When James Taylor wrote "Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground", had he Air America in mind?

In a press release Piquant LLC, which does business as Air America Radio, announced that it has filed for Chapter 11 protection in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York after "good faith efforts to resolve outstanding debt with a creditor from the company's earliest days broke down." Court documents showed that MultiCultural Radio Broadcasting Inc., a creditor with whom the network had tussled in its early days, had Air America's bank accounts frozen.

You could hear the chortling from the wrong-wingers. The only rational and objective statement made by one such went: "There have been hints of impropriety and suggestions that money was not spent correctly and this bankruptcy filing confirms their dire situation."

To be fair, there is evidence to support this assertion. Recently, Al Franken, owed $360,749 by Piquant, complained publicly that his paychecks had stopped. Mike Malloy, whose contract was not renewed, is owed over $100,000 in back pay. The 25 page bankruptcy filing, reprinted at thesmokinggun.com, lists RealNetworks founder Rob Glaser as the single largest creditor who is owed more than $10 million.

These instances alone demonstrate that the operators of Air America didn't know how to handle money. One can only assert that for a shoestring operation just getting up off the ground, an awful lot of vital Air America Radio lifeblood flowed out through self-opened veins. This financial irresponsibility makes no sense when those who started Air America were themselves entrepreneurs, people who are supposed to know something about money management.

Said Rush Limbaugh, "They've never had any idea how radio works."

According to real radio professionals, the problem with the management of Air America was much more basic. Michael Harrison, the publisher of Talkers Magazine, a talk-radio industry trade magazine, said, "By running such a poor business they did a disservice to liberal talk radio by making it seem like the problem was that they were liberal."

You mean, Rush isn't Right? I'm shocked! What's the real problem, Mr. Harrison?

"Before you change the world, make sure you pay your bills."

Yeah, that would help. Rob Kall of opednews.com gets reality back on track, reminding us that even Rush was once in Air America's holey soles: