Suitably Flip

For Clinton's Senate Seat, Gov. Paterson Would "Prefer a Man Or a White"

Now that President-elect Obama has made official his intention to nominate Hillary Clinton to head the State Department, speculation has begun to brew in earnest as to her replacement in the U.S. Senate.

Since the most recently elected Governor of New York has resigned in order to spend more time with his family, the terrible burden of appointing Clinton's temporary successor (to serve for two years until a special election in 2010) falls to Governor David Paterson, who - in a shocking turn - has lain bare troubling streaks of racism and sexism in his ruminations over possible appointees.

Perhaps inevitably, noted former President Bill Clinton's name has been floated as a possible replacement.  Still, it saddens those of us who cherish the ideals of a color- and gender-blind society that Bubba's race and sex were apparently key resume enhancers.

"This is not an election. This is not a campaign. It's a constituency of one. David Paterson. It's all about what the governor wants to do," said political analyst Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of The Rothenberg Political Report.

"Paterson has said he would prefer someone from upstate New York, or a man or a Caucasian candidate," Rothenberg said.

Actually, wait... I think I pasted that wrong.  Let's try this again:

"Paterson has said he would prefer someone from upstate New York, or a woman or an Hispanic candidate," Rothenberg said.

There we are.

My apologies to Governor Paterson for that libelous lapse.

Turns out his selection criteria aren't racist or sexist after all.  On behalf of 20 million grateful constituents, I thank the Governor in advance for his sober and objective hand-picking of our next representative to the U.S. Senate.  Join me in congratulating him for his courage in deciding to use this pick not only to serve the best interests of New Yorkers, but also to pander (quite courageously, mind you) to key voting demographics that may feel underrepresented in elected offices that are - lamentably - so frequently filled according to the coarse and bigoted consensus of their fellow citizens.

Truly, where Eliot Spitzer invited a modicum of shame unto the highest office in the state, Paterson has hereby restored honor and magnanimity to the Governor's mansion.  By bravely declaring his disinclination to appoint a white or a male, Governor Paterson reminds us that, while he may be legally blind, he surely cannot be labeled color-blind.

Spitzer's VIP Streetwalker Scores Record Deal, Pun

After a longer-than-expected delay, Client #9's best gal has finally embarked on her singing/dancing/writing/acting/modeling/handbag-designing/celebreality career.

The call girl who cost New York [Democratic] governor ELIOT SPITZER his job has signed a music deal with Violator Records - the same company behind rappers BUSTA RHYMES and MISSY ELLIOT.

Ashlee Dupree shot to fame when her relationship with married politician Spitzer hit the headlines in March (08).

An aspiring singer, Dupree benefited from the exposure and her songs Move Ya Body and What We Want, both posted on her MySpace.com webpage, went on to receive over 3 million internet hits.

And now Dupree has landed a record deal with Violator, according to the New York Post.

A source confirms to AllHipHop.com, "She deserved a fair shake and Violator isn't scared of the controversy."

Prima Donna

Hillary Clinton was all set to attend a "Stop Iran Now" rally in New York next Monday, hosted by the Jewish Community Relations Council.

I wasn't sure whether it might be a hoax when word of the announcement email went out last night, given the event's other headliner.

But according to Hillary's people, she wasn't aware that she'd have to share the stage with Washington's new it girl when she accepted. And when Hillary found out her limelight would be dimmed by the Alaskan upstart, she pulled out.

Some things are just more important than stopping Iran (now).

Rumors Of His Death Were Roughly As Exaggerated As Everyone Assumed

Samuel Israel, III, the hedge fund manager and convicted fraudster who took a detour while driving himself to prison to begin his 20-year sentence last month, in order to pitch himself off the Bear Mountain Bridge, has turned himself into authorities.

Mr. Israel, who disappearing last month shortly before he was supposed to begin serving a 20-year prison term, turned himself into the Southwick, Mass., police department at 9:15 a.m. EDT Wednesday, an assistant to Southwick Police Chief Mark J. Krynicki said Wednesday.

Mr. Israel, the former chief executive of Bayou Management LLC, is expected to be turned over to U.S. Marshals Service, which led the manhunt, later Wednesday, she said.
...
On June 9, Mr. Israel's sport-utility vehicle was found abandoned on a bridge in Westchester County with the words "suicide is painless" scrawled in the dust on the hood -- about 90 minutes before he was to report to prison in Massachusetts.

Authorities investigated at the time whether he may have jumped from the bridge in a suicide attempt, but they later ruled that out.

2nd Amendment Quiz Time!

The Supreme Court may have upheld the Constitutional rights of Washington residents to bear arms, but here in New York, good luck carrying concealed french fries, much less a firearm (unless you're spectacularly wealthy, of course).

In a city with such a charmingly totalitarian spin on individual liberties, can you guess where the easiest place to arm yourself to the teeth would be?

1. Gun show/exhibition
2. Craigslist
3. Weehawken
4. Property clerk's office, 1 Police Plaza

Answer after the jump.

---

If you guessed Property clerk's office, 1 Police Plaza, kudos.

Nearly one out of three handguns and rifles that had been turned in to the police could not be immediately accounted for in a Manhattan property clerk’s office, according to a city audit released on Tuesday that criticized the Police Department’s storage procedures.

The audit, conducted by the office of William C. Thompson Jr., the city comptroller, examined the records of 324 weapons chosen at random out of thousands in storage in the Manhattan property division. Ninety-four of them could not be immediately found in their assigned storage areas.
...

After the initial search, it was determined that 70 of the 94 weapons had been returned to their owners or destroyed, Mr. Thompson said, while 24 “miraculously” turned up on shelves from where they had previously been missing after several attempts to find them.

“At no time were we given a satisfactory explanation about where the firearms had been, how they had been located or how they had been returned to the same spot that the auditors and the property clerk staff had checked on at earlier dates,” Mr. Thompson said.
...
The report said the Manhattan office had 29,576 handguns and thousands of rifles as of June 2007. It said auditors found rifles stacked on top of one another, some without identifying tags.

Guest Blog: Inside the Angry Mind Of a New York State Senate Staffer

Last week, New York State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno unexpectedly announced his retirement.  Bruno, 79, will be succeeded by Sen. Dean Skelos as the leader of the razor-thin GOP majority (and the only superlatively-ranked elected Republican in the state).

In the days since, there's been plenty of speculation as to Bruno's motives for stepping down - his age, his health (which, by all accounts, is fine), his having lost his wife of 57 years in January, the ongoing FBI probe into his private business affairs, and (perhaps most dauntingly) the possibility that he expects Democrats to seize the Senate majority this November and is simply not keen on sticking around when that final retaining wall gives way and New York's Democrats arrogate absolute control of the state.

One displeased anonymous Republican Senate staffer joins us for a rather lyrical guest post on Bruno's sudden departure.

---

Inside the angry mind of a staffer...
June 30, 2008

Is it Karma?
Payback for snickering at a Governor and his hooker?
Penalty for praising the Lord my boss didn't have a secret family?
It seems simple. Albeit abruptly, he retired.
And, like a break up, there are many unanswered questions.
Politics is a passion. A game of loyalty above all else.
Staffers mold their lives around their elected.
It's the power that intoxicates them and the job that becomes them.
An incestuous relationship by nature of shared passion.
Lobbyists, consultants and coworkers are friends, playmates and lovers.
The office, receptions and event venues are all extensions of home.
We are comfortable at home, we are ourselves at home.
The electeds rely on us to make them look good at home.
Content, policy, strategy, a pocket full of mints and directions to the loo.
Preparation is often cumbersome but it shows commitment.
The capacity for knowledge shows growth, and loyalty is proof of the commitment.
Electeds thrive on our diligence, instinct and foresight.
While they selfishly wrap in position, perception, and "service."
But what of those who serve them?
Years of dedication rewarded with.. not a phone call, an email.. but news reports.
We continue to make guesses and speculate on our own futures.
For the devoted staffer, like Katherine of Aragon Queen of England, in the end it was both love and loyalty... to a fault.
Life is full of surprises.
RIP faithful staff, take care of yourself b/c you are on your own...

Hundreds Of Healthy Ground Zero Workers Exploiting Colleagues' Real Medical Issues To Scam NYC Out Of Money

Sick.

The first detailed review of the medical records of nearly 10,000 ground zero workers who are suing New York City and its contractors suggests that many are not as sick as their lawyers have claimed, attorneys for the city say.

The city’s review, based on medical records submitted in federal court by the workers and their lawyers, found that as many as 30 percent of the workers reported nothing more than common symptoms like runny nose or cough. Their records, according to the review, did not indicate that doctors had ever diagnosed a specific disease.

In fact, more than 300 workers admitted in court documents that they were not ill at all.

Not only does this particularly lurid display of hyperlitigiousness threaten to drain resources that could be directed toward workers who are genuinely sick, but it serves to cast undue doubt on those workers' claims.

All of these folks were on the scene on 9/11 and/or during the dangerous rescue, recovery, and cleanup that followed.  It's a little troubling that some of them now appear to be falsely cashing in on the suffering of others.

Feds Ready To Steamroll Spitzer Over Schtupergate

Karma seems determined to keep the overzealous prosecution ledger in balance.

The noose appears to be tightening around sex-crazed ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

The federal case against him is so strong that prosecutors had no interest in striking cooperation agreements with the ringleader of Spitzer's hooker-supplier, Emperors Club VIP, and his second in command, sources told The Post's Murray Weiss.

Prosecutors have records of Spitzer's transactions, phone records and taped conversations with Emperors Club, and are confident they need little more to nail him on charges that could include violating prostitution laws and money laundering, sources said. Probers are also said to be looking into whether he used campaign funds to pay for his pleasures.
...
A hooker booker who worked for Brener, Temeka Lewis, pleaded guilty in a cooperation agreement that requires her to testify about Spitzer's involvement with the ring and his alleged attempts to conceal payments for sex.

Spiderhomme Spotted Scaling New NYT Tower [Update: Copycat Climber Renders Stunt Less Impressive]

Fox News is showing live footage of the Alain Robert (aka "the French Spiderman") free-climbing the newly built 748-foot New York Times Building in midtown Manhattan.  The close-ups reveal a conveniently ladder-like edifice, but the man's still untethered 50 stories high.

Looks like he's got about 3 stories to go.

Oh la vache.

Update: Sacrebleu!  Looks like they've apprehended him before he got to the top.  A hard-hat wearing cop just threw a strap around him, about 1 story shy of the roof.

Update: Oh, this is such a better story.

A second man climbed up the side of the New York Times' building on the West Side, just hours after a daredevil did the same stunt.

The New York Times reported on its City Room blog that the man was climbing on the south side of the building and as of 6:10 p.m., he was nine stories up.

He appeared to be moving at a slower rate than Alain Robert, an experienced climber who scaled the building eariler in the day.

Utterly stupendous.  I'm choosing to envision the copycat as some ordinary Joe New Yorker who happened to pass by and wanted to show the professional French climber it's not so hard.  But it sounds like the reality may be more complicated.

At moments during his ascent, the second climber appeared to slow and tire, and officers awaiting him shouted encouragements from the rooftop and even dangled a rope, which he did not take, police said.

Officers became concerned that the man might be an emotionally disturbed copycat, and he was taken to a hospital for a psychiatric evaluation, according to police, who identified him as 32-year-old Renaldo Clarke of Brooklyn. There was no working phone number listed under his name and address.

Still, this man gets a parade.

And for the record, if the copycat did make it to the rooftop unaided, he actually completed the feat that Robert did not.  They got the strap on him a good ten feet from the top.

There's the MSNBC report (of the first guy), via Ace.

"Albany Nights: The Ballad Of Eliot Spitzer" Coming To Bookstores and Theaters Near You

That's a working title, of course.

A book about the rise and stunning decline of former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, co-authored by the makers of a book and documentary about the fall of Enron, is being published by Penguin Group (USA), Penguin imprint Portfolio announced Wednesday.

Peter Elkind, who helped write the 2003 best-seller "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room," is collaborating on the Spitzer book with filmmaker Alex Gibney. Gibney and Elkind will also work on a documentary about the law-and-order Democrat who resigned last month over allegations about his connection to a $5,500-an-hour call girl ring.

The book and film, currently untitled, are expected to come out around the same time, but no release date has been set.

So long as they'll be probing the salaciousness for entertainment purposes, I wonder if they'll take a second look at Spitzer's involvement in the Norman Hsu scandal.  After all, none of the 80-some politicians on Hsu's payroll took more money from the man directly than Client #9.  With more than $60,000 in direct contributions, Spitzer's share of Hsu's official beneficence nearly tripled even Hillary's.

Ashley Dupre Learned a Trick Or Two From Her Gubernatorial Trick

It seems Eliot Spitzer's call girl has a beef with Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis.  And in a move certain to make Client #9 beam with pride, she's taking him to court in pursuit of exorbitant self-enrichment.

The lawsuit seeks more than $10 million in damages. In legal documents, Dupré alleges that Girls Gone Wild representatives approached her while she was vacationing in Florida in 2003, offered her alcohol and cajoled her into exposing her breasts for their cameras when she was just 17 (and not of proper legal age to sign a release form allowing her to be filmed).

Since then, the suit claims, Girls Gone Wild has illegally exploited Dupré's name, picture, voice and likeness in a number of deceptive ad campaigns and on Web sites.

Francis said he was "surprised and in fact amazed" by the lawsuit, noting he has not released new video of Dupré "due to corporate policy of not using footage of individuals younger than 18" and asserting she gave her consent on video, providing identification.

"She's seeking $10 million for topless photos taken in front of a room full of people, including two newspapers and multiple crews we had in the room," adds Francis. "These images were taken in public places and contain no sexual contact. We expect to triumph in this matter."

(HT: WWTDD)

NYC Councilman of Unknown Party Diverting Cash To Shyster Buddies and Staffers

New York City Councilmember Hiram Monserrate has some splaining to do.

Hiram Monserrate, a city councilman from Queens, has supplied more than $400,000 in city funds in recent years to a nonprofit agency that has been run by some of his closest aides and whose financial records have devolved into what its current director calls “a mess.”

The organization, Libre, which offers a wide array of programs and services for the Latino community, has not filed a tax return for the past two years. It has never registered as a charity with the state attorney general’s office, as required. And its director says unpaid bills and poor record-keeping grew so problematic that he had to all but shutter Libre last year.

“Libre is a mess,” said Rodolfo Herrera, the director. “I don’t think it’s a mess because they were stealing money. I think it’s because they didn’t know what to do with paper.”

The millions of dollars that council members dole out to community groups each year rarely received attention until last month, when it was revealed that the Council had been using the names of fictitious groups to park money that it could later spend without going through the normal budget review process.

Beyond the dirty favors, misappropriations of taxpayer money, abuse of non-profit status, and the other trappings of typical shady spending, Monserrate's gilding of Libre may have had a directly self-dealing component.

Until November, Libre operated out of a two-story building on National Street in Corona, where neighbors said the organization sometimes held evening English classes but generally opened for only part of the day and rarely had more than three people working.
...
The building’s superintendent, Ismail Gaiby, said the office grew more crowded when Libre sponsored voter registration drives, which he said were often attended by Mr. Monserrate.

For sake of posterity and thoroughness, I'd like to be able to disclose Monserrate's party affiliation, but nowhere in the Times' 1,500-word story is it mentioned.  And if the Paper of Record and the 6 reporters who worked on the story were stumped, I wouldn't presume to be able to crack it.

Stoopidest Movie Of the Year

Possibly the decade.

The Wackness.

It’s the summer of 1994, and the streets of New York are pulsing with hip-hop and wafting with the sweet aroma of marijuana—but change is in the air. The newly-inaugurated mayor, Rudy Giuliani, is beginning to implement his anti-fun initiatives against “crimes” like noisy portable radios, graffiti and public drunkenness. Set against this backdrop, Luke Shapiro (Josh Peck) spends his last summer before college selling dope throughout New York City, trading it with his shrink (Ben Kingsley) for therapy, while crushing on his step daughter (Olivia Thirlby). Famke Janssen, Mary Kate Olsen,and Method Man round out the cast in this edgy, bittersweet, and funny coming of age story.

What an asinine premise.

It won the audience award at Sundance this year, I guess because Giuliani was still in the race at that point and the film set enjoyed the idea of a hit piece on the possible nominee.

I'm not sure the "anti-fun" label would've stuck though.  Cracking down on petty crime was a key component in Giuliani's very successful initiative to reduce serious crime (and not being mugged is all kinds of fun).

If there's really a significant subculture that feel oppressed for not being able to do drugs and vandalize property as easily as they used to, how must they feel about the nanny state measures that have been adopted under Bloomberg - like banning styrofoam,  spinning rims, the n- word, the b-word, the h-word, iPods in intersections, trans fats, cigarettes (even the candy kind), aluminum bats, and the circus, to name a few?

Groan.  Watch the thick-witted trailer here.

Bracing For the Race War; Councilman Barron, Please Report To Makeup

The NYPD officers involved in the shooting death of Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club in November 2006 have been found not guilty of manslaughter and reckless endangerment.

Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver were acquitted of manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment in the shooting death of 23-year-old Sean Bell outside the Kalua club in the South Jamaica section of Queens. Marc Cooper was found not guilty of reckless endangerment.
...
Outside the courthouse, news of the verdict caused the crowd that had gathered there to begin chanting obscenities at the more than 100 police and court officers posted outside the building.           

[New York Supreme Court Justice] Cooperman rendered his verdict after a seven-week trial in Kew Gardens. More than 50 prosecution and six defense witnesses testified.      

Witnesses said that, at about 4 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2006, Bell was arguing with a man outside the strip club. Isnora, dressed in plain clothes, claimed he heard mention of a gun in the argument and followed Bell and two of his friends to their car and stood in front of it with his gun drawn.      

Oliver, 36, who allegedly fired his gun 31 times, and Isnora, 29, who fired 11 times, faced as much as 25 years in prison. Cooper, 40, faced as much as a year in prison. Prosecutors said he fired his gun four times.    

No word yet from New York City Councilmember and New Black Panther Charles Barron, who has endeavored tirelessly to inspire the city's black population to spark a violent race war with the police, if justice (as he predetermined it) did not prevail in this case.

In late 2006 and early 2007, there were several rallies held throughout the city (often headlined by Barron) in which the elected official was unmistakable in his desire to see black New Yorkers visit physical violence on police officers.  As it turned out, two of the four officers involved in the shooting were black, though Barron didn't let that get in the way of his insistence that the shooting was racially motivated.  In Barron's eyes, those are simply "house Negroes who will shoot us at the behest of their masters."

Below is video I captured at one such rally and a partial transcript of the radical legislator's comments.

What we need here is a regime change.  What we need here is a radical, up, down, turn upside down – this police department is out of control.

Any time, in any institution in America, racism permeates every institution in America.  And the police department is no exception.  And we don’t care whether the shooters were Black, Latino, because the Negroes who were in – the house Negroes during slave time, they were Black too.  But slavery is still racist.  So just because we got some house Negroes that will shoot us at the behest of their masters, once some of those police officers joined the police department, White, Latino or Black, they all turned blue.  And because the victims are Black, we are under a racist, out of control police department.

I don’t care what they say about me.  They say Charles, you’re a [undecipherable] radical.  Charles, if you call for an explosion, that I’m the one that’s calling for violence.  Let me tell you something. We need to let the system know that they have to fear us.  They have no fear for us.  And once you put the fear into some people’s hearts, whether it’s politically, economically, or physically, they will leave you alone.

So brothers and sisters, I want to say to you today, just as we said over and over again, if we don’t get justice in this case, don’t ask us to demonstrate again. If we don’t get justice in this case don’t tell us to be cool, to be calm.

Don’t blame me, as a social forecaster, for forecasting an explosion, just like you don’t blame the weatherman for forecasting the storm.

We’ll let everybody know that we’ve had enough.  Enough is enough is enough.  We’re fired up.  We won’t take no more.

Barron was reportedly outside the courthouse this morning, so I don't think we'll have to wait long before he starts "forecasting" again.

Previously:
Inciting Race Warfare in NYC
New Black Panthers Want to Kill Cops

Like Die Hard, Only Boring

I can't imagine another ordeal that could be simultaneously so worrisome and so soul-smotheringly boring.

A quick cigarette break by Business Week employee Nicholas White turned into a nightmare when his elevator stopped dead in its shaft and trapped him there for a crazy 41 hours—all of it caught on a security camera.
...
White got into elevator car 30 to return to his office in the McGraw-Hill building on Sixth Avenue in New York. It was an express elevator, designed for traffic efficiency, with no stops below the 30th floor, and it jammed around the 13th late on a Friday night. ... Faced with a blind wall behind the doors, no answer to the alarm or shouting and a locked hatch, he got desperate then depressed.
...
He was just stuck in a box barely big enough to lie down in. Rescue finally came 41 hours later, and no one knows why the jam happened. The crazy part? Eight different security guards failed to spot him on the camera.

This took place more than eight years ago, but The New Yorker has just put up a time-lapse video of White's plight (as captured by the security cameras no one was bothering to monitor), so you can experience his 2-day descent into ennui in internets time.

Content warning: even sped up 1,000x, it's still pretty tedious.

Separation Of Powers, New York Style - Part II

We've only had three days to digest the news of the chief judge of New York suing the state legislature for not raising judicial salaries (or rather, for attempting to tie judicial raises to raises for themselves).

If that wasn't litigiously bizarre enough, today we learn that State Supreme Court Justice Jack Battaglia is jumping across the bar as well, by bringing a $1 million slip-and-fall suit against New York State (and a janitor).

A politically connected Brooklyn judge plans to file a $1 million lawsuit against the city after slipping on a just-mopped floor in his own courthouse, the Daily News has learned.

Supreme Court Justice Jack Battaglia - who hears civil cases and earns $136,000 a year - is even targeting the courthouse cleaning lady who wielded the mop, according to legal papers.

The judge fractured his knee in the Nov. 9, 2007, tumble outside room 452 and was forced to undergo surgery and physical therapy.

In his Jan. 31 notice of claim, Battaglia accuses the city of "negligently using a mop bucket and wringer" and "negligently using a mop and soapy water" to create a "dangerous and hazardous traplike condition."

Battaglia, who is the brother of Brooklyn Democratic boss Vito Lopez's girlfriend, did not return a call for comment. Lopez also couldn't be reached.

Battaglia's sister Angela is also New York's City Planning Commissioner.  She and cohabitational beau Assemblyman Lopez have, as the Daily News put it, "occasionally drawn fire from snoopy journalists who contend the duo uses its combined clout to win friends and pork-barrel funding from City Hall and Albany."

Previously:  Separation Of Powers, New York Style

Separation Of Powers, New York Style

Perhaps envious of the dignity and decorum with which the state's executive branch oozes, New York's judicial and legislative branches have engaged each other in a terribly dignified slap fight.

The state's chief judge [Judith Kaye], having failed to persuade the Legislature to grant her a pay raise, is bringing her battle before a fellow state judge, filing a lawsuit asking him to give himself, herself, and their colleagues pay raises of tens of thousands of dollars each.

It all sounds rather self-dealing, but in fact it was the legislature's self-dealing ways that prompted the suit.

Repeated efforts in Albany to boost judicial pay have foundered because legislators have linked the question of pay raises for judges to pay raises for themselves. "This situation is not only untenable and disgraceful, it is unconstitutional," the complaint states.

New York Supreme Court judges are paid $139,600 per year, a salary that hasn't increased in nine years.  Adjusting for inflation, that amounts to a 21% pay cut, which the suit alleges violates the state's constitutional provision that judges' salaries "shall not be diminished."

The Republican-led State Senate has already passed legislation that would increase judges' salaries, while the Democrat-led Assembly has yet to get on board.

The Senate majority leader, Joseph Bruno, responded to news of the suit with a statement. "Judges don't need to sue to get a pay raise, they need to step up pressure on the State Assembly to act on either of two judges' salary increase bills already approved by the State Senate," he said. "Last April, the Senate passed a bill (S.5313) that included Chief Justice Kaye's pay raise proposal. It would provide salary increases for state justices and establish commissions to review future compensation. In December, the Senate passed a nearly identical bill (S.6550) to raise judges' pay. The Assembly did not act on these, or any other, judges' pay raise bill. If it had, this issue could have been resolved long ago."

S5313 was a nearly perfect party line vote, with 33 of 34 Senate Republicans and just 1 of 28 Senate Democrats voting for the pay raise.

No One Mourns the Wicked

Based on new revelations following new prostitution ring busts, Ashley Dupre is beginning to look like Eliot Spitzer's Paula Jones - just the tip of a much larger, discreet and totally classy, exotic iceberg. (HT: JWF)

Disgraced former Gov. Eliot Spitzer has been identified as a long-standing client of a second high-priced call-girl ring, The Post has learned.

The ex-governor regularly patronized Wicked Models, the Manhattan-based operation taken down Tuesday, according to financial documents and other evidence unearthed in a yearlong prostitution investigation, law-enforcement sources said.
...
At the center of the new ring is Kristin "Billie" Davis, a busty bottle blonde who hails from a [r]ough-and-tumble California trailer park. She has a reputation for hard-partying, shameless self-promotion and a rumored 10,000-name-long client list.

Davis' alleged multimillion-dollar empire was smashed by city vice cops as she made plans to skip town. Prosecutors say she netted some $2 million last year by pimping out ladies of the night for as much as $1,000 an hour through four Web sites.
...
Davis, 32, pleaded not guilty to money laundering and promoting prostitution in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday and was held on $2-million bail. She faces 15 years in prison if convicted of running the ring, which also allegedly operated the Madison La A'mour and New York Body Miracle agencies.

The cynic in me (tragically jaded by revelations that the puritanical, prosecutorially merciless chief law enforcement official of New York State would (allegedly) so flagrantly trample state and federal laws) feels regrettably compelled to assign non-zero odds to the possibility that the ex-Governor might have been assisting Billie in her preparations to skip town.

After all, she wasn't just Spitzer's madam, according a truly gifted euphemist.

  A source said Davis personally serviced Spitzer.

"She personally interfaced with Spitzer a number of times" since 2003 before she became a madam, a source close to Davis said.

Veeramuthu "Kali" Kalimuthu: 2008's NYC Subway Hero

If Wesley Autrey was any indication, Kali is about to enter a world of well-deserved hero swag.

Veeramuthu Kalimuthu -- or Kali – is a mechanic at Columbia University. His recent actions make him a hero in the truest sense of the word. ... At around 5 p.m. that day he headed to the downtown No. 1 train at 116th Street in Morningside Heights to go home to Jamaica.
...
A man had fallen onto the tracks from the opposite platform, all the way on the other side of the station.

"People were getting their cell phones out trying to call the police, somebody's got to help him and then I looked over and I saw the gentlemen Kali jump down, hop over the rails," said witness Ed Dijoseph, who brought Kali's story to CBS 2 HD.

Kali made it across three sets of tracks, and knew about the three third rails, which are electrified with 600 volts -- enough to push a 400-ton train.
...
Just getting to the man was hard enough, but once he got to him he had to deal with the fact that the victim was a good 30-40 pounds heavier than he was. Kali is just 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds. Add to that the fact that at 5 p.m. rush hour trains come through that section of track every three minutes.

"He was trying to lift the guy up, but he was struggling because the guy who fell was bigger than him," Dijoseph said.

With the help of someone on the platform, Kali hoisted the guy up.

"I think within a minute after he got the man up the train heading Uptown came by," Dijoseph said. "If Kali hadn't moved him I truly … I really believe that the train would've killed him."

Early last year, Autrey wound up with some very decent loot following his dramatic subway save (in which he jumped to the tracks and lay on top of a man suffering convulsions, while the train passed over them), including:

• The Bronze Medal (New York City's highest civic honor)
• Appearances on David Letterman, Ellen DeGeneres, and CBS's "Early Show" (video here)
• $10,000 in cash from Donald Trump
• $2,500 from the New York Film Academy for his daughters' education
• Tickets and a backstage tour for "The Lion King"
• A trip to Disney World
• A year of free subway rides

Shtupergate: The Resignation

It was just a matter of time:

Amid Charges of Spitzer Tryst, Embattled Prostitute "Kristen" Expected to Resign

Spitzer Aide: More Correct To Say That He Is Not Resgining

It's hard to imagine a sentient, non-delusional being conceiving of a way that Eliot Spitzer can remain in office, but maybe this is a hail Mary trial balloon (to mix a metaphor) to gauge just how appalled the public might be to the thought of the Governor clinging to the office he so thoroughly and ironically disgraced.

Or maybe he just feels he needs to polish up this one and only bargaining chip to convince federal prosecutors he has to be coaxed into resignation.

A top aide to Governor Spitzer said today Mr. Spitzer has not made up his mind about whether to step down from office despite mounting calls for his resignation amid allegations that he arranged to meet with a $4,300-a-night prostitute in the nation's capital on the eve of Valentine's Day.

"He has not made up his mind," a senior adviser to Mr. Spitzer, Lloyd Constantine, said. "It is more correct to say that he is not resigning."

This, as new information comes to light suggesting Spitzer has been soliciting prostitution for at least the last six years and possibly more than ten (i.e. throughout the duration not only of his short tenure as Governor, but of both four-year terms as New York's Attorney General).

(HT: Ben Smith)

Previously:
Shtupergate: Shtup By Numbers
From Troopergate To Shtupergate

Shtupergate: Shtup By Numbers

As we enter the 436th and likely final day of the rollicking Spitzer administration, Zubin Jelveh at the Odd Numbers blog takes a look at the economics of high-end prostitution, as evidenced by the Emperors Club's pay scale and service quality distribution.

To Jelveh, something doesn't add up.

According to the complaint filed against the prostitution ring which serviced Eliot Spitzer, the owners of the Emperors Club brought in at least $1 million in revenue over roughly a 3-year period.
...
Let's assume that the Emperors Club and the prostitutes split the proceeds 50-50, so there is another million dollars out there that went to the roughly 80 women. That means that over the three-year period, the call girls earned about $12,5000 each on average, or a little over $4,000 per-year.

So why are these women choosing careers that don't pay them as much as a legal job? It could that getting paid for sex is a part-time gig which brings in supplementary income. Or it could be that not all of the money earned by the Emperors Club is deposited into the bank account tracked by the F.B.I. This could mean that the $1 million gross revenue figure is an understatement.

I'd guess it could also mean that the $1 million figure cited several times in the federal complaint with regard to prostitution receipts, money laundering, etc. is deliberately conservative, perhaps siginificantly so 1) to ensure the complaint remains accurate and unimpugned as various numbers shift around upon further investigation, 2) because $1 million is a big enough number to make the point, 3) because it's a big round number, and 4) possibly because some greater crime or aggravating condition might be triggered at that threshold, so exceeding it - by however much - becomes the key point.

Either way, I tend to agree with Jelveh's latter hypothesis - that the Emperors Club was generating considerably more than $1 million in annual revenues.

Previously:  From Troopergate To Shtupergate

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Update:  On a related note, Slate.com offers business tips for aspiring high-class fleshmongers gleaned from the Emperors Club website, including:

Exploit all possible revenue streams. Most brothels stick to selling sex. Emperors' Club has a more diverse business model. Alongside the hooker portfolios, there's a page inviting companies to advertise on emperorsclubvip.com. (To inquire about rates, please e-mail ads@emperorsclubvip.com). The site promises access to a well-heeled clientele, noting that members' gross annual income averages $3.63 million per year. Perhaps Spitzer received some kind of financial aid—his annual salary is a scant $179,000.

From Troopergate To Shtupergate

New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's fall from grace was already a swift one, going from a landslide 69% victory in November 2006 to a negative opinion rating of 80% in February 2008.

Today's bombshell admission by the Governor of his involvement in a prostitution ring might tend to hasten this downfall.

The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13.

Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee.

An affidavit filed in federal court in Manhattan in connection with that case lists six conversations between the man, identified as Client 9, and a booking agent for the Emperors Club.

The Emperors Club reportedly arranged for female accompaniment at rates as dear as $5,500 an hour and also offered investment advice.  Full service, indeed.

I'll say it again:  Don't blame me, I voted for Faso.

The Governor is about to hold a press conference to address this latest scandal.

Previously:  4 Out Of 5 New Yorkers Agree: Spitzer Is Lousy

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Update:  Hot Air is poised to put up video of the presser.

Update:  It sounds like this may be the result of a deal cut by one of the four people charged last week in connection with the bust of the Emperors Club.  [Update: Or not - the trail may have started with a federal probe into Spitzer's suspicious money transfers ]

All four were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution laws: Mark Brener, 62, and Cecil Suwal, 23, who live together in Cliffside Park, N.J.; Temeka Rachelle Lewis, 32, of Brooklyn; and Tanya Hollander, 36, of Rhinebeck, N.Y.

Brener, accused of being the leader and recruiter of the prostitutes, and Suwal, accused of controlling the operation's bank accounts, also were charged with conspiracy to launder more than $1 million in illicit proceeds.

Lewis and Hollander were accused of arranging meetings between prostitutes and clients. They were released late Thursday on $250,000 bail each.
...
In a criminal complaint, FBI agent Kenneth Hosey said clients were told a wire transfer to the Emperors Club would be identified as QAT Consulting to appear to be a business transaction.

No guarantees this is the same organization, but here's a web site for QAT Consulting Group, with plenty of double entendre fodder.

As our client, you will be protected with “attorney- client privilege of information”, as defined and secured by the Law of the United States—your privacy is strictly yours and your business/tax affairs will always remain yours private matters.
...
Our services are comprehensive and hands on. We combine our business management and financial expertise with the expertise of our highly qualified associates- investment consultants, lawyers, bankers,independent trustees, marketing and promotion specialists, artists and feng shui masters.

And via Allah, here's the more overt Emperors Club site, featuring the likenesses of their various "spokes models."

Flashback:  Little did we know this was dirty talk.

Update:  Fox News reports that sources say the Governor will resign.

Update:  Incidentally, I've had a FOIL request pending in Governor Spitzer's office (in connection with the State Sunshine project) for more than a month for all governmental e-mails sent or received by the office for the 4-day period immediately preceeding Spitzer's Washington trip in question.

I received some static from Spitzer's assistant counsel, stating that the office couldn't comply with the request until I clarified the term "governmental e-mail."  Excerpted from my reponse:

I'm not sure which word ("governmental" or "e-mail") is problematic, so I'll try to offer clarification on both:

By "governmental" (in the context of "governmental e-mail sent or received by the Office of the Governor"), I'm referring to all e-mail messages sent or received by personnel employed by or in the Office of the Governor during the date range identified, whether or not those messages were related to government business and whether or not those messages were transmitted via government-issued accounts or hardware, so long as they were sent or received by the respective personnel either during normal working hours, or during any hour while at their physical place of employment, or during any hour in any location if those messages were transmitted in furtherance of official or unofficial duties or tasks assigned to the sender or recipient by a superior, by the Office of the Governor, or by another state agency or official.

By "e-mail", I'm referring to all inbound and outbound electronic mail messages transmitted via Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), Post Office Protocol (POP), Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP), X.400, or web-based protocols, as well as electronic messages transmitted via SMS or other text messaging protocols.

Please let me know if any further clarification is required.

That was 10 days ago.  It'll be interesting to see what this turns up.

Prosecutors apparently have text messages in their possession related to the case, which were included in my FOIL request.

Update:  The Governor just released a brief statement, acknowledging a failure to live up to his own standards and apologizing to his family.  He did not announce his resignation, but said he would have more to say "in short order."

Update:  Sources says Spitzer has been indicted, but that seems to be in doubt.  The federal complaint itself appears to mention him only as "Client #9."

Update:  Here's video and a transcript of the non-resignation.

Over the past nine years, eight as attorney general and one as governor, I’ve tried to uphold a vision of progressive politics that would rebuild New York and create opportunity for all. We vowed to bring real change to New York and that will continue. Today, I want to briefly address a private matter. I have acted in a way that violated the obligations to my family and that violates my — or any — sense of right and wrong. I apologize first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public, to whom I promised better. I do not believe that politics in the long run is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good and doing what is best for the State of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard that I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family. I will not be taking questions. Thank you very much. I will report back to you in short order. Thank you very much.

Update:  Hillary quickly purged Spitzer (a superdelegate who has pledged to support Clinton) from her endorsement list.  But will she *reject* his vote at the convention?  Hillary taught us the importance of the distinction between *denouncing* and *rejecting* in her tiff with Obama over Louis Farrakhan.

Update:  Here's the federal complaint.

Update:  So far, Hillary neither denounces nor rejects, only wishes well.

"I don't have any comment on that, but I obviously am sending, you know, my best wishes and thoughts to the governor and to his family," she said.

Times Square Recruitment Center Bombing

Early this morning, a bomb detonated in an military recruiting station in the heart of Manhattan.  No one was injured and mass transit was uninterrupted, but the explosion was powerful enough to be felt 44 stories up, four blocks away, in the Marriott Marquis.

Police are searching for a bicylcist who may have been involved.

"We're concerned and we're doing a very thorough investigation, working closely with the federal authorities," said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.

He added that one witness at the scene saw a man riding a bicycle "in a suspicious manner" just before the explosion. The man was wearing a hood and dark colored clothing and had a backpack. The witness did not see the man's face, nor did the witness see the man throw anything.

What a worthless lead.

Police said it was too early to say whether the Times Square blast was related to two other minor explosions in the city in recent history.

In October, two small explosive devices were tossed over a fence at the Mexican consulate, shattering three windows but causing no injuries. No threats had been made against the consulate, and no one took responsibility for the explosion, police said.

Michelle Malkin's got a round-up of additional coverage and reaction.

Update:  John McCain weighs in.

“We can’t allow this kind of thing to happen in America — a place where we’re trying to attract young men and women to serve in the military,” McCain told reporters during a news conference here. The individuals involved, he said, should be brought “to justice as quickly as possible.”

No word yet from the junior Senator "from" New York, whose husband is expected to attend a star-studded Broadway opening tonight, a stone's throw from the detonation site.

Update:  Via Allah, here's Fox-commentated video surveillance of the incident.

 

Link: sevenload.com

Update:  "We did it!"  The apparent perpetrators claim the blame via letters to their Congressmen (enclosure: raving anti-military manifesto).

4 Out Of 5 New Yorkers Agree: Spitzer's Lousy

Don't blame me - I voted for Faso.

Eighty percent of New York voters say Gov. Spitzer has done nothing to improve the state or has made it worse since promising that "on Day 1, everything changes," a devastating new poll showed yesterday.

The Siena College survey found a mere 15 percent of voters believe that Spitzer has made New York a better place to live since taking office on Jan. 1, 2007, after a historic landslide election victory, while 22 percent said things have gotten worse.
...
"For New Yorkers, the slogan, 'Everything changes on Day 1' is a long-forgotten memory," said Siena spokesman Steven Greenberg.

The poll contained other bad news for Spitzer, who has been battered in recent months by the Dirty Tricks Scandal and related ethical questions; the fallout from his plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens; and repeated reports of an abusive "steamroller" style.

This continues to be a breathtaking freefall from grace for a man who waltzed into the Governor's mansion a year ago, having won 69% of the popular vote (notching up the widest margin over a Republican gubernatorial opponent in state history).

In a finding that has already stirred speculation that Spitzer could face a primary challenge, just 25 percent of all voters - and only 23 percent of city voters - backed the governor for re-election in 2010, compared with 50 percent of all voters and 51 percent of city voters who said they wanted someone else.

The average tenure of New York's elected governors over the last half century is 12 years.  Assuming Spitzer flames out in 2010 (if not before), he'll become the first elected Governor to be voted out within four years since Averell Harriman (and only the second since Charles Whitman, grandfather-in-law of Christine Todd Whitman, born shortly after the Civil War).

Call Him Mr. 270: McCain Within Striking Distance In NY

Just 14 months ago, Hillary Clinton won her Senate re-election by a soul-crushing margin of 36 points, winning more than two thirds of all votes cast.  Now, it appears she might have trouble carrying the state in a general election against the gentlemaverick from Arizona, who trails her by a scant 7 points in a recent poll.

Al Gore won the state by 25 points in 2000 and even John Kerry managed a margin of 19 points.  Clinton's comparative weakness may have something to do with the fact that her negative ratings in "her own" state have jumped from 35 a month ago to 43 now, in the wake of recent ugliness on the campaign trail.

But Clinton's blossoming unpopularity doesn't seem to fully account for New York's sudden purplization.  Obama holds a similarly thin margin over McCain in a hypothetical match-up.

Likely GOP presidential nominee John McCain is within single-digit striking distance of Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama in heavily Democratic New York state, and leads both in the suburbs and upstate, according to a new poll released yesterday.

The Siena College Survey found Clinton and Obama just 7 points ahead of McCain - 49 to 42 percent and 47 to 40 percent, respectively - largely because of overwhelming support from heavily Democratic New York City voters.

Clinton led McCain among city voters, 66 to 28 percent, while Obama was ahead, 62 to 27 percent.

But in the suburbs, McCain led Clinton, 53 to 38 percent, and Obama, 55 to 32 percent. McCain was ahead of the New York senator upstate, 49 to 41 percent, and the Illinois senator by a mere, 42 to 41 percent.

Rudy's relatively early endorsement may have carried some weight with swayable city-dwellers, but those suburban and upstate figures are astounding.

This is just one poll, of course, but if the Empire State and its 31 electoral votes do wind up in play, the Election Day math changes dramatically.  The Democratic nominee would have to hold Pennsylvania and Michigan (very narrowly won by Kerry in 2004) and poach both Ohio and Florida to offset losing New York.  No combination of 3 of those 4 states would do it.

And if all four of those swing states do vote for the Democrat, the net elector shift would be 16, leaving McCain with exactly 270 (286 - 16) electoral votes, the magic number needed to win the Presidency.

Only In New York: Crack Tax Unfair To Drug Dealers

Is it just me or is this, you know, nuts?

A prominent Democratic Queens assemblyman yesterday warned that Gov. Spitzer's proposed tax on illegal drugs - dubbed the "crack tax" by critics - could unfairly impact the drug dealers themselves.

Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry told Spitzer Tax Commissioner Robert Megna during a legislative budget hearing that requiring drug users and dealers to pay state sales tax on their illegal stash is an undue burden since they already face fines and possible forfeiture of property and money.

"This component adds another financial hardship on people who don't have a lot of money," Aubry said.

Aubry, chairman of the Assembly Corrections Committee, added that the plan could "create another class of individual who can't escape the process and has to go back out and sell drugs."

Despite the half-baked reasoning of Assemblyman Aubry, he's correct that the crack tax is a bad idea.  Non-trivial enforcement difficulties spring to mind, as does the tacit approval of not only consumption, but distribution of illegal drugs implied by the state imposing a tax on it.

Aubry, for his part, is a long-time lone "crusader" (NYT's word) against drug laws and harsh sentencing guidelines for convicted drug dealers.  Mandatory sentences for drug dealers were drastically reduced in New York State via legislation enacted in 2005, but Aubry's crusade has continued apace in the years since.

But now it appears that in addition to sparing drug dealers from time behind bars, Aubry also wants to exempt these independent businessmen from the threat of a tax burden.  Not because it would be unenforceable and not because it necessarily suggests a terribly unseemly endorsement of the activity, but because it poses a financial hardship to downtrodden crack dealers.

How Flighty Is the Obama Youth "Movement"?

Mighty flighty.

So, did the “Obama Girl” actually vote for Barack Obama on Tuesday?

Actually, no.

Last summer, the music video “I Got a Crush on Obama” was a Web hit, splashing a seductive performance by a 26-year-old model named Amber Lee Ettinger across millions of screens and prompting deep thoughts about candidates and sex appeal, the YouTube generation of voters, viral marketing and so forth.

On Tuesday night, City Room ran into Ms. Ettinger at an election-watching party in Greenwich Village and asked how things went at the polls.

“I didn’t get a chance to vote today because I’m not registered to vote in New York,” she said.

So where is Obama Girl registered to vote?

“New Jersey.”

Um, but didn’t New Jersey also hold a primary?

True. The problem, she explained, was that she was sick in New York City and was unable to get back across the Hudson River to the polls in Jersey City.

“I was in Arizona for the Super Bowl — every time I get in the airplane I get sick,” said Ms. Ettinger, who did manage to make it to the Svedka Fembot election returns party at Chinatown Brasserie at Lafayette and Great Jones streets. (The Fembot campaign for the White House, the Svedka marketing manager assured us, is not a commentary in any way on Hillary Rodham Clinton, who defeated Mr. Obama in both New York and New Jersey.)

Ms. Ettinger said she had dragged herself out Tuesday night under duress only because she was scheduled to perform at the Bowery Poetry Club. The previous day she had hit the streets of New York to interview voters, where a Daily News photographer snapped her picture on Park Avenue.

When you base a campaign entirely on image, I guess you can't complain when you attract "voters" who are more concerned with image (parties, photo shoots, poetry readings) than matters of politics.

(HT: Liberty Pundit)

Nobama?

Rumor had it Barack Obama was running his extra frothy, vacuously spring breaky campaign ad during the Super Bowl tonight.  It wasn't going to be a national spot (which Fox said it wouldn't sell to candidates), but a scatterblasting of many of the Super Tuesday states (including New York), via the local affiliates.

But if he did, he seems to have skipped Fox 5 New York.

Any readers from Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia or Washington who caught the ad?

Politico had it available online earlier today, but it seems to have been taken down.

I did like the one political ad that ran tonight though, featuring James Carville and Bill Frist palling around Washington, infused with the effervescent bi-partisanship that only a cold Coca-Cola can inspire.

In other New York news, this city is currently impressively noisy.

Jerk Of the Day

Congratulations, Jim Corliss.