" The way I figure Spitzer is that he has an intelligent, competent wife, a woman worthy of respect -- a woman who would not put up with being treated like a wh0re. If the guy is into his whole power trip, then that would explain what he was doing with a paid call girl -- because he had desires that include belittling a woman the way his wife would not deserve.

(Much of this is what I was trying to get across in the p0rnography discussion a week or so ago -- that much of the "sex industry" has little to do with sex and a lot more to do with male power and the degrading of women.)

All that obvious stupidity aside, the key question for me is: Did he spend taxpayer's money on this illegal act?

Finally, the guy has just had himself revealed as a hypocrite. He wouldn't be the first politician to behave this way, but if he's spending OUR money on his dumb games, while pretending to be "the Sheriff of Wall Street" and the great cleaner-upper of corruption in politics, he needs to go out on his ear -- now, today, before he uses his position to make a plea deal.

I feel for his family, and the families of any other bozos who put their families in such humiliating positions. "

" Did Spitzer use the tax payers money for a 5,000.00 hour? I would think he would have a tough time telling his wife where that amount went to!
Your right karl it is all about not being told NO!
"

" YOu know, we'd have more money to hire more patrol officers if that fol down there didn't WASTE the city's money on two Harley gas-wasting pigs!
As far as Spitzer goes, any man who gives his money to paid wh0res-especially when he has a wife and kids at home, needs to be impeached. Geez, what an idiot.
But it perfectly fits his personality--Prostitution is all about POWER--not sex--and in that respect, it all fits Spitzer's preoccupation with power. A paid tramp does what YOU pay for--she's not paid to say "no", so a man who buys sex is not so much interested in getting some, as much as he's afraid of being told "no" or of having to "work" for it and taking the chance that he didn't have the "key" to the "lock" on any given night. That's not a "man" in my opinion. "

" Staffing levels protect you, me, and them ! "

" I served on the Grand Jury last year for weeks...it was an incredible eye opener as to what actually goes on in this county/city and how truly vulnerable we ALL actually are. The cases were quite frankly frightening. I crapped my pants when I heard there were only FOUR sheriffs to cover such a long county and then worried for the safety of friends not in the city. As tempers/rage can flair, I am surprised there werent more injuries and or mortality. I know they opened another station which was supposed to cut back on the TIME to respond but I dont think the man power was increased but not sure. With 14 year olds holding up cabs and setting houses on fire, etc, I would like to know how many people man each dept: police and fire. And honestly, as efficient as volunteer forces are, cant a paid force learn something from them? Its just a ? regardless of my possible lemming tendencies...pun intended. "

" Hey A.J. and Karl how about that Spitzer? He's a real hero right? hahaha!!! What arrogance! "

" Not living in the city, I can't really comment on the firefighter situation, but nature lover is right about the police. The coverage is too thin. When I was married and we lived out West Lake Rd., we once had to wait more than 45 minutes for the police to arrive when a neighbor was firing a gun towards our house. The neighbor was nuts in general, and it took the cop 20 minutes of arguing to convince him he couldn't fire a gun within so few feet of any domicile, even if he were firing the other way). If the guy had decided to be more direct, he could have shot us all to death long before the police arrived. The police weren't lazy, they were just too far away when the call came in. "

" Nature lover has a valid point,
I think more police/sheriff are needed in the area.
I think highly of firefighters, but a 12-man shift seems extreme for little Auburn. What is wrong with the way it is?
In our area they are trying to pass a law that makes the insurance companies PAY for each firetrucks arrival. That will just increase the already high insurance payments!
Why does a firetruck have to be at an accident if the vehicle is NOT on fire?
Why do they have to be EMT trained when we already pay for EMT's?
More why's? "

" I agree Nature Lover I asked Pentagelli the same question before and he didn't respond. TLC does paramedic duties, code enforcement does codes, and there are steadily less people living in the city of Auburn.

I'm all for paying firemen well but I want a solid fact based reason why the minunum was increased before and why should we keep it that way. "

" Gator you are so right about this home equity BS!
People jumped on it because they could use it for anything they needed or "wanted"
Enjoying the "grands" for vacation-cars-bills only to pay back triple for years and years. If one was already in debt they thought his was their savior.
Then the market went sky high-assessments tripled-their equity payment became a burden, if they sold they took a major loss.
My son attempted to follow suite-but I warned him of the consequences-his 225,000 home would be worthless, and if he was in trouble now-he would be in more trouble making the equity payments on top. He did his homework-went bank to bank-checked internet sources, only to come back & say his house is actually worth 175,000 if it sold today!
Smartly he opted not to jump into what loan companies were promoting! "

" U r a strange little person, Pentangelli. Why the use of wacko name calling when u dont explain why they should retain the current fireman shift level? Its a ? I always wonder about and can nvr seem to get it resolved - 'If the man levels were raised and thats what the deabte seems to be, why didnt the old man level work? All the surrounding rural areas are volunteer. The fire dept used to handle the code house checking and now dont. And the number of house fires vs the crime starting to happen makes me want the police dept beefed up. Did u know there are only 4 state troopers at nite for the entire Cayuga county? At least that was what is was last summer. Took them up to 45 mins to respond to an emergency. For me personally, I want the law enforcement man # raised. "

" Having a son-in-law who is a firefighter (not in Auburn or the State of NY thank the good ...,) I do know that each truck is required to have a minimum manning per vehicle, whether they respond or not. What's funny is when the locals see a truck anywhere other than at a fire they complain not knowing if that truck goes somewhere the whole crew must go just in case they have a call. Firefighters are only appreciated when you need them, most people are just jealous that they get paid while they are sleeping, they fail to remember that their house may catch fire in the middle of the night. My son-in-law is a firefighter/parmedic and I can tell you that he really hopes you pay him for sleeping, cause if you don't it means someone is in a life and death situation. "

" I have a collegue, highly educated with a substantial salary. He owns a nice home in a favorable location, when the housing market went insane he decided to take out a home equity loan. I can not begin to tell you the "work" he went through to find a lending institution that would give him the money he wanted, but he finally found one. He was able to get 120% equity, on interest ONLY loan, with a variable arm. He accepted a new job and now has to either sell his home or rent it out. Because he did all of this while the value of homes were exorborant he now has his house on the market for over $100,000 over its value and can't figure out why it won't sell. He also can't rent it out because no one in their right mind will pay what his monthy mortgage is. Now do I feel sorry for this guy, absolutely NOT, do I blame anyone but him for his predicament...believe me he is not the exception. To get out of this loan, that he chose, will cost him over $15,000 to buy out. I have absolutely no sympathy for this guy what-so-ever. "

" It would be horrible if a life is lost over this ridiculous arguement regarding AFD shifts and raises. And if a life is lost, or a valuable property...who will you lemmings blame then??? I am old enough to remeber three incidents where AFD members lost their lives trying to save another person. Oh you short sighted dimwits. Save a dollar this year and it will cost you five dollars in five years...this applies to education as well as public protection. "

" Besides the fraud running rampant in the mortgage securities sector, the other thing that is dragging this economy way down is the way that the government is printing money at rates never seen before. (Which is why they no longer publish the M3 money supply figures).

This is basically a tax on all of us, without calling it a tax. It is what is largely responsible for the dollar tanking and your food and oil costs (in part), amongst others, going way up.

They are printing money like there is no tomorrow. Maybe there won't be given who's running the show.

"

" FG cleans up with another home run. Well said.

As Greg Palast and others have said, we have the best democracy money can buy. Forget about the little people.

That is why we need to reign in corporate influence in our system - it has destroyed it. "

" So we should cut the staffing to 12? So your in favor of putting the firefighters in even more danger when trying to fight a structure fire? Not to mention the citizens! AFD and APD put there life on the line everyday ! Timmy has some of you people believing that everything is there fault, dig deeper before you are so quick to judge! "

" Here's an example of how people get rooked into bad financial situations. A few years ago, I worked briefly in bankruptcy (shortly before the new law went into effect). One of the things I did in the office was to prepare the "722 Motions." For people going bankrupt, if they owned a vehicle which was worth significantly less than what they owed on it, they could petition the court to force the creditor to accept the VALUE of the vehicle in a lump sum and their debt on the vehicle was paid off. We worked with a company which would give loans for this purpose to people going bankrupt at an exorbinant rate of something like 25% -- BUT -- the person still ended up paying way, way less than if they continued making car payments.

Most of our clients were eligible for the 722 Motion.

This should tell you something. It says MOST people are paying way more than their cars are worth, MOST of us are getting rooked by the car companies, and no one more than the person who is foolish enough to buy a NEW car.

Those of us NOT going bankrupt don't get this option, but instead are stuck paying way more than our vehicle is worth for years and years. (I bought mine used, and am paying it off ahead of schedule, watching kbb.com to make sure I have more equity in the car than vice versa -- not to mention, the savings I get on mileage makes it worth the price I'm paying).

Another thing I did in the office was provide the initial free consultation over the phone. One person (nameless for confidentiality even though he did not become a client) called to consult us BEFORE he was in financial trouble. He had just bought a brand-new all-the-bells-and-whistles car, the dream car he had always wanted, just a few months before he got bad news about his financial future. It cost him over $25,000 (This was 4-5 years ago). He had treated this car like his baby; it was in like-new condition and only a few months old. While I had him on the line, I looked up the current value on kbb.com His $25,000 car was worth no more than $12,500 private party value -- less if he traded it in.

I know little about mortgages, but if they work anything like cars, no wonder people (honest, hard-working people even) are in trouble, and the whole country along with everyone. "

" Welp, I look in the past remembering during the Reagan years - oh that ever popular guy to some - left us along with Dub Ya's dad a deficit that was clocking in times square - remember seeing that thing adding really fast? Then Wm Jefferson Clinton came along and in 8 yrs he reversed that deficit and left monkey ears a reserve which that Jackbutt promptly gave out as checks which honestly didnt do much in this household. Just a point made that if the right person is elected, they can make American great in many ways again. I have hope. "

" Actually, I don't think "we the voters" get much in the way of choices. Only those who already have the mega-bucks of corporate backing have a legitimate shot at the ballot to begin with. That means we have "the best Congress money can buy." Until we can reform the influence of lobbyists and corporations on our lawmakers, we will continue to have the false illusion of "choice" in our elections. "

" karl, the housing mortgage market has been caused by people buying more than they can afford period! WELL MAYBE WE CAN AFFORD IT IN 3 YRS. People wanted too much, not the blame of the Rep. or Dem. Maybe you have to blame everyone but the individual. "

" I think I will copy 'n paste these comments and look back 2yrs from now and see what everyone is saying then! lol.
The facts are unless we get rid of 535 in congress, we will be no better off 4 yrs from now! No president can change things on his/her own!
Many of them are up for re-election, sadly 1 was just revoted for.
We the people also need to take blame for making "bad choices" "

" Well put MARK and the food prices are going threw the roof also and the saddest part of all payscale is not moving at all .
President BUSH is a joke and ruined the country and anyone that cant see that is blind .
Mc Cain is Bush jr and if you want our country to keep going the way it has been vote mccain.
Our next president is going to spend the next 4 to 8 years trying to clean up his mess anyways so what they say there going to do is'nt going to happen due to the fact that they will be trying to repair whatBUSH has done and has anyone noticed bush is now trying to do produtive stuff for this country ?alittle to late BUSH "

" I'm in full agreement Nature Lover. Part of my job is to help people take true responsibility for their finances and I see stuff like that all the time. "

" I hear ya on issue #2, plus how about the constant trade up of their vehicles b4 they are paid off. Many owe more in car loans then what they have in the overpriced drive way. And to boot you can get 7 year car loans now!! That issue is now becoming the runner up to the mortgage crisis. Its not if we can afford it but dang it we deserve it!! "

" That's a pretty BOLD statement about dem's being the fault for the declining economy. It's no way a result of this moronic war we are putting billions into each month or the high gas prices??? We have a president that doesn't give a damn about American's. "

" The housing issues we have now come from a few sources. 1. There was a democratic bill (forgot the name of the bill) in 2000 to drastically make it easier to get a mortgage. To make it "more fair". 2. Morons that bought houses they couldn't afford. Those are the main reasons for todays so - called "mortgage crisis". "

" Parking kiosks have been in use in the UK for many years. People there have no problem with them. However, just travel outside of Cayuga County and you will find many cities that have FREE parking (Cortland, for one). But then Cortland has a downtown where people actually shop! "

" The nation just came off the longest financial markets bull run in history. "

" I have no love for the current crop of so-called democrats in the House and Senate, with a few exceptions, but to blame them for 7 years of destructive and bankrupt policies of this neo-con agenda is absolutely ludicrous. Just what is this writer smoking anyhow?

"

" I hope Americans learn their lesson after watching an illegal war bankrupt our economy, and seeing how the Greed and corruption enshrined in the Republican Party has translated into the housing mortgage market, ever since the Republicans, Religious Right, and especially the Conservatives took control of the White HOuse! "