Martha Will Clean for You

Martha Stewart has come up with a plan to stay out of jail or at least get out early. She recently approached the Women’s Venture Fund, a New York nonprofit, offering to work 20 hours a week, for one or two years, teaching low-income and minority women to become entrepreneurs. She even created her own curriculum to teach the art and science of cleaning. Good luck with that, Martha. [Source: PRNewswire @ Newsweek]

Documents suggest that the Pentagon is trying to contain the prison abuse scandal. Defense Under Secretary Douglas Feith, who is in charge of setting policy on prisoners and detainees in occupied Iraq, has banned any discussion of the still-classified report on Abu Ghraib, written by Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba, which has circulated around the world. Critics say more worrisome is that the Pentagon is investigating itself, and those that are investigating cannot charge anyone of higher rank than themselves with any wrong-doing; it is forbidden by military regulations. In addition, Sgt. Samuel Provance, who has engaged in telling the truth to reporters has been officially warned to keep quiet, and when he refused to do so, he lost his security clearance and was “flagged” for violating a previous order to keep quiet. That means he is ineligible for promotions, awards, or a security clearance (vital to doing his job in the military). [Source: PRNewswire @ Newsweek]

Parishioners who wore rainbow-colored sashes to Mass in support of gays and lesbians were denied communion in Chicago, while laymen in Minnesota tried to prevent gay Roman Catholics from getting the sacrament. The archbishop of St. Louis has said he would refuse to let John Kerry take Communion, the central sacrament of Catholic inclusion (and lesser bishops in Boston, New Orleans, and Portland, Oregon, have chimed in with similar sentiments) because of his support for stem-cell research and because of his opposition to recriminalizing abortion. The bishop of Colorado Springs has gone further, declaring that anyone who votes for a candidate who favors abortion rights or stem-cell research (or euthanasia/assisted suicide, or gay marriage) will be denied Communion in his diocese. The fact that they didn’t include the death penalty or paedophilia in that list of objectionables is something that should be examined and questioned, if their religion is now going to have a blackmailing aspect on politics. The Pope, apparently, is in favor of the death penalty when circumstances or situations may justify it. [Sources: The New Yorker & The Christian Science Monitor]

Walter Shapiro, a political columnist for USA Today and a reader of blogs, says blogs collectively are “definitely having an impact” on political journalism, “but we haven’t figured out what the impact is…” I think the hope is that we’re forcing traditional journalists to assiduously research their stories and report the facts without the spin. [Source: AJR]