“We cannot attract and retain the best and brightest talent,” AIG says, unless they pay those bonuses — $165 million. Barney Frank had the best and brightest reply: on the Rachel Maddow Show Monday night, he said: “I don’t want to retain them.” JOHN NICHOLS will comment – he’s Washington correspondent for The Nation, and writes “The Beat” blog at TheNation.com.

Also: Obama’s economic stimulus provided NOTHING for New Orleans hurricane recovery or flood protection.  For a reminder on what Katrina and President Bush did to New Orleans, we’ll speak with DAN BAUM – after Hurricane Katrina he moved to New Orleans to write about the city’s response to the disaster for The New Yorker.  His new book Nine Lives reveals the hidden history of a haunted and beloved city told through the intersecting lives of nine remarkable characters.

Plus: novelist PETER CAREY has won two Booker prizes: the first for Oscar and Lucinda, which was made into a movie starring Ralph Fiennes and Cate Blanchett; the second for The True History of the Kelly Gang, which sold two million copies worldwide. Now his tenth novel is out in paperback: His Illegal Self, which tells the story a seven-year-old boy whose parents are part of the Weather Underground.  (Originally broadcast 3-12-08)

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