Strollerderby : governor

Eliot Spitzer Cleared of Prostitution Charges

Brett Singer — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

It has been decided that former governor of New York Eliot Spitzer – aka the Tainted Gov – will not face criminal charges for repeatedly visiting a prostitute.

The New York Times reports that the reason is because, well, the Johns usually don't get charged. "It’s not surprising,” said Andrew B. Lachow, who once ran the public corruption unit in the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan that has for months been investigating Mr. Spitzer. "There just wasn’t much there that would have called for prosecution."

Now wait a minute.

What happened to if you do the crime, you do the time? Isn't this an open and shut case? I realize that everyone is entitled to a defense, and that trials cost money. But when you get caught red-handed, and when everybody else involved is facing criminal charges, isn't this just a tad unfair?

In other words – if it's hard out here for a pimp, shouldn't it be hard for their customers as well?

The Times article continues: "From the outset, the story of Mr. Spitzer and his patronage of the now-defunct Emperor’s Club V.I.P. read more like a moral tale than a legal one." OK. But he broke the law. Right? "In laying out his decision not to prosecute Mr. Spitzer, Michael J. Garcia, the United States attorney in Manhattan, said he had three main rationales: Mr. Spitzer had apparently not used any public money or campaign funds for his trysts; there was insufficient evidence that he had broken the law in how he had structured payments to the call-girl ring; and, finally, it was not the policy of his or other federal prosecutors’ offices to charge the customers in matters of prostitution."

The real kicker is the last one. Basically, visiting a prostitute is illegal, but if you get caught, you probably won't face any punishment.

The good thing – sort of – is that this doesn't appear to be special treatment for Spitzy, according to attorney Patricia A. Pileggi, a former prosecutor. The financial reasoning behind not charging him is vaguely complicated; to me it sounds like he did what they would accuse him of, but perhaps it would be too difficult to prove in court.

I'm not anti-prostitution. I think it might – MIGHT – even be a good idea to legalize it. (That's a much bigger issue, obviously.) But right now it's against the law. Shouldn't the guys who do it be charged?

Source: NY Times
Image: also NY Times

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Palin Chooses Name for Her Next Kid

Cole Gamble — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Republican Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin has more on her mind then just her future political career. She’s already thinking about her next baby. She, the mother of five kids with such fanciful names as Track, Trig and Piper, is already talking about the name of her next child. Forget the fact she is in the middle of a national election and could possibly be sitting in the White House eating caribou stew with foreign dignitaries soon, Palin’s got baby on the brain. Wanna know what name she picked out for the future Palin? Here’s a hint: it’s a hockey term. Got to read more for the answer...

So her next child’s name? Zamboni. You know, the big machine they use to smooth the ice at hockey rinks. This she told People magazine during a recent interview. It turns out Mrs. Palin was simply joking and has no plans on more kids (for now). However, not everyone caught the “joking” part and thought Palin was for real. They might be half right. After all, Bristol’s got to be shopping for a baby name.

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Preventing Teen Pregnancy, One Tick at a Time

JeanneSager — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 16:34:00 GMT

Comedienne Wanda Sykes just joined the list of celebrities who probably won’t get a Christmas card from Sarah Palin this year. Not that the wisecracking liberal was likely to be on the list anyway – have you seen the gay marriage bit?

But Wanda was at large last week in Atlanta with a number of other celebrities working to have their names removed from the Palin family newsletter list (I hear there’s a whole section on how to name a baby). So what did Martina Navratilova, Lily Tomlin, Big Boi and Sally Field all do that's against the Palin motto?

They designed timepieces for this year's IKEA It's About Time charity auction, with all the money going to fight teen pregnancy. OK, so I cooked this up a little bit - Sarah Palin wasn't actually there. With that kind of write-up, did you think she would be?

The auction was, however, timed just as teen pregnancy has been thrust back into the spotlight, first with the announcement that Palin's 17-year-old daughter is pregnant. It's been kept there by the media's (yeah, we suck, don't we?) repeated reference to the Alaskan governor's decision to use her line item veto to slash funding that would have helped keep teen moms in her state off of the streets. Then there was the announcement that the number of teen moms is on the rise for the first time in 15 years.

Which is why Jane Fonda's pet project, the Georgia Campaign for Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention (G-CAPP) could really use a little help from her friends at IKEA and in the biz last week. The program's Second Chance Homes section does exactly what Palin was against in Alaska - provides homes for homeless teenage moms so they can complete their education and learn parenting/life skills in a stable environment.

Their success results are staggering - less than 1 percent of the teen moms who go through Second Chance end up pregnant again. All of them attend school, with a number going on to secondary education. All of their children receive immunizations on time (which means they're also seeing a pediatrician on a regular basis).

And each has shown a decreased dependency on state programs - including WIC and food stamps. You know, a savings for the state - the type of thing a governor might want to see.

Image: Pennsylvania Public Health

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Palin's Children: The Best Part of the RNC

Hannah Tennant-Moore — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:00:00 GMT

There's nothing like adorable children to take the edge off of soul-crushing political events. By far the best part of the Republican National Convention came last night when Piper Palin gave her baby brother Trig a spit bath during their mother's speech.

Unfortunately, to watch this clip, you do have to withstand Sarah Palin bragging about her city council days in the great state of Alaska (because serving on city council is sort of like running the country….), but at least you don’t have to hear the part of her speech when she jokes that hockey moms are pit bulls in lipstick. What a champion for women!—I mean ladies. It’s astounding that someone is running for national office who actually makes Dubya sound like a policy expert.

But I digress. The point of this clip is to momentarily forget about Sarah Palin and focus on the important things in life: making sure babies have perfectly slicked back hair.

Photo: alaskareport.com

No dinero for Dina

Brett Singer — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:00:00 GMT

What do you call a couple that spent $1 million on lawyers while getting divorced, and the result was that the wife got $100,000, plus $1,075 a month in child support?

You would call them the McGreeveys. (Well, not anymore, they're divorced.)

Yes, Mr. "I Am A Gay American" and the former first lady of the Garden State are finished with their contentious divorce proceeding. NYMag describes the courtroom drama as, "incredibly public, ugly, and drawn-out," which is kind of true, although it didn't quite have the legs of the Christie Brinkley / Peter "19 is legal, dammit!" Cook case.

What's fascinating to me is that Dina is getting almost nothing. She gets a one-time payment of $109,295 from Jimbo, which is half of their shared investments, so it kind of doesn't count in my book. $1,075 a month in child support is, if I may be so bold, bupkis.

So why no dinero for Dina? Jim don’t have no money. NYMag says, "since McGreevey argued that he only makes $48,000 per year while he is in seminary, the judge ruled him 'underemployed.'" So he's studying to be a priest. I guess his book didn't sell as well as people had hoped. Jim is living with a "super-wealthy financier" but those assets don't factor in. ("Jim's in love with a Jersey boy..." OK, don't go there.)

Judge Karen M. Cassidy said that both Jim and Dina, "clearly had agendas," and "their anger seemed to override any ability to testify credibly or to be reasonable." At least she went after both of them, unlike the judge in the YouTube cuckoo-wife case.

I have to wonder how angry you have to be at your spouse to spend $500,000 on attorney's fees - each - when you must have known that there was no pot of gold at the end of the divorce rainbow. Sure, Dina was married to a guy that was sleeping with, well, another guy, so she's mad. And Jim… well, he's mad at her for something, I guess. According to the New York Post, the couple will do some swapping of 401k plans and other relatively minor assets, like a $1500 checking account. She was only asking for $2500/month. So how do you rack up half a mil worth of legal bills? Fuzzy math, at best. They have a daughter together; hopefully they'll be able to deal with each other somewhat civilly.

image/source: NYMag

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Politician drives drunk, has child with mistress, is big jerk

Brett Singer — Fri, 09 May 2008 18:45:00 GMT

Is every guy in New York politics an adulterer? Vito Fossella, a Congressman from Staten Island, has now admitted to fathering a "love child" with a mistress that he carried on an affair with for several years. This news came to light after Fossella was charged with a DWI after leaving a D.C. bar where he was drinking with a friend who was so wasted he "passed out in front of the men's room."

The other woman is Laura Fay, a former colonel in the United States Air Force. The Post, clever wags that they are, call her "Fay Lay" because of dalliances during her previous two marriages. The affair with Fossella probably began in 2001; their out-of-wedlock daughter is now 3 years old. Fossella was elected to House of Representatives in 1997. So he lasted maybe 4 years before he started to stray – unless there are more of his "other women" out there.

Aside: Why is a baby conceived through an extra-marital affair referred to as a "love child"? Is a kid born to a married couple a "tax-deduction child"? (Thank you! Tip your waitress!)

The best line is actually from Fossella's Wikipedia page: "his confession on May 8, 2008 that he had fathered a (now) three-year-old child out of wedlock…could seriously jeopardize Fossella's bid for re-election." Gee, ya think?

That said, many politicians have weathered serious personal failings and remained popular with the people; some were even re-elected. So I'm curious: do people here think that sexual dalliances are relevant when it comes to a politician's ability to do their job?

image: NYPost

Florida law mandates insurance payments for autism

Brett Singer — Sat, 03 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Some good news from the south: Florida lawmakers have passed a bill that requires insurance companies to pay for treatment costs for autistic children – up to $36,000 per year, with a lifetime cap of $200,000. The bill was approved after another more complex piece of legislation that will offer inexpensive health insurance ($150 a month) to uninsured state residents.

Both programs are part of an initiative started by Florida governor Charlie Crist called "Cover Florida." Although the plan is being criticized by some for not being comprehensive enough, it certainly seems like a step in the right direction.

With health care making headlines this political season, maybe this news will inspire a debate about the specifics of how to get insurance to people who need it most, and also how to help families with autistic children get the treatment they need.

image: lacounty.gov

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Carlos Santana Has Spitzer's Back

Brett Singer — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 15:30:00 GMT

In case you were wondering what Carlos Santana thinks of the Eliot Spitzer mess -- and you know you were -- it's official: the guitarist has forgiven the former Governor.

The New York Times reported on an item from the upstate New York newspaper The Record, quoting Santana as saying at a show, "My thoughts go out to the ex-governor. I pray for forgiveness. For the lady who was working in the shadows, for him and his daughters and his wife. It’s all about healing...Not blaming or judging. It’s about healing. It could happen to you and it will, because we are all human."

What the Times neglected to mention was the likely reason for Santana's statement. When he says, “Don’t be pointing fingers, because when you do, four come back pointing at you,” he's talking about himself. Santana's wife Deborah divorced him last year, and in her book Space Between the Stars, she wrote about Carlos' own love for Black Magic women, that is, having extra-marital affairs.

Hopefully, when he says he "prays for forgiveness," he's not including Spitzer's wife and daughters in that forgiveness, although the quote could be read that way. Something that many, many people (mostly men, but some women) seem to forget about the Spitzer mess is that he wasn't just having an affair. He spent $80,000 on hookers. To paraphrase one of Carlos' songs, Oy Vey Como Va.

Just to keep the separation between behavior and talent, here are a couple of videos of Santana rocking out. If only Eliot "Tainted Gov" Spitzer could play an instrument...

image: allposters.com

Black Magic Woman

Oye Como Va

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Hasselbeck says wives need to bring sexy back

Brett Singer — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 17:15:00 GMT

I take it all back. Everything I said. Elisabeth Hasselbeck is the most amazingly wonderful woman in the history of the world. She is a true intellectual, a raconteur of the highest order, and above all: she knows that men need sex.

Of course, Elisabeth doesn't think this applies to "Tainted Guv" Eliot Spitzer and his wife. Of course not. That's why she mentioned the fact that wives need to keep their hubbies happy in the sack while she and her "View" pals were discussing that particular topic. But in general, her attitude is:

"If your guy needs sex, OK, I may not be in the mood, but we're gonna have sex?"

I mean, that's how it is in my house. Isn't it that way in yours?

New York Governor Spitzer Resigns

Brett Singer — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 17:23:00 GMT

That's it--he's over. Done. Kaput. Gone-a-rooney.

Governor Spitzer, formerly known as a crusader against, among other things, prostitution rings, announced his resignation today after he was caught on tape arranging to visit a prostitute.

Considering where he was just a few days ago, this has to be one of the biggest falls in political history. Yes, Bill Clinton was President. But that situation was not only very different for several reasons, not the least of which is that Clinton wasn't a pol who was known primarily as a "law and order" guy who made his name going after corruption, promising to "clean up" the office he was elected to. What a mess.

Regardless of what some pundits say, the wife is not to blame at all here. Even if she were having an affair herself, he still has to make the decision to go to a prostitute. Also, with allegations that he spent $80,000 on, ahem, services, that probably means he spent a whole lot more.

What a fool. What a dummy. What a... feh.

On his Sirius Satellite radio show Tuesday, Howard Stern pointed out that Spitzer's father wanted him to be "the first Jewish President," and maybe, deep down, Eliot didn't really want to do it. So it's self-destructive behavior. That's as good an explanation as any, frankly. What makes someone in his position do this? "Sex addiction" sounds like a load of baloney, to put it mildly. Howard also wished he could be a fly on the wall at the Spitzer household, which I have to agree with. I mean, what do you say to your wife, your three daughters? Oops? Be like Shaggy and say, "It wasn't me?" Not likely.

New York will make history now with its first African-American governor, who also happens to be blind. Lt. Gov. David Paterson will now take over.

Man. March Madness, indeed.