When Eliot Spitzer

had to resign the New York governorship because of being involved in a prostitution ring, people like Alan Dershowitz pooh-poohed the whole thing because it was supposed to be a "victimless crime." For anyone with knowledge or intellectual integrity, it isn't:

The fact is that all prostitution, including Spitzer’s brokering of a high-priced call-girl, is dangerous for several reasons: first, as a population, prostitutes suffer grave victimization and physical harm; second, prostitution degrades the status of all women by affirming the pathology of associating sex with property; finally, prostitution undermines perhaps the most important moment of reckoning in our country’s history – when we established legally that human beings cannot be bought and sold.

For many prostitutes, “sex work” follows naturally from childhood sexual exploitation or incest victimization. 8 times out of ten, victims of rape or incest prior to engaging in prostitution. Prostituted women are routinely raped. Their life expectancies are shorter than average. They represent 15% of the women for whom suicide attempts result in hospitalization. Most prostitutes experience physical violence. They come from poverty and remain in poverty as prostitutes. This is the norm to which there are few exceptions.

Furthermore, prostitution comes at a high psychic cost to its “workers.” Renowned psychotherapists like Lenore Walker and Judith Herman confirm, based on their clinical experience and research, the overwhelming presence of PTSD in prostituted women. Melissa Farley, whose international research substantiates the consistency of prostitution’s extensive harm, stresses the importance of understanding the “choice” to pursue prostitution. She writes, “conditions that make genuine consent possible are absent from prostitution: physical safety, equal power with customers and real alternatives.” Comparative studies underscore the ridiculousness of accepting prostitution as a vocational choice. In a 2003 study, Farley and Cotton reported a 75% homelessness rate among respondents, and 89% of prostitutes in the 9 countries they studied expressed “their desire to get out of prostitution.”

What gets me is how escort services and strip clubs are even legal, since prostitution is more often than not part and parcel to these "businesses."

Boy,

do I agree with this.

Prostitution is not a "victimless crime." That is one of the biggest lies out there:

But most women in prostitution, including those working for escort services, have been sexually abused as children, studies show. Incest sets young women up for prostitution — by letting them know what they’re worth and what’s expected of them. Other forces that channel women into escort prostitution are economic hardship and racism.

The Emperor’s Club presented itself as an elite escort service. But aside from charging more, it worked like any other prostitution business. The pimps took their 50 percent cut. The Emperor’s Club often required that the women provide sex twice an hour. One woman who was wiretapped indicated that she couldn’t handle that pressure. The ring operated throughout the United States and Europe. The transport of women for prostitution was masked by its description as “travel dates.”

It's certainly not a "profession," a "career," or a "job."

As the World Turns.

Although it is old news, everything you ever and never wanted to know about the Spitzer scandal is here.
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Now that we know who Client-9 is, just who is Client-10?

As the World Turns.

In case anybody cares, Ashley Alexandra Dupre is the hooker who is at the center of the Spitzer scandal.

She is an aspiring musician, and she got plenty of gigs to practice her art. Spitzer, for example, paid out $4,000 for her performances.

This is her MySpace page. She has 1803 friends so far. She's going to have a lot more before this is over.

The WSWS

engages in some conspiracy thinking regarding Spitzer.

Never mind the fact Spitzer did it, regardless of whatever motives the authorities had. There is no getting around that fact.

Life's the Spitz.

Well, thank God he's got enough sense to get out of the governor's office.

Too bad our own idiot governor hasn't done the same thing.

For the record:




Goodbye and good riddance to that scumbag. He resigns effective Monday.

If This is True,

then Spitzer is a scumbag and should be run out of town on a rail.

Oh, God almighty, this is turning into carnival knowledge:

He went by the name "George Fox." But at least several of the prostitutes had already figured out his real identity after numerous past encounters, the New York Times reported: Gov. Eliot Spitzer, the very married, sex-crime-fighting former attorney general.

Spitzer was a regular with Emperor, according to the complaint that contains the extraordinary details of the governor's tryst with the curvy bombshell: haggling over the price - and a down payment on future services - as well as the kind of sex the governor wanted.

When it came to setting up payment, "Client-9" - identified by law-enforcement sources as Spitzer - told Lewis, "Same as in the past, no question about it."

What a total idiot. If I had that much money to spend, I certainly wouldn't spend it that way:

With pressure mounting on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said Tuesday he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars - perhaps as much as $80,000 - with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.

As the World Turns.

God damn it, Eliot, hang it up because you cannot ride out something you've admitted to.

Now the state Republican party is out for blood.

In this report, the idiot is said to be weighing resignation.

He should have done that yesterday.
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An Embarrassed

and embarrassing Client-9 gave this news conference:

Eliot Spitzer

has a new nickname: "Client-9."

This isn't something that happened years ago, either. This alleged occurrance happened about a month ago.

It makes one wonder what in the hell kind of kinky shit Spitzer was into. Coincidentally, on my iPod I was listening to the Velvet Underground's sordid classic recording about sadomasochism, "Venus in Furs," when this news surfaced.

Snip:

Client-9, whose conversations were recorded by an FBI wiretap, would not do "traditional wire transferring," the affidavit quotes one Emperors Club employee remarking. Additionally, the affidavit notes that after her appointment with Client-9 ended, "Kristen" spoke with a Emperors Club booker, who said that she had been told that Client-9 "would ask you to do things that, like, you might not think were safe..." "Kristen" responded by saying, essentially, that she could handle guys like that. (6 pages)

What a horrible, humiliating thing to do to his family.

You Know,

there are a lot of stupid politicians and a lot of politicians who do stupid things that endanger their careers. Case in point is New York's Eliot Spitzer, who has admitted to being involved in a prostitution ring:

Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning.

Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He had scheduled an announcement for 2:15 this afternoon after inquiries from the Times. But his appearance was delayed by at least 45 minutes.

I suppose he will have to step down.

According to rumors, he will.

Apparently he's apologized, but he hasn't bailed.

What a goddamned idiot.