illusion

Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling get to roam free until their sentencing on September 11th:

He (U.S. District Judge Sim Lake) set sentencing for Sept. 11.

Lake set a $5 million bond for Lay and ordered him to surrender his passport before he leaves the courthouse. The judge said the bond already in place for Skilling was sufficient. The judge said he did not believe home confinement was necessary for either.

The former corporate titans are now felons facing years in prison after being convicted of running an elaborate fraud that gave the company a glamorous illusion of success.

Jurors declared through their verdict that both men repeatedly lied to cover a vast web of unsustainable accounting tricks and failing ventures that shoved Enron into bankruptcy protection in December 2001.

Yup 3 1/2 months to live it up. Now that is really justice. How about the thousands that didn't get a free pass while their bank accounts got drained?

I finally had enough of a break to sit down and read the entire transcript of
Rep. John Murtha's press conference today and I am highly impressed (full
transcript available
here). We
have constantly been inundated with the the continuous line of "Democrats have
no plan". Well after reading this, Republicans must be working hard to update
their strategy because it is now evident that Democrats do have a plan. I will
get into that plan in a bit, but first I would like to share the powerful
opening to Murtha's statement.

"The war in Iraq is not going as advertised. It is a flawed policy
wrapped in illusion. The American public is way ahead of us. The United
States and coalition troops have done all they can in Iraq, but it is time
for a change in direction. Our military is suffering. The future of our
country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident
that continued military action is not in the best interests of the United
States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf Region. "General
Casey said in a September 2005 hearing, "the perception of occupation in
Iraq is a major driving force behind the insurgency." General Abizaid said
on the same date, "Reducing the size and visibility of the coalition forces
in Iraq is part of our counterinsurgency strategy."