Deadlocked Jury & John Gotti

After a week of deliberations it appears the jury in the murder and racketeering trial of John Gotti Jr,. is deadlocked and on it's way to hanging for yet a 4th time in four trials. Having spent government resources to try the mob scion four times for basically the same charges, the justice department must be the only government agency awash in money. Racketeering trials cost a bundle of money. Let's hope they have enough cash left to effectively try the terrorists who are blowing up our buildings and plotting to destroy our country. Do I hear stimulus money anyone?

Speaking of stimulus money, the bad guys have already figured out a way to use the stimulus program to defraud people out of hundreds of millions of dollars. I"m beginning to wonder if the government has a clue as to how to control fraud. For those of you are keeping score, Bernie Madoff stole billions of dollars right under the nose of the watchful eye of the SEC. Medicare has been defrauded out of billions of dollars of taxpayers money. Contractors in war torn Iraq have scammed the government out of hundreds of millions more. If they catch the crooks, they rarely recover the loot. Any way to make the government watchdogs (like the SEC) a bit more efficient at the job the taxpayers pay them to do? Did they never hear the old adage, "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

I'm out! --- MF