Caroline’s inarticulate and entitled responses when being asked to speak to the press have been embarrassing. She will not answer questions , and her sense of entitlement and $$$$ are all over this political debacle of power grabbing. She is not qualified on any level for this vitally important seat. But cronyism here we go. Obama owes her as she was the anti Hillary in NY and helped him, and Patterson needs her bucks to run. Greed,ambition,cronyism and power mixed with heavy $$$$ make for a toxic cocktail. She will lose the seat for the Dems if she runs in ‘12 with Patterson. Hello Rudy, how dumb and corrupt are NYS democrats?

Other sources [NY Newspapers and internet] have her pushed in…[$$$$$$$]. Promises to donate big bucks for the 2012 election when Patterson runs would be greatly attractive to Patterson who cannot kind raise this of money, She is cringe inducing to listen to… and her inarticulate and vague responses are childish,backward,reticent and wholly inadequate. Yet ,the power elites in NY are pushing for her against formidably more capable and experienced people who know what this job is. Caroline is pathetically unsuited for campaigning or evincing the commun cation skills necessary in real elections. As a NY democrat I see this as a great miscalculation for 2012. Rudy and Co are salivating and the GOP has just been given a golden opportunity by an elite who cannot campaign. This reticent woman has the stones to remain quiet and refuses to specify anything. Politics at it’s most cynical and cronyism for sure.

Caroliine Camelot is a deal that’s been made with money and her presumed attractiveness [$$$$$] and name recognition for Patterson’s election in 2 yrs when Kennedy would have to run. This is nothing but a disgusting power grab. Sheldon Silver’s mind was made up by the same power principles that are guiding Bloomberg and Patterson. Greed we know you well. Caroline is cringe inducing when she speaks trying to formulate a grammatically lucid sentence. As a New Yorker and a democrat I am appalled at her inarticulate speech, and her refusal to formulate specifics about her policies, etc. She has no positions she will speak on. She has avoided voting in the past. She feels above it all to be questioned on anything and refuses to understand that we have no royalty in this country. Her books on law [which she has never practiced], some spokeperson charity and culture events she’s hosted, and her part time eucational stint with Bloomberg [mostly raising$$$$ do not qualify this utter lightweight for heavily populated NY’s Senate seat. In two years the GOP along with Rudy and Co, will pick her off and Patterson along with her. She cannot stump,speak, or articulate her positions. NY State democrats are selling us out as their tunnel vision and fear derived from Kennedy dynastics give the GOP in NY State a salivating opportunity in 2012. Need for big bucks to run in’12 are to be bankrolled by Caroline. This is cynical corrupt politics at its worst. This one is a loser all the way.

Letting Madoff loose in the general prison population would be his just reward. Imagine him in the yard with lipstick on.

Jim, Your arrogance astounds me. Like you know what exactly Madoff’s intent was in stealing,swindling,abusing charitable foundation money, etc.,and hiding this stolen money? So you are a clairvoyant who knows Madoff did not intend to murder anyone? Please. Many charitable foundations whose grants save lives have disappeared. Madoff knew what these foundations and charities accomplished and he deliberately stole from them. Many orphans, AIDS VICTIMS, ETC WILL DIE AS A RESULT of these foundations shutting down. Your definition of murder along with your supposed powers of ESP are a real turnoff.

Just let him loose in the prison population but he’ll probably wind up in a white collar jail.

It is in the record. Condi was warned. They were all warned of an imminent attack. Clinton specifically warned them that this threat and others were credible. These are the facts. The books were cooked and we know the rest.

Hopefully Warren withdraws, but I don;t think he’ll pass up the PR opportunity it gives his pulpit. This wasn’t a smart move. Warren should have been engaged at a later time. This is an historically unique event, and it insults many that Warren has openly and legally opposed.

I have no objection regarding Obama reaching out to Evangelicals. It makes political sense and is wise in other ways. But using this awesome moment is very bad timing. This should not have been a politically motivated pick at this time, and the firestorm surrounding the inauguration should have been avoided. It is a poorly timed decision, and an unnecessary distraction. Warren is controversial and I don’t mind that at all, but this is the wrong place at the wrong tome to reach out to him. Surely there are many who would have not offended anyone…or almost anyone.

Alias, Like they’d care if they were shunned. These crooks belong in jail and their properties bought with stolen shareholder money should be returned to the swindled stockholders s, and misled investors.. We need regulation,oversight and more oversight and enforcement of these laws through an SEC that fully functions. An Auditing Authority that fully functions should be actively engaged in examining all financial statements that Wall Street creates. Madoff needs life in solitary.

He belongs in jail awaiting trial. No bail. His holdings should be liquidated. His family [wife] and sons need to be seriously investigated as well as his immediate 17th floor staff and the phony “auditors” who certified his statements [which is a small storefront in the burgs]. A sham. Then, all of the Hedge Funds and others entrusted with charitable trusts who invested with Madoff WITHOUT permission, failed in due diligence and transparency, and should be liable to the fullest by those whose money they lost. They were all paid healthy commissions by Madoff to move this money into Madoff’s firm without permission. They need to be sued for their lack of fiduciary diligence. The paintings,yachts,cars,homes,furs,diamonds,furnishings,condos,homes, need to be sold and given back to the people, and our government should force the sales of those who bonused themselves through fradulently stated profits that were actual losses. This to enrich themselves with bonuses based on phantom profits and fancy bookkeeping. This bunch of scavengers with their ill gotten gains all belong in jail.

A pox on all thes houses. They shoud be forced to sell them and give them back to the people they embezelled. They should be forced to return their ill gotten billions through fraud and deception. Then, they must go to jail for a VERY long time so that they can no longer do harm.

Why was the SEC so lax? Bush and Co put Cox to watch the SEC and make damn surethat NOTHING get investigated. This is called Free Market Deregulation. From Reagan on, the entire GOP mantra has encouraged anti trust laws to languish, and allowed Wall Street to have its way. SEC was frequently and specifically warned that Madoff was running a Ponzi scheme, and they overlooked and poo poohed. Why?………Cox was doing the job he was hired to do. Look the other way. There were no regulations,standards,transparency, and adherence to law ,regulation was not enforced by a criminally negligent government run to the ground by George Bush and Co. Money is in off shore with regard to many of the Citi people and others, without a doubt. But there will probably be a coda to this with more scandals as we see how Stockbrokerage Firms fudged their books, sustained losses, wrote toxic derivatives full of bad debt,credit swaps,sub prime, and every other oiece of deck imaginable. In this web [“derivative”] they put some of our 401k’S, pensions, etc, and ttraded it for 30 times it worth to anyone anywhere [europe, the world] who would buy it. Buy it they did. And these miserable theives don’t even know WHAT IS IN WHAT THEY SOLD OR WHERE IT IS! Their books were cooked to convert this garbage into profits they could report so they could reward themselves with billions in bonuses and salaries. Which they did. These “derivatives” are all over the world and the toxicity involved is catastrophic. Cox and the SEC, and Treasury along with Greenspan, did NOTHING to stop the obvious. This is part of the psychotically misplaced Republican [and often aided by cowardly and greedy Democrats] philosophy of allowing the Free Market to “find its own way”. No transparency,regulation,execution of due diligence occurred on the part of the government by design. Remember Reagan’s mantra,”government is the problem” ? This was the beginning of the destruction of the watchdogs who were protecting the United State’s finacial foundation. These bastards have brought the American Economy to ruin, and we are close to the edge. Remember Bush’s tax giveaway’s to the wealthy [two biggies[ as the Middle Class practically has become extinct? Like many lesser countries we were becoming a land of Rich [very][ and poorer. Or poor. Thanks to the incompetence,greed, and contmept for the average person, we now have become a country of Poor. Our future generations will pay for this in unimaginable ways for years to come. And inestors themselves have to ask tjemselves one question as well. Why didnt you ask Who,What,Where,or When. The auditing and certification of financial statements should always be verified. Did any of Madoff’s direct investor’s know that his “accounting firm” was a tiny storefront operation in the burgs? They never asked or questioned anything. I haven’t even touched on the credit card debacle, Many of the bad debts by the credit card craze pushed by the banks were also placed into these derivatives. But our entire monetary system has been untrammelled credit spending and DEBT. Clinton was criticized as naive for having “a surplus”. GOP mantra is “DEBT IS GOOD”. That’s how busines grows. Obama is facing a bankrupt country near collapse. Let’s hope he can along with his cabinet figure a way to go forward. However today, a new idea proposed by Congress for States infrastructure spending [27 billion] was for something so nonsensical that I nearly threw up. I wish Obama well with this pack of fools.

zUCKERMAN AND SOME OF THE OTHER CHARITABLE TRUSTS WERE not GIVEN TO MADOFF. They were given to Investman firms or individuals handling this kind of investment to do due diligence over these trusts and watch them. Unbeknown to Zuckerman and some others, these guys got percentage commissions and decided to invest these trusts or good partsd of them with Madoff WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OR KNOWLEDGE OF THE INVESTORS ENTRUSTED TO THEM. So these charitable trusts are in the middle and the money with Madoff is gone. Zuckerman knew nothing about this. WSJ has the whole story. The entire problem started with Reagan’s deregulation passions and enactments and finished off by the purposely lax SEC Dir. Cox and his staff starved SEC that was trained to look the other way even after MANY warnings about Madoff [and others] from “99 on to 2007. Nothing whatsoever was done to stop anyone on Wall Street from losing money and still paying themselves billions in bonuses, or watching and regulating Ponzi schemes, and Madoff’s may be the biggest but not the only one. All that this deregulation has accomplished is allow these theives to use our money to enrich themselves as they stole, or lost [ and hide their losses] in that grand crap table in the sky….Wall Street. There will be many lawsuits down the way for a long time re: firms who did not advise their investors they had put their money with Madoff.

Agreed. A bunch of loud self important trivia driven by loud unimportant harpies. The worst of which are Sherrie of the humongous breasts that she emphasizes in tight sweaters complete with cleavage. This is the gal that thought the world was FLAT!! She brags that her young son sees her nude, and it’s ok with both of them. [????] Hasselbeck is annoying and grating as she pushes her right wing ideology and tearfully and defensively manipulates if she is challenged. This is noise. I basically have stopped watching. The White House bit is stupid narcissitic trivia and b o r i n g.