Martha: Back in Biz.

Martha!
Originally uploaded by scribecalledsteff.

Martha Stewart's been allowed to fly the coop. She looks better than ever after a few months in the Big House, and now she's set to make the world her bitch.

Face it: Martha was the sacrificial lamb for rich folk everywhere in the debacle that was Imclone/Enron/Et al.

I'm all for rich people screwing the pooch from time to time. It's good for their souls, and God knows they need a little more soul (and I ain't talkin' James Brown)--but this was all wrong.

Martha Stewart Living-Omnimedia was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a private company. It had shareholders, like little Aunt Grace in Nebraska. All those good folk with all their money squirrelled away in the big ol' corporation in the hopes that America would embrace domestic goodness and buy a little bit of Martha for their homes. Companies like this were a boon for mutual funds and retirement plans, and an easy sell for the agents doing the hocking.

The case was a crock. Most people think Martha went down for insider trading, but on that charge, they never made the case. Nope. Stewart bit the big one for the always-popular fallback charge of "obstruction."

The problem isn't that they made the rich guy pay finally, but that they picked someone who was the heart and soul of a publically traded company, and when she took the fall, so did thousands of innocent folks--in their stock portfolios. You can go ahead and blame Martha for having bad judgment, but the DA deserves to be painted with that brush, too.

I mean, really, an insider trading charge on $50K of Imclone stock when she's the only woman in America that can even dream of competing with Oprah? Seriously. Trading stock is like playing cards for rich people--a conscience isn't really a prerequisite, just some cash and a trading house lackey at your disposal.

Here's hoping some of the little people bought low, 'cos Martha's on the verge of something crazy.

(I'm thrilled she's been butched up a bit. She needed it. Let's see where it takes her--a couple scrapes on the exterior, but the engine's still good, man.)

In Martha's honour: The Old-Fashioned. Martha would advise going heavy on the bourbon.