Justice For All - Except The Poor

Justice For All - Except The Poor

Let them rot in fucking jail, those fucking dead beat bums! If there was any more proof that we live in a society where it matters what you do and how much you make, this would be it.

Alleged hit-and-run driver may not face felmony charges because it could jeopardize his job, prosecutors said Thursday.

Martin Joel Erzinger, 52, faces two misdemeanor traffic charges stemming from a July 3 incident when he allegedly hit bicyclist Dr. Steven Milo from behind then sped away, according to court documents.

Erzinger, an Arrowhead homeowner, is a director in private wealth management at Morgan Stanley Smith Barney in Denver. His biography on Worth.com states that Erzinger is “dedicated to ultra high net worth individuals, their families and foundations...”

Milo suffered spinal cord injuries, bleeding from his brain and damage to his knee and scapula, according to court documents. Over the past six weeks he has suffered “disabling” spinal headaches and faces multiple surgeries for a herniated disc and plastic surgery to fix the scars he suffered in the accident.

“He will have lifetime pain,” Haddon wrote. “His ability to deal with the physical challenges of his profession — liver transplant surgery — has been seriously jeopardized.”

“Felony convictions have some pretty serious job implications for someone in Mr. Erzinger's profession, and that entered into it,” Hurlbert said. “When you're talking about restitution, you don't want to take away his ability to pay.”

“We have talked with Mr. Haddon and we had their objections, but ultimately it's our call,” Hurlbert said.

See, this is what I don't get - I would think that a felony conviction would jeopardize anyone's job, and yet here we are..

You have to admit that it's pretty hilarious how transparently broken the justice system has become in bowing down to the mighty power of the rich and their wallets. They're not even trying anymore to cover it up and not pulling the punches that they're landing to the guts of everyone outside of a gated community.

This whole system is pretty much fucked and it's been fucked from the get go. There is no longer a pursuit for an American dream. It's a pursuit for the simple goal to get rich. For it is only when you have all the money that you can be above the law and barring any heinous crimes which offend societal conscience, say a sex scandal, you're pretty much untouchable.

Some would see no problem with this. As long as you're able to pay the fine and be done with it, they feel like the prison system is over crowded as it is and this country does have a lot of debt. So the real debt to society should be just taking over the bill of committing the crime.

But then the problem comes up in that, what if you're not capable of paying off the damages that resulted from your crimes? What you're doing is giving an option of keeping your rap sheet clear by throwing money at the problem.

I bet that rather than stopping and calling 911, the good Doctor fled the scene and called the Mercedes auto assistance service through his on-board blue tooth system so that he can get help with his broken side mirror. You can't let those things go unattained for too long now.

This whole mess does at least show that capitalism does work. Even though we should just move past felonies and give this guy the death penalty. But I would just like to be clear, it's on the basis of his profession and has nothing to do with his driving record.

In the even that you missed this part of the article, here it is again....

Prosecutors pleaded the case down to a misdemeanor later in the summer, then in August told Milo and his attorneys that Erzinger would face a felony charge, Haddon wrote.

But on Sept. 7, Brostrom told County Court Judge Katharine Sullivan that the case would be pleaded as a misdemeanor. That's the first time Milo or his attorneys had heard of it, Haddon wrote, and they protested “in the strongest possible terms,” Haddon wrote.

Can you believe that shit? The prosecutors plead it down to a misdemeanor, but told the dude who got crippling pain from this that it would still be a felony. What the fuck is wrong with our society? We should just kill the rich, seize their assets for equitable redistribution and fucking grind their corpses into slop for the local pig farmers.

Yeah, the dude could always go to civil court and easily win, but that's not the point here. It's not really the victim's medical bills that are the issue at hand, it's the fact that the driver, even if he pays the same amount of money and serves the same amount of jail time that he would have under the felony charge, is getting off easier simply because of his class. Nothing else is factored there and it's not a justice system that is not only blind, but that is also getting ass fucked by those upper crust fuckers.

All Goldman Sachs Wants For Christmas Is Some Guns

All Goldman Sachs Wants For Christmas Is Some Guns

This is a weird news piece. Not because it's about some god awful company that actually deserves to get lynched in the street by an angry mob, it's because this is the time of year where you're suppose to have good tiding to all and what not. Share with your fellow man. So perhaps when Santa checks his list and some how he doesn't let the Krampus kick the ever living shit out of them, those fine boys and girls at Goldman Sachs will get what they want from their christmas list.. That is, all Goldman Sachs wants is some guns for when the Mob justice comes along.

Arming Goldman With Pistols Against Public: Alice Schroeder

Commentary by Alice Schroeder

Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- “I just wrote my first reference for a gun permit,” said a friend, who told me of swearing to the good character of a Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker who applied to the local police for a permit to buy a pistol. The banker had told this friend of mine that senior Goldman people have loaded up on firearms and are now equipped to defend themselves if there is a populist uprising against the bank.

I called Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas van Praag to ask whether it’s true that Goldman partners feel they need handguns to protect themselves from the angry proletariat. He didn’t call me back. The New York Police Department has told me that “as a preliminary matter” it believes some of the bankers I inquired about do have pistol permits. The NYPD also said it will be a while before it can name names.

While we wait, Goldman has wrapped itself in the flag of Warren Buffett, with whom it will jointly donate $500 million, part of an effort to burnish its image -- and gain new Goldman clients. Goldman Sachs Chief Executive Officer Lloyd Blankfein also reversed himself after having previously called Goldman’s greed “God’s work” and apologized earlier this month for having participated in things that were “clearly wrong.”

Has it really come to this? Imagine what emotions must be billowing through the halls of Goldman Sachs to provoke the firm into an apology. Talk that Goldman bankers might have armed themselves in self-defense would sound ludicrous, were it not so apt a metaphor for the way that the most successful people on Wall Street have become a target for public rage.

Pistol Ready

Common sense tells you a handgun is probably not even all that useful. Suppose an intruder sneaks past the doorman or jumps the security fence at night. By the time you pull the pistol out of your wife’s jewelry safe, find the ammunition, and load your weapon, Fifi the Pomeranian has already been taken hostage and the gun won’t do you any good. As for carrying a loaded pistol when you venture outside, dream on. Concealed gun permits are almost impossible for ordinary citizens to obtain in New York or nearby states.

In other words, a little humility and contrition are probably the better route.

Until a couple of weeks ago, that was obvious to everyone but Goldman, a firm famous for both prescience and arrogance. In a display of both, Blankfein began to raise his personal- security threat level early in the financial crisis. He keeps a summer home near the Hamptons, where unrestricted public access would put him at risk if the angry mobs rose up and marched to the East End of Long Island.

To the Barricades

He tried to buy a house elsewhere without attracting attention as the financial crisis unfolded in 2007, a move that was foiled by the New York Post. Then, Blankfein got permission from the local authorities to install a security gate at his house two months before Bear Stearns Cos. collapsed.

This is the kind of foresight that Goldman Sachs is justly famous for. Blankfein somehow anticipated the persecution complex his fellow bankers would soon suffer. Surely, though, this man who can afford to surround himself with a private army of security guards isn’t sleeping with the key to a gun safe under his pillow. The thought is just too bizarre to be true.

So maybe other senior people at Goldman Sachs have gone out and bought guns, and they know something. But what?

Henry Paulson, U.S. Treasury secretary during the bailout and a former Goldman Sachs CEO, let it slip during testimony to Congress last summer when he explained why it was so critical to bail out Goldman Sachs, and -- oh yes -- the other banks. People “were unhappy with the big discrepancies in wealth, but they at least believed in the system and in some form of market-driven capitalism. But if we had a complete meltdown, it could lead to people questioning the basis of the system.”

Torn Curtain

There you have it. The bailout was meant to keep the curtain drawn on the way the rich make money, not from the free market, but from the lack of one. Goldman Sachs blew its cover when the firm’s revenue from trading reached a record $27 billion in the first nine months of this year, and a public that was writhing in financial agony caught on that the profits earned on taxpayer capital were going to pay employee bonuses.

This slip-up let the other bailed-out banks happily hand off public blame to Goldman, which is unpopular among its peers because it always seems to win at everyone’s expense.

Plenty of Wall Streeters worry about the big discrepancies in wealth, and think the rise of a financial industry-led plutocracy is unjust. That doesn’t mean any of them plan to move into a double-wide mobile home as a show of solidarity with the little people, though.

Cool Hand Lloyd

No, talk of Goldman and guns plays right into the way Wall- Streeters like to think of themselves. Even those who were bailed out believe they are tough, macho Clint Eastwoods of the financial frontier, protecting the fistful of dollars in one hand with the Glock in the other. The last thing they want is to be so reasonably paid that the peasants have no interest in lynching them.

And if the proles really do appear brandishing pitchforks at the doors of Park Avenue and the gates of Round Hill Road, you can be sure that the Goldman guys and their families will be holed up in their safe rooms with their firearms. If nothing else, that pistol permit might go part way toward explaining why they won’t be standing outside with the rest of the crowd, broke and humiliated, saying, “Damn, I was on the wrong side of a trade with Goldman again.”

(Alice Schroeder, author of “The Snowball: Warren Buffett and the Business of Life” and a former managing director at Morgan Stanley, is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.)

So far the scariest thing they've had to experience was michael moore yelling outside with a megaphone. It really is a shame that those fears aren't grounded to some reality. If Americans actually cared about their thievery, they'd be dead by now. Their heads would be on pikes all along wall street as a warning to the rest.



As Thom Yorke would say it best, When I am king, they would be the first against the wallwere king. I can't say I've read all Ayn Rand, so someone who is better read with that piece of shit could tell me if the Captains of industry arm themselves in her stories, that would be really helpful. Thanks in advance.

I'm not advocating violence. Nor do I want to be on a terrorist watch list (I'm already on one, by the way) But how hard would it be to set off a truck bomb at the underground parking garage of the Godlman Sachs headquarters? Cause I don't think guns will protect you from that.



No no. I don't think anyone is actually going to ever going to do a god damn thing to them. The best hope we have is that one of these guys is overcome with guilt for what they have done and uses the gun on themselves.

I mean, who would have guessed that they would have been playing with other people's money like it was Monopoly money. If only there were this risk averse with other people's money as they were in getting these firearms to protect themselves. These must be the minor execs because anyone pulling a salary plus the bonuses over 500k usually has private security force with them at all time.



But the problem comes back to Americans. Yes us, the fine Americans that along with most of humanity, is easily wowed by wealth and status symbols, which the corporations have in spades. Just take a rich guy in a great suit driving a porsche go into a rural town and I tink more people will be completely envious than angry. Even if that same mane goes into the system and;

*manipulates agriculture futures and makes a pile of money*
*drives agriculture prices into a free fall*
*uses pile of money to buy great suit and porsche*
*drives around rural area*
*destitute farmers look with envy at the hard working smart man with the suit and porsche*
*farmer thinks one day his son will make it like that guy has*
*son ends up in art school, now teaches English in Indonesia*
*daughter gets phd and works at CDC barely paying off loans*
*farmer dies from sclerosis*

That is your America. Yes, that it is.

But really, why is Goldman Sachs even bothering with guns? It's not like they're hoarding golden dubloons. All these banks have are computer banks running high frequency trades and delaying transactions to charge fees on poor people. But hey, I would implore the people of this nation to move your freedom tray and get off your ass and be outraged. At this point we just don't care and are asking what mischief will those rascals get into next week??!?

You Know That Brutal Massacre I did? Yeah, Sorry About That

You Know That Brutal Massacre I did? Yeah, Sorry About That

Sometimes news stories come across my computer screen and I really don't have any way to process them other than looking blankly at my screen and then taking a nice strong drink of bourbon. This is one of those stories.

The BBC is reporting that as mass murderer is sorry for his actions

The US army officer convicted for his part in the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War has offered his first public apology, a US report says.

"There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened," Lt William Calley was quoted as saying by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.

He was addressing a small group at a community club in Columbus, Georgia.

Calley, 66, was convicted on 22 counts of murder for the 1968 massacre of 500 men, women and children in Vietnam.

Cold blood

"I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry," the former US platoon commander said on Wednesday.

He was sentenced to life in prison for his role in the killings in 1971. Then-US President Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to three years' house arrest.

But Calley insisted that he was only following orders, the paper reported.

He broke his silence after accepting a friend's invitation to speak at the weekly meeting of the Kiwanis Club, a US-based global voluntary organisation.

At the time of the killings, the US soldiers had been on a "search and destroy" mission to root out communist fighters in what was fertile Viet Cong territory.

Although the enemy was nowhere to be seen, the US soldiers of Charlie Company rounded up unarmed civilians and gunned them down.

When the story of My Lai was exposed, more than a year later, it tarnished the name of the US army and proved to be a turning point for public opinion about the Vietnam War.

It's nice to see that after his terrible ordeal watching TV at home for a few years followed by a completely normal life for several decades, he's a reformed man and has found the courage to apologize, not only to the families of the victims but also to his fellow perpetrators....

Just imagine I built a big brick wall around myself so I could scream loud enough for this sort of news story. You see, after reading something like this, I can't believe old Television shows like The A-Team.

"Plot: A group of Iraq War veterans looks to clear their name with the U.S. military, who suspect the four men of committing a crime for which they were framed"

After reading a story like this it only makes one wonder how much shit do you have to stir up before you're ever faced with a situation of being out of their good grace?

I sure hope Calley's sudden change of heart and attempt to rewrite history doesn't mean he has cancer or something and is about to die. I'd perfere he had a few good years of suffering for the terrible shit he committed. It would be even more perfect if his motivation to come forward involved finding Jesus and forgiving himself for all that he did with the blood of his savior. But that's wishful thinking. I mean, he's still making excuses as to why he did it:

But Calley insisted that HE VAS ONLY FOLLOWING ORDERS MEIN FUHRER!!!, the paper reported.

I wonder at what point C company received the order to carve their initials into the corpses of the women they raped? You'd think that would cause their OC to pause for a second, right? I'm sure that if you weren't claiming scalps it would be hard for the government to give out medals, right? It's sort of like the way Belgium accounted for military actions in the Congo.

The truly horrible thing about all this is that there was pro-Calley bumper stickers and songs back when he was convicted of this shit. Many in America were outraged by Calley's sentence; Georgia's governor Jimmy Carter instituted "American Fighting Man's Day" and asked Georgians to drive for a week with their lights on. Then US president Richard Nixon commuted his sentence to three years' house arrest. Nixon did this in response to the public outrage, if you can believe that shit. And of course Nixon was pardoned, surely making Nixon one of the worst human beings who ever lived.

On the flip side, some black guy gets life for a third strike of stealing a candy bar and is still in jail. How about that case where one stole a few slices of pizza and got life cause it was his third strike? Or a golf club? Or a couple of videotapes? Yes, these all happened.



Anyone recall that story about that black kid who got lief in prison for smoking a joint while on probation for attempted robbery (Attempted because he got remorseful while mugging the guy and didn't take his money) and then the same judge who convicted the black kid let a white guy who was the son of an influential preacher walk after being caught with a shitload of cocaine while on probation for murdering his gay lover by shooting him in the ass.

I seriously want to just shoot myself to the moon and far away from this society sometimes. I guess it's all about the likelihood of re-offending. The gay cokehead isn't very likely to murder someone again where as the black kid may smoke another joint and society has to be protected from that...

His whole apology just comes off as something terrible. I couldn't have pictured it any less sincere than if he said it like this:

You know what? My bad, dudes. My bad.

This fucker isn't sorry. Hell, I love how the article puts quotes on "Sorry". Way to take away any and all meaning the words had in them by doing that shit. I can't decide if this whole action is better or worse than him not giving an apology. I suppose I'd say that this is roughly equivalent to no apology at all. They're always sorry for "What happened", never for what they did .

"I am sorry that some people felt offended when they heard the word 'nigger' coming out of my mouth"

"I deeply regret that Mr King's actions caused his head to repeatedly come into contact with my baton"

"lives were lost"

"mistakes were made"

"lessons were learned"

The passive voice is, morally speaking, the most despicable abuse of the English language in modern times. Well, at least right up there with the constant use of LOL and all the other internet catch phrases I wish to punch people through the monitor screen for.

Or perhaps there's some slim chance that this could be of some good. Maybe it will make American soldiers think twice about genociding some peeps after reading this piece. Ha.. yeah, sorry, that was me wishful thinking again. I'll try not to do that anymore. If anything I can already hear the armed forces mentality:

"Hey sarge, let's murder those sand niggers!"
"I dunno, lieutenant, there could be consequences..."
"Yeah, you're right...three years of chilling at home posting on stormfront and playing X-box, just like that mai tai dude!"
"Fuck yeah, Let's Roll! (tm)"


I suppose I shouldn't be expecting that apology from the Iraqi vets anytime soon. Maybe at least another 40 years before we see any sort of apology for Iraq. I'm sure our kids and our grandkids will love us for the choices we're making today. They can look back at history and see how the US gave medals to the people like the crew of the ship that shot down an Irani airliner and killed everyone on board. Yup, that's protecting ARE freedom, alright..

Prop 8: The Aftermath

Prop 8: The Aftermath

We finally really did it. You Maniacs! You passed prop 8! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!



I don't get you people. Yes, that's right I said YOU PEOPLE. Because I, for one, did not vote yes for prop 8. You just had to listen and read my blogs to see where I stand on this issue. It's stupid to strip a group of their civil rights that make them equal to everyone else.

A lot of people have said that Obama brought out the black voters who are to blame for the passing of prop 8. While they got civil liberties and fought for the right to be equal, they turned around and felt the need to deny others of civil liberties.


But I'm not convinced by this logic. You see the final numbers was 52.3 yes and 47.7 no, so you have a 4.6 percent split. the black vote was 10 percent of the electorate and voted 70 percent yes and 30 percent no. if you adjust the totals as if black people had voted the same, or even 50/50, you still end up with prop 8 winning by more than 2 percent.

That still doesn't excuse the fact that someone who fought for civil equality decided to deny others the very same civil equality. But it's not the only reason why it passed.



There's also the backlash. Those reap what they sow. In this case El Coyote Restaurant owner, who is a member of the LDS Mormon church is now crawling home with her tail between her legs because, get this, while they're located in West Hollywood, they were dumb enough to not only support Prop 8 but also give money to them.

I have been sick at heart that anyone has been offended by me. I have family, friends, employees from the gay community who are treasured people in my life. I have been a member of the Mormon church all my life. I responded to their request with my personal donation. For years the El Coyote has financially and generously supported the gay community and its charities.

Margie

The Salsa is spiced with hate

Of course she's going to be sorry. It's effecting her pocket book. Is there really no accountability? Just because you're a member of a church doesn't mean you need to follow them blindly. Hell, the simple fact that they are serving alcohol or even open on a Sunday means they are not following the church's teaching to the book as those two things goes against the church.

So don't give me this bullshit that you didn't realize that it would have such an effect. Again, the proposition description started with ELIMINATE RIGHTS in it. She's feeling the pinch now because she, along with others, have been outed for giving money to advertise for prop 8. I'm not spending any time feeling sorry for her suffering consequences to her actions. She could have just easily said no when the church passed around the collection plate.

And a quick follow up to this. The event happened and as you could expect, it was a train wreck which will only be followed by boycotts of the place. Why? Because while she's sorry, she's only sorry that she was outed and has no intention on supporting a NO on prop 8 side in fighting this in court. What a fucking sheep. While they have cheap margaritas out of the gun, I wont be supporting a place that takes the profits from my business there and channels it to a church that lives by a double standard.



This isn't limited to LDS and the black community. Let's toss some blame to Saddleback Church, which in itself, has a pretty gay sounding name. This Mecca for evangelicals in Southern California played its part in getting this proposition to pass.

Saddleback Church has the pastor Rick Warren who hosted a forum thing with Obama and McCain and then campaigned for prop. 8 hardcore. He also wrote this really dumb book called The Purpose Driven Life which is basically a self-help book with lots of God, that has become one of the best selling books of all time. (I was once given a copy of this by evangelicals fearful for my godless, Californian soul.) Weekly church attendance for Saddleback exceeds 23,000.

Saddleback is a prime example of megachurches at their worst. The Lord apparently likes large plasma screens.


This is the kids center...


But back onto the Mormons... those fucks. It seems that they're getting but hurt about the hate they're getting.

Others who supported Proposition 8 said they have also been targeted. Scott Purves, of Purves & Associates, a Davis insurance company, said a protester carrying a sign reading "Purves Family Supports Homophobia" picketed his business Monday.

"If this had gone the other way, I can't imagine the backlash if people protested and called the other side names," said Purves. "People would be angry and rightfully so. ... It makes me sad that this would happen when a majority of people supported this measure."

"It's disheartening that he is being singled out," said Lisa West, spokeswoman for the church in the Sacramento area. "We had hoped there would be more tolerance for different viewpoints."

"Protesting is a time-honored American tradition," said Ned Dolejsi, executive director of the California Catholic Conference. Catholic leaders were active in the Yes on 8 campaign. "But it's unfortunate when it steps over into religious bigotry or harassment."

Waaaa. Waa aaa, My hateful actions have consequences! No shit, you scum. That last quote really gets to me.

"We had hoped there would be more tolerance for different viewpoints."

I wonder how long it will be, if ever, when the irony of this hits her. This shit writes itself. I'm sure the next press release will include this statement "I just wish the rest of the world would understand our point of view, that my point of view needs to be made the law so that other points of view are illegal and wrong." or something along these lines
"I just wish the rest of the world would understand our point of view, that my point of view needs to be made the law so that other points of view are illegal and wrong."



I just never wrapped my head around being against gay marriage. I mean, gay people shop for groceries and that hasn't changed grocery shopping for me. So I seriously don't think letting them get married would hurt anything either. Did I miss some sort of memo sent out amongst straight people on why exactly anyone should be against this?

I would say that we should ban Mormon marriage but if you were to try to practice it as the founder originally intended, it would be illegal as well. Then again, why do you want multiple wives?


The issue has been heating up even after the elections with protest and boycotts. I believe they're justified as it is taking human rights and tossing them out the window. While I don't believe in violent protest, it's not like the religious right is playing this with any tact. The actions of Margie from El Coyote and the video above show that there's either remorse or a strong standing by ones convictions. You can't be surprised if someone slaps your sign out of your hand if you're egging them on like the old lady did with that group.

I can't wait til the California Supreme Court takes this case on and smacks the shit out of the pro-prop 8 people. They tried to go around the Supreme Court. You don't fuckin do that. The Supreme Court is going to fuck them for that, and in a totally gay way.

When this gets overturned it will be even better than if it had been defeated in the first place. Not only will these people have accomplished nothing, but they will have bankrupted themselves in order to do so