A hero, a domestic diva and a total loss of perspective

But all Martha Stewart’s public outpourings have achieved is to provide a road map for other indicted executives on how not to present themselves to the judiciary, senior lawyers said yesterday.

The multimillionaire television star hired Herb Hoelter, a leading defence lawyer to advise her on her presentation and demeanour as well as to negotiate community service.

But in an interview with Barbara Walters on ABC television on Friday, she compared herself to Mr Mandela, the anti-apartheid campaigner who was imprisoned in South Africa for 27 years. She referred to the Nobel Prize winner in response to a question about her fortitude for prison life.

“If it is looming ahead of me, I’m going to have to face it, and take it and do it and get it over with,” she said, adding “There’s many other good people that have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela.”

Such musings have not impressed other members of the New York bar who expressed astonishment at the tactlessness of Ms Stewart, who is known as the “Domestic Diva” in America for her cookery and interior design shows, books and magazines.

“Everything that occurred at trial is due to her own arrogance and hubris,” said Jake Zamansky, a New York securities lawyer. “She was the one who asked her investigators ‘Are you gentlemen done? I have a company to run.’ This is when she was giving her so-called false statements to the government. That irritates people, it makes them think she looks down on them.”

Michael Bachner, a New York securities lawyer, said that Ms Stewart’s lack of remorse post-sentencing contrasted sharply with her demeanour in front of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who heard the case.

“If Judge Cedarbaum was aware of the lack of remorse that she showed after sentencing, compared with the ostensible contrition she showed inside the court before she was sentenced, she would have given her a much greater sentence. Judges like to feel that the defendant has learned a lesson,” Mr Bachner said.

“Nelson Mandela was sentenced for nothing more than being black. She is not being incarcerated because she is a woman but because she has committed a serious crime.”

Ms Stewart was convicted of repeatedly lying to the government over a sale of shares in December 2001.

After being sentenced on Friday to five months in prison and five months of home detention , Ms Stewart issued a public statement referring to her crime as a “small personal matter” that had been “blown out of all proportion”. Mr Bachner said: “It seems strange that you have to teach someone who holds themselves up as the height of etiquette, how to behave in court and in public but you see it all the time.

“Apparently (Martha Stewart) needed to learn how to behave when she’s not in Connecticut.”

Lawyers agreed that in the end, Ms Stewart and her legal team had little to do with Ms Cedarbaum’s ultimate decision. The judge may have been influenced by a move in the US towards changing the sentencing guidelines that will allow judges to make more decisions based on circumstances surrounding a crime.

The fact that she ran a company, employed people and had no previous convictions was taken into account.

Ms Stewart’s conduct after sentencing will not technically affect her chances of success at appeal. The court will exclusively examine the errors said to have been made at the trial.

Nonetheless, lawyers say, the courts are human too. Her demeanour will have been noted and her lawyers are probably not that happy about it.

“This kind of arrogance is consistent of the person that brought her to trial in the first place. Martha Stewart doesn’t seem to have learned a thing,” said Mr Bachner.

You'd best take issue,with many more of the things written about Nelson,besides his" martyrdom.

1) He was NOT arrested and jailed because he is a black! HE WAS AND IS A STINKING COMMIE,WHO WAS A TERRORIST.He was caught,tried,convicted,and jailed because he blew things up and killed people.

2) His crusade re AIDS is worthless;no more than a shakedown a la Jesse Jackson.

3) Under his reign,crime ran rampant and criminals(and I'm talking about ALL manner of crimes...not the least being black on black!) got away with murder;literally.Though,truth to tell,things are worse now,under Mbeki.

4) After only one year of his presidency,even blacks were fed up with him.

There's lots more,but at least the author of this article managed to get it right about Martha.

Nelson Mandela was NOT imprisioned because he is black!! He was the president of the ANC (African National Congress) a communist organization that advocated the violent overthrou of the SA government.

The Politics of Terrorism
Dellums also said that his proudest moment as representative was when he escorted a Communist and convicted terrorist to the House floor to receive a fawning ovation from the U.S. Congress. In the Sixties police caught this terrorist plotting a violent overthrow of government while in possession of a large cache of weapons and enough explosives to kill thousands of people. This terrorist is Nelson Mandela, who is now the President of South Africa.
While Mandela was in prison, his wife Winnie was busy advocating the "necklacing" of other blacks who were disloyal, the practice of forcing a tire filled with gasoline over an unfortunate person and setting it alight. As the victims burned, their families were challenged by the mob to pull the burning tire off. "With our boxes of matches and our necklaces we will liberate this country," Winnie shouted before television cameras. According to sources in South Africa, hundreds died in this manner. International TV crews captured footage of a necklacing where the mob smashed the victim's head with large stones.
Of course, bombing, necklacing, torture, and murder are acceptable if your politics are in order. At most you may become president and at least you will stay out of jail and live comfortably. This is a major plank in the radical manifesto. The only crimes are political crimes. You may commit perjury, molest children, cheat, rob, steal and murder without guilt so long as you are a good radical. The desecration of the rule of law by the black government in South Africa has produced a surge in violent crime that has brought that nation to the verge of anarchy and ruin. The government reserves its moral outrage for the remaining symbols of the former white establishment, not the murderers on the streets.
South Africa's criminal justice system is on the verge of collapse. Over two percent of the total population is behind bars--more than twice the number imprisoned under white rule. South Africa has a murder rate that is seven times greater than that of the United States, with rapes, carjackings and home invasions epidemic. Black on white crime is epidemic. Thirty-four thousand prisoners escaped from jail over the past four years, and many accused are never convicted due to police ineptitude, corruption, or inadequate resources.[19] President Mandela asserts that reports of an increase of crime under his administration is nothing more than propaganda put out by by political opponents. This is another plank in the radical manifesto--"Don't confuse me with the facts."
Nelson Mandela was a leader in a terrorist conspiracy in the Sixties. His organization, the African National Congress (ANC), carried out a campaign of bombings and assassinations in a campaign to overthrow the government. The ANC killed many innocent civilians, as well as several of their own people suspected of disloyalty. The government offered to release Mandela from prison early if he would renounce terrorist acts, but he refused. In May of 1997, the ANC publicly apologized for killing civilians, claiming they did not intend to do it. Forty top ANC officials have applied for amnesty.[20]
Mandela's terrorist past was no secret to Vice President Al Gore and First Lady Hillary Clinton when they attended his presidential inauguration in 1994. Mandela held up his clenched fist, a symbol of the iron rule of Communism. Al and Hillary applauded enthusiastically. Killing civilians doesn't matter as long as you promote the radical agenda. The only crimes are political crimes.

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