The Lesson of Eliot Spitzer

http://www.brasschecktv.c...

I just read the blog about the "Lesson of Eliot Spitzer" and although the message is indeed a fine one of unity - it drags Spitzer further through the mud. I thought it important for people - especially RP supporters to understand what really happened to Spitzer.

Greg Palast is one of my favorite journalists. He's thorough, bare bones, no fluff or slight-of-hand old fashioned kind of reporter with courage and conviction. I invite you to visit his site: www.GregPalast.com

In the interest of truth, Greg wrote the following:

March 14th, 2008

The $200 billion bail-out for predator banks and Spitzer charges are intimately linked.

While New York Governor Eliot Spitzer was paying an 'escort' $4,300 in a hotel room in Washington, just down the road, George Bush's new Federal Reserve Board Chairman, Ben Bernanke, was secretly handing over $200 billion in a tryst with mortgage bank industry speculators.

Both acts were wanton, wicked and lewd. But there's a BIG difference. The Governor was using his own checkbook. Bush's man Bernanke was using ours.

This week, Bernanke's Fed, for the first time in its history, loaned a selected coterie of banks one-fifth of a trillion dollars to guarantee these banks' mortgage-backed junk bonds. The deluge of public loot was an eye-popping windfall to the very banking predators who have brought two million families to the brink of foreclosure.

Up until Wednesday, there was one single, lonely politician who stood in the way of this creepy little assignation at the bankers' bordello: Eliot Spitzer.

Who are they kidding? Spitzer's lynching and the bankers' enriching are intimately tied.

How? Follow the money.

The press has swallowed Wall Street's line that millions of US families are about to lose their homes because they bought homes they couldn't afford or took loans too big for their wallets. Ba-LON-ey. That's blaming the victim.

Here's what happened. Since the Bush regime came to power, a new species of loan became the norm, the 'sub-prime' mortgage and it's variants including loans with teeny "introductory" interest rates. From out of nowhere, a company called 'Countrywide' became America's top mortgage lender, accounting for one in five home loans, a large chunk of these 'sub-prime.'

Here's how it worked: The Grinning Family, with US average household income, gets a $200,000 mortgage at 4% for two years. Their $955 a month payment is 25% of their income. No problem. Their banker promises them a new mortgage, again at the cheap rate, in two years. But in two years, the promise ain't worth a can of spam and the Grinnings are told to scram - because their house is now worth less than the mortgage. Now, the mortgage hits 9% or $1,609 plus fees to recover the "discount" they had for two years. Suddenly, payments equal 42% to 50% of pre-tax income. Grinnings moved into their Toyota.

Now, what kind of American is 'sub-prime.' Guess. No peeking. Here's a hint: 73% of HIGH INCOME Black and Hispanic borrowers were given sub-prime loans versus 17% of similar-income Whites. Dark-skinned borrowers aren't stupid - they had no choice. They were 'steered' as it's called in the mortgage sharking business.

'Steering,' sub-prime loans with usurious kickers, fake inducements to over-borrow, called 'fraudulent conveyance' or 'predatory lending' under US law, were almost completely forbidden in the olden days (Clinton Administration and earlier) by federal regulators and state laws as nothing more than fancy loan-sharking.

But when the Bush regime took over, Countrywide and its banking brethren were told to party hardy - it was OK now to steer'm, fake'm, charge'm and take'm.

But there was this annoying party-pooper. The Attorney General of New York, Eliot Spitzer, who sued these guys to a fare-thee-well. Or tried to. Instead of regulating the banks that had run amok, Bush's regulators went on the warpath against Spitzer and states attempting to stop predatory practices. Making an unprecedented use of the legal power of "federal pre-emption," Bush-bots ordered the states to NOT enforce their consumer protection laws.

Indeed, the feds actually filed a lawsuit to block Spitzer's investigation of ugly racial mortgage steering. Bush's banking buddies were especially steamed that Spitzer hammered bank practices across the nation using New York State laws.

Spitzer not only took on Countrywide, he took on their predatory enablers in the investment banking community. Behind Countrywide was the Mother Shark, its funder and now owner, Bank of America. Others joined the sharkfest: Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and Citigroup's Citibank made mortgage usury their major profit centers. They did this through a bit of financial legerdemain called "securitization."

What that means is that they took a bunch of junk mortgages, like the Grinnings, loans about to go down the toilet and re-packaged them into "tranches" of bonds which were stamped "AAA" - top grade - by bond rating agencies. These gold-painted turds were sold as sparkling safe investments to US school district pension funds and town governments in Finland (really).

When the housing bubble burst and the paint flaked off, investors were left with the poop and the bankers were left with bonuses. Countrywide's top man, Angelo Mozilo, will 'earn' a $77 million buy-out bonus this year on top of the $656 million - over half a billion dollars - he pulled in from 1998 through 2007.

But there were rumblings that the party would soon be over. Angry regulators, burned investors and the weight of millions of homes about to be boarded up were causing the sharks to sink. Countrywide's stock was down 50%, and Citigroup was off 38%, not pleasing to the Gulf sheiks who now control its biggest share blocks.

Then, on Wednesday of this week, the unthinkable happened. Carlyle Capital went bankrupt. Who? That's Carlyle as in Carlyle Group. James Baker, Senior Counsel. Notable partners, former and past: George Bush, the Bin Laden family and more dictators, potentates, pirates and presidents than you can count.The Fed had to act. Bernanke opened the vault and dumped $200 billion on the poor little suffering bankers. They got the public treasure - and got to keep the Grinning's house. There was no 'quid' of a foreclosure moratorium for the 'pro quo' of public bail-out. Not one family was saved - but not one banker was left behind.

Every mortgage sharking operation shot up in value. Mozilo's Countrywide stock rose 17% in one day. The Citi sheiks saw their company's stock rise $10 billion in an afternoon.

And that very same day the bail-out was decided - what a coinkydink! - the man called, 'The Sheriff of Wall Street' was cuffed. Spitzer was silenced.
~
Do I believe the banks called Justice and said, "Take him down today!" Naw, that's not how the system works. But the big players knew that unless Spitzer was taken out, he would create enough ruckus to spoil the party. Headlines in the financial press - one was "Wall Street Declares War on Spitzer" - made clear to Bush's enforcers at Justice who their number one target should be. And it wasn't Bin Laden.

It was the night of February 13 when Spitzer made the bone-headed choice to order take-out in his Washington Hotel room. He had just finished signing these words for the Washington Post about predatory loans:

"Not only did the Bush administration do nothing to protect consumers, it embarked on an aggressive and unprecedented campaign to prevent states from protecting their residents from the very problems to which he federal government was turning a blind eye." You can read Spitzer's letter in its entirety here:

http://www.washingtonpost...

Bush, said Spitzer right in the headline, was the "Predator Lenders' Partner in Crime." The President, said Spitzer, was a fugitive from justice. And Spitzer was in Washington to launch a campaign to take on the Bush regime and the biggest financial powers on the planet.

Spitzer wrote, "When history tells the story of the subprime lending crisis and recounts its devastating effects on the lives of so many innocent homeowners the Bush administration will not be judged favorably."

But now, the Administration can rest assured that this love story - of Bush and his bankers - will not be told by history at all - now that the Sheriff of Wall Street has fallen on his own gun.

A note on "Prosecutorial Indiscretion."

Back in the day when I was an investigator of racketeers for government, the federal prosecutor I was assisting was deciding whether to launch a case based on his negotiations for airtime with 60 Minutes. I'm not allowed to tell you the prosecutor's name, but I want to mention he was recently seen shouting, "Florida is Rudi country! Florida is Rudi country!"

Not all crimes lead to federal bust or even public exposure. It's up to something called "prosecutorial discretion."

Funny thing, this 'discretion.' For example, Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, paid Washington DC prostitutes to put him diapers (ewww!), yet the Senator was not exposed by the US prosecutors busting the pimp-ring that pampered him.

Naming and shaming and ruining Spitzer - rarely done in these cases - was made at the 'discretion' of Bush's Justice Department.

Or maybe we should say, 'indiscretion.'

************
Greg Palast, former investigator of financial fraud, is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Armed Madhouse and The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.
~
Hear The Palast Report weekly on Air America Radio's Clout.
http://www.airamerica.com...

Dear tz,

Thank you for your truly beautiful post! It is only our ability to work together, especially when we disagree on particulars, and when we can be firm in expressing disagreement with someone's IDEAS, while being courteous and thoughful with the individual with whom we disagree, that Ron Paul, and the rest of us, can have any chances to win!

Keep up the good work!

PEACE AND FREEDOM!!
David K. Meller

if us reg americans were even close to doing what these warmongers do, wed be called an enemy cabatant!
http://nymegaphone.com/no...

In the movie Excalibur, there is a scene where Arthur asks Merlin "What is the greatest attribute of a knight?". After trying to evade the question, Merlin became very cold and serious and replied "Truth". "Because when you lie, you murder some part of the world". Those who want freedom must always put truth first, but there is one virtue that comes ahead of truth.

It is in the title of a book by Hayek. "The Fatal Conceit". Pride blinds us to the truth, so we cannot know the truth unless we have the humility to accept it even if it destroys our most cherished beliefs and opinions. Neo-Cons said we would be greeted with cheers, parades, and flowers for invading. Instead we broke the seal on a pandora's box of rivalries. Socialsists and regulators often have their ideas of what businesses should do or that passing some law will fix everything instead of creating a situation where the side-effects are far worse. But they didn't intend them? It doesn't matter.

Mises and Hayek - and Ron Paul - recognize that people can be rational and irrational. Reasonable and unreasonable. And emotion is a stronger force than logic. That free will can be used for evil as well as good, and as with the socialist and neo-con, they may will the good end, but will use evil methods and only get bad results. Whatever is proposed politically or economically must take real human beings in the real world.

The revolution continues. A lot can happen in the months between now and the convention. If I asked back in 2007 who the Governor of New York would be in April 2008? The revolution will be won or lost by the humble precinct delegate helping his friend become county delegate. By small contributions. And by thousands of other small acts. God favors the prepared. In the American Revolution, it was perseverance that gained victory.

Ron Paul is the leader because he doesn't lead in any manner recognizable to the elite. He uses the word "we" all the time, but it is not the royal we, but the humble we. We will get what we deserve - what we are willing to work for.

And there are people who are against the war or big government who seem to have all the hubris of the neo-cons. I keep reading an article or two on how Ron Paul or his campagn should have done this, or ran this kind of ad, or spend money on something else. All these people never ran a successful campaign. It is the 20/20 hindsight the neo-cons are saying about the war, if it was only fought this way or that, it would have turned out differently.

This even applies to many of the deepest supporters of Liberty. I could point out the dozens of libertarian proposals as to how to run defense, privatization, or even complete plans for how things could work without any state. They all sound like Stalinesque 5-year plans more than anything else. If we only adoped their libertarian idea (instead of the socialist or neo-con idea) all will be wonderful and perfect. A centrally planned anarchy. I wish I was only joking.

We are given this moment in history, this humble man, and this opportunity to start to reclaim our liberty. My original post said it would be only the start of a difficult journey even if we already had the nomination and even if he was in the White House.

But that is what makes Ron Paul different from not only the Neo-Cons, the central economic planners, and the "I've got the key to Utopia" libertarians (some, but not all Randians/Objectivists, Rothbardians - who in this are the antithesis to Mises, and Regime libertarians). He doesn't know. He isn't able. And he says so. He only knows that the 95% of the things the government is busied with is an actual evil, but like many evils it would prefer murder-suicide to ending its reign, so it must be carefully dismantled like a bomb with a complex trigger.

Go back and listen to Ron Paul. He doesn't say "I will fix it", he says we must work together to dismantle leviathan without hurting anyone". He never said he could deliver a quick-fix or instant gratification. Why should the revolution be different? We can do some things at the speed of the internet, but we are building a cathredal for perpetual liberty but cathedrals take generations.

Ron Paul understands. He sees the truth. Because he is humble. That anything so valuable as liberty is more valuable than gold. That it is going to be a long hard fight, but one that will be worth it.

Join the revolution - not on your terms but on his. Say you don't know. Do the little, humble things. Humble yourself and exhalt liberty. At your county convention. At your meeting. At the national rally. For the local congressman who is a Paulite more than a republican or democrat. Persuade one person at a time - on their terms, not yours. This must be a conversion, not a persuasion. Not the arrogant "I'm smarter than you", but with "Did you know there is one congressman who has not taken a junket or his congressional pension, or any pay increase...". "Wouldn't you prefer someone honorable to someone who cheats, even occasionaly in your favor?".

And start acting like Ron Paul. Never give an inch on principle, but as part of that, reject the pomps and cheats, and things you don't need from Government. Let your life be an example of liberty - for it will be. Ron Paul is the greatest leader because he leads by example. He won't demand you change your personal life but has been married for 51 years. He won't demand you change lifestyle, but he takes care of himself. He won't go along with the crowd. We should all follow his example.

See Ron Paul's comments on the House floor on March 13th, 2008, regarding the Spitzer scandal (link below).

He basically shames the surveillance society created by the globalists.

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/42585

"We don't have to start a brand new revolution...All we have to do is restore the original Constitution." -Ron Paul

The news media and believability are always questionable. ........ Remember the movie Wag the Dog. ........... I always wonder what is going on when something is being blown up in the news? ....... It is like the kid in school that does something, and to avoid getting caught calls attention to something else. ........... It is like the bank robber gang causing something to happen in one part of the city (........ like a wreck, or fire or something) ...... that gets a lot of police and media attention ......... and then on the other side of town the main group of robbers rob the bank without trouble because all the cops are on the other side of town..........
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It is like having 20 candidates running for president and only one supporting the constitution.
Or like the media only giving coverage to those that .....the super rich want elected, because they know it will reward them with not only money spent for campaign advertising the candidates, but with money spent advertising the products that are owned by the super rich.
Company's like drug company's, oil company's, banking and investment houses, by Wall Street, & the military industrial complex, etc, etc, & by those that profit by socialized medicine, & inflation.
If we had honest fair media coverage of Ron Paul like we have had coverage of say Obama, or Hillary, or McCain.
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Ron Paul would be far and away the front runner and .......... ""the ONLY reason" ........ he is not the front runner is most people know very little about him except that the media has called him a fringe candidate and have said he has no real supporters.
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The media does have a Ron Paul campaign and it is called the silent treatment. If the public does not see him he does not exist.
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Millions of dollars were donated to him because people looked him up on the internet, not because the media gave him coverage.
The donations came because the public rallied around him as the only honest and trust worthy candidate.
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That is why he raised (we donated) almost 20 million dollars in the 4th quarter of 2007.
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After he received that money the media completely blacked out his name as well as his rally's and speeches. People have been wanting to vote for a man they could trust all of their lives and that man is Dr. Ron Paul.

I agree with JerryB9105! That is why finding out if this assertion ala "whatdoesitmean.com" is true or not. Who knows anything about this writer, Sorcha Faal? Anyone? Buehler?

Notwithstanding what Spitzer may or may not have done, if he really was beginning to investigate Silverstein, that speaks volumes! My fingers are crossed that we will hear more about this...

And remember--weeks after the disaster at the WTC, the men working "the pile" appear on videotape communicating to their team members that they're getting "ready to pull Building 6." Pull Building 6...And down came the remains of Building 6...Yeah, Silverstein meant "pull the firefighters" from WTC 7. Uh, huh.

Eliot Spitzer's escapades gives the media a titilating story that certainly eclipses Larry Sinclair's tale of crack,cocaine and homosexual limousine romps with trilateral commision founder Zbigniew Brzezinski's fair haired boy, Barrack Husein Obama, no pun intended.
It looks to me that Eliot was chosen to fall on his sword for the cause by his unsactioned meddling in wall street affairs.

Vote RON PAUL 2008
_____________
(as to this thread's internal claim of Spitzer investigating Silverstein) --

What I find absolutely amazing is that here is a man (LARRY SILVERSTEIN) who truthfully 'legally' did nothing wrong in taking out an insurance policy (be it a surprising 100 year lease with settlement protection that included terrorist attacks) on a very well-known NYC building complex, i.e., the WTC site, known to have multiple construction matters requiring major BIG TIME renovation needs; regardless, a 'legal' transaction that mounted into the MILLIONS of $$ extending his interest from a single building he already had private association with at the site (WTC7) with 'sudden' interest seeking to encompass ALL the remaining site, i.e., ALL the 'other' WTC buildings -- and this major BIG TIME $$ transaction happening within only a couple of months of the disaster that would strike there and destroy ALL those buildings there; the destruction pretty much 'contained' inside a neat little box there //

-- Nothing 'legally' wrong in him doing that -- but questionable for sure, and convenient for sure (him not having to 'pay out' all the 'fix up' cost, considering), and very 'oddly' coincidential the timing of it all; but certainly nothing anyone can go to jail over, not exactly.

But then on top of this terrible disaster to DEMAND 'double' insurance payments (the same mounting into the BILLIONS of $$) because the 'terrorist' activity which 'HE VIEWED' as two separate incidents of terror involved 'TWO' separate airplane incidents -- it all seems a bit hokey to me. Seems a bit over-greedy to me.

-- And doing the math // Three buildings resulting in TOTAL collapse; yet only TWO planes. Amazing isn't the right word, is it. ALL the 'other' damaged WTC buildings had to be 'pulled' down .

Legal is one thing; and timing is one thing; but greed is yet another, and I believe GREED speaks to this man's integrity from the very beginning.

Some say this to be nothing more than a smart business deal for a man doing what he knows best -- business. And yet in that interview he (SILVERSTEIN) gave (after the fact) he did state quite clearly that the WTC7 had to be 'pulled' for reasons that make absolutely no sense to anyone that would look closely at the reason he gave; that, and the actual happening of the building's collapse in the first place. "Never before in history ... steel-framed building ... etc., etc"
-- (you've heard it all before) --

But we are told to believe that history and common sense mean nothing // which is pure bullshit // because WTC7 came down in what can only be described as a perfectly controlled process. Check out these links and see for yourself:

WTC7 collapse:
http://www.youtube.com/wa...
http://www.youtube.com/wa...

LARRY SILVERSTEIN admission:
http://www.youtube.com/wa...

This crime remains unsolved (the 19 Arabs being nothing but an obvious blatant diversion); and this guy (SILVERSTEIN) is deeply connected and deeply involved --

All that has to be done is PROVE IT. Which seems to be the single continuing problem here, if only because our own goverment (involved as they were) sees no reason to properly investigate this crime of the century -- after all, why would they?

-- Bunch of damn greedy, blood-thirsty gangsters!

http://www.lewrockwell.co...
http://www.lewrockwell.co...
http://www.lewrockwell.co...
http://www.lewrockwell.co...
http://www.lewrockwell.co...

He was an evil man and a hypocrite. He fought using evil oppressive laws as a prosecutor and his downfall came through the same types of laws.

stems from the fact that he threatened to go up against the banks, when the banks are in chaos.

It's not over til its over.

Facts is facts so don't shoot the messenger. This is well worth the 15 minute listen:
http://www.gregpalast.com...

don't mess with Wall Street unless you are prepared to take on the federal government from any angle. At least he had the good sense and grace to resign. Prediction: You have not seen the end of Eliot Spitzer.

I'm from NYC and, like many I'm sure, I am truly saddened by this relevation. Many may disagree here, but he seemed like a real good guy. I mean I always did have a suspicion that something may be amiss because the way he related to people sometimes seemed to hint at underlying things. But all in all he seemed like a good guy. The enormity of how dysfunctional Albany is is just insane. It's pathetic and he would have been a great figure to rattle the cages. It is just so sad. I hope Patterson can do some real damage but my first instinct is it will not be anything grand. He will do a good job but probably not really change Albany. He will probably gets things done but not fix problems. I hope I'm wrong and things really do change.

I linked to whatdoesitmean.com, read the article and the writer provides no sources for the assertion that Spitzer had just begun to investigate Silverstein. That would be very, very interesting indeed, if true. What I do know to be true is that Spitzer leased office space from a Silverstein property in lower Manhattan during his campaign for governor.

Again, if this is true, this is has tremendous implications--Silverstein of the now-famous quote regarding the six-second WTC 7 collapse and I paraphase: "...terrible loss of life, so we decided to 'pull it' and we watched the building collapse."

Sources??

Anyone in power is put there, and can be taken down when they refuse to play ball. Spitzer was investigating the Wall St. Banks, the same banks the Fed is bailing out.

He was putting the squeeze on the bond rating services, starting to investigate how subprime paper worth 26 cents on the dollar got AAA ratings from Moody's, and S&P.

Notice the day after Spitzer bit it, the Fed loaned 200 billion and took this same paper as collateral, and it was rated AAA again.

Vote RON PAUL 2008

:-(

If we didn't have laws dictating what people can or can't do with their peepees we might actually get close to a society where people could be honest about themselves.

-0-

www.LawfulGov.Org
Your Nexus to the Freedom Movement

That's what this country needs, according to Dr. Ron Paul. In a panelist interview in New Hampshire shortly before that primary, Dr. Paul was interviewed on the TV by representatives in New Hampshire.

It was a GREAT INTERVIEW....by the end of the interview, all were mesmerized by him and asked him, like a young, naive student to the great teacher...."What do we do now, what do you think we should do now??". As they looked at him quizzically, he said....

"You need to start voting in people who have more integrity."

And, THAT, my friends, is EXACTLY what the doctor ordered...

The problem is how do we do it...

My guess is that THOSE PEOPLE who CAN and are ABLE and have the TIME to do it, to get involved in their State legislatures and run for office like all the rest of them did----then, start promoting the more exciting and dynamic ones into CONGRESS or the SENATE.

I know....it's really hard to unseat a Congressman or a Senator, but things may get SO bad by then, that we would have a really good chance to win, and I'm talking within 4-8 years. If the country is reduced to her knees by then, well, we'll all be in trouble...

Hopefully, we can at least support THOSE PEOPLE who are going to fun for office...and who are endorsed by Dr. Paul, like the young Air Force pilot in New Hampshire...

Anytime the MSM goes ape-shit over a story, I instinctively start looking at all the things happening in the world that they AREN'T reporting on.

• Opposing the NAU bill HCM2003 gets stomped
• Wiretaps WITH IMMUNITY ready to pass the House
• Possible War w/ Iran
• Saddam had no link w/ Al Qaeda
• Bush Veto's Ban on Torture
• The Dollar is Tanking

Also it appears that the FBI had been sitting on this info for awhile.
Also it appears that Spitzer was about to start investigations into Silverstein, owner of the WTC and subsquent insurance fraud.

I'm just saying.
http://www.roncan.com

Well, as much as I dislike his actions, I hardly believe these were terrorist hookers infiltrating the government by sleeping their way to the president. It disgusts me that they would discover his actions, and release them to the public using the patriot act as a cover.

A BLATANT AND FOUL ABUSE OF POWER!!! I'M BEGINNING TO HATE!

prostitution is not a federal crime because the constitution does not give the federal government the right to regulate it. Therefore, the FBI broke the law, violated several of Mr. Spitzers rights and is trampling on our constitution.

This is how they destroy the constittution. They get you to make an exception in the case of laws you morally agree with.

There was no common law crime or constituional crime.

Period.

Did you know that Spitzer was investigating Larry Silverstein? Did you know that Silverstein is now in control of the Sears tower in Chicago? Does any of the current news make more sense now? Stay away from Chicago especially on pagan holidays.

Here's the classic National Lampoon on the Teddy Kennedy VW ad:
If Ted Kennedy drove a Volkswagen, he'd be President today.