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TechnoratiAs Richard Nixon used to say, let me make something perfectly clear: Eliot Spitzer is a world-class hypocrite and fool, who more or less asked for the political and personal catastrophe that has befallen him.
That being said, the real Spitzer scandal has little to do with his apparent habit of paying young women for sex. Here's what really needs to be investigated:
Spitzer's fall was triggered not by his visits to prostitutes, but by banks reporting "suspicious" transactions of his to the IRS.
A deposit of $10,000 or more in cash automatically triggers a suspicious activity report. It's unlikely that someone as financially sophisticated as Spitzer would transfer $10,000 in cash at once to pay for illicit sex, given that he knew full well doing so would trigger an automatic report to the IRS.
It's a violation of the relevant statute to structure multiple cash transactions with the intent of avoiding the $10,000 automatic reporting requirement (by, for example, depositing $5,000 on the same day with two different banks), but it's quite unclear whether whatever Spitzer did would normally lead to the filing of a suspicious activity report, since such subterfuges are very difficult to detect unless one is already looking for them. This raises the possibility that Spitzer's financial activities were being closely monitored.
It's hardly a stretch to imagine that Spitzer, a man with countless enemies in the financial world, would be the target of such a vendetta.
This in turn raises a host of questions about how and why the subsequent IRS investigation turned into an FBI sting operation. The story being given out by the feds is that Spitzer's financial affairs were investigated initially because of the possibility the transactions involved bribes or kickbacks of some sort.
That's pretty unbelievable. Spitzer is an heir to an immense family fortune, and the amounts of cash in question would almost surely not be large enough to create a reasonable suspicion of bribery in this instance.
Be that as it may, it's far more probable that what happened was something like this: An IRS office is tipped off by officials at various banks that Spitzer is depositing a few thousand dollars in different accounts within a day or two. Realizing it has a potential political tiger by the tail, the IRS then contacts the Department of Justice and the FBI.
At the DOJ, the Public Integrity Section launches an investigation. This unit itself has come under intense criticism during the Bush administration for investigating nearly six times more Democratic politicians than Republicans. Furthermore, many of the section's investigations have seemed timed to coincide with elections and the like.
With a little digging, the feds soon establish that Spitzer is seeing high-priced call girls. This is a petty misdemeanor in most jurisdictions, but the DOJ goes ahead and constructs an elaborate and costly sting operation, for the express purpose of catching one of the country's most powerful Democratic politicians committing a petty crime.
In the course of the sting, Spitzer makes a really big mistake: He pays a call girl to travel from New York to Washington. This puts him in technical violation of an 85-year-old federal law, the Mann Act, which has a long history of being used for politically motivated prosecutions of the worst sort, such as those of the boxer Jack Johnson and movie legend Charlie Chaplin.
Only then is the existence of the investigation leaked to the media.
In sum, this whole sordid business smells bad. One need have no sympathy for Spitzer to recognize that there's a real chance what we're dealing with is a classic abuse of the criminal justice system, designed to take down a powerful political enemy.
That possibility deserves serious investigation - something we can hope the media will get around to undertaking, once they tire of feeding the public salacious details regarding the erotic adventures of Eliot Spitzer.
Paul Campos is a professor of law at the University of Colorado. He can be reached at paul.campos@colorado.edu.
© 2008 The E.W. Scripps Co.
59 Comments so far
Show Alleveryone should check out Greg Palast's piece, at
http://www.gregpalast.com/
which starts out:
While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an 'escort' $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush's new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.
Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there's a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush's man Bernanke was using ours.
This week, Bernanke's Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks' mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.
Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers' bordello: Eliot Spitzer.
more at http://www.gregpalast.com/
if the story has scrolled off the main page, use this link instead:
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/#more-1979
As far as the Targeting goes, of course. But not necessarily by the Feds.
Note that the stories all say that it was his BANK that brought his "Questionable" transactions to the attention of the Government.
The Same Banks that he, as Prosecutor, had vigorously investigated for Financial Fraud.
They probably had Teams of Private Investigators following him around for Years.
A certain Trial now playing out in California reveals the sort of illegal activities which can be purchased from the right "private investigators". His phone was probably tapped by the Banks long before the FBI got there.
I suspect that part of the "investigation" also consisted of warning all the Republican Customers to find another prostitution service prior to the public disclosure.
And, of course, there is the fact that news of the investigation was conveniently Leaked to the press at a strategic moment for those corporations hoping to get "NAFTA: The Sequel" off the Six O'Clock News ...
vaudree: "RE: -
So is disaster capitalism.
Prostitutes get beaten, raped and robbed on a regular basis - and many are murdered by their customers. A lot of these mass murderers focus on prostitutes."
Kids with guns kill others kids in schools, but does that mean the institution itself is "bad"?
I didn't make value judgments. I merely made the point that as an institution, prostitution in many ways serves a useful function to society. It provides employment for some women who may otherwise have difficulty getting employment; it is a sexual outlet and/or provides a level of intimacy for some men who may otherwise have none, etc.
vaudree: "RE: -
So is disaster capitalism.
Prostitutes get beaten, raped and robbed on a regular basis - and many are murdered by their customers. A lot of these mass murderers focus on prostitutes."
I didn't make value judgments. I merely made the point that as an institution, prostitution in many ways serves a useful function to society. Kids with guns kill others kids in schools too, but does that mean the institution itself is "bad"?
Was he targeted? Of course he was targeted, but he was also a hypocrite just like those
holier than thou Republicans who got caught going after little boys and homosexuals in
bathrooms. I would love to see "Kristen" up close because I've never seen a p*&^y worth
$5,500 per hour. (Or per day for that matter) She must know things us poor boys have never
heard of.
We are all targeted.
Quoting from an article by David Walsh entitled, "New York Governor Eliot Spitzer Forced to Resign in Sex Scandal" --
"The real concerns in this episode center on the methods used by the Bush administration's Justice Department and their implications for the entire political system. What the facts and the context strongly suggest is that Spitzer was targeted by powerful enemies in the government, who act without restraint and on behalf of a definite political agenda.
"With its enormous financial and technological resources, and new-found powers under laws enacted in the name of the bogus "war on terror," the federal government has the means to "get the goods" on its opponents and either intimidate them into silence, destroy their careers, or have them locked away in prison. Political scores are settled in this manner and prominent figures eliminated in bloodless "hits."
"How many others are under investigation? What kind of impact will the set-up of Spitzer have on American political life, where those who live "blameless lives" are few and far between? ...
"... one needs to ask, at what level did this sting operation receive approval? Was it approved by Attorney General Michael Mukasey? Was George W. Bush involved?
"The affair became the property of the Department of Justice's Public Integrity Section, notorious under the Bush administration for its investigation of 5.6 times as many Democrats as Republicans. ...
"This is all about politics and the way in which politics is conducted in the US at present. With great fanfare, amid endless claims about the need to protect freedom and democracy, the US government launched the "war on terror," tightened banking regulations to fight "terrorist financing," and what has it accomplished? Involving the governor of New York in a sordid sex scandal! ...
"The Spitzer affair is terribly American, reflective of a country where social and class issues are not yet fought out openly, but through coded messages, metaphors and scandals. Meanwhile, the working population is disenfranchised and forced to choose between one or another millionaire politician.
The increasing resort to police-state methods to regulate political differences demonstrates that those social and class issues are threatening ever more insistently to burst through to the surface."
Here's the entire article by David Walsh -- http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/sptz-m13.shtml
RE: It was Spitzer today; will the fed be snooping through your financial transactions next?
Only if they need a laugh.
Hey, with all the outsourcing, Canadians arn't safe either. If an American company has the contract, the US law has access to your information.
Seems that Spitzer has knocked NAFTA-gate off of the American networks - just when the true story is starting to come out.
Going from "his whole sordid business smells bad", in the original article, to what MiMicCC explains is the true originating cause … … … "our" Illegal banking cartel using our govt to punish "whistle blower" who is doing his job, and serving the public against banker's illegitimate greed and corruption.
It stinks to high heaven now, and
God had to get a new mortgage with the same assholes
Namaste
… … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … & … ML King … … Inspiration … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — MLK
It was Spitzer today; will the fed be snooping through your financial transactions next?
"Sort of explains why Bush needs warrentless wiretapping. "
Did I miss something? Were there no warrants for the wiretaps in the case being discussed?
Oh my god ! A rich 48 year old man having sex with a cute 22 year old woman ! The horror ! The horror ...
Remember:
buy locally (DC has plenty of cute women)
pay cash (always have $5000 in your wallet for emergencies)
RE: Sort of explains why Bush needs warrentless wiretapping.
Well of course Canuck Chuck! Though I think you knew that from the beginning (when Bush first asked for those powers).
BTW - what was Nixon's favourite name for Trudeau again?
PS. My guineapigs don't think any of them are good.
Sort of explains why Bush needs warrentless wiretapping. Gather the plentiful dirt on his political enemies, then blackmail them
Spitzer is such a putz. Who in their right mind pays that much for sex anyways? No pussy is THAT good.
RE: - Of course Spitzer was "targeted". Everyone who rattles the big cages as much as Spitzer did during a career either is being, has been, or will be, "targeted". The point is, they got him,
Daniel David - that is my opinion exactly! Was talking to a friend and she said that Spitzer would have been better off having an affair than paying for sex - especially due to the conflict of interest.
Seems like all this is happening just before the SPP (ie NAFTA on Steroids) meeting in New Orleans in April - NAFTA-gate, McCain's foreign trip, and now Eliot P. Ness (as he is being referred to on The Hour). So now all the news agencies have people covering Clinton and Obama (in case either says anything new), someone covering McCain on his trip and someone sticking around to get all the kinky details in this case. I wonder why they broke the story now rather than a couple months earlier or a couple of months later. It is not just that they were on a search and destroy mission concerning Spitzer's career - the timing of the release of information is also important.
What do you know about the Lieutenant Governor David Paterson - he seems awfully friendly with the Repugs, as far as we are being told.
RE: - 1) We ought to try to attach this to Hillary, both because of her political ties to Spitzer in New York, and because his nighttime escapades remind us of Bill. and
Yeah, the comparisons are already being made. If Clinton is smart, she will make sure that the name "Kenneth Starr" comes to mind any time someone tries to bring dirt her way or, as in this case, talks about stuff that is NOYB - the "Y" being all of us. Clinton has already brought up "Starr" before this happened so the strategy is already in play.
RE: - Spitzer has no one to blame but himself and whether he was targeted or not,is totally irrevelant!
I wouldn't say that it is irrelevant, Paul Revere, though I do concede that Spitzer has no one to blame but himself. I doubt that this targeting of Spitzer is retaliation so much as fear of what Spitzer might do in the future if left in place - and also to serve as a warning to anyone who wishes to continue his work.
There is a plus that the late Judge David Ramsay is Canadian or there would be a lot of comparisons on CNN and FOX between Ramsay and Spitzer (video):
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2004/06/01/ramsay_hearing040601.html
They don't have the video on line but the first of his victims to come forward did not realize he was a judge until she was facing him in court and he was making decisions affecting her life.
RE: - I must admit up front that I find politicians amoral. As such, they are likely to take bribes, betray their friends and families and take the easy road on any question.
JClientelle, I may not agree with all of his opinions on issues, but Chuck Cadman was offered a bribe of a million dollars to vote a certain way and he didn't take the bribe - even though he knew he was dying and died a few weeks later. Besides NAFTA-gate, Chuck Cadman is the other big issue being talked about in Canada right now.
There are good and bad in all professions. The need to raise so much money to get elected/reelected does make it a bit harder for politicians to resist temptation, though. What you need is electoral reforms where you make it illegal for corporations to fund political campaigns and limit personal donations to $5,000.
RE: - These transactions apparently sufficed for a federal wiretap warrant to be duly issued by a federal judge. It seems that based upon discovering that this fellow was paying an affluent sex worker, the government THEN proceeded to target her employer's business
That is what makes it so dirty looking is that the whole thing smells of Spitzer blackmailing the very places he was charged with taking down. Though, if that was what Spitzer was doing, why pay for it! I am sure that some of these businesses would cover the cost of keeping him happy if it meant staying in business.
In a way, though, Spitzer better have been "serviced" since if he was employing the sex trade worker as a spy, it breaks more laws.
RE: - Prostitution is functional, in a sociological context (serves a useful function in society), else it would not have existed for so long.
So is disaster capitalism.
Prostitutes get beaten, raped and robbed on a regular basis - and many are murdered by their customers. A lot of these mass murderers focus on prostitutes.
Well, now, maybe since his life has been ruined, Spitzer will tell all he knows. Seems he has enough money to survive, and doesn't really need to work - why not a tell all book about 9/11, about corrupt politicians - I still believe he is one of the few politicians with any integrity, his quick resignation, as opposed to Larry Craig, who still is in Congress, was evidence. I'm hoping Spitzer will get his revenge.
Poor little rich kid. Now how the hell was his inherited fortune made? Sorry the dipwit betrayed his wife and children and his fall was entirely of his own doing, he got caught. Don't make excuses for him, he has got all manner of toadies doing that for him. He is a hypocrite, plain and simple right up there with all the tv tub thumpers and those self proclaimed men of righteousness. Get another Governor, they are a dime a dozen these days.
Though it is considered deviant behavior, prostitution is functional in a sociological context (serves a useful function in society), else it would not have existed for so long.
Spitzer should have known better and acted more discreetly. Beyond the parochial concerns of NY state and revenge sought by Wall Streeters, he might have made an excellent candidate for President in 2012 or later, but now the Neo's have gotten him out of the way. In that respect, the fascists have won a major coup against someone they were no doubt afraid of.
I would guess he was targeted. But if people broke the law digging this stuff up, then they should be punished too.
Illegal wire taps, entrapment, justice system being used to target opponents. I would consider those crimes worse than using a prostitute.
After all, we know Bush and his administratiion lied through their teeth to get us into a war that has killed over a million people. And is not even being impeached. Throw the fact that they did 9/11 on top of it.
Where's the justice?
If he had spent a few thousand on dinner, gifts, theater tickets and fancy hotel rooms, it would have been romance--tawdry, but legal. But since he gave her the cash instead, it's a crime. Bush and Cheney can screw three countries--Afghanistan, Iraq and the US--for fun and profit and get away with it. Those who point to Spitzer's self-righteous hypocrisy have obviously forgotten Bush's rhetoric of the past 8 years. And unlike Clinton, Vitter and Craig, he basically 'fessed up immediately. Giuliani's hijinks as mayor were at least as bad, but he belongs to the right party.
What did Spitzer due to get the Feds upset with him enough to call him out on this. How about this oped in the washington Post last month about the sub-prime crisis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/13/AR200802...
"Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which the federal government was turning a blind eye.
Let me explain: The administration accomplished this feat through an obscure federal agency called the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC). The OCC has been in existence since the Civil War. Its mission is to ensure the fiscal soundness of national banks. For 140 years, the OCC examined the books of national banks to make sure they were balanced, an important but uncontroversial function. But a few years ago, for the first time in its history, the OCC was used as a tool against consumers.
In 2003, during the height of the predatory lending crisis, the OCC invoked a clause from the 1863 National Bank Act to issue formal opinions preempting all state predatory lending laws, thereby rendering them inoperative. The OCC also promulgated new rules that prevented states from enforcing any of their own consumer protection laws against national banks. The federal government's actions were so egregious and so unprecedented that all 50 state attorneys general, and all 50 state banking superintendents, actively fought the new rules.
But the unanimous opposition of the 50 states did not deter, or even slow, the Bush administration in its goal of protecting the banks. In fact, when my office opened an investigation of possible discrimination in mortgage lending by a number of banks, the OCC filed a federal lawsuit to stop the investigation. "
And then there was his battle against the monoline insurers and big banks last month
http://www.nypost.com/php/pfriendly/print.php?url=http://www.nypost.com/...
Mess with the bankers and insurance companies, and they issue orders to government to deal with the problem.
And you thought all the laws since 2001 were to prevent terrorism. No wonder everyone in Congress is terrorized.
I am dumbfounded by the Spitzer mess, he must be a very ill man who needs help for this "compulsion", for lack of a better word. I mean, how else to explain it? Yes, there is a great deal of joy (definitely schadenfreude) in Mudville (sometimes mistakenly referred to as Wall St.) but we already know those bastards are sick themselves.
This whole thing is very sad, in many, many ways.
Of course he was targeted. Unlike the former democratic Alabama governor railroaded into jail by the repubs, he made it easy for them and actually did something wrong. It isn't just the repubs. The Clintons would nail him for this if they thought it might help the campaign.
Beyond the self-destruction of a splendid career by fulfilling the Peter Principle and getting himself promoted one step beyond his greatest competence (in other words getting elected governor which he really was not very good at instead of staying attorney general which he was very very good at)the saddest part of this whole affair was imagining Elliot having to confront his wife of 28 years and three daughters about his activities and the hurt and humiliation they must feel.
May they all be able to survive this terribly stupid blunder that he made.
I can see legal prostitution would be alright, but does it really have to be taxed? How much tax for which sex act? Or would it be taxed by the hour? One and a half tax for three-somes?
If it's legalized, will the Madams be allowed to recruit at our high schools and colleges? ___ Churches? Now there's an idea, bingo and sex night at the local church, the money goes for a new rectum-ory
Here are some excerpts from an article at the wsws.org by Bill Van Auken entitled: "Politically Directed Dragnet Snares New York Governor Spitzer" —
"Whether the entire matter began merely as a routine bank investigation is open to question. It is hard to believe that no one knew about Spitzer's patronizing of prostitutes, given his high public profile and 24-hour-a-day security detail.
"What would be the political motive for setting such a trap? On his way up the political ladder, Spitzer made some powerful and bitter enemies. As New York state attorney general, many of his targets were on Wall Street, including New York Stock Exchange President Richard Grasso, whom he publicly censured for his $187.5 million salary, leading to Grasso's resignation. He threatened such figures as Goldman Sachs' former chairman John Whitehead and Hank Greenburg, former chairman of insurance giant AIG.
"US Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue called his legal tactics 'the most egregious and unacceptable form of intimidation that we have seen in this country in a long time.' It is hardly unlikely that not a few people with substantial political influence in Washington had an interest in exacting retribution for these methods.
"Within Washington itself, there are also clearly identifiable motives for pursuing this case. Under the Bush administration, the US Department of Justice has, as New York attorney Scott Heron pointed out on the Harpers Magazine web site, prosecuted 5.2 Democrats for every Republican, and many of these Republicans were pursued only because they were caught up in cases against Democrats. Moreover, these prosecutions have in many instances been timed to coincide with the electoral cycle. Such was the case with the corruption prosecution of Alabama's Democratic governor, Don Siegelman, which Republican insiders have indicated was instigated by Bush's former chief advisor, Karl Rove.
"The controversy over the firing of nine US Attorneys that gripped Washington last year stemmed in large part from similar cases in which Rove and others sought to promote politically motivated prosecutions of Democrats. Considering the peculiar course taken by the Spitzer case, there is ample reason to suspect that it represents just such a political hit job by the Bush administration. …
"Under the pretext of waging a 'global war on terror,' the Bush administration has demanded unrestricted access to this information, and the Democratic Party has acquiesced again and again. The Spitzer case shows to what effect such information can be used.
"If a politically powerful and immensely wealthy individual like Spitzer cannot protect himself from this increasingly Orwellian state spying apparatus, what about the average citizen?"
Click here for the entire wsws.org article - http://www.wsws.org/articles/2008/mar2008/spit-m12.shtml
Note: I gave myself the username "wsws.org website" because the reporting and commentary at wsws.org is *invariably* light-years better — more meaningful, more insightful, more accurate, more "first-order" in the questions it asks — than at sites such as commondreams.org, counterpunch.org or similar so-called left-wing sites.
Perhaps commondreams.org readers would like to check out the wsws.org website. I'm sure if you do you'll read it every day.
Finally, I find that a great many of the comments offered by commondreams.org *readers* are noticeably further to the left than are the politics of the editors and founders of commondreams.org!
I don't think he was targeted for his interest in investigation 9/11 as some have alleged.
http://www.nymegaphone.com/node/24
Prescient New York real estate baron Larry Silverstein became primary lease-holder on the World Trade Center a mere six weeks before 9/11. It had never changed hands before. For a down payment, Silverstein put up only $14 million of his own money, and his friends at the powerful investment bank Blackstone Group kicked in another $111 million. After 9/11, Silverstein demanded a whopping $7 billion insurance payout, in the form of two $3.5 billion payments. He argued the two different plane crashes were two separate "occurrences" of two separate attacks.
[snip] ... as attorney general, Spitzer got involved behind the scenes, and in the courts, filing a amicus curiae ("friend of the court") brief on Silverstein's behalf on Jan. 15, 2003.
At least Spitzer paid for his screw ( so it seems)that seems so much better than having the overwelming majority of the politians who take great pleasure in ripping off us citizens and screwing us and then asking us to pay for the privilage.
As soon as the the Spitzer affair became public the republicans were demanding a resignation,this is an offence that had no victim, and they said if he wouldn't resign they would start impeachment hearings ,how ironic,while the Democrats wouldn't hear of impeachment for the willful distruction of our most sacred rights under the constitution,the mass murder of our service men the illigal war,the countless lies,the torture,the complete contempt of congress as exhibited by the current executive branch,Republicans have trampled the rule of law in this country with the complicity of the Democrats.
Can no Democrat come out from their hiding place and support governer Spitzer who has shown that he supports citizens in overwellming ways or are they just going to hide and continue to take the bribes of the greedy wallstreeters ?
Please governer Spitzer do not resign even if it is only to show the complete hypocracy of our current rotten croney capatilist system,that service will be invaluble to your historical legacy !
I cannot believe that in 2008 sex still has shock or blackmail value.
Lord Trigo - you have a good point. No boy or girl dreams of growing up to be high class hooker. But is it always more disgusting than working in a poultry processing plant or more mind numbing than working in data entry? Pays a lot better.
Besides, since ads imply you have to give diamonds and jewelry to your spouse to get a kiss, isn't that getting pretty close to prostitution?
Prostitution has some very bad health and psychological downsides, but it should not be treated as a crime per se. Some countries help prostitutes to maintain their health and safety. Much better. And it makes the blackmail threat less powerful.
Still, I believe sex is best with love and commitment. But that's just for me.
Were it not for the man's record in prosecuting folks for prostitution + enlarging the legal scope of this group of crimes -- and boasting about it as well -- I would think the matter too trivial for any response. But by far outweighing any sentiment that, hoist by his own petard, he got what was coming to him, there is a really serious problem. As it turns out, since 9/11 every bank customer is secretly assigned a Risk Assessment Score (on secret criteria, and with no legal method of contestation & banks are subject to criminal prosecution if they provide any info on yours), and that (all?) elected officials are automatically given the equivalent of a top score. Based on this "anti-terrorism" intelligence procedure -- which even the New York Stazte Attorney General didn't know about, a handful of trivial and apparently legal money transfers -- no more than 80k over several months for a guy whose annual income is $2million was targeted. These transactions apparently sufficed for a federal wiretap warrant to be duly issued by a federal judge. It seems that based upon discovering that this fellow was paying an affluent sex worker, the government THEN proceeded to target her employer's business; and to commence a prosecution thereunder which in turn provided -- in effect retroactively -- grounds to expose his nefarious behavior and effectively force (because of general American craziness over sex)his resignation. What this confirms is that the bulk of the adult citizenry is now subject to ongoing detailed scrutiny over all their financial transactions; and that any "irregularities" in any of them can -- at the entirely arbitrary whim of federal officials -- provide the basis for secret searches of our private communications. I didn't know that the technological basis existed for this level of oversight but it seems that no matter how many billions of bank transactions there are in this country every day, the government has the practical ability to sift out whichever individual(s) it chooses to [on whatever ground it sees fit] for this precisely targeted surveillance, that it is at least facially legal for it to do so, and that it is already doing so. PS To the best of my knowledge, in exchange for this alteration in citizen-government relations, not a single terrorist has been uncovered: the only known person to be brought down was the Governor of New York.
Eliot, you're a dumb shit!, but a great crusader against the moneyed elites, hence the sting. You should have known better and expected it, especially after how you were hounded about "Troopergate". You of all people should know that if you step on toes, you're gonna get kicked. I had great respect for you and just feel betrayed and saddened by your fall. I wanted to vote for you for President someday, but not in America.
Let's consider the law. I'm no expert, but you should have been aware of the Mann Act since it has been used as a political weapon for decades. Next, let's consider the escort service or prostitution ring , if you prefer. Doesn't it seem outright criminal that it is illegal for one person to pay another for sex without commitment. That it what the payment is for - to compensate for the lack of commitment. It is a victimless crime (if the woman is engaged voluntarily) that hurts no one, but benefits both. Should an act like this be illegal just because it angers God? and His righteous minions? Legalize it, regulate it and tax it!
There are many more pressing problems to resolve than to sting a horny public crusader who has made a career of fighting against the financial rapes that are being perpetrated on nearly every citizen every day.
How can anyone who's been awake for the past eight years even pose such a f**king stupid question?
Of course he was targeted! NOTHING the anti-American neocultists do is by accident. Understand? Nothing. Ever.
Even the timing was no "accident." Bush vetoes anti-torture bill. Then, FBI Director Muller admits, again, his boys and girls committed tens of thousands of felonies.
Just a day later - look at that! The FBI scores the Gov of NY! Screw innocent until proven guilty - they just, basically, assassinate him in public. No criminal charges, no indictments - just accusations and the assumption of guilt.
Oh, gee, do you think Spitz was targeted? Do ya think the 8 fired US Attorneys were targeted? Do you thing Joe Wilson might have been targeted? Yeesh...
"Ya think an affair is inexpensive?"
Well, noting is "free", point taken.
He is guilty of out-sourcing ~LORD TRIGO~ That's the shame of it all.
I can't believe Spitzer had to import a high-dollar call girl all the way from New York. He was in Washington, D.C., goddamnit! There's no $5500-an-hour hookers in the nation's capitol? Kind of ironic that the brothel was called the Emperor's Club, though.
They should legalize prostitution anyway. There's no sane reason to draw a line between mind-numbing, soul-sucking work that's done with your sex organ and mind-numbing, soul-sucking work that's done with the rest of your body. Just about every mainstream corporate job requires that you sell your time, life energy and integrity. Why do we single out sex workers for condemnation?
Ya think an affair is inexpensive?
"extramarital sex,"
Paying for it. It wasn't an affair.
He may have been targeted, he totally pissed off Lou Dobbs for one. Larry Flynt, the publisher of Hustler magazine, has a book and strong evidence on many of the Washington elite who frequent the high roller cat houses.
I think it's quite possible that Spitzer is just the first of several of the high and the mighty, who will be standing in front of a mike, their faithful, wide eyed wives standing by their side, telling us that they erred, but it was just for fun.
You know, I hear on the news that Spitzer spent over $80 thousand dollars for high roller sex. Gheeze, some of the best sex I ever enjoyed was in the back seat of a Buick and the drive-in cost a buck a carload. The IRS or FBI didn't even bother to ask us about it.
For anyone who still believes it does not matter how Spitzer was brought down, check out this article by Dave Lindorff.
Spitzer Bust Provides A Warning Regarding NSA Spying by Dave Lindorff
http://www.opednews.com/articles/1/opedne_dave_lin_080311_spitzer_bust_p...
Was Spitzer Targeted? Answer: Dah!
Reminds me of other dictatorships. Often they don't directly prosecute opponents and dissenters for saying the "wrong" things. Instead, they get them (sometimes with planted evidence, sometimes just by watching really closely) for black market transactions, tax fraud, extramarital sex, all those things that lots of people do but most people don't get prosecuted for.
Sex is only a career-ending move if the powers that be want to end your career. That's why Vitter and Craig didn't have to resign.
I hope the Senate Judiciary Committee follows up on this abuse of DOJ power (and waste of time and energy and money), along with the Seligman case. But I'm not holding my breath.
Campos sez: "... there's a real chance what we're dealing with is a classic abuse of the criminal justice system, designed to take down a powerful political enemy.
That possibility deserves serious investigation - something we can hope the media will get around to undertaking ... ."
I always enjoy these satire pieces on CD. Media ... investigation ... hoo, boy. Good one!
I must admit up front that I find politicians amoral. As such, they are likely to take bribes, betray their friends and families and take the easy road on any question. That being said, was Spitzer targetted? I'll say yes until they reveal the names of clients 1-8, or 1-50.
What Spitzer did was arrogant, careless and very damaging to his daughters. However, I do not think going to prostitutes on his own dime did much actual harm to the public, especially when compared with the good he did as Attorney General. Main problem is the DISTRACTION FACTOR.
Our politicians, including Bill Clinton, get away with authorizing, committing and suborning mass murder, torture, looting, grand theft, war crimes and serious violations of international and human rights laws. Little journalistic attention is paid. There are no legal consequences, ever. Lots of them should be arrested.
But sex? Political death sentence. Hypocrites B-Z get to stand up and excoriate hypocrite A.
The press has like a snow day. No work to do. Effortless reporting and wide-eyed non-stop gossip is provided for the papers and TV news for weeks. They will masticate the same two facts all day long and subject us to their smacking lips and slobbering speculations.
They will not cover the danger that we will bomb Iran or declare martial law. Too complicated. Too facty.
Please tell your news sources that we do not want media to be dominated by sex scandals beyond reporting essential new facts as they occur.
Spitzer's fall is payback for his corporate corruption investigations and serves as a threat (as if any is needed) to Congress to keep impeachment off the table, lest the dirt obtained through warrantless wiretapping be used against them. Our "representatives" always seem to be shaking with fear.(I posted some of this on dailynightly.msnbc too).
Paul Revere said (above, not THE Paul Revere) whether Spitzer was targeted or not is irrelevant. To who?? It is certainly relevant to me. If this was picked up by illegal wiretapping then, ohh it most certainly is relevant to every American.
In this sad time in America, impeachment is appropriate only for misdeeds involving (even consensual)sex. War, torture, illegal wiretapping, war profiteeing--no biggie. Impeachment has to be off the table. It's insane.
Earthian speculated "Of course the illegal spying by the Bush administration could also have either uncovered this originally, or be a part in the operation. If they can spy on anyone without a court warrent, why wouldn't they use that capacity to uncover the misdeeds of their political enemies?"
Yup.
I'm sick of seeing these guys get a pass from the public for these so-called 'victimless' crimes. The real problem here is that the minute someone's got the goods on you, you are vulnerable to BLACKMAIL.
Your political life can then be called by whoever has the power to out you for whatever it is you've been doing. That was my real problem with Slick Willie, very few mentions in the press of his exposing himself to blackmail, although apparently the Israelis had tapped into his phone sex sessions. And Dubya looks/acts like a man in mortal fear of outing.
These people are our employees. Do we really want to pay for this high-level BS ?
And we shouldn't say "so what, it's just sex". Remember, Clinton was allegedly on the phone ordering bombs to be dropped on Bosnia while Monica was pleasuring him under the table. Do you think the persons the bombs fell on would think there was no connection between those events ?
Yo! BoricuaPower!Do you mean coop, as in chicken coop? Or coup, as in political coup d'etat? It's somewhat difficult to take you seriously my friend.
Spitzer was targeted, but he didn't have to paint a bull's-eye on his chest! The man clearly has issues of an intense psychoanalytic nature. It's too bad. I thought he was doing good work to counter the greedheads.
Just like the big guy himself-when you get up into these high power positions and the money guys hate you-you gotta keep your pecker in your pants!
Of course the illegal spying by the Bush administration could also have either uncovered this originally, or be a part in the operation. If they can spy on anyone without a court warrent, why wouldn't they use that capacity to uncover the misdeeds of their political enemies?
Spitzer was almost certainly targeted. With this in mind, what brought about his "failure of paranoia"? He was someone I would have been happy to
see as a presidential candidate, and it is excedingly frustrating to know
that his own lack of wariness brought about his own downfall...but under the
circumstances, how could one NOT be wary? None of us are perfect, but I think most of us would be more cautious.
Spitzer has no one to blame but himself and whether he was targeted or not,is totally irrevelant!
Targeting is believable...however when you are out to destroy others you need to be squeaky clean yourself and there he failed miserably... His crime was mostly stupidity with a bit of arrogance mixed in
Of course Spitzer was "targeted". Everyone who rattles the big cages as much as Spitzer did during a career either is being, has been, or will be, "targeted". The point is, they got him, probably in a way they did not expect and are now delighted about as a lucky fluke.
The other points are:
1) We ought to try to attach this to Hillary, both because of her political ties to Spitzer in New York, and because his nighttime escapades remind us of Bill. and
2) We need a new "sheriff of Wall Street". Very soon. Obama as president could appoint one and probably would, if we can get him elected.
I heard Alan Dershowitz on NPR/KPCC last night making similar allegations of nefarious dealings by IRS/DOJ. While I have great disagreements with him on torture, I acknowledge his legal expertise and tend to agree with his point of view. What mystifies me is that this is not, once again, the subject of Democratic debate. Once again, the Dems are so afraid of the Reps that they will not take issue with obvious malfeasance on their part.
I would like to see some clear allegations of malfeasance on the DOJ/IRS.
From another perspective, this fall from grace for Spitzer is yet another Wake-Up call for all of us, U.S. citizen or otherwise, American or otherwise, that there is a movement of Consciousness which is emerging to alert us that things are changing on a level not known for probably eons. Witness the popularity of Oprah Winfrey's free class with Eckhart Tolle on his book, A New Earth. There were over 1 million people who went online a week ago to participate in this class. If you are not aware of this, please check it out on oprah.com. Whether you have a spiritual or religious(very different approaches to Truth) or atheist/agnostic approach to life, this is a phenomenon to be considered.
I am committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
"... ENJOYS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT!! "
Can you name anyone? Btw, your caps key looks like it's stuck.
THIS IS A COOP BY THE FINANCIAL INTERESTS OF THE BANKS, WALLSTREET AND THE MEDIA!! SPITZER IS OUR DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNOR AND ENJOYS WIDESPREAD SUPPORT!! HE CANNOT BOW DOWN LIKE THIS!! THE PEOPLE MUST NOT LET HIM BE TAKEN OUT LIKE THIS!! THIS IS AN ATTACK AGAINST DEMOCRACY AND THOSE WHO GO AFTER CORRUPTION!!
ARE WE NEW YORKERS JUST GOING TO LET THIS GO DOWN LIKE THIS!?!?!
CALL YOUR FUCKING ELECTED OFFICIAL NOW!!! TELL THEM YOU ARE UNHAPPY WITH THE DECISION AND DO NOT SUPPORT HIS RESIGNATION!! CALL THE GOVERNORS OFFICE, CALL THE ASSEMBLY!! CALL EVERYONE IN THE STATE AND TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL!!!!
ITS NOT lIKE HE's BANGNING LITTLE BOYS! IT WAS CONSENSUAL SEX!!! WHAT THE FUCK?!?!?!?
DO SOMETHING! SAY SOMETHING!!
DoNT LET THIS COOP BE SUCCESSFUL
(no offense to David Patterson, good guy too, but this whole situation cant go down like this!)