Inauguration 2009: Awesome and Inspiring

Regardless of whom you voted for, you would have to be a flatliner not to feel uplifted by the
warm, high-spirited jubilance of this day. A putting aside of politics as usual, a sense of "let's lighten up," for today and savor the celebration of America, its reverence for the will of the people and the rule of law, its tolerance of diverse religions and ethnicities ; and,today, its arms-open-wide joining together of all Americans.

I want the celebration to last for weeks, to last forever. I want the promises for positive change, especially universal health care, made by then president- elect Obama, to begin tomorrow

I applaud all the members of the U.S. security organizations who protected our outgoing and incoming leaders from harm on this day and who will continue to do so from this day forward.

You are my personal heroes.

So called "scapegoating" may be a smart way for prosecutors to get to the big timers guilty of mortgage fraud

An article entitled, "On the Trail of Mortgage Fraud," by Don Thompson of the Associated Press, was forwarded to me by a friend. The article is worth reading for background on the current "whys" as to how the financial melt down came about. However, I take issue with Michael Cardoza, the San Francisco attorney representing one of those charged (with fraud, I believe) in central California. Cardoza, as quoted by Thompson, complains, "Now they're just picking off the little people...They're doing scapegoats is what they're doing." While, Cardoza implies, "... the people on Wall Street walk."



Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think, not too many years back, the higher ups at Enron were ultimately sacked, not as a result of prosecutors calling before Congress, Enron corporate level officials (who testified so as to protect themselves and each other--remember Jeff Schilling, who was "out of the conference room" when crucial decisions were put on paper and signed off on?), but by the prosecutors who started with lower level employees, who might have witnessed improprieties of their bosses and had more to gain by coughing up information that would get them out from under the fire. It is my understanding that this kind of information solidified the cases against the higher ups.




So Mr. Cardoza can cry no fair picking on my client, that's his job; but in rebuttal, I would point out that, based on the Enron process, starting with "scapegoats,' and working up to corporate level S.O.B.s would appear to have merit.