Corruption

As our economy collapses, it doesn't help to learn that Wall Street insiders have been running Ponzi schemes, bilking investors. Corruption has just been rampant in America during the Republican "deregulation" years. This comes from the Florida Chief Financial Officer's Consumer eViews newsletter:

A grand Ponzi scheme uncovered; Florida investors hurt

Recently an investment scam was uncovered in the investment capital of the world - Wall Street. A respected investment manager allegedly ran a giant Ponzi scheme with a possible loss of $50 billion. Unfortunately many investors put most or all of their funds in this one plan. One of the wisest rules of investing is to spread the risk.

Bernard Madoff ran a vast options game made popular by inviting investors into the fold. Anxious for an invitation to join, investors entrusted their money to Madoff. A part-time resident of Palm Beach, Madoff convinced many neighbors, friends and acquaintances to invest in his funds. This type of affinity fraud grows from the natural trust among friends and relatives.

If you have been hiding under a rock today, you have not heard then of how fantastically the Governor of Illinois, Rod Blagojevish, was arrested today on charges that he was trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated by President-Elect Barack Obama.

Yeah. The guy gets caught trying to sell the United States Senate seat vacated by the President-Elect of the United State. You know, because this is just an obscure little state that's under the radar AFTER HAVING ONE OF IT'S SENATORS BECOME THE FIRST BLACK MAN ELECTED PreSIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!

Not only that, the guy has been under investigation for ages by the same U. S. Attorney that took out Scooter Libby. You read that right : The dimwit has the nerve to doubt the prosecutorial abilities of Patrick Fitzgerald.

I just love the way Jazz Shaw of The Moderate Voice put it :

"Blagojevich’s Senate Selection Process Investigated"

Really? You’re investigating his selection process? Given the details leaking out already, isn’t that somewhat akin to checking out Jeffrey Dahmer’s kitchen for questionable cooking techniques?

And this is why I friggin' hate stupidly corrupt Democrats. When it comes to corruption, Republicans seem to have that pat down : "This scrumptious yellow cake is radioactive and not a bakery treat. Let's invade Iraq!"

I have always been a fan of Japan. I have been there four times, including on my honeymoon. I even had the pleasure of living for a year in Kyoto working at Kyoto University. It is, in many ways, a wonderful place and I do hope to go back when time and money permit. I even am teaching my son what little Japanese language I still remember.

But there are always strange undercurrents in Japan. Korean and Chinese friends of mine cannot understand why I ever would visit Japan. They have an anger towards Japan that Americans have a hard time understanding. The presence of the yakuza (Japanese mafia) in Japan is omnipresent, once you are aware of it, which seems strange for an otherwise so law abiding nation. When World War II comes up in conversation, many Japanese still think Japan was justified in its imperialism and that America should apologize for the nuclear bombings and for the occupation. It is a constant source of scandal that Japanese leaders frequently downplay and misrepresent Japanese imperialism in Asia. I was amazed at how unresolved WW II seems in Japan and in Asia.

CNN Breaking news (no details):

A jury has found Sen. Ted Stevens guilty on all seven counts of making false statements on Senate disclosure forms.

A sitting Republican Senator running for re-election convicted of lying his ass off about a corruption investigation.

Let me remind you that Ted Stevens is about to get that lying ass kicked by Mark Begich in November. Here is my Alaska Endorsement Page, for those who missed it.

And an earlier rundown on Ted Stevens corruption can be found here.

You know the right wingosphere is going bonkers over the intimation that there may be anything with which to "take down" Barack Obama.

They don't have a viable candidate.

Their VP has been described as a joke and a cancer to the Republican Party.

Some either think Sarah Palin is a dangerous mistake.

So what to the right wingers do? Either incite to racist violence against Obama or try to smear him through the Rezko corruption investigation. Even if the real fall guy looks to be Illinois Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich :

I am running out the door and I am rushing to post this, but while last night everybody was running screaming that today the Republicans in the US Senate are putting a proposal to a vote, I literally scoured the web looking for a copy of their plan.

I came out empty handed.

These elections are a big huge failure for the techies that helped propel the "people powered politics" of the Dean campaign back in 2003. Why? Because bills, proposals and bailout are still being discussed behind closed doors and away from the voters.

The Chinese government didn't want the world to know about the melamine-tainted milk that has poisoned 50,000 babies in their country and killed at least 4. Nope. They stonewalled foreign media and clamped down on their local outlets until they couldn't contain the outcries of parents with ill or dead children.

If not, it would have been, you know, bad for China's image:

JIAN Guangzhou of the Oriental Morning Post in Shanghai has received widespread applause for being the journalist who first named famous Chinese dairy brand Sanlu as being responsible for the nationwide milk powder poisonings of thousands of babies.

But it is a sorry triumph, because the reporting of China's worst food disaster of recent years -- with at least 53,000 babies suffering from kidney problems and four dying -- has remained constrained by party controls.

The first local media reports on the disaster were published and broadcast in July, but were not followed up. That was because a blackout was imposed.

The central party propaganda department delivered a 21-part instruction to all Chinese media before the Beijing Olympics, preventing any critical reporting to ensure a positive mood during the Games. The eighth clause stated that "all food safety issues are off limits".

So the milk poison stories were not to be reported until after the Games. By then, the crisis was so widespread it was impossible to suppress entirely.

But in the meantime, immense additional damage was done to babies' kidneys. For even though Sanlu's board was told about the disaster shortly before the Olympics, the poisonous products were not recalled until afterwards -- ensuring the Games remained a period of harmony and national pride.

Yet the problem is bigger than the Sanlu baby-milk scandal. Kraft, Mars, Cadbury are now recalling millions of chocolate bars, cookies and snacks made with milk produced in China and sold in Asia.

Not so in Indonesia who are finding melamine even in products not produced with milk :