The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission is meeting to start their review of what happened during the crisis that has dragged our economy into what some are calling the Great Recession. (You can watch a LIVE Webcast of the Commission hearings on C-SPAN or online at www.fcic.gov--January 13 and 14.) Today Accountable America released a new print advertisement--appearing in Politico and Roll Call in Washington, DC--urging the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission to hold ALL the parties involved in the crisis accountable. The ads highlight the failure of former Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox to catch the fraud of convicted Ponzi-schemer Bernie Madoff, despite significant warnings to the SEC.

The Commission's hearings are an important first step--they'll feature some of the most prominent bank executives in the industry. But as the chief regulator overseeing the securities industry before and during the crisis of 2008, Cox failed to do anything that prevented the crisis. Cox appeared to be more committed to his long record helping Wall Street banks than protecting America's investors, the public or the economy at large. The SEC was too docile and ineffective. The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, chaired by former California State Treasurer Phil Angelides and former U.S. House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, should investigate the role that officials at the SEC, Federal Reserve and elsewhere played that allowed the foxes to get into the henhouse.

Ultimately we need real financial reforms that prevent a crisis from happening again and put a new cop on the beat protecting investors, the public and the economy. But we also need accountability.

The policies Doug Hoffman supports created America’s financial crisis. That's the message of Accountable America's new TV ad on the air starting this week in the 23rd district of New York.

Hoffman is the darling of the Club for Growth, the right-wing group funded by some of Wall Street's biggest fat cats. The Club for Growth’s agenda boils down to one idea: stop consumer protections in the name of “deregulation.”

They don’t want to see the Financial Truth Commission "name names" and hold people accountable like the 9/11 Commission. That is why many of the Club for Growth’s biggest supporters voted against setting up the Commission.

Doug Hoffman has yet to call for tough investigations into the banks who created the financial crisis. Nor has he called for new regulations to protect consumers and end corporate greed. Hoffman doesn’t want to upset his Wall Street friends, so, he's singing their tune by supporting Bush-style tax cuts and deregulation designed to help the richest banks.

In a new ad airing in New York's 23rd District this weekend, Accountable America exposes Doug Hoffman’s Wall Street agenda. Check out the ad and, if you like what you see, make a contribution to support work like this ad.

A new 60-second TV ad released by Accountable America today confronts the closing argument from Republicans that Democrats shouldn't be allowed to control all of government. The ad argues that "Americans Don't Want Government Hand Outs, Just Government in Good Hands."

The ad was produced by ZOON POLITIKON LLC, a newly founded ad company based in Louisville, Kentucky. Principally Elliot Greenebaum and Gabriel Wrye, two experienced feature filmmakers who draw on a talent pool of professional writers, actors and creative technicians, Elliot and Gabriel were in Kentucky when Hurricane Ike hit the coast. In the wake of the storm which disabled Louisville for a week, and Elliot and Gabriel saw the opportunity to make this ad, staging the action on an actual site of storm devastation, and use the real residents of the location as actors.

ZOON POLITIKON has already produced spots for statewide campaigns and national political organizations. ZOON POLITIKON aims to move political advertising away from the traditional 1950's informational, power-point model and replace it with real experiences. Their work can be seen at ZoonPolitikon.com.