Air America listeners to the rescue?

There's, like, a major corporate financial scandal goin' down, dude. Some greed-head wheeler-dealer took almost a million in government funds intended for children and Alzheimer's patients and put the money into a private start-up company. The money was supposed to be a loan, but the loan was never repaid, Now, the nonprofit is broke and under investigation for "significant inappropriate transaction and falsified documents." And, you know, like, the mainstream corporate media? They're paying no attention to the story, man. Children and Alzheimer's patients get the short end of the stick while fat-cat private interests line their pockets -- only in George Bush's America, right?

Wrong. Only in the Air America scandal that's unfolding. The recipient of $875,000-plus from the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club in New York City is Air America, the left-wing radio network designed to take on the talk-radio right.

Air America says it has nothing to do with the "mismanagement and corruption at Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club," and that the loan was made to the network's old owners. But Air America says it will repay the funds anyway. In fact, Air America's parent company said it had wanted to start repaying the loan immediately, but couldn't without the New York City Department of Investigation's go-ahead. Investigators, however, told the New York Post that there was nothing stopping Air America from paying up. "DOI has done nothing and given no instruction preventing payment of money owed to Gloria Wise," DOI's Keith Schwam said. "Any statements to the contrary are inaccurate."

This was not the only troubling element in a scandal that so far has been confined to the blogosphere -- Hugh Hewitt, Michelle Malkin, Free Republic, Captain's Quarters and other haunts. Air America's Al Franken recently told the New York Sun's David Lombino he only recently learned the details of the story, but that Air America's new owner, Piquant LLC, discovered the fund transfer in a forensic investigation of the previous owner. But if the company knew about the problem before the city started its probe, why didn't it notify the city?

At least, that's how the question's phrased when the alleged culprit is Karl Rove or George W. Bush.

Surely, Air America's listeners must be scandalized by these Enronesque corporate shenanigans. Victimizing the children -- isn't that what Republicans do? Air America says it's ready to repay the principal to the Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club.

Liberals are always letting the rest of us know just how much sharper and more compassionate they are than the rest of us. Now it's time to prove it: Air America Needs You.

First, its listeners should unleash their "we know better" candlepower and their you-can't-fool-us cynicism to get to the bottom of the Air America's kids-for-kilowatts scandal. And, clearly, a scheme that hurts children and Alzheimer's patients to fund left-wing outreach should appeal to progressives' dark sense of irony.

Second, Air America's listeners should go beyond the network owners on the financial front. Simply repaying funds to the club isn't enough. Really, how cover-your-assets corporatist is that? Leftist listeners need to really showcase that storied compassion of theirs. Yes, how about a radio-thon to raise funds for kids and Alzheimer's patients across this broad land? Lefty listeners could, well, "Give piece of change."

Better yet, progressive forces should do what they do best -- hold a rock concert. Franken probably could put the finger on some major talent. It's hard to imagine that the Dixie Chicks, Madonna, Sheryl Crow, Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand wouldn't want to participate in a Live Air America-Aid concert. The guess here is that even stars who said they would leave the United States if Bush were elected or re-elected would return home to help the victims of this hideous corporate scandal.

Granted, Air America's overall rating have fallen in major markets. But here, the left-wing network is still going strong, particularly in the crucial male-ponytail demographic. A little advice for the network's Portland affiliate:

Not only is Hillary Clinton the world's smartest woman, but Hillary Rodham Rodham's is also said to have a heart big enough to love every single child on the planet. In case you didn't know it, Hillary allegedly is the single best advocate of children's rights and issues. (In fact, she loves children so much, she thinks they should be allowed to sue their parents to free themselves of those flimsy bonds. But that's another story.)

Or, is that just spin?

Everyone who isn't a reader of The New York Times now knows how public money has been diverted from poor children to rich brats at Air America. But what I can't understand is why Hillary Clinton hasn't stood tall to protect those helpless darlings she so frequently has used as props to advance her career.

I never have understood how the world's best friend to every kid could be so adamant in her support of partial birth abortion. And I thought it was strange Hillary was so supportive of tax increases on children's parents. And now it looks like she just doesn't care that poor children IN NEW YORK CITY have been cheated.

Maybe this is what Hillary means by "moderate." She is moderate in her advocacy of children's rights. She doesn't hate children, but she doesn't show them much love, either.

The more I think about it, the more incensed I get that Hillary Rodham Clinton has not been hounded by reporters asking what the hell is she going to do to protect New York's children from being scammed? She's their savior. Right? She's the expert. She's the advocate's advocate for children. This has happened in her back yard. I'll bet she's been on Air America. She probably has supported that outfit.

I like the focus on The New York Times. Good idea. But there is an elephant in the room. Strike that. A HUGE donkey in the room. Why hasn't Fox or the New York Post put Hillary in the middle of this story? Not as a cheap political jab, but because a reasonable person following politics would expect Hillary to save the children like so many of her supporters want to save the whales. Hillary's entire political career has pointed to being in the center of this fraud upon children, right? Being an advocate for children's issues was supposed to be central to her political existence. These are New York City children being cheated. Hey, she got upset when Viagra was going out to sex offenders. She says she cares about New Yorkers and how public money is (mis) spent.

Where is she on this? Forget what John Roberts wrote 25 years ago. Forget about his adopted kids. Hillary Clinton has held herself out as the worlds greatest children's advocate since Mr. Rogers. Has Hillary's political needs come between her and the children she says she so deeply cares about? Why not ream Air America? Why not demand answers? Is she so indebted to that hard left whacko nut house that she can't speak up for her #1 cause? Does her ambition to lead the left mean she will not speak up or out for any one or any thing that stands in conflict with members of the left? What a wuss!

That's a strong woman? That's a leader? Hillary's silence is a fraud of the highest order. This is a woman who will rush to the microphones to demand convicted felons get back their right to vote, but won't lash out at those who take advantage of New York's helpless children?

There is a real, live scandal going on under Hillary's nose regarding the children she says she adores. And yet there is nothing about this.

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