Renewing the Bush tax cuts is like,,,

..driving your car off the cliff, paying a tow truck twice the price of the car to haul it back up,
then driving it back over because your brother-in-law's cousin's friend told you this time it will fly.

..celebrating your one day sobriety pin with a cognac and crack party.

...getting gonorrhea from unprotected sex, and after you get rid of it, going back to the bath house to see if you can get something incurable this time.

...a 400 pound person going on all McDonald's diet.

...after the drunk British football hooligans have rioted and burned down the stadium, you rebuild the stadium and, this time, to make it better, you offer free all-you-can-drink beer.

...a prostitute getting out of 'the life' by switching from cash to credit cards.

...losing all your money with Bernie Madoff, then convincing the rest of your family to break him out of jail so they can invest all their money with him too.

...after the earthquake rebuilding your house on the fault line, instead of just next to it.

...giving your local alchemist your life savings to turn lead into gold, and after the lead remains lead, robbing the bank to pay him to do it again.

...invading Afghanistan to get Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar, then, after you fail, invading Iraq to get weapons of mass destruction that don't exist.

...putting poison in your food to teach the dog not to eat off the table, then forgetting what you did and eating it yourself.

..after you get lung cancer, smoking again because the worst has already happened.

...is like knowingly doing 2001-2009 all over again, a few people get rich, no new jobs are created, and the whole economy collapses.

This is a contest. It's open to everyone. The writer of the best comparison gets to live with the consequences of whatever our loony legislators and waffling president do. Go to the link below to add your contribution.

Link to original post:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/larry-beinhart/renewing-the-bush-tax-cut_b_795362.html

Big or small, government should work

Did you miss the latest Ponzi scheme catch?

Ever heard of Tom Petters?

Here we go again.

This clown ran a $3.65 billion dollar Ponzi scheme out of Minnesota that bilked thousands of people out of their money.

One more in a long line up of Ponzi schemes.

First--and biggest--was Bernie Madoff.

Then there was R. Allen Stanford and now this guy.

In the 2000's, it seems the government virtually shut down and didn't investigate anyone who was--or was supposed to be--taking money for investments. Bernie Madoff, in the most aggregious example, didn't have an investor's license. Ever.

It needs to be asked: Where were the government regulators when these men were taking in all this money?

We need our government to work for us.

Sure, we want less government and smaller government and the requisite lower taxes but for the agencies that exist, we want and need them to do the jobs they were designed and created for.

In this case, where was the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)? What the hell were they doing these last 9 years?

There should be hell to pay for them for all that has happened.

Links: http://www.reuters.com/article/fundsFundsNews/idUSN024978920091202
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Petters
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/03/business/03stanford.html?_r=1

The original "Piggies", from the Beatles, dedicated to the new "business piggies" of today

Dedicated to AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and their former leaders, Angelo Mozilo (former head of Countrywide Home Loans), Bernard Madoff, Former Vice President Dick Cheney, John Thain (former head of Merrill Lynch) and all the Wall Street fat cats who've been cleaning this country's clock, financially, unregulated, for so long. This includes, of course, all the Republicans, in office and out, who've also made this all possible.

Again, have a great weekend, y'all.

What oughta' happen

Did you hear that Bernie Madoff wants to keep $62 million dollars that he put in his wife's name and their $7 million dollar Manhattan home?

This guy's chutzpah just doesn't quit.

And sure, our gut reaction is "hell, no!"

But on a more cerebral, thought out plane, here are two reasons why he shouldn't get to keep either, no matter whose name they're in:

1) In all the years and with all the money--50 billion dollars, give or take--he took from people, he NEVER ONCE INVESTED ONE PENNY OF IT IN STOCKS OR ANY INVESTMENT TOOLS. Not once. The SEC, though they don't otherwise do their job, confirmed this much, anyway.

If he deliberately took this money, from the start, and never invested it, it seems pretty clear that his goal, right away, right from the start, was to scam people with a ponzi scheme. If that's the case, then everything he and his wife have is ill-gotten and should be returned to these scammed investors.

2) If you haven't read the list of people and organizations Bernie Madoff scammed, you should. (Link here: http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_madoff_victims_20081215.html) It's staggering.

Two brief examples:

He took $14,500,000.00 froom Yeshiva University in New York, alone. And that wasn't one of the largest amounts he took, by any means.

Can you imagine stealing from a Jewish University, even if you're NOT Jewish?

The second example is also particularly egregious, to me. He took $15,000.000.00 from The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

My God. He really had no shame at all.

The largest amount he took from one organization was a staggering 7 billion 500 million dollars (from Fairfield Greenwich Advisors).

One organization.

Those are just a few, brief examples from a very long list of people and groups from whom he stole.

And this is all staggering for three reasons.

One, the large amounts he took from people and organizations.

Two, the people and organizations he took this money from--big names, in the world and big philanthropists and philanthropic charities. He totally, absolutely showed no shame or mercy from whom he took money.

And finally, three, he had an incredible ability to take money from organizations--largely Jewish--that do, did and were doing such good, generous, philanthropic work. Again, he was shameless and exploited these people and organizations completely, totally, in some cases.

There are individuals and couples who have been destroyed, financially, because of him and his blatant, ugly, brazen theft.

So no. No sympathy or empathy for Bernard Madoff. That 62 million dollars in his wife's name now was never his. Neither was the 7 million dollar apartment in Manhattan. He got both by exploiting and exposing these people and groups completely, totally and utterly.

He should be shown the same mercy he showed his "investors", who trusted him.

Staggering--and a question

We've all heard so much about Bernard Madoff and what a horrific thief, scam artist and charlatan he's turned out to be.

A ponzi scheme is one thing, that's bad enough.

But a 51 billion dollar ponzi scheme?

What cajone's this guy has.

Apparently there's no question, either, but that he did this--took millions and millions of dollars of people's money.

Have you seen some of the data on this scam?

Here's just some of what he did--whom he took from and how much:

--a 76 year old retiree and his wife who are now broke and have to sell their home;

--His own sister, for pity's sake, who's 74 years old. Reportedly, her house is now up for sale because of this, in Palm Beach;

--Eliot Spitzer. Okay, that may be karma;

--Zsa Zsa Gabor, who is 91 years old, for pity's sake. He literally stole from little old ladies. She apparently lost at least $7 million;

--Marc Rich, the fugitive financier President Clinton took money from and then pardoned. He apparently lost 10 to 15 million big ones. Again, possibly bad karma, come back 'round--though don't get me wrong, that doesn't make anyone's losing money like this okay;

--both Jeffrey Katzenberg and Steven Spielberg;

--The Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity, for pity's sake for a reported $15,200,000. Man, what nerve;

--Hadassah, the U.S. women's zionist organization for $90,000,000;

--One of the worst is when he took $250 million dollars, for pity's sake, from "a 95-year-old Florida man who helped him get his start on Wall Street." That's some gratitude, huh? "Overall, the man and his charity lost more than $500 million."

Unbelievable.

And did you know the SEC has confirmed that he never once invested one dollar he ever got, all this time, over all these years and all these many millions he took from people, ostensibly to invest.

So, I know Madoff's under house arrest but I just have to ask, why is he not yet in jail?



For a more complete list of all the people Mr. Madoff scammed, go to this link:
http://s.wsj.net/public/resources/documents/st_madoff_victims_20081215.html