Should there be two sets of laws, one for the wealthy and one for the rest of us?

[yurbud]

From the Wall Street bailouts to health insurance ''reform'' the corporate Democrats in Congress seem to be intent on making one thing clear: there is and will continue to be two kinds of laws, one for the wealthy and one for the rest of us. And the wealthy get to make both.

If you as an individual defraud people, you will go to prison.

If your small business defrauds people, you may go to prison and will probably be successfully sued.

On the other hand, if a large corporation defrauds people, it is either already legal, or they can make it legal after the fact by bribing Congress with campaign donations now and jobs as lobbyists, CEOs, or board members when they leave office. They will not go to prison or be successfully sued.

Bernard Madoff went to prison because he had the bad manners to con the wealthy instead of the working and middle class. He also made the wealthy look as stupid and gullible as the rest of us, which could make us wonder whether they really are our betters after all.

If you as an individual kill thousands of innocent people for profit, you will be called a contract killer. If you kill thousands for politics or religion, you will be called a terrorist. In either case, you will be executed or spend the rest of your life in prison (the latter only if you are extremely lucky).

If you as a large corporation kill thousands of people, no one in government will care. If there is enough public outcry about the thousands you kill, the government will negotiate ''reforms'' with you so you will kill slightly fewer people but make even greater profits.

So if Tim McVeigh or Osama bin Laden were large corporations, they would make smaller bombs in exchange for all of their political demands being met along with an opportunity to add to their list and get them too. And they would get to pick the Homeland Security secretary, the head of the National Security Council, the CIA, and any other agency that is supposed to stop terrorism.

And we would be told to be grateful that 10% fewer people would be killed by terrorists, and to be grateful the Republicans aren't in power because they wouldn't even give us that much.

Is that the way you wanted things to work when you voted for a Democratic Congress and Democratic president?

[debbierlus]

1. Silly - there already are! In practice, if not in words...words are used to justify, excuse

....and cover this truth.

[Solly Mack]

2. What you said

[Donnachaidh]

4. gmta -- exactly what I was thinking.

Anyone who thinks laws apply the same to everyone in this country is a complete DOLT.

[JFN1]

6. Exactly. n/t

[abq e streeter]

3. "Steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Bob Dylan--Sweetheart Like You

[baldguy]

5. Should there be? No. Is there? Yes.

[yurbud]

7. good sig line. Unfortunately, those are the people the Democrats are trying to recruit as major

donors.