We’re going to try something a little bit different on a weekly basis – we are going to succinctly wrap up the salient news events of the week with brief opinions of what has taken place.

A wrap, by the way, is popular in the movie industry signifying and end of a take, or a segment of a picture, and likewise in journalism as the end of a news segment.  This week’s wrap deals with immigration, the oil spill in the Gulf and the financial crisis created by the US Government while trying to make Goldman Sachs the scapegoat.

• Let’s begin with immigration, an issue that Obama is failing to address, primarily for political reasons.  It means votes.  Previous administrations have been guilty of this charge and have also stonewalled the issue as has Congress.  It’s not good and not in the interest of the United States.  Arizona, a border state has made the first move acting before our Government, Texas is to follow.  The government has failed the people on this issue on the basis of politics. Because Obama can’t handle this with the current Congress because of his priorities, he is making it into a racial issue.

• Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of a BP explosion on an oil rig, is Katrina in the happening.  And, the government has again failed to act quickly and responsibly.  Believing that 1,000 barrels of oil were dumping into to the Gulf when it was 5,000 barrels.  While Obama criticized President Bush on Katrina for his failures during a devastating hurricane, the same scene is developing before our eyes on his watch.  It will result in the delay of further exploration of oil  in the Gulf for years to come.  It is being projected as an oil spill that will be greater than the Exxon Valdez.

• Financial reform.  This is currently on the Obama agenda, and it is interesting that the timing occurs at the same time the SEC files civil charges against Goldman Sachs.  Also at the same time the Senate holds a hearing, that was more Kabuki Theatre than fact finding, failing to take responsibility for government controlled operations called Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, encouraging houses for all and mortgages with out question.  There is no question that Goldman Sachs was the set-up for the scapegoat, despite the fact their very own testimony suggested they were selling very questionable products.  Questionable is a very kind word on the basis of what Goldman called them in their very own e-mails.  This was then followed by criminal charges filed by the government against Goldman.  All of this goes on while Goldman pours $1 million into his coffers of Obama as well as the coffers of members of the Congress, while the government diverts the blame for their own culpability.  Lawyers will make millions in these legal actions, Goldman will be the scapegoat, but in the end, I predict, will be acquitted.

And that’s a wrap for this week.