Newspaper Page Text
Page 5
Wednesday, October 5, 2005
Criminals steal millions, recieve lenient punishment
Double Vision
DonpjG /
By Jake Earl and Luke Abel
lukeandjakearehott@yahoo.com
Have you ever been
pumping gas into your
grotesquely outdated
station wagon when all of a
sudden you realize that the
sign to your left reads “All
2-liters 99 oents,” which
leads you to wonder what
purpose the store manager
had in mind when he used
the symbol representing
something as the first letter
in the spelling of that same
idea, and how that applies
to the very complexity of
your own pointless exis...?
By this time you’ve
missed the ten-dollar mark
on the pump by two cents,
and you have ONLY one
Mr. Hamilton. This is how
the “Take a penny, leave
a penny” social safety
net enters your life: you
shuffle up to the cashier,
awkwardly stammering
that you are two cents
short of your bill and he
(or you, depending on your
Letters to the editor...
Student says
mascot should
7 be Sherman
S:b ; >F'
Dear Editor,
I was looking over the
choices for the new school
mascot and I must say, 1 was
bitterly disappointed at the
choices being considered.
Birds? Horses? And
not an original idea in the
lot! Do you realize how
many Wolves there are
in the realm of academic
athletics? Swimming in
a great sea of cliches may
have seemed alright, but
we’re better than that. I
know it.
So what to do? Well,
I rubbed some Yankee
ingenuity on the problem
and came up with a, in my
opinion anyhow, brilliant
dea. We name the mascot
after one of the greatest
generals in American
history: General William
Tecumseh Sherman!
Think about it,
someone could dress up
in the dress blues of a late
19th century American
general (we could even go
for accurate medals!) and
“march” around the field
“Making Georgia Howl”
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familiarity with the system)
grabs the necessary funds
from the tray, thereby
relieving your debt through
the generous gift of an
unnamed benefactor.
Having reaped the
benefits of this system
myself. I hope to one day,
when my financial situation
is a bit more secure, spread
the wealth by leaving
multitudes of pennies in
every tray. 1 do this not only
out of my own generosity,
but also because I know
that as long as we continue
to contribute our pennies to
these trays, in our times of
need we will always have
access to the collective
change of all Americans.
So, in a way, every
penny that I put into the
system will, at a later date,
come back to me with all
of its value intact Hut what
if it didn't work this way .’
What if the system were
to the proud, triumphant
strains of “Marching
Through Georgia.”
Yeah. 1 know, it is a
great idea. ,1 lieioaxii,Tateam
in the state, perhaps in the
entire South that wouldn't
tremble at the thought of
having “Sherman’s Army"
(my newly proposed name
for the team) come into
their town.
March On Sherman!
Thank you.
Matt Torley
UWG soph more
Student calls
for action
Dear Editor,
Parking and
everything about it is the
biggest fiasco on campus.
Last week we are treated
to an article in which the
SGA states that we pushed
for these hanging tags for
three years.
What a waste of time. It
seems that everyone could
have seen the monetary
benefit of the tags. With
decals we leave them on
for a year. With these,
surely someone will forget
everyday and we can ticket
one of “Leave a penny,
lose a penny” or “ lake a
penny, steal a penny”?
Two executives
of the Bayou Hedge
Fund of Samford, Conn,
surrendered themselves
to federal authorities after
being pursued for fraud
over the course of last
summer Chief executive
Samuel Israel 111 and his
chief financial executive,
Daniel Marino, pled guilty
to charges that they had
defrauded their investors
of 4“>o million dollars in
investments.
For those of us
(roughly, all of us) who
don’t know much
about hedge funds,
they are loosely
regulated business
partnerships that invest
their clients’ money
in unconventional,
yet supposedly safe,
ways. According to this
description, Israel and
Marino are simply guilty
of exploiting their business
to the fullest extent that it
is a “hedge fund.”
The Bayou Hedge
Fund repeatedly lied
to its clients that it was
perform ing success! ull y,
when in fact it had lost a
and increase the coffers
Also, on the back of
the tag it says. Remove tag
before operating vehicle."
W !hy.- .d<Kib * lljvA'.hGA ..suy
that ll' von remove it to
hang it back? What kind
of leadership organization
would expect that someone
would not follow the
directions? It should be the
norm to expect everyone
to take the lag off when
driving, but like many
things at UWG, we cater to
those w ho do otherwise.
Let me ciose by telling
the administration that these
issues will be tolerated by
UWG students.
I invite those fed up
with this fiasco to e-mail me
|at mchr/an Imywestga.
edu) and we will take
charge!
Thank you.
Mike Chrzanowski
UWG student
Worst prez ever?
Dear Editor,
George W. Bush is by
far the worst president in
the history of the U.S.
Before Katrina hit
the Gulf the president was
playing a guitar with a
country music star, while
significant amount of its
investors' hard-earned
money. On top of this, the
two executives created a
phony accounting firm that
was supposedly checking
up on the company to
make sure that it was doing
sound business.
The men are also
charged with diverting
their clients’ funds for
their own personal use
(vacations, homes, etc.).
This, in a certain light, is
certainly “unconventional
investing.”
The fact of the matter is
these gentlemen defrauded
hundreds of people out of
qff a people need to
reconsider the way w^R ur Mh
white-collar criminals*} )
millions of dollars, but this
money cannot be looked at
as just a finite sum.
These were retirement
plans, college funds and
emergency savings: all
real amounts of money
that people wanted to be
protected for the future.
heading back to his ranch
to finish his vacation.
Another one? When
does the president stop
vacationing? If you look
back at the catastrophic
events during this
presidency. Bush has been
.oil vacation each time.
On Sept. 11, for
example, he had just
finished playing golf in
Texas before heading to
Florida to push his failing
No Child Left Behind bill
on the children of Florida’s
education system. Prior
to 9-11 the president had
spent roughly SO percent
of his time on vacation.
Bush was somehow
re-elected to a second term
and just like he had always
done, he went vacationing.
He came back from
vacation, pushed through
some useless, dangerous
legislation and went back
on vacation.
While on this vacation,
the president was informed
that there was a category
five hurricane expected to
hit New Orleans, but why
should he worry about
New Orleans? It’s not like
it’s Los Angeles, or God
forbid, Texas!
So like the Sept. 11
warnings, he ignored it
and continued picking on
his guitar with a not-to-be
named country music star
and then headed back to his
multi-million dollar ranch,
Money For College
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This money was not
only intended for personal
use, but also for charitable
work (such as the lost
4 million dollars of the
Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Chicago).
These corporate
criminals have taken
billions of pennies from
the tray of American
investors and neglected to
leave more behind than an
empty office building in
New England.
For the terrible
crime of robbing these
people of their very
future, their financial
livelihoods, these men
face a maximum sentence
of less than thirty years
in a low-security prison.
Why is it that Samuel
Israel and Daniel Marino,
businessmen that have
not only crippled the
finances of hundreds of
individuals, but also have
all while his secret service
agents figured out how to
dodge the thousands of
protesters in support of
Cindy Sheehan.
So, the hurricane
hits New Orleans, causes
complete devastation and
still Bush is on vacation.
Finally, after thousands
of cries from people and
government agencies, he
makes a short speech and
leaves Crawford. It takes
days for the president
to tour the damage, but
companies like Home
Depot were assessing and
offering assistance the day
after the devastation.
What were Bush’s top
cabinet members doing
during the hurricane?
Condeleeza Rice was
shopping for shoes in
New York, before seeing a
Broadway play. Rice seems
to have forgotten what
it was like to be a part of
the civil rights movement,
which she claims to have
been so instrumental in.
Donald Rumsfield
spent Monday night in
the owners box at the San
Diego Padres game.
Then the Gulf was hit
by Rita. It was projected
that Rita would hit Texas.
Texas!? Bush hears that it
will hit Texas and suddenly
he seems to have interest?
We would hate for
the hurricane to hit his
oil-buddies and their
Hleat <sennji;m
weakened our economy
by the sheer si/e of theii
fraud, are to be given such
a lenient punishment?
Murderers and rapists
generally only hint a small
unit of friends and family
with their crimes, yet they
may receive a sentenci
that is doubly as severe,
while the masterminds
of this fraudulent hedge
fund receive a walk in
the-park punishment fot
adversely affecting the
lives of thousands
We as a people need
to reconsider the way
we punish white-collai
criminals. We need to
examine whether
an enraged drunk
shooting his unfaithful
wife is any more
morally repugnant
than a business
executive who robs
his employees and
his customers of theii
livelihoods. In light of
the case of these thieving
hedge fund executives,
perhaps we should
consider reworking the
old gas station system
to something more
along the lines of lake
a penny, leave a penny
...Seriously.”
refineries, since, after all.
there is such a shortage
of oil. Something else
ironic: Bush decided
to go “monitor” tin
progress of the hurricane
while outside the white
house is the largest anti
war movement since the
war began. Isn't it also
ironic that the company
that got the contract to
rebuild New Orleans wa
Halliburton?
Halliburton wins
almost every contract w ith
basically no competition
and we don't even know
how much the contract was
for. Halliburton, which was
one of the only companies
allowed to bid, is the
company that Dick Cheney
use to be CEO of and still
has investments with.
It is no surprise that
our country is how it is
You have to stop and ask
yourself, how can people
be paying attention and
actually support this
president? Abortions
have doubled, children
are being left behind and
our economy isn’t getting
any stronger.
For all of you who
don’t agree with me, the
next time the president
takes a vacation, you can
kiss yourself goodbye.
Thank you,
Skyler Akins
UWG freshman