Trudeau sentence distracts from true hucksters

US District Judge Ron Guzman emptied both barrels at TV infomercial pitchman Kevin Trudeau in sentencing him to ten years in prison for fraud in connection with his book "The Weight Loss Cure They Don't Want You to Know About". Guzman called him 'deceitful to the core', an 'uncontrollable huckster' and said he 'steadfastly attempted to cheat others for his own personal gain'. Trudeau sold 850,000 copies of the book which generated $39 million in revenue. About 57,000 customers received partial refunds from the book guarantee and at least 67 filed complaints against Trudeau with consumer protection agencies. The government offered no evidence a single consumer was financially ruined by the $45 book sale price.

While I don't fret about anyone gullible enough to shell out $45 dollars to make the greatest TV pitchman in history filthy rich, I do worry about the millions of Americans, inspired by brilliant commercials, who demand their doctor prescribe them poisonous drugs which will give them strokes, heart attacks, cancer and a host of other painful and debilitating maladies to make potential improvement in some much lessor condition. I do gasp at the criminality of million dollar executives at Toyota and GM who let car owners die in needless accidents from manufacturing defects they covered up for years to improve their fat bonuses year after year. I do mourn for the half million Iraqis we now know were killed in George W. Bush's war based on lies, fear tactics, threats and propaganda.

The American judicial system has degenerated into bread and circuses keeping the masses entertained watching harmless but foolish little hucksters like Trudeau jailed for years mainly because they are an easy mark, allowing the truly destructive hucksters to skate free to enjoy the millions they reaped doing immeasurable damage to the public.