Before you go all Illegal Wiretaps, Poor Spitzer...

[ScreamingMeemie]

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E4DA163BF937A25757C0A9629C8B63

snip-

Mr. Spitzer wants the commission to compel communications companies to build surveillance capabilities into cellphones that use new technology, and into the new Internet-based telephone services. That puts Mr. Spitzer, a Democrat who is said to be considering a run for governor, in step with the Bush administration's Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, which have similarly asked the commission for the change.

-snip

snip-

New York State accounts for roughly 30 percent of all the wiretaps done in the nation, Mr. Spitzer said in a filing with the commission.

snip


snip-

Mr. Spitzer recently joined with Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, in proposing new legislation that would expand the state's wiretapping powers. The proposal is opposed by some Democrats in the Assembly.

-snip



***I posted this because I'm sick of posting it in conspiracy threads. We need to nail them ALL, Dem and Repub. Let's get down there in the dirt with the dogs that are the Republican party. Let's clean house.

[acmavm]

1. Spitzer is an arrogant fool who thinks the rules are for everybody

else. There's a lot of 'em like that. He just happens to be a Dem.

[ScreamingMeemie]

2. And I refuse to make excuses for any of them.

[BurtWorm]

13. Hey, Mrs. Grumpy...

I finally got the point of some of those wiretapping threads. Of course, my first instinct was to be furious with Spitzer for causing such a train wreck to his family, his career, his administration, his state, his party...

But then I realized that even though Spitzer is a jerk and quite possibly guilty of crimes on the books, and certainly of breaches of confidence between himself and so many who had to trust him--or, better put, BECAUSE of the natural inclination of decent people to be so unforgiving of such a schmuck...

Spitzer is a perfect target for a takedown by the Republicans, who certainly have plenty of MOTIVE to take him down. What's more, being in charge of the Executive branch of the Federal Government and of the DOJ in particular, they have OPPORTUNITY as well.

So, yes, Spitzer is a schmuck who made his own bed and now has to lie in it. But that shouldn't blind us to asking questions about the process that got the DOJ moving so swiftly on this. I finally get it myself: we're talking about the same DOJ we've been talking about, disgustedly, for seven years now, the one that Rove politicized and used to attack Democratic politicians everywhere Republicans were running against them--which is to say everywhere.

[ScreamingMeemie]

15. If anything, BurtWorm, those threads make it even more obvious that

we will do anything to defend our own. Even become that which we purport to detest. Spitzer was fine with pushing the DOJ (the very same DOJ that "set him up" to perform these wiretaps. That's where it ends for me. I may have agreed if this article had not been brought to my attention. He would have had to have a death wish and/or desire to set his own self up.

[BurtWorm]

21. I don't think Spitzer if defensible, I think he did have a death wish.

There's something wrong with that boy, no question about it.

I'd still like to know if the Rove crew had a plan to get him, and if they just lucked out finding prey so easy to take.

But I do agree with you entirely that Spitzer doesn't deserve much sympathy. He's no Siegelman. He participated in his own takedown.

It doesn't change the fact that he might very well have been targeted before the investigation even began. That's how Republicans operate. Find the target, then come up with a crime to investigate.

[ScreamingMeemie]

22. I just don't think so but we'll just have to disagree.

Nothing I have read points to that. I just really wish we would take them all down.

[BurtWorm]

23. The one thing that really gives me pause:

they weren't looking for prostitutes. They began by looking at Spitzer. Of course he did give them reason to look: namely the payments to the shell corporations. I just wonder... How does a bank know a corporation is a shell corporation? Why does a bank care where you deposit thousands of dollars, especially if you're governor of New York? Wouldn't a bank presume the governor knows what he's doing with his money?

I don't know.

[ScreamingMeemie]

24. I used to fill out SAR all the time on people from many walks of life

Banks are required by law to do this if the transactions are suspicious enough, and it sure looks to me like it would be something the bank I worked for would have reported.

[BurtWorm]

27. You must be getting sick of these questions, but...

What might have raised the red flag for you in this instance? How could you tell if an account was fishy?

[ScreamingMeemie]

28. The one I have brought up before was of a man with a low balance

in his personal accounts frequently wiring cash amounts totalling up to $10,000 to the same place. But never the $10,000. It would be $3978 or $3590. But, over the week, it would total more than $10,000. It didn't make sense. And then, of course, there were people who, when informed of the need for a CTR, would immediately change the deposit, withdrawal, transfer to something less than $10,000. The thing about the SAR is that most times the customer does not even know.

[BurtWorm]

34. Have you ever filed a SAR for someone who was moving money OUT of his account?

That's what Spitzer's bank was reporting on.

[ScreamingMeemie]

35. Yes...it involves the money, not whether it is coming or going.

It is any transaction that causes suspicion. The example I provided above was not of money coming into the bank, but of money moving through the bank.

http://www.fincen.gov/reg_main.html

[BurtWorm]

36. Thank goodness for people like you, Mrs. Grumpy.

:toast:

Your skepticism is keeping me, at least, more open-minded and patient to learn more facts. I think it is a mistake, as so often occurs on DU and other political forums, to politicize truth. The truth is not partisan; it favors and disfavors Republicans and Democrats alike.

Anyway, thanks.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. Me neither

Doesn't matter what party they belong to.

[rpannier]

3. Recommend

I posted a rant about spitzer

I'm tired of these people saying one thing while doing another

F**k spitwad!!!

He has no respect for is family, the Party, his office or the People of NY

[ScreamingMeemie]

4. And I'm tired of Dems making excuses for him.

He brought this on himself. He thought he was above the law. He is not.

[cornermouse]

8. One of the pillars of our law and our country...

Innocent until proved guilty.

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. Except for the fact he has admitted some culpability...If he now

proclaims his innocence why he's nothing more than a Republican.

[cornermouse]

12. He admitted to sex.

I didn't hear him admit to anything else. The rest of your indictment is dependent on the media who are fed their info from who?

[ScreamingMeemie]

14. I'm sorry cornermouse. He's done, as he should be. As we call for

when it's a Republican. We need to clean house. Mr. Spitzer was all for the very thing that brought him down. Not a conspiracy, not just "sex"...the very thing he prosecuted. That must really bite for him.

[cornermouse]

29. No, Mrs. Grumpy.

What I am and have been seeing here is mob mentality. I'm sorry you can't see it. No one's thinking. They're all just running around, accusing and condemning. It's too bad too. I used to really enjoy DU. I could find information here that I couldn't find any place else. I guess it's true that all good things come to an end.

[ScreamingMeemie]

32. Yes cornermouse. There is no conspiracy. I used to enjoy DU too, on some days.

But on the days we heft our own up, and cry conspiracy, while screaming for the (rightful) prosecution and/or impeachment of the right is the day I disagree with a few of us. I won't change my opinions just because he's a Dem.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. And what beautiful girls and wife he has.

The man had everything a person could possibly want. That is some evil magic that wouldn't let him see what he had before he did something stupid enough to jeopardize it all.

[lonestarnot]

5. I'm for throwing the fucker under the bus and moving on to the fix before it gets in.

[NashVegas]

6. Now Maybe the Scales Will Fall From His Eyes

Maybe you just have to be a native or longtime New Yorker to understand, but the NYS Attorney General has been the consumers #1 ally among elected officials for as long as I can remember.

The state I live in now, all the Attorney General does is rubber stamp everything the power-brokers want. Everything!

I refuse to play the double standard of wanting to see Craig et all dragged through it, but think Spitzer should remain governor, BUT I'm not stupid enough to throw one person who has fought for the average joe his entire career to the wolves - let alone behind bars! Not when it's so probable that there was some sort of abuse on the Federal level.

[tandot]

7. He should have resigned immediately.

The longer this drags on, the more fodder it gives to Republicans.

Republicans have already announced that they'll impeach him if he doesn't resign. Now it looks like he is only resigning because he is facing impeachment, not because it is the right thing to do.

This election is one of the most important in recent history. This is the last thing we need. He is one f*cking stupid moron.

[redqueen]

10. Wow...

thanks for posting this. K&R.

[burythehatchet]

17. DO keep in mind that NY pols will always have a harsher take on issues like this

because of 911. (Not saying its right)

[redqueen]

18. It's far from right, or understandable even...

it's like saying well I had to vote for the IWR cause people wanted me to. We elect leaders to lead, not follow.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

16. He also wants the residents of NYS (myself included) to accept the Real ID..which is fascist!

http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/32395prs20071027.html

It is here that I'm going to place my tinfoil hat, firmly on my head. :tinfoilhat:

I am a Jew as Spitzer is, and considering the holocaust, it blows my mind that he wants to implement such fascist tools. This leads me to question his parents being Austrian Jews. Many Nazis were allowed to enter the country via Operation Paper Clip, and given new identities. Could it be possible that Spitzer's parents were among them?

[housewolf]

19. His frickin' BANK turned him in... not illegal wiretaps

Based on cash transactions his bank thought were suspicious, they turned him over to the IRS. Their investigation called in DOJ, which obtained a legal wiretap. He wasn't just "swept up" in a fishing expedition - the investigation itself was about him.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/11/nyregion/11inquire.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

[ScreamingMeemie]

20. A bank, doing what it was required to do by law. A law in place long

before the current administration.

This post is in answer to those who think there is some sort of wiretapping conspiracy going on.

I responded to your other post, in another thread, about this.

[theboss]

25. This case has nothing to do with illegal wiretaps

I wish people would understand that.

[ScreamingMeemie]

26. theboss, I understand that completely. I am shooting down all of the

possible conspiracy theories... I wish people would understand that. :toast:

[Taverner]

31. "Mr. Spitzer wants the commission to compel communications companies to build..."

"...surveillance capabilities into cellphones"

OK MrsGrumpy. Uncle. You win.

That's just wrong.

Anyone who wants to spy on citizens by eavesdropping on calls needs to go down, Dem or Repub

[endarkenment]

33. MrsGrumpy for Pretzledent!

thanks for the background on 'progressive hero' spitzer.