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Spitzer for Treasury?
Frank Rich is right. Firing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner won't get us out of the economic disaster we're in. But at this time of righteous rage, deploying Geithner and Lawrence Summers as the administration's chief economic messengers displays an astonishing tone-deafness. These are men who, as Rich puts it, " are too marinated in the insiders' culture to police it, reform it or own up to their past complicity with it."
Or as The Nation's William Greider explains in Sunday's Washington Post, the anger roiling the nation could "devour his presidency." Yet Obama "does not seem to grasp that the tone-deaf technocrats are leading him into a dead-end."
Action, and action now, to restructure bank bailouts so they benefit taxpayers-- not preferred shareholders, and classes of creditors, ranging from foreign bondholders to the counterparties of exotic derivative contracts-- may be the only way to ensure passage of the administration's needed recovery and budget programs. That probably means some form of government receivership, supervision, short-term nationalization--call it what you will. The real danger is not nationalization but that Obama and his economic team continues to muddle through on the financial front. If they do, Obama's job-creation and public investment programs are at risk; they will be conflated in the public mind with deeply unpopular bank bailouts, bonuses and crony capitalist excesses.
As head of the NY Federal Reserve, Geithner was complicit in the opaque and questionable bailout of AIG. So how then can he effectively carry out the kinds of policies needed at this defining moment of crisis and fury? On a more symbolic level, even his training sessions with elite media and messaging guru Michael Sheehan haven't helped Geithner become a strong or plausible communicator of whatever that day's plan is.The country sees a shrinking Secretary--which leads to loss of confidence.
We deserve a Treasury Secretary who hasn't been a player in Wall Street's lifestyle of bonuses and legalized corruption. Nobel Prize winning economists Joseph Stiglitz or Paul Krugman would be strong choices; yet they are increasingly valuable as watchdogs and constructive critics working outside the Administration. I've also thought that Obama would be smart to promote former Economic Policy Institute Fellow Jared Bernstein, who is currently serving as Biden's chief economic adviser.
Then there's a novel idea. Why not bring in the man who took on Wall Street and AIG long before it was trendy? Elliot Spitzer. Call me crazy. But he foresaw the bubbles and disasters resulting from deregulatory frenzy and the financial service industry's creation of toxic credit default swaps and derivatives. As the Sherriff of Wall Street, Spitzer launched investigations and lawsuits deploying the creative cudgel of the previously-obscure 1921 Martin Act. Yes, he acted miserably toward his wife and family and he should pay the price for that. But some believe Spitzer was taken down by certain "masters of the universe" seeking vengeance for his aggressive policing of their financial fraud and corruption.
In his first television interview since resigning as Governor, on CNN"s Fareed Zakaria's "GPS" program, Spitzer offered a compelling analysis of how we got into this mess and spoke clearly about the need for new regulations to rein in Wall Street's "recklessness and greed." He criticized Wall Street's former masters for their "hot dog cowboy mentality which leveraged everything up." (And he praised old fashioned Wall Street types like Felix Rohatyn for not falling prey to that mentality.)
While acknowledging the outrage of AIG's bonuses, Spitzer focused on the larger outrage: the use of billions in taxpayer dollars to prop up AIG and various counterparties, including Goldman Sachs (which received $12 billion plus of the government's original infusion). He also castigated the media, including CNBC, for failing to ask the tough questions, and the SEC and other relevant government agencies for lacking the will and creativity to do their job. When asked about how he'd handle the legal issue of retrieving AIG 's bonuses, Spitzer referred to tort law and the theory of unjust enrichment--along with other creative ideas--to get justice for taxpayers.
Spitzer took on Wall Street's metastasizing corruption before the meltdown. He defended consumers' and taxpayers' rights. He speaks with passion and clarity about what went wrong and what needs to be done to restore integrity to our system. He is chastened by personal scandal, yet untouched by complicity in Wall Street's public scandals which have obliterated peoples' savings and devastated our country.
Spitzer for Treasury Secretary?
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52 Comments so far
Show AllElliot Spitzer. Call me crazy.
________________________________________
Katrina: You're crazy.
Actually, if all the hype about Obama the Master Political Ninja always Thinking Outside the Box was true, Spitzer WOULD be a daring choice.
But it isn't. Even if Geithner finally walks the plank, Obama is far likelier to ask another charlatan, e.g. Alan Greenspan or Robert Rubin, to step up.
· Yr Obd't Servant
If Obama was really into change he would hire at least a few non-insiders. There are many people, including Spitzer who qualify as non-insiders.
Make sure he's paid all his taxes first, please.
Mr. Spitzer? Are you kidding? Don't you know he did the unthinkable? He violated the morals and ethics of the holier=than-thou-pure-as-the-driven-snow hypocrites in Washington. There was an avalanche of moral outrage. How could anyone with that horrible black mark on his resume ever be found acceptable?
His long standing record of speaking truth to power would never be considered an asset by any of the above. But, then on the other hand, if they confirmed someone who 'forgot' to pay their taxes (a major violation for the rest of us) as Secretary of the Treasury, (go figure) maybe they could see their way clear to confirm someone with indiscretions on their resume. The truth is Every Person in Washington is on the take and not one of them would be willing to jeopardize their cash cow whatever or whomever it may be. They are all complicit in this gang rape of the country but maybe there is some one open minded individual who would have the moral courage to speak truth to power, Dennis Kucinich or Ron Paul.
Well if you are crazy, then you are more than likely a little more qualified to ask some of the more engaging questions that the current member of the Treasury (just one that I know of), or the executive branch can postulate in front of the public.
I do want to know, but the list of bad information and the demand for absolute knowlege is not going to come quickly enough for the minority members of Congress to feel that they are helping to solve the problem in Banking and Financing and not obviously drive the discusion to talk about who to blame for this mess.
I have to stop short in trying to find someone to blame for this crisis because I know that for the past 25 years at least the "persons", are many and spread out over a large part of the world.
I would like to believe that there might be a person or an organization that could solve this problem(s), but the size of the problem and the level of complexity make a solution seem more like a stream of consciousness turning into a nightmare, turning into a disturbed awakening and then a forgetting of the more symbolic elements of the bad dream being lost after the first few moments of full wakefulness.
That's as hard to understand as the grasping of knowlege by the public trying to follow this rabbit hole of bad investments and bad debt management and asking the government to help to protect and prevent this from happening after all this has previously occurred.
I do understand that the public and business leaders would like to find a solution that would serve each of them. How then, can they both be served by the same answer? Is this really a sign of the public's interest being determined by the private business interest?
I'm not discouraged by the realization that we in the public may have been treated in a less than kind manner. I'm resolute in my wanting to understand what happened? how did it happen? What are we going to do to keep this from happening again?
Here's as good an explanation of the mess we are in as I have read..
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22247.htm
and this.........
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article22276.htm
It seems that Wall St's casino royale probably helped drive the building boom in the USA over the past decade. If so, then it's unfortunate because the banksters can use that to argue they performed a "legitimate" service to the economy. But ultimately this is founded on the bogus assertion that we need economic growth at any cost. We don't. Besides, the housing was grotesquely over-built in both the square footage and the number of houses per person, and the buyers were enticed to buy beyond their means with balloon mortgages. So casino royale was built on a quite rotten foundation and should be disassembled, completely!
I don't do economics. As a retired educator, I've never had money and am not about to get it. However, I too was really impressed with E.Spitzer on GPS, and was saddened for the nation by his transgressions (much as I was for Bill Clinton). I don't judge them, but I am quite familiar with the many who do. Our nation really needs both of them!! LET THEM PULL UP THEIR BREECHES AND HELP LEAD US!
T N _ M O D E R A T E
… your criminal aspirations "wasn't good enough with money" deflate ALL of your mostly moderately spent credibility.
You are like a dark-light flashlight or an anti-fact machine -- that we should use to direct the opposite actions for our own interests.
Thanks
Namaste
I agree, but consider the source of the article. Two peas in the same pod.
I think any of us posting here could do a better job than Spitzer. Heck, a random lottery candidate would be better... It's obvious Spitzer doesn't take promises like his wedding vows seriously. Why trust him with our money based on a measly ignorable oath of office?
Just put someone in who isn't an insider. It's that simple.
The best choice to replace Geithner is David Korten a visionary thinker and economist who understands deeply the problems facing us. Don't expect this to sink in to Katrina consciousness, the only thing she can offer here is the status quo, and more of the same.
I agree with both your choice of David Korten and your assessment of Katrina Vanden Heuval.
Poet
J U D A H -- I remember you !
Because he has a clearly defined history of attacking those insiders, and lost his job as Gov'r ( most likely ) as a direct reaction for his suing the banksters and Federal gov't for illegally restraining the rights of states to regulate OUTRAGEOUS predatory lending.
If you even bothered to understand a miniscule aspect of his actual political record of successes, you'd have known that he was _ w a y _ ' ahead of his time ' and fought valiantly for the little guys in NY state -- against the monied vested power structure.
On the other hand, your aggrandized emphasis on marital immorality may just be a ruse to hide his very moral behavior regarding disgustingly wicked avaricious bankers .
Namaste
And that has to do with regulating and prosecuting wall street criminals, how?
If Spitzer remains clean-shaven he has a shot for the job ?
The bearded ones: Stiglitz, Krugman, Dean Baker and Robert Reich-who probably
would do an admirable job have been locked out for their progressive views.
good idea
spitzer was kneecapped because he tried to ring the bell on aig
i for one would like to see him get some revenge
and he is no worse for his tryst than blowjob larry from idaho or the gop freak from virginia who paid two hondo whores to put him in diapers so he could be a bad boy and poop himself
One word: Nader
You want to go after these guys? Get Nader on the case. He knows the regulations inside and out, has the litigation experianence, and the heart for the job. Plus, he doesn't have the "private" issue Spitzer has/had.
"Plus, he doesn't have the "private" issue Spitzer has/had"
Why does this matter?
Sioux Rose
Once again, timing is everything in retrospect. Our darling FISA bill allowing "government" to spy on citizens no doubt had the dirt ready on Spitzer that he be politically disabled before the Wall St house of cards was about to collapse. How many other politicians with a will to do good (not just do well) are being similarly knee-capped by less than savory extra-curricular activities, the norm in that class, now rendered part of a permanent secreted record? Who guards the guards? And what price then is paid in terms of a compromised quality of life for too many.
If I were SPITZER, I would have forced the issue of the 'oh so convenient'
wire taps and honey traps
that we were told had been set in advance of his valiant attacks on $hrubish's Federal circumvention of states rights, regarding predatory lending.
My guess is that there would be no coffee stained log sheets of earlier vigilance, and available verified redundant sources of testimony of officers involved.
The reality ( with almost certitude ) is as you suggest, a voluminous illegal FISA vacuum cleaner of DIRT on every public and many private people -- who might get antsy about so much criminality -- and 'spill the beans'.
_ F I S A _ is one of those nasty threads on the cloak of gov't abuse, that already has revealed much -- and promises to show much more -- and all we ALL have to do is PULL.
Namaste
Yes, PULL!!!
All together now!!!
Love your image of a giant FISA vacuum cleaner. You nailed it.
I always said that they got rid of Spitzer because he knew too much about Wall Street. That sex thing was just a convenient excuse.
Hi __ R O S E M A R I E
Lots of people have the knowledge of insider Wall_eyed_Street, and they have never been maligned.
Spitzer was very dangerous -- and had to be stopped -- because he took large scale and PUBLICLY visible actions against the crooks holding America by the short hairs.
I would go further and in alignment with PSYOPS and "manufactured consensus", we now have manufactured excuses.
Namaste
Namaste--
I was grief struck as I watched Spitzer give his resignation announcement. Primarily for his wife and three daughters whom he humiliated before all the world by his actions and almost as much for the loss of a real junk-yard dog, take no prisoners prosecuter. Absent the scandals he would have been a great choice for AG (not that Eric Holder--so far anyway--isn't also a good pick).
But I fear that Katrina and all the rest of the appologists for Elliot Spitzer have forgotten the worst of his offenses-not the sex, but paying for it with state funds obviously intended for other purposes. He was engaging in an operation of stealing taxpayer money entrusted to him on a grand scale. Now we want him to replace Geithner?!!! He lacks just as much credibility as Geithner because they are both guilty of enabling the thievery of taxpayer monies.
Poet
P O E T
I didn't know that, and had thought he had overall redeeming qualities.
I've heard the "solution" for a dog that eats chickens ( on a farm ) is to tie a dead one around their neck, until there's nothing left. Living way out in the countryside must be a requirement, for this to work
I have no idea how to rehabilitate an embezzler
( ¿ perhaps tie a banker around his neck ? )
Thank you
Namaste
Namaste--
Your wry and demented humor to the contrary--you have gotten to the core of one of the greatest problems facing the US today--specifically, the ease with which political leadership can be and is corrupted.
My own darker suspicions are that the totalitarians, libertines, and the religeous fundamentalists are walking hand-in-hand steering our civilization to disintegration. What they all have in common is the desire to have the power over others and by so dong to acumulate wealth unto themselves.
The libertines promote the adolescent irresponsibility of endless porn, violence, and bizarre fantasy, the moralists scream their heads off in disgust and demand that we enforce "God's Will" on others, and the totalitarians (grinning like some egg-sucking dawg) prompt the passage of authoritarian regulations of which they suppose they will be the masters.
Each imagines themselves "in control" and each is snared (along with the rest of us)by the spider's web-like toxic environment they have helped to create.
Poet
P O E T
We resonant well on this, and you demonstrably act this way ( as above with TRUE PATRIOT )
Everything pivots upon the perception of our ALL having CHOICE --in every moment -- of KINDNESS, as contrasted to the ego's drive to be RIGHT and invalidate ( shame ) ALL others -- in everything.
The sickest of our edificial institutions are always the most righteous ( and thereby wrongest and most un-KINDest ).
For those wanting more than a taste of this truly deep issue, please look at CD :
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/03/21
time-stamps : npwr.luv March 24th, 2009 12:20 pm and npwr.luv March 21st, 2009 10:37 pm
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/03/23-0
time-stamps : npwr.luv March 24th, 2009 11:51 am and npwr.luv March 24th, 2009 11:42 am
Namaste
Sioux Rose
POET: There are a legion of men exposed for similar "offenses" (in the various and sundry sexual departments) lately, including Clinton. It was my understanding that Mr. Spitzer was quite wealthy and had no problem paying over $1000 a pop. Kind of reminds me of a TV show a friend had playing on HBO about a legal prostitution house in Nevada. A romp in the proverbial hay runs $2500 there! And from the looks of it the women were not great beauties, nor were the "acts" any more exotic than the usual gourmet menu enjoyed by dining enthusiasts everywhere.
The allegation was that Elliot Spitzer was using campaiogn donations (public money given and entrusted to him for a specific purpose) to pay for trips and accomodations where he had his sexual indulgences. It was never followed up on since Spitzer gave the Feds their quid pro quo by disappearing from political life.
From NYT of 03-13-08:
"A person briefed on the inquiry said on Thursday that investigators pursuing the case discovered something last fall that raised suspicions that Mr. Spitzer may have used campaign money to pay for transportation or hotel rooms for trysts with prostitutes.
It was not clear what two other trips investigators had requested records for from the campaign. Earlier this week, a person with knowledge of the escort service’s operations said that Mr. Spitzer had had an encounter with a prostitute in Dallas, and a law enforcement official said another prostitute had met with Mr. Spitzer in Florida during the past several months.
Mr. Spitzer traveled to West Palm Beach last month for several events, including a scheduled Feb. 29 fund-raiser for local Democrats at which he and Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York were the featured guests. Organizers canceled the event after Mr. Rangel could not attend. But Mr. Spitzer said he would come to Florida anyway, local organizers said, and attended a reception they organized for him, as well as a separate State of Israel Bonds luncheon and another reception.
Campaign finance records showed that Mr. Spitzer also attended a fund-raiser in October in Dallas, where he raised money during a reception at the Hotel Crescent Court.
A Congressional staff member said that Mr. Spitzer’s appearance before a House subcommittee on Feb. 14 came at his request, not theirs. Mr. Spitzer traveled to Washington the night before and engaged, according to an affidavit filed in federal court, in a tryst with a 22-year-old woman at the Mayflower Hotel.
Ms. Hirshman spent several hours at the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan on Tuesday listening to evidence that prosecutors had amassed during their six-month inquiry. Ms. Hirshman, who was Mr. Spitzer’s deputy in the attorney general’s office, has also worked in the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. While in that office, her posts included service as the chief of the Public Corruption Unit."
Poet
POET LIES!
Poet,
You LIE when you say this:
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
But I fear that Katrina and all the rest of the appologists for Elliot Spitzer have forgotten the worst of his offenses-not the sex, but paying for it with state funds obviously intended for other purposes. He was engaging in an operation of stealing taxpayer money entrusted to him on a grand scale. Now we want him to replace Geithner?!!! He lacks just as much credibility as Geithner because they are both guilty of enabling the thievery of taxpayer monies.
Poet
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Spitzer DID NOT USE PUBLIC MONEY!
Here is a news story citing the Associated Press, confirming this point:
Spitzer used own money for sexual encounters
03/22/2008 03:35 PM
By: Web Staff
http://news10now.com/content/all_news/112786/spitzer-used-own-money-for-sexual-encounters/Default.aspx
I can't BELIEVE I'm the only one to catch Poet's INSIDIOUS, COINTELPRO-style deception! C'mon, people, we're SMART LIBERALS who READ--c'mon--REAAAAAADD!!!!
Don't let COINTELPRO-F*cks like Faux "News" and Poet "frame" the debate!
Facts matter!
And Katrina, I would 100% support Eliot Spitzer for Tresury Secretary! Geitner DIDN'T pay his own taxes, and Spitzer DID pay his own whores--with his OWN MONEY!
Howard Dean for Surgeon General!
Dennis Kucinich either Sec. of State or to head a "Dept. of Peace"
And to EVERYONE (except Poet):
We MUST make Obama understand: No Prosecutions (of B*shCo.) = No Second Term!
True Patriot
Methinks that True Patriot protests too much. From the NYT of 03-13-2008:
"A person briefed on the inquiry said on Thursday that investigators pursuing the case discovered something last fall that raised suspicions that Mr. Spitzer may have used campaign money to pay for transportation or hotel rooms for trysts with prostitutes.
It was not clear what two other trips investigators had requested records for from the campaign. Earlier this week, a person with knowledge of the escort service’s operations said that Mr. Spitzer had had an encounter with a prostitute in Dallas, and a law enforcement official said another prostitute had met with Mr. Spitzer in Florida during the past several months.
Mr. Spitzer traveled to West Palm Beach last month for several events, including a scheduled Feb. 29 fund-raiser for local Democrats at which he and Representative Charles B. Rangel of New York were the featured guests. Organizers canceled the event after Mr. Rangel could not attend. But Mr. Spitzer said he would come to Florida anyway, local organizers said, and attended a reception they organized for him, as well as a separate State of Israel Bonds luncheon and another reception.
Campaign finance records showed that Mr. Spitzer also attended a fund-raiser in October in Dallas, where he raised money during a reception at the Hotel Crescent Court.
A Congressional staff member said that Mr. Spitzer’s appearance before a House subcommittee on Feb. 14 came at his request, not theirs. Mr. Spitzer traveled to Washington the night before and engaged, according to an affidavit filed in federal court, in a tryst with a 22-year-old woman at the Mayflower Hotel.
Ms. Hirshman spent several hours at the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan on Tuesday listening to evidence that prosecutors had amassed during their six-month inquiry. Ms. Hirshman, who was Mr. Spitzer’s deputy in the attorney general’s office, has also worked in the United States attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York. While in that office, her posts included service as the chief of the Public Corruption Unit."
**********
Did you also notice that I managed to respond without any personal attacks on either your intent or integrity. It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable.
Poet
Dear Mr. Geithner: Close your eyes and imagine an open hand, palm facing toward you. Now fold down the index finger, the pinky and the ring finger. Bend the thumb in. This is called a Credit Default Swap aka a Collateralized Debt Obligation. Have a nice day! :-)
A credit default swap is an "insurance policy" on a collateralized debt obligation. One need not hold the actual cdo to purchase a cds. In fact in many cases there are multiple cds in existence for any one cdo. This is a major part of the problem. It is the cds referred to as a "toxic asset", not necessarily the cdo. And there is no reason in hell why taxpayers should be requried to underwrite these cds's. Having said all of that, I agree wholeheartedly with the sentiment you have expressed. The only change I would make is to imagine TWO open hands, both palms facing toward you, etc. etc.
ekaton
Spitzer is an example of someone who is highly "competent" but would not fit in an Obama administration because of his zeal for public interest.
Spitzer may have had a few encounters with call girls, but the real whores are Geithner, Summers, Rubin, Greenspan and the rest of the putative experts who created this prosperity-devouring black hole and now purport to resolve it. They're playing the "heads we (Wall St. executives) win, tails you (the American public) lose" game. Obama should consider Lincoln's wisdom, "You can't fool all the people all the time."
Right on...our real problem is qualified,bright Dems being disqualified for sexual peccadillos. This is how they take out people who could help us even if they are as arrogant as Spitzer.
"some believe Spitzer was taken down by certain "masters of the universe" seeking vengeance for his aggressive policing of their financial fraud and corruption."
They probably used domestic spying and wiretaps to do it too. Wonder how many others still hold their position for playing ball.
He's pretty scandal proof now though if he can keep his pants zipped up, or at least go to Europe where it's legal and discrete.
Otherwise, if he was totally unleased and set upon Wall Street earlier, we may not have ended up in this mess to begin with.
I'm for it, doubt Obama will bite though.
what will truly help obama politically is to have his minions propose more and more proposals "to save the financial system" that are transparently outrageous in their trying to save the ultra-rich who are financially exposed to trillions in toxic investments.
and the left should welcome geithner's proposal as a great teaching moment regarding whose fortunes the demoblicans are truly trying to save.
lazy leftists should stop proposing personnel to obama and finally make the effort to find out and publicize the names of the billionaires whom the demoblicans are trying to save with our taxpayer money.
this is the greatest chance offered to americans to learn who are the billionaires that wag the usa dog and to rebel against them and their bribed politicians, journalists, and economists.
the idiotic left should stop complaining about "WS and the banks" and ask the american people if they really want to bail out this or that individual billionaire.
the billions that geithner wants now are not "for the failed banks", they are meant to save the ultra-rich !
even publicizing crude macro-economic data about how many trillions in toxic assets are in the hands of say the richest 0.1% would be very game-changing as it would suffocate the obfuscations of the demoblicans that they are acting for the public good.
demoblicans blackmail americans by crying wolf about "saving the financial system" but they won't be able to blackmail anybody anymore if they are compelled to cry wolf about "saving the billionaires".
only once the citizenry will start saying that it does not want to pay for the financial gambling follies of the richest 0.1%, etc., it will become feasible for obama to go against the billionaires, since at that point taking him out won’t be worthwhile for the billionaires.
Spitzer does not have to be appointed to office (unlikely anyway) for the White House to consider and perhaps use his ideas. Someone just needs to ask for them.
And that is a point that is almost never brought up. For example, does Nader need to be President for some of his ideas to be used? Not at all.
It's those ideas of Nader and Spitzer that are the only things truly considered toxic.
Maybe not, but can you name one Nader recommendation currently being embraced by Obama?
I don't know if Nader specifically campaigned on these issues, but lifting the global gag rule, the ban on federal funding of embryonic stem-cell research, the ban on torture, the suspension of secret military tribunals against Gitmo detainees, and the ordered closure of Gitmo seem like things Nader would approve of. Probably Eric Holder's apparent stance on treating drug users instead of imprisoning them too. Also more funding for education, I think, in the budget. To be honest, how many real changes, minor or major, can you expect in two months?
I agree with the posts reminding us that Spitzer's ideas and strategies may be employed whether or not he is given a position within the Obama administration.
As a sex worker rights activist, it is unbelievable that Spitzer targeted women for arrest. Targeting, harassing, arresting women, men, and trans-folks brings great harm to our bodies, minds, and bank accounts. Arresting us is an act of terror and abuse. And for those who do not consent to sex-money exchange, but are forced into such a situation, arresting the victim is absolutely the wrong thing to do in every situation.
While it may be true that Spitzer "...hasn't been a player in Wall Street's lifestyle of bonuses and legalized corruption," he *has* victimized many people through the legalized corruption of our US-anti-prostitution laws. And this victimization is interconnected with a wide network of law enforcement and policy agents who do almost nothing but harm the very people they claim to protect. Having been the victim of police brutality when I was a prostitute, and having been arrested by the same police officers who brutalized me, I have absolutely no tolerance for powerful people like Spitzer who are clearly capable of doing the right thing: stop arresting adults participating in consensually-negotiated sex.
People like Spitzer have a great deal to offer this country (and the world). And in this offering, both Spitzer and his supporters/fans *must* come to terms with the fact that he has used his position to both champion and harm real people.
Sex worker rights are human rights.
nia savage
detroit, mi
S A V A G E
Thank you for you compelling and courageous posting
Namaste
I agree with some of your thoughts as regards Elliott Spitzer. I think of prostitution as a crime, and feel he was guilty of abusing the relationship he had with his wife, and that the Bush Administration had to have been acting in conjunction with their changes to many laws setting the stage for this derivatives debacle, and Spitzer was one of the few experienced road blocks he had to address, and chose to, among other rules he ignored.... Just like when ENRON came down, and when Bush sat on his hands, allowing FERC to ignore possible solutions, as the California Grid was gamed into submission, and 150 rolling blackouts were allowed to affect CA. The ENRON rules are still in effect, allowing for "no watchdog regulator" to oversee oil, gas(LNG), gasoline, and wool to be traded in weird ways, and derivatives upon derivatives are leveraged into commodity contracts which have no underlying value, and place at risk our entire banking system, as firms like AIG take their assets from other divisions, and use their underlying reserves, to pay margin calls, and to throw more and more money after the risked monies(esp., when clearly lost...), and further allowing them to continue trading, even though the "lost basis" for those risked monies shows they are poor decision makers with the shareholders monies, and with their insurance reserves(they secretly borrowed $20Billion from their other divisions, only a week prior to their initial government loan!!).... When they lose, we either allow them to take a nose dive in the empty pool, or we pre-handle all the rules and ingredients, "just say no!!", and let the speculators and hedge funds know they can no longer sit offshore, take down huge risks, draw all the cream off the commodities, then bring the underlying commodities back onshore, at hugely, false markups, to enter the consumer markets, being held captive by all the factors we each have zero control over....
Elliott Spitzer should not be wiped away just because he made a mistake, got caught, and now is viewed worthless as far as the positives which got him elected, and got him to use his legal expertise to address all the wrongs of the collusions of the AIG's and Goldman Sachs of the world.... I have read the full report issued about the $1.6Billion fine AIG paid to remain out of jail, from the Shareholder's equity, and all the pomposity of acquisitions like Gulf Ports($700Million), which they stated was not publicized, because it barely impacted their balance sheet.... All shareholders should know about all the financial pieces which they have invested in, and be given the chance to speak up to each other and to the world.... Free Elliott, like Gingrich, and others, who each still retain their offices, even though they had open affairs while married, yet are never, ever forced to be impeached or to answer to their constituencies.... Obama should add people with credentials to his staff, and those who have as much and more good to their lives than bad things to be over-publicized as if we are all from such a perfect world...
I feel Elliott might be the perfect guy to redeem himself from his past problems and shortcomings, by applying his skills and credentials to the situation, irregardless of what the Bush sympathizers and Wall Street commodities traders have to say about being scrutinized by a credentialed guy and his team, who knows the law~~
Get Elliott involved, along with Clinton's old Attorney friend in FL, who knows what saying no is really all about; then let Wall Street taste some new rules, which carry teeth to the honest trades they make....
Read Wikipedia, and try the ENRON Rule, esp. the research articles at the end, then look up AIG scandals, and read about just how many problem decisions they have made, over the last 25 years, then call into question their non~ability to ever be able to trade any commodity which they have pled guilty to manipulating or compromising or violating~~
Thanks for the vine~~
...not sure if anyone is reading these posts anymore ...but,
For the record, I am not saying that Spitzer is a problem because he paid prostitutes. I am saying that he violated human rights because of his *prosecution* of prostitutes. Arresting prostitutes does not help anyone--it certainly does not help prostitutes who have to prostitute even more to pay legal fees, fines, etc after arrest. It does not help the state and taxpayers who pay thousands of dollars to prosecute a "prostitute" and tens of thousands of dollars to conduct surveillance of and enact imprisonment of each "prostitute."
Spitzer is the worst kind of neoliberal-champion. He has been a champion in terms of promoting democratic participation in areas of banking and finance. But he is a criminal who, in a just world, would be prosecuted for going out of his way to bring harm to a class of people who just aren't considered human enough to enjoy even basic rights. This neoliberal is only willing to fight for the rights of some. And he uses his power and economic privilege to perpetuate inhumane treatment of whores and other good people.
Spitzer disgusts me.
nia savage
niasavage@gmail.com
YES!
We need nationalization of all banks and all principle means of production, which used to British Labor's position when it was a real Labor Party back in the 1960s and 1970s, as the law of the land. It was time when Britain really was a great country-- BT, before Thatcher.
AD