Scam Artist Spams Judge

Ubiquitous, late night, informercial staple Kevin Trudeau has been found in contempt by a Chicago area judge for the second time and forced to post a $50,000 bond, plus surrender his passport, while awaiting sentencing on at least one of the charges, next week.

In open court, U.S. District Judge Robert Gettleman said that he'll likely require jail time and a fine because Mr. Trudeau bombarded his email with letters of support from his followers, some of which could be considered threatening and all of which are undergoing analysis by the U.S. Marshals Service in a first of its kind investigation.

Trudeau, who previously served two years on a 1991 conviction for credit card fraud, where he charged more than $122,000 to the cards of eleven customers from one of his prior schemes is currently awaiting final sentencing for this most recent act of contempt, and a previous conviction after he successfully appealed the judge's amended punishment for violating a 2004 court order.

After run-ins with the SEC, the FTC and eight states for pyramid schemes and selling products using false and misleading statements, Trudeau settled an action by the Federal Trade Commission in 2004, by paying a $2 million dollar fine and agreeing to a lifetime ban "from appearing in, producing, or disseminating future infomercials that advertise any type of product, service, or program to the public, except for truthful infomercials for informational publications".

In 2007, the FTC charged that some of the marketing statements for a book titled The Weight Loss Cure 'They' Don't Want You to Know About were misleading because its infomercial claimed that the weight loss program was something easy, consumers could do at home without exercise and would allow them to eat anything they want, while the actual publication outlined a complex plan with lifetime dietary restrictions and exercise requirements, daily injections of a growth hormone available only by prescription and regular colonics, which must be administered by a licensed practitioner.

Mr. Trudeau was found guilty of making "patently false" statements to sell his weight loss book, thus putting him in violation of the '04 order.

Initially, Judge Gettleman sentenced him to pay a fine of more than $5 million dollars and imposed a three year moratorium on appearing in any informercial for a product in which he holds an interest, but both Mr. Trudeau and the FTC asked him to reconsider the sentence. After less than a month's time, the judge decided to keep the three year moratorium, but upped the fine to more than $37 million dollars, which is what the Federal Trade Commission alleges Mr. Trudeau had received from the estimated 32,000 times the infomercial ran.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Mr. Trudeau's conviction last fall, but directed Judge Gettleman to do more fact-finding to justify the fine. In an attempt to sway the court, Mr. Trudeau reached out to his customers via email and through his website asking them to contact the judge, which caused his email account to become flooded.

This was not only a demonstrable inconvenience to the court, but it also violated the rules governing ex-parte communications.

And because you've most likely seen a Kevin Trudeau infomercial recently, while awaiting the appeal and fact-finding effort, he has been actively marketing Free Money "They" Don't Want You to Know About, a book published in 2009 and a product in which he holds an interest.

This guy will never quit.

Links

• Wikipedia
• Chicago Tribune
• Chicago Sun-Times
• FTC Linklist outlining the entire case

Living an Extreme to a Degree

Robyn Okrant lived and blogged a year of taking Oprah, literally.

If Ms. Winfrey said that you had to have it, read it, eat it or if it was something one must do, Ms. Okrant followed the host's directive.

Naturally that would mean an occasional conflict, such as "not defining yourself by your possessions" seemed a little odd, when you're surrounded by small appliances and a variety of specialty products, but Ms. Okrant did the best she could with her earnings as a yoga instructor.

Though, she did draw at least one line, when she politely returned the free Kindle delivered by a Harpo employee.

Unlike her role model, the blogger-turned-author had vowed at the start of the project, she wouldn't accept any outside sponsorship.

Fact-Checking Palin, Continued

Two weeks ago, the Juneau Empire compared some of what former Governor Sarah Palin had written in Goin' Rouge about their fair city to her previous comments and the public record.

Today, they examine allegations that her youngest daughter, Willow was threatened with gang-rape by fellow middle school students, yet she did not report it to the police, school officials or her security detail.

Today in Palin

The Juneau Empire, located in Alaska's capital city has an interesting feature comparing what former Governor Sarah Palin says in her book and in interviews about the city to her record and previous statements.

For instance, she laments the difficulty of getting to Juneau and complains about the lack of a road, but she also does not advocate moving the capital inland and as Governor, she stopped work her predecessor had started on the road.

Of course, one of the best clips from the article (crediting her book) may or may not be something the local tourism bureau would want to champion, depending on their target market;

Palin acknowledged that many of her impressions of Juneau were formed before she became governor. She decried what she believed to be the "Animal House" atmosphere of the city, citing "drunken brawls, countless affairs and garden-variety lunchtime trysts."

Semi-Related: The Des Moines Register has the local angle on Ms. Palin's Iowa stop, including information from a previous poll.

Poor Editing and/or a Bad Headline?

Scott Eyman of Cox Newspapers wrote a capsule review of William Knoedelseder's "I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy’s Golden Era" which was published in the Dayton Daily News and presumably other newspapers.

After a couple of paragraphs explaining that the book is about the "golden age" of standup comedy, the 1970s, Mr. Eyman's review settles upon the circumstances surrounding a strike by comedians against Mitzi Shore's Comedy Store.

The end of Mr. Eyman's review, which the Daily News titled "'I'm Dying Up Here' lets comedians talk" focuses on the story of Steve Lubetkin, who jumped to his death from the roof of the Hyatt House, across the street from Ms. Shore's "store".

Byron Pitts was Diagnosed Functionally Illiterate

And he promotes his book, when traveling on assignment.

CBS News Reporter Byron Pitts Visits Vermont
(WCAX - Burlington, extended video available)

Barack Obama's Mama was Smart

The American Anthropological Association and Duke University Press are going to publish the doctoral dissertation of S. Ann Dunham, President Obama's mother.

Publisher's Weekly gave the following preview of Surviving Against the Odds: Village Industry in Indonesia, which will have an initial printing of 10,000 for what was a 1000 page work, before it was edited by her academic advisor;

Wissoker said that Duke University Press’s anthropology list was focused on books about "how conventional foreign aid has not worked and how it should be rethought," and Dunham's book is a perfect fit for its program. He hailed the importance of Dunham’s scholarly work in Indonesia—she spent nearly 15 years in the field—and called the book, "a forerunner of much of today’s work on using direct micro-credits and small loans. The book is about what small villagers can do entrepreneurially to help themselves. Her message is very accessible: trust people in small villages to be able to do good things if they have resources."

(via Jezebel)

Projections of a Populace

(via Mediaite)

Snip: Character Acting

"The Word of Promise: Complete Audio Bible"is the King James Bible in its entirety: a 79-CD set of more than 98 hours of dramatic audio theater, with an original score by Stefano Mainetti, feature film quality sound effects, narration by Michael York, and the work of 600-some actors, including such stars as Richard Dreyfuss (Moses), Gary Sinise (David), Marisa Tomei (Mary Magdalene), Stacy Keach (Paul), Louis Gossett Jr. (John), Joan Allen (Deborah), Max von Sydow (Noah) and Luke Perry (Judas).

(Source)

PullQuote: Jane Belson

In a Washington Post article about the coincidental release of three new entries into franchises established by long-dead authors, Jane Belson, Douglas Adams' widow had this to say, when asked how her husband might have felt about someone else writing his characters;

I don't know. He's not here.

Barbara Ehrenreich: Does She Hear Herself Speak?

When Barbara Ehrenreich was diagnosed with breast cancer, she was told that she should embrace her disease because "she was going to come out of this a better person, more spiritual, more evolved, etc."

So, she wrote a book examining the spirtuality of positive thinking and because she knows she's right, she's apparently more evolved.

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