My wonderful Governor, known for supposedly being beyond reproach, for a history of hard-line prosecutions, for throwing the book at and shutting down more than one New York prostitution ring (where the respective proprietors were sentenced to jailtime) has just recently resigned after being caught using a high-priced escort agency.

Spitzer was smart, hard working and extremely capable... he won the gubernatorial race with an amazing 70% of the vote. Unfortunately he could also be a prick, his style was often brash and uncompromising -something that would generate more than a few political enemies along the way. There's little doubt the whole sting operation against him may have been pushed along by one or more of his political foes.

The following was a fun New York moment that took place Monday night at a Korean grocery while I was waiting on line to purchase some "BlueMachine Naked Superfood Juice" (I was on my way to watch Sampras play Federer in Madison Square Garden):




The newsfeed blared from a wall-mounted LCD tv of Governor Spitzer on the hotseat...

The Female Hispanic Cashier:
Can you believe this?? How stupid can he be??

Italian Man online in front of me:
What? What happened?

Cashier:
He was caught cheating.

Italian Man:
What? with a guy or something? (the Governor of New Jersey resigned not long ago after being caught with a Gay Prostitute).

Me:
No, it's not like the New Jersey guy.

Italian Man:
So... what's the big deal?

Cashier:
"What's the big deal"??

Me (to Italian guy):
You don't understand, this guy was all about rooting out corruption... he was a relentless prosecutor and was the type who boasted about busting places like call-girl agencies...

Cashier:
Yeah, that's right...and then he goes and does THIS??!!

Me:
Hey, he's a man... it's sex..

Random guy standing by the tv:
You're a woman, you can't understand...

Cashier:
I understand... you guys just can't keep it in your pants!

Me:
It was stupid, he has too many enemies to expose himself in such a way.

Italian Man:
It is stupid... why make such an issue?? If this happened in Italy they would be APPLAUDING him!!

Me: (as I pay and head out).
It was stupid of him, it's true... but it just goes to show the power of the Penis.

Cashier:
Yes!!

Random Guy:
YES!

Italian Guy:
Yes!!

We all smile and waved goodbye as the moment passed.

Spitzer would end up resigning.
A political career... a Harvard educated prosecutor... a dynamic and rising political force of New York government... all snuffed out by a two hour fling at a Washington DC hotel.

Start a war under false pretenses, where hundreds of thousands of people die... allow the environment to go to shit.... allow federal deficit spending to go through the roof, jobs to get exported, education to falter, wages to fall, etc...and you get to keep your job.

Get a BJ from an intern and they'll try to impeach you.
Sweat up the sheets with a high-priced callgirl and you're out in 48 hours.


Happy Sailing,
-Ta

Congratulations, you were able to work in a false equivalency argument and a non sequitor all in the space of two paragraphs.

sstanhcady, be careful that you don't come across as such whiner.
Maybe it's the lurking and sniping tone of posts that never seem contribute but I'm sure that with effort you can do better.
Come on now, stand up and pee like a man.

Please Stan, congratulations really need to go to you. In gratitude, I've put together a nice little run-on sentence for you:

You've managed to identify yourself as an insecure, tight-assed, Bush supporting, pretentious Uber-Douche who needs to compensate for the historic and unbelievably poor political choices he's made by making feeble attempts at correcting grammar on a board devoted to weed and hookers.

And! You managed to convey all this in just a single sentence.
Kudos, my fussy little Fox News Republican.

Game

Set

Match

POW POW


Smuler

I'd have much more respect for you if you could find something factually inaccurate with my position. Instead, you spout your tired, well-worn, liberal slogans that are long on hysterical emotion and utterly bereft of fact, logic and reason.

Hi Stan..I do not know you..but some constructive criticism...

I have looked at your posting history, and you seem to like to argue with people.

Why is that ?

Best Regards

Smuler

yawn.

Pay him no attention Smuler-
...he is of the sad, lonely tribe of flamers who troll the web in desperate search for attention and recognition.

http://redwing.hutman.net/~mreed/warriorshtm/jerk.htm

Hi admiral-

Gov Schpritzer needs a white bathrobe and a frequent flier card.
He can chip in for the rental car. Let's introduce him to Magda.

Regards,
pepto

Politics other than that directly impacting the typical discussions here (sex, drugs, and tourism, mostly in AMS, or the rest of NL or EU) should really be checked at the door. No good can come from it here, and there are plenty of other boards for that kind of thing.

"Start a war under false pretenses..."

There is no evidence Bush didn't actually believe what he said when he said it. Somehow public debate these days assumes there are no honest mistakes, only conspiratorial lies. (And the WMD threat was an honest belief of most observers at the time, including most EU governments, and most liberals in the US).

"where hundreds of thousands of people die"

Few estimates number in the hundreds of thousands, and those that do were made via wrongheaded statistical sampling methods, and are almost certainly off by as much as an order of magnitude or more.

I'd prefer to not make posts like this here, but it's difficult to not add balance when others start tub-thumping.

Going back to apolitical mode now...

At least he likes girls. He has that going for him.

Snert

Hi Neurosynth,

Although my original post was intended to show the humor in contrast between political dogmas and American mentalities toward sex, it's clear I've hit a nerve with some people of the politically conservative persuasion. As you said, politics not directly covering the areas of sex, weed & prostitution (ie: Governor Spitzer's recent troubles) shouldn't be dwelled on... so this will be the one and only post I'll make in reply to yours.

For the record, I'm not a liberal. I supported Guiliani until he dropped out and may just find myself voting for McCain should Hillary win the Democratic nomination (although if Obama wins the nom I may vote for him). I consider myself a centrist.

You write:
"There is no evidence Bush didn't actually believe what he said when he said it. Somehow public debate these days assumes there are no honest mistakes, only conspiratorial lies. (And the WMD threat was an honest belief of most observers at the time, including most EU governments, and most liberals in the US)."


When I say "false pretenses" I'm referring not so much to WMD's but to the connection of Saddam Hussein to the events of September 11, 2001. The Bush administration clearly attempted to tie the two together when no actual connection existed. They continued to promote such misrepresentations in the buildup to the Iraq war in order to get the support of the American people.

Allies of the US, including Canada (who supported the invasion of Afghanistan after 9/11 because the connection was proven), were not convinced of such claims and openly expressed their misgivings of the action.
Remember Bush's speech during the State of the Union regarding Iraq trying to purchase "Aluminum Tubes"? This was no "honest mistake" neurosynth. They knew full well of the shoddy nature of the intelligence, but chose to use it anyway as a scare tactic for the American Public.

http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/ ... 976015.htm

National Security Council advisor regarding counter terrorism to the White House, Richard Clarke, is quoted that President Bush directly asked him to dig up a connection between Saddam Hussein and 9/11 any way he could. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & Wolfowitz continously attempted to link the two. Why is this? Because they had an agenda to invade Iraq years before 9/11.

See- Open Letter to President Clinton, 1998:
http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

This group, now in power under President Bush, used the 2001 attacks as a false pretext to push their pre-drawn war plans in Iraq. They were successful in convincing George W. Bush to move forward. This, even though many of our allies expressed misgivings and refused to participate. George W's own father, George H. W. expressed misgivings... as did former President Gerald Ford (in notes released after his death).

Why did such respected Republicans people not join the bandwagon? Because they understood that when you're talking about invading a sovereign nation, you don't skip details like facts, evidence and proof. After all, we're talking about WAR... something that is inherently terrible, tragic, deadly and to be avoided unless there is no alternative. Such details as real evidence were purposefully glossed over by Cheney & Rumsfeld.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hus ... d_al-Qaeda

Just recently the Pentagon released a report difinitively stating there was no such connection.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/031208R.shtml

C'mon neurosynth, you mean to tell me you don't consider such misrepresentations of the Bush administration regarding 9/11 and Iraq as "false pretenses"?


"hundreds of thousands"

Regarding this quote, it is true that the estimates of how many people were killed vary wildly. Back in 2005, George W. Bush himself non-chalantly estimated the number of deaths at "about 30,000". That was an estimate on the lower scale three years ago. The upper estimates are over 600,000.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war#C ... _estimates

and this is all besides those injured, maimed and the millions displaced by the war.

Of course, this begs the question, in the context of my original post, does it really change the point if the number of people who died in the war is 30,000 or 300,000?

Neuro, I respect your opinion and the good intentions of many intelligent Republicans. But when Bush conservatives continue to make attempts to defend such misguided actions, I can't help but see it as a challenge that demands to be answered.

Best regards,
-Ta

Brilliant idea Pepto,

He's got nothing to lose at this point anyway... might as well enjoy any new found freedom. Although, as you know, I'd probably direct him to someone OTHER than Magda :).

Regards & hope things are well,
-Ta

I really don't want to prolong this so I'll make these points briefly and stop...I promise...

1 - I'm not a Republican. I'm an independent quite liberal on most domestic issues.

2 - The bit about a 9/11-Saddam tie being intentionally deceptive is bogus. It is a debate strawman never literally offered that gives the anti-war side an easy retort.

The real argument is more nuanced. The argument is that the lesson of 9/11 is that the US can't afford to allow the other side the advantage of throwing the first punch. And therefore when there is a demonstrated major bad actor on the scene we shouldn't wait until we've suffered a major loss. Saddam, being responsible for over 1 million deaths, having attacked 3 countries, having demonstrated a willingness to use chemical weapons on both domestic and foreign enemies, being non-compliant with the terms of the ending of the previous war, and shooting daily at US overflights without which he would have continued genocide against other ethnic groups within Iraq...Saddam was such a bad actor.

"Regime change" was the policy, and that policy was first made by the *Clinton* administration. Subsequent agreement by neocons shouldn't be a shock except for the fact that it's an example of agreement between Democrats and Republicans...something that both sides apparently would like to diminish in appearance.

3 - Yes, it matters whether the death count is 30,000 or 300,000. Facts matter, and the anti-war side certainly acts like they believe facts matter when it appears Bush's facts are erroneous...so much so that Bush is then accused of lying rather than simply being mistaken.

I must admit I'm flushed with the temptation to rebut pretty much everything you've written.
In the interest of not starting another useless war... I'll say only that I could not disagree with you more.

Hypocracy - form of government currently installed in USA and some other unfortunate countries.

I'm glad the prick got busted, not for doing "immoral" things with pay-for-playgirls, but for being a hypocritical asshole. Like when any moralizing preacher or politician gets caught with his dick in the wrong hole, its the "do what I say, not what I do" attitude that riles me.

Pandering to the Moral Mojority leads to nonsense like Bill Clinton not inhaling, lying about getting a blowjob (yes, lots of guys do that but usually the other way round - claiming they've had what they haven't).

Don't the French and maybe Italians have a more robust attitude? A French Bill Clinton would probably have presented differently: "THAT's not MY cum stain. It's far too small".

I don't mean to get political on this forum, but it's pretty obvious to all here I think the common thread running through a lot of news reports - if P4P was recognized as a popular activity no more or less evil or embarrassing than going to a restaurant instead of cooking at home, an awful lot of bad things would stop happening - the UK streetwalker predators, the NY gunslinger cops outside the strip club, and so on...

But then I read the report of the poor girl getting poisoned by some customers inside Oase, and I have to shake my head, and ask Madonnas famous question:
What the fuck do they think they're doing?

Magoo (sorry for the rant)

I have to agree Mr. Magoo (btw, I loved watching you on Saturday mornings), Spitzer got what he deserved.... for no other reason than the sheer hypocrisy of his actions. The guy helped put away the very same kind of proprietors that he later went on to engage the services of. Some of those he helped to prosecute did jail time! ...it's hypocrisy in the extreme.

It would just be so much more sensible to simply legalize & regulate the business. If only there were places that offered such an environment... say... in Europe, somewhere-

...sigh.

I desperately need a vacation.

I have to agree with Magoo on this one. It's the hypocrisy of this whole ordeal that smells bad to me. So the guy gets it on with some P4P gals, big deal. Whoops, he was the A.G. who prosecutes guys who go to P4P gals. O.K., he got caught with his hand in the cookie jar and he paid the price, but is his replacement, Gov. Patterson really any better? Pot smoker, coke user, and has multiple sex partners who are not his wife. Wifey has multiple sex partners as well. Sounds good if it was Friday night at the Showboat and I was running the camera, but will it play in Buffalo?

All politicians (local, state, federal) need to take off their masks and just act like human beings. I would certainly have more respect for the politicos if they would just stop coming up with dumb-shit excuses like "I did it, but didn’t inhale". Come on Bill (Clinton), let’s sit down and smoke a joint - we'll talk foreign policy for a few hours. Come on Eliot (Spitzer), lets go shag some beauties (@ E50 a throw, not $1,000 and hour) and talk about immigration reform.

We are all just people with the same wants, needs, and desires. Being a politician does not change that simple fact, but it does drive their behavior underground and turns these people into liars, cheaters, and basically disreputable hypocrites that do not deserve to be in an elected office. Would you trust a bald-faced-liar to handle your monthly income? How about the entire tax revenue from one of the biggest economic engines in the world?

I guess it all boils down to good old-fashioned honesty from people in powerful positions. Like Mayor Bloomberg said, "You bet I did. And I enjoyed it!”

HW

You can't handle the truth.

As stated in A Few Good Men.