High Crimes
I just read Kenneth Lay – died today of a massive heart attack…
Some people, who lost everything during the downfall of Enron, may find a little satisfaction in this. Some people will say “He never got the punishment he deserved…” He WAS vacationing in ASPEN for Christ sake!!! “Rich people go to Jail when they are good and ready” yadda, yadda, yadda…
Don’t get me wrong he most likely did commit at least some of the crimes he was accused of, and should have been held accountable in some way for those mistakes… And I know it may seem as though I’m defending the guy, you’ll have to follow me a bit…
Hundreds if not thousands of people were affected in a negative way or were utterly financially ruined due to the actions that he and others at the top may have willing and knowingly taken.
My problem is this, and YES, I’m still a tree hugging, hippie, commie, pinko, liberal, rat, whose questions about our government’s policies make me completely unpatriotic in the eyes of those who disagree…. Those who live on sound bites and slogans, and actually BELIEVE that the “No Child Left Behind Act” actually leaves no children “BEHIND.” Etc.
My problem is that this guy no doubt did alot of damage, but didn’t he also do a lot of good… From what I know he gave millions to charity, helped create thousands of jobs, - granted most of those are gone now- and helped make “Houston “ a much more desirable city to live work and play.
The other thing I find interesting is that he gave lots of money to our president’s campaign, they were friends, he helped many “career” politicians get elected, and / or stay in office, and this was in return for political favors obviously.
So, to sum up: He gave millions to charity and asked for political favors – in return for those favors the FEDERAL Government benefited. They benefited by broadening the tax base, by revitalizing a city, by having more of the upper middle class voting for useless politicians that were not doing half as much locally to improve their districts as this guy was at the time.
And THEN, as power and money tend to do, it corrupted what by all accounts, had been a very good man and citizen, the lines got blurred somewhere... (Has that not happened to you? You've made mistakes, mistakes that were huge.) This entry isn’t about politics, but more about – just being human - Laws were broken, but were they broken to hide personal failure or were the “books cooked” (which they obviously were) to injure the company, its employees, their family, and the market overall. I tend to believe it was probably more of the former and less of the latter or maybe a combination.
The government and his “friends” needed a scapegoat, it’s probably not debatable that he was party to very questionable business practices, (as I said before – he deserved to be punished, but in a manner that would benefit his community) He was to be sentenced to about 45 years I believe – death sentence- and was facing up to 145 years on other counts….. Back to what I was getting at, the government that benefited from his success and questionable business practices also needed to dis-associate itself with the public face of this scandal. So, to prove they were less crooked, than these guys at Enron they spent millions of dollars destroying the man who helped make sure they were NEVER held accountable for their misuse, abuse, and “high crimes and misdemeanors”… This isn’t a republican or democrat thing, but a common sense issue.
No doubt the stress of his personal failure, his impending incarceration, and the destruction of his own family, contributed to his death. But so did the “American Dream” and all of us…………………………………….
Some people, who lost everything during the downfall of Enron, may find a little satisfaction in this. Some people will say “He never got the punishment he deserved…” He WAS vacationing in ASPEN for Christ sake!!! “Rich people go to Jail when they are good and ready” yadda, yadda, yadda…
Don’t get me wrong he most likely did commit at least some of the crimes he was accused of, and should have been held accountable in some way for those mistakes… And I know it may seem as though I’m defending the guy, you’ll have to follow me a bit…
Hundreds if not thousands of people were affected in a negative way or were utterly financially ruined due to the actions that he and others at the top may have willing and knowingly taken.
My problem is this, and YES, I’m still a tree hugging, hippie, commie, pinko, liberal, rat, whose questions about our government’s policies make me completely unpatriotic in the eyes of those who disagree…. Those who live on sound bites and slogans, and actually BELIEVE that the “No Child Left Behind Act” actually leaves no children “BEHIND.” Etc.
My problem is that this guy no doubt did alot of damage, but didn’t he also do a lot of good… From what I know he gave millions to charity, helped create thousands of jobs, - granted most of those are gone now- and helped make “Houston “ a much more desirable city to live work and play.
The other thing I find interesting is that he gave lots of money to our president’s campaign, they were friends, he helped many “career” politicians get elected, and / or stay in office, and this was in return for political favors obviously.
So, to sum up: He gave millions to charity and asked for political favors – in return for those favors the FEDERAL Government benefited. They benefited by broadening the tax base, by revitalizing a city, by having more of the upper middle class voting for useless politicians that were not doing half as much locally to improve their districts as this guy was at the time.
And THEN, as power and money tend to do, it corrupted what by all accounts, had been a very good man and citizen, the lines got blurred somewhere... (Has that not happened to you? You've made mistakes, mistakes that were huge.) This entry isn’t about politics, but more about – just being human - Laws were broken, but were they broken to hide personal failure or were the “books cooked” (which they obviously were) to injure the company, its employees, their family, and the market overall. I tend to believe it was probably more of the former and less of the latter or maybe a combination.
The government and his “friends” needed a scapegoat, it’s probably not debatable that he was party to very questionable business practices, (as I said before – he deserved to be punished, but in a manner that would benefit his community) He was to be sentenced to about 45 years I believe – death sentence- and was facing up to 145 years on other counts….. Back to what I was getting at, the government that benefited from his success and questionable business practices also needed to dis-associate itself with the public face of this scandal. So, to prove they were less crooked, than these guys at Enron they spent millions of dollars destroying the man who helped make sure they were NEVER held accountable for their misuse, abuse, and “high crimes and misdemeanors”… This isn’t a republican or democrat thing, but a common sense issue.
No doubt the stress of his personal failure, his impending incarceration, and the destruction of his own family, contributed to his death. But so did the “American Dream” and all of us…………………………………….
posted by DJ KFC and the Pot Pan Kitchen Posse at 9:38 AM
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