Republicans patronise "Eyes Wide Shut" S&M club

[semper occultus]

Michael Steele and the strippers

The Republican party chairman's job looks in danger after evidence that his office spent party funds in sleazy strip club

Posted by
Richard Adams Monday 29 March 2010 16.55 BST
guardian.co.uk

....published returns showing that the RNC has spent lavishly during trips around the country – including nearly $2,000 on a high-end strip club in West Hollywood.

The Daily Caller website posted the details from Federal Election Commission filings that the party is obliged to report. It noted:

A February RNC trip to California, for example, included a $9,099 stop at the Beverly Hills Hotel, $6,596 dropped at the nearby Four Seasons, and $1,620.71 spent [update: the amount is actually $1,946.25] at Voyeur West Hollywood, a bondage-themed nightclub featuring topless women dancers imitating lesbian sex.
RNC trips to other cities produced bills from a long list of chic and costly hotels such as the Venetian and the M Resort in Las Vegas, and the W (for a total of $19,443) in Washington. A midwinter trip to Hawaii cost the RNC $43,828, not including airfare.

Voyeur West Hollywood is, according to the Los Angeles Times, modelled on sex scenes in the awful Stanley Kubrick/Tom Cruise/Nicole Kidman porn film Eyes Wide Shut. It describes the scene:

The dark, leather-heavy interior is reminiscent of the masked orgy scene from the movie. The reference is taken a step further with impromptu bondage and S&M "scenes" being played out on an elevated platform by scantily clad performers throughout the night – not presented as "shows," like they are in clubs such as Playhouse Hollywood. There is also a heavy net suspended above the club's lounge area where performers writhe above the heads of clubgoers. Even more provocative scenes are played out in an enclosed glass booth area adjacent to the club's dance floor area.

"It's pretty ... intense," clubgoer Lee Stone admitted on opening night as one female performer with a horse's bit in her mouth was being strapped to the wall by another just behind the booth he was sharing with friends. His friend was more intrigued by the action. "I wonder if I would get in trouble for joining them?" she joked.

A recent reviewer on the Yelp website wrote: "There are topless 'dancers' acting out S&M scenes throughout the night on one of the side stages, there's a half-naked girl hanging from a net across the ceiling and at one point I walked to the bathroom and pretty much just stopped dead in my tracks to watch two girls simulating oral sex in a glass case. Really understated elegance here."

Classy. According to the Daily Caller's piece: "Steele himself declined numerous interview requests, though his defenders point out that luxurious accommodations are sometimes necessary to attract big-time donors, especially since Republicans remain in the minority in Washington."

Ah, those big-time donors. Anyway, taxi for Mr Steele....

[streeb]

One of the comments. Just for balance.

I quite liked 'Eyes Wide Shut'

Even "bad" Kulbrick is good.

[Simulist]

“I don't know that much about the club, the membership, nor do I care, quite frankly, because I don't play golf.”
— MIchael Steele in 2005, when asked about an all-white private golf club being used for Republican fund raisers

Well, at least now he's patronizing a club that admits blacks. That's a step in the right direction, isn't it?

Maybe just a little bit?

LOL


(P.S. His name is sort of pornstar-ish, come to think of it. On second thought, I need an Alka-Seltzer...)

[beeline]

(P.S. His name is sort of pornstar-ish, come to think of it.

So is his mustache:

[Peregrine]

Hey man, I don't have issue with these guys visiting fetish clubs, but I do take issue with them doing it on the tax payer's dime, which is most likely the case.

[psynapz]

Hey man, I don't have issue with these guys visiting fetish clubs, but I do take issue with them doing it on the tax payer's dime, which is most likely the case.

I wonder what percentage of the non-black budget is spent literally on booze, hookers n' blow, you know?

I guess ultimately it's yet another channel for laundering public funds out to black projects. Particularly in this case, I would ignorantly hypothesize, due to the easy and abundant blackmailing material such a place would generate.

[psynapz]

Also, I'm struck by the idea that closet homsexuality in the Republican party was an inside job too, but I can't figure out how to make it fit on a bumper sticker.

[Peregrine]

I guess ultimately it's yet another channel for laundering public funds out to black projects.

heh. I never thought of that being part of black budget costs, as it seems frivolous spending is commonplace & in your face. Like $600 Gucci shoes or extravagant dates. It's amazing what the folks in positions of power will drop at the cost of us "commoners".

[semper occultus]

It's amazing what the folks in positions of power will drop at the cost of us "commoners".

errr. tell me about it ...

UK Economy: MPs Expenses Scandal

www.economywatch.com

London, UK, 26 May 2009.

British politics has never been a particularly clean affair, with the whiff of scandal and the sound of madams cracking whips as much a part of Westminster as the Speaker's wig.

The scandal that is currently ripping through Parliament is of a different order altogether.

The Daily Telegraph newspaper got hold of computer disks full of expense claims and correspondence, and has been publishing details on a daily basis.

The UK is in the grip of its worst recession since World War II, so to hear about these expense claims while the queues grew at unemployment offices made the public understandably angry. Anger turned to fury at the way MPs attempted to hide the facts or deny them, until the Telegraph started publishing the accounts. Confidence in politicians is at an all-time low.

Casualties So Far

Michael Martin will step down as Commons Speaker. He had used a chauffeur-driven car to get to the local job centre, and his officials had helped MPs to maximise claims.

Shahid Malik stepped down from his post as Justice Minister because of a discounted rent he get on a property he had said was his main home.

Andrew MacKay was the most senior Conservative to go, when both he and his MP wife claimed expenses on both their homes.

David Chaytor was suspended from the Labour Party for claiming on a mortgage that had already been paid.

Elliot Morley was also suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party for claiming £16,000 on a false mortgage.

Ben Chapman has promised to stand down for claiming £15,000 in interest charges on a mortgage he had already paid of .

Sir Nicholas and Ann Winterton to stand down from parliament for claiming more than £80,000 in rent for a London flat owned by their children's trust.

Sir Peter Viggers announced he will stand down at the next election after claiming £1,645 on a duck house.

Anthony Steen will step down at the next election for claiming maintenance on his country house, including tree inspections by a forestry tree doctor.

Douglas Hogg announced he would not contest the next election. He initially denied he had claimed £2,000 for clearing his moat but later had to agree to repay it after publication.

[AlicetheKurious]

Tangentially:

Iceland: the world's most feminist country

Iceland has just banned all strip clubs. Perhaps it's down to the lesbian prime minister, but this may just be the most female-friendly country on the planet

o Julie Bindel
o guardian.co.uk, Thursday 25 March 2010 22.00 GMT

Iceland's Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir

The following correction was printed in the Guardian's Corrections and clarifications column, Saturday 27 March 2010

Iceland's prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottir, was wrongly credited with being the country's first female head of state. That honour goes to Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who served as president from 1980 to 1996

Iceland is fast becoming a world-leader in feminism. A country with a tiny population of 320,000, it is on the brink of achieving what many considered to be impossible: closing down its sex industry.

While activists in Britain battle on in an attempt to regulate lapdance clubs – the number of which has been growing at an alarming rate during the last decade – Iceland has passed a law that will result in every strip club in the country being shut down. And forget hiring a topless waitress in an attempt to get around the bar: the law, which was passed with no votes against and only two abstentions, will make it illegal for any business to profit from the nudity of its employees.

Even more impressive: the Nordic state is the first country in the world to ban stripping and lapdancing for feminist, rather than religious, reasons. Kolbrún Halldórsdóttir, the politician who first proposed the ban, firmly told the national press on Wednesday: "It is not acceptable that women or people in general are a product to be sold." When I asked her if she thinks Iceland has become the greatest feminist country in the world, she replied: "It is certainly up there. Mainly as a result of the feminist groups putting pressure on parliamentarians. These women work 24 hours a day, seven days a week with their campaigns and it eventually filters down to all of society."

The news is a real boost to feminists around the world, showing us that when an entire country unites behind an idea anything can happen. And it is bound to give a shot in the arm to the feminist campaign in the UK against an industry that is both a cause and a consequence of gaping inequality between men and women.

According to Icelandic police, 100 foreign women travel to the country annually to work in strip clubs. It is unclear whether the women are trafficked, but feminists say it is telling that as the stripping industry has grown, the number of Icelandic women wishing to work in it has not. Supporters of the bill say that some of the clubs are a front for prostitution – and that many of the women work there because of drug abuse and poverty rather than free choice. I have visited a strip club in Reykjavik and observed the women. None of them looked happy in their work.

So how has Iceland managed it? To start with, it has a strong women's movement and a high number of female politicans. Almost half the parliamentarians are female and it was ranked fourth out of 130 countries on the international gender gap index (behind Norway, Finland and Sweden). All four of these Scandinavian countries have, to some degree, criminalised the purchase of sex (legislation that the UK will adopt on 1 April). "Once you break past the glass ceiling and have more than one third of female politicians," says Halldórsdóttir, "something changes. Feminist energy seems to permeate everything."

Johanna Sigurðardottir is Iceland's first female and the world's first openly lesbian head of state. Guðrún Jónsdóttir of Stígamót, an organisation based in Reykjavik that campaigns against sexual violence, says she has enjoyed the support of Sigurðardottir for their campaigns against rape and domestic violence: "Johanna is a great feminist in that she challenges the men in her party and refuses to let them oppress her."

Then there is the fact that feminists in Iceland appear to be entirely united in opposition to prostitution, unlike the UK where heated debates rage over whether prostitution and lapdancing are empowering or degrading to women. There is also public support: the ban on commercial sexual activity is not only supported by feminists but also much of the population. A 2007 poll found that 82% of women and 57% of men support the criminalisation of paying for sex – either in brothels or lapdance clubs – and fewer than 10% of Icelanders were opposed.

Jónsdóttir says the ban could mean the death of the sex industry. "Last year we passed a law against the purchase of sex, recently introduced an action plan on trafficking of women, and now we have shut down the strip clubs. The Nordic countries are leading the way on women's equality, recognising women as equal citizens rather than commodities for sale."

Strip club owners are, not surprisingly, furious about the new law. One gave an interview to a local newspaper in which he likened Iceland's approach to that of a country such as Saudi Arabia, where it is not permitted to see any part of a woman's body in public. "I have reached the age where I'm not sure whether I want to bother with this hassle any more," he said.

Janice Raymond, a director of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, hopes that all sex industry profiteers feel the same way, and believes the new law will pave the way for governments in other countries to follow suit. "What a victory, not only for the Icelanders but for everyone worldwide who repudiates the sexual exploitation of women," she says.

Jónsdóttir is confident that the law will create a change in attitudes towards women. "I guess the men of Iceland will just have to get used to the idea that women are not for sale." Link

[StarmanSkye]

Good for them. Though I see the issue more as human rights than feminism re: equality and exploitation. I wonder if most strip-club owners are men? I have a problem with people making money off someone else's sexuality, as with strippers and lap-dancers. As for sex-workers like prostitutes, I think its demeaning -- I wouldn't want to date or be married to a prostitute, I guess I'm pretty straightlaced. I'm not too tolerant about prostitution mainly because sex-workers are usually, invariably exploited.

I wonder if males in Iceland who really, really get-off on the idea of having their genitals rubbed against a strange woman's groin can work as male lap-dancers?

[JackRiddler]

The Iceland article deserves its own thread.

[Sweejak]

Yeah it does. I love blowback blowback

[Simulist]

Seems to me that Iceland is penalizing honest sex workers.

The dishonest ones marry into money for profit.

Do these "feminists" have a problem with that? If so, are they going to try and shut that down too? If not, why not?

[MacCruiskeen]

Seems to me that Iceland is penalizing honest sex workers.

The dishonest ones marry into money for profit.

Do these "feminists" have a problem with that? If so, are they going to try and shut that down too? If not, why not?

Translation: If a government can't immediately prevent any man from ever inviting any woman for a meal, or any husband from ever having more money than his wife, then it's hypocritical to introduce legal measures protecting all women from having to spend x hours a night rubbing themselves into the groins of random fat ugly wealthy drunken strangers in order to earn enough to pay the rent (and the pimp's fee) while being required by the pimp to pretend to look as if they're enjoying it.

This makes perfect sense.

That's why progressives say: Shame on you, Icelandic government! Are you Saudi Arabia, or what? Forget your country's self-inflicted penury! Let the market rule! Let the gals make an honest living! Let the guys relax and have fun! And don't even try to regulate employment (= exploitation for money) before you have entirely revolutionised all relations between the sexes!

Postscript: With no apologies whatsoever for all the sarcasm-green.