Porn The Vote

Finally, some good news in the tabloids! Sociopath crooked Bernie Madoff went to jail today. How many people do you know personally affected by this man?  I found out this week that a good friend of mine and her family lost their entire fortune around $20 million dollars! Most of these people were retired and had worked hard all of their lives to wake up one day to this nightmare. It will be interesting to see if they can locate any of the funds. They should at least confiscate Mrs. Madoff’s accounts and put her to work in the soup kitchen. 

Persia

I appreciate Mr. Wachter’s blog on O.J. Simpson and his pragmatism. I, however are of a more intuitive nature. 

As a Registered Nurse and one that spent her years in Intensive Care Units, I counseled many families of the dying. I consider myself an expert on death and dying.  I can tell you that in all my years of nursing, I never once saw a grieving husband whose wife had been murdered act the way that O.J. Simpson did. 

If you recall the moment he supposedly found out about Nicole’s murder, he was speeding down the highway in a Ford Exploreer running away with gun in hand threatening to kill himself.  I knew at that moment that I was watching a guilty man in flight mode, not fight mode. 

It is unfortunate that the court case turned into a circus full of corruption as so many court cases do. In spite of the excellent arguments in Mr. Wachter’s blog, I still believe that O.J. Simpson is guilty as sin. 

Persia

Christmas came early for the families of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman. O.J. Simpson will be going to prison; perhaps for the remainder of his life. 

Was justice served or subverted to become a tool of vengeance? It seems that the general consensus, after O.J.’s acquittal in 1994 for the slayings of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman is that the prosecution botched the case and thus O.J. got away with murder. Two, in fact. Literally. Now the perception is that the guilty verdict against Simpson in Las Vegas is, in effect, long delayed accountability come due. 

This was certainly the slant offered by U.S.A. Today in two articles it printed on December 8, 2008. One titled, “For Goldman’s Simpson Verdict Long Overdue”. The other, “What’s This? Accountability?” was an Op-Ed.

This gloating vindictiveness does not jive with the objective application of justice, which every criminal defendant is entitled to. Even O.J. Simpson. I would say, especially O.J. Simpson, who it seems was convicted in the court of public opinion, ostensibly for robbing some sports memorabilia dealers, and thereby providing the jury opportunity to, in reality, convict him for the murders so many are convinced he committed in Brentwood, California 13 years ago. What I recall being most astonishing by Simpson’s 1994 acquittal, was that the judicial process genuinely worked as it is designed to. Guilt is determined by a preponderance of evidence, leading to an absence of doubt amongst a jury, that a defendant is guilty as charged. I recall that there was plenty of cause for doubt that O.J. committed the murders. If the case against O.J. had been so solid, why did it appear that detective Mark Furman planted evidence? Specifically, blood on items seized as “evidence” that upon analysis, revealed preservative in the blood? What about Detective Furman’s relationship with Nicole Brown? His racist remarks caught on tape? All of which does not begin to touch upon the bumbling incompetence of the primary prosecution team, Marsha Clarke and Christopher Darden. 

The state did botch its case. It screwed up by the numbers, and did so because it never had a solid case against Simpson. As soon as it became clear that evidence had been compromised through tampering, and witnesses for the prosecution began lying, any claim to credibility that the state asserted against Simpson was undermined and ultimately destroyed. 

After O.J.’s acquittal, the vindictive rage to relentlessly hound Simpson, for the deaths of Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman, orchestrated primarily by the Goldman family, effectively destroyed Simpson’s reputation and life. 

Kim Goldman, after the Las Vegas verdict, gloated to the media that her family’s vendetta against Simpson motivated his actions. “We can feel we pushed him into this”, she said. Judge Jackie Glass claimed, she was not there “for any retribution or payback”. Clearly, the Goldman’s were and so it would appear so were others. 

I find it impossible to believe that the Las Vegas jury reached its verdict against Simpson without being influenced by the 1995 Los Angeles acquittal. Claiming O.J. had a fair day in court when the judge presiding over the case felt compelled to deny she was there for “retribution and payback” stretches credibility to breaking.

If the crimes committed by Simpson and his co-defendants were so serious, then justice would seem to require consistent application amongst all involved. Instead, four of Simpson’s co-defendants received probation after taking plea deals to testify against Simpson. By contast, O.J., and the co-defendant who refused to take a plea bargain, both received nine to thrity three years in prison. The appearance is that the crime was only a means to the ends of obtaining “retribution and payback” against Simpson. Only the co-defendant who would not partcipate in the conspiracy to crucify O.J. under a pretense of law shared his fate. Loyalty and integrity are costly.

I never believed that Simpson murdered Nicole Brown or Ronald Goldman. Too many “facts” never added up for my satisfaction. The truth, whatever it may be, will probably never be known. However, if Simpson did not commit the murders, whoever did, has been free all of this time. Nicole Brown and Ronald Goldman may have never received the justice of their killers capture and conviction. And now, O.J. Simpson may be another victim whose life is destroyed.

Michael Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com

U.S.A. Today, on December 23,2008 ran an Op-Ed that began by noting that by March 2009 it should be clear whether the $17.4 billion “bridge loan” granted to the beleaguered, Big Three, Detroit automakers will show progress commensurate with the investment to warrant additional help from Washington. 

While there are numerous, compelling reasons to support, at least superficially, the auto industry, it seems to me that it sets a bad precedent; or should I say, continues it. The atrocious examples of mismanagement set by Bear Sterns, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae (ad nauseum) have previously “set the bar”, as it were. 

Bailing out industry with consumers to tax dollars is an insult on top of injury to the consumers, who have paid bloated prices for goods and services from corporations and companies that do not care to give equal value back to the consumers. Think sports utility vehicles. Now the consumer is forced to prop up and support the very companies that created the fuel guzzling behemoths that became an albatross around owners necks over the summer when gas sky rocketed to $4.10 per gallon. 

Whether General Motors, Chrysler and Ford will introduce truly innovative, hybrid automobiles that will reward the consumers investment with quality, and the first genuine steps toward breaking the dependent stranglehold upon fossil fuels which have been forced on auto owners for far too long by Detroit’s abject refusal to innovate before economic meltdown forces it to do so, remains to be seen. In truth, it seems to me that Detroit’s sudden urge to innovate efficiency is a disingenuous, insincere, self-serving apology to the consumer, being offered now, only so the automakers can save themselves.  It required congress to castigate the big three’s  CEO’s into assemblance of contrition, after flying to Washington on board private company jets to plead broke, and beg a handout! The arrogance displayed exceeded hubris!

To reward such behavior with the means to keep G.M., Chrysler and Ford afloat, seems not only ill advised, but worse, is in complete opposition to the fundamental principles that support capitalism and the free market economy. Specifically, that such industry is Darwinian allowing only the strongest companies, corporations and producers to survive based on quality of products, goods, and services that are offered to the consumers. 

General Motors, Chrysler and Ford have all failed to provide quality automobiles to American Consumers; thus, by right of Darwinian business principles, the big three deserve to fail, and should be allowed to do so. While such failure would have enormous negative impact on the already wounded American economy. At least in the short term, the far reaching consequences would be the emergence of a revitalized auto industry that will have learned from its predecessors mistakes. A new auto industry would purchase and use the existing infrastructure, would employ the same auto workers, would contract with the same parts manufacturers. The interruption and fall out would be short term and result in a vastly improved operational standard as well as quality production tailored to the consumer’s needs and demands. Nothing would be lost, and a great deal would be gained. 

However, bail outs and bridge loans which support and keep afloat unworthy businesses at the expense of the taxpayers, and which effectively result in the nationalization of each business our government bails out, will not stimulate free market economic growth. It will stagnate it, because ti is a socialist model of business. Socialism does not encourage innovation, because it does not reward success and punish failure. It creates a status quo and struggles to maintain it by staving off inevitable entropy and systemic decay. We saw rewards and fruits of socialism and nationalization when we witnessed the collapse of the Soviet Union. Socialism and nationalization are not viable models for economic stimulus.

For our economy to rebound and recover it is imperative that corporations, companies and businesses doomed to fail be allowed to do so, thus allowing the healthy, viable businesses to emerge from the destruction, to thrive , and to renew the free market while strengthening the principles of capitalism and democracy upon which our nation was founded.  

Michael Anthony Wachter

mwachter452002@gmail.com