The Lunatic Fringe

Believe it or not, lunatics do have a place in the world and actually do good for our society. All I can say is thanx to Michael Moore, Whoopie Goldberg, and the rest of the loons representing the majority of the entertainment industry, especially Hollywood. Idiots, num-nuts, brain-dead. You can call them whatever you want, I see some good in them. Heck, they were able to get George W. reelected as president. For that I say thank you, you mental midgets.

To the Democratic Party, I say thank you for putting in charge of the DNC, one of your well known lunatics, Howard Dean, (a loooooooooser). Granted, he was inventive when raising money using the internet to finance his campaign. This was pure genius. Was this really his idea? I do not know. Somehow I do not think so. What I do know is that he should reconsider showing his enthusiasm in public. Nuts, pure nuts.

Ok, getting back to the entertainment sector. Oh, I'm sorry; the entire Democratic Party is entertaining. Anyway, Hollywood, wow I am shocked, absolutely shocked, that a movie called The Passion of the Christ was missed by your entire Oscar movie nominating committee. A lot of the world saw this movie. The movie was in the news for over a year before its release, made well over $300 million on a $30 million plus DVD sales, etc. Now this movie, during its planning stages, was rejected by all of the studios. Could you imagine being a shareholder and missing out on your stocks increasing in value? These idiots actually put their anti-religious ideology in front of making a profit for their shareholders. Then stockbrokers are confused when your regular guy thinks investing in stocks is gambling!

Recapping a Martha Moment

Martha Stewart - Idiot Extraordinaire! At one time you were married and then got a divorce, (I am shocked!). You started a catering business which turned into a huge conglomerate worth well over billion dollars making towels and curtains. Absolutely genius when you can convince almost an entire gender to do things around the house your way. Absolutely fantastic, no question this is an incredible feat. Let us move on.

You were going to lose less than three hundred thousand dollars on stocks that you owned. So you make a stock trade that seems to be shady. Why is it shady? Martha sold all of her 3,928 shares of ImClone. This in itself does not seem wrong. It just so happens that the sale happened day before the FDA announced its rejection. What did it reject you ask? The FDA rejected the application of approval for Erbitux. Erbitux was ImClone's cancer drug.

On the surface, all of this looks like it maybe coincidence. Not so. At the time Sam Waksal was ImClone’s ceo. Just before the FDA announced its news, Sam and his family sold their stock and received approximately $7.3 million. Not a bad piece of change. Except that Sam was charged with insider trading, Martha was not.

It just so happens that Martha Stewart and Sam Waksal are personal friends. It seems logical, (thanx Spock), that the rich would hang out with the rich. One problem is that Martha’s broker and Sam’s broker is the same person, Peter Bacanovic. His assistant is Douglas Faneuil, both of whom worked for Merrill Lynch. Apparently there were too many coincidences. Apparently Douglas called Peter, (who was on vacation), and told him that Sam and family were dumping their stock. Peter calls Martha's office leaving a message saying that he thinks "ImClone's stock will start trading downward". Martha calls Merrill Lynch and talks to Douglas. She tells him to sell the ImClone stock, which at the time was just above $58.00.

Basically, Stewart, Bancanovic and Faneuil had gotten questioned during the SEC investigation. All of their stories seemed to be identical. The main point of their story was that she sold her stock because it fell below $60.00 a share.

At this point the prosecutor’s argument was that Martha and Peter tried to cover up the sale. She supposedly lied to the investigators; this is a big NO NO. Martha was charged with conspiracy, obstruction securities fraud and making false statements to the federal investigators. Peter was charged with conspiracy, obstruction, false documents, false statements and perjury.

Martha, you went to a prison, nicknamed Camp Cupcake. Is it horrible there? That sounds like a real threatening name. I heard it was so bad in there that you lost a homemaking contest. While you were in there, did you happen to notice that your company's stock went up? As soon as they let you out your company's stock dropped approximately 30%. By the way, does that ankle bracelet the government lent you go with your curtains? Does it affect your baking abilities?

People never learn. Normally the cover-up is worse than the crime. There have been many examples of this. Richard Nixon and Watergate, he did not order the DNC break-in. Gordon Liddy and his crew did it without Nixon’s knowledge, when Nixon found out, he tried to cover it up. That was his downfall. What all this boils down to is this: Do not screw with the government or else it will screw you.