DIVA'S $33M PAYDAY

[Komrade _azul]

November 18, 2004 -- Martha Stewart swept out several offices in the morning, ate her prison lunch — and spent the afternoon in her cell earning $32.7 million from a Wall Street windfall.
Stewart's cellmate earns just 6 cents an hour doing manual labor and chores, but Martha's hourly wage was a cool $4 million for her 8-hour day, at least on paper.

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia stock soared as a result of yesterday's mammoth Sears-Kmart merger, which will spread her popular brands into the nation's Sears stores.

Although Wall Street was also high on the prospect of more mergers involving big stores and brands, Martha isn't likely to sell her company, or let anyone make hostile moves to snatch it away. She controls 93.8 percent of the voting stock and nothing gets done without her approval, even though she's no longer an executive due to her criminal record.

Each time her stock goes up 50 cents, she makes $15 million on paper from her controlling 30 million shares.

The shares jumped $1.09 to $18.49, making her stake worth $556.5 million. It could rise even more by the time she ends her five-month sentence in March.

Meanwhile, there's more deep remorse among other jailbirds locked away in cells in Connecticut, who also have links to the big riches as Kmart acquires Sears.

The Wall Street tycoon at the center of the $11 billion merger — 41-year-old Ed Lampert — was almost kidnapped two years ago by three bungling crackheads who were planning a ransom. Lampert stalled them by promising to give them $5 million cash, causing the bunglers to spend several hours getting high while debating the deal.

They wound up releasing Lampert in a Connecticut suburb near his home, and left with nothing, only to get busted within days and be jailed on Lampert's careful observations.

And Lampert? He owns half of Kmart's stock and 8.9 percent of Sears — so he collected a cool $883 million windfall for the day on soaring shares in the two companies. His holdings in the deal total $7 billion


http://www.nypost.com/news/nationalnews/34414.htm

[Cheswick2.0]

1. good for her

There is nothing rightwingers hate more than a rich powerful democratic woman.

I only wish they had the honesty to arrest and prosecute the real corporate criminals like Ken Lay.

[Komrade _azul]

2. Good wages if you can get it.

What I wouldn't do for that kind of paycheck, should have taken interior decorating,

[TheDebbieDee]

3. ITA, Cheswick. The Enron swindlers should have been taken

care of long before Martha Stewart was even questioned about that crappy $50,000 stock trade.

[daleo]

5. Methinks Bush will pardon them

Judging by today's pardons, all white collar crime. Kenny boy will cop a plea, then get pardoned. But he will implicate some hapless stooge fall-guy. Maybe a janitor or something.

[L84TEA]

4. GO MARTHA..GO MARTHA...IT'S YER BIRTHDAY!

:party:

[progressivebydesign]

6. More egging on the Class War by republicans...

.. they know how to manipulate the class war so perfectly. Make the ne'er do wells feel bitter and jealous and angry about their own situation, and fueling dislike of the "elites" (read democrats/liberals). The GOP paints themselves as the party of the people (wait! weren't WE the party of the people?), and offers up good ol' (gazillionaire, yalie, frat boy, oil monied, green plaid golf pants wearin') George Bush.

EVEN THO.. Kenny Lay, Dick Cheney, and all Bush's criminal pals are making TONS right now, and have avoided prison, where they belong.

[prodigal_green]

7. She worked for it and

plenty of other people are making money off her too.

She was targeted as a powerful, visible woman. I hope she teams up with Susan MacDougal when she is done and works to better the lives of women who are imprisoned.

[DS1]

15. No, her minions worked for it. Martha's a witch by any standard.

[uncle ray]

16. you forgot to mention the lying.

she went to jail for lying to investigators. don't forget it. i don't care if she decorates the dali lama's hut, she's still a liar, which makes everything else irrelevant.

i wish someone shoud do something to help my mother, who is imprisoned to freakin matha stewart tv shows, magazines, housewares, all that crap. when my mothers on her deathbed with piles of musty magazines and crusty VHS tapes of martha stewart living...martha will be living high in the lap of luxury.

i will gladly admit my resentment for people that do so much to bring down civilisation as a whole for the sake of personal achievement as matha stewart has. she is just as bad as any of the enron execs, she never stops using her power to get more power. it's obvious from her post trial comments that she feels she did absolutely nothing wrong, she shouldn't be let out of prison until she actually shows some remorse.

[displacedtexan]

8. She's still way behind (it's all relative, I guess).

Martha lost a ton of $ when she was accused of lying (by claiming her innocence, of all things).

Then there were the legal bills (still piling up, I imagine).

I'm sure she'll be accused of wrongdoing in this windfall stock profit thing, too.

I hope she gets even somehow.

[Justitia]

9. I've been hearing this "refrain" all day. Ken Lay makes as much

every time he sits down / stands up - which he does OUTSIDE OF PRISON.

I'm in Houston, trust me the local crooks running around free here have got it all over Martha in her jail cell.

Not as inflammatory though huh?

[SemperEadem]

10. Good for Martha

she owns the stock, so why shouldn't she get the windfall?

I heard on the nightly business report news brief on pbs that it was Walmart, and not Kmart, that was merging.

anyone see the Frontline expose on Walmart Monday night?

[74dodgedart]

11. Good thing Bush gave her a tax cut...

[BiggJawn]

12. wow....

I'm all verklemmpt!

She made as much in 36 seconds as I barely make in a whole year.

And she's in jail while Kenny-Boy roams free. American Justice in action.

No, I DON'T like Martha, and her having a Vagina has jack-shit to do with it.

[hatrack]

13. Cable Clinton-Hateathon is over, so here's another famous person to hate

Whatever it takes to distract from another $800 billion in the federal debt ceiling, a sputtering economy and interminable mayhem in Iraq.

This is such predictable bullshit.

[proudbluestater]

14. Good for her!

She's probably getting the last laugh.

When does Kenny Boy start his term? Oh, I forgot. He still works for Bush as an energy advisor.