THE REAL SPITZER SCANDAL

Yes, we're all swimming in glee over the glorious sight of a self-righteous governor's complete humiliation.  The indignation we feel over the scumbag's dragging his wife along to stand by him and publicly humiliate her in the process confirms we have a right to gloat.

Eliot Spitzer is a fascist thug.  What has happened to him is not "sad," a "waste," a "tragedy," or any other liberal sob-sister characterization.  What has happened to him is called karmic justice.  He is getting, and let us hope he continues to get, exactly what he deserves.

The real Spitzer scandal, however, has nothing to do with cheating on his wife with hookers.  This happens every day in every city in America with guys whose wives aren't bright enough to provide them with fantasy sex – albeit not as extravagantly and brazenly as Spitzer.

The real scandal is that Spitzer was for years cheered as a hero for being a fascist thug.  The real scandal is that a fascist thug was elected Governor of New York by 70% of the vote.  The real scandal is a legal system in America run by fascist thugs calling themselves "Prosecutors." 

The real scandal is that such Prosecutors aren't regarded as criminals who belong in jail rather than their victims.

The real scandal is that we have a criminal justice system that is itself criminal.

Ayn Rand's magnum opus Atlas Shrugged, written in the 1950s, accurately predicted where our government was headed.  Chapter Three is entitled White Blackmail, in which a character explains how the legal system works:

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced nor objectively interpreted — and you create a nation of law-breakers — and then you cash in on the guilt.

That's what we have today, as documented by a Cato Institute book, Go Directly To Jail: The Criminalization Of Almost Everything.  The federal government now views its jurisdiction as limitless, and almost anything you or your business does can be a federal crime.

Which is an open invitation for fascist thugs like Spitzer running a personal Gestapo out of an attorney general or prosecutor's office.

Here's how the "criminal injustice" system works in America today.

A prosecutor decides he wants to indict you.  His first move is to pile up the counts.  A favorite is "wire fraud."  What constitutes wire fraud? Anything the prosecutor wants.

All he needs is a "victim" and the use of the "mail" – which need not have anything to do with the federal Post Office, and includes electronic transmissions ("wires") over privately-owned Internet services.

Congress has now increased the penalties for mail and wire fraud to 20 years in prison – per count.  This means any email you have ever sent can be grounds for felony federal wire fraud prosecution threatening you with 20 years in prison.

The email, or "electronic transmission," does not itself have to be fraudulent. It can still be "wire fraud" if it is only somehow "involved" in what the government deems to be a "fraudulent scheme."

In other words, it is a complete illusion that anything legally stands in the way between federal prosecutors and American citizens.

The prosecutor's next move is to get you to plea.  If you dare go to trial pleading not guilty, he will calmly explain that there are dozens (or more, maybe hundreds) of counts against you, and if you are found innocent of all but one, you will still go to jail for 10-20 years.  Far better to plead guilty and accept a "reduced sentence" for only, say, 3-4 years.

Then there's the sweetener.  If you plea, not only will you get a much shorter sentence, but you'll get to serve it in a minimum security prison where you'll be safe from homosexual rape and other unpleasantries.

If you have the insulting temerity to refuse to plea, both judge and prosecutor will use every trick in the book to persuade the jury you're guilty of at least one count, whereupon the judge will max out the length of your sentence, to be served in a medium/maximum security prison populated by violent criminals and rapists.

This is the monster that we Americans have allowed to be created, the operators of which have the chutzpah to call a "justice system."  A monster which has resulted in America having more people in prison, both numerically and as a percentage of population, than any other country in the world.

We have created a fascist justice system.  Eliot Spitzer is just its most flamboyant practitioner.

There are many, many others.  Mike Nifong, who belongs in jail for fraudulently prosecuting the Duke lacrosse players. 

Patrick Fitzgerald, who conducted the political prosecution of Scooter Libby. 

Johnnie Sutton, who put two Border Patrol Agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, in jail for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in the ass rather than the drug smuggler. 

Ronnie Earle, the district attorney in Texas who  indicted then-House Majority Leader Tom Delay for a fund-raising practice that wasn't illegal under Texas law, and which he knew Democrats were using too.

The list goes on and on, in every state, all over America.

It would be perfect karmic justice for Spitzer to be subjected to the same plea bargain blackmail he regularly indulged in when he was the prosecutor instead of the prosecuted.  But what is happening to him is far more than a matter of his personal conduct, and is in no way whatever a "personal tragedy."

The real issue is whether what has happened to him is a "teachable moment" enabling Americans to wake up and see the fascist ugliness of our justice system and the prosecutors who run it.

And if America just remains titillated by the sex, and lets the teachable moment slip by insouciantly ignored and quickly forgotten?  That would be the greatest Spitzer scandal of all.