The New York Post has a salacious story about Alisha Smith, a lawyer with the New York attorney general’s office, who is a dominatrix in her private life. Frankly, many of the skills honed by being a domme probably come in handy in litigation (such as knowing exactly how much pain and humiliation to administer when).
The problem isn’t with her having a kinky private life per se; it is the allegation by the Post that she may have gotten paid for performing at S&M parties. Smith makes all of $78,825 a year and the policy of the state AG’s office is for staff to obtain prior approval of any activity which will earn them more than $1,000. The Post presented its allegations about Smith, who was hired by Andrew Cuomo and played an important role in a securities fraud case that led to a $5 billion settlement by Bank of America. She has been suspended without pay as the AG conducts an investigation.
After l’affaire Spitzer, readers in comments have repeatedly noted that Schneiderman had better be squeaky clean since he would be targeted by private investigators, as Spitzer clearly was. This Post “story” looks to have been the result of private investigators going after Schneiderman’s staff, with the intent of intimidating them and embarrassing and discrediting him. This report is even less specific than the one the Post filed on the maid who accused Dominique Strauss-Kahn of rape and clearly came from private investigators in the employ of DSK. And those sensationalistic charges, that she was a hooker, that the union had placed her in the hotel and had some sort of profit sharing arrangement, that she was turning tricks while under protective custody, all appear to have been fabrications (they initially sounded plausible because they were detailed, but the maid is suing the Post for defamation, and a source has indicated that there is no evidence that she was a prostitute).
The claim here is, as with DSK, from a single source, and a mere assertion:
Alisha Smith, 36, who dresses demurely as a buttoned-down prosecutor, turns up the heat when she becomes perky persecutor “Alisha Spark,” a nom de dom she uses when she performs at S&M events for pay, according to a fetish source.
“They pay her to go to the events. She dominates people, restrains them and whips them,” the fetish source said.
Now it may be true that she was paid, but performing at S&M events does not necessarily mean she IS paid (by happenstance, I know someone people who have been involved in this subculture, and being a very nosy consultant, I had to debrief them. Yes, there are S&M events/gatherings where the “act” performs for fun. Remember, some people are exhibitionists). The proof of the pudding will be whether she is reinstated.
Tom Adams, an attorney and consultant who has been involved in mortgage litigation, wrote:
Not to be paranoid, but this story is almost certainly the result of a private investigator digging for dirt on the NY AG’s office.
The Post conveniently omits any reference in the story about where the reporters learned about this woman’s activities. Also, it is not at all a coincidence that she worked on Cuomo’s BofA settlement. It seems likely that Schneiderman had her working on his new securitization cases since she had experience.
The Post plays coy about where they got the information from, they cite an anonymous “friend” (probably the investigator himself) and they provide some key bits of Internet confirmation (Twitter, Facebook, etc) which may or may not have been hacked.
Oddly, I saw a similar “outing” of a dominatrix 2 years ago. Yet she was a complete sidelight to the true target of the investigators: her husband, who was active in politics and fighting some banks on foreclosure of several properties in the Hamptons. I had suspected then that the investigators were hired by the banks who then turned the information to the Post and the police, who busted the husband and the wife (for being a dominatrix? I’m not even sure why now other than humiliation).
I’m sure this story about this poor woman is just a warning shot to Schneiderman. It means they are working on him and he can expect to see more of these stories.
It’s hard to see how Schneiderman can protect his staff from this sort of search for dirt. And if Smith is vindicated, she can’t sue the Post and continue in her day job (the time demands and the exposure both argue against it). So if the claim that she is taking money proves to be scurrilous, the Post and its sources are unlikely to suffer for releasing this hit job.
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Frankly, many of the skills honed by being a domme probably come in handy in litigation (such as knowing exactly how much pain and humiliation to administer when).
This is, ummm…a bit of a stretch (no pun intended).
It’s hard to see how Schneiderman can protect his staff from this sort of search for dirt.
He could do it by telling his staff to be honest and upfront with anything they are doing that might jeopardize investigations if they are caught.
Maybe this is a generation gap thing, but nobody my age or younger (ie, nobody who was in their teens when the internet became ubiquitous) gives a damn that people do kinky things in their private lives. In fact, it’s more or less assumed that people do (although perhaps the lack of such actions explains the number of grumpy old F!@#s I encounter day to day…) If they’re happy doing it, good for them. And if a 36year old woman can make almost $80k a year part time, then fantastic for her (sort of begs the question as to what a 20yr old could charge full time, btw…).
Having said that, if this story is true, she really should’ve come clean about it (to her employers) earlier, as she must’ve known that she would be targeted and that this could become a distraction.
I still don’t see what the point of the story is, btw–this won’t stop any investigations. And should a group of people decide to investigate the private lives of all the banking executives, they will no doubt find a lot of salacious things that will stick (again, no pun intended). I’m not sure that this is a brilliant idea on the part of those who hired the PIs.
I believe that $78,825 is her lawyerly day job. I must say, a prosecuting lawyer, either sex, as a top isn’t surprising.
Good point. Since Yves’ sentence linked the $80k to the >$1k activity, I thought it was a reference to her side business. I should’ve read the Post article first (which confirms your post)
I must say, a prosecuting lawyer, either sex, as a top isn’t surprising.
Hmm…never thought about it…
Actually, it kind’a is. Lawyers usually turn out to be subs. Something about having to be that much in control all day long at the actual job, and wanting to be able to relax on your time off.
The issue isn’t her kinky life, it’s that she might have been getting paid when she was required to get approval for any work that generated income of more than $1000 (now we might get into interesting grey areas if she did think it meant less than $1000 a gig and the rule was vaguely worded enough to support her interpretation). The issue is the violation of the rule, also the domme part assures it will get more interest than it deserves (no one would care if she was running a cabaret, for instance, and making the same dough, assuming she was paid at all).
By me, neither kinky nor surprising.
“she might have been getting paid when she was required to get approval for any work that generated income of more than $1000” –
For arguments sake, let’s say it’s true. If it is, make it all go away with her boss writing a Letter-of-Reprimand, or some other minor disciplinary action. The AG can add to it further by stating what a great employee she is, and can state he’s following “progressive disciplinary” protocol.
Boom! Non-story.
I’m not into the S&M thing with my spouse, but at 36, if she has a healthy sex life, then good for her.
Hmm, that’s an impressively detached view! I’d be inclined to find out whether my 36-year-old spouse had a healthy sex life, whether it included me or not.
I see your syntactical point hut “she” has an antecedent outside the sentence. The “at 36” kind of gives that away.
LOL!
Whatever the details, did anyone doubt that the intimidation machine was running 24X7, 365??? I’m still trying to figure out how they knee-capped Brooksley Borne.
Which time?
I’m not referring to the original Greenspan-Rubin-Summers-Levitt crime, but to the fact that she has never really spoken about it at length.
Whatever they have kept her quiet and “Born declined to publicly comment” has become standard fare.
Obviously it was also used to rope her in on the dog-and-pony committee.
The issue is the violation of the rule,
Well, that’s a valid issue, though–one that could be easily dealt with the way Woodrow suggests.
I’ve noticed Timmay is still head of the IRS, despite having to pay taxes on past income (who doesn’t know income results in taxes, seriously?).
We’ll never clean up this mess, if the first step requires finding a Girl Scout or Boy Scout….and of course, that is the plan, isn’t it?
> The issue is the violation of the rule
Maybe she should ask the Fed to grant her a waiver (yes I know she doesn’t technically work for the Fed, but at this point, we all work for the Fed, don’t we?)….they seem to love waiving direct conflicts of interest (like that stock purchase for example).
Of course, if she’s a well known domme, how could this fact
ever be used against her (in the “someone might blackmail her sense”)? That’s why that policy exists…to avoid conflicts of interest. Not much risk of that here…
Dear TM;
Your suggestion that some “Progressive” forces use the same tactic against the banking class is spot on. Since the MSM looks to be bought and paid for by the Financials, it’s up to the Internet to do the dirt, so to speak. I’m a “grumpy old F!@#” myself, and am wondering…just how much ‘news’ about the world does GenX and the Zeros get from which source? Does the Internet now do what T.V. used to? Enquiring minds want to know.
ambrit: Your [Typing Monkey’s] suggestion that some “Progressive” forces use the same tactic against the banking class is spot on.
Unfortunately it wouldn’t work. There’s a double standard that “public servants” are supposed to be more wholesome than your neighbor or your sister. Would anybody bat an eyelash if this story was about someone who was corporate counsel (or would a “friend” even have mentioned it to a reporter). Would the Monica Lewinsky story even been mentioned if it had been about some CEO instead of POTUS?
Yves is right that the real story is who is talking to reporters about this and why. Now _there_ would be an interesting scandal.
Dear alex;
Point well taken. There is a pretty good piece in the latest Atlantic about the ‘privacy’ debate.
The sinking feeling I get is from considering how blase the public seems to have become about influence peddling in general. Perhaps Typing Monkey and I are hoping for a ressurection of the publics’ “sense of moral outrage.” Unfortunately, too many reforming crusades are started as reaction to major misdeeds. Right now, it looks like too many ‘little people’ are going to be hurt before anything serious gets done. (The previous comment sounds too much like Fords’ reaction to the Corvair, doesn’t it.) Oh well. Hope springs eternal.
Your suggestion that some “Progressive” forces use the same tactic against the banking class is spot on.
Well, it’s not a suggestion so much as an inevitability, I think. Nobody is going to just sit there and defend against tactics used against them indefinitely.
just how much ‘news’ about the world does GenX and the Zeros get from which source? Does the Internet now do what T.V. used to?
I am a bit extreme, but I never even flip on a television. I have one at home so that friends can use it if they come by, but I haven’t even bothered figuring out how to use the remote control.
Almost all of my friends use the internet for news, though–those who watch TV use it mainly to watch sports. They normally just download movies and daily shows (neither of which I personally watch). That is one reason I never understood how Netflix could make any money, incidentally–the’re charging for a service that, from what I can tell, most people take for granted as free.
So in sum, I guess the internet is today’s TV, with the exception that I don’t recall as a child seeing adults hooked as much on TV as my cohort is on facebook (which I also don’t use–something that makes me unique among my friends).
Hope that answers your question.
My Dear Young Whippersnapper;
Yep, you did indeed clear up some of my confusion. Now, how much of the internet traffic is within some ‘grand concordiance?’ Old timey T.V. was the only game in town as far as ‘popular culture’ went for a long time. Egg heads and suchlike read books and magazines. Now it looks to this (self-deceptively) middle ager that society is splintering. The question now is, who will manage the required collective eforts? That class of people will have a lot of power. Educating them to be ‘civic minded’ is our foremost challenge. Too many questions for one viejo. I need a nap.
Ah, but GOPers get free passes on that stuff most of the time. See also: Diaper David Vitter, who is still a sitting US Senator.
By the way, Yves and I think alike — this is a horse’s head tossed by Wall Street at Eric Schneiderman when the first effort to silence him (taking him off the mortgage-abuse panel last month) didn’t work:
http://my.firedoglake.com/phoenix/2011/09/18/is-the-gopmedia-complex-using-silly-sex-smears-to-scare-schneiderman-other-ags-from-probing-bank-crimes/#comment-268176
this is a horse’s head tossed by Wall Street at Eric Schneiderman when the first effort to silence him (taking him off the mortgage-abuse panel last month) didn’t work
Well, this effort to silence him shouldn’t work either–just a sampling of the comments on this site and on the page you linked suggests that nobody cares. For those that care, a reprimand should end the matter (if Smith in fact did get paid over $1k).
Spitzer and Clinton were different animals, because they both did something outright illegal (Spitzer paying hookers while being the guy in charge of prosecuting illegal activity, Clinton for perjury). This doesn’t seem to be illegal–at worst it just violates some internal policy.
In any case, if she is on leave, then she was presumably placed there because she actually broke policy or because nobody wanted this story to leak. Now that it’s leaked, what leverage remains?
Why in the world would she come clean about being interested in S&M? What does that have to do with her job, it is not illegal. It would be strange for her to volunteer that info to the AG’s office. That is her private life. If she happened to break the rules about compensation that would be different but there is no evidence she did.
I think there needs to be an investigation into the PI and who paid for him/her. The fact a PI was hired shows an intent to potentially intimidate or blackmail the AG’s office. There is NO reason for a bank or whoever to investigate the private lives of an assistant AG. I find this very disturbing because it shows another attempt for some incredibly guilty people to avoid responsibility for defrauding the American public.
The Post presented its allegations about Smith, who was hired by Andrew Cuomo
And this one was too easy… :)
My personal fav would been as a S&M Domme, in NY, she would probably have the goods on a lot of important folks. So this might be counter productive in the long run…yves?
Skippy…a stay at home mom, was once a executive Domme in Sydney. Clients have lots of money, sooo, power, position, public and private, etc. Was just checking it out and liked the money before marriage, top mom. As seen on last matrix, red hair, white skin, not to tall, lol.
Skippy,
Was that executive domme position by any chance at that venerable institution known as “A Touch of Class” ?
Friends;
Who says Australians can’t devise semantic puns? I have seen the light. What, the Velvet Downunderground?
You’ll have to ask Kerry, General Dr. —, some Freemasons, an ex female police officer doing side work, some bloke that charged its services to his fathers health company and the obligatory polie using party credit cards for relief.
Skippy…oh and a board of directors that didn’t know…it was.
“My personal fav would been as a S&M Domme, in NY, she would probably have the goods on a lot of important folks. So this might be counter productive in the long run…yves?”
It is not only who she has the goods on. Piss off enough S&M aficionados and over half the banksters and financial elites will be outed for their own dark secrets. Perhaps it is time we use their methods. Just think about it, we don’t even have to screw the truth to get at them.
Astute observation and MIO that if such act created a schism with in the community. Its ramifications could be more destructive than the AG’s investigation their trying to suppress.
Skippy…ensuing hilarity would be a fine panacea for post GFC blues!
“over half the banksters and financial elites will be outed for their own dark secrets”
Which would have no effect whatsoever. This is all about the wholesomeness double standard for “public servants”. Would the Monica Lewinsky “scandal” have even merited a brief mention if it had involved a CEO instead of POTUS?
Sooo are you saying that a blankenfiend photo, in a gimp suit, w/ strap-on would be a non event[?], business as usual affair.
Any way it’s quite the question, of how such Intel was gathered, by whom for whom and who ponied up the dosh.
Skippy…why fight on only one front if you have more than.
Dear skippy;
How is the strapon positioned? For an ISO or for a CDO?
Thanks for your penetrating insights good Sir.
You asked for it…IPEEO.
Oh no! Not another ‘Trickle Down Economics’ joke!
(BTW, I was labouring under the (mis?)apprehension that one does not ask for it in S&M. It is imposed.)
If you are on the board of international bank or corporation would you want the kinky actions of your CEO outed. Better yet, since they are going after employees, why not turn the tables and go after the board members. The social media is faster and a more powerful that the newspapers. Perhaps a few knowledgeable unemployed college grads with $100,000 college loans could start a wikileaks targeting social behaviors of bank and corporation CEOs and board members. This could be fun.
Fiends;
Seeing how the ‘Elites’ are generally drawn from the ‘Private School’ crowd, with all that entails, (see Winston Churchills comment on ‘English Public Schools’,) couldn’t the Woman, (have to capitalize it for a Dom, after all,) claim she was conducting ‘research’ on the target group? Schneiderman could burble about her at the press conference, “Alisha is the most, um, passionate of our investigators! We are behind her 110%.”
The Post, Who is it who owns the post? Perhaps I’m reaching on this? Forgive MOI, it’s Sunday & I’m old, just plain old.
Confirms that today’s main media is a whore.
Can we please stop with the trope that “politicians are whores,” or “the media are whores”?
It’s insulting to whores.
Reading between the lines makes one wonder about when the last time you wielded a whip yourself…
Oh, please, that reads like projection.
I have a buddy who did a website for a domme, that’s how I have some insight into this topic.
I thought they were cruising for some action, you do have a bit of a boy club.
Skippy…that bloody walking stick you have is enough for me to mind my manners >.o
it was just a joke… chillax
Yves et. al,
Can the AG office investigate Murdoch for the crimes that he committed in the UK? Chances are he is doing the same activities in the US.
You beat me to it! I was thinking exactly the same thing.
Miss Smith should check to see if her phone was hacked. Murdoch and News Corp have a culture of using dubious means to obtain information. I would love to see him go down here as he is in the UK.
Sweet Jane;
If Murdock ‘went down’ over here as he evidently is doing back home, wouldn’t that make this whole thing a Poncy Scheme?
off topic but has the security hole being exploited by those hacking cell phones been patched? Once it was uncovered the hole should have been fixed ASAP.
If such a gaping hole was found in my systems and I never bothered to fix it I’d be fired and sued.
BINGO! The media is the Elites stick.
Er, don’t you mean “whip”?
$78k/yr for a lawyer with (presumably) 10 years experience, and doing a good enough job to merit public praise from the NY AG for her work in a $5B case? No wonder there’s a revolving door.
I know, $78k is hardly starvation wages, but it seems pretty low for an experienced lawyer of her accomplishments. Wanna bet what the lawyers at the defense table are making? How can you get decent lawyers for the AG’s office with that disparity. And are there parties that are happy that it’s hard to find good lawyers for the AG’s office?
It’s not always about money. Perhaps she likes to go after the bad guys instead. Of course that would be an anathema
to most.
I chose a career in which I knew I would never be wealthy or even particularly comfortable. However it has been a wonderful journey for the last 34 years, and I don’t regret my decision for one moment. All my needs are met, I have good benefits and a pension. (No – not a government job.) I’ve never been particulary avaricious, so my career has suited me well.
“It’s not always about money.”
I’m sure it’s not, or they wouldn’t get people like her or you. But how many good people do they loose with salaries like that? There are always financial pressures from student debt, children, elderly parents, etc.
“It’s not always about money.”
umm it’s _always_ about the money with lawyers.
$78,825/yr is crap wages for the area, for a job that requires expensive clothing, $12 tolls at the area bridges/tunnels, and probably a fair amount of unpaid overtime.
Yeah, I know many people make do with far less. But, how many of them spent $180k for law school?
Or $100-120k or whatever it is?
I wonder if it’s not so much a warning shot at Schneiderman as a warning shot at anybody who might co-operate with him.
I have it on not specially reliable authority that if the No Tell Motels in the Beltway could speak, they’d say that the services that Smith provides are pervasively used; it’s the Beltway kink of choice. Every witness will think “What have they go on me…”
Mr Strether;
Who Will Whip the Whippers is it?
What’s interesting is what the resort to a Dominatrix tells about the personality of the grovelling, craven customer.
Psst…I’ve heard on good authority that after a hard day of crushing other people lives (somebody’s gotta do it). Some figures of power actually do feel a wee bit bad about it all. Hence the need to have mommy dressed in vinyl gear, give ya a good spanking ++++ in the dungeon for being such a *Bad Boy*. In the end you get to have a little accident too send you off to sleepy bed time…release.
Skippy…crush…punishment…accident…release…rinse and replete. Very counter intuitive eh.
Felicitous skippy;
Seems sort of a case of ‘cash counter intuitive.’ However, you are describing a sacramental occurence. Also, it just came to me, “the whippings will continue until morale improves” is quite literally true! What have I been missing all these years? Oh, the shame!
The Right Wing beats up the Left over the Left’s sexual sins. The why doesn’t the Left beat up the Right over the Right’s financial sins such as usury, counterfeiting, the murder of innocents, and oppression of poor?
Oh wait. That would require some knowledge of the Bible.
My Dear Beard;
Knowledge alone does not guarantee ‘right behaviour.’ It requires a ‘moral compass’ aligned to positive living. It also helps to see that the ‘elites’ patronize the “Church of Moloch.” It reminds me of Steve Martins’ “King Tut” revue on Saturday Night Live back when it was still funny.
Knowledge alone does not guarantee ‘right behaviour.’ ambrit
No, but that knowledge is essential if the Right Wing’s hypocrisy is to be exposed. The Left should know the Bible if for no other reason than to point out that the Right is sinful too.
The Left has ceded the religious high ground to the Right. No wonder it is losing.
Not really. There’s stuff about the Right’s hypocrisy in the media all the time. While I agree that it buys _something_, and more effort should be put into exposing it, it clearly doesn’t buy as much as it “should”. Cf Vitter.
There’s stuff about the Right’s hypocrisy in the media all the time. liberal
True but those usually involve sexual sins. The Religious Right should be held to account for its economic sins such as failure to advocate debt forgiveness.
The Old Testament alone has some great ammo against the bankers.
Yeah, might be worth a try.
I care for the “moral” high ground but not for the “religious” high ground, as it is lower, IMO. Those religious texts touted by some “Muslims”, “Christians”, and “Jews” are filled with lots of advice most people (incl. most “followers”) call “evil”. Thankfully, most followers ignore the worst bits of their own texts.
Thankfully, most followers ignore the worst bits of their own texts. wunsacon
I’m suggesting you use the “best” parts of the Bible against those who profess to be guided by it. The Old Testament alone is filled with enough to shame any banker, Jewish or Christian.
And actually many bankers are shamed into giving back some of what they steal Monday-Friday on Saturday and Sunday.
F. Beard, to be sure, I’ve read enough of your writings here to suspect I prefer — indeed, like — your selective reading of the Bible. There are too few of you and too many Blankfiends “doing God’s work”.
The Christian Warriors of the right wing movement use religion to manipulate for a radical, murderous hegemony, now focusing on a new crusade against Islam. It would hard to beat up the right wing who worship a bloody, vengeful god. The poor people and usury bullshit is just commie liberation theology in their eyes, and its smells of ring kissing popery.
The poor people and usury bullshit is just commie liberation theology in their eyes, and its smells of ring kissing popery. Paul Tioxon
Excellent point. However, the command against usury between fellow countrymen, the command for periodic debt forgiveness and concern for the poor is taught in the Old Testament, long before there were any Popes.
Mr Tioxon;
The issue here should be hypocracy. Didn’t a previous Bodhidsatva say something along the lines of, “Beware those with smooth lips who pray in the street so that all can see?”
The use of religion to promote parochial causes is as old as religion itself. It in no way deligitimises religion. Even Napoleon Buonopart remarked on the relationship, “…the moral is to the physical as three is to one.”
http://www.jewsonfirst.org/07b/weinstein_debate.html
The US Air Force Academy is stronghold of militant fundamentalist bible cultists, masquerading as big shot patriots. Please link.
Dear Mr Tioxon;
I had heard vague rumours about something like this before. The link to ‘Jews On First!’ is an eye opener. That’s a brave man. He works for all of us. One question, what about more recent events in the military regarding religion? This bumbling Administration seems quiet, too quiet, about it.
Thanks for the link. Time to rewatch “Seven Days in May.”
Speaking of ring-kissing papists, it’s open season again in Colombia.
http://www.eltiempo.com/colombia/otraszonas/ARTICULO-WEB-NEW_NOTA_INTERIOR-10350985.html
Dear doom;
You’re right, two bishops and seventynine priests this year alone! The article said the latest was a ‘pastor to the poor.’ Is this a culture war and or a religious war? Remember Reagans illegal pocket war in Nicaragua? A lot of the ‘hardware’ sent to the Contras was ferried in by Fundamentalist missionaries in their private airplanes. (Just the idea of a ‘missionary’ owning his or her own airplane…)
(Just the idea of a ‘missionary’ owning his or her own airplane…) ambrit
Don’t sweat it. You probably would not wish to be them on Judgment Day:
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.’
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock. Matthew 7:22-25 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Actually hardware was dropped from real airplanes by real pilots; Piper Cubs with Rev. Percys can’t do the job, think about it for 2 seconds.
Dear Sir;
Actually, I,m talking about twin engine Cherokees and larger flying out of Texas, Florida, and Louisianna.
Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons
http://www.truth-out.org/air-force-cites-new-testament-ex-nazi-train-officers-ethics-launching-nuclear-weapons/1311776738
Hi Ambrit,
I know many people on this site revile Obama, from a kinder, gentler space than say, right wing talk show fanatics, but revile him all the same for his policies. I don’t know how far the needle was supposed to move on the progress-o-meter, but it simply changed by him getting the 67 million votes to put him, and not a complete reactionary militarist in the WH.
Be that as it may. There is a lot of stage manipulation that goes on. This is time of war, but we are drawing down in Iraq. I believe not enough people really know or understand that the Pentagon is a defacto 4th branch of the US government by an act of Congress, specifically called the military establishment in public law under the National Security Act. Furthermore, I don’t believe people have followed the significance of the forced retirement of Gen Stanley McChrystal. When Obama went to Europe to lobby for Chicago to be the Olympic site, he also met on Air Force One with Gen McChrystal. This was the news worthy event, but of course, the circus of a sitting president being a chamber of commerce flunky was what the media played up. This Gen was the Joint Special Operation Command Officer, in charge of all of the BLACK OPS, INCLUDING CIA AND NSA SOLDIERS. Telling him to go quietly into the night was an act of political boldness not to underestimated.
Needless to say, the draw down of that area ensued as well as the death of Osama Bin Laden. The Pentagon is now beginning its incredible shrinking act, and they don’t like it. The super committee, in my opinion, is the dooms day machine for the pentagon, not social security, but please, all of you, feel free to attack Obama like he is Hitler. That will go well for his military downsizing campaign, carried on in plain sight, without anyone really noticing.
Air Force Cites New Testament, Ex-Nazi, to Train Officers on Ethics of Launching Nuclear Weapons via Paul Tioxon
That is some mighty lame Biblical support for killing millions of innocents. Also, St. Augustine’s writings are in no way Scripture.
The longer I live, the more I think the US should serve as an example to the world, not its policeman/bully.
I see the left, center, and right go after the “right” on a daily basis regarding usury, counterfeiting, the murder of innocents, and oppression of poor, just not too much in MSM. Some have excellent knowledge of the Bible, for example Jesse’s Cafe Americain, and then there is Mish’s site, Denninger’s site, this site and others, all across the political spectrum.
I’m not sure that knowledge of the Bible is necessary, although the more negative factions of the Religious Right seems to do an excellent job of using it’s knowledge of the most egregious Biblical stories in it’s battle against the left.
“…why doesn’t the Left beat up the Right over the Right’s financial sins such as usury, counterfeiting, the murder of innocents, and oppression of poor?”
You are forgetting that the acts are considered virtues by a large portion of the left along side the right and the tea party.
Good point. Even the Commies had central banks.
Who wants to bet News of the World tabloid(and others like it), is REALLY a cover for it’s real purpsoe…..A private investigation arm of the illuminati?
The idea is to have this kind of dirt on most officials. One steps out of line, and you read about it in the sunday morning NY TIMES.
Think Anthony Weiner gate……
One steps out of line, and you read about it in the sunday morning NY TIMES. Jim3981
Sounds right.
I wonder how many completely sexually pure people there are? Even Jimmy Carter admitted to “lust in his heart”.
I read something along the lines of “Let him who is without sin throw the first stone” and “As you judge, so shall you be judged”.
That’s terrible yves. No one is perfect. Yet who says what she’s doing is wrong? Other than a bunch of morally corrupt Christians. In other words, sounds like a character hit to me. I don’t care what she does in her private life, as long as she brings down the banks.
Man, you people in the nig cities have all the fun. Here in Michigan, it’s all straight laces.
Big cities?
If the Schneiderman agenda has supporters and sympathisers, those supporters and sympathisers need to become a kind of combat action support group in defense of Schneiderman and every Schneiderman assistant and staffer. That group needs to say: “We support you and we support keeping your every helper in their job no matter what embarrassing revelations the Class Enemy Press reveals, because you are going to cost the Class Enemy money, and we hate the Class Enemy and we wish to see the Class Enemy destroyed and all its members eating out of dumpsters.”
If this staffer-lawyer can be forced out of her job, a “we support you all” movement would give Schneiderman the cover he needs to hire her right back as some kind of special consultant.
Smart people need to understand that this is a war of “extermination” which one side will win by “exterminating” the other side. That requires an openly stated pre-emptive position of Not Caring At All about any scandal which The Enemy finds out about one of Our Soldiers. We should be focused on supporting those who work to “exterminate” The Enemy on our behalf.
Reporting for duty:
http://my.firedoglake.com/phoenix/2011/09/18/is-the-gopmedia-complex-using-silly-sex-smears-to-scare-schneiderman-other-ags-from-probing-bank-crimes/
……Therefore bankers must get off Scott-free.
A question for the lawyers:
If PIs were hired, it was probably done by lawyers in order to mask it in attorney client privilege. If so, were it ever discovered that counsel had taken such action against opposing counsel, would it be legally sanctionable? Do bar rules actually allow this kind of Stalinesque litigation tactics? I’m not a lawyer, but I am quite certain that if a prosecutor ever did this to a defense counsel, it would be viewed as legal misconduct of the most extreme nature.
Ultimately, we need to do something about attorney-client privilege. It’s being used to hide all kinds of criminal behavior where the lawyers are absolutely co-conspirators.
Such a hiring even by the attorney would NOT be protected by the attorney-client privilege. It would be discoverable, but only in response to a request for such information. The more likely protection would be the work product privilege, but even under that doctrine, the hiring of the PI is discoverable, as is all kinds of other info transmitted between the atty and the PI.
The idea that having things done by an attorney to keep them secret is inaccurate, and a product of fictional TV and movie stories.
It would be discoverable, but only in response to a request for such information.
How specifically must such a request be worded?
I have been part of organizations where “sensitive” investigation activities were conducted by non-lawyer parties who were retained by the organization’s law firm, supposedly to give some form of protection to the findings. Maybe your argument is that a court would be well justified to pierce such flimsy and unjustified privilege/work product claims. Nevertheless, the practice happens every day in real life, based on my experience, not just on TV. And yes, I work in finance.
>>would it be legally sanctionable?
Not an attorney, but I’m sure it would be criminal. If intimidating a witness is a criminal act, why would intimidating the prosecution be treated any differently? Not to mention the libel charges she can press if it isn’t true, and possibly malicious slander if it is true.
I don’t think a DA is the person I’d want to mess with.
I think the issue of whether it is sanctionable is secondary to the issue of whether this activity will ever come in front of a judge. If the intimidation tactic is successful, then no, as it would deter the target from corrective action.
The bigger problem is that those who are already breaking the law are less likely to be held to it when trying to prevent consequences to their actions.
And please choose a new nom de plume. I’ve been using this one for years here (search by name, please).
I have proof that Bank of America has been forcefully and repeatedly performing anal sex on me against my will for years. Will the Post investigate that?
I’ve had that happen by at least three banks, Must be standard procedure.
I don’t care what she does in her private life, as long as she ties BA, CitiGroup, JPMC, etc., into inescapable knots and beats them to a bloody pulp. The safe word will be “We’re giving the money back to all the people we defrauded, and sending our executives to jail!”
“…the policy of the state AG’s office is for staff to obtain prior approval of any activity which will earn them more than $1,000.”
The only thing she MAY have done wrong is not obtain prior approval. The message sent to the AG is “you, and your staff are vulnerable.”
Absolutely. This is very, very ugly for a variety of reasons. I bet they tapped her phone – that’s the Murdoch thing to do.
“Put on that orange jump suit! You know you want to!”
* * *
How frustrated the banksters must be, that Obama won’t give them the terrible punishments that, deep down, they know they deserve, that they know they long for….
In America SEX of any sort, of any kind outside the ‘norms’ (? defined by Victorian squad) is a CARDINAL SIN than sending young men to death on a war mission based on ideology, non-sexual crime of any sort, fraud, Murder with or without sex connection, white collar crimes, any thing other than pertaining ‘bikini’ areas!
Till most of the Americans grow up to rational thinking 21st century adults, all the ‘DIRTY tricks’ mentioned above by the vested interests in keeping the firm grip of Financial Oligarchy will succeed!
Are we ‘genetically’ or brainwashed by MSM to be condemned in our inability to discern the difference? Sadly it appears so!
In America SEX of any sort, of any kind outside the ‘norms’ (? defined by Victorian squad) is a CARDINAL SIN
Only if you’re working for the public interest. If you’re working for the MOGW Jesus will forgive you instantly and unconditionally. cf. David Vitter.
Really?
Consider who’s the parent corporation of the WaPo; remember all the problems they got, and still have with their “private college” division? A money machine to be sure. If they try to fuck with Schneiderman too much, a NY State investigation of their financial practices could prove truly uncomfortable. WaPo seems to forget too easily that this game is a two-way street.
As for the journalists who decided to play pet slave for the banks…they’re totally squeaky clean too? Hmmm?
Schneiderman can and should play legally…but ruthlessly just like the criminal syndicate called the big banks do. See how much they would enjoy a taste of their own medicine.
In an ideal democracy it might work but still would take years. As distasteful as wikileaks and anonymous may be their tactics might the only thing that the banksters and elites can understand.
NYPost, Not WaPo
Sometimes I feel like despairing of the US. I remember how they brought down Spitzer. Nobody seems to have noticed that private interests got him by sifting through his credit card data. In every country I know in Europe people would have been outraged by this breach of his privacy. Certainly in Germany certainly in France and in all the latin countries. Maybe not es much in GB. But even there it would have been a huge scandal. How come all they care about in the States is that he visited prostitutes? And nobody cared that somebody went through his banking data? And now the same thing again. Where and how did the NYP learn that? And nobody will prosecute the paper? It sounds like 1984
They don’t actually care that he visited prostitutes. It’s just that they can’t come out and say that they approve of the white-collar crime wave, for obvious reasons.
“Nobody seems to have noticed that private interests got him by sifting through his credit card data. In every country I know in Europe people would have been outraged by this breach of his privacy. Certainly in Germany …”
I understand Germany has very strict privacy laws. Does anyone know if that would have been illegal there?
Ok, so what is the link with DSK here? There must be one.
PI my a**
This follows the usual DOJ / FBI tactic whether it be for milita groups, Spitzer, or MLK all of whom were theatened with sexual exposure.
In keeping with our two tier justice system we’ll never see the files on Edgar J and his partner Clyde – the original Washington power couple
And yes it is a horse’s head warning to the New York AG.
So the question is will he fold or fight ?
Well, now, that happened much sooner that I thought.
The “sexual assassinations” continue along beltway, as words and innuendo are much more efficient and cost effective than bullets.
Oh.. how easy it is to just “OFF” (or attempt to off) someone with the revelation they have a sex life, THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL!
In other news, the next crop of incoming freshman to the Hill are to take a The Pledge, a Pledge of asexuality and chastity, while, of course, still being morally corrupt in every other way.
—–
gs_runsthiscountry says:
August 15, 2011 at 7:57 am
“Schneiderman must be quite an interesting guy to take on the New York City financial elite.”
And, another step closer to a sex scandal…bud-ump-bump
Hi Yves
thanks for your post. Here’s my contribution: http://abigailcfield.com/?p=333
Sunday open: EURUSD down big, ES gap down, USD index up big.
Full Market analysis http://bit.ly/p8WB9s
ES update http://bit.ly/nlr4c9
CL update http://bit.ly/of1zer
So when someone stands up to the banks, the banks can hire private investigators to check out both the person standing up to the banks, and their families, and their staffs. Apparently this is legal.
I have a modest proposal. Turnabout is fair play. Let’s form a middle-class pac that funds private investigations of the big bankers. or corrupt officials who kowtow to them. Why not? Let’s start with Tim Geitner. Let’s see if he ever had an affair, or if any of his family ever had affairs, or if any of his staffers or family or friends had affairs, or even if he didn’t pay a parking ticket. And when we find some dirt – and we will, people being people – let’s make it a major affair of honor that we drag his ‘good’ name in the mud and demand that he be prosecuted for whatever obscure legal provisions apply. Pour encourager les autres. I mean, this is war, and they started it.
We already know that he cheated, sorry, made a high $ error on his taxes over a period of several years that he corrected by paying the back taxes and penalties.
Now if you or I did it…
Clearly the missing critical ingredient is the propaganda machinery. Something to keep in mind while watching whatever happens or doesn’t happen with phonehacking cases.
Oh and by the way, doesn’t this make clear what Murdoch’s motive to monopolize truly is? Because the way his companies are run makes a drive merely for wealth at least debatable, no matter what Michael Wolff says.
If you control the outlets, not only do you choke off free and open debate that we’re all so fond of, but what really counts is that you also choke off people who’d be willing to get back at you on your own terms. Capitalism: the perfect cover.
EURUSD bearish price action to continue in the short term. http://bit.ly/nHbHy1
The Euro has plenty of room to fall against the USD. http://bit.ly/oYIfxA
A private investigator should be able to get some of the truth for us.