"Justice" Is A Pretty Subjective Thing-- Especially For The Rich And Powerful, Like Madoff, Cheney And The Banksters

Muntadhar al-Zeidi was sentenced to three years in jail for tossing his shoes at George Bush, although he didn't hit him with either. He did hit a sweet spot in the consciousness of the people of the world who view him as an heroic figure standing up for us all against the incarnation of absolute evil. Two nights ago Seymour Hersh publicly exposed a covert CIA "executive assassination ring" that reported directly, if unconstitutionally, to Dick Cheney. There is virtually no chance that Cheney will ever face any kind of justice for murder or for subverting the Constitution.

And today we find out that Bernie Madoff has backed out of his plea bargain in an attempt to cover up for his criminal relatives. He is willing to spend the rest of his life in prison-- for stealing $64.8 $170 billion in the biggest ponzi scheme ever-- but wanted his co-conspirators to walk away scott free. According to Bloomberg.com this morning he "didn’t agree to a plea deal with prosecutors because of their demand that he admit to a conspiracy, a charge that would require him to say he worked with others." He did plead guilty to 11 charges this morning in court.

Madoff’s decision not to negotiate a deal means the government won’t have his help in determining whether his employees assisted in the fraud, the people said. Madoff, 70, will plead guilty today to all 11 counts he faces without any promise of leniency or anything else in return. He could receive 150 years in prison at sentencing on charges including fraud, perjury and money laundering.

The conspirators who so far look to walk away without charges-- but with plenty of loot-- are his wife, Ruth, his two sons, Mark and Andrew, and his brother Peter, the chief compliance officer at Madoff's criminal enterprise. All of them say they didn't know nothing about any fraud at the company. And Madoff will do soft time in a low-security prison. He stole almost 65 billion dollars and wrecked countless lives and helped destabilize the country's economy. But soft time is what our elites get in the absolute worst case scenario-- and their crooked families still get to enjoy the fruits of their criminal activities. Interesting interpretation of justice. (And, of course, the corporate media is already trying to drum up sympathy for poor Bernie.) The judge finally revoked his bail and he was taken off to prison. Sentencing will be in mid-June.

Another couple of scam-artists, California Republicans Anthony Vassallo and Kenneth Kenitzer, loved the freedom from financial regulation the Bush Regime afforded them that they donated generously to the RNC and NRCC and to their favorite candidate, Mitt Romney... all the while conducting a ponzi scheme much like Madoff's only smaller. They only ripped off $40 million dollars. I wonder if Romney will return the money they gave him. The SEC filed a lawsuit against them and their firm, Equity Investment Management and Trading Inc., yesterday.

In Greece, one of the European countries hardest hit by the bankster-manipulated Depression, some people have given up on the chances of justice ever catching up with the elite criminal class and have decided to go after Citibank on their own-- in a more direct way. Revolutionary Struggle is bombing Citibank offices. "In the statement, the militant group argued the American bank is part of a 'criminal network of international capital' responsible for the financial crisis." Barney Frank's committee, House Financial Services, is going about the pursuit of justice in a more traditional way. The committee will be holding a hearing next week "to ask key justice officials and regulators what they need to prosecute wrongdoers in the financial crisis." Fortunately, Alan Grayson (D-FL), who was elected by Orlando voters in November to put a stop to financial shenanigans, is on that committee... and outspoken. This evening he told us that "The Bush Administration enforced the law only against people whom it didn't like. As a result, massive fraud went unpunished, to the point where law-abiding people felt like saps. The 'Change We Need' simply is the sense that when someone breaks the law, then he or she will be punished. If people don't have that sense, then we'll soon start to resemble a third-world country."