NY Governor Spitzer Linked to Prostitution Ring

[jingofever]

Deep Capture guy had some interesting things to say about Spitzer. (The site is down so I cannot link to or paste the relevant material.) A short version of his story is that Spitzer unfairly went after essentially harmless companies but let the hedge funds break whatever laws they wanted. An even shorter version is this picture:



That is Eliot Spitzer, Jim Cramer and unidentified white male during their salad days at Harvard Law. I don't know if Deep Capture's spin is correct, but it is interesting.

[elpuma]

Jim Cramer is a Fucking Slime: Wall Street insider and CNBC whore!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfWSRuNm6do

[anothershamus]

The railroad goes both directions on the Spitzer Line:

America is known for its great second acts, and we may be witnessing the curtain rising on Spitzer’s.

Eliot Spitzer is back and he’s talking. The thought of this, no doubt, brings a small shiver to the boardrooms of some of the perps walking around trying to figure out how to hide the money this week. Today Edward Liddy testified that there have been death threats made to or about executives who received bonuses, so no names will be put on the record, but these anonymous players must know that the jig is up in the land of easy-money. Isn’t what to do a no-brainer for these great Americans?

Spitzer may be as “disgraced” as any anonymous sex loving Republican loser, but America is known for its great second acts, and we may be witnessing the curtain rising on Spitzer’s.

Today in Slate Eliot Spitzer has a short op-ed that speaks volumes about what is going on, and indirectly, if you follow the money, what happened to him. Plainly stated, Spitzer brings the AIG Ponzi Scheme one step closer to the revered establishment when he explains how the bailout money was funneled straight into the top players, with Goldman Sachs being the name that comes up again and again. These top players already got bailout money, and Goldman is looking at zero losses at this point, while regular Americans are being asked to make concessions or just plain losing everything. here are the biggest financial entities in the world, making billions on what appears to have been nothing but air traded back and forth, and having gutted the American people they are walking away with 100% return to their stockholders. In return AIG seems to think that its appropriate to pay themselves bonuses with the leftover funds. This leaves AIG still a wobbly shell with no plan of how to go forward, and the threat of the collapse of all of the world’s financial markets still up in the air. So, what was all that bailout money for? Apparently to make sure that no one at Goldman or the other few top firms in the hand-out-line lost anything!

The relationship between AIG and Goldman goes back long enough that one would think that Goldman would know, having bought so much of this “insurance” or whatever it was, whether the “products” were …er…real or feasible at all. Indeed, Goldman and AIG almost merged a few years ago, but Spitzer notes that the unknown black hole of AIG’s business practices were probably what prevented it. Still, that didn’t stop the incestuous dealings; it almost makes one think that this whole thing was a setup.

This is country that Spitzer is familiar with; he has been a terrible liability to entities that, under the Bush administration, were allowed to literally gut the country and its citizens. All of this seems to have been part of the Bush Administration’s own Ponzi Scheme, which figured that the illusion of an ownership society, terrified of the “terraism” and steeped in the me, me, me, culture would look the other way while they finished clearing out the vault. Beyond that, it’s clear that the media hyped housing bubble encouraged the house flip mentality and the idea that anyone could be rich. The idea of the lottery dropping on our own heads made us more protective of the rich, because we might one day be one….or look, we could be one with no money down, if we could just balance that on this, and flip that house!!

More here:
http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/132547/was_eliot_spitzer_taken_out_because_he_was_going_to_bust_aig

[tal]

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Mildly exciting.

Has the potential to combine evidence of Bush regime crime with the cover-up of the Wall Street ultra-scam.

It's partly up to Spitzer: What if it does come out he was deposed by way of dirty tricks to eliminate a potential danger to the Wall Street CEOs in the middle of the century crash? Does he go out for revenge and become at least spiritually the banking Robespierre we so desperately need?

I wonder what his stance is on the bailouts. That would tell us instantly whether he might yet some do some good.

.

Spitzer better stay out of small planes (among other things). From Catherine Austin Fitts:

McCain Finance Chair Played Major Role in Spitzer’s Downfall
News & Commentary,
April 24, 2008 at 8:04 am

Story from Politics1.com:

NEW YORK. A Politics1 Exclusive. John McCain’s National Finance Co-Chairman played a key role in the recent downfall of former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (D). Reliable sources informed Politics1 that DC super-lobbyist Wayne Berman — a longtime confidant of insurance executive Maurice Hank Greenberg — authorized a private Investigation that discovered the links between Spitzer and a Florida escort service ring. Operating under the alias code-name “Wallace C. Bernheim,” Berman directed an 18-month effort that cost an estimated $2.2 million.

The investigation was allegedly paid for by a highly-secretive shadow committee Berman directed, informally nicknamed “The Group.” Sources tell Politics1 that The Group included Greenberg, Home Depot founder Ken Langone and former New York Stock Exchange Chairman Ken Grasso — all high-profile targets of Spitzer when he was Attorney General. Key players in funding the anti-Spitzer effort also included wealthy New Jersey businessman Joseph Jingoli and Florida sugar mogul Pepe Fanjul Jr. Berman also retained veteran Republican dirty trickster Roger Stone to transmit the information to the FBI five months ago. The Group also funded an on-going effort by Stone to challenge Spitzer on the “Troopergate” and illegal immigrants drivers license issues. Berman and Stone were previously partners in the Black, Manafort, Stone & Kelly consulting firm, whose former clients included Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, Angolan guerilla Jonas Savimbi , US Sugar, Phillip Morris Tobacco, and developer Donald Trump. Stone also had a very public sexual scandal in that past, as he was fired by Bob Dole’s 1996 Presidential campaign when it was reported that Stone and his wife were advertising for other couples in sex magazines and participated in swingers sex parties. Stone also organized the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” in November 2000 that shut down the Miami-Dade Presidential recount. The funders decided against giving the money to the coffers of New York Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno (R) — a sharp Spitzer foe — because of lack of confidence in Bruno strategist John McArdle.

Previous blog posts on Eliot Spitzer:

* Mortgage Bubble Names and Faces
* It Ain’t About Sex
* It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp
* New York’s Pension Funds
* Unanswered Questions About NY Pension Funds

[anothershamus]

tal wrote:

Spitzer better stay out of small planes (among other things). From Catherine Austin Fitts

I have a question about Catherine, She seemed to come out of nowhere and she was pretty high up in the HUD and political circles. Anybody know anything else? I have checked out her website solari.com

Now she is a main spokesman for community banking and other good stuff. And she alluded to the AIG being bailed out (3 times and counting), because that's where the PTB laundered all their drug, gun, and hidden taxable income money and funneled it into very few hands.

If the books come out on it she thinks all sorts of illegal acts will be exposed perpetrated by the top 1% of the income earners and we know they don't want their financial exploits exposed.

[Username]

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Spitzer's first TV appearance since he resigned as NY Gov. in 2008.

Eliot Spitzer with Fareed Zakaria on CNN Part I (03-22-2009)

Part II

Part III
~

[Pazdispenser]

Shamus -

I have been following CAF for longer than I knew of RI. But then I could be anywhere, or nowhere. Go read dunwalke.com.

[Username]

~
[url=http://www.slate.com/id/2213942/]Slate
The Real AIG Scandal
It's not the bonuses. It's that AIG's counterparties are getting paid back in full.
By Eliot Spitzer
March 17, 2009[/url]

[url=http://www.slate.com/id/2214407/]Slate
The Real AIG Scandal, Continued!
The transfer of $12.9 billion from AIG to Goldman looks fishier and fishier.
By Eliot Spitzer
March 22, 2009[/url]
~

[JackRiddler]

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Well, I'd have to say he's back with as much of a vengeance as could be given the circumstances of his downfall.

Long interview on Amy Goodman.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/12/4/e ... mplicit_in

Highly recommended, because he does have the skilled public lecturer's talent of explaining things in simple, direct and correct ways. I'd post it in the old End of the Wall Street Boom thread, but if I'd revive that I'd have to immediately throw in about 90 articles I've collected since I let it lapse.

Rhetorically diplomatic, but leaving no doubt that the bankers engaged in large-scale plunder at the taxpayers' expense and that he'd like to go after them if he was still Attorney General. Calls for dismissing Geithner and Bernanke as key figures in wittingly creating the crisis in the first place.

Emphasizes the AIG bailout, probably the single most criminal of the actions, and how Goldman Sachs got its $13 billion through the AIG backdoor as a counterparty paid 100 percent of the nominal value on ridiculous derivatives bets.

Also asked at length about his scandal. He calls it his fault but when asked if there were those who wanted to take him down says people can figure that out for themselves.

Don't say I'm an extremist. Here's a centrist Democrat I'd enjoy seeing as the head of a beefed-up SEC.

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