Bill Moyers on the economy: "Stand aside, Mr. President, and let us prod with our pitchforks"

[Better Believe It]

Changing the Rules of the Blame Game
by Bill Moyers & Michael Winship
April 8, 2009
Bill Moyers is managing editor and Michael Winship is senior writer of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS.


Time to move the blame to where it really belongs. That means no more coddling banks with bailout billions marked "secret." No more allowing their executives lavish bonuses and new corporate jets as if they've won the megalottery and not sent the economy down the tubes. And no more apostles of Wall Street calling the shots.

Reading stories about Summers and Wall Street you realize the man was intoxicated by the exotic witches' brew of derivatives and other financial legerdemain that got us into such a fine mess in the first place. Yet here he is, serving as gatekeeper of the information and analysis going to President Obama on the current collapse.

We have to wonder, when the President asks, "Larry, who did this to us?" is Summers going to name names of old friends and benefactors? Knowing he most likely will be looking for his old desk back once he leaves the White House, is he going to be tough on the very system of lucrative largesse that he helped create in his earlier incarnation as a de-regulating Treasury Secretary?

Shifting the blame for the financial crisis to where it belongs also means no more playacting in round after round of congressional hearings devoted more to posturing and false contrition than to truth. We need real hearings, conducted by experienced and fiercely independent counsel asking the tough questions, or an official commission with subpoena power that can generate evidence leading, if warranted, to trials and convictions ....

According to Politico.com, at his March 27 White House meeting with the nation's top bankers, President Obama heard similar arguments and interrupted, saying, "Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn't buying that... My administration is the only thing between you and the pitchforks."

Stand aside, Mr. President, and let us prod with our pitchforks to get at the facts.

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/04/08

[The Magistrate]

1. Messers. Moyers And Winship Are Right On the Money, Sir

"Some men rob you with a six-gun, and some with a fountain pen."

[denem]

7. ... and both have their day in court, without fear or favor,

... oh wait.

[Dinger]

Yes The Are (nt)

[Dinger]

16. Yes The Are (nt)

[truedelphi]

2. K & R to read Moyers later. Thank U for posting n/t

[truedelphi]

20. Moyers is one reason that the word journalism is still in my vocabulary n/t

[Skittles]

3. America is fucked if there is no accountability for this mess

and I do NOT see any accountability whatsoever - once again, the foxes are in charge of the hen house

[Po_d Mainiac]

9. Your first three words covered it n/t

[depakid]

17. Accountability doesn't seem to be a priority with this administration

Maybe next year....

[bvar22]

4. Moyers gets it right again.

K&R

Has Moyers been thrown under the bus yet by the True Believers?

[Romulox]

5. Obama's "pitchfork" comment was telling in a way he did not intend.

To whit: why does the President see his role in protecting bank CEOs from the logical and foreseeable consequences of their own actions? :wtf:

[tbyg52]

8. I'd like to think he was aiming it at us - get out the pitchforks.

It would be pretty to think so.

[Romulox]

11. No, he was protecting the bankers' taxpayer funded bonuses, and fighting any new regulation.

While handing out billions of taxpayer dollars to private businesses. Sorry, but it's the truth.

[tbyg52]

14. Yeah, I actually know. That's why I said "it would be pretty to think so."

Edited to add that we can take it that way anyhow:
http://www.anewwayforward.org

[Pale Blue Dot]

6. K&R

[Number23]

10. Hell yes. Happy to rec

[xchrom]

12. +27

[Vidar]

13. Moyers is an eloquent patriot. A pity the monopolist media has sidelined him

in favor of the O'Reilys of the world

[invictus]

15. K&R

[zulchzulu]

18. As much as I like Moyers, what exactly are the "pitchforks" going to do?

Yes, there should be investigations. But despite the populista chest-beating about "pitchforks", do any of the people actually really know why we have what has happened?

The same people with "pitchforks" praise Ronald Reagan. The same people with "pitchforks" praise Walmart. The same people with "pitchforks" praise Rush Limbaugh. The same people with "pitchforks" praise dialogue clearly spoken from the Right Wing Echo Chamber. The same people with "pitchforks" praise or at least give the Bush crime family a pass.

Frogmarching all of Wall Street won't fix the problems.... but it sure would make for good TV...

:crazy:

[biopowertoday]

21. I wish Obama had not bought into the pitchfork language.

[Better Believe It]

22. Marching against the Wall Street crooks would be good. I'm sorry you don't get it.

So what's your point? That most people, but especially working class people, are reactionary? More nonsense.

The same people with "pitchforks" elected Obama. The same people with "pitchforks" enabled Democrats to win control of Congress. The same people with "pitchforks" support labor unions and want the right to form a union. The same people with "pitchforks" are the ones who are losing their jobs, homes and are the biggest victims of Wall Streets crimes. The same people with "pitchforks" are those who oppose the Wall Street crooks and their political whores in Congress.

And I could go on and on but you'd never get it.

[zulchzulu]

23. "Marching against the Wall Street crooks" is asshattery at its finest

What the fuck is a goddamn cute little march going to do against "Wall Street crooks" going to REALLY do anyway?

It's a chance to meet some other utopian purist who hasn't a fucking clue that we are already indeed fucked by the same dumbass twerps who keep voting for free-trade deregulationists... who are also marching in the same stupid parade. Hell, you might even sign up for some other crap some tattoed ex-felon shoves at you with a clipboard that never gets processed in a database.

It's deeper than some fucking "march". Go ahead! Go to the damn march. Watch what actually gets accomplished. Bring some condoms, because getting laid is about all that's going to actually happen from such "actions".

Been there, done that.

[TheKentuckian]

19. The pitchforks may be deserved

but it was our dumbasses that paved the road for them. When you repeatedly give the keys to the hen house to the foxes, you can't surprised when you catch them eating chicken and sucking the eggs.