Bloomberg's Congestion Pricing - Selling Big Brother to the Masses

It's not a plan to install thousand of surveillance cameras and add a permanent "paper please" police presence downtown - it's a Green plan to fight air pollution! You could sell shit-on-a-stick to New Yorkers if you charged a premium, made them wait in line, and told them the carbon would be offset.

The supporters have various experts they trot out for the media to confirm that, "YES, people respond to incentives." Adding a police enforced cost for something that was previously free, means that people will do it less frequently. That's Econ 101, not proof the plan is a good idea.

Trust Fund Baby Eliot Spitzer Loses Again

This was not unexpected but followed the pattern of previous Spitzer prosecutions. Typically, Spitzer could threaten indictments and force settlements even in dubious cases since his victims had everything to lose. But Spitzer simply could never win in a trial. Accordingly, his tactics didn’t work if there was no settlement since the cases were extremely weak to begin with. Thankfully honorable men like Dick Grasso have the courage to standup to the demagogues and prevail:

Yet another of former New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's legal cases flamed out yesterday, as a state appellate court dismissed the heart of his suit against former New York Stock Exchange chief Dick Grasso. We sympathize with current AG Andrew Cuomo, who now gets to pick up the pieces.

That's about all that's left after the appellate judges tossed out four of the six counts that Mr. Spitzer brought against Mr. Grasso in 2004 over a $187.5 million pay package. Mr. Spitzer, who is now Governor, had claimed authority to sue Mr. Grasso under New York's "not-for-profit law," arguing that the pay was "unreasonable." But as the court ruled yesterday, Mr. Spitzer had also done an end-run around the law, claiming authority not found in any statute. As a result, the court ruled, "the Attorney General does not have the authority" to proceed with most of the case.

Trust Fund Baby Gov. Eliot Spitzer a Spoiler Rich Kid Says Majority Leader

Bruno calls Spizter out in todays NY Post:

"Let's face it, this is a fellow who grew up having anything that he pleased, being able to say anything that he wants to say," Bruno said of Spitzer, whose father is a wealthy real estate developer.

"That's how he grew up. So it's kind of hard for him sometimes to relate to the average person, the common person..."

Eliot Spitzer takes a perverse pride in being hated by businessmen because it allows him to burnish his populist credentials. But as shown in ‘Spoiling for a Fight’ he is terribly insecure about being considered another bratty trust fund baby and frequently overcompensates with tough guy talk and threats (“I’ll call my daddy!”). Unlike Bloomberg, who earned the money he used to enter politics, Spitzer had to rely on daddies money to win the race for attorney general.

A Sordid Past

By abusing his ability to criminally incite firms Spitzer was able to force them to negotiate settlements while his office illegally leaked documents and Nifonged the firms in the press. For someone without scruples, it’s easy work given that the firms he attacked didn’t have any choice but to deal with him. Besides the WSJ, the MSM was content to portray the rich publicity hound as some kind of class warfare hero, conveniently ignoring his consistent failures to score a real conviction. His term as AG was undoubtedly harmful for the consumers he claimed to represent who now bare the burden of the higher costs of regulation.

Spitzer Goes Low Brow

His newest brainless proposal – regulating violent video games and movies – shows the dearth of political ideas in his administration. His number one campaign promise - to reform the budget - recently failed miserably and took his ratings down substantially.

In other Spitzer news it’s only a matter of days before he reverts to his old habits and threatens Raoul Felder with criminal indictment.

Governor Spitzer's Budget Failure

All the histrionics and posturing have brought the rookie governor no closer to cleaning up Albany as he promised. It turns out that without being about to threaten criminal indictments Mr. Spitzer is rather impotent. The trust fund baby still has his millions but at least he is in a place where he can't do any real damage. The NY Post reports on the governors failure:

Bruno, despite a shrinking majority and a criminal probe of his private business dealings, relied on his instinctive sense that Spitzer was a bully who would blink rather than fight beyond the budget deadline. And he parlayed that into a nearly $1 billion windfall for Long Island schools and his leftist allies in the totally self-centered hospital workers union.

The record-high, $123 billion budget deal neither reforms nor reshapes New York's notoriously special-interest-driven spending plan, other than at the edges.

Another Spitzer Claim Bites the Dust - WSJ Op/Ed

Remember when Trust Fund Baby Spitzer tried to blackmail AIG Chairman Hank Greenburg? When Greenburg didn't rollover, Spitzer went to the press to conduct the trial there. The WSJ fills in the details on the recently released report that exonerates Greenburg and raises questions about Spitzers methods:

One of his smears accused Mr. Greenberg of bilking the Starr Foundation, a New York charity. A report released this month by an independent committee exonerates Mr. Greenberg of that charge, even as new facts have emerged about Mr. Spitzer's nasty prosecutorial methods.
...
We now know this was merely one more hardball attempt to bludgeon Mr. Greenberg into settling the unrelated AIG charges. Sources who were part of the discussions at the time now say that Mr. Spitzer made clear that, unless Mr. Greenberg admitted guilt in the AIG case and personally wrote a check for north of $500 million, the AG would go public with the Starr allegations.
...
Mr. Greenberg is fortunate in that he is wealthy enough to defend himself and is also at the point in his life when he has little to lose from fighting a legal case to restore his reputation. Many of Mr. Spitzer's other targets weren't so lucky and had no choice but to settle or risk ruin. Mr. Spitzer and his former gang of bully boys in the AG's office owe Mr. Greenberg and the Starr Foundation an apology.

Trust Fund Baby Eliot Spitzer - Millionare and Still an Insufferable Brown-noser

Trust Fund Baby Spitzer shows that daddy's money isn't enough to avoid the politicians job of obsequious fawning over whatever victim group is hot this week. Swine politicians love to attach themselves to these tragedies. They get to appear to care and not actually have to do anything.

The sleazy millionaire is willing to shed his dignity and self-respect because one day it might by him a few votes - now that's dedication! What wouldn't he do for a positive press release?

My favourite part is his generosity with the taxpayers money, "pledging that the state would help the families with housing and employment." The sad part is the people who wouldn't send a dime of their own money would probably support it - as if the governments money just falls from the sky.

Another Prosecutorial Failure on Wall St

It makes good headlines to go after those rich Wall St guys but the charges almost never stick. These guys have a worse conviction rate than Spitzer.

“Chin held that while federal prosecutors proved that defendant David Finnerty engaged in interpositioning, they failed to prove fraudulent or deceptive conduct within the meaning of the securities laws.…Before Wednesday's ruling, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District had already dropped charges against seven of the defendants... Chin's decision "is a vindication" of Finnerty."

Finnerty was vindicated but the abusive prosecution already ruined his life. Where is the punishment for these state thugs who “provided no real evidence” of any crime but charged him anyway? Of the 15 traders charged, over half of them have had the charges dropped.

The game for the prosecutors is to make outrageous charges to get some headlines. Overcharge the traders so that they are looking at 120 year sentences if convicted to force the settlement. Since the prosecutors never had a case in the first place they have to rely on threats and bullying people into a settlement. If it falls through – who cares? They already got their headlines and disgraced the people that were charged anyway. Plus it worked for Spitzer.

It won’t be the last time.

Mayor Bloomberg Wimps Out

"His aim is not to make the people happy but to bring them into a condition which renders him, the dictator, happy. He wants to domesticate them, to give them cattle status. The cattle breeder also is a benevolent despot" - Mises

Socialist billionare Bloomberg flip-flopped today on his parking ticket stance and said the fines would be waived. Thanks Mike! Its good to know you can still relate to the masses.

He originally defended his stance with this, "I’d like to sleep in, too. But it was the right thing to do." Why does this guy think he has anything in common with people who work for a living?

Trust Fund Baby Elliot Spitzer’s Sleazy Start in Office

Remember the mediocre New York politician who abused his office and tax payer resources to personally benefit his wife? No NOT Hevesi.

Trust Fund Baby Elliot Spitzer was barely excreted on to the steps of the Capitol when it was exposed that he is putting his wife in an office at the capital at your expense. Her official position in his administration? She doesn’t have one. Her job? That’s not clear either. So much for everything changing – the dirt is already piling up.

New York taxpayers are paying to have Ms. Trust Fund Baby play office manager a few days a week.

How is this any different from what Hevesi did?

Power Hungry Mayor Bloomberg Expands His Grip

Comrade Mayor Bloomberg and his useful idiot lapdog Thomas Frieden have decided to ring in the New Year by expanding the grip of the state using blatant Stalinist tactics. No surprise coming from the same gang that has been waging a War on Private Property since they’ve been in office.

The latest area of your life they want to control is pet ownership. Unless you agree with your government’s vision of the ideal amount of pets you can own - they will brand you mentally ill. That’s right – it’s not for you to decide how many pets to own, only the State is qualified to do that. Since there is nothing legally they can do to you, it’s off to the institution, because if you don’t agree you must be crazy. Just like Stalin!

Its only stage 1. It’s easy for people to get used to such shocking violations of property rights and abuse of government power. Simply use them initially against people who are impossible to defend. Do you really want to see more dead kittens? Once this trial balloon goes unchallenged, the tactic will inevitably be expanded and citizens encouraged to inform on other undesirables.

The article is full of propaganda. Citing individual cases that look horrible but showing no general trend. Labeling animal lovers as mentally ill. Encouraging informing on neighbors to the authorities. Using criminal terminology to describe people who have done nothing wrong, “recidivists”.