Comments on: Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund’s ‘We’re Listening’ Video

by: knarlyknight

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:18:38 +0000

Okay, here’ the deal. I thought Eliot Spitzer was old news, then Greg Palast opened my eyes to prosecutor discretion and got me to thinking. Hate it when that happens, it’s nicer to just sing lalalala and march along in step like shcb.

A few tidbits:

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.

and this:

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.

and finally, just for Enky, this:

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

I thought the whole thing (”Eliot’s Mess”) was worth the read:
http://www.gregpalast.com/elliot-spitzer-gets-nailed/#more-1979

by: knarlyknight

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 06:12:59 +0000

shcb, as for your guess that the gay community has the same % of trustworthy vs creeps, I’ve come to the conclusion that, contrary to initial intuition, your suggestion is not so. I’d say there were far fewer creeps and losers in the gay community than in the general population (excluding prison population I guess!) Maybe something about having the strength to face ones fears and come out of the closet, often to public or family scorn, is good for their character or something. Kinder, more caring and more forgiving of themselves and others. No connection necessarily but also find the same with alcoholics who have been through AA successfully and have abstained for a long long time.

by: knarlyknight

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 05:48:12 +0000

No, shcb you totally misunderstood my reason for asking LB. I was not suggesting we ask LB for his insights as a member of the gay community at all, I was talking about asking his view as an active member of the hypocrite community.

by: NorthernLite

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:18:31 +0000

All good points.

by: shcb

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 02:08:25 +0000

I think those are all good points, I doubt LB has any greater insights, I think the gay community has the same percentage of people that are true to their word and those that are creeps, folks are folks.

by: knarlyknight

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:59:33 +0000

NL and SHCB explanations make sense to me and there is at least one more to add: As long as they stick by their man they are not seen (by themselves or imagine that they are seen by others) as a failure. If the marriage split up the wife may think she’s living under a cloud (of other peoples’ judgements) that she couldn’t satisfy him. If she keeps the marriage together, that helps to affirm for her that the hookers meant nothing to him (as she wants to beleive) and that she is the truly important one in his life. Also then all those past years together were not meaningless.

Rationalized further, she says to herself “Yea my husband may have slept with a prostitute but that just proves how virile he is and the fact he stays with me proves how much better I am than those hookers.” If the marriage splits up because her husband wants to sleep with young high priced hookers instead of her, that makes her feel like a failure.

I don’t know,it is all just conjecture to me. Perhaps someone should ask Lefty about this topic, he might have had some direct experience.

by: shcb

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 23:19:51 +0000

These guys are typically not the type who are home every night at 6, they keep long, wierd hours and after a while I wonder if the gals really care if the guy is home or not, they make their own lives have their own friends etc. I don’t know, I don’t think that is probably the case but… I have a good friend that was a battered wife, she is … soft? needy? don’t exactly have the right word, but she told me that no matter how abusive her first husband was she thought he was better than nothing. I think they also just like the trappings, the best country clubs, government paid trips, security details, maids and drivers, hob knobbing all that. No two probably do it for the same reasons but there seems to be a pattern. Now of course not all guys in office do it, do you think maybe the type of guy that sleeps around picks a gal that will let him or visa versa? Idle ramblings. All I know is these women are, wait for it, IDIOTS!

by: knarlyknight

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:55:55 +0000

Don’t comment on my shoes.

by: NorthernLite

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 21:29:45 +0000

The only explaination I can think of for these wives standing by there men, other than wanting to keep their famlies together, is that some women are very attracted to men with money and power. And once they find that man, it’s probably hard for them to give that up. The lifestyle and all that. But again I don’t think we can ever really understand it because a) we’re not women and b) and we’re not in their shoes.

by: shcb

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:25:42 +0000

Good point NL, but there seems to be a pattern with the wives of politicians caught with their pants down that “stand by their man”, not all to be sure, but… Even here in Colorado, our former governor, Bill Owens was having an affair and moved out of his house into the Governors’ mansion, sans wife, later in his term as his name was being bandied about as a possible White House contender his wife miraculously forgave him and ushered him home to their modest Highlands Ranch home. Leaving the Mansion empty. He must still be thinking of running at some point because they are still together.

by: enkidu

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:25:00 +0000

I would also say that someone who seeks the public’s trust should be held accountable when they break it. If he had an affair with his intern say or a coworker, not so bad. Bad, but not illegal, just kinda stupid.

Ordering up high priced hookers (eight times I read this AM) makes you unqualified to have a position of moral authority. Ordering three trillion dollars of counterproductive Iraq war for your high priced hookers/lobbyists/cronies should land you in jail. 260 lies for ol gee dub. Nearly 1000 for the shrubco team verified so far. When will they be held accountable?

Spitzer led a smooth transition to the Lt Gov over the last couple days and then resigned. As well he should. David Vitter? nah, Diaperboy won’t resign. Typical GOOPer hypocrite.

by: NorthernLite

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:46:58 +0000

Yeah, someone who has tried to position himself as a staunch crime-fighter partaking in a criminal activity isn’t showing every good judgement.

The only reason I’m following this one is because NY is rigfht next door to ON and it’s been getting a lot of coverage in our media. In fact, NY is our (Ontario’s) second largest trading partner, after Michigan.

by: knarlyknight

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 17:08:43 +0000

NL - I’m not following this subject closely, I don’t even really know who Spitzer was and don’t care.

My question, and it’s not only directed at you, was based on an assumption that: by his illegal use of the hooker(s?) he made himself vulnerable to people in the “hooker ring” who could extort political, legal of other favours from him in exchange for keeping his “secrets” safe. The public trust depends on officials not being compromised in such a way.

Then again that question reeks of naivety, as some would say everyone in Washington is compromised to some extent, either by what they did at the Bohemian Grove (that’s a joke to rile Lefty) or acceptance of excessive offerings from lobbyists…

by: NorthernLite

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:42:43 +0000

Yeah, nothing bothers me more than someone claiming to be morally superior to the rest of us, all the while they’re either ordering hookers, looking for gay sex in a washroom or talking dirty to children.

I do give Spitzer some credit though: He admitted he did wrong, apologized to the people of his state and then resigned. Can’t really ask for much more than that, other than charge him criminally for something millions of men do all the time.

shcb, it’s hard for me to comment on the wife. Her world just got flipped 360 degrees and she may say/do things that seem irrational to us because we aren’t in her position.

knarly, I’m not quite sure I know what you’re asking me, can you elaborate a litttle bit?

by: enkidu

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:40:06 +0000

so will Rep David Vitter R-LA do the right thing and (finally) resign?

by: knarlyknight

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 22:03:47 +0000

funny shcb.

NL - I may disagree with you. Maybe. First I’d like your opinion. Although the hypocrite factor with Spitzer is real, would you agree that a bigger factor (besides arcane crossing state-lines and money laundering laws) might be that he had put himself in a position to be blackmailed and thus compromised his public trust?

by: shcb

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:44:47 +0000

Inky, I haven’t been following this thread, just not much interest but yes I like it we could even lengthen it a bit, “rwnjs- wrong in so many ways”, “rwnjs-nuts in a bucket”, “nuts to nuts of the right wing” (kind of a takeoff of the major at the battle of the bulge)? what do you think? When you get to people like Pat Buchanan I might even use it.

NL, did you hear that his wife wanted him to fight for his job? I think she is as drunk with power as he.

by: NorthernLite

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:27:34 +0000

For the record, I think Spitzer is an asshole not because he cheated on his wife with a hooker, but because he claimed to be and presented himself as one type of person when in actuality he was a much different person. The so-called hypocrite factor, which is being displayed by a lot of other politicians these days, from all political stripes.

by: knarlyknight

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:26:43 +0000

Lefty, do you think you are actually fooling anyone?

If you want to talk about emotional involvement, let me point out that JBC still hasn’t bothered to waste his time responding to your plea for self-affirmation: and it was YOU who got awfully angry and abusive after I pointed out to you that JBC is not interested in wasting his time doing so.

Refer to March 10, 11:51 am and your insulting, abusive response at March 10, 12:08 pm

Truly pathetic.

by: enkidu

Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:21:44 +0000

knarly, good try, but you can’t reason with insanity
(see TreasonousVeterinarian, or just about any lefty post where he isn’t massively medicated)

lefty isn’t ‘gay’ ‘black’ or a ‘wise old man’ so no harm, no foul (he spews homophobe slurs indiscriminately like no gay man - much less a wise ol black one - ever would)

His knowledge of deathmetal, current video games and slang peg him as a white redneck tweenager with a bad attitude and a foul mouth. He enjoys playing the race/gay card as a sport. “Lookit me! I am a wise ol gay black dude spouting rwnj bs! respect me or face the wrath of my Family Circus quotes!”

No one cares about your insanity lefty. I wish you would finally grow a pair and accept my wager so I could banish you forever (not that I expect you would live up to your side of the bargain, as considerable evidence exists that you are both spineless and witless).

rwnjs - wrong
is that short enough shcb?