3 Officers Killed, 1 in Critical

A tragedy occurred in Oakland, California yesterday, when Lovelle Mixon brutally shot and killed 3 of the Oakland PD's finest, and critically injured another. The picture to the left shows the three cops who were killed, Sgt. Daniel Sakai, from left, Sgt. Mark Dunakin and Sgt. Ervin Romans.

"The Oakland Police Department says it was the worst day in its history. Never before had three police officers been killed in the line of duty on the same day."

The mayhem began after two motorcycle cops embarked on a a "fairly routine traffic stop", shortly after there was an emergency call saying that the two officers had been shot.(1) Afterward, the suspect fled and SWAT members chased him, until the mayhem finally ended, with 3 officers, the suspect killed, and others injured.

Daniel Sakai, who was 35 had been with the Oakland Police Department since 2000, Ervin Romans who was 43 had been with the Department since 1996. This whole incident is just so sad. I grew up in the town right next to Oakland, and the violence of the city had always been evident, but the slaying of three cops over a traffic violation, is absolutely appalling.

Naturally, the family of 26 year old Lovelle Mixon has come to his defense by stating "he is not a monster". The man had an "extensive criminal history" and was out on parole. I know that I personally didn't know Lovelle, but someone who can commit such an awful crime is a monster. The killing of the officers was seemingly compeletly unprovoked, and that is what is so bizarre.

This is such a tradgey, and all my prayers go out to the officers and their families.


(1) http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/21/california.officers/index.html?section=cnn_latest

President Obama takes his shot at Late Night

On Thursday, President Barack Obama made history yet again by being the first sitting president to appear on a Late Night talk show. The fact that he went on a late night talk show was such a good idea, and something that past presidents should’ve done. When they’re in the setting of a laid back talk show, it almost seemed like he was more relatable. He sat very casually and the setting was very casual, much different from like a press conference, yet he addressed similar issues.

During the first 59 days of his presidency, Obama notices how the critics have been harsh, but he knew it was to be expected. He referenced how it’s taken America a long time to get in the bad economic situation that we’re in now, and it’s going to take a long time to get out, and people need to understand that. It was good to hear that the President was as “stunned” about the AIG bonuses as myself. Jay Leno mentioned how it was rather frightening that once the bonuses were given, Congress passed a tax on them, and that shows that if congress dislikes someone, they can just tax them. Obama responded by saying that since the money has already been dispersed there wasn’t much they could do, so the tax seemed like the only option.

The relatable factor of the interview at least for myself, made situations easier to understand. Like, when the President gives speeches at a press conference, sometimes it’s easy to be confused or get lost in the train of thought. But with question and answer, it makes it a lot more understandable.

My favorite part of the interview was when he talked about general things like how he’s adapting to life as being the president. Jay Leno made a comment about bowling, and Obama responded by saying he has been practicing and actually bowled a 129! Then he made a comment about how he could be in the Special Olympics or something along those lines, and it’s been a large controversy the last couple of days. Honestly, in the context it was in, it was an utter joke, and was not meant to offend anyone. I really think that people just try and dig deep to cause unnecessary drama, and it’s frustrating. The President has formally apologized to anyone he has offended as well. It was also funny when Obama talked about how cool he thinks it is to ride in Air Force I, yet his daughters Sasha and Malia aren’t too impressed by it, but they’re more impressed by the candy on the plane.

If you’d like to watch the interview in its entirety click here:
http://www.nbc.com/The_Tonight_Show_with_Jay_Leno/video/clips/president-obama-full-interview-319/1067541/

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The Most Hated Insurance Company in America...

And the winner is...AIG!

According to the New York Times, the American International Group also known as (A.I.G) was one of the largest insurance companies in the United States before its collapse in September of 2008. The company allegedly collapsed due to the mortgage crisis. To help cease the inevitable collapse of the company, the federal government bailed them out around the tune of $5 billion.1 Okay, that is natural; the company needed help, so the government stepped in.

Here is when things get controversial. The same individuals that almost lead the company to its collapse were going to be rewarded with over $165 million of those bailout dollars in bonuses. President Barack Obama said that he would “pursue every single legal avenue to block” those bonuses from happening. The problem? They were ALREADY given out! When people found out about it, and asked for the bonuses to be retracted, they said that wasn’t possible.2

We know that the economy is bad, and that people want some extra dollars, so giving bonuses should be a good thing, right? WRONG. In this particular situation, these bonuses are given to high, rich executives, as aforementioned, the same executives who ran the company into the ground. There are so many things wrong with this. First of all, those are tax payer dollars, that should be used to help advance and benefit the company, and giving large bonuses to employees is not furthering the company. Secondly, it has been stated that the reason why the bonuses were given was to convince the employees to keep working for the company. Um, don’t you think it’d make more sense to give the bonuses to employees in order to LEAVE the company? Why keep around the same people who screwed you over, out with the old, and in with the new!

Overall, while the happy little AIG people have their fun little shopping sprees at Tiffany’s, the rest of America can have fun struggling to put food on the table, while they watch their tax dollars fund Edward Liddy’s (the CEO of AIG) new Armani suit. Makes sense to me!

(1)http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/news/business/companies/american_international_group/index.html
(2) http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123721970101743003.html

Do you think what AIG did was wrong?
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The Most Hated Man in America..

And the winner is...(drum roll please)...Bernard L. Madoff! Also more infamously known as Bernie Madoff, the man who committed the largest Ponzi scheme ever committed by a single individual. According to the New York Times a Ponzi scheme is “potential investors are wooed with promises of unusually large returns, usually attributed to the investment manager’s savvy, skill or some other secret sauce. The returns are repaid, at least for a time, out of new investors’ principal, not from profits.”₁

The scheme is estimated to have totaled around $65 billion. Although Bernie pled guilty to 11 felonies and is expected to spend the rest of his life, he isn't cooperating with disclosing where the money is. What does he have to lose? He will be spending the last years of his life in prison, so why continue the scheme Bernie? You’ve been caught, now stop being the heartless jerk that you are, and give those people their money back.

What is even more frustrating, is Bernie’s wife Ruth, who is trying to make it so she won’t have to give up about a hundred million dollars worth of assets, which she claims are solely hers. In these assets include a $7 million dollar yacht named “Bull”, a $320,000 dollar Montauk boat classed “Little Bull” jewelry worth over 2.6 million dollars, and various properties.₂ How can she sit there, and want her $7 million dollar yacht, while some of the victims in which HER husband decided to ruin their lives, work minimum wage jobs because they have no other money to pay their utility bills. Seriously? And how can she claim that all of those assets were hers?! On November 25^th, 2008, Ruth Madoff withdrew $5.5 million from a Madoff-related account. On December 10^th, the day before her dear Bernie was arrested, she withdrew $10 million.₃

I was watching the news the other night, and there was a story that not only broke my heart, but enraged me. Ian Thiermann, who is 90 years old, has recently started working 30 hours a week at the local grocery store greeting people making 10 dollars an hour, after his life savings, around $738,000 was stolen by Madoff. Thiermann stated, “You meet a situation like this, what are you gonna do, fold up? Instead of crying, yelling or being mad about it, face it and move on.”₄ A 90-year-old retired man, working for $10 an hour, just to pay house and medical bills, yet Ruth Madoff wants to keep her precious little $7 million dollar yacht. SERIOUSLY?!

The bottom line is, take everything dear Ruthy has, and give these people back their money.

Sources:

(1)http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/f/frauds_and_swindling/ponzi_schemes/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier

(2)http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/17/earlyshow/main4870740.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._4870740

(3)http://www.zimbio.com/Ruth+Madoff

(4)http://cbs5.com/local/elderly.madoff.victim.2.929316.html?hbx.hra=SanFrancisco-LAN&hbx.cmp.c1=story+90283820&hbx.cmp.c3=641&hbx.cmp.c2=728+x+90+90283820&hbx.cmp=AFC-San

What I will be blogging about..

Due to my extreme interest in politics, and the intense situation America is currently going through, I will be giving my daily tidbits of my opinion. I will comment on if I think a decision was a wise one, or if I believe it was an awful one, and so forth. I will do my very best to source articles in which I am referring to, and I will also keep in mind objectivity. My topics will be pretty broad from local to national to international politics, it's all free game. I will just write about whatever catches my attention.