Jon Corzine On Public Integrity: 'Hold Me Accountable'

Sometimes, life just just throws us a hanging curve ball. Jon Corzine, Obama's man on Wall Street, former governor of New Jersey, blows up a major commodities brokerage, and a whole-bunch-a-munney-hunney is missing from the customer accounts.

Let's listen in on Mr. Corzine's conference call...

Oooh, now where did that 700 million dollars go? I had it just here...silly me, after all that stress and strain screwing over serving New Jersey, I seem to have lost it.  Now, Barry, really; you're not going to get upset over mere 700 million in customers' funds are you? All you have to do is hand that sum over from the Treasury and all will be well. Besides your campaign could certainly use an infusion from those accounts in Costa Rica, right?

Then, let's contrast that with his inaugural speech in 2006...

Across this state, across our nation and around the world, New Jersey sets a high bar. We are proud that Supreme Court Justices, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Cabinet officers, Chief Executives, singers, rappers, writers, scientists, and entrepreneurs all hail from New Jersey. Our children graduate from our schools at higher rates than anywhere else in the nation, and our income and education levels are among the very best. In their own lives and in their own hopes for their children, our people do not settle for less than excellence.


Today -- I pledge to you that as your governor, I will never settle for less than excellence. 

****
(It gets better...)


Public integrity is not just about reputation or principles, as important as each of those is. What's at stake is social justice and fiscal responsibility. Every dollar squandered in violation of the public trust is a book not bought for a classroom, a prescription drug with a higher co-pay, meals-on-wheels not delivered, a road or science lab not built. With a multi-billion dollar structural deficit, mismanagement and misappropriation cannot and will not be tolerated.


To earn the public trust, we must act, but we also must trust the people with the truth. We cannot build a financial future on the crumbling, papered-over foundation of a recurring fiscal crisis. Too often, for too long, under both parties, fiscal gimmicks have been invented, recycled, and reapplied to mask fiscal realities. As Governor Codey said in November, thanks, his transition report can be summed up simply: "the state is pretty much broke." 

The games are over. New Jersey must put its fiscal house in order. The time of one-shot budget fixes is past. It's time to balance the books. 

(And, finally, he ended this classic speech by saying....drumroll please....)


And, in turn, I ask you -- the citizens of New Jersey, hold me accountable. 

Thank you. 

Is that the sound of a Gulfstream warming up on the tarmac?

OS has yet to hear of any judge demanding Mr. Corzine turn in his passport.

Louisville' Ted Collins: There's No Fraud Like Affinity Fraud

On some beach, well out of reach...

There just must be a Perdition, because we live in a world where people like Ted Collins walk around and victimize people.

Tedd Collins, a Louisville businessman who is under investigation by the Secret Service and Kentucky authorities, has been hit with a $3.3 million default judgment for defrauding a minister in South Carolina.

Collins attracted national attention last year after disclosures that he was raising money for a Yale hockey player with leukemia without registering the charity and despite his history of fraud allegations in several states.

Actually, he's rather small potatoes, compared to guys like Madoff, who was small potatoes compared to the folks who kicked the legs out from under the entire economy and walked away, just to prove it could be done.

In this instance, though, it's the parlaying of his own daughter's death from cancer, and the death of another college student from lukemia, neatly packaged and sold to church-folk, that make this particular fraudster particularly odious.

In this life, he'll likely never face justice. In this life, his victims will never recover either their money or ability to trust so fearlessly.

In this life, which is short, and quixotic and unpredictable and unjust.

We are, however, assured of another, contrasting life...so enjoy this one, Ted, while you can. Drink up, bro'. Spend. Chase skirts.

Go for the gusto in this life. 'Cuz it's all yer gunna get.

Tom Jones has a word of wisdom to share in the meantime.