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Letters
Tuesday, March 11, 2008 12:00 AM

The tragic fall of Eliot Spitzer

He once busted up "sex rings" himself, but the New York governor's hiring of a pricey prostitute has shattered his political career.

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Thursday, March 13, 2008 08:12 AM

Swallow Don't Spitzer

Swallow Don't Spitzer

Lady Justice? used to love her undercover

wish he would have claimed her, now he's missed her

Snatched credibility so fast, the Governor caught a fever blister

Bankers got each other's backs

Wall St. breathes a sigh of relief

they're no longer under attack

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120519411945525721.html?mod=hpp_us_whats_news

Sex sells everything so why is it illegal to sell the act?

hypocritical as the history on most web browsers show

golden shower hoes, bending over touching their toes

Gentlemen's clubs overflow as women remove their clothes

while the holy cry "my, my, my. $5000, why?"

I ask the same question;

what does $5000 do that a $25 crack ho can't get down to?

uplift the struggling street walker to a living wage

legalize bedroom gymnastics add testing for STDs

give adults a choice to buy drinks and dinners, trips over seas or negotiate for some hours, a night, sex for a fee

I thought this was the land of the free?

why is this story more important than High Crimes and War Crimes?

the fishy sheets cover our eyes, the lofty pundits beat us into a daze

We've been fooled again by media madness on the front page

as bush and congress sign our civil rights away

Thursday, March 13, 2008 05:58 AM

a new noun for the American Language

In a flash while communicating with Ralph the great porcelain god it occurred to me that there is now a new word that could be added to the American language and that is "SPITZER" an extremely expensive sex toy. At the economy level there is "HO" a dollar store toy, then comes the "PROSTITUTE" a toy that a Wall martt type store would sell. Higher up is the "CALL GIRL" a Seers product. Finally at the very top something that is available only on Rodeo Drive or the equivalent or by appointment and with pre-approval, there is the "SPITZER" as yet undefined as to pertinent characteristics.

I wonder what makes a "SPITZER" so much more expensive than a "HO"?

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 09:59 PM

Spitzer should have handled it differently

Spitzer should not have appeared with his wife by his side to apologize or resign. The purpose of that was to frame politically damaging and potentially criminal activities as if they were personal, family matters. Spitzer would not have shown the targets of his own prosecutions the consideration he seems to expect if they had appeared in public to apologize with their silent, suffering spouses.

Instead, Spitzer should have waltzed to his press conference arm-in-arm with one of his favorite prostitutes and announce something like this: "Today, I have had a change of heart. I propose to legalize prostitution north of Albany. That will help close the state budget shortfall of $2.2 billion dollars, and it will bring prosperity to economically depressed regions in our state. Thank you."

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 09:13 PM

Suspicious bank payments?

2) Eliot Spitzer did violate federal laws requiring reportign of bank transactions of $10,000 or more by trying to break up his payments for prostitution into three separate payments. His bank followed the law and reported suspicious behavior.

You may know more than me, but I think it works a little different than this. Under Anti-Money Laundering (AML) legislation, banks are required to report transactions over $10,000. They are also required to report 'suspicious' transactions (a SAR), which basically means any activity deemed by the bank to be out of the ordinary, such as a one-time loan to a friend, or transfering money to the wrong account. There are numerous horror stories about frozen accounts due to AML regs. Failure to file a SAR can result in big penalties to the financial institution. Literally millions of these SARS are being generated by banks; they would rather be safe than sorry. It's now big biz to sell software to support AML activities.

If you are a privacy advocate you might be a little concerned that detailed financial information was being shared to the government without your consent and knowledge, and with a very low threshold of probable cause. Yes, they found Spitzer, but how many other private citizen's finances were reviewed to get to him?

Here's an non-definitive Wikipedia article excerpt:

Financial institutions face penalties for failing to properly file CTR (Cash Transaction Report) and SAR (Suspicious Activity Report) reports, including heavy fines and regulatory restrictions, even to the point of charter revocation. [...] Software applications effectively monitor bank customer transactions on a daily basis and, using customer historical information and account profile, provide a whole picture to the bank management. Transaction monitoring can include cash deposits and withdrawals, wire transfers, credit card activity, cheques (checks), share (securities) dealing and ACH activity.

Other Links

www.bankersonline.com/security/sar/saramlcompl.html

www.bai.org/pdf/6193_AML.pdf

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti_Money_Laundering

Wednesday, March 12, 2008 07:33 PM

"Eliot spitzer: if legal avenues for discreet-sex existed, this immeasurable loss would not have occurred!"

"Eliot spitzer: if legal avenues for discreet-sex existed, this immeasurable loss would not have occurred"

IF avenues existed in New York and in similar-law U.S. + other countries' jurisdictions for adult males- and particularly politicians and persons in public-service- to 'privately pursue' their un-remove-able and to-be-expected traits, Mr Spitzer & the many, many others like him- and all of his/their abilities, irreplaceable qualities and potential to-do-good, would not have been lost...

The 'big (and even the less patronized) media' generally, would do well to examine the underlying factors behind the easily- and on balance- productively-avoidable spitzer catastrophe...

In particular it needs to be questioned whether the immense loss to society of this person and all of his exceptionally effective, constructive and fairness-in-society-building attributes and capabilities is a 'fair swap' for him being susceptible to- or falling for- what adult males have done since human kind first set foot on this earth...

What needs to be asked is: "would society be better served if adult males generally, and particularly persons in public service- such as politicians- were able to 'act on their unavoidable sexual urges' out of the public-view"??

Expecting men to be fully-faithful to their partners/wives is unrealistic.

Fidelity is an objective to be aimed for... but, just like expecting male Catholic priests to be celibate or to not masturbate- it ain't going to happen...

Politically 'killing' or wrecking the lives of those that stray from full-fidelity will always cause far more loss to societies than if persons/societies affected (by acts of infidelity) reacted to this with discrete- albeit disgusted and/or heavily scolded- reasoned accommodations...

________________

Roderick V. Louis,

near Vancouver, B.C., Canada,

rvlouis@patientempowermentsociety.com

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