The FDA prosecution of the tomato proved once again that criminal indictments are often tunnel visioned and have a malicious effect on the indicted.

How many criminal cases in this country focus on one suspect to the exclusion of all others?  Well, that was the case with the tomato.  The investigators, eager to nab a suspect… in this case the tomato… narrowed their vision and investigation to what seemed most obvious, allowing the real culprit to have time to escape the scene.  The tomato, in the instant case, was indicted on circumstantial evidence and hearsay.  That has happened more than once in the criminal justice system, too. 

“Tomato” was the name that cropped up consistently in the recent salmonella outbreak.  It seemed the obvious culprit.  The FDA jumped to the conclusion based on hearsay that it was obvious that the red round tomato was the only suspect.  Instead of looking at other complementary foods, it was easier to prosecute the tomato than to follow up on other less prominent leads.  It happens all the time.

Why?  Well, that’s a simple answer.  The general public wants to put “closure” to any event or incident that seems dangerous.  As we have seen in too many cases, eyewitness accounts are faulty.  The questioning of investigators have a tendency to lead the witnesses to a pre-supposed conclusion, to the exclusion of any other suspects.  Recently, based on such compelling testimony, the tomato was indicted.

Once the word was out… the tomato is the prime suspect… we all forgot the basic tenents of our judicial system.  The tomato should have been innocent until proven guilty.  However, the FDA spread the word that the tomato was the most likely culprit and the investigation that followed was focused on gathering information that would prove the tomato guilty.  As with so many criminal cases, the truth is not the objective.  Instead, a conviction… a notch on the belt for the FDA and “closure” for those affected… became the objective.

Regulators have struggled to pinpoint the source of the outbreak, which has raised questions about U.S. food safety and prompted lawmakers to demand new systems to trace fresh produce from farm to table.

FDA said it removed the tomato warning because there are no longer any tomatoes coming into the market from producers that were being looked at as possible sources of contamination.

As with so many who are indicted and tried in the press, it is doubtful that the tomato will regain its standing in the salad bowl.  Oh, eventually, it may work its way back onto the daily menu, but for now the tomato is still a danger in the minds of those who wish to believe it.  The removal of the warning concerning tomatoes comes too late to restore the tomatoes standing for this season.  The damage has been done.

And, as with hearsay and eyewitness testimony, regulators from the FDA were unable to link a single incident of salmonella saintpaul to the plump red tomato. 

Regulators never found Salmonella Saintpaul at any tomato farms or packing plants, even though early indicators pointed to tomatoes as the source of illness. 

The nation’s tomato farmers have paid the price for malicious prosecution.  The FDA is sorry for that.  But, the cost of defending the innocent is no less than defending the guilty.  In this case, the prosecution of the tomato has cost close to a hundred million dollars, more than a death penalty case.  And, like so many who have been exonerated, the tomato and those who grow them receive only an apology.  Then, they are forgotten for all intents and purposes, left to pick up the pieces of broken lives as the FDA moves on to the next suspect.

Reverend, practice what you preach!  That’s our advice to the Reverend Jesse Jackson, following the FOX disclosure that during the castration comment Jackson made about Barack Obama he used the “N-word.”  It seems that Jackson, having been removed from the spotlight some years ago, has turned to shock tactics to get his name back in the news, all perhaps subconsciously.  However, Jackson who has held himself out as a representative of black Americans for years has demonstrated that it is his own language and representation of his ethnicity that condemns the people he claims to represent.

According to FOX news, Jackson used the “N-word” during his comments about cutting Barack Obama’s nuts out because he talks down to black people.   Jackson is totally irrelevant in today’s racial conversation.  It is not that we have forgotten the injustices in our American history.  We have not forgotten our mistakes.  There is still much dialogue left on that subject.  But, Jackson is among those who wants to not only keep the debate alive, but wants to keep the divide deep and wide.  It’s too late for that.  Just as with Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Jackson is stuck in the 1960’s, unwilling to acknowledge that change has taken place.  The world isn’t perfect.  African Americans are still feeling the discrimination.  We have still have a long road to travel.  But, look around.  We have made some progress.

Times have changed.  No one has forgotten the fight or the discrimination.  But, the dialogue has changed.  It’s a shame that Jesse Jackson is fighting the progress we have made as a nation.  Instead, we find that it is Jackson, not Obama, who talks down about his community.  And, that makes Jackson irrelevant in today’s discussions.

“Evecutive privilege” and “signing statement”, closely followed by “veto” have fast become words or phrases that come from the administration on a daily basis for one reason or another.  We have heard about signing statements almost every time Bush has signed into law anything that he didn’t 100% agree with.  Veto has been his stamp for the past year.  Now, we are back to executive privilege.

Back to the Valerie Plame leak.  A House committe has subpoenaed Attorney General Michael Mukasey to supply material concerning the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame.  Once again, Bush is singing the executive privilege song.

Representative Henry Waxman, House Oversight Chairman, has asked to be provided with interviews of Dick Cheney by the FBI concerning the Plame outing.

They also include notes about the 2003 State of the Union address, during which President Bush made the case for invading Iraq in part by saying Saddam Hussein was pursuing uranium ore to make a nuclear weapon. That information turned out to be wrong.

So, what’s to hide?

The assertion of the privilege is not about hiding anything but rather protecting the separation of powers as well as the integrity of future Justice Department investigations of the White House, Mukasey wrote to Bush in a letter dated Tuesday. Several of the subpoenaed reports, he wrote, summarize conversations between Bush and advisers — are direct presidential communications protected by the privilege.

Yeah… right… There is just too much secret squirrel stuff going on in the White House.  And, every time anyone requests a document or testimony from anyone who has worked in the Presidential palace, it seems that the Dick and the Decider get squirrely. 

The point of the investigation:

Congressional Democrats want to shed light on the precise roles, if any, that Bush, Cheney and their aides may have played in the leak.

Who was really behind the outing of covert agent Plame?  We all know that “Scooter” Libby was convicted of perjury, obstruction, and lying to the FBI.  We all know that he received a two and a half year sentence.  We all know that Bush commuted the sentence.

That’s about all we know… except that there is something rotten in the White House.  This one is going to be a cat and dog issue, apparently… a dog fight to get the information and not enough cats in Washington to cover the pile of litter. 

So, we can’t blame everything on the government… but…

IndyMac is the third largest bank failure in the nation’s history.  And, of course, by now we all know that the bank has been taken over by the government.  Is that going to make us sleep better at night?  Probably not.

Over the weekend it was disclosed that the government has a list of banks that “they” are keeping an eye on.  The bank list is supposedly made up of those banks the government sees as being on the brink of failure, or at the very least leaning towards trouble.  We should be reassured to know that the government is watching out for us.  Supposedly, there are some ninety banks on the “watch list.”  Today I heard the number was 300.  Whatever the number, 90 or 300, the government is watching out for us. 

That sounds okay, I suppose.  That is until it was disclosed that IndyMac was NOT on the watch list.  No one was watching IndyMac.  It almost sounds as if the bank had no one watching until Friday.  The details of the Fed sweeping in and taking over the bank are sketchy at best.  But, what is important is that for all the “watch lists” and eyes on the prize talk we are getting from Washington, no one had an eye on IndyMac.  That makes me wonder how many other banks should be on a watch list and aren’t. 

Are the Main Street citizens satisfied that their money is safe now that IndyMac is now under federal control?  Apparently, not!

Nervous customers of IndyMac Bank today lined up at branches in Pasadena and elsewhere, anxious to withdraw their money from the failed institution that was seized by federal regulators late last week.

With some arriving as early as 4 a.m., fueled by coffee and packing lawn chairs and stools in anticipation of a lengthy stay, depositors waited for the bank to reopen at 9 a.m. It has been closed since Friday.

A spokesman for the FDIC walked up and down the line trying to reassure the depositors that their money was safe since the bank is now under government control. 

To calm customers’ fears, employees of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. — the bank’s new manager — made their way down the line, which wrapped twice in front of the building on Lake Avenue and stretched around the corner. They answered questions and explained the bank’s new policies.

“This right now is one of the strongest banks in the country,” said FDIC spokesman David Barr. But he acknowledged customers “just want to get their money — we understand that.”

So, how safe is the money?  That is the real question.

Yet not all customers would be able to access all of their funds. Customers with $100,000 or less in deposits or with $250,000 or less in a retirement account would have full access to their funds, which are insured by the federal government.

There are, however, an estimated 10,000 IndyMac depositors who had a collective $1 billion over federal insurance limits. In an unusual move, the FDIC said it would give those customers access to 50% of their uninsured deposits. Any additional payments would be made only if the sale of IndyMac assets proved sufficient.

For all depositors, interest rates on most individual accounts would remain unchanged until the accounts mature, the FDIC said. That’s good news for many customers because IndyMac has been paying among the highest rates in the nation for certificates of deposit in recent months. As of last week, the bank was offering an annualized 4.3% on a six-month CD.

Maybe everything will work out.  Let’s hope so.  But, who can blame anyone for leaving no more than $100,000 in a single bank? 

This isn’t the first bank to fail since the economic crisis began.  According to Reuters, UK

July 11 - IndyMac Bancorp taken over by U.S. regulators. Total assets of $32.01 billion and total deposits of $19.06 billion as of March 31. Estimated cost to FDIC insurance fund between $4 billion and $8 billion.

May 30 - First Integrity Bank closed by regulators. First International Bank and Trust takes over all of the Minnesota-based bank’s deposits. First Integrity held $54.7 million in assets and $50.3 million in total deposits.

May 9 - ANB Financial NA closed by U.S. regulators. Pulaski Bank and Trust Co takes over the insured deposits. ANB Financial had about $2.1 billion in assets and $1.8 billion in total deposits.

March 7 - Hume Bank closed by U.S. regulators. Security Bank takes over insured deposits. Hume had total assets of $18.7 million and total deposits of $13.6 million.

January 25 - Douglass National Bank closed by regulators. Liberty Bank and Trust Co takes over all deposits. Douglass had $58.5 million in total assets and $53.8 million in total deposits.

So, I guess we will all rest better tonight.  Besides, it’s all psychological.

The government is racing to prop up our financial system, unveiling a new plan to keep Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae afloat… at taxpayer’s expense.

The plan, unveiled Sunday, is intended to signal the government is prepared to take all necessary steps to prevent the credit market troubles that erupted last year with losses from subprime mortgages from engulfing financial markets.

The Fed said it granted the Federal Reserve Bank of New York authority to lend to the two companies “should such lending prove necessary.” They would pay 2.25 percent for any borrowed funds — the same rate given to commercial banks and big Wall Street firms.

So far we have heard about commercial banks, Wall Street, now included among those institutions will be Freddie and Fannie.  Supposedly, the intervention will help those of us on Main Street.

That package includes a foreclosure rescue to help strapped homeowners get new, more affordable government-backed mortgages through the Federal Housing Administration, and creates a new regulator and tighter controls for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Senator Chris Dodd appeared on television this morning to “calm the waters.”  After the run last week on IndyMac, the 3rd largest bank failure in our national history, people are getting skittish. 

“There’s a big difference between IndyMac and Fannie and Freddie,” Dodd said. “IndyMac engaged in very bad mortgages, luring people into deals they could never afford. That’s not the case with Fannie and Freddie.” Dodd said that while there may be more bank failures, “I’m more optimistic about Fannie and Freddie than I am about these banks.”

As much as I am a Chris Dodd fan, I must say that I am not optimistic about much these days.  Not that I want to preach gloom and doom, but in today’s world the $100,000 of FDIC guaranteed coverage for Main Street depositors in case of a bank failure doesn’t seem like much.  I do realize that to many of us $100,000 seems like a fortune.  But, for those people who have worked and saved, and paid taxes on the interest they have earned over the years, $100,000 isn’t that much.  In fact, if you listen to anyone who talks retirement plans, $100,000 would barely leave you above poverty during your retirement years.

From the two presidential candidates we have heard…

Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama said the government’s main concern should be “to make sure that home ownership remains attainable and affordable for American families. Second, any measures should protect taxpayers and not bailout the shareholders and management of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.”

And from McCain…

Republican rival John McCain believes the measures announced Sunday “are consistent with the goal of providing support for a path through the current duress toward steps that include regulatory reform, market discipline and mission focus,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, senior policy adviser.

Of note, McCain’s comments came via a “senior policy adviser” and so we really don’t know what McCain thinks.  As he said last week of Phil Gramm’s comments as he tried to distance himself, McCain speaks for himself.  So, speak up!