FBI release reveals that Whitney Houston was blackmailed

FBI Documents have been released that reveal someone had blackmailed and extorted Whitney Houston into paying $250,000 to keep quiet about details of her private life.

From todayentertainment.today.com:

The documents reveal that the FBI had investigated a purported extortion attempt against Houston that ultimately led to no charges after the diva's camp apparently coughed up some dough.

In a Dec. 3, 1992, memorandum marked "extortion" that was sent to Houston's New Jersey-based management company, Nippy Incorporated.

The lawyer upped that amount to $250,000 in a successive letter that stipulated the woman had "intimate details regarding [the superstar's] romantic relationships." 

So who was this person that blackmailed and extorted Whitney Houston? Evidently charges were never filed and the FBI decided not to pursue the case. But why? It seems like a pretty clear case of extortion.  These blackmailers are the scum of the earth and need to be publicly shamed and criminally prosecuted. The name of the person who did this should be revealed, at the very least.

Blackmail and extortion seems to happen quite frequently and we've noticed something interesting: 50% of the time it's categorized as a terrible crime and the person is arrested and sent to jail, and the other 50% of the time, the blackmailer is paid off and it's just treated as any every-day business deal. In Whitney Houston's case, for some reason it didn't rise to the level of a crime in authority's eyes. But what about the guy that tried to do the same exact thing to David Letterman? He was arrested and sent to jail. Lawyer Gloria Allred has made a living out of extorting people for money and she's very public about it. Instead of being arrested, she makes a career out of it and is considered a legitimate attorney.

We see no difference in any case of blackmail or extortion. If a person is threatening to release embarrassing information until they are paid, that's extortion, whether it's done through a lawyer or not, and they need to be held accountable for their despicable actions.

New Facebook Investors Will Be Bagholders

You've probably heard all the excitement lately over the news that Facebook will be going public - on Wednesday they filed their IPO prospectus with the SEC. They are soon to be trading on the NYSE and the company is predicted to be valued up to $100 billion. This means that thousands of investors are going to be putting up their money and betting on the future of Facebook, hoping to score big returns.

Google went public back in 2004 and anyone who bought Google shares then is doing very well right now with their return on investment. But is Facebook another Google? Does it really have the staying power and growth potential?

We see it more as another Myspace. And social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook don't have the type of staying power that search engines like Google do. They're more like a fad or fashion trend, although they can definitely stay popular long enough to rake in some dough. But these sites have a life cycle where they reach their full potential within a few years, and then as the excitement wears off and their users get bored, inevitably something else comes along that becomes the next big thing. And right now we're at the very end of the peak for Facebook's popularity. It has already had its been run, the big run is not in the future.

Young people are always what drives the next hot site, the next innovation. Facebook is still "cool" right now, but how about in a couple years when a whole new generation views Facebook as their mother's social networking site? It's going to happen, and it won't be long before it does.

Facebook is about to get a shitload of money though, and it definitely won't go down without a fight. Expect to see a bunch of new features and services rolled out over the next few years and witness their attempt to turn it into something much more than just a social networking site - just as Google became much more than just a search engine. But at the same time they're rolling out these new features, they're also going to be facing pressure from investors to monetize their popularity. Investors won't just be flooding in money to Facebook to be nice, they're going to want to see big revenues coming in. So at a time when Facebook is almost at its "old and stale" phase of the life cycle, they're going to be bombarding their members with annoying ads and other ways they can get money out of them. It's only going to make it that much easier for people to switch to the next big thing when it comes along.