Sully a School's Reputation

The guy described in the fun AP story below is, of course, presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. He will have his day in court soon.

He's also noteworthy to me because he, like me, is an alum of SUNY Oswego. He got there long after I was gone.

Well, if it turns out that he is guilty, I'm guessing there'll be many, many people who will regard him as a shameful, greedy piece of selfish human garbage and a disgrace to the college's good name and that of all humankind.

It's a question all of us must be asking a lot these days: how can some people sleep or look in the mirror, knowing they've cheated and hurt others???

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New charges against ex-WorldCom CFO
Posted 4/16/2003 1:12 PM

NEW YORK (AP) — The government filed new bank fraud charges Wednesday against former WorldCom chief financial officer Scott Sullivan, accusing him of lying on financial statements to secure $4.5 billion in credit for the company.

Sullivan was already charged with ordering WorldCom accountants to move operating expenses off the books, making the company appear profitable when it was losing money. He has pleaded innocent to the charges.

Sullivan was CFO at Mississippi-based WorldCom when investigators say the company carried out a $9 billion accounting fraud, the largest in U.S. history.

A new indictment unsealed in federal court in Manhattan adds charges of bank fraud and making false statements to the counts Sullivan already faced.

The new charges add 120 years to his potential sentence, prosecutors said, although the sentence would likely be much less under federal sentencing guidelines if Sullivan were convicted.

The new charges accuse Sullivan of using false financial statements to obtain loans in 2001 from Bank of America, Chase Manhattan Bank, Citibank and other lending institutions.
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-M!

Fair Use Notice

Fooooooood

Next trip to the produce or health food section of the store, check out products from Lightlife.

Their Smart Menu™ Steak Style Strips are incredible. Taste like meat, but made of soy; no fat, few calories. Salisbury Steak and bologna are good, too.

I'm "investigating" their other products as fast as I can.
Yummers!

-M!

7:47:58 AM




Michael Moore

I have mixed feelings about Michael Moore.

Lots of talk about him since he strongly criticized the prez while accepting the Oscar for best documentary.

I agreed with him completely and was glad, impressed, excited, amused when I heard he said it. I've also seen and read most of his movies and books. Great stuff, as were short-lived TV shows The Awful Truth and TV Nation.

What I can't figure out is how this bright, sensible, meat and potatoes kinda guy could travel the country in 2000 loudly and proudly supporting Ralph Nader for president. Regardless of how wonderful and qualified and insightful y'find the man (personally, I think he's become an angry nut-job), the glaringly obvious fact was that

no way in hell was Nader
going to win enough
votes to be president.

Why waste a vote in such an important election?
When a caring, brilliant man who really understood this country and its people - and could win - was running against a clueless, illiterate [but rich] moron?

Michael Moore may have cost Gore the election by siphoning off some popular votes. He may be the reason this lunkhead is in the White House. Now, he's complaining. I expected better from so sharp, so real a guy.

And I got it at the Oscars, I guess.

Moore wrote about the alleged backlash from his Oscar comments in a great AlterNet.org piece, Debunking the Oscar 'Backlash', published a few days ago.

He also spoke about the situation last night in Seattle and Monday night at UT Austin, as we learn in this fun story:

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Filmmaker Moore Criticizes Bush Again
Tue Apr 15, 4:31 PM ET
By The Associated Press

AUSTIN, Texas - Filmmaker Michael Moore, who slammed President Bush and the U.S.-led war in Iraq during his Oscar acceptance speech, continued his criticism before a university crowd in Bush's home state.

The documentary maker said Monday night that the president's approval ratings are high because the American people rally around their leader after a tragedy, and Bush "is the one occupying the federal land at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue."

But Moore said the United States is at war with Iraq because of the former Texas governor's need to keep the public's eye off his domestic failures as president.

"It's not about the weapons of mass destruction; it's about the weapons of mass distraction," he told 4,400 students and guests at the University of Texas.

Pulling his Oscar from a bag, Moore passed the gold statue around the audience, joking, "What are the chances I'm going to get that thing back?"

Moore won his first Oscar last month for "Bowling for Columbine," an examination of gun violence in America. He received a standing ovation when he won and a mixture of cheers and boos with his fiery criticism of President Bush — a speech he said he hadn't prepared.

Moore told the Austin American-Statesman before his lecture that 90 percent of the response he's gotten has been positive and that, despite having investigated the roots of violence in his most recent documentary, he hasn't received any threats.

"Should I be getting death threats?" he said, jokingly. "It is pretty risky of me to be coming to Texas, don't you think?"
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"...weapons of mass distraction."
How can I stay mad at someone who comes up with that?

We'll be hearing more from more. Let's listen.

-M!

Fair Use Notice

"Watching" TV

Last week, humorist and broadcast communication professor, Dr. Alan Ray, observed that a reporter for Fox News was wounded in Iraq:

"Medics say the injury is not serious.
Mortar shell fragments were removed
from both of his poms poms."

Clever line.
Funny...but serious.

I have never seen a time - and I've been a news nut for a l-o-n-g time - when the media was so afraid to ask tough questions. It's scary and it's sick.

I'm not the only one yakking about the problem, though.
Visit TVNewsLies.org and Media Whores Online for some fun.

We've gotta start asking questions and yelling about this.
The media suits want us to sit in front of the TV with our tongues hanging out. That's not the way it works.

Do some thinking.

-M!