Monday Morning News and Views

Good Morning Conflucians! Today is Patriots’ Day, a holiday in Massachusetts that commemorates the the initial Revolutionary War battles in Lexington and Concord. On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere

…was sent for by Dr. Joseph Warren and instructed to ride to Lexington, Massachusetts, to warn Samuel Adams and John Hancock that British troops were marching to arrest them. After being rowed across the Charles River to Charlestown by two associates, Paul Revere borrowed a horse from his friend Deacon John Larkin. While in Charlestown, he verified that the local “Sons of Liberty” committee had seen his pre-arranged signals. (Two lanterns had been hung briefly in the bell-tower of Christ Church in Boston, indicating that troops would row “by sea” across the Charles River to Cambridge, rather than marching “by land” out Boston Neck. Revere had arranged for these signals the previous weekend, as he was afraid that he might be prevented from leaving Boston).

On the way to Lexington, Revere “alarmed” the country-side, stopping at each house, and arrived in Lexington about midnight. As he approached the house where Adams and Hancock were staying, a sentry asked that he not make so much noise. “Noise!” cried Revere, “You’ll have noise enough before long. The regulars are coming out!”

On the morning of April 19, 1775, the “embattled farmers stood and fired the shot heard ’round the world.”

At the Concord North Bridge, a small group of militia battled a force of British soldiers. At this point, the British commander decided to retreat back toward Lexington, as it became evident that more and more Minutemen were arriving from all of the local villages and farms.

During this retreat, the British kept to the road, while the American farmers fired at them from behind trees, walls and any obstacle they could find. When the British force returned to Lexington, they were met by a relief column. The combined British units then headed for Boston. The Minutemen continued to harass them the whole way.

By the end of the day, British casualties numbered 273, while the colonials suffered only 94, 18 of which fell during the initial clash at Lexington. The American Revolutionary War had begun.

Today in Boston, it’s also marathon day. This year, 26,776 runners will try to complete the harrowing 26 mile course. Unfortunately, some entrants have not been able to get here because of the volcanic ash that is preventing flights from Europe.

TRAGIC ANNIVERSARY

April 19, 2010 is also the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.

Murrah Building Memorial

…on April 19, 1995, when American militia movement sympathizer Timothy McVeigh detonated a truck filled with explosives parked in front of the [Murrah] building.[1] McVeigh’s co-conspirator, Terry Nichols, had assisted in the bomb preparation. It was the most destructive act of terrorism on American soil until the September 11, 2001 attacks, claiming 168 lives, including 19 children under the age of 6.[2] More than 680 people were injured.[3][4] The blast destroyed or damaged 324 buildings within a sixteen-block radius,[5] destroyed or burned 86 cars, and shattered glass in 258 nearby buildings.[6] The bomb was estimated to have caused at least $652 million worth of damage.[7]

Motivated by his hatred of the federal government and angered by what he perceived as its mishandling of the Waco Siege (1993) and the Ruby Ridge incident (1992), McVeigh timed his attack to coincide with the second anniversary of the deaths at Waco.

Tonight on MSNBC, Rachel Maddow will play previously unheard audiotapes of Timothy McVeigh talking about his role in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. He expresses no remorse, but admits his involvement in the crime.

Newsweek talked to Paul Heath, a psychologist who worked in the Oklahoma City Veterans Affairs Office when the building was bombed. Heath had worked with many veterans who suffered from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and he thought Timothy McVeigh probably also had PTSD from his experiences in the first Gulf War. Heath still wonders why McVeigh came to his office shortly before the bombing–supposedly to apply for a job.

OTHER NEWS: VAMPIRE SQUID DOMINATES

The Goldman Sachs story is everywhere today. Paul Krugman’s column for today is titled “Looters in Loafers.”

We’ve known for some time that Goldman Sachs and other firms marketed mortgage-backed securities even as they sought to make profits by betting that such securities would plunge in value. This practice, however, while arguably reprehensible, wasn’t illegal. But now the S.E.C. is charging that Goldman created and marketed securities that were deliberately designed to fail, so that an important client could make money off that failure. That’s what I would call looting.

And Goldman isn’t the only financial firm accused of doing this. According to the Pulitzer-winning investigative journalism Web site ProPublica, several banks helped market designed-to-fail investments on behalf of the hedge fund Magnetar, which was betting on that failure.

At Huffpo, Vicky Ward reveals that “Senior Goldman Exec Is Married to Former Head of ACA.” ACA Capital Holdings Inc. is the now defunct bond insurer “at the center of” the SEC civil suit against Goldman Sachs. Ward wants to know why the obvious conflict of interest caused by two senior people at two firms doing business like this being married to each other is not included in the SEC case.

According to Business Week, the SEC suit will probably lead to a “wider probe” and “more regulation.” Let’s hope so!

And to top it all off, from Raw Story: Surprise: Goldman Sachs to pay out $5 billion more in bonuses for first three months of 2010

As if to put the icing on the cake, the investment bank Goldman Sachs is set to shell out another $5 billion in bonuses to employees.

What’s more, the bonuses are expected to cover the employees’ work for just the first three months of the year, according to the UK Sunday Times.

According to the report, bankers will receive remuneration of about $170,000 per person for the firm’s 32,500 employees. Some traders are set to receive millions.

Earlier this year, Goldman’s “junior” bankers were told they’d begin receiving salaries that were double their previous takes.

“It’s made me rethink everything,” a Goldman Sachs employee, “sipping champagne,” told the site. “I like the new structure even better. My monthly take home just went way up.”

What are you reading this morning? Please share your links in the comments, and have a marvelous Monday.

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