Towery: America Coddles Its Crooks And Con Artists

[Terri]

By Matt Towery
January 10, 2008

Say you shoplift. You get handcuffed and tossed into a nasty jail cell. It happens every day, just about everywhere.

Say you commit a really serious crime. It's likely your bond will be set at a price too steep to afford. You'll sit in jail until your case is heard.

But you're not the man who swindled billions of dollars from unsuspecting investors. Not the man who apparently violated the order that allowed him to live under "house arrest" in his luxury Manhattan home, even after he "gifted" over $1 million in jewels to close friends.

You're not Bernie Madoff, he of the special treatment. You're not the guy who has ruined families and triggered suicides.

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[papajaxxx]

But everything about the way we have dealt with these "untouchable" people and institutions -- letting Madoff carry on as usual, letting banks hoard the gifted cash and letting Chrysler fudge the facts -- makes me sick. I hope we can get every last one of these rotten scoundrels.

I agree, but if we are going to get every last one of the rotten scoundrels, a lot of congress people are going to land in jail...they are just as guilty. They are also con-men.

[ExAmish Patriot]

It gets worse. When Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli was begging for a bailout from Congress and the White House, I don't recall him ever suggesting that $4 billion would only keep the company afloat for a month or so.

I don't know what Towery was reading or thinking when the auto guys were asking for the " bailout" money, I knew and I think many Americans knew it would only prolong the problem for a few months. That is why most of us here in the forum were for them filing chapter 11 and restructuring, it was absolutely a waste of tax payer money.

Of course they did kick the can along for long enough so that the "savior" will now come along and help them. Who knows what the Dems will do, as they won't let the union hurt, they will print more money and give it to them, Chrysler will be on welfare, that is what I expect to see in the near future from our government who seems to think there is no cause that is not worth printing more money for. We as a country are headed in a direction where there may be no recovery from.

God help us. The only thing that I can think of, we are heading into the days where only Jesus coming back on earth to reign will pull us out of this mess.

[rthom]

I agree, but if we are going to get every last one of the rotten scoundrels, a lot of congress people are going to land in jail...they are just a guilty. They are also con-men.

That's the problem PJ. The public coffer for many years has been the Pot-O-Gold at the end of the rainbow for the DC "scoundrels" and their real "constituents" who are the big money donors to the RNC, DNC, and the individual campaigns, etc.

As far as going to jail for the criminals who are addressed daily as "The Honorable...," if you write the laws then anything is legal. Enough of the money trickles down to the electorate to ensure the continuation of the status quo.

Just take a moment and think about one of the main arguments against the continuation of the Iraqi Front of the War on Terror: Cost.

"The dollar costs of the war have been largely paid. The war has been expensive, but not exorbitant. The congressional Budget Office estimated the five-year cost as $608 billion, less that one percent of GDP per year. The entire defense budget is 4 per cent of GDP, far lower than in past decades. Defense consumed 12 per cent of GDP during the Korean War, and 9 per cent during Vietnam. It is the growth in entitlement programs, not defense spending, that imperils the next generation."
--Bing West. The Strongest Tribe: War, Politics, and the Endgame in Iraq. (374)emphasis added

$608 billion over five years and the DC bandits have disbursed or eamarked well over a TRILLION in the last quarter alone in this massive give-away called the Economic Recovery! It seems that cost is not a consideration if the ideological or personal recipients are correct. It is the desire to gain and retain power which is the overriding concern for all too many of those who we have sent to represent us. They instead serve only themselves, with window dressing thrown in (see Blago's recent press conference) to cover themselves with righteousness.

The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money.
Alexis de Tocqueville

[makamends]

I supported the idea of the first bailout of financial institutions. Not because I trusted them, but because I knew another week's worth of panic would have left them with no stock value, and thus no capital. The result would have been a decimation of our economy

And Congress went along with you against the will of 80% of citizens. You helped start this so quit whining.

All you "knew" is what George Bush and Paulson told you. Wonder what exactly brought him to TV once again and why he said anything? Everybody panicked and the markets then tanked. The "fix" turns out to be a hoax and a shoehorn for PEBO's socialism. Enjoy.

[qrayjack]

a lot of congress people are going to land in jail...they are just as guilty. They are also con-men.

Right PJ, and they are setting the precedent. Why wouldn't someone like Madoff run a billion dollar con? Our government does it every day and gets away with it. And why would Jack and Jill Average exercise fiscal restraint and responsibility when the government sets exactly the opposite precedent? And now we are told that the government is going to throw a massive sum of money at the financial crisis to fix it, when it is an utter lack of confidence in government that is causing it. And that doofus Barney Frank has the gall to demand accountability of bailout funds and he is the finance chairman! Jeese.

[cltvcoyote]

The wholel thing is a big DUH.....

Anyone (except Bush) who could not see the writing on the wall and wanted all of this TARP Crap to happen and went along with it when it all started OUGHT to be put in Jail, as they are the ones that have successfully destroyed the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, and it will be hard put for the remainder of us to ever put Humpty Dumpty back on the wall again.....

I think that the turning point was when the Iraq war started to go forward and we were winning there and no one could say anymore that Bush et al made a huge mistake there, and then Soros and gang decided that they had to find another way to destroy our Country and he and his buddies pulled the reins in on all the financing that they were in back of and the World gasped and we lost our Country by Soros's hand. And the hand of those in Dubai and Saudia Arabia and China and every other country that was complicit.

I really don't think that Bush (I think his heart and hopes for a sound America were in the right place, in goodness) had a choice but to go along with the TARP thing when it was presented to him as he, like Towery and lots of others (hell, when it first came out from Bush, it sounded like the world would fall apart and most any reasonable person would agree to anything, in hopes of stalling something like that) were under the impression, made to think like that by Paulson and group, that if they did the TARP and everything loosened up, (but when Paulson put that NO CONDITIONS AND NO REPORTING TO ANYONE Clause in the TARP Bill, then even I started to have missgivings) then all would start functioning again, but once Soros has the upper hand, he ran with it and now Obama has us firmly in the palm of his hand and Soros has Obama firmly in the palm of his hand. So America fades to black..... We are effectively a socialist country now, or will be the day Obama takes the helm, and our country is lost.

Claudia,
Reno, NV.

[oldjules]

I think that the turning point was when the Iraq war started to go forward and we were winning there and no one could say anymore that Bush et al made a huge mistake there, and then Soros and gang decided that they had to find another way to destroy our Country and he and his buddies pulled the reins in on all the financing that they were in back of and the World gasped and we lost our Country by Soros's hand. And the hand of those in Dubai and Saudia Arabia and China and every other country that was complicit.

This could very well be the case. If can help the economy with money why can't you hurt it with money.

[Cynical Pete]

papajaxxx "I agree, but if we are going to get every last one of the rotten scoundrels, a lot of congress people are going to land in jail...they are just as guilty. They are also con-men."
Very true and some such as Barney Frank are funny.

[utexas]

I hope we can get every last one of these rotten scoundrels.

Good luck with that. as long as there are Dimocraps passing out taxpayer money for nothing, there will be crooks and con-artists lined up to take it. That is a sure bet.

America is too easy on its criminals, both white collar and blue collar. As I have said earlier, the criminals have more rights and liberal, knee-jerk supporters than the victims. This is especially true when the criminals have lots and lots of money, ill-gotten or otherwise, they can spend on mercenary lawyers to subvert the already broken justice system.

Will the sheep wake up before they are slaughtered?