Today Patrick Byrne, CEO of the ever-flailing internet retailer Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK) went on Fox Business to talk about naked short selling and conspiracy theories. And to whine about CNBC and the fact that he thinks people at CNBC take orders from Hedge funds: “They won’t let me on to talk about it.”

Byrne was asked the question on everyone’s mind: Isn’t the hammering of Overstock’s stock price really related more to the fact that the company has never turned a profit, rather than the naked short selling conspiracy?

Patrick’s response? Overstock has “….made money in some quarters.”

Women have been discriminated against in the workplace. I’m not pretending it doesn’t happen, because it does. There are “good old boys networks” and those can have a negative impact on women at work.

But women need to get with the program and figure out when there’s discrimination and when they’re just incompetent (or at the very least not working up to the standards of their male counterparts).

Case in point: Nannette Hegarty, former police chief for the City of Milwaukee. I had high hopes for Nan when she took office. Unfortunately, she was a complete and utter failure at her job. Her officers never respected her, and crime thrived while she was in charge.

There are many things wrong with the Big 4 accounting firms, and I predict that within 3 years (probably less) they will all be gone. But the partners are going to stay on the gravy train as long as they can.

Make no mistake: Being partner at a Big 4 isn’t easy. It takes a lot of hard work and bieng a yes man on the way up. Then there’s the buy-in of over $400k. And the partners never really know how secure their positions are, what with liability from audit failures constantly an issue.

But with risk comes reward, and at Deloitte & Touche, there is a reward for partners. Francine McKenna at Re: The Auditors has sources within the big firms, and gets plenty of traffic when she writes about layoffs there.

Ben W. Glass, editor at Clarislaw.com and attorney, did a nice write-up last week of the ShopToEarn situation. He thinks attorney Gerald Nehra made a boo-boo when he wrongly threatened Everyday Finance and me because of our negative reviews of Shop To Earn and Shop To Earth.

He gives a brief background on the original review at Everyday Finance and the threatening emails. Then goes on to say:

On the November ballots, City of Milwaukee residents may have to vote on whether private employers should be required to provide paid sick leave for all employees.

Here’s what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says about it:

A coalition led by 9to5, the National Association of Working Women, has mounted a petition drive demanding an ordinance to require the city’s private-sector employers to provide paid sick leave for their workers, and to let those workers take sick days to care for ailing family members.

Sounds good, right? Everyone should get paid time off to care for sick family members, right? It’s just the compassionate thing to do, right?

Welcome to the July 21, 2008 edition of carnival of fraud.

otherdeb (Deb Wunder) presents How my roommate accidentally blew this month?s rent posted at The Dangling Conversation.

Leon Gettler presents No more corporate crime hardball posted at Sox First, saying, “In another sign that the administration is easing up on its fight against corporate crime, the US Justice Department is backing off from its hard-line that forces corporations to turn over confidential communications between their attorneys and company executives under scrutiny by prosecutors. It’s a big win for business and lawyers who have argued such sanctions were coercive and unconstitutional.”

I’m no fan of multi-level marketing companies (MLMs), and Amway – Quixtar – Alticor is the mother of all MLMs. Amway Corporation was founded in 1959 by Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. It was originally called Ja-Ri Corporation, and the name was changed to Amway in 1963.

A reorganization occurred in 1999, through which Alticor became the holding company for Amway, an internet-based company called Quixtar, Access Business Group, and Pyxis Innovations. In 2001, the Quixtar name replaced “Amway” for the North American MLM business. (They were apparently trying to get away from all the negative feelings associated with “Amway.”)

I’m willing to bet it went something like this!

Anyone with an ounce of brains is well aware that Barack Obama has not one accomplishment to his name, not one thing that qualifies him to be President of the United States. These voters help demonstrate it…

Career politician Elizabeth Coggs (what happened to the Coggs-Jones?), who apparently has never had a real job, is crying about the compensation at her part-time job… Milwaukee County Supervisor. I’m not kidding… These are part-time jobs. And for her part-time work, Coggs gets $50,769.

But she doesn’t think that’s enough. Supervisors froze their own pay until 2012, but now Coggs wants to renege on that by sneaking in a $3,600 a year transportation allowance. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

She drives a lot in her work as a supervisor and paying for gas has become “a pretty expensive hardship.”