The Wall Street Journal reports that six companies and five individuals has been indicted for fraud related to the e-rate "schools and libraries fund." That a $2.25 billion dollar a year pile of money is a temptation to charlatans, fraud artists and wanna-be tech welfare recipients is startling to me. Since the amount of money generated by the fund long-ago could have paid for its ostensible ends--to wire schools, libraries and rural health care facilities--it is not wonder that it is now just an IT gravy train. Welcome to the REA of the 21st Century -- a good idea when it started, but once it accomplished its end it should have just faded away.