It’s been an interesting year to say the least.

Michael Jackson, Bernie Madoff, Goldman Sachs, AIG, GM, Twitter and now Sarah Palin have outheadlined the rest of the world’s pain and suffering.

No matter what you say about Michael Jackson, there is little disputing the $500 million or so he left us in debt.

Bernie Madoff has left us with $20 plus billion mess and though he may be locked up for 150,000 years, he can still tweet .

Goldman Sachs $GS is being labeled the devil by Rolling Stone Magazine and if it was not for the dummy corporation that is AIG, Goldman could be in a lot more than a media and image fight.

Nobody seems interested in knowing what really brought $AIG and the rest of the American Financial to it’s knees except Michael Lewis, in this recent must read piece .

America’s most talked about companies are the BROKE ($GM) and the REVENUELESS (Twitter).

It’s ok though, because our business television nitwits at CNBC are yapping about hope and green shoots. They have our backs.

Please don’t get me wrong. We all can make a difference, I love America and this post is looking at the news from 10,000 feet.

That said, 2009 is off to a pathetic start.

To continue our amazing freedoms, we need to ask better questions and demand some of our basic rights back. Most important we better start picking up after ourselves.