Just because businesses are made of people, doesn’t mean they are people.

The Aegean – the ancient Greek word for it meant “chief sea” – is, of course, the body of water Agamemnon, Odysseus, Achilles and the other Achaeans crossed in their assault on Troy. Odysseus sailed its waters at the outset of his journey home.

In other words, it was Aegean waves that washed the shores where Western history began. And it’s hard not to think of the ancient sea’s destruction at the hands of greed-soaked cyclopean giants of finance as, at the very least, a symbolic end of that history.

The idea that private companies were going to somehow find a radically more efficient way to do something as basic as holding and feeding criminals in a secure building was always pretty much pure fantasy.

No one really wants to report on what GE’s approach to taxes is. To the extent they do, they accept GE’s explanation unquestioningly. But if the AP had a sense of what GE’s real approach to taxes is, they would never have fallen for the hoax in the first place.

Progressives United is a very new formulation for former Senator Russ Feingold. With all the tumult in his backyard over Scott Walker and the unions, it was natural that would be an early focus. But I think it’s interesting that he went here for his first campaign outside that.

So where was all this “fiscally responsible” fighting spirit when it came to paying out $32.6 billion in taxpayer funded banker bonuses?

Well, as Larry Summers said, “we are a country of law.”

I noted yesterday the mind-numbingly ignorant analysis of Glenn Greenwald’s motivation as a careerist hack that was provided by HBGary. And if the allegations in the excerpts of former WikiLeaks volunteer Daniel Domscheit-Berg’s book are accurate, HBGary’s analysis about WikiLeaks itself is even more ignorant.

In 2000, Congress approved a program called the New Market Tax Credits with the intent to provide subsidies for development in low income areas–but by gaming the system and using very out-of-date demographic data, huge corporations are getting millions in government money to build high-end hotels and condos.

Cummings previously requested these documents from Issa, but Issa plans to withhold them until a public release and analysis next Friday. So Cummings is going right to the source.

Charles and David Koch are holding something called the “Billionaire’s Caucus” in Rancho Mirage this weekend, one of their periodic meetings with the rich and powerful of the conservative movement (House Majority Leader Eric Cantor is attending this one) to plot strategy for the coming year.