Blagojevich and Madoff - Wrongly Singled Out?

Governor Rod Blagojevich is being impeached for allegedly auctioning off a US Senate seat to the highest bidder. Bernard Madoff is going on trial for an alleged ponzi scheme, where money is brought in, and returns on investment on paid with the money of other contributors, rather than the merits of the investment.

Why are these guys being singled out? Most Congressman vote on bills not for the bill's merit, but by the amount of pork that gets fed into a bill that has nothing to do with the bill. That's how the bailout passed. The first bailout was voted down. Then it was voted in because congressmen were promised money in their district for various programs that had nothing to do with the bailout. Isn't that selling your vote? How does that differ from Blagojevich? How is it wrong wrong to sell the job, but OK to act that way once you have the job.

As for a 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme: How many trillions of dollars have gone into Social Security, where we pay into a system that transfer the money to someone else? The scheme has been going on longer than Madoff's and is tremendously larger, but one of these days that scam is going to run out of money too. I doubt anyone is going to stand trial for that one.

Reaction to the President's Farewell

A quick observation:

Over President Bush's 8 years, I've noticed that whenever he cites people's actions in his speeches, it's always people who are indisputable heroes. Tonight was no exception. For example: the staff sergeant who charged into an ambush in Iraq to save three of his fellow marines. The 60 year old surgeon who enlisted in the Navy medical corps to honor his fallen son. These people are the finest examples of courage, heroism, and resolve.

When I listened to President Elect Obama during his campaign, he was citing people who can't pay their bills, don't have medical insurance, are unemployed and/or have had their homes foreclosed upon. These people are the clearest examples of pain and suffering.

Both types exist. Draw your own conclusions as to why they choose the people they choose in their speeches.

Lastly, a few quotable quotes from a President who has strengths, but public speaking is often not one of them:

We must resists complacency.
We must keep our resolve.
And we must never let down our guard.

If America does not lead the cause of freedom, that cause will not be led.

We Don't Need Government to the Rescue

Today, President George W Bush said "And I readily conceded that I chucked aside some of my free market principles when I was told by chief economic advisers that the situation we were facing could be worse than the Great Depression".

Mr. President: I've argued for you when it was very unpopular to do so. You can take responsibility for recognizing we were at war when the rest of the so called civilized world just wanted to chant bumper sticker slogans. But today, I'm beyond dissappointed. First, whoever told you things could be worse than the Great Depression either lied or is an idiot. We're nowhere near breadlines and 25% unemployment. And anyone who believes this ridiculous TARP program that's trying to keep failed companies afloat has staved off an economic disaster can call me because I have a bridge to sell them. Try reading some memoirs of the Great Depression before making such ridiculous comparisons.

Next, nice to know you chucked aside your free market principles because things were looking bad. It's easy to have principles when things look good; try standing by them when things get tough. You certainly did that by sticking it out in Iraq and the Surge when the rest of the world said we lost. Obviously, there were no free market principles.

Now onto our incoming President-Elect. Recently, he told us that only government can get us out of the mess. Well, that's a slap in the face to every entrepreneur and hard working independent Americans. Most of us don't want government helping us, and we most certainly don't need the government to get us out of this. When there's adversity, there's opportunity. Has everyone in the government forgotten this? I hope none of you have.

Get ready for the biggest power grab you have ever seen on American soil. If Barack Obama and Congress get what they want, we're looking at a massive transfer of economic power from the private sector to the government. And we all know what a great job the government has done with managing the DMV, Social Security, etc.

This isn't Republican vs. Democrat. There aren't enough voices on either side of the aisle with any common sense. Everyone is afraid, everyone is going to vote for this economic takeover, and whenever things turn around, they just want to take credit for it. But things are going to be made much worse from this intervention, prolonging the misery. You can't avoid recessions, they're part of the free market.

This is still a democracy. When the time comes for the Great American Bailout Plan, where trillions of dollars of money we don't have gets proposed in the name of "saving the economy" - I hope you're ready for battle. Make sure you call your Congressmen and Congresswomen, and let them know this is not what we want. They don't listen to us because they represent us; they listen to us because we can vote them out if we have half a brain. I hope we do.

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7+ Trillion Wrongs Don't Make 15 Billion Rights

We passed 800 billion to go to a bunch of execs that sit around pushing money around on spreadsheets who thought sub prime mortgages were a good investment. They're even getting bonuses!

The FED is printing and lending trillions of dollars, and not even disclosing where the money is going.

So what's another 15 billion for some automakers who are bloated with corruption, private jets, and unions that have negotiated the sweetest deal in history (for its workers).

Everything is wrong with it. It's time for the government to understand they're making this situation worse with their intervention. The bailout is only creating an environment where success is punished and failure is reinforced with more money, so they can continue to fail.

Government: Get out of the way now. What are you trying to avoid, a recession? Too late. We're in hard times, this country was built on hard times. You can't have good times if you don't have the opportunities created by bad times. Name one country that experienced long term economic growth from government micro-management.

It's time for a little pain and purging. It's going to hurt, a lot. Then there is going to be opportunities like we've never had before. The little guy can't outsmart and outperform the big guy if the government is propping up the big guy with trillions of dollars and calling them too big too fail.

The People's Republic of Windows and Doors

You've got to be kidding me.

So this company shut down because Bank of America made a business decision not to keep their line of credit open. The union is demonstrating a "sit-in" because they're not getting the benefits, back vacation etc. owed to them.

Illinois Governor Rod Blagovich said the State would no longer do business with Bank of America until they reinstate the line of credit, allowing the employees to get their benefits/paid vacation time. He claims the bailout money Bank of America received was designed specifically for this purpose.

Yeah... that makes sense. Extend a company credit that's not making any money. Isn't that how we got into this mess? Perhaps now that Governor Blagovich was caught trying to sell the vacant Illinois Senate seat to the highest bidder, he may have other things to worry about than extorting Bank of America.

To the workers at the plant: I'm sorry you lost your job - these are terribly tough times. But if Bank of America is forced to give in and lend money it will never get back, then the slippery slope continues - or maybe we're already off the cliff.

Transportation Bailout Scenario

Not too long ago in our history, a major manufacturer of vehicles that were widely used were going out of business. There were many factors such as competition and difficult economic times.

Employees lost their jobs and companies went out of business. It was a pretty sad story for an industry that served so many for so long.

But these companies didn't get a bailout. If they did, we'd all still be driving horses and buggies.

Grand Theft Election Minneapolis

Granted, you can pick up prostitutes and carjack in the Grand Theft Auto game series, but Grand Theft Election has some pretty great things going for it too.

In GTE, you play Al. Al is a washed up, has been comedian who decides one day he wants to run for the US Senate. He appears to be a good fit, except that more people have been laughing at congressman than have ever laughed at Al's jokes.

At some point in the game after Al loses a close election, Al's election team needs to start challenging individual ballots in an effort to steal the election. Although this is a fictitious game with no reference to actual real life people, here is a good example of what one of those ballots would look like:

You would think it's a pretty difficult game, but there's a number of cheat codes you can plug at the beginning.

These codes put a large percentage of the media behind you regardless of how ridiculous you sound.

I get the feeling these codes also stack the deck with Al leaning judges and election officials, turning Grand Theft Election into an entirely winnable game.

Good thing it's only a game, because if this were to happen in real life it would be a terrible indication of how democracy is being flushed down the toilet and partisan politics is put before Country.

Good thing...