Continuing to work on my fraud examiner cert, and continuing to be amazed at what people will fall for. I’m not talking about less than savvy victims being overwhelmed by slick salesmen. Read about any scam and you’ll find among the victims savvy businessmen who should know better biting on even the most obvious of schemes.

For background I’ve got a post on Ponzi schemes at my new business site: Ponzi 101.

As I like to go light on the opinion there, I’ll offer this here: Greed cuts both ways.

To be sure, the greed of the scammer is despicable. Especially in those who prey on religious and charitable organizations.

But why do some of these schemes succeed so abundantly for so long? There is some combination of salesmanship and presentation ability on the scammer’s part. And victims tend to be all over the board in terms of their sophistication. But whenever you study up on one of these cases, you will invariably hear someone say, “I know that if it sounds too good to be true, it is, BUT ….!”

Everyone has that little voice inside them that warns, subtly, when something isn’t quite right. So, what leads otherwise intelligent people to ignore their instincts, … to, for some reason bite on the idea of a 60,000% return?

Greed.

Well, it’s predictable, and we’ve all been thinking it. Still, it’s nice to see that someone bothered to put it into writing: Barack Obama hates white people. Nice in a guilty pleasure kind of way. Kind of like all the letters that citizens wrote to Prime Minister Brown apologizing for the diplomatic snubs he received at the hands of our President.

Not that I sympathize with the left, mind you. No, they deserve to have every bit of this thrown in their faces. The thing is, we’re thinking this way and we’re hyper-sensitive to these things because we are well aware of how over the top the left was with GWB. We still smart from the unfairness and the irrationality. So we respond in kind? This is a game children play because children are too young to understand that such a game never ends and never has a winner.

This also the kind of thinking and the kind of lust for vengeance that had so many of my conservative cohorts, both in the government and in the citzenry, suckered into supporting or at least approving of the “Let’s Get AIG” bill.

What troubles me is that I’m still waiting to see signs that conservatives have truly learned their lessons, and are ready to emerge from the wilderness and once again provide principled leadership to our nation. Unfortunately, simply finding fault is not going to be the cornerstone of a renaissance. Actually, that’s not unfortunate. If that’s the way to “win,” then no one really wins. Anyway, finding fault is not enough and it’s not productive if that’s going to be the extent of the effort.

Every principle that is foundational to this nation’s greatness is currently under attack from the power-drunk Federal Government. They are using shallow, but emotionally persuasive ploys to advance their cause. The only counter to such tactics is consistent adherence to sound doctrine in word and deed. And it’s kind of tough to make the case when you’re running about like petty partisans, or when half of your membership in the House thinks it’s ok to set aside the Constitution whenever you are mad at someone.

So, I laugh, and then I realize that this is no laughing matter.

Very interesting discussion going on over at The View from Harvard Business. The launch point is actually apost on B-School prof Andy McAfee’s blog about an experiment he ran in his classroom. On one day McAfee granted his class an exception to Harvard Business’ policy of not allowing the use of digital devices in class so they could Twitter as they wished. The prof didn’t like how that one turned out:

I want my students to concentrate on the discussion taking place in meatspace, not the ones in cyberspace. I want to be clear: I like twitter a lot and use it a fair bit myself (follow me at @amcafee if you like), but I don’t like it in a classroom when a live discussion is (supposed to be) taking place.

That quote was actually from the original post at McAfee’s blog. View from Harvard has its own coverage of the topic and the comment section is starting to warm up.

Personally, I won’t speak for other disciplines, but simply attending business school is more than an exercise in soaking up wisdom imparted by books and a professor standing in front of the classroom. In B-School you are actually participating in a form of on-the-job training. When you go to class, just as when you go to a meeting, there are expectations. You are expected to prepare ahead of time. You are expected to participate. You are expected to take the information that is imparted on board. And, you are expected to follow up on directives given. So, B-School is a great place to learn to manage internal and external distractions.

Since it is school however, profs and officials need to recognize that sometimes students must be given latitude to make and learn from their own mistakes, and sometimes it is better for those in authority to simply prescribe the right way to go. In this case, judging from what I’ve seen, children of all ages who use Twitter don’t have the capacity to keep this activity in its proper place, and therefore need help in deciding when to put it down.

All right. Ball in, as March Madness resumes tonight.

As far as picks go, I’ve been doing pretty well. The first round in the Midwest killed me, but other than that my picks have been solid. Only one team is out of my Elite Eight so far, and my Final Four slate is still alive.

That said, I have no idea how things will go now. Next weekend could see all four of my Final Four in Detroit, and then again, it could see none of them. With all of the 1′s – 3′s surviving, and the two lower seeds who have infiltrated the Sweet Sixteen playing like they should have been a 4-seed at least, we’ve got some major clashes on tap this weekend. I look at the 16 remaining and rule out no one.

– B –

Hats off to CBS. Their online broadcasts made the first weekend for me. I was skeptical, figuring the demand would overwhelm their servers, but they definitely had the necessary horsepower. For anyone who is watching online, go through Firefox. Internet Explorer offers only two quality choices; regular or HD. Firefox has 5 levels on a control that you click up or down just like the volume. And you definitely need to be able to adjust. As soon as a game tightens up, or another game ends you’ll suddenly see your display re-buffering frequently as droves of viewers switch over. Dial the quality down a notch and you’re fine.

– B –

OK. Louisville needs to play 40 minutes, period. They looked fantastic in the last five minutes against Siena. The rest of the time they toyed with their upstart rivals and let them stay in the game. That never has been a championship strategy, and it certainly isn’t now. The cupcakes are gone. The teams left will make you pay for letting them hang around.

– B –

Many have identified Carolina as the most vulnerable of the #1 seeds. You have to remember that this is the time of year when sports journalists fall in love with Gonzaga. If Carolina continues to get out of Ty Lawson what they got last Sunday, they’re off to Detroit. However, I am projecting Carolina – Syracuse on Sunday in a colossal clash.

– B –

For today, Duke-Villanova seems to be the game of the day. As I must hate all things Duke (except coach K telling BO to focus on the economy and not his brackets), I’ll be rooting for Villanova.

Time to get caught up on CA before the NCAA kicks in again.

Die hard Apprentice fans have been aware since the chubby little MD / MBA (I think his name was David) became the first candidate ever to be fired from the show that there are two elevators just outside the boardroom. One to take survivors back up to the suite, and another to lower losers down to the street.

After being fired a week and a half ago, Tom Green got on the wrong elevator. And there you have a microcosm of Green’s stint on CA. I made the classic blunder in mistaking his subdued nature during the premier for wisdom and guile. Really it was just a complete lacking of anything worthwhile to contribute.

I had to feel for Green a little though. Where we last left the show, in the midst of narrowly escaping being fired, Green vowed to take team KOTU on his shoulders and lead them to victory. Unfortunately the next task involved selling wedding dresses. One could hardly fault a man for being a little out of his element here. With Green, it wasn’t just weddings and dresses that had him off balance. As project manager, the demands for leadership and organization really threw Green for a loop. As he was leaving to hit the bars with Dennis Rodman and woman, Green gestured at KOTU’s storefront and said, “Tomorrow morning this is all going to magically transform …” I’ve been in business for a little over a decade now, and before that the Navy. I have yet to see something magically transform unless “magic” is code for “through a lot of hard work, planning and talent.”

Btw … Rodman’s woman was not a model, ok. If Hershel Walker could put 2 and 2 together on that one, I don’t know why everyone else can’t. Big time former NBA star in New York, calls up a bud, and a half hour later he’s got a woman on his arm, just do the math …

The next morning, Green and Rodman were no-shows. It took an inspiring wake-up call from Jesse James to get Green on track. Rodman at some point, somehow got word to the team that he was taking a sick day.

Coincidentally, Green mentioned that he and Rodman had been bonding over the past several days. Both definitely share the same strategy for being called out on their slacking. They’ll come back with something like, “I chose an unconventional approach.” And if “unconventional approach” is code for “walking around with my thumb up my ass,” then one would have to applaud their honesty.

Trump was fired up in the boardroom and dispatched Green without even going through the “choose two people” routine.

And, this past week picked up right where that left off with the Dennis Rodman nose-ring circus. The tallest man on the show got up in the face of the shortest man on the show, Clint Black, and then stormed off, leaving his team a man down, or perhaps with as much of a distraction as Rodman has been, the net effect was to add a man to the roster as no baby-sitter was required.

The guys picked up their first victory, and I’ve got to hand it to them. They took some chances and it paid off. Tasked with creating a pep rally for video phone salesmen, Jesse James came up with the idea of going to West Point to shoot a video. That venture took two men from the already short-handed team for the better part of the preparation day. Had the men lost that decision could really have backfired on James, or PM, Bryan McKnight. But, the video turned out great and was one of the elements in which the men clearly outshone the women.

Ah yes, the women. They took their first loss, which I had been relishing for a while. Nothing against them, but you could just see that the winning was covering over some interpersonal rifts within the team. Take away the success and it all came boiling to the surface.

PM Claudia Jordan made a classic mistake. During the boardroom battle she focused on her personal differences with Melissa Rivers. Unfortunately, the rest of the women were singing Rivers’ praises for salvaging some semblance of order out of the chaos just in time for their part of the event. Jordan failed to give Trump and team any other option. It was the Simmons maneuver, except that last season Gene Simmons voluntarily fell on his sword, and refused to offer up the one candidate Trump’s team would have fired in his place. Jordan just didn’t think ahead and painted herself into a corner.

Stock Up:

Bryan McKnight – a little on the quiet side, but sharp and talented. Easily the most serious threat on KOTU right now. His effective leadership stands in stark contrast to the mess that the men had been experiencing. And he made gutsy calls in letting Jesse James sink a lot of time into the video, and in ignoring Rodman’s midday return, leaving the team short-handed but able to concentrate on the task at hand.

Jesse James – As I’ve previously mentioned, James has a flair for marketing which has helped make him such a success in his real life ventures, and also has made him the source of some killer ideas during the challenges so far. Unfortunately, until McKnight took over as PM, James’ great ideas generally got lost behind incompetent leadership. The only drawback: James is pretty quiet and I’m not sure he’s getting all the credit he deserves.

Annie Duke – As I had hoped, Duke is learning on the fly, like any good poker player, and has toned her game down. In the ladies’ last win, Brande Roderick identified Duke and Melissa Rivers as the team’s two stars. One thing I really get a kick out of: when everyone else calls in their deep-pocketed friends, the friends will show up with Cashier’s Checks or Platinum Cards. When Duke’s poker buddies show up, they all start pulling rolls of hundreds out of their pockets.

And that leads to why I hope Duke and James will be around for a while. They both are sharp and have a lot of game. But they are also very different from the glamour stars that comprise most of the rest of the cast. Nothing against the others – there are a lot of enjoyable people on the show – it’s just a refreshing difference.

Stock Down:

Rodman – actually his stock was never up. Dice suprised me with his lack of engagement, but I fully expected this from Rodman. Only the fact that each week someone even more bumbling and incompetent made himself known on KOTU. Barring a drastic change, or a major blunder by some other guy, Rodman won’t survive the next guys’ loss.

OK, in varying degrees of clarity, I have arrived at one main point repeatedly: when you get done with the weeping and gnashing of teeth over this or that current calamity, the source of the problem is the people who are running the government. And those people are … the people. We are a government BY THE PEOPLE, and “the people” aren’t doing their jobs.

Mock GWB’s low approval rating all you like, but Congress entered the 2008 General Election flirting with a single-digit rating. GWB was term-limited, but the people who are running the government re-elected Congress. Yes, a smattering of seats changed, but in substance we’ve got the same gang on Capitol Hill today as we did last year at this time. Yet somehow many complain and expect “change.”

I contend that until voters are willing to actually think, and hold their representatives accountable, and do more than pull the lever, or shade the oval of the most familiar name, we will remain in one huge mess. So, voters, you are on the clock. It is already time to start thinking about 2010. Arlen Specter sure is.

In preparation for the next mid-term election Specter is starting to disguise himself as a Republican. As he has done to the Republicans so many times, Specter’s was the deciding and dooming voice on card check, or the “Free” Choice Act. Although even facing a tough primary challenge, Specter’s “make-over” is flimsy at best.

“The problems of a recession make this a particularly bad time to enact Employee’s choice legislation,” he said. “Employers understandably complain that adding a burden would result in further job losses.”

So, if the economy were better … labor intimidation would be ok, coercing companies into over-paying for labor would be ok, and the resulting job losses would be acceptable. So many follks just found another reason to hope for recovery to come, and come soon.

Back to my point, this one is on the voters of Pennsylvania. This story is newsworthy because Specter has been such a champion of this legislation in the past. Are Pennsylvanians willing to incur 5 years of Specter the Democrat in exchange for 1 year of Specter the repentant Republican six years from now when he faces another tough challenge.

The same scenario is brewing in districts and states all over the country. Here in KY I believe that we Republican voters need to make a difficult choice and weed out our incumbent Senator in the primaries.

These yahoos are going to continue to play their same games, because up to now, those games have been sufficient to keep most of them in power. If we, the people in charge of the government want to fix things, we need to go and take care of it. The real change isn’t going to come to us.

Sarah Way Down South has a great video … a great kickoff to the day, imho.

Thanks, Sarah.

My two cents on the whole AIG business … I’m not taking sides because everyone has got this all wrong.

To everyone piling on AIG: Yeah, cuz other than that $160M, our government is making super-effective use of the hudreds of billions that are being spent right now. Don’t fall for this sensationalist crap. You’re better than that. That’s how a Congressman would think.

AIG: Giving the bonuses was just the final act in a long line of screwups. I actually don’t have a problem with the bonuses. As I understand it, they were contractual obligations. So, I fall back on the same line of thinking as with the corporate jet issue. If you want these companies to be able to attract and effectively utilize the kind of talent that will be needed to steer them out of the wilderness, you have to let them operate their business. That includes providing transportation for CEO’s, and it includes sticking to compensation agreements.

AIG’s problem, apparently, is that they suck at setting goals! How does a company that has peformed so poorly find itself on the hook for $160M or $210M in bonuses? Bonuses should be tied to individual goals. And individual goals should be set such that they contribute to the organization’s success. If this isn’t how goal are structured then … problem found. You’ve got too many individuals pursuing goals which don’t seem to help the company a whole lot.

Also, I do have to say that while the giving of the bonuses was technically permissible, it was also really bad politics. You’ve got to find a way to hold off on them. And as an employee you’ve got to understand the need to do so. We’re all living in the same world right now. Who doesn’t look at that move and realize that it’s a disaster waiting to happen?

On Congress: Where to begin. These are the real culprits. This is the kind of thing that will happen when you get into the habit of hastily passing legislation that you haven’t read. They endorsed this move and then turned around and pretended to be outraged when it was made. Then they further compoud the problem by trying to ram through unconscionable legislation which would give them the ability to selectively target individuals and groups with punitive taxes on actions retroactive to those actions. Besides being unconstitutional, the thought of it is horrifying. Everyone in the House who voted for this, which I am disgusted to admit includes roughly half of the Republican members of that body, should be run out of there for simply thinking that this is an appropriate measure.

Obama / Geithner: For the love of God, will you please stop trying to disguise the fact that you don’t know what the hell you are doing by doing a lot of things. And it goes way beyond AIG and bailouts. We’re all so focused on the economy that no attention is being paid to how Obama is performing his same “magic” on our national defense. We get it. You’re decisive. You’re smarter than that other guy. You’re taking charge. You’re the man. We’ll think whatever you want us to think if you’ll just please stop “helping” us.

P.S. to Obama: Sorry to break it to you, but in case you were starting to think about a possible interim at Treasury while you try to find a replacement for Geithner, Madoff is going to be in prison until his sentencing, so you’ll have to look elsewhere.

GOP House members who voted for the “Let’s Get AIG” bill: You sicken me. You weak-kneed, sniveling little bitches. If you can’t take a lesson from the situation in which you currently find your party then you are simply incapable of learning at all. I don’t care what label you try to put on yourself, you ARE the problem in Washington and until you are flushed out of your office, and are flushed out of any positions of significance within the party, our nation will remain in peril.

The GOP: The party as a whole needs to wake up and grow a pair. It has been years and perhaps even a decade or more since the GOP demonstrated that it was capable of sustained excellence. Over the past year our short attention span has killed us. We had some candidates who were pretty close to our conservative roots to get jazzed about, and each had their moments. But then we nominated McCain. We were pumped about Palin, but before long joined in for a chorus of “She’s not ready.” And after all, why choose that in a VP when you can have a President who is not ready? We were psyched when Michael Steele was elected to be the RNC Chair. Then Steele turns around and gets into a cat-fight with Rush Limbaugh. When the stimulus bill came up, we patted ourselves on the back for unanimously opposing it in the House. Yet here we are a few weeks later and a significant number of GOP members broke ranks to completely turn their backs on the Constitution. Current conditions should be an incubator for the GOP’s Renaissance. Unfortunately we seem to be lacking leaders with the kind of fortitude that Gingrich and Armey brought to the table the last time we found ourselves in this position.

The Electorate: I can no longer simply say that Democrats just don’t get it. I have in front of me a list of 85 Republicans who just don’t get it, including one of our supposed rising stars, Eric Cantor. It’s not the Dems. It’s not the GOP. It’s all of them. But mostly this is on the idiots who overwhelmingly disapprove of the job Congress is doing yet keep sending the same team back in the game! It’s on the idiots who think the country is moving in the wrong direction and who disapprove of all the major policy decisions of the last two months, but keep Obama’s approval ratings high because he’s a cool cat.

And so, we arrive at my cornerstone philosophy on life: People are stupid. I honestly don’t see that changing any time soon. And if that doesn’t change, I don’t see how this nation will find its way out of the wilderness.

Man, I have so many rants queued up … why doesn’t everyone take March Madness off. And Congress especially. Any time and every time we could get them to stand down for three weeks we would win. Anyway …

Remember the big hulabaloo over the House Republicans standing united against the stimulus package? It definitely gave us conservatives hope that our party had gotten the message and was ready to stand firm and perhaps lead in delivering another Contract With America type episode. Of course since then various numbers of the party “faithful” have jumped ship to join in other big-spending and/or liberal policy packages.

The latest: yesterday 85 “republicans” voted for the bill that would impose, retroactively, a 90% tax on bonuses paid at organizations receiving bailout funds. In so doing they showed that nearly half of our party’s representative in the House are still weak-kneed, political opportunists with not much in the way of core values.

These individuals have failed on a number of fronts.

1. I’ve already mentioned, they continued a track record of being spineless and useless.

2. They passed up a golden opportunity to spotlight the culpability of congressional democrats and their rush to implement grand “solutions” without properly vetting them in the AIG mess. Granted, those who stood strong tried to do this, but with the measure passing so quickly and overwhelmingly that part gets lost in the later paragraphs of most coverage.

3. They passed up a golden opportunity to distinguish conservativism from the default big government solutions being peddled by Washington these days. Is it a tough case to make on an issue that has sparked such a firestorm? Actually no. Mitt Romney was on Larry King last night and he was able to state it quite clearly, even amid King’s quick pace. You don’t ever want to get the federal government started on hand-picking groups to target with punitive taxes. You don’t want them to be taxing events that have already taken place.

4. They continue to enable knee-jerk thinking in the voting public. This was a great chance to make the point that we can’t just let our emotions drive us into quick, grand measures which are loaded with secondary consequences. Instead we have reinforced that the natural response is for Congress to micro-manage businesses.

By the way, Mitt also more clearly made the point Rush was trying to make at one point. When asked if he wanted the President to fail Romney clearly stated, “I want his liberal policies to fail.” And of course he had to say the same thing several times as King kept trying to lure him into some kind of controversial statement. I’m still a big Romney fan. We sure could have used his clear thinking and communication last fall. Still not sure about his elect-ability though.

Back to the GOP. There are a lot of great and / or interesting things going on out there. Gingrich’s organization continues to do great work. Glenn Beck has the 9/12 thing going. And a bunch conservatives are adding “#tcot” to their “Obama is a socialist” tweets. Look out for them, because they’ve got, like, a zillion followers. I jest. The thing is, there is no focus. And amid the noise, the republicans who are already in place in our government lack consistency. Without focus, intensity and commitment, we will remain the party that does little more than provide an interesting soud bite from time to time.

Well, I’m a little nervous. Day 1 went really well for my picks. 14-2 and only 1 team lost from the next round. But, the last time I did this well on the first day of the tourney, my brackets were absolutely shredded on day 2.

Highlights: I got the Maryland and Western KY upsets. Also, Texas A&M if you consider that an upset.

Enjoyed seeing Memphis struggle with Cal St – Northridge. If only they’d gotten that top seed that they “deserved.” They’d have had a 16 seed to contend with and instead of this mighty 15 seed. And I don’t get it. Memphis plays weak, mid-majors all season long. They should have been up to this. But, I won’t dance on their grave just yet. Often teams experience one of these first-round scares and then come roaring back in the next few rounds. Personally I think they are flawed and over-rated and the cracks have started to appear.