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What'cha Gonna Do When They Come For You?

Friday, July 26, 2002

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From Denver, Colorado
The Western Fuels Association Annual Meeting
• Let's review:

  - A Congressman is accused, and convicted of bribery, tax evasion, and taking kickbacks from his staff. He is thrown out of the House by a 420-1 vote (the lone vote having been cast by lame-duck Gary Condit whose vote against expulsion proves the old saying "If you got nothin', you got nothin' to lose") and will be sentenced to real jail time - possibly seven years - next week.

  - A 77-year-old guy accused of a massive corporate fraud is arrested at six in the morning, dragged out of his house, cuffed and head-ducked into the back of a police car (in the full view of a press corps which was given ample advance warning) then released on $10 million bail.

  - A guy a half century younger - 27 - is accused of throwing his naked wife out of his house and then - packing heat - going to a relative's house to look for her; is charged with about 2,734 misdemeanors and felonies on a Thursday, but is given until the next Tuesday to turn himself in (because his lawyer is out of town), then is released on $10,000 unsecured bail.

• In the current environment, robbing a grocery store will generate less jail time than bouncing a check at one.

• For those of you who sent along congratulations on the 8 billion point run-up in the Dow JUST ONE DAY after Mullings pointed out the Gephardt-led Democratic strategy which required the markets to continue to decline, I can only say this:

  I pledge to use my powers only for good.

• Speaking of Dick Gephardt, Democratic Senator Paul Sarbanes and Republican Congressman Mike Oxley held a press conference celebrating the successful conclusion of a Corporate Responsibility bill which came out of a House-Senate Conference largely devoid of partisan rancor.

• The Rector of Rancor, called the measure an "unconditional surrender" by the House Republican leadership.

• See? This is what I was saying. Gephardt NEEDS continued turmoil, distrust, and pessimism. The last thing he wants is bi-partisanship.

• Keep in mind, that President Bush set the tone for this bill. He refused to succumb to the calls to join in the Political-Hair-on-Fire-Dance in which almost everyone else in Washington has been participating for the past month.

• Oxley and Sarbanes, therefore, got to do their work successfully. They will get a bill to the President before the August recess (as he had requested), and the nation will be better for it.

• What is specifically good for the nation, is specifically bad for Congressional Democrats. Interesting, huh?

• More on the corporate governance situation. A couple of weeks ago, in a paroxysm of geekiness, I installed a wireless LAN at Mullings Central.

• The Mullings Director of Standards & Practices who - unlike the external auditors, the internal auditors, the senior management, the boards of directors, market analysts, and the major shareholders at Enron, World Com, and Global Crossing - actually reads the Amex statement every month, asked what it was all about.

• My explanation, including a very interesting discussion on the 802.11b standard and the significance of WEP security issues, was greeted with that look that Alice Kramden always gave Ralph.

• I finally said, "You know, this means no more wires running across the floor of the den."

• Venus. Mars. Mars. Venus.

• On the airplane, Wednesday, a man got on complaining that he had been given the bulkhead aisle seat which he just hated. I knew him and, as I was in the row behind, I offered to trade which he accepted.

• A flight attendant came by and took his drink order. When she brought it back (a diet Coke) he took it without comment. I whispered to her that "Thank you" was apparently not in his vocabulary.

• She said he was a Congressman and should know better.

• I said, he was a former Congressman and a former Speaker of the House and it was no wonder the people of Washington State had thrown Tom Foley out of office.

• On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: photos of the Honeymooners, the etymology of "lame duck", the 20th Amendment, and more!
  --END --
  Copyright © 2002 Richard A. Galen

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