Rajat Gupta is now a “Real Player”

Rajat Gupta friends and associates recounted in several article as to why he did what he did, in that for whatever reason he wanted to be in their words a “Real Player”.

Congratulation Rajat you are now a “Real Player”, and like all “Real Player” you now have a rap sheet, with 4 Felony convictions, and not just any Felony Convictions but Federal Felony Convictions, you have arrived in the big league, way to go big fella, you are off to one nice start on the road to being a “Real Player”.  Now you get to spend a little time in stir (it just adds to the mystic of being a “Real Player”), do not worry a “Real Player” like you can do 24 months on standing on your head, and you just might spend some of it on your head so for gosh darn sakes be careful.  The 24 months gets you a minimum-security facility according to the Federal Correction Facilities guidelines (Lucky You, the Judge did you a favor, and you should write him a thank you note).  The bad news is there is no parole from federal prison (You can thank your Congressman and Senator for that feature).

You get to report after the first of the year, “Real Player” get taken from the courtroom to the holding cell to the bus, to the facility. (Again you should write the Judge a thank you note)

Compared to your life now it will be really bad, but you can take it after all you are a “Real Player”.  To an individual who has been to either a medium, high security, or maximum Security they will not look at you as a “Real Player”, they will look at you as having only played in the Class A league.  Medium Security being Double A, High Security as Triple A, and Maximum Security as the Big League.  But remember all of the leagues keep score and they all play for keeps.

Rajat just a little note “Real Players” do not whine, the guards do not like it, and guess what the other “Real Player” really hate it.  Every freaking day will be Ground Hog Day, get use to it, cause after all you a “Real Player”.  Your time is their time.  The food selection sucks, but not as bad as the food sucks, hopefully someone puts money into your account so that you can get stuff from the commissary (Note selection here is also very limited).  Who can visit you and when they can visit you and how often they can visit you, how long they can visit you will not be in your sphere of control.  “Real Players” do not have control.

Early Release, the good news is that it possible, the bad news reduction is minimal (Again you should take a moment to thank your Congressman and Senator for this feature of the Law).  If your sentence is greater than 1 year but less than life, you already might be a winner, in that if you keep your nose clean, they might take 54 days off your sentence (So one full year of good behavior is only worth 54 Days, what a system).  It does not appear that any additional time off can be earned for that last year of your sentence, but you could lose any and all “good time” by even the most minor of offenses in that last year.

When you get out you will be something really special, it is called “unemployable”, because you are now a CONVICTED FELON, but given your age that may not be an issue.  When you get out it will be spooky.

You will have to be careful with who you hang out with especially during your supervised time after your release, given that hanging with other convicted felons is not acceptable for you or them.  Do not worry about holding any type of state issued professional licensed because that is not going to happen because you are a CONVICTED FELON.  Do not worry about getting any type of position where you have to be bonded, cause you are a CONVICTED FELON.  Forget about voting, because you are a CONVICTED FELON.

I am not sure if it has really hit you already, but I know it will hit you one night in your first week, that it really sucks to be a “Real Player”.  To have climbed so high and to have fallen so far it is a sin.  Your real test will not be prison; it will be what you do with the time God has given you after you leave prison.

Barack Part Deux

After writing the first post of today I came across the following quote from David Bromwich article “George W. Obama” found here

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/08/18/opinion/main20094046.shtml?tag=cbsnewsSectionContent.13

“Indeed, Obama's understanding of international morality seems to be largely expressed by the proposition that "there's serious  evil in the world" -- a truth he confided in 2007 to the New York Times conservative columnist David Brooks, and attributed to the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr -- combined with the assertion that he is ready to "face the world as it is." The world we seek is, of course, the better world of high morality. But morality, properly understood, is nothing but a framework for ideals.  Once you have discharged your duty, by saying the right words for the right policies, you have to accommodate the world.

This has become the ethic of the Bush-Obama administration in a new phase.  It explains, as nothing else does, Obama's enormous appetite for compromise, the growing conventionality of his choices of policy and person, and the legitimacy he has conferred on many radical innovations of the early Bush years by assenting to their logic and often widening their scope. They are, after all, the world as it is.

Obama's pragmatism comes down to a series of maxims that can be relied on to ratify the existing order -- any order, however recent its advent and however repulsive its effects. You must stay in power in order to go on "seeking." Therefore, in "the world as it is," you must requite evil with lesser evil. You do so to prevent your replacement by fanatics: people, for example, like those who invented the means you began by deploring but ended up adopting. Their difference from you is that they lack the vision of the seeker. Finally, in the world as it is, to retain your hold on power you must keep in place the sort of people who are normally found in places of power.”

This is the most damming indictment of the Man who would be President.  A man who it appears feels that once he has voiced his concern about an evil he has discharged his duty to mankind.  It is the mark of a man who says he has convictions about good and evil, but at the end of the day lacks the determination or the will to change the situation.  In the minds of most people this is not a leader.  I am not sure that it makes a really good follower.  On the face of it, at best he is a mediocre President.  Barack might be a great campaigner, and he might have been a good senator, given that the Senate is purported to be a deliberative body, and it appears that he like to be deliberative.  But in the area of original thinking, and conviction, well not so much.

Senators do not make very good presidents, and I feel that unless there is some miracle this ex-senator/president is destined to join the list of the poor, undistinguished.  History will remember him, but it will not be a kindly rememberance.

The following is a list of Presidents who were Senator prior to be President and their ranking. There are 14 names on the list

James Monroe 2^nd Quartile, John Quincy Adams 2^nd Quartile, Andrew Jackson 1^st Quartile, Martin Van Buren 3^rd Quartile, William Henry Harrison 4^th Quartile, John Tyler 4^th Quartile, Franklin Pierce 4^th Quartile, James Buchanan 4^th Quartile, Andrew Johnson 4^th Quartile, Benjamin Harrison 4^th Quartile, Warren G. Harding 4^th Quartile, Harry S. Truman 1^st Quartile, John F. Kennedy 2^nd Quartile, Lyndon B. Johnson 2^nd Quartile and Richard M. Nixon 3^rd Quartile.

63 percent of the Presidents ranked in the 4^th Quartile have the dubious honor of having first served in the Senate.  50 percent of the above list presidents who were senators have the dubious honor of making the 4^th Quartile.  This 4^th Quartile also has it share of Generals (2), or 66 percent of Generals who were elected President without holding any prior elected office.

So what have we learned? Senator more times than not do not make good Presidents, Generals more times than not do not make good Presidents.

Back to Barack, given a choice I think that most men would rather have tried and failed, then not tried and failed.  With the first path there is a chance of success, with the second path there is the certainty of failure.

It is my opinion that Barack when given a choice,  9 time out 10 Barack will choose the option with the certainty of failure.