I went to another truly amazing liberal soirée last night on the Upper East Side. I go to a lot of celebrity functions, as I hope you can imagine. This one was hosted by the famous movie actor, Matthew Modine.

The theme of the party was "Bicycle for a Day." My new close friend Matt urged his guests to reduce carbon emissions by turning out lights and such. But then he laid out his BIG plan. Matt wants to organize a full day of community-based activities at prominent parks in New York City, Chicago and San Francisco. The event would include entertainment as well as speeches by politicians and environmental groups. The brilliant part is that attendees would use their bikes to travel to and from the event; and once there, everyone would get a bracelet that will benefit charities.

This got me thinking. As you recall, I ran into my new close friend, renowned anti-poverty advocate Jesse Jackson at the toney East Bank Club in Chicago a few weeks ago. We discussed the Cubs and the sub-prime mortgage crisis, both of which are still a problem.

Jesse insists that America is presently in the fourth stage of the civil rights struggle, i.e. the "show-me-the-money stage." His idea for resolving the crisis is "Restructure, Not Repossess." He's proposing a massive government sponsored Marshall Plan that would reset interest rates and extend loan payment periods almost indefinitely.

To capture some attention for his proposal, Jesse says he's organizing "a march on Wall Street, to be followed by meetings with CEOs of large financial institutions... and a national broadcast from Trinity Church in Heimytown."