I don't agree with fines, unless they go to the victims. If it's a fine
that goes to the court, screw them.

The latter seems a crime in itself.


"Alun" > wrote in message
...
> (Steve Dufour) wrote in
> om:
>
> > "larry" > wrote in message
> > >. ..
> >> Well she lied, cheated, stole and got caught.. so I guess she deserves
> >> to go to JAIL. I think they should fine the #%&$ out of her and put
> >> her back to work to pay some big taxes. But on the other hand those
> >> with plenty of money are not very afraid of paying a fine.. big deal..
> >> but some time in stripes scares nearly everybody.
> >>
> >>
> >> Laurence
> >
> > From today's Washington Times
> >
> > Saving the streets from Martha Stewart
> >
> >
> > By Wesley Pruden
> >
> >
> > We'll all sleep better now, feeling safe and secure in our beds (with
> > or without flowered sheets). The feds are finally getting Martha
> > Stewart off the streets.
> > Her expensively coiffed scalp will look nice on the wall behind
> > the desk of the U.S. district attorney who led the prosecution.
> > Martha, who insists on things being done right, will help him choose
> > the appropriate presentation for her scalp. A mahogany frame against a
> > deep red matte ought to set off Martha's blonde locks in an elegant
> > and fetching way.
> > Some of the reporters and pundits who are offended most by
> > Martha's advocacy of grown-up clothes and neat hair, orderly digs, and
> > flowers and dishes arranged for a king's most demanding subjects
> > haven't had so much fun since the feds hounded Jim and Tammy Faye
> > Bakker into prison and oblivion for overbooking their hotel.
> > The first juror who spoke up after the verdict called throwing
> > Miss Stewart into the slammer a victory for "the average guy." You
> > could hear in his voice the triumphant note of revenge done well.
> > "Maybe it's a victory for the little guy who loses money in the
> > markets because of these types of transactions, the people who lose
> > money in 401(k) plans," said Chappell Hartridge, 47, a computer
> > programmer who talks too much. "Maybe it might give the average guy a
> > little more confident feeling that can invest in the market and
> > everything will be on the up and up."
> > Well, maybe. But making Martha Stewart an example for a seminar on
> > prudent investing is a bizarre use of a federal criminal trial,
> > particularly since the feds' bill of particulars was thin soup to
> > begin with and made more so when the judge threw out the charge of
> > insider trading, the only blob of genuine bone and fat in the pot.
> > Juror Hartridge and his prejudices, it now seems clear, was exactly
> > what the feds were counting on to save them from the humiliation of a
> > collapsing railroad job.
> > Miss Stewart, by all accounts, is not very nice: Arrogance,
> > haughtiness, self-importance and a condescending manner are no more
> > attractive in a Connecticut maven of gracious living than in, for
> > example, a presidential candidate from Massachusetts. A nice Polish
> > girl from New Jersey got into trouble in the first place by hanging
> > out with the wrong crowd, the swells and belles of the Upper East Side
> > who summer on Long Island Sound. She should have listened to her mama,
> > who knew that hanging out with the wrong crowd is guaranteed to get a
> > girl into trouble, and not necessarily the kind of trouble a girl can
> > get into between flowered sheets. One of the cable-TV talking heads, a
> > woman who was once a federal prosecutor, called Miss Stewart the
> > prototypical "rich bitch," showing up in court in her furs, jewels and
> > designer dresses. Indeed, her expensive lawyers should have taken her
> > back to New Jersey to find a Wal-Mart to deck her out in a peasant
> > frock. They could have returned to Lower Manhattan to warn some of her
> > celebrity friends, such as Rosie O'Donnell and Bill Cosby, to stay
> > away from the courthouse if they really wanted to help.
> > "If anything," the voluble Juror Hartridge said of the parade of
> > Martha's rich and famous friends, "we may have taken it a little as an
> > insult. Is that supposed to sway our opinion?"
> > In a word, yes. That's the way lawyers play the game. This time,
> > the defense trick worked instead for the prosecution. Miss Stewart may
> > be entitled to a rebate from her lawyers.
> > But Martha Stewart was not indicted on the charge of bitchery,
> > witchery or even slickery. She was indicted on charges of conspiracy,
> > obstruction of justice and making false statements to federal agents,
> > who are themselves enabled by the law to lie. The government even
> > suggested that she was guilty of "lying" simply for saying that she
> > was innocent of wrongdoing. This is pretty rich from the side that
> > gets to mark the cards.
> > We've always taken a certain pride in the proposition that in
> > America, class doesn't count, that we look out for the poor but don't
> > begrudge the rich their wealth. We look to them as an example of how
> > to make it to a million-dollar mansion on Coffee Pot Lane. Recent
> > decades of class warfare, abetted by the rich, the pampered and the
> > celebrated who play at populism, have changed that. Greed has replaced
> > religion as the national religion, and with greed comes envy.
> > Martha Stewart's transgressions were more sins than crimes, and
> > learning a little humility is never a bad thing. But when the
> > government commits vendetta, the sin becomes a crime. The government
> > ought to be ashamed of its bullying self.
> >
> >
> > Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.
>
> I don't actually like Martha Stewart too much, but I don't think she
should
> go to jail. What offends me about the decision is that I feel that with
the
> underlying charge of insider trading dropped, it was wrong to pursue the
> other charges. It comes down to lying about a crime she thought she had
> committed, but hadn't. Nobody should go to jail for that. It's not a
> question of jurisprudence, just one of exercising reasonable discretion.
> However, if her (new) lawyers can make a case on appeal that the
> convictions can't stand because they are based only on lying about
> something she didn't do, I wish them well.