Madoff wth millions

Bernie Madoff (pronounced "MADE off"), former head of the NASDAQ. A $50 billion Ponzi scheme. Need I say more? Could this guy have a more perfect name?

I mean, sure, the evidence may or may not be there, and there's no guilty verdict by any means. At the same time, it's hard to swallow this kind of news. I think there's a lot more corruption and underhandedness going on behind the economic scenes; the whole system really seems like a big ol' pyramid scheme. Look at property ownership and values -- you have people paying two to three times the monthly payment of their neighbors who bought their homes just five to ten years earlier. That to me makes no sense! The whole flipping of houses that people like to do, the buying the largest house they can afford, all this helps cause the large wave of overpricing that we face these days.

And then these sorts of cronies running stock exchanges. Feh.

Glad I have no investments. But, man, I can't help thinking every now and again that I went to the wrong school of ethics.

Bleep them!

So, it's time to take a quick moment to speak out against Blagojevich. Is it just me, or is this guy the epitome of the corrupt duschbag scumbucket club? Caught on tape trying to sell Obama's soon-to-be-vacated Senate seat to the highest bidder, and likely the position left by Rahm Manuel, I'm left to ask - does he get a trial; do we waste taxpayer dollars on this bleeping bastard, or do we just skip the process when the evidence is so obvious?

Rod is a tool.

Another case of misleadership in this troubled representative democracy steeped in centuries of nepotism. With the exception of known national families like the Kennedys or the Bushes, it seems at the state level, this is more easily pulled off. Check your local structure of misleaders for similar names and cross-reference that against the family trees going back a few generations, and you'll see this borne out over and over again.

Let's hope the new administration can move away from this. There are a few more Illinoisians and Chicagoans, Clintonians and other folks being appointed to his cabinet than I would hope to see, but it appears he's taking a what's-best-for-the-country stance on these appointments.