what has delivered this, you know, the awful circumstances that we find ourselves in today..."

What BS...the US does NOT have a free market. Haven't had one in several generations. Yes, "conservatives" contributed to the current crisis. But it's more than just them. It's the intervention in the economy of government itself. It's not a republican or democrat failure...it's a Government failure. Until more people realize that, we're going to be doomed to wash, rinse and repeat until the whole thing collapses.

For those of you who truly want to educate themselves and not bicker back and forth with a bunch of "Bush Did It" partisans...Start your education here: http://www.lewrockwell.com/woods/woods111.html
Bill Moyers is Bill Moyers...enough said about his commentary.

Lots of individuals involved in this, mostly politicians, both democrats and republicans. It's shameless that they could care less about anything other than further themselves and their party. GEEZ! If they wouldn't meddle in furthering their campaign funds and influence we would be in so much better financial situation.

A re-elected politician is a corrupt politician.
Just vote the b------s out every election.
Not to mention that the Dems have been in control of the house and Senate for four years. Still trying to figure out why those guys and gals are still blaming the Repubs for not letting them pass their legislation. They have the numbers so why not pass the bills themselves? Oh that is right, it is all about politics....??? The reason I think is because they do not want to pass it so they can blame it on the Repubs and make them look bad in the next election cycle. It is happening now since the repubs have been labeled the NO party. We shall see how those elections go come November and hopefully Massachusetts will be a precursor to what is to come. It is like every President that has been in office. If you have a Dem President you will have a Repub. congress and vice versa..
I will agree that the republicans dropped the ball. If the 1994 congress had gotten anything done the left wing of the demwit party would be dead. Instead they got in d.c. and got high on power instead of setting term limits, so now instead of representatives and senators that have to leave office and live under the laws they pass, we have the crap we do. Term limits, term limits and a flat tax rate.
quote:
Originally posted by mad American:
I will agree that the republicans dropped the ball. If the 1994 congress had gotten anything done the left wing of the demwit party would be dead. Instead they got in d.c. and got high on power instead of setting term limits, so now instead of representatives and senators that have to leave office and live under the laws they pass, we have the crap we do. Term limits, term limits and a flat tax rate.


You're right. Republicans didn't take advantage of a wonderful opportunity to fix what's wrong with America. They had the blessing of the voters but they didn't have the guts to stand up to the media onslaught against them. They lacked Ronald Reagan's backbone. Because of that, this country is treading the waters of the most foul sewers, compliments of the Fruit of the Loom grape and all his henchmen in the congress.

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