Madoff Robbery. Where is the Victim's Bailout?

He scammed 50 Billion. Ummm... Where is the bailout for the people that got their LIVES robbed?

The government has been spreading all this cash around to the banks, and corporations. Why not just allocate 50 billion to clean up this mess? Nice thought huh.... help all the American taxpayers who got RIPPED OFF? The charities and pensions who got SWINDLED?

"Mr." Bernard Madoff has had his fun in the sun, and continues to. The scam he perpetrated was despicable. But so far, he is still not in jail. Oh, maybe house arrest. It is disgusting!!!

Try robbing someone on the street of $45 tonight, and see when you are picked up by law enforcement where you end up. If you took someones pocket change for the week you could end up in the slammer, but take someones life savings, as Madoff did to numerous people on the street, and you can sit at home in luxury while you await your day in court.

Are you kidding me?

Victims of this treacherous man include contributors to pension funds, small business owners, and everyday working people. Do you think I care how much millionaires or billionaires lost to his scam when the people who put their whole trust in this man lost everything they had?
Although it is sad that anyone would be robbed a penny in a scam like this, the media seems to think that it is more important to run stories telling us how much wealthy celebrities and notables have lost because of the huge amount of money they had invested.

To a plumber, engineer, shopkeeper or waitress, who lost everything or close to it, this is a life destroyer. People who have worked their whole lives to put money away for their retirement, their kid's education, or just for survival. It is atrocious to see what little worth the story of a common persons plight is compared to the pain felt in a celebrity's portfolio.

America really needs to get a grip and start understanding that the working people are the ones who drive the economy and start taking an interest in how much we are getting ripped off daily.

And now close to 700,000 people losing their jobs in December...

Oh, that's another story...

ATM's On the Fritz?

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Woah!!! How 'bout this as a shocker?

What if you went to your ATM one day to pull out your rent or mortgage money, and the machine just stood there and looked at you stupid?

What if it came back and told you on its little printed receipt that you have exceeded your daily limit, and you hadn't taken out a penny all day? Worse than that, what if you called the bank and they said their computers are down and that they don't know when they will be back up?

Scary scenario, don't you think?

All your money in the bank, and the bank goes stupid for one reason or another. Technical difficulties, unscheduled maintenance, bank closures, terrorist attacks, who knows? When it comes down to it, it doesn't matter! All that matters is that you can't get any money out of your bank account. When you have plans for that dough today, it doesn't matter if it is FDIC insured. Try waiting around for that to come from that government agency when you don't have a real penny to your name, it is all tied up in the bank.

Oh, you are right, that will never happen. Or can it?

Another Year, Another... $1.39?

Well here we are in 2009, and we have rolled right into it. Some of us are working, some of us are hung over and some of us are laughing at the ones hung over. :^)

On a nice point for the everyday consumer (but not the big oil companies, OPEC, IMF or the Fed, for that matter), I saw a gallon of gas advertised at $1.39 a gallon at multiple pit stops around town. Amazing isn't it? Two months ago there were lines for fuel with people waiting for close to an hour to fill up their vehicles (and every container they could get their hands on) with prices nearing $4.75 a gallon.

I can actually fill up my Focus for less then 15 bucks!!! Nice...

Maybe now some more folks will take to the road and actually do some traveling to take in some of the great scenery of this awesome country. I know I look forward to it.

I went to visit Florida for the holiday break. It was an enjoyable time seeing my family and soaking up the near 80 degree December weather... :^) Life is tough huh?

In all actuality, it had been a really long time since I did any leisurely traveling, and it had just happened to coincide with the drop in fuel prices. That made for a fairly inexpensive trip and one we could take more often.

Happy New Year to all. Make your own happiness, regardless of what this world wants to dish out.

Same Old Politics. What Will Change?

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I read this article on The American Thinker. It talks about the possibility that blackmail of Obama and his team will influence decisions the next four years.

Is Obama vulnerable to blackmail?

You know it sounds like an over-used, re-run, worn out phrase:

"we need to get the bums out of Washington"

But, it never seems to happen. "Our fellow Americans" don't deserve anything that they didn't earn. In this case, they don't deserve a better government, because they didn't work to weed out the corrupts, and the "corruptables" out of office. The country needs new players in the game. People who believe in what the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence were based on. Not "representatives" who are back-biting, corrupt pawns of every special interest, PAC, and criminal that can buy them.

It is my opinion Obama and his crew are not the only ones deeply connected to old time corrupt politics and politicians. We have so many entrenched "legacies" in our government who continue to push their agendas, not the peoples. That money was long ago paid, and is still there, just fueling the debates and stalemates we read about daily. Repayment for past favors...

Left, and Right... What about a moderator? What about another entity within those halls who hasn't been entrenched there and doesn't owe "favors"?

"You did it… No, you did it…" *fingers pointing both directions…

Grrrr. Business as usual DC politics… Sickening! The Republicans, the Democrats, they all have skeletons in the their closet.

The lots have been cast, the "people" have spoken, now we have to deal with the state this country is in with the current mix of politicians we put in the seats. There will be NO CHANGE, because no one is willing to change. DC needs to get over the bickering, finger pointing, selling out, and conniving. The "statesmen" need to actually work together to do the people on the street and in the workforce some good, instead of selling out to corruption and special interests.

They can go ahead and point fingers at each other, but that will never be the solution to the problem. The people need to REALLY vote change. That means up-rooting the buried alliances and corruptions that continue to influence the decisions made affecting the people and their lives.

They need to do something different: "Vote the people, not the money" This country needs a catalyst of change, not a new face on politics as usual.

A New Hope?

Image via WikipediaWell, soon it will be Inauguration Day. The country will be bringing aboard the 44th President at a time when we are living in the worst economy, potentially, since The Great Depression. Stocks at cellar prices, the Big 3 automakers begging for money, companies laying off workers, and the banking, lending, and mortgage industry fiasco at its peak.

What can we hope for to bring us out of this mess? I have seen a poster depicting "Super Barack". Is he a superhero? Can he put in the American people's hearts a feeling of safety and patriotism? Now that the voters have spoken, will the country stand behind him?

No doubt, there are many who predict he will fail. Many who hope he will fail. And, many... who know he will succeed. They have put all their trust in him. My thought on the matter was the election didn't give me much of a choice. Geographical relocation just before Election Day assured I had no choice.

Regardless, I am not sure I would have voted Democratic or Republican. Perhaps an Independent...?

Maybe a third party figuring in the equation could be the New Hope. Maybe the stagnant aisles on the congressional floor might come alive with some truely productive debate and generate some legislation that will prove to be the catalyst for real change.

The daily arguments of the left and right are getting old. People cry out in the streets for change, yet we still elect the same old ideas into the mix. The Democrats and Republicans hand the floors back to each other, and the talking heads comment on the wins and loses of each party when the majorities shift. The people sit in amazement as nothing is different, just that they are getting older.

Why do the people of this country insist on making this a two player game? It is a game you know. The game of politics, and we have lots of old players. Players with lots of connections, and lots of favors that need repaid. New players show up on the playing field with the old time connections.

If America could just have a vision statement. A place where it wants to go. New and fresh ideas generated by a Congress whose members compromise with each other, doing what the people want, and not what will keep them elected. Politicians who won't cater to the big time election money.

"My constituents want this!"

What a noble quote for an elected statesman to make.

I know, I am dreaming... Sad isn't it

Identity Theft - Get Protected: Part 2

Documented Examples of People Who Have Suffered Form Criminal Identity Theft

As I stated in my last post, Identity Theft is much further reaching then just credit card numbers and cleaning out bank accounts. Examples abound relating stories of arrests, denied credit, and denied passports of people who have been victimized by someone using their private information.

A person acquires your information through some malicious means and commits a crime. They use your name in the execution of the crime, or they are picked up by authorities and give your name when asked. They later are released on bail or what have you, and skip town. The authorities issue a warrant for your arrest. It could be in another state and you might not even know about it for quite awhile. Meanwhile, you are being hunted by the police, your credit is being destroyed, and countless other things are happening to you without you even knowing it.

Please take a look at this article “ But, Officer, This Isn’t Me” from The Kiplinger Report,October 2005. It may be old, but is still extremely relevant.

Identity Theft - Get Protected

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The Time has come to protect ourselves from cyber-crime.

The information below is quoted from The Sturgis Journal. It outlines some disturbing information and statistics concerning identity theft.

Employers Beware: 50 Percent of all Identity Thefts Reported from Work

(ARA) - It seems that every other day another company issues a press release announcing the loss of financial or health records of thousands or even millions of Americans. The news behind the headlines has a huge impact for employers. The Federal Trade Commission estimates that more than 50 percent of identity thefts occur through the workplace, or are perpetrated by someone the victim knows. Recent legislation requires companies to notify the press when they experience loss or theft of information that compromises 1,000 or more identities. And the liability of identity theft can continue for years - even long after a compromised employee leaves the company. Through the first 11 months of this year nearly 200 organizations have reported losses of personal information affecting at least 65 million employees, students, consumers, veterans, soldiers, nurses, patients, teachers, homeowners, taxpayers and children.

The FTC reports that the average identity theft victim spends 177 to 300 hours repairing the damage, including a great deal of time during business hours, making identity theft a workplace productivity issue as well as a personal security concern. Some startling identity theft statistics include:

More than 30 million employee names and Social Security numbers have been lost by employers or their vendors in the past 12 months.

As a percentage, the group at highest risk of ID theft earns less than $40k annually.

If Identities are compromised by an employer, the liability never goes away because it may take years to be discovered and the dollar amount of the liability can often be more than $100,000 when costs and professional fees are considered.

Employees are worried about identity theft - 83 percent site it as a major concern.

IT managers have long invested millions in systems that prevent intrusion by hackers rather than systems that simply detect an occurrence of intrusion and theft.

ID theft has become a $50 billion problem forcing the government to step in trying to propose legislation to “freeze” personal information and credit accounts. The result is disagreement on what should be frozen, how to provide easy access to frozen information and limiting cost.

Consider the major Midwestern company that had to notify more than 1,000 employees of lost personal data due to the negligence of an insurance provider. “The only thing we did wrong was partner with a company that ran a loose ship,” notes the human resources manager. “That one incident in the long history of our company will forever change the way we do business.

Smart companies are emphasizing prevention, encouraging customers and employees to take proactive steps such as regularly reviewing their credit reports, checking bank and credit card statements for unusual activities, filing police reports and shredding mail. But credit industry leaders admit that these efforts are too little, too late.

“That doesn’t protect consumers. It’s not going to help and the public is starting to learn that,” says Thomas Chapman, CEO of Equifax, one of the “big three” credit reporting agencies in the United States.

Anyone of us can be a victim. I speak from experience because it happened to my family:

A thief managed to find a way to into my wife’s personal email

They cracked her PayPal account

They cracked her Ebay account

They Purchased tickets to see Jerry Seinfeld and an Amazon Gift card. (Over $1200 in purchases)

She spent an enormous amount of time on the phone and emailing authorities, PayPal, and the bank, trying to get this all straightened out. She found herself requesting credit for bank overdraft charges, and filing paperwork concerning the fraud.

That was before we found the Identity Theft Shield. The company does all the restoration for you. They monitor your credit, and even send you a credit report after you subscribe to the service. Continuous monitoring of your credit and your identity means you will be informed of any mis-use before the bills start showing up.

There are many extreme examples of the effects of identity theft on an individual.

Denial of health insurance

Wrongful arrest

IRS Bills which are not valid

Wrong treatment and death from inaccurate medical records

Many more…

We need to protect ourselves. This is one of the fastest growing crimes in America.