Now we have Dick Grasso. Dick did a good job, maybe even a great job, but let's be real, there is no-way he is worth the money he was contracted to be paid. Spitzer says he was to be paid an amount equal to 99% of the exchanges net profit, in one of the years in question. I thought it was The New York Stock Exchange not The Dick Grasso Exchange! For Dick not to be able to comprehend this is beyond me. For Dick to actually believe he is worth that kind of money, would rank his ego right up there with Martha's. Remember Dick, they got Martha! For him to possibly believe that he is worth that kind of money would be like the NASD trading at 10,000. Although he does look a lot like Quark, from the Star Trek's, Deep Space Nine. That could explain part of his misguided beliefs about profit and his belief in his worth to the exchange. I always thought that Vanna White had the greatest job of all time. She earns her money and she's a lot better to look at.

Likewise, the exact same can be said for the officers and directors of many of our major corporations. Compensation packages of $25,000,000 plus are way out of line. Someone needs to step up to the plate and call them out. I can't believe that no one has ever made an issue of this before. For CEO's and CFO's to receive the pay packages they have is nothing short of blatant theft from shareholders. How come no one is going after these people? Especially, when the corporations have lousy years, and I believe they will have several lean years in the near future! The greedy acts and policies of these officers and directors will not come to an end until it all blows up. Then the witch hunts will begin! But, by then it will be too late to help the shareholders.

Then you have the new dividend tax exclusion. What a joke! If Bush really wants to encourage growth, then why not give the exclusion to the corporations. This would put tax savings in the corporate coffers, these additional funds could be used in a manner that would make our domestic corporations more competitive and technologically advanced. Let's not forget all the new jobs it would create. I mean after all, aren't jobs what it's all about? Oh, I forgot, corporations aren't paying any taxes these days. The exclusion would be wasted on them. Who benefits from the new dividend tax exclusion? The Rich, they are the only ones who truly have any significant investments, outside of tax deferred retirement plans. They are the only ones who will be able to take advantage of any tax reduction. I guess the rich truly know how best to spend our capital versus the corporations themselves. They truly know how to get our money into their pockets. Under their choices we are much better off, aren't we? The spending habits of the rich, truly are our ticket to future growth and prosperity.

Then we have the lawsuits over smoking. Twenty years ago, I used to smoke three packs of menthols a day in the office. I loved them! I knew I was killing myself. I could feel the wheeze in my lungs, I knew I had to quit. Then one day, I woke up and said I am done. I quit! Sure it was hard, but it got easier every day. All it took was willpower and a COMMITTMENT on my part. I think it is atrocious that these suits are even brought to trial. This is not to say that the people responsible for the additives should not be in jail, they should. The true blame falls on the one doing the inhaling, not the exhaling of "hot air." These victims had a chance to quit before each and every cigarette they lit up. They have absolutely no one to blame but themselves. The true victims are the ones who had to foot the bill for their medical expenses. Or the dependents who had to go without or with less, so mom or dad could afford to smoke his or her cigarettes. I'm sorry; I just don't see how these people have any claim against anyone, but themselves, for consciously choosing to smoke. We have all been told to "mind your own business" when we have tried to help someone, we love, stop smoking! They made the choice to smoke; they are solely responsible for the consequences.

If the smokers truly do have a justified case, does this mean that we should be suing the alcohol distributors? Yeah, I'm going to sue Bud because their beer tastes great, or God forbid, Captain Morgan. I don't know whether it's addictive, but it sure tastes good, like I'm going to drink, if it tastes horrible. You better line your attorneys up now because when my liver goes, I'm coming after you! I'm not even going to talk about the stupidity of the fast food lawsuits. You all get the point.

This brings me to Enron. I view the negotiations going on behind the scene as the greatest crimes of all! The conspirators range from the management of Enron, Citibank, JPMorgan, our regulatory agencies for not supervising, our politicians and even Greenspan himself for advocating the use of derivatives. After Enron collapsed, there was a stampede by our politicians to get their pictures on TV. They were all appalled and vowed to get to the bottom of things. What has happened since? Basically, nothing! I have not seen one thing in writing that shows why Enron went bankrupt. Sure, we have been told about some offshore corporations and the funny accounting that went on, but what really happened? Anderson was put out of business; I believe to keep them quiet. JPMorgan and Citibank had huge fines levied against them. Don't quote me, but I believe the fines were in the amount of $2,000,000,000. Yeah, and they admitted no wrong doing! But what really happened? How many other corporations are doing the exact same thing? Why have our government regulators chose not to pursue other corporations that have done the exact same thing? Why haven't our politicians told all the major US Corporations, who have offshore corporations, like Enron, to close them down? These offshore corporations were designed to hide critical items from the balance sheets and their shareholders. Why must we wait until another Enron surfaces before we start to put an end to these financially destructive policies? Without a doubt, when the derivative market implodes or explodes the greatest source of problems will lie in the offshore corporations. Only, after the fact, will we be asking the questions that Spitzer should be asking today. Because of ignoring circumstances like this, I chose to believe Spitzer is acting on behalf of his own personal and political ambitions.

Anderson designed these offshore corporations for many of their accounts. Would you like to own stock in a company that has the same set-up Enron had? Wouldn't you like to know if any of the stocks you own, do have? Why haven't the press and Spitzer jumped on this nightmare with both feet? Could the answer be that the derivatives that exist within the framework of these shell corporations possess the ability to bring down the whole financial system, if someone were to open "Pandora's Box?" No question in my mind! I always believed that the truth about derivatives would finally be brought out into the open when the truth about Enron was finally revealed. Instead, it has been swept under the carpet with barely a word being spoken. Although, the regulatory authorities did receive their money, from fines that they levied against the guilty parties. They got theirs and the guilty parties were allowed to settle, with huge fines, without admitting or denying any guilt. And then, everything was swept under the carpet. Putting absolutely no precedent in place to keep this disaster from happening again! What has been learned from Enron? Where are our politicians now? They have an opportunity to keep this from happening again. They made promises they did not keep. They broke their word. I guess there is a first time for everything. Hey Martha, you have company coming. Get the guest room ready! A big room!

As another prime example of misguided attention, let's turn our focus to the 9-11 hearings. Sure 9-11 was one of the worst tragedies in the history of our country but, can we possibly believe that anyone could have predicted the events that were to unfold on that day? Trying to place blame on someone for allowing that to happen is ridiculous. Even if we had known, could we have possibly done anything to stop it? The real foolishness comes not with the attention we are putting into 9-11, after the fact but, with the lack of proper preparation for events that are about to unfold in our future.

To properly set the stage, let me ask you a couple questions. Let me take you back in time. Remember how you felt on 9-11 as you watched the events unfold on TV, just like me, utter horror and numbing shock? Remember the feelings of being totally paralyzed by the helplessness of the situation, wanting to help, but being in a position, of being able to do absolutely nothing. Then attempting to deal with the anger and hate as the shock wore off. Yeah. I remember too. I never want to experience those feelings again. I do not want to dwell on the events of the past; I want to spend my time and effort on trying to figure out the unfolding events of the future.

Now let's look into the future. How would you feel if a nuclear bomb went off in this country? What if more than one bomb went off at the same time? Get my point? The feelings of 9-11 may be pale in comparison. What are we doing about stopping it? What are we doing about the hand held nuclear bombs that are missing in Russia? "Sixty Minutes," ran an excellent piece on the thousands of hand-held nuclear weapons in Russia. I was left in total awe by the fact that our government hasn't done everything possible to gather and destroy these weapons before they can become our worst nightmare imaginable. These are true weapons of mass destruction! The events of 9-11 would be nothing compared to the devastation of a nuclear bomb going off in this country! Without a doubt, everything that we accept as a way of life today would change overnight. The way of life that we totally take for granted today would be gone forever. Why? Because we were looking behind us rather than in front of us.

Good can come out of 9-11. These people have tipped their hand. Not only are we in a position to truly prepare for the worst. But we can properly prepare ourselves both mentally and physically. I believe the worst is not to be found in Iraq or Afghanistan. The true battle will be fought within our own borders. This is one battle we cannot afford to lose. Personally, I can allow 9-11 to pass as an event we may not have been able to stop, even if we had prior notice, or as an event that we may not have had the courage in which to take the measures truly necessary to stop from happening due to negative public opinion. Americans are not mentally prepared to do the things necessary to protect ourselves, until after a major incident occurs to change public sentiment. It seems we always react to, rather than prepare for, unpleasant times. It took Pearl Harbor to finally get us involved in WWII. The events in the Iraqi prison are proof of this. We are at war; these people are being detained for a reason. They may have vital information necessary to protect us from future disasters. What if this was pre 9-11 and one or more of these prisoners had knowledge of the upcoming 9-11 bombing. Would we still be prosecuting these soldiers for what we think is improper conduct? What would you consider righteous treatment of prisoners then?

We should never allow another event of the magnitude of 9-11 to come to pass, without having done everything in our power to anticipate and prevent it before it occurs. If breaking a man down mentally is necessary then bring it on. I have a real problem in comparing being naked and having underwear placed over my head, as such a terrible crime in relation to the gaining of possible information necessary in stopping the next 9-11. I am willing to go much further to protect my family and this country. This includes the possibility of closing our borders. We have made it much more difficult to fly, so why should access into or out of this country be any different? The only question we have to ask ourselves is the question of how we would feel, AFTER THE FACT. Very few people would defend a position of not closing our borders now, before the event, rather than waiting and trying to understand and explain why they were not closed after the event. It always seems that the ones who most oppose doing something are the ones who scream the loudest after something goes wrong. There can be no excuses for not going overboard to protect us in the face of growing danger. We should have learned something about how quickly sentiment can change as a result of the train bombings in Spain. This was a huge victory for the terrorists. I believe the months of September and October are when we will face our ultimate risk. I only hope and pray that the leaders of our country fully understand this and are properly preparing for the next event. Unfortunately, I am quickly losing my faith to believe they truly have the knowledge and skill necessary to protect us. Particular, in light of the fact that people, who were once our allies in Iraq, are now on the other side of the fence taking up arms against us. Seems to me, something is not going as planned! It seems we now have more enemies in Iraq now than when we first entered Iraq to free the people. I would love to give these people the same freedoms that we have in this country but, unfortunately, I'm not convinced they want the same things that we have! Proof of this is the lifestyle led by our good friends the Saudi's. If we have it so good then how come they have yet to adopt our way of life? Why are women treated in the manner they are In Saudi Arabia? Where did the 9-11 bombers come from? Yeah, The Saudis really love us and our way of life!

In closing, let me add just two thoughts about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. First, why would Saddam spend billions to build weapons of mass destruction when he could have purchased them from Russia for less than $50,000,000 apiece? I don't think he would. It would be a lot easier to buy them, than attempt to build them. If theypurchased them out of Russia, the weapons would not originate from Iraq. It would be much easier to get them to their final destination from Russia than Iraq. Second, why do we feel Saddam had weapons of mass destruction in the first place? Could it be that the US sold them to him, at an earlier date, when they were our buddies fighting Iran?

Yeah, some of you may call me negative, but you know deep down inside, your gut instinct is telling you, I'm right! Things, these days, are TOTALLY SCREWED UP! It's time for America and Americans to wake up and put our priorities into proper perspective! Sometimes we do have to think of ourselves first! I for one am willing to sacrifice a little less freedom today in hopes of preserving the future of our country and our children tomorrow. Sometimes we need to take a step backwards to go forward. Take some time; think about how you would feel after the fact. Try to think about what we would have done differently if we only had the chance to go back and do it again. Forget about being a Republican or a Democrat and become an American! Stand up for what is right. Put your own self-serving needs and desires aside. The fact that politicians have tried to please everyone is the reason we are in this mess in the first place. It is impossible to give everyone what they want, sometimes you have to go out and earn what you want! This includes getting an education and being able to identify the things we need versus the things we desire. We have more important matters that must be dealt with before it is too late! If it's not already?

I hate to be the one to write an editorial like this, but someone has to! I wish I were wrong but every time I pinch myself it hurts and I find I'm not dreaming!

Mike Hoy
mhoy@neb.rr.com

1 June 2004