On The Media

Great conversation!

Your commentator strongly presented Robert Rubin as the role model for Treasury Secretary. While Mr. Rubin may have been an effective salesperson, his role in disabling the regulatory system of financial instruments has in no small part contributed to today's economic melt down. In 1998 he and Alan Greenspan were responsible for killing a proposal by the chair of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) which would have brought derivatives and other innovative financial instruments under the scope of the CFTC. Please follow this link for more details.

http://www.stanfordalumni.org/news/magazine/2009/marapr/features/born.html

Frankly, I don't buy it and to me it's the same ol' Change as usual. There's much to much support and strong support for the same guys who got us in the whole. Oh, and BTW, I don't buy all those "threatening" letters to the folks who are keeping the bonuses. Somehow I think it's baloney... at least the more far out threats. Their "comeback" for support is working and lots of folks are feeling sorry for these thieves. We shouldn't support those threats if real but I think we should step back and be sure they're real and not part of a hoax as was the whole hoax to rob the little investors into buying it. Remember these are the experts in deceit and hoaxes, as it were.

Good Lord Bob! The Treasury Secretary under President Roosevelt was Henry Morganthau, Jr. the FATHER of New York's District Attorney, Robert Morganthau. It shocks me that over and over, WNYC commentators seem clueless about this even though the person they don't seem to know is a famous New Yorker! He served as Treasury Secretary leading with a steady hand for most of Roosevelt's term throughout the New Deal and WWII. (He replaced Roosevelt's close friend William Woodin who died after a few months in office). Morganthau should not be so easily forgotten, especially by the New York media. Do your homework! Read your history so that your stories and questions have some context!

In my zeal to get my previous comment posted, I made a spelling error. The correct spelling of the last name of the former Treasury Secretary and New York District Attorney is: "Morgenthau."

I think only Star Trek fans can truly understand Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. Look at his ears and eyebrows. He's clearly a Vulcan. It's impossible for him to connect to the American people on an emotional level. He's all the more jarring because he follows eight years of an administration bristling with hyper-emotional, war-loving Klingons and Ferengi who would sell their mothers, and their country, for profit. Of course, former President Bill Clinton was the Capt. Kirk of the original Star Trek generation. It remains to be seen whether President Obama, teaming up with Vulcans and other peace-loving, progressive, intellectual types, can lead us into the next generation we sci-fi optimists envision. Live long, prosper and lighten up for goodness sake.

The reporter quotes the President as saying the Administration would do "anything" to stop the AIG bonuses. He actually said they would do anything they could do LEGALLY. Reality contradicts the very point he was making.

While, with some effort, I can recall the name Morgenthau as a Roosevelt Cabinet officer, he was, clearly, very much overshadowed by the then-"Pitchman-in-Chief" and that seems right. It is only the advent of the 24-hour cable news cycle that has allowed and, basically, forced average citizens, such as myself, to skip the dense reporting of the print media and still pay attention to who such spokespeople as Geithner are.

Mr. Wood's point is still a good one. Do us a favor, Bob. Study up before your interviews.

Kevin's comment was delightful, even if anonymous!

I like this game Kevin. But are you sure that Geithner is a Vulcan? I seem to remember that Romulans will occasionally go undercover and they're awfully hard to tell apart.

Game, Mike?

I'd call it a world view as legitimate as the war on terror.

Note that Wikipedia says Romulans first appeared in a 1966 Star Trek episode called "Balance of Terror." Goose bumps.

Romulans are a passionate people, a trait that the treasury secretary clearly lacks. Vulcan through and through.

I actually thought that having a Star Trek political party would have been a great choice for those of us looking for the sort of optimistic, mini-skirted future the show left as a lasting legacy. Again, because the Republicans broke the Prime Directive, Obama and the Democrats would have been the natural choice. And note that with Obama, American voters went where no American voters have gone before.

Now, Kevin, Vuolo made his point. A well disciplined Romulan, with black hair dye (needed even if he or she had reached what the folk of the Shire - another, different but apropo cultural reference - their Eleventy First birthday) could pull it off.

By the way, you would have loved our last Conressional race in Connecticut's 5th District. I kept thinking it was between Odo and Quark and Quark won! Now, Odo has decided to try and take on Dodd in his next Senate race. Wonder if he'll shape-shift.

And, if there is a Vulcan in the House, it has to be our 3rd District Rep., Rosa DeLauro. (See Rosa, I got it right this time and didn't substitute your former Alderwoman mother's first name! Her father preceded the mother in that seat, by the way. "Dirty rotten daughter of a...", I always say.)

P.S.: See my comment on the next segment, as well.

Rats! "what the folk of the Shire" call...