I love transcripts.

August 11, 2005, Patrick Byrne, CEO of Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK):

I agree that CEO’s who spend time worrying about shorts or obsessing about shorts are fools. And that most of the CEOs who tangle with shorts are crooks.”

Racist Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnist Eugene Kane weighed in today on the conviction of former Milwaukee alderman Michael McGee (who sometimes used the name Michael Jackson when skirting laws).

His reaction is not much of a surprise. McGee was set up. A witness “got” McGee to say things that convicted him. (If that’s what you call McGee bragging about his crimes.) The government was much too harsh on McGee. There’s a grand conspiracy. But on a positive note, he didn’t shake down blacks… just Arabs and Indians. (Kane’s words, not mine.)

But the funniest part of his column was this:

Interesting story from Bloomberg:

A secret report from a lobbyist who represents United Parcel Service Inc. prompted an Ohio state investigation into employment practices of FedEx Corp., leading to a finding that FedEx owed back taxes and interest.

Kenneth Kies, a Washington tax lawyer and lobbyist whose firm has been paid $540,000 by UPS since 2002, sent Ohio officials a 562-page report in December 2006 alleging that FedEx misclassified truck drivers as contractors. A copy of the report, including a cover letter in which Kies asked for confidentiality, was released to Bloomberg News by Ohio officials.

The verdict in former alderman Michael McGee’s federal trial just came down, and he has been found guilty on all nine charges against him. He could get up to 30 years in federal prison.One down, one to go. State trial up next.

The publication Brain, Child has a wonderful story written by Stacey Schultz, about the devastating effects multi-level marketing companies can have on women. She’s included specific comments about Herbalife, Arbonne, and Mary Kay, but also has a lot of general information on MLMs.

Excerpts of the story that pertain to Mary Kay and my site, Pink Truth, are here. You can read the full story here. It’s long, but well worth a read.

Last week the federal trial of former Milwaukee Alderman Michael McGee (also known as Michael Jackson, depending upon which agency is looking for him) began. He’s up on felony charges of extortion, bribery, and failing to file financial transaction forms that could get him 30 years in prison, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a whole lot of question about whether or not he had a habit of shaking down business owners in his district.

For 10 months, Adel Kheirieh (known as Jack Adel) helped law enforcement record conversations in which McGee is doing the dirt. The defense’s only real chance is to tarnish the credibility of Adel, but even if they can do that, the tapes seem to be undeniable proof that McGee was forcing business owners to pay bribes and give him free merchandise totaling tens of thousands of dollars.

The things McGee extorted out of business owners in his district included money, prepaid cell phones, food, and beverages.

Today I got an email from Len Clements, the multi-level marketing evangelist and career college graduate who has been a vocal supporter of Usana Health Sciences (NASDAQ:USNA).

Len Clements published five disjointed “rebuttals” to the various reports, videos, and press releases put out by Barry Minkow and Fraud Discovery Institute about Usana. These rebuttals appeared to be a great source of pride to Len Clements, but were almost completely ignored by the media. Even better, the Len Clements writings were totally ignored by Usana, the entity he was so fervently defending.

…unless if he’s supposed to participate effectively.

The Tennessee Center for Policy Research reports:

I recently wrote a couple of articles here about the Milwaukee Public Schools budget situation (students down by almost 5%, but spending up AGAIN) and my opinion that MPS teachers are grossly overpaid. Of course, teacher advocates have fired back with comments that not every school district pays as well as MPS, that we should disregard the $30,000 to $40,000 of benefits MPS teachers get each year because it’s not “salary,” and that teachers are generally overworked and underpaid.

No one has successfully convinced me yet that teachers anywhere are overworked. Even if I believed that teachers worked 8 to 10 hour days (I don’t), they still work the equivalent of a part time job because of summer and the multiple school holidays. The 180 school days worked by teachers are the equivalent of 36 weeks worked (5 days worked per week). Compare that to the average professional who works 8 to 10 hour days for 46 to 48 weeks per year, and it’s clear that teachers work part-time.