Yes, it was the Senate Judiciary Committe where they referred my call. I didn't get the name of the person I talked to, but she carefully input the URL of the Washington Times article as I read it to her. Once she pulled up the article, she agreed that it is a problem if true and was going to send it to the appropriate people. Leahy is chair of this committee; that is why his office staff wanted the committee staff informed.

There is, of course, the chance that Bond is distorting what Holder told him and that Holder will dispute it strongly. I would think that Holder will need to address this issue, under oath, before the full Senate votes. Either way, Bond should be toast. I don't see how he can be taken seriously in the Senate after making this claim.

I just got off the phone with Pat Leahy's office and the SJC office to which they transferred my call. They took down the web address for the Washington Times story and agreed that this is a huge problem if the story is correct in its quotes of Bond and if Holder said what Bond claims. I told them this should result in Bond's resignation and Holder's withdrawal as a candidate and both the Senate office and SJC office phone person agreed that it is a huge problem if true.

Bond's office hung up on me when I asked when he would resign.

I realize that this is a very tough employment environment, but, on the basis of your recent letter, I would suggest that you lack the intellect, knowledge and morals to continue in your current line of work.

Sincerely,

I see the system as currently enforced to be quite tilted in favor of those in government and the large corporations. Two examples from yesterday drive home the situation in my view. As we heard from Richard Cohen, we should not prosecute those who tortured because their efforts were "sincere", and Southern California experienced its fifth mass killing in recent months that can be traced to the current economic situation.

ABC7 in Los Angeles has posted (linked at my name) a redacted version of the fax it received from Ervin Lupoe, the father who carried out this latest murder-suicide. According to the letter (I haven't yet seen corroboration, so this is a large caveat), both parents were terminated from their employment because they misrepresented their employment in trying to obtain childcare for their five children aged 8 and younger. What could be a more sincere motive for "gaming the system" than to obtain childcare while continuing employment? Yet, according to the letter, Mr. Lupoe was told by an administrator, only two days before Christmas, "You should not even had bothered to come to work today you should have blown your brains out." The letter then goes on to relay the reporting of this incident, the failure of the employer to take action against the administrator and the subsequent firing of both parents.

So, on the one hand we have the Washington elite allowing torture and other war crimes because the perpetrators were "sincere", and on the other we have a family dead because a parent felt that the system left no other options.

The tiers that have been erected allow many tears to fall.

My Congressman, Cliff Stearns, is having quite a month. After first distinguishing himself by asking Nancy Pelosi to postpone votes in the House so that he could attend the BCS championship game (and earning himself "Worst Person in the World" from Keith Olbermann), he then voted against this year's SCHIP bill.

Now, he's topping that by writing at HumanEvents.com that he is introducing a bill that will allow people with concealed weapons permits in their state of residence to carry concealed weapons in states that do not issue such permits. In Cliff's world, good, God-fearin' 'Mericuns can take the law into their own hands and deal with prison overcrowding by just gunning down those who they think are about to rob them.

That creates a special two-tiered justice system for Cliff: He thinks that he can hold up critical action on the tanking economy so that he can attend a football game, but then comes back to try to withhold health insurance from children and promote vigilante justice in states that are trying to prevent it.

The Oxdown linked at my name has some info from Handgun Control, Inc. that points out just how warped this idea is.

Shooter:

One has to trust that checks written to someone will be honored. One has to trust that Insurance policies will be paid off. One has to trust that people who borrow money will repay.

Granted the system is rife with broken promises, rating agency lies, failed regulation, and every thing else that you consider bad.... but it's still working. Barely, but still working.

Actually, when the system works properly, we don't have to trust that checks will be honored or that insurance will pay off or loans will be repaid. That's what regulation of the financial system is supposed to assure. What we have now is not just "failed regulation". It is intentionally eviscerated regulation. The same attitude that left our regulators bereft of power and oversight is the very same attitude that now says "don't look behind the curtain". The problem is that what is behind the curtain is years of self-enrichment by those who weren't being regulated.

Real oversight, with absolute transparency, is the only route out of this abyss. If that leads to more financial entities failing, so be it. As long as the the upper management takes a financial beating along with the rest of us, that is.