705P PT: Jim McTague, Barron's, re the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac break-the-glass alarm at Treasury, at Congress, that McTague warned about last November.  With Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, re the Gramm-McCain dispute over the state of the state.  And what's up with Lehman?

 

720P: Kai Wright, Nation, re the housing bubble collapse and the badly pressed minority home-owners of Atlanta, Georgia.  With Craig Unger continued.  "It starts with a $68,000 loan in May 2003--that's the one they made for the new siding. By that December, they'd already refinanced for $100,000. In December 2006, there's another loan, with now-defunct NovaStar Mortgage, for just over $116,000. Two months later there's a package of two more loans, totaling about $125,000 and owed to California-based IndyMac Bank. The IndyMac loan package is a classic subprime product--interest-only payments for five years, at a fixed rate of just over 6 percent, then adjusting upward to about 9 percent plus the principal."

 

735P: Professional roundtable Larry Johnson, No Quarter, and Craig Unger, Vanity Fair, re Obama and Jackson, Obama and Clinton, the June campaign money, Obama the rock star; re McCain vs Gramm, McCain searches for a campaign. Re Iran war hysteria.

750P: Continued re the lawsuit disputing McCain's natural born status, re the reported fraudulent Obama Certificate of Live Birth document on DailyKos, FighttheSmears.

 

805P: Professional roundtable John Fund, WSJ, and Monica Crowley, McLoughlin Group, re McCain searches for the economy, re Phil Gramm, UBS liability?  Time to lose Gramm?  Re Obama vs Jackson.  Re Obama vs Berlin.  Re Obama vs Bernie Mac.

820P: Roundtable continued, re McCain raises credible cash, re Obama's cash dipping and anecdotal reports of the Clintonista resistance.  Re ACORN.

 

850P: Olivier Guitta, Middle East Times, re the Assads of Damascus double game of working for Tehran and entreating with Washington, re the Saudi hatred of the Assads.  Hatred is not a strong enough word.  But the Saudis are practical antiques, looking to make deals with Tehran and Damascus to survive after the US bugs out of Gulf.

 

905P:  Dimitar Sasselov, Harvard, Origins of Life Program, re the newly discovered EXOs at HARPS, La Silla, Cile, especially the three Superearths at HD 40307, and the meaning of the new discoveries.  Kepler planet-finder bot next February '09.  Exos at 308 and counting.

 

920P: Bob Zimmerman, author, re ISS and the Russian spacewalk to remove the explosive bolt, re Mars Phoenix Lander gremlins.  Lead off with earth's core status in question.

 

935P: Bronwen Maddox, author, FT columnist, "Defense of America," re the Euro bashing and the indefatigable nature of the American dream.

 

955P: Exeunt re Toyota turns the Tennessee truck plant to Prius.  Also, algae biofuel.