In order to keep people off the subject of government failure and corruption it is essential to keep private sector scapegoats in the spotlight. The Toyota flap is part of this. Waxman was going to do a big public Star Chamber deal on those corporations that had to take accounting losses due to the new health care laws, but he backed down when he realized what the outcome would be.

The timing of this current case is suspect. This has been under investigation for at least a year, and it was no secret. The New York Times had detailed stories on it last December, and somebody wrote a frigging book about the Paulson trading.

Now we have the big media blowup, conveniently timed for the heavy-duty financial regulation in the offing this week, and I'm far from the only one who's noticed the timing.

The Democrats are preparing another ratchet in the takeover of private industry, and this plays right into it.

Basically, you're being had.