Tony on the radio ...

I'll be back on the radio this Friday, March 25, for two hours.
From 2 to 4 p.m., I'll be sitting in with Chuck and Phil on their new radio show on WBNW 1120 AM. The signal runs from Boston to Worcester, Nashua, N.H. to Brockton. The show is also heard on WPLM 1390 in Plymouth and WESO 970 in Southbridge/Webster.
To listen online, click here: ["WBNW"]. The call-in number is 888-205-2263. Feel free to chime in.
I was on the show back in February and it was a pretty good time. With the way things are going on in the country, it will probably be an even more interesting show this time around. I hope you can tune in.

Computer problems
I'm having some major computer problems. The HD blew out on my Gateway after two years. I thought it was because I was trying to upgrade to IE8 but it turns out that it just happened ... and these things do happen [I heard something about 100,000 HDs crash each week in this country ... yikes]. So, blogging will be limited over the next week.

11,039,686,130,898.10

This is pretty shocking: ["Debt to the Penny"].

A few more things to read

Here are a few more things to read that were published recently.

First, more confusing news about the future of newspapers: ["If news is free, who can afford to gather it?"]. One of the good things about physically getting the print newspaper is that you actually force yourself to sit down and read it. With news online, it can be an arbitrary thing. Don't have time to catch up today? You don't go to the news site. I have found that happening to me more and more as I wean myself from print products in an effort to save money. I try to make the time to visit the sites online each day but it doesn't always work out that way.

Following that up is this, something I meant to post last week: ["Many Would Shrug if Their Local Newspaper Closed"]. How bad have things gotten? Many people would care less if their local newspapers shut down. Yikes! Well, I guess that they can't really say anything when something outrageous happens then can they? If you don't keep up with the news, you're bound to be victimized by the result.

And a good decision here from the state Supreme Court: ["E-mails fall short for fault-based divorce"]. As I was reading this story this morning I didn't realize until the end that I knew the guy involved in the case! I was working at a local radio station and he was doing a lot of work for the station. Over a couple of years, I got to know him very well and I recall when his wife first filed for divorce and how devastated he was. I mean, down to your soul devastated. He since has custody of his children and is doing fine without her. But the damage that she inflicted on the family based on absolutely nothing more than a flirty email to a former girlfriend and accusations he consistently and thoroughly denied is so very sad. I'm glad to read that the end result was even more good news for him and his family.

These next two stories should send a chill up your spine.

First, this overview of HR645 ["Preparing for Civil Unrest in America"], a bill "to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to establish national emergency centers on military installations," which should really prompt some discussion amongst the public but will be ignored by the mainstream press. These plans have been proposed before but didn't really gain much strength. With the way the economy is going though, just look at the numbers of people protesting at the homes of AIG employees, never mind outside the company's headquarters, I sense that some of the powerful people might be ready to prepare for the rounding up of Americans who feel dissent is the most powerful form of patriotism.
Of course, nothing will really happen so long as most Americans can afford cable television and the Internet. So long as there is the couch potato distraction, the government can get away with just about anything. I mean, they already have! And the other half just continues to fall in line. The hope-dope pusher Obama has been an unmitigated disaster and no one says boo except those crazy Republicans. What did one commenter say recently, that they never thought in a million years that the Obama people would come in and feloniously allow corporations to rob the country blind? Yeah, that just about sums it up. Corporate socialism on hyper-steroids. Yeah, we told you so!

And here's Danny Schecter, hardly a conspiracy theorist, who also connects the dots between HR645 and how the American people are really ticked off about the current financial crisis: ["Pitchforks and Protests: The Fury Down Below"]. What's most egregious about this is that the Obama Administration knew about these raises. They knew it was tucked into the bill and in a mad rush to pass these massive bills, no one in Congress read the documents! Of course, as others have stated, the raises at AIG and Freddy and Fannie are just distractions. The real issue comes back to not letting these companies fail in the first place. Too big to fail? Sorry, nothing is too big to fail. For once, can we let all the rich people lose everything instead of it always being the rest of us little people?

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has found out more outrage here: ["Kucinich: Bailout Money Going Overseas"].

And, let's close on a lighter note: Funny man Jimmy Tingle will be at the Tupelo in June: ["Jimmy Tingle Upcoming Events"]. If you've never seen the guy before, he's hilarious. Well worth the $25! His string of shows in Massachusetts are being billed as "Jimmy Tingle's Laughter Stimulus Plan" ... yuck, yuck.

A few pieces worth taking the time to read

Both kinda take a look at the "state" of America.
First, this interesting essay from this month's Vanity Fair: ["Rethinking the American Dream"].
From Rolling Stone, an overview of the financial situation: ["The Big Takeover"].
This, from Common Dreams: ["Barack Obama and the Altar of Greed"]. Yeah, Obama, as dumb as a bag of hammers.
And lastly, this: ["Is this the end of America?"].

Pummeling Patrick ...

Dan Kennedy has a roundup of some of the pundits commenting on Mass. Gov. Deval Patrick's performance of late: ["Pundits on Patrick: Not a pretty picture"].
This is, of course, an understatement.

What can Bush teach us?

Guest Perspective/Ralph Nader

George W. Bush is hitting the lecture circuit. Represented by the Washington Speakers Bureau, Mr. Bush for a fee of at least $150,000 flew up to Calgary, Canada and spoke to a conservative business audience amidst street protests.

He also has signed a book contract with Crown Publishers tentatively titled “Decision Points” about a dozen personal and presidential decisions ranging from giving up booze to choosing Dick Cheney to invading Iraq.

Now that he is becoming a lecturer and an author, why not also be a teacher? The 43rd president has much to teach Americans about how weak their democracy is—rights, institutions, processes and the sovereignty of the people.

His first lecture to students could be how he and Cheney violated, circumvented and trampled our Constitution. It was as if they replaced the opening preamble of “we, the people” with “we, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.”

Early in his Administration, Mr. Bush showed a determination to pick up on King George III and root himself in something called “the inherent powers of the Presidency,” often called the “unitary Presidency.” With that, King George IV was establishing his unilateral kingdom, though instead of invoking his divine right, his mantra was the “war on Terror.”

He became the most recidivist criminal president, the most variously impeachable president on a regular day-to-day basis in American history. Violating repeatedly our Constitution, laws and treaties, Mr. Bush warred, terrorized, tortured, imprisoned without charges, illegally snooped on masses of Americans and set a record for signing statements saying he “the decider” would determine which laws he signed he would obey and when. And that’s just what is public knowledge so far from a very secretive regime.

The ways this outlaw President devastated the rule of law has been well documented in many firsthand accounts of former members of his government in the military, intelligence, and diplomatic service. The lies and deceptions that took our country to war, with immense loss of life and limb, and turned the rights and lives of millions of families upside down have been the material of many books, public hearings and admissions. Even the conservative American Bar Association condemned the Bush White House three times for unconstitutional practices.

Mr. Bush taught us how cowardly the Congress could be in not defending its constitutional authorities and the crucial checks and balances to hold the White House accountable. He taught us the degree of abdication by the major opposition Democratic Party which allowed him and his ilk to do what they did and to leave office on January 20, 2009 without being subjected to impeachment and trial, without even being subjected to a Congressional censure resolution.

He taught us that the courts, with few exceptions, cannot be counted on to defend the constitution from the marauding President—avoiding doing so by excuses that these seizures of power are “political questions.” Sure, Bush going to war without a declaration of war is too political? Tell that to Jefferson, Madison and other founding fathers who made a big matter out of taking away the war-making authority from any future would-be monarch and decisively repositing it with the Congress.

He taught us how easily you could fool, manipulate, delay or intimidate the mainstream media into becoming a cheerleader for war and a collaborator in covering up what a few intrepid reporters uncovered.

He showed that truth is indeed the first casualty of war and that lies have no consequences for him other than a 70% disapproval rating.

He did tell the truth, however, when he announced to a big business audience in Texas early in his first term that they were “his base.” Acting like a corporation masquerading as a human in the White House, Mr. Bush pursued policies unleashing the greed and control of Wall Street that tanked the economy and destroyed trillions of dollars of the people’s money in an orgy of reckless speculation.

As Jamal Simmons wrote recently, “Unlike the story of King Midas, everything Bush touched turned to coal.”

Mr. Bush threw the gauntlet down to 800,000 American lawyers and unlike the marching Pakistani lawyers, only a handful such as Michael Greco, Ramsay Clark, David Cole and Jonathan Turley took up his challenge. The vast majority of lawyers went about their own business, shrugging off what it means to be “officers of the court.”

Bush, former American Caesar tore the pretense off our democratic pretensions. By not holding him and his top collaborators responsible for violating the constitutional, criminal and civil laws of the land, those persons, entrusted with their observance, took a holiday. These outrageous practices—still unchecked—are becoming institutionalized as illustrated in the several (but not all) ways that President Obama is continuing Bush’s legacy of license.

Democracies when they are eroded must show resiliency to recover and strengthen what was lost by way of freedom and justice. Otherwise the erosions fester and deepen. Who, you might ask, must be the tribunes of such resiliency? You will not find them now in officialdom.

The wise early twentieth century judge, Learned Hand, gave us the compass. He wrote these words: “Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it.”

Tea Party protesters make news across the country ...

It's funny but I haven't seen word one about this on the news in our neck of the woods ...

Freedom Watch files amended complaint to force disclosure of Bush/Obama bailout policies

From the inbox:
Freedom Watch, the public interest group that investigates and prosecutes government corruption to promote and protect freedom, is filing an amended complaint against the Federal Reserve and the Department of the Treasury regarding the $700 billion dollar bailout of this country's prodigal corporate deadbeats, under the pretenses of the so-called "Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008". Freedom Watch filed a FOIA request in December and again in February with these two agencies in order to obtain information relating to the bailout, specifically, who is deciding which companies should receive funds; how are the decisions being made; what documents are being submitted by these companies to justify assistance of them; and what are the names of all the companies receiving funds?
These are some basic questions to which Freedom Watch, on behalf of the American people, demands answers. The Bush Administration used fear-mongering and scare tactics to cow the public into listless obedience as they pushed through a bill in a matter of weeks that amounted to nothing more than subsidizing failure and rewarding rich Wall Street executives for making losing bets on an epic scale. Once the floodgates were opened up by Treasury Chairman Hank Paulson (Bush Administration), they have continued unabated under Tim Geithner (Obama Administration). It is helpful to look at these two individuals, Paulson and Geithner, to see what roles they played in this crisis, because this can offer insight into their subsequent actions.
Paulson was the CEO of Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs from 1998 to 2006, during which time he fostered a very special relationship with the Chinese government elite, visiting the country 70 times and no doubt encouraging them to invest in America through equity and debt ownership. During his tenure at Goldman and later as Treasury Chairman, he is best remembered for pushing for lower capital requirements for banks and less oversight, instead asserting in 2007 that, "An open, competitive, and liberalized financial market can effectively allocate scarce resources in a manner that promotes stability and prosperity far better than governmental intervention." One can only wonder if he still holds this same view in light of the economic disaster that has since befallen our country.
Tim Geithner has been involved in international trade and finance his entire life, his first notable experience being with Kissinger and Associates and then later in 1998 as Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs where he served under then Treasury Secretary and close personal mentor Robert Rubin. If you recall, Rubin was an instrumental player along with Alan Greenspan in ensuring that derivatives markets remained free from government regulation, and he also worked for Goldman Sachs for 26 years before briefly serving as Chairman of Citigroup. Before Geithner's appointment by Obama, he headed up the largest of Federal Reserve banks, the New York Fed, beginning in 2003 and was also Vice Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the private committee that dictates and manipulates monetary policy for the entire United States, God-like in its sway over world financial markets.
These two extremely influential and powerful individuals, Timothy Geithner and Henry Paulson, have been notable architects of US policy on regulation and oversight of financial markets, and therefore controlled the fate of all US companies by extension. They essentially created the market conditions that allowed companies to take enormous risks, thereby putting the entire US financial system in jeopardy. Whereas once, they represented financial interests in the private sphere and pushed the government for favorable policies from the outside, they later went on to become a part of that same public sphere, where they could directly set policy that would influence these same private interests they once represented. Once the system that they helped to create began to falter, they used their power as Treasury Secretary to inject hundreds of billions of dollars into these same institutions that they once were a part of.
Freedom Watch Chairman Larry Klayman states, "What we have in this country, is a confluence of the public and private sectors. The individuals at the upper echelons of the corporate world transfer seamlessly into the upper echelons of government and vice-versa. The conflict of interest is enormous, as those who were once lobbying for lax regulation and oversight, are now the ones charged with setting those same policies. Similarly, those companies that are now receiving hundreds of billions of bailout dollars are the same companies that were once headed by top administration officials. This is corrupt, this is shameful, and we, on behalf of the American people, are not going to take it lying down."

Seven Avoidance Indicators

Guest perspective/Ralph Nader
Indicators of avoidance are what come to mind while absorbing the various rescue, recovery, stimulus and guarantee programs coming out of the Obama Administration to slow and reverse a splintering and shattering economy. If the Obamites do not act now when the political time is ripest, to put into motion forces of deterrence and prevention, the casino capitalists of tomorrow will again be able to de-stabilize our economy.

The other day I saw Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve, just about predicting another round of recklessness in about fifteen years. But he called it “human nature” not casino capitalism.

Here are seven avoidance indicators which outline what Washington is not doing to prevent another round of greed and misdeeds by the Wall Street few against the innocent many throughout the country.

1. Where are the resources for comprehensive law enforcement against the Wall Street crooks, swindlers and purveyors of costly deceptive practices? Isn’t there a need to add two to three hundred million dollars for more FBI agents, prosecutors and corporate crime attorneys under the Justice Department to obtain the fines and disgorgements which will far exceed in dollars what is spent by the forces of law and order?

Americans want justice. They want jailtime not bailtime for these crooks. Look how many of the swindled just turned out in a New York City winter to let Bernard Madoff have a piece of their mind as he entered the courtroom and immediate imprisonment.

There has been very little movement so far in Congress or the White House toward this necessary action.

2. Where are the anti-trusters to revive the moribund divisions in the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commision? Failed banks, brokerage firms, and now insurance companies are being taken over by shaky acquirers, often with the encouragement of the federal government. Other industries are experiencing similar mergers and acquisitions in an already over-concentrated economy.

Our government needs to be on top of this accelerating creation of more companies deemed to be “too big to fail.” A variety of antitrust policies are needed to prevent, restructure or, at least, require spinoffs to minimize the anti-competitive effects of the “urge to merge.”

3. What about Congress and Obama shifting some power to the investors and shareholders who are paying for all these losses? The corporate bosses have made sure for many years that shareholders, who own their companies, have little or no right to control them. Had there been less of a gap between ownership and control, the bosses could never have engaged in such reckless speculation, looting and draining of the trillions of dollars with which they were entrusted. These include mutual funds, pension funds and various trusts. Power to the owners seems to be off the table.

4. The federal officials are talking up stronger regulation and re-regulation proposals but we have not yet been informed of their specific plans. There is not much talk of regulatory prohibition. That is, flat-out prohibition of banks, insurance companies, and other fiduciary institutions from speculating in derivatives or, to be more specific, bets on debts and the even more hyped creations of bets on bets on debts on debts.

5. By now, Washington should be devising ways to pay for these gigantic deficits and bailouts. A fraction of one percent sales tax on the hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivative transactions annually would produce hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue and tamp down some of this Wall Street gambling with other peoples’ money.

Such a tax on speculative trades in these abstract instruments can make the Wall Streeters pay for their own bailouts and reduce some of the taxes on human labor.

6. Our government doesn’t highlight not-for-profit institutions like the 8000 credit unions that are increasing their loans and continue to serve over 80 million Americans without a single insolvency. One would think that with the financial goliaths in a free fall, despite ever-larger bailouts from the federal government, that the cooperative model of credit unions would become a useful teaching instrument.

In his new paperback book, "Agenda for a New Economy," David Korten makes an important distinction between the “phantom wealth” of Wall Street and the “real wealth” of Main Street.

His 12-point agenda raises the fundamental question of why Wall Street is needed and how the functions of a just and progressive economy can be fulfilled with a sensible transition to a “real wealth” economy engaged by and accountable to real people striving for the necessities and wants of life through environmentally friendly, more efficient institutions.

Lest any remaining doubters out there are thinking about our country returning to business as usual Wall Street style, please read the confidential powerpoint presentation “AIG: Is the Risk Systemic?” by the AIG financial giant grasping $180 billion, so far, in federal aid and guarantees

In 21 pages of very large type, you will see why the AIG bosses believe that failure of their gigantic corporation would only “trigger a cascading set of further failures which cannot be stopped except by extraordinary means.” In other words, AIG says to Uncle Sam and you the taxpayer save it or be prepared for a global collapse through a dominoes effect of unknown catastrophic sequences. For the full astonishing AIG text, see: http://www.aig.com/Related-Resources_385_136430.html. Right from the horse’s mouth!

WMFO to complete major technical renovation

This is exciting news from the station where I got my first start in radio more than 16 years ago! Congratulations to them!! From the inbox:
WMFO, Tufts Freeform Radio, is proud to announce that the station will be undergoing a major technical upgrade during the upcoming week of spring break. This upgrade has been made possible through a large grant approved by the Tufts Community Union Senate this past February. The upgrade will convert the station's current analog audio system, installed in the late 1970s, to a state-of-the-art digital audio system. In order to complete this renovation, the station will power down at noon on Saturday, March 14 with plans to resume normal programming a week later at noon on Sunday, March 22.
WMFO broadcasts on 91.5FM and online at www.wmfo.org. WMFO is a community radio station located in Curtis Hall on the Medford campus of Tufts University. The station is completely student managed and broadcasts shows hosted by both student and community member DJs. Currently the station is host to about 200 DJs, whose shows cover a wide variety of both talk and music.
WMFO applied for the granted funds as part of the Student Activities Recovered Funds application process. These funds were initially provided to the TCU Senate as part of the settlement following the embezzlement scandal involving two former Tufts administrators who were accused of stealing almost $1 million from the accounts of various student groups in 2007. Of the total amount of the settlement, about $87,000 has been made available by the Senate to student groups for the purpose of funding projects that would otherwise go unfunded. WMFO applied for and received about $32,000 of these funds. This amount, supplemented by about $4,000 from WMFO's annual budget, will be used to complete the upgrade project.
The bulk of the upgrade consists of installing a new audio transport system in the station. This system controls the flow of audio around the station and serves as the heart of the radio station's broadcast audio capabilities. The new system uses Ethernet technology, identical to that used in home networking and VoIP applications, to move audio from spot to spot around the station. DJs can control this flow from a new digital control board in the primary studio. After completing a competitive bidding process, Axia Audio (www.axiaaudio.com) was selected as the provider of the new equipment.
The upgrade will also consist of installing a new computer system in the station that will allow CDs and other digital files to be accessed directly from a primary computer terminal. This will replace the current system under which DJs have to search for music in a physical CD library. These computers will also include a broadcast automation system which will ensure that WMFO remains on the air 24/7.
The new systems, will put WMFO's technological capabilities on par with, or exceeding, those of many professional radio stations and will allow the station to continue to operate reliably for the next 10-15 years. The system also sets the station up for future upgrades such as remote broadcasting capabilities and the transition to Digital FM.
The upgrade project will be completed by a number of WMFO student DJs and community member volunteers who will be staying at Tufts over spring break. Upon completion, WMFO will return to the airwaves at 91.5FM and streaming online at www.wmfo.org.

Truth in Accounting says debt soon to top $11T

From the inbox:
Be The First To Know: America's Official Debt Will Soon Top $11 Trillion

This week, the official debt of the United States of America will top $11 trillion, just 165 days after hitting $10 trillion. "To increase the debt at this alarming rate is just plain scary," said Sheila Weinberg, founder and CEO of the Institute for Truth in Accounting, the Northbrook, Illinois based accounting watchdog organization.

The absolute size and the growth of the nation's obligations are alarming.

"In round numbers, U.S. debt will shortly cross the $100,000 level for every household in America." said Weinberg. "There is no parallel to this amount of absolute debt in American history, even during our wars and recessions. For example, the U.S. debt at the end of World War II was $258 billion or just $2.8 trillion in today's dollars."

Total U.S. obligations have ballooned since the economy turned down. "The Federal government is bailing out banks, the auto industry and the housing market," said Roger Nelson, the Institute's chairman. "At the rate the feds are borrowing I am wondering who is going to bail out our country?"

The U.S. government has risen to an unprecedented $11 trillion. That's up from $9.4 trillion just one year ago. Debt held by the public has grown by nearly $1.4 trillion or a whopping 25.8%. Nelson said, "The growth in our 'public' debt concerns me, because an increasing proportion of 'the public'' are actually foreigners who may not have our nation's best interests in mind."

This official debt is only part of the nation's obligations-unfunded liabilities and social insurance promises are more than five times greater. Find out more and keep an eye on the rising debt by viewing our spinning debt clock at: www.truthinaccounting.org.

Public hearings on state budget continue

From the inbox:
The House Finance and Ways and Means committees opened their budget “road show” in Salem Monday night to an overflow crowd of more than 200.
The crowd was so large at Salem High School that it filled the media room and the cafeteria, where testimony was heard over the loud speaker system. Seventy five people testified over a four-hour period.
“This is exactly why we are conducting these public hearings at night outside of Concord,” said Finance Committee Chair Marjorie Smith (D-Durham). “We want to hear from the people who will be affected by our decisions on the budget.”
Monday’s night’s testimony ranged in topics from alcohol and tobacco programs, the corrections system, district courts, catastrophic illness, personal in-home care attendants and gambling. More than 20 cities and towns were represented, from as far east as Hampton and as far north as Dover.
The committees travel next to Claremont on Thursday, where the hearing will be at the River Valley Community College at 6 p.m., and Monday, March 16, in Whitefield at the White Mountains Regional High School at 6 p.m.
“We are taking testimony on House Bill 1 and House Bill 2,” Smith said, preparing for the 2010-2011 fiscal year, which begins July 1.
“Some people are under the misconception we will be hearing testimony on the capital budget, HB25, which is not the case,” she said.
The public is encouraged to attend the hearings. Sign-up sheets to speak will be available. Written testimony will also be accepted.

The Bottomless Bailout

Guest Perspective/Ralph Nader

Does anybody in the federal government know or could know “who, what, where and when” of the massive, complex, vertical, horizontal, global collapse of Wall Street and its planetary tentacles in over 100 countries abroad? Step forward if you exist! Uncle Sam needs you!

Is the multi-million dollar bailout of this financial mess and house of cards, this phantom wealth mummy hitting air beyond the federal governments’ salvage capability?

It is relatively easy to announce hundreds of billions of dollars of corporate rescue programs here and hundreds of billions of dollars of guarantees of corporate recklessness there and trillions of dollars of assorted stimulus, loan availabilities and foreclosure prevention initiatives in all directions. Now comes the rubber hitting the road.

Where are the skilled people to be hired by the federal agencies—the administrators, field implementers, auditors, financial whizzes able to understand the complexity of greed and over-reach; the inspectors, prosecutors and contract negotiators to name a few categories?

In other words, how are a hurried President Obama and his deputies going to rapidly build up the infrastructure of the federal government itself to advance all these “public works” efficiently and to avoid expenditure disasters amidst a potential orgy of waste, fraud and abuse by the coast to coast recipients?

So many of the federal government’s functions have been contracted out to corporations and consulting firms under Clinton and the Bushes that there is a serious dearth of skilled civil servants. Moreover, Obama has indicated he wants this work done by an accountable government and not by Halliburton-type outside contractors at greater expense to taxpayers.

Knowing and doing have to go hand in hand. Some Congressional Committees have finally gotten around to asking the basic questions about what is actually going on inside companies like the giant financial conglomerate AIG. Since the Goliath’s near collapse in September, the federal government has committed $160 billion to keep it from splattering its reckless red ink over small businesses, municipalities, 401(k) plans, policyholders and of course the Fortune 500 big companies led by the omnipresent Goldman Sachs bank.

At a Senate hearing on March 5, to review yet another $30 billion in rescue funds, Senators from both parties demanded that the Federal Reserve make public the names of the parties benefiting from all this taxpayer largesse. These include the derivatives trading partners (eg credit default swappers) who have received tens of billions of these dollars passing from Washington through AIG to them.

Sens. Chris Dodd, Richard Shelby and Jim Bunning went after Donald L. Kohn, the vice-chairman of the Fed board of governors who finally promised he would ask the other governors to reconsider their corporate privacy policy under these megabailouts. Don’t hold your breath!

Surprisingly, the Wall Street Journal editorial writers weighed in three days earlier about this fourth ever-sweeter rescue of AIG. in six months. In an editorial titled “AIG’s Black Box” the Journal thundered: “Perhaps someday the feds will even explain to taxpayers which AIG creditors had to be rescued and why…..try figuring out exactly who benefits when taxpayer money arrives at the insurance giant.”

Besides rebuilding the federal workforce and finding out what is going on inside casino capitalism begging for bailouts, the Obama Administration is wading into an administrative nightmare that could run through trillions of mis-directed dollars and not turn around a deep Recession plunging toward Depression.

When dealing with esoteric gambling chips called “derivatives” that are bets on bets on debts on debts, more than astute regulations and prosecutions are needed to punish, disgorge and deter present and future self-paid corporate crooks looting and draining other people’s pensions and savings. What is essential is that the federal surgeons have to know just where to apply their scalpel on the continuum spanning the big predators to the millions of direct and indirect victims.

So, during the next Congressional hearings featuring government witnesses from the Federal Reserve, the Treasury Department and the securities, insurance and banking regulatory agencies, the Senators should start with four direct questions:

1.Just what is it that you do NOT understand about what is going on inside this widening Wall Street mess?
2.Why don’t you understand what you need to know?
3.How are you going to use your powers to achieve such understanding?
4.Finally, if these corporations like AIG are too big to fail, too secret to fail and overwhelmingly global in structure and operations, why aren’t you asking other governments to pitch in with their own rescue packages and tell you what they know?

As one solid small town banker in Indiana put it recently: “If these big companies are too big to fail, then they’re too big.”

Friday morning link dump ...

Well, I haven't been feeling so hot the last couple of days. Spring can't come fast enough at this point. I have a bunch of links piled up and I need to get rid of them so here it goes.

A couple of months ago we had an ice storm across the Northeast that left thousands without power for weeks on end. Electrical workers from across the country came up here to assist getting everyone back on the grid.
We were, thankfully, only without power for about eight or nine hours during the evening. Our immediate neighbors were not so lucky - they were without power for four days. Although, our Internet and cable was out for four days.
It was creepy at night, driving back from work, along a slew of Concord streets with no power, no streetlights, no nothing.
At the time, I started wondering whether it was time to make the commitment to bury the power and utility lines around the state. I mean, it was only an half-inch ice storm. What if it had been more?
Well, WMUR-TV produced this report looking at the costs: ["Should NH's Power Lines Be Buried To Avoid Blackouts?"].
Three dollars a month doesn't sound like a heck of a lot of money when you consider what we went through that week. The amount of lost productivity time and money would more than offset that expense. As well, this is a long-term investment on the grid. When we all start having our plug-in cars, we're going to need a stronger delivery system of power ... assuming we don't all have solar panels and windmills to charge our battery cars.

Aging Sen. Robert Byrd has raised some interesting points about concentration of powers in the Obama Administration: ["Byrd: Obama in power grab"].

One of the cool things about Facebook is that you get to run into old friends. Artist Lindsay Riggs Brown and I used to work at a restaurant called Thursdays here in Concord. They had great food and just about everyone who worked there was pretty nice. It's now an Indian place, BTW. Well, I ran into her on Facebook recently after not speaking to her for about 17 years. She has a pretty cool poetry blog here: ["Berkeley's Trees"].

Am I alone in thinking that the public has seen enough of the Octomom and her nonsense?

Band name of the month: ["The Whore Moans"].

Time Magazine has this overview of the financial crisis: ["25 People to Blame for the Financial Crisis"].
Also in Time was this article about the newspaper business: ["How to Save Your Newspaper"].
It's a complicated time made all the more difficult by waning interest in issues and content that are serious in nature. I still am amazed by people who won't spend a few minutes to analyze a serious issue but will go on and on about some movie or sports star. It dumbfounds me. Seriously.

Sarah Palin fans have launched a new Web site: ["Team Sarah"].

Can this be done?: ["New Hampshire Family of Four Trying to Live on $1,500 for the Year"]. I recall seeing this family on television and even went to their blog a couple of times. But now, the blog has disappeared, apparently taken down due to threats. Wow.

An Oscar for Activism

Guest Perspective/Ralph Nader
As the 2009 Academy Awards swept their way into history, the glitz and the massive global audiences show that across cultures fictional stories, mythologies and money go hand in hand.

As the nominees for the awards were briefly showcased for their artistic imagination in one category after another, it occurred to me that the saying “truth is stranger than fiction” has another meaning. Many people would rather see fiction than the real thing.

What if, permit a flight of fancy, there were the equivalent of the “Academy Awards” for the civic heroism that goes on every day here and abroad. The powerless valiant ones who challenge the powerful and corrupt in ways that throughout history have broken new ground for more justice, economic well-being, health, safety and freedom. They are mostly unsung. They are often marginalized or maligned.

The history books make reference to only a very few—anti slavery abolitionists, women fighting for the vote, workers for the right to organize, farmers for federal regulation of brazen banks and railroads. People take on, for example, corrupt city machines, company towns dominated by a single plant or mine, toxic contamination of drinking water supplies, corporate looters of worker pensions, manufacturers of defective cars and harmful medicines.

Recognition before large audiences keeps a highly nourished concept of the heroic before the people. It gives support to those who take the first step and who speak truth to power. Acclaim is protective and encourages more people to follow in the shoes of these citizen-pioneers. Civic heroism changes the culture and the dreams of youth.

Movies are meant to be dramatic and can take liberties with reality even when they are describing real-life situations and people. But Hollywood can make almost any story dramatic and interesting. Look at "Frost/Nixon." On the other hand, there have been great flops with pure violent action—consider Ishtar.

Anything that is important to people in the course of their daily life can be made interesting. Real life narratives of people taking on power and cruelty can be compelling, without losing authenticity.

How would the Civic Heroism Awards be organized? The process would start at the community level with nominations and take it up to the state, national, and international level. Unlike game shows and beauty contests, the nominees would not be allowed to promote themselves. What they have already done is why they have been nominated. There is no present or future enhancement at ever higher levels of awards for what they had accomplished and striven for in the past.

Consider for a moment the peoples’ infrastructure that such a multi-tiered annual award process would stimulate. Local video producers would see an opportunity to profile potential nominees over the Internet, Cable and local screenings. The digital era assures the widespread egalitarian prevalence of such productions. Thousands of communities would be involved.

Discussions, debates and banter would be stimulated over the criteria for nominations which would include awards for “the supporting cast” around the heroes as is done by the Academy Awards.

The teaching of civics in the local schools would become more attached to local activities beyond textbook study. Putting a human face on civic action will stir the minds of youngsters presently saturated with often degrading electronic “virtual realities.”

The positive repercussions are many. Just the chance to become civic celebrities through this process of recognition increases media exposure and greater attention to the serious conditions and reforms that the nomination processes highlight.

The formulaic local television evening news—with its nine minutes of ads, four minutes of sports, four minutes of weather, chitchat, animal stories and miscellaneous fluff leaves very little time for civic news to attract the dwindling number of television reporters. Daily civic efforts to improve community life and justice wither on the vine for lack of any media coverage.

Civic heroism awards—done in a professional and exciting manner—can compel news coverage. Even in print form, columnists like Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times roams the continents of Asia, Africa and South America to find the most courageous and besieged people standing up at great risk for human dignity and humane treatment.

The drama is in the people. The search is for the civic dramatists to find their calling. Finally, philanthropy needs to come forward to jumpstart what could become the citizen equivalent of the Academy Awards from the local to the global for these stalwart pillars of just and democratic societies.

Readers: do you know any likely philanthropists? Have them contact Awards Project at PO Box 19367, Washington, DC, 20036.