HOW A STIMULUS PLAN WORKS...

Laugh when you can, Apologize when you should, and Let go of what you can't

change!

$100 Bill

It's a slow day in the small town of Zelienople and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody is living on credit.

A tourist visiting the area drives through town, stops at the motel, and lays a $100 bill on the desk saying he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs to pick one for the night.

As soon as he walks upstairs, the motel owner grabs the bill and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

(Stay with this.....and pay attention)

The butcher takes the $100 and runs down the street to retire his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the $100 and heads off to pay his bill to his supplier, the Co-op.

The guy at the Co-op takes the $100 and runs to pay his debt to the local prostitute, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer her "services" on credit.

The hooker rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill with the hotel Owner.

(Almost done...keep reading)

The hotel proprietor then places the $100 back on the counter so the traveler will not suspect anything.

At that moment the traveler comes down the stairs, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, picks up the $100 bill and leaves.

No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town now thinks that they are out of debt and there is a false atmosphere of optimism and glee.

And that, my friends, is how a "stimulus package" works!

YOU WILL LO0SE YOUR 1ST AMENDMENT RIGHT JANUARY 27th.

Internet Takeover Bill

United States Justice Foundation

932 "D" Street, Suite 2

Ramona, California 92065

760-788-6624   USJF.NET

01/10/2012

Dear Kenneth,

The final U. S. Senate vote on the internet takeover bill is set for January 24th.  As of right now, that bill, which gives U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder the power of an "Internet Czar,” WILL PASS.

Please send faxes to every Member of the U.S. Senate, and demand that they filibuster S. 968, the Senate version of the internet takeover bill.

Unfortunately, the American people are not paying attention to this catastrophe that is unfolding in the U. S. Senate.  We only have a few days to stop this unconstitutional power grab.  We must bombard the Senate with faxes, RIGHT NOW!

This bill will give corrupt U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder the power to blacklist or shut down any website or forum that is merely accused of being linked to "online piracy”.

He will even have the authority to "sanitize” the results of internet searches on Google or Yahoo, so that only government-approved websites and information can be found online.

If this bill passes, Barack Hussein Obama will have to the ability to ban the campaign websites of his opponents, shut down the online activities of anti-Obama groups like USJF, and harass tea party forums and any other website that don't support him.

Please fax the U. S. Senate now.  This bill WILL PASS unless the American people overwhelm the Senate with faxes!

And, while you are at it, please forward this email to everyone in your lists.

The FINAL U. S. Senate vote is scheduled for January 24th.  We don't have much time!

If this bill passes, the Obama Administration won't need a court order.  There will be no hearings or trials.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., will seize incredible control over the internet, and we will be nearly powerless to stop him.

Although supporters of the bill say that it is designed to prevent online piracy, this is an internet takeover bill, pure and simple.

Just one "complaint” from a liberal activist, or a government agent, that you are indirectly violating an obscure copyright rule, and your website could be fined huge sums, and it could be blacklisted from the internet.

Just imagine if Google was prohibited from displaying websites that were critical of Barack Obama, that discussed the controversy over where he was born, or that mentioned the damage that his policies are doing to the economy.

Well, that is exactly what will ultimately happen if S.968 passes, and it is signed into law.

Many of this bill's provisions are modeled on Communist China's censorship law, called the "Great Firewall of China.”

Even the socialists in the European Parliament oppose this new American law.

That is how extreme S.968 is!

S.968 already has 40 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate.   Eleven more votes and it passes!

Please fax every U. S. Senator NOW.

Extreme liberals like Chuck Schumer and Al Franken have teamed up with Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham to ram this bill into law.

They are being helped by millions of dollars in campaign contributions from  left-wing mainstream media companies.

They want the government to shut down all the blogs and political forums, and all of the independent news sites, so that they, once again, will have a monopoly on the news that you and I are allowed to see.

This threat against free speech is so grave and so imminent that websites like Google and Yahoo are seriously considering staging a last-ditch online protest to try to stop Mr. Obama and his Congressional allies!

Please, fax every Member of the U. S. Senate NOW, and please forward this email to all of your friends, urging them to do the same.

This bill WILL PASS unless you take action TODAY.

And, while you are at it, please add to the effectiveness of your faxes by personally calling your U.S. Senators' offices at 202-224-3121.  Tell him, or her, to STOP S. 968, the internet takeover bill.

The final vote is January 24th.  We only have days remaining to save free speech on the internet!

Sincerely,

Gary G. Kreep, Esq.

Executive Director

United States Justice Foundation

You lost 1st, 5th and 6th Amendment Rights Now your 2nd Amendment gone.

Why Grandpa carries a gun.

Please take time to read this and pay particular attention to "A Little Gun History" about half way down.

Why Grandpa carries a gun scroll way down

PEOPLE ASK WHY?

Why Carry a Gun?

 My old grandpa said to me 'Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin.'

>I don't carry a gun to kill people.

>I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

> 

>I don't carry a gun to scare people.

>I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

> 

>I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid.

>I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

>

>I don't carry a gun because I'm evil.

>I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

>

>I don't carry a gun because I hate the government.

>I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

>

>I don't carry a gun because I'm angry.

>I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

>

>I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone.

>I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

>

>I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy.

>I carry a gun because, when I die and go to heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

>

>I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man.

>I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

>      

>I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate.

>I carry a gun because unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.      

>

>I don't carry a gun because I love it.

>I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.      

>

>Police protection is an oxymoron.

>Free citizens must protect themselves.

>Police do not protect you from crime, they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

>      

>Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die

>and too old to take an ass whoopin'.....author unknown (but obviously brilliant)

>      

>**********************************************

>A LITTLE GUN HISTORY

> 

>In 1929, the Soviet Union established gun control.      

>From 1929 to 1953, about 20 million dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

>       ------------------------------

> 

>In 1911, Turkey established gun control.

>From 1915 to 1917, 1.5 million Armenians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.      

> ------------------------------

> 

>Germany established gun control in 1938 and from 1939 to 1945, a total of 13 million Jews and others who were unable to defend themselves were rounded up and exterminated.

> ------------------------------      

> 

>China established gun control in 1935.

>From 1948 to 1952, 20 million political dissidents, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

>       ------------------------------

> 

>Guatemala established gun control in 1964.

>From 1964 to 1981, 100,000 Mayan Indians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.       

> 

>Uganda established gun control in 1970.

>From 1971 to 1979, 300,000 Christians, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.       

> 

>Cambodia established gun control in 1956.

>From1975 to 1977, one million educated people, unable to defend themselves, were rounded up and exterminated.

>       -----------------------------

> 

>Defenseless people rounded up and exterminated

>in the 20th Century because of gun control: 56 million.

>------------------------------

>

>You won't see this data on the US evening news, or hear politicians disseminating this information.

> 

>Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives and property

>and, yes, gun-control laws adversely affect only the law-abiding citizens.

> 

>Take note my fellow Americans, before it's too late!

> 

>The next time someone talks in favor of gun control, please remind them of this history lesson.

> 

>With guns, we are 'citizens'.      

>Without them, we are 'subjects'.

>

>During WW II the Japanese decided not to invade America because they knew most Americans were ARMED!

> 

>If you value your freedom, please spread this anti gun-control message to all of your friends.      

>

>The purpose of fighting is to win.      

> 

>There is no possible victory in defense.      

> 

>The sword is more important than the shield, and skill is more important than either.

> 

>The final weapon is the brain.

> 

>All else is supplemental.      

> 

>SWITZERLAND ISSUES EVERY HOUSEHOLD A GUN!      

>SWITZERLAND'S GOVERNMENT TRAINS EVERY ADULT THEY ISSUE A RIFLE.      

>SWITZERLAND HAS THE LOWEST GUN RELATED

>CRIME RATE OF ANY CIVILIZED COUNTRY IN THE WORLD!!!

> 

>IT'S A NO BRAINER!      

>DON'T LET OUR GOVERNMENT WASTE MILLIONS OF OUR TAX DOLLARS      

>IN AN EFFORT TO MAKE ALL LAW ABIDING CITIZENS AN EASY TARGET.      

>

>I'm a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment!

>If you are too, please forward

Americans mad as Hell! 16-trillion bailouts...

Sunday, January 15, 2012

Subject: Re: Federal Reserve Audit (These people should be brought before a Grand Jury)

Audit of the Federal Reserve Reveals $16 Trillion in Secret Bailouts unelected.org

The first ever GAO(Government Accountability Office) audit of the Federal Reserve was carried out in the past few months due to the Ron Paul, Alan Grayson Amendment to the Dodd-Frank bill, which passed last year. Jim DeMint, a Republican Senator, and Bernie Sanders, an independent Senator, led the charge for a Federal Reserve audit in the Senate, but watered down the original language of the house bill(HR1207), so that a complete audit would not be carried out.

Ben Bernanke (pictured above), Alan Greenspan, and various other bankers vehemently opposed the audit and lied to Congress about the effects an audit would have on markets. Nevertheless, the results of the first audit in the Federal Reserve’s nearly 100 year history were posted on Senator Sander’s webpage earlier this morning.

What was revealed in the audit was startling:

$16,000,000,000,000.00 had been secretly given out to US banks and corporations and foreign banks everywhere from France to Scotland. From the period between December 2007 and June 2010, the Federal Reserve had secretly bailed out many of the world’s banks, corporations, and governments. The Federal Reserve likes to refer to these secret bailouts as an all-inclusive loan program, but virtually none of the money has been returned and it was loaned out at 0% interest. Why the Federal Reserve had never been public about this or even informed the United States Congress about the $16 trillion dollar bailout is obvious - the American public would have been outraged to find out that the Federal Reserve bailed    out foreign banks while Americans were struggling to find jobs.

To place $16 trillion into perspective, remember that GDP of the United States is only $14.12 trillion. The entire national debt of the United States government spanning its 200+ year history is "only" $14.5 trillion. The budget that is being debated so heavily in Congress and the Senate is "only" $3.5 trillion. Take all of the outrage and debate over the $1.5 trillion deficit into consideration, and swallow this Red pill: There was no debate about whether    $16,000,000,000,000 would be given to failing banks and failing corporations around the world.

In late 2008, the TARP Bailout bill was passed and loans of $800 billion were given to failing banks and companies. That was a blatant lie considering the fact that Goldman Sachs alone received 814 billion dollars. As is turns out, the Federal Reserve donated $2.5 trillion to Citigroup, while Morgan Stanley received $2.04 trillion. The Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank, a German bank, split about a trillion and numerous other banks received hefty chunks of the $16 trillion.

"This is a clear case of socialism for the rich and rugged, you’re-on-your-own individualism for everyone else." - Bernie Sanders (I-VT)

When you have conservative Republican stalwarts like Jim DeMint(R-SC) and Ron Paul(R-TX) as well as self-identified Democratic socialists like Bernie Sanders all fighting against the Federal Reserve, you know that it is no longer an issue of Right versus Left. When you have    every single member of the Republican Party in Congress and progressive Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich sponsoring a bill to audit the Federal Reserve, you realize that the Federal Reserve is an entity onto itself, which has no oversight and no accountability.

Americans should be swelled with anger and outrage at the abysmal state of affairs when an unelected group of bankers can create money out of thin air and give it out to megabanks and super corporations like Halloween candy. If the Federal Reserve and the bankers who control it believe that they can continue to devalue the savings of Americans and continue to destroy the US economy, they will have to face the realization that their trillion dollar printing presses will eventually plunder the world economy.

The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can    be found on page 131 of the GAO Audit and are as follows..

Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)

Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion    ($2,040,000,000,000)

Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion    ($1,949,000,000,000)

Bank of America: $1.344 trillion    ($1,344,000,000,000)

Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868    billion ($868,000,000,000)

Bear Sterns: $853 billion    ($853,000,000,000)

Goldman Sachs: $814 billion    ($814,000,000,000)

Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion    ($541,000,000,000)

JP Morgan Chase: $391 billion    ($391,000,000,000)

Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion    ($354,000,000,000)

UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion    ($287,000,000,000)

Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion    ($262,000,000,000)

Lehman Brothers: $183 billion    ($183,000,000,000)

Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)

BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000) and many many, more including banks in Belgium of all places

View the 266-page GAO audit of the Federal Reserve(July    21st, 2011): http://www.scribd.com/doc/60553686/GAO-Fed-Investigation

Source: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-696

    FULL PDF on GAO server: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11696.pdf

    Senator Sander’s Article: http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=9e2a4ea8-6e73-4be2-a753-62060dcbb3c3

www.unelected.org

BLOGS BANNED, ALL NETWORKING BANNED INTERNET CENSORING

Internet Takeover Bill

United States Justice Foundation

932 "D" Street, Suite 2

Ramona, California 92065

760-788-6624   USJF.NET

01/10/2012

Dear Kenneth,

The final U. S. Senate vote on the internet takeover bill is set for January 24th.  As of right now, that bill, which gives U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder the power of an "Internet Czar,” WILL PASS.

Please send faxes to every Member of the U.S. Senate, and demand that they filibuster S. 968, the Senate version of the internet takeover bill.

Unfortunately, the American people are not paying attention to this catastrophe that is unfolding in the U. S. Senate.  We only have a few days to stop this unconstitutional power grab.  We must bombard the Senate with faxes, RIGHT NOW!

This bill will give corrupt U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder the power to blacklist or shut down any website or forum that is merely accused of being linked to "online piracy”.

He will even have the authority to "sanitize” the results of internet searches on Google or Yahoo, so that only government-approved websites and information can be found online.

If this bill passes, Barack Hussein Obama will have to the ability to ban the campaign websites of his opponents, shut down the online activities of anti-Obama groups like USJF, and harass tea party forums and any other website that don't support him.

Please fax the U. S. Senate now.  This bill WILL PASS unless the American people overwhelm the Senate with faxes!

And, while you are at it, please forward this email to everyone in your lists.

The FINAL U. S. Senate vote is scheduled for January 24th.  We don't have much time!

If this bill passes, the Obama Administration won't need a court order.  There will be no hearings or trials.

Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., will seize incredible control over the internet, and we will be nearly powerless to stop him.

Although supporters of the bill say that it is designed to prevent online piracy, this is an internet takeover bill, pure and simple.

Just one "complaint” from a liberal activist, or a government agent, that you are indirectly violating an obscure copyright rule, and your website could be fined huge sums, and it could be blacklisted from the internet.

Just imagine if Google was prohibited from displaying websites that were critical of Barack Obama, that discussed the controversy over where he was born, or that mentioned the damage that his policies are doing to the economy.

Well, that is exactly what will ultimately happen if S.968 passes, and it is signed into law.

Many of this bill's provisions are modeled on Communist China's censorship law, called the "Great Firewall of China.”

Even the socialists in the European Parliament oppose this new American law.

That is how extreme S.968 is!

S.968 already has 40 co-sponsors in the U.S. Senate.   Eleven more votes and it passes!

Please fax every U. S. Senator NOW.

Extreme liberals like Chuck Schumer and Al Franken have teamed up with Republicans like John McCain and Lindsey Graham to ram this bill into law.

They are being helped by millions of dollars in campaign contributions from  left-wing mainstream media companies.

They want the government to shut down all the blogs and political forums, and all of the independent news sites, so that they, once again, will have a monopoly on the news that you and I are allowed to see.

This threat against free speech is so grave and so imminent that websites like Google and Yahoo are seriously considering staging a last-ditch online protest to try to stop Mr. Obama and his Congressional allies!

Please, fax every Member of the U. S. Senate NOW, and please forward this email to all of your friends, urging them to do the same.

This bill WILL PASS unless you take action TODAY.

And, while you are at it, please add to the effectiveness of your faxes by personally calling your U.S. Senators' offices at 202-224-3121.  Tell him, or her, to STOP S. 968, the internet takeover bill.

The final vote is January 24th.  We only have days remaining to save free speech on the internet!

Sincerely,

Gary G. Kreep, Esq.

Executive Director

United States Justice Foundation

CHICKEN LITTLE SYNDROM

CHICKEN LITTLE SYNDROM

Fear created out of thin air is all about creating regulatory jobs for bureaucrats thereby giving more power to the government—as if they don’t have enough already.

One scientist being paid by the government writes about ocean acidification and the affect it might have on the food chain and everyone automatically assumes that it is the gospel truth and like lemmings jumping into the ocean everybody jumps on the bandwagon.

The following is a direct quote: “Worldwide, the tailpipes, smokestacks, and land-clearing activities of human civilizations produce more than 32 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year. About a third of that annual flux mixes into the sea. There it forms carbonic acid, which depletes the ocean’s rich soup of calcium and carbonate, the nutrients from which many marine organisms – including key plankton that sustain fish stocks – literally build themselves. Rising CO2 levels in the ocean will also directly harm many fish and shellfish, reducing their growth and survival rates.”

This--along with buzzwords like “carbon footprint” and “food miles” reinforce the religious belief systems that human activity is actually affecting the oceans that cover 4/5ths of the planet.

Obviously all the GW/GC propaganda (monkey motion) is designed to scare people into accepting more government control over their lives. Commercial fishermen already burdened with shorter seasons, individual fishing quotas and 200-mile limits are being buffaloed into accepting more restrictions on the ability of fish to harvest.

The U.N.  Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that fishing fleets account for 0.5 % of fuel consumption and that food processing accounts for 1 % of emissions. Once you factor in the global fuel and coal consumption the world’s fisheries generate only .22% of all CO2 emissions. Obviously our government is not going to include the fuel burned when it decides to invade some third-world country-- and we have invaded a number of them in the past two decades.

How much fuel is consumed in the wars to protect the oil fields in foreign countries world wide? It’s more like 50% when you add up all the heavy bombers, fighter jets, trucks, tanks and armored utility vehicles. After the war is over the military must maintain a continued presence with bases and aerial over flights.

The anti-Rothschild alliance has been formed in Tokyo.

The anti-Rothschild alliance, (with the discreet backing of the Chinese secret societies), will be contacting leaders of Russia, China, India, the Muslim countries, South America, Africa etc. to create a global alliance that will demand a new way of running the

planet. What will really happen? Watch carefully. There are some Interesting, times ahead.

A chilling report circulating in the Kremlin today states: Instead of paying China in dollars the US Secretary of the Treasury has informed the China Development Bank that the US has shipped $800 Billion of a new currency called the Amero.

The agenda to create a North American Union will effectively erase the borders of the USA with both Mexico and Canada -with this new common-currency, known as the Amero for the new 3-in-one nation, to replace the dollar.

Mortgaging everything within the United States isn't enough for them. They now want to mortgage the entire continents of North and South America. 

This has to be another national Jubilee that occurs every 25-years where the government erases it's debts and obligations. At the present time every asset including all Federal Parks, all land, mortgages, all infrastructure and all bonds on the heads of every living person in the entire country have been sold to foreign investors. The 250-trillion debt is real and there is no way to get out of paying it without declaring a Jubilee which is equivalent to a federal bankruptcy and then creating more debt by selling both North and south America to the Chinese.

People don't understand what this does. It lowers your standard of living because you have to work harder for the same wage to by food and pay your bills with dollars that are worth less. This lowers your standard of living until you either die or revolt and overthrow the government. Jefferson and other Free Mason founding father wrote about this. We wouldn't be in this position if they would follow and abide by the Constitution that they were sworn to uphold in their Oath of Office.

On the other side of the world the Illuminati want to enslave us by forcing everybody to pay carbon credits for all human activity. To instigate this plan they need the One World Government plans to re-wild the Earth by reducing the population 90%. Those that survive will be forced to live in a smaller house, tent or yurt, drive a smaller car, restrict their travel,  and stay on Earth forever burning carbon.

www.GuardDogBooks.com also: www.AlaskaPublishing.com

All banks in trouble...

Chase Bank balance sheet is missing 3.5 billion. CEO's stuffed it in their pockets... Bank of America --stock mostly owned by the Chinese is in bad shape. Wells Fargo not much better. they bought out Wykovia's assets. 


Here is Kenai you can't cash an $10,000 check. They don't carry that much cash on hand. None of the banks do! There is a shortage of money in this country and the banks are barely scraping by. If there was a run on the banks they would all have to close their doors in an hour. A friend of mine wanted to buy a piece of construction equipment. The owner wanted $80,000 cash. He had to go to five banks to gather up enough cash.


Bank robbers wouldn't get much in this neighborhood. You walk in there with your rubber pistol and you would be lucky to walk out with $8,000.



Over drinks at a bar on a dreary, snowy night in Washington last February, a former Senate investigator laughed as he polished off his beer.


"Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail," he said. "That's your whole story right there. Hell, you don't even have to write the rest of it. Just write that."
I put down my notebook. "Just that?"
"That's right," he said, signaling to the waitress for the check. "Everything's fucked up, and nobody goes to jail. You can end the piece right there."
Nobody goes to jail. This is the mantra of the financial-crisis era, one that saw virtually every major bank and financial company on Wall Street embroiled in obscene criminal scandals that impoverished millions and collectively destroyed hundreds of billions, in fact, trillions of dollars of the world's wealth — and nobody went to jail. Nobody, that is, except Bernie Madoff, a flamboyant and pathological celebrity con artist, whose victims happened to be other rich and famous people.
This article appears in the March 3, 2011 issue of Rolling Stone. The issue is available now on newsstands and will appear in the online archive February 18.


The rest of them, all of them, got off. Not a single executive who ran the companies that cooked up and cashed in on the phony financial boom — an industry-wide scam that involved the mass sale of mismarked, fraudulent mortgage-backed securities — has ever been convicted. Their names by now are familiar to even the most casual Middle American news consumer: companies like AIG, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, JP Morgan Chase, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. Most of these firms were directly involved in elaborate fraud and theft. Lehman Brothers hid billions in loans from its investors. Bank of America lied about billions in bonuses. Goldman Sachs failed to tell clients how it put together the born-to-lose toxic mortgage deals it was selling. What's more, many of these companies had corporate chieftains whose actions cost investors billions — from AIG derivatives chief Joe Cassano, who assured investors they would not lose even "one dollar" just months before his unit imploded, to the $263 million in compensation that former Lehman chief Dick "The Gorilla" Fuld conveniently failed to disclose. Yet not one of them has faced time behind bars.
Invasion of the Home Snatchers
Instead, federal regulators and prosecutors have let the banks and finance companies that tried to burn the world economy to the ground get off with carefully orchestrated settlements — whitewash jobs that involve the firms paying pathetically small fines without even being required to admit wrongdoing. To add insult to injury, the people who actually committed the crimes almost never pay the fines themselves; banks caught defrauding their shareholders often use shareholder money to foot the tab of justice. "If the allegations in these settlements are true," says Jed Rakoff, a federal judge in the Southern District of New York, "it's management buying its way off cheap, from the pockets of their victims."

Taibblog: Commentary on politics and the economy by Matt Taibbi
To understand the significance of this, one has to think carefully about the efficacy of fines as a punishment for a defendant pool that includes the richest people on earth — people who simply get their companies to pay their fines for them. Conversely, one has to consider the powerful deterrent to further wrongdoing that the state is missing by not introducing this particular class of people to the experience of incarceration. "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."
But that hasn't happened. Because the entire system set up to monitor and regulate Wall Street is fucked up.