Racketeering by any other name

As the popular media (60 Minutes etc.) continue to publicize the whole credit default swap (CDS) scam that lead to our housing boom and bust I'm lead to wonder - if the federal government had to pass a law to prevent States from prosecuting these kinds of shenanigans as gambling, then isn't it time we went after those who conspired to create this whole house of cards (appropriate for gambling eh?) under racketeering laws? They worked for the mob so why not for the CEOs and executive branch?

As a word of caution to future generations - when government passes any law exempting themselves and businesses from prosecution you can tell they are up to no good. No part of government should be beyond the reach of the long arm of law - if it is good enough for the people it is good enough for them.

Shop to vote!

After 9/11 George Bush told us to go shopping, but that was 7 years BGG (Before GoodGuide). Shopping is the great leveler since unlike voting we all have to shop to eat ( unless you live in Alaska and know how to hunt, kill and dress a moose - or in Berkeley and know how to plant, grow and chop a vegetable) so it is important that shoppers have all the information possible to make informed choices before they buy.

Lucky for consumers GoodGuide has just launched their really cool app to let them find out how companies and their employees donate to the Democratic and Republican parties. If everyone had this information to hand when they shop we could all shop to vote each and every day - and maybe a Republican president would never again implore us to go shopping?

GoodGuide has produced a great visualization of the data and it contains quite a few surprises, so check out the simplified version below, or even better the full version with much more data and search features on their website.

Democratic

Republican

GoodGuide.com political contribution data for over 100 companies View data for other companies at GoodGuide.com