From: Rex Byrns Subject: Re: [OT]: $1-a-day wages >It is almost like the Enron thing was proof in point of how much you can get >away with, so now these guys are all doing it. The US worships Mamon; the God of greed. I am continualy amazed Our Lord Greenspan is able to show such self control with the balls of the beast - interest rate of the Federal Reserve Bank. But for mere mortals the penalty for getting caught is death. The US government - the SEC, IRS, FBI, the congress, the president (Clinton) could have put an end to accounting shenanigans, offshore hedges and tax shelters long ago. They didn't because they are greedy too. They let Arthur Anderson and Enron take all the rope they wanted to hang themselves. One congressman called it a bank robbery, Enron the robber and AA the getaway driver. If so, congress was a whore paid by the robbers that was screwing the bank guards (the SEC, IRS and FBI) as the robbery was happening. If your competitor is offshore and pays no taxes, but your corporation must pay taxes, is the federal government any better than a goon, a thug that breaks your kneecap so your competitor can win the race? Perhaps someone will correct my understanding. Enron basicaly insured its success in high risk speculation by setting up 'hedge' entities that guaranteed high risk ventures. Enron betted the environmentalists and Global Warming kooks would silence any dissent over high California electric prices. High prices that Enron and others were bidding up the price in. Good 'ol boy Bush did the best he could for 'ol Ken Lay, the guy that so kindly let Bush fly his jet around the country to campaign for president in. Bush wanted deregulation (in the name of free capitolism) till the California public and congress could stand it no more. In this case deregulation is not free market capitolism. The game was rigged. Rather than breaking monopolies, the feds were cultivating them. Enron insured itself and lost, the hedges, which were funded with Enron stock, imploded. The only thing Bush and the Republicans can say is no heroic effort was made to save them. There is no honor among those thieves of the public trust. Make no mistake, the greedy evil-doers want high energy prices and high profits. Once upon a time the earths atmosphere had no oxygen. We are doing the planet a big favor by recycling all the carbon that is buried. If we don't volcanoes will. All the CO2 volcanoes can spew out gets turned into carbonates - limestone by sea creatures or hydrocarbons by plants, and gets buried again. Global warming is global greed - Europeans screaming the US gets cheaper gas because our corporations are bigger and meaner. They tempt the US government to share by offering a canard of 'global warming' to raise US prices and make supply available elsewhere. Global warming is an excuse, a soccer-mom environmental marketing ploy, an excuse to control the global energy market. >I am confident that the average consumer has a love of the truth that is >sure to keep all corporate and government evils in check.. . .. . .. ... .. The best defense of the dumbed down public is its ability to punish politicians that screw up. But as "Homeland Security" gets more power, the ability of the people to punish a corrupt and tyrannical federal government will be severely impaired. When did America free slaves, give women the vote and equal pay, or stop oppressing any minority because it was the right, just thing, rather than because the minority organized and inflicted a greater pain on the exploiters, than the pleasure derived from exploiting them? A patriot once paid the corrupt, evil, income tax in pennies. A non-violent protest. A law was passed making that illeagal. A law making peacefull protest illeagal. The feds don't want you punishing them for exploiting you. The federal evil-doers will sustain their power until their own evil implodes them, or a foriegn power gets tired of being exploited by American corporations rigged to degrade, dominate and exploit the world for a greedy tyrannical minority. I wouldn't be surprized if the Chinese bury nukes (real nukes - 50 megaton H-bombs the patriots at Los Alamos and the FBI sold them) in the sewers of 100 of our cities and put an end to America within 30 years or so. >"The American Republic will survive and prosper >, until the government realizes that it can bribe it's people >with their own money" - - Some French Guy I thought it was Alexis De Toqueville ("Alexis de Toqueville opined in 1835, "America will fail when the public discovers that it can vote for itself largess from the public treasury.""; ) But perhaps it was Tytler? "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until a majority of voters discover that they can vote themselves largess out of the public treasury." - Alexander Tytler Anyways whoever said it was right. The government isn't prosecuting Arthur Anderson and Enron because what they did was irresponsible, deceptive, dishonest, greedy, selfish betrayal of the stock-holders and the nation. They are persecuting them because they got caught. Scott ********************************************************** If you are cheater 1 of 10, shame on you. If you are cheater 1 of 3, shame on your leaders, shame on your culture, and shame on you if you get caught. In a government of laws, existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example. - Justice Brandeis - Olmstead v. 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