White collar Joe Scarborough & Co. display their elitism

Joe Scarborough this morning commented on Rod Blagojevich's sentence of fourteen years calling it "total BS." Of course, it's not unexpected since he and his group swim among the white collar elite. Perish the thought that they would accept such a sentence to one of their own.

White collar criminals get away with far too much. You know that what Blagojevich was convicted for was not the only time he had his hand in the cookie jar. Who knows how many people have been hurt by Blagojevic­h's chicanery? Who's in power due to Blagojevich's receiving bribes to get them in? What have the people in Illinois have been deprived of because Mr. Blagojevich peddled his influence? We'll never know, but people who get in due to bribes are NOT the type of persons who will work for the people. And those good candidates who actually would work for the people are deprived of the offices.

What really amazes me is that we have all these draconian laws and sentences for the 99% such as three strikes laws, severely harsh drug laws (I believe all drugs should be decriminalized and treated as a major health issue) or, as an excellent example, a woman getting three years in prison for lying on a federal application while no wall street executive even goes to trial for the fraud they perpetrated on the American populace.

As for the Morning Joe crew's comparison to child molesters averaging "only" 9.5 years. That's apples and oranges. I agree that 9.5 is way too short for those creeps, but that is an issue that needs to be addressed on its own terms. Blagojevich's judge should NOT be comparing sentences for other crimes (same with the crew's Conrad Murray's conviction re Michael Jackson's death argument) when considerin­g Blagojevich's sentence.

Unfortunately, that's the problem with white collar crime. Nothing immediately tangible can be gleaned from their reprehensible actions. No blood, no body, etc. Yet, I would submit the damage the white collars cause is among the worse of the worst: violating the people's trust and literally destroying thousands of lives in one fell swoop. All in the name of bribery or profiteering from the power of the office.

We need to continually impose harsh sentences on all these charlatans to let future potentiall­y corrupt politician­s know that the book will be thrown at them HARD if they're caught. We need to hammer them and hammer them hard. Maybe that will make them think twice before violating the trust of the people and breaking the law.

Best news I've heard all day

George W. Bush cancels visit to Swiss charity gala over fears he could be arrested on torture charges

Mr Bush was due to be the keynote speaker at a Jewish charity gala in Geneva on February 12.

But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the country.

Criminal complaints against Mr Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials said.

I'm one of those that believes what goes around comes around. I'm waiting for the "comes around" for Bush and his evil cronies...