Anyone who saw the movie, "American Casino" will have a good idea how Wells Fargo financially raped lower income neighborhoods here in Baltimore through predatory and racist lending strategies. In keeping with the sense of justice that seems to predominate in the post financial meltdown world, perpetrators are once again immune from prosecution based on a judge's likely ruling of "lack of evidence." Further rationale included the following:

"Should we go down that road? ... It's going to cost a lot of people a lot of money, including the taxpayers," said Motz, who took over the case in August after the previous judge discovered a conflict of interest

Agonistas are by now well aware of the Times' journalistic transgressions, but I feel that one of its recent misrepresentation of reality really needed to be confronted, and I'm glad that David Bromwich at the Huffington Post ably handled that. If anything, the reality was worse than he made it out to be. Full Article

The two articles to which the author refers are as follows:

Sheryl Gay Stolberg

Sanger

The New York Times assigned to the story a campaign-trail reporter, Sheryl Gay Stolberg, whose political perceptions are bland and whose knowledge of Israeli-American relations is an antiseptic zero. At the newspaper of record, a thing like that does not happen by accident. They took the most anxiously awaited meeting with a foreign leader of President Obama's term thus far, and buried it on page 12. The coverage of a major event, which the same newspaper had greeted only the day before by running an oversize attack-Iran op-ed by Jeffrey Goldberg, has officially now shrunk to the scale of a smaller op-ed.
What is more disturbing and far more consequential is that the Times made this meeting into a story about Iran. They read into Obama's careful and measured remarks exactly the hostile intention toward Iran and the explicit deadline for results from his negotiations with Iran that Obama had taken great pains to avoid stating.

Obama's relevant remark was this:

But the rest of the world certainly does, since its newspapers actually take note of these events. And we wonder why we're not loved and respected? See full article here:

The criminalization of journalism

Air France Flight 438, from Paris, was to land at Mexico City at 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 18. Five hours before landing, the captain's voice announced that U.S. authorities had prohibited the plane from flying over U.S. territory. The explanation: among the passengers aboard was a person who was not welcome in the United States for reasons of national security.

Such instruments as ukeleles, mandolins, balalaikas, etc. tend to languish in the forgotten wilderness of musical culture. But even the much-maligned ukelele (which I first saw abused on the Arthur Godfrey show in the 1950s), is capable of playing some great music, as is evidenced by the first clip below, a George Harrison tune performed in New York's Central Park.

one of the better commentators from the New York Times:

Bailout Needs Some Strings Attached to Limit Pay

Just in case you missed it: The Congressional Oversight Panel monitoring the Treasury Department’s bailout of broken banks — the Troubled Asset Relief Program — reported last week that Henry M. Paulson Jr.’s team at Treasury paid significantly more for the assets it bought from banks than they were worth when the deal was announced in the fall.

More

Since there’s been a lot of good music posted in the last few days, I thought I’d take a break from my moral outrage about what’s happening in our country and the world and contribute as well.

I spent the first three years of my life at about 14,000 feet in the Andes in Argentina, and, while I only have fleeting memories of those days, the haunting, beautiful music (mixed native American and Spanish) from this part of the world stayed with me in recordings we brought to the US. One group that has revived this tradition over the years is Inti Illimani, and I link three of their performances below. The first is the most traditional, and, if you’re not familiar with the ukulele-like stringed instrument that shows up early in the first piece, it’s called a “charanga,” and it’s made from the back of an armadillo. The next two pieces are arrangements in deference to the group’s Italian fans.

It really bothers me that the following item was buried in almost every news source I've seen except for the McClatchy web site, since it only vindicates all the warnings and criticisms directed against the way this bailout has been pursued. It should have been front page news.

"The federal government overpaid by about $78 billion for stock and other troubled assets when it bailed out big banks last year as part of its Wall Street rescue program, and it lacks sufficient internal controls to police and protect taxpayers' investment in the institutions, government watchdogs said Thursday." More at the Minneapolis Star Tribune

With what’s been happening in our country and in the world in the last few weeks, I can’t say I’ve been in the best frame of mind to post music, but, but, if anything, we probably need more of it than less, as long as it’s genuine.

I thought I’d start the year with two songs that seem pretty relevant, one from Emmylou about the hope for a better life and the other, from Mary Black, covering a poignant song by Richard Thompson about the sadness of emigration.

One of these Days

Farewell, Farewell

Below are four links to some pretty decent guitarists, mostly acoustic, that I thought might be worth a listen.

Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed

Jerry’s Breakdown

Ralph Towner, the guitarist for the group, “Oregon”

Jamaica Stopover

While I appreciate a wide variety of music, Bluegrass is probably my first love going back to my childhood in the 1950’s when, home sick from school one day and looking for some music on my transistor radio, I was suddenly spellbound by the sound of a Bluegrass banjo. I realize that it’s not everyone’s favorite music, but, at its best (and there is a lot of it that’s less than “best”), it not only stands up to the most inspiring ethnic string band music anywhere in the world but also speaks from the depth of our rural soul in a way that Nashville left behind decades ago.

While the attached clips are from the lighter side of the music, I thought you might get a kick out of comparing two phases in the life of one of Bluegrass’s icons, Ricky Skaggs, first, at the age of seven in the 1950’s, tugging impatiently on Lester Flatt’s coattails during a TV broadcast and then second, just a few years ago, invited to perform with the Boston Pops.

As much as I’ve fancied myself as reasonably knowledgeable about pop music, especially its more acoustic side, it wasn’t until years after I moved to Maryland, Eva’s home state, from New York in 1991 that I even heard her name. While it’s not the first time I overlooked something like that, there are a number of good reasons why her name is not a household word.

First, even in her prime, she was always a young, shy, and self-effacing woman more into horticulture than the spotlight. Second, since she excelled in every conceivable vocal style short of opera, record companies had no idea what to do with her. Third, she only sang songs that truly inspired her, and her impeccable taste and emotional depth didn’t endear her to the mass market corporate media. Fourth, and most sadly, she died of melanoma in 1996 at the age of 33.

The four links below, taken from her performances at Blues Alley, a DC jazz club, should give you some idea why she had profound effects on most people who listened to her.

With appreciation for the responses I got on my last post, I thought I’d share a few more clips I thought you might enjoy.

The first features three legendary guitarists, Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, and Lonnie Mack (singing lead) in a blues concert clip. While I think Collins takes the lead in sheer impact, all three are a pleasure to listen to. Like more than a few YouTube clips, the sound is a little out of synch with the video, but it’s close enough.

Further On Down the Road

While I’m relatively new to the Agonist, I was extremely saddened to hear of Rick’s passing, and I especially appreciated his “Saturday Night Jukebox.” While never seeking to fill his shoes, I have my own past as a musician and singer, and, especially when there’s so much to be depressed about these days, I’d like at least to post some music from time to time that’s certainly lifted my spirit. So here goes:

As a new Agonist participant, I was hoping to launch my first post on a less controversial subject, but, after reading two guest columns that dominated the New York Times op-ed page on October 23 (please see links at the bottom) in memory of Hezbollah’s horrific 1983 bombing of American Marines in Lebanon, I felt I needed to put some thoughts out. For starters, the articles include claims that a) a more aggressive policy against Hezbollah in 1983 might have prevented 9/11, b) thanks to our efforts, Afghanistan is no longer a safe haven for terrorists, and c) our commitment to Iraq is now being vindicated. Needless to say, those claims are easy enough to challenge, but the columns’ perception of Hezbollah itself is equally troubling to me.