BOZOS

Here's a collection of "bozos," together with how they distinguished themselves -- you be the judge as to whether or not their actions make them worthy of this ranking...

UDDER Bozos

CEO PAY: Have They No Shame? -- Plus, Cooking the Books Still Pays Off, thank you very much!

"Chainsaw" Al Dunlap, former CEO of Sunbeam Corp., gets Beamed Down

Judge Tells Victim of Sexually Hostile Workplace to "Get Used to It"

Cookies Make Dough for Marketers at Your Expense

Stealthy Data Miners Masquerade as Kiddie Websites

Rumblings of TV Judges Cause Seismic Rudeness Meter Readings

Is Hershey Chocolate Fattening Anybody Up?

Are you city slickers tired of hearing about urban scandals, corporate fraud and other scams? Like to get away to a more rural setting and take in a few dairy shows, 4-H contests, or other livestock competitions for a pastoral change-of-pace? Sounds good, doesn't it?...

But something's fishy in dairyland. A Science News article (7/12/03 issue) takes a look at what happens in many livestock competitions. You'd be surprised at what's being done to give these animals the competitive edge. Ferdinand the steer's been shot up with vegetable oil and given drugs to improve his physique. Bossie's bazooms are cosmetically enhanced with saline or protein injections or have just plain been pumped up with gas to give her the udder edge in dairy contests. And what about the bozos who beat a sheep or steer to create swelling to improve their appearance? (Plus, there are other things we can't even print here!) Oh, man, it's a jungle out there!

Because a championship animal can bring in big bucks there's lots of incentive for unscrupulous individuals to tamper with livestock. So dairy associations have been using veterinary experts to help thwart the fraud that is turning up in championship dairy shows and steer contests. Urine samples, milk samples and ultrasonic scanning are some of the techniques used to check up on the winners of contests in order to discourage barnyard bamboozling (and hopefully to protect these animals from this kind of abuse).

For any urban scamster-bozo thinking of moving to the country to get in on a little humbug husbandry, you might want to think twice, because livestock tampering is a felony in a growing number of states!

You can visit the Science News website at www.sciencenews.org.

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In spite of their poor performance, CEOs are still getting double digit salary increases and other perks, while our investments in their companies (401Ks and jobs) got creamed! See this FORTUNE MAGAZINE article: "CEO PAY...Have They No Shame? Their performance stank last year, yet most CEOs got paid more than ever. Here's how they're getting away with it."

AND...How about the CEO Book-Cookers! Can you believe this? In spite of the publicity for all the recent corporate malfeasance, CEOs of companies under investigation for accounting irregularities earned 70% more from 1999 to 2001 than the average CEO at large companies, according to a new report, "Executive Excess 2002: CEOs Cook the Books, Skewer the Rest of Us."

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Former Sunbeam Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Albert Dunlap agreed to pay $500,000 to settle Securities and Exchange Commission charges that he defrauded investors by inflating sales at the largest U.S. maker of small appliances, according to Bloomberg News. Without admitting or denying wrongdoing, Dunlap also agreed to be barred from working as an executive at a public company.

The Chicago Sun Times quoted hedge fund manager Jim Chanos... ''That he was able to settle the government charges for half a million and the civil suits against him for $15 million as opposed to breaking rocks in a federal penitentiary for what he did underscores why investors are so disillusioned about executive wrongdoing in corporate America.''

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According to this federal judge, sure there's workplace rudeness and lewdness, so get used to it...
In June 2001, Judge B. Avant Edenfield of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia rejected claims by Gabrielle Breda that she was subjected to a sexually hostile work environment that forced her to resign her job at a Wolf Camera store in Georgia. He dismissed Breda's case. His argument: "The modern notion of acceptable behavior" has become corroded by lewd music, videos and computer games, "perversity-programming" broadcast standards and other degrading factors. As a result, Edenfield said, "victims" like Breda may have to accept a certain amount of boorish behavior or workplace vulgarity as normal. (Robert Trigaux, St. Petersburg Times, 7/15/01)

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People collect information about you using cookies without your knowledge for marketing purposes and to some people, that's an invasion of privacy...
Whatever your view may be on Internet tracking, the cookie protocol has been manipulated and tracking of user profiles and preferences is done without your permission. Data miners and marketers often compile dossiers on users (consumers) with the information they track and extract with the use of cookies. While some users have successfully blocked cookies from being embedded in their computers, some websites will not allow you entry unless you agree to be tagged with their cookie which is stored on your computer to gather information about you. For instance, Zagats and the Dallas Morning News will not allow you to enter unless you agree to a cookie installation. For the scoop on cookies, check Privacy.net.

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Parents beware of these Bozos -- some children's sites pretend to educate, but these data miners use discovery and fun as a ruse to promote products and harvest personal data...
We found one that features quizzes which asks for personal data such as what the child likes to wear and favorite things to do. They're so brazen as to include a shopping quiz, "I like shopping", and a stealthy sneaker brand promotion in what they call the "social studies" segment of the site. They market their authors' books in order for kids to take "quizzes". For an activity, they suggest the child spell their name with letters they cut out from advertising! And this takes the cake: there's a virtual promise of a "piece of birthday cake" when the child fills in their name and age, plus day, month and year of their birth! Yikes!

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TV judges who love to hear their roars reverberate set a miserable example for adult communication...
The scales of justice were never intended to weigh the rude behavior of some TV judges who equate bullying, arrogant, nasty, scornful, loud, gruff, smartass, condescending conduct with doling out just verdicts. Rude is rude, black robes or not. Case closed.

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According to the AFL-CIO Executive Pay Watch web site, union workers at Hershey Foods have been told their health insurance co-payments will double. "The company raised workers' health care costs at Hershey's nonunion plant first before trying to foist the plan onto Local 464 members, according to the union." In a stark example of runaway CEO pay, Hershey's top fat cat, CEO Richard Lenny raked in more than $22 million last year -- a compensation package that could support 598 average Hershey workers!! For more information on corporate greed, follow this link to Congressman Martin Olav Sabo's web site.

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