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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (243674)	1/31/2014 8:08:34 PM
From: Ron	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 543587

"And he had control of both houses of congress when he took over as president." No- he didn't. He had a bunch of blue dog Democrats in the Senate controlling key committees, like 'Democrat in Name only' Max Baucus. The Senate still has a bunch of them. I am also disappointed in Obama, because it's frustrating thinking of what might have been. But frankly, his situation with congress is nothing like what FDR had early on in his administration, or Johnson, for that matter. Until the demographics change and we get rid of this latest round of GOP gerrymandering, not a hell of a lot is going to get done by the US government. Obama can jawbone and speechify until the cows come home. Won't make a lot of difference. Sorry, not very optimistic for now.

To: koan who wrote (243674)	2/1/2014 2:16:01 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 543587

Message 29364547

To: koan who wrote (243674)	2/1/2014 2:45:13 AM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 543587

David Simon tells Bill Moyers: ‘There was a class war, and the poor people lost’ By Arturo Garcia Friday, January 31, 2014 18:15 EST David Simon 013114 [Moyers and Company] rawstory.com Former journalist and TV showrunner David Simon excoriated not only what he described as a broken American government in an interview with Bill Moyers on Friday, but a defeated labor movement. “The fights gone out of labor,” Simon told Moyers. “Labor’s lost the fight. Capital’s won.” “To the victor go the spoils,” Moyer retorted. “There was a class war, and the poor people lost and the working people lost,” Simon continued, arguing that the country did best economically when labor activists and businesses had a more level playing field, ensuring that neither of them won “all the time.” Simon also expanded on remarks he made at the Festival of Dangerous Ideas in Australia last month, saying “broken” was the only way to describe the government at this point, despite President Barack Obama’s inclusive language at the State of the Union address. “You can buy these guys on the cheap,” Simon said. “And the capital’s been at it a long time and the rules have been relaxed. The Supreme Court has walked away from any sort of responsibility to maintain democracy at that level. That’s the aspect of government that’s broken.” At the same time, Simon also ripped what he called the “juvenile” libertarian philosophy of letting the free market set the table for economic policy, as well as the opposition to the ideas of raising the minimum wage and providing universal health care. “We are Reagan’s children, we are Thatcher’s children,” Simon said. “You know, ‘There is no society, there’s just you.’ We bought this stuff hook, line and sinker and we are building that. We’re getting the America we’ve paid for.” Watch Simon’s discussion with Moyers, as aired on Moyers & Company on Friday, below.