Letting off some steam....

Dominique Strauss-Kahn -former head of the Intnl Monetary Fund, and aspiring next President of France, considered "the favorite" to win in French polls, was arrested and charged with sexual assault of a NYC hotel maid. He is currently free on bail and resides in a $50G/month apt in NYC's TriBeCa district, the most expensive townhouse in the affluent neighborhood. It's interesting to read about and see how the French people view the story. One of the first "comments" from off the streets of Paris when asked about the Frenchmans bid for the Presidency was "How could he make a good president with such poor character?' other comments solicited were "For someone with such high aspirations its deeply shocking...guilty or innocent, I think his career is over." and "We, the small people, how could we possibly figure out what really happened....let the Grand Jury decide and lets hope they get it right" and "If it turns out to be true, this has prevented our country from being led by a pervert."

The first comment particularly caught my attention...and it was an "Ahaaaa" moment..."character"...the very word I was searching for...the very attribute so clearly missing in America's ruling sector - our lawmakers, our Supreme Court Justices, all who hold the reins to the running of America - GOOD "CHARACTER".

We read and watch, time after time after time, of just such abuses of power and position by our political, elected "representatives" and the news headlines are awash in each current scandal. But in most cases does it ever put an end to careers? Hardly. Such goings on have come to be almost "accepted" and excused by the general public, at least it would appear so as nothing ever changes or improves.

We read about the fraud and the greed that brought down the financial sector, the bursting of the housing "bubble", and witness these past 4 years, the catastrophic consequences, tens of millions of hardworking americans now live paycheck to paycheck (if they are lucky they still have a paycheck) having lost their homes, their jobs, their life savings, watching as their debts continue to rise. Jobs continue to be lost, foreclosures continue to rise in many cities across America as we speak. Its not as if its a big secret how all this came to pass, one would have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not be aware of how this all came to be. We've been told and shown in graphic detail. Everywhere we've turned for the past 4 years we are confronted with the effrontery of those who have raped and pillaged America for their own greed and thirst for power. There are a good dozen or more movies that glaringly depict how, why, when, it all came about. Those of you who have still managed to keep your naivete and trust in our Government (current and past, et al), representatives in Congress and the 5% (we're told) that hold most the country's true wealth, would do well to watch but a few of the top ten movies out there depicting the tragedy. A few suggestions for you would be Inside Job; Maxed out: Hard Times, Easy Credit and The Era of Predatory Lenders; The Ascent of Money; American Casino; In Debt We Trust; We All Fall Down, The American Mortgage Crises; Capitolism Hits the Fan and The Story of Stuff...these are the top 10 films in the country re the financial meltdown.

Many wonder at the lack of investigations, undertaken in earnest and in the true spirit of finding the perpetrators and bringing them to justice. I think we all know why, and one has to conclude "all" were in on it, in some manner or form, all were profiting. I believe America is forever changed, that we now live in a very different America than we could ever have imagined, and alarmingly, "just because everything is different doesn't mean anything has changed", as without significant new laws and changes to the complicated, make it up as we go along, corrupt system still in place it seems, in our financial sector, this "different", and future america, still lays in the very hands of those who brought it to its tarnished and fragile state