The Life and Times of Joe Suttle

Other day, stumbled across THOMAS, the web site for the Library of Congress. Someone had sent me a link about something that had been voted on and wanted me to read the bill. Checked out the issue, and then did not even bother to bookmark the link. Got an email today about the "new" Hate Crime bill being considered by the Senate – turns out the House has already passed it, so…off to find "THOMAS" [http://thomas.loc.gov/] to check out SB909.

Seems to me that a crime against a person is a crime. Will this new law mean that a person who hates my ideas and kills me is not committing a "hate crime"? That is the way the bill is written.

Kinda ticks me off [more]that even though the law is being written to "assist" State, local and Tribal law enforcement, there is an OR that says the Feds can come in, even if there are no convictions and "the verdict or sentence obtained pursuant to State charges left demonstratively unvindicated the Federal interest in eradicating bias-motivated violence; or…a prosecution by the United States is in the public interest and necessary to secure substantial justice."

What was that?

Why talk about helping get State, local or Tribal law enforced, when what you want is "your" idea of settlement. So, if you just happen to beat me up for some reason) and get charged with a felony against me (a senior, straight, African-American male), under this law, even if I forgave you and did not press charges, the Feds could come after you.

You don't have to believe me – read it yourself! S.B. 909

SB 909, under consideration in the Senate says "Whoever…willfully causes bodily injury to any person…because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability of any person–". Then follows the Federal penalty for the crime. So, what do you perceive me to be? And then you got mad at me.

Better to do the crime over ideas or thoughts. Wait a minute, aren't thoughts part of our perception about someone? Wait, if you beat me because you think or perceive me to be a male and you hate males, does that become a hate crime? Whoa!

What a waste of taxpayer money. I've thought that all along when it comes to "Hate Crime" laws. Why do we single out crimes against certain people, when they are the same crimes. Murder is murder, Rape is rape. Assault is assault. Okay, so why not put stiffer penalties in existing laws for those crimes if that is what you really want to do.

To top it off, the bill may sound like it has some financial limits – currently set to $5 million over 2 years for "Grants", but there is a big hole where they allow "to be appropriated to the Department of Justice…for fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012 such sums as are necessary to increase the number of personnel to prevent and respond to alleged violations of section 249 of title 18, United States Code, as added by section 7 of this Act."

How much of your money is that? Just like the Government – set up a program and have no idea what it is going to cost. Where do those employees go after 2012? The law does not end then, but will go on and on.

Big corporations are famous for "Cooking The Books", or maintaining a separate set of books. The CEO and CFO fudge a little to make the company look better. Their efforts help to drive up the price of the company's stock. With higher stock values, people in the know sell off blocks of that stock.

Meantime, all the little people get hurt by the actions of scrupulous heads of companies like Enron, Worldcom, Bear Stearns, Lehman Brothers, AIG.

Don't forget the fact that there were other companies and pension plans that went down the tubes with or because of the bad guys. Then, there were the "little people" who invested their life savings with Madoff or funds managed by Sterns or Lehman. What they got for their trouble was a truck load of nothing.

Bad, bad corporations – [more]they should all be closed down! Publish all their board minutes, corporate salaries and emails. Nail them to the walls for being so deceitful. Make sure the world knows how much they have messed us over!

Then there was Bernard Madoff who ran what has to be our nations most famous ponzi scheme. Taking money from investors and promising them a return – a dividend. After all, people wanted to make their retirement fund grow – maybe even wanted to be able to retire early or leave more money to their kids.

Bad, bad investment brokers – scum of the earth. Arrest them all, and make their books public knowledge. Tar and feather the bums! Let the people know that what they did by paying money to investors out of the money from new investors is wrong! What a ripoff! People like this belong in jail. Better yet, a prison that gives them a fit punishment – makes them feel as bad as their victims.

Well, take heart America, seems that it is not only the corporations that are ripping you off. The Wall Street Journal reports in an article that America's two biggest unions have spent so much money getting "their candidates" elected, they are in deep you know what. This is no fake – it's a real Wall Street Journal story. Even one of the union chiefs says they need to be looking at the fact that the AFL-CIO has used "creative accounting" to keep their election spending and debts from members.

Isn't that why we have so much anger at the corporations? Then get off your hands, and make sure Mr. Obama (after all, he is the President) doesn't let the reins on union financial reporting get any looser (which he wants to do).

Then there is the world's greatest ponzi scheme. Remember your anger when you along with your friends and neighbors heard about Bernard Madoff. How dare he take new investor's money and use it to pay dividends to people who had previously invested?

Well, hold on to your seats – here comes the most dizzying, death-defying, hair-raising, stomach churning ride of your life. This one beats any amusement park ride. (all the disclaimers about neck and back problems and being pregnant or could possibly get pregnant or have heart problems or breathing difficulties, blah, blah…)

Where does Social Security get all it's money? And why do they now tell us it will go broke by 2040 or earlier? By 2017, they will be paying out more money than they are taking in. All this is made worse by the fact that they even let people who never put ANY money in, draw Social Security and get Medicare. I'm not talking about widows or children of workers. Plain and simple, people who never had any relation to any money that got withheld from any pay check are getting Social Security.

Go ahead, ask your Congress Person or Senator if that's true. They won't answer you (at least my two Senators won't answer me). They don't want you to know that we, the USA have been running a giant ponzi scheme.

"Throw all the Bernie Madoffs in a deep dark dungeon for pulling that stuff" is their mantra. But will they look at themselves the same way. Not in a million years.

Actually probably not until Social Security can't pay out any more money, then they'll blame someone else.

As usual, click on the Contact Me link if you have anything to say. The object of all this was to get you to think about what is going on around us everyday and check it out for yourself. You've got a brain and the ability to find answers. If you don't like what I said, at least prove me wrong, or show me the error of my ways.

I'm listening…