During our orientation in Cannes, we took trips to Antibes to visit the beautiful Picasso Museum and to Monte Carlo and the famous Musée Océanographique et Aquarium de Monaco.
Month: March 2008 Page 2 of 3
Why did I go to France? For most of my life I have wanted to be able to speak French. I studied French in high school and I majored in French at the University of Iowa but even after all that study, I could not speak French, at least, not very well. I enrolled in the American Institute for Foreign Study and on September 14, 1997, I arrived in Cannes, France to begin a two week orientation before my trip to Paris and the beginning of my great adventure. Here are some views from my room at the International College of Cannes and across the street on the beach of the French Riviera.
One of the big stories making the rounds in Republican circles these days is the alleged theft, through illegal wire transfers, of money donated to the Republican National Committee, by the man in charge, Christopher J. Ward. The matter was turned over to the FBI six weeks ago, according to an article by Paul Kane in the Washington Post, (March 14, 2008) and it appears that Ward may have diverted as much as one million dollars to defunct campaign accounts or his own private bank account(s), through the use of wire transfers.
Ward had been on the job as chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee as audit committee chairman for at least five years, which now seems a bit akin to having a fox in the hen-house.
Ward had authority to wire transfer funds, the only such NRCC official so empowered without a second approval needed. After he transferred the money into accounts he controlled, which often went into a fundraising committee that was no longer active, Ward would move the money into accounts that represented his political consulting company, or into his own personal bank accounts.
Ward was fired January 28th, after his successor, Representative Mike Conaway (R, TX), a CPA, forced the issue and turned evidence over to the FBI for investigation. Conaway had realized that the audit submitted for 2006 was bogus. It was Ward’s practice to submit audits on gerrymandered letterhead from real outside accounting firms, but none of the audits were legitimate.
For five years, Ward forged audits. Not a single member of Congress, nor a single NRCC staffer ever actually met with or talked to any of the outside firms’ accountants that were supposedly conducting these “audits.”
Walden expressed concerns long before the whistle was blown on Ward’s duplicity, but Ward would always offer excuses about why the outside auditors could not meet: a different firm was doing the audit; we’re waiting for the newest audit; the auditors are too busy, etc.
Walden is quoted as saying, “It frustrated me that I could not get it done.” It should be noted that Walden is not a CPA.
After the 2006 election, Tom Cole (R, Okla.) took over the job and things began to spin out of control. Conaway, who is a certified public accountant, saw through the bogus faked audits and the house of cards began to fall.
Cole, in an article in the Friday, March 14th Washington Post, written by Paul Kane, said, “The evidence we have today indicates we have been deceived and betrayed for a number of years by a highly respected and trusted individual.” Cole also commented, in an article written by Ben Pershing for the Washington Post online that Cole said, “If you remember when I first got there (the NRCC), I was accused of being a micro-manager. You don’t hear that much any more.”
Cole reported the bright side of this embezzlement scandal this way, “Our team found it, our team reported it, and our team fixed it.” The committee has already spent at least $360,000 on legal and accounting fees to “fix” it. The National Republican Congressional Committee collected $49 million in donations in 2007. It had not acknowledged that any money was missing until March 13th, 2008, when it announced that it had discovered “irregularities” and the axe fell on Ward. The year-end report filed the Federal Election Commission (FEC) in 2006 overstated the NRCC’s cash on hand by $990,000.
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Charlie Crist, current Governor of Florida, is mentioned as a possible Vice Presidential contender on a ticket with Arizona Senator John McCain. The 52-year-old white-haired Governor has the classic good looks of a political candidate. Crist endorsed McCain in Florida at a crucial time, and Crist’s support played a key role in McCain’s win in Florida and could well prove instrumental in helping McCain secure Florida’s 27 electoral votes at the St. Paul, Minnesota convention in September.
Crist has the resume of a potential VP, also, having served as Attorney General of Florida from 2003 to 2007, where he earned the nickname “Chain Gang Charlie” because of his hard stance on crime and his belief that prisoners should work on chain gangs. He also proposed a program known as STOP (Stop Turning Out Prisoners), a bill to make sure that prisoners in Florida serve at least 85% of their sentences (Phil Lapadula’s blog, Friday, October 27, 2006).
Crist’s positions, according to Wikipedia online are as follows:
Abortion: pro-life and pro-family
Adoptive parents – $3,000 subsidy to heterosexual adoptive parents and $5,000 to foster parents..
Education – advocate of parental choice of schools and strict, standardized testing (Crist served as the last State Education Commissioner. He supported $3.8 billion dollar bill to reduce class size in Florida schools.)
Health care – prescription drug tracking for assurance of safety
Homeowners’ insurance – advocate of lower rates (*a hot issue in Florida. See more below.)
Citizens’ insurance – wants to abolish it and have report cards for insurance companies, which have been fleeing many coastal states after Hurricane Katrina or charging outrageous fees for homeowners’ insurance.
Right to die – supports this, including respect for living wills. (*Received criticism for failure to more strongly support her family in Terry Schiavo case, when Governor Bush was on the opposite side.)
Eminent domain – legal protection in such cases
Lawsuit reform – eliminate joint and several liability
Property tax flexibility – just campaigned all over Florida in television ads to reduce taxes by 1%, a bill that passed.
Defense of Marriage Act – supported it (Nov, 2006). (See further discussion of positions further in this article, discussing the Broward Palm Beach News article (Oct. 19, 2006) by Julia Reischel entitled “Charlie Crist is NOT gay.”)
Death penalty – cautious support for death penalty. Known for STOP, “Stop Turning Out Prisoners,” which requires prisoners to serve at least 85% of their prison sentences. Crist’s website tells us that this earned him appointment as an Honorary Sheriff by the Florida Sheriffs’ Association, the 3rd person to receive such an honor.
Gun rights – Endorsed by the NRA as an “A+” candidate.
Hate crimes – trying to stop the “clear pattern of growth” in such crimes.
Immigration – supports closed borders
Legalized gambling – opposes further statewide expansion of legalized gambling
Environmental protection – strong advocate of a ban on oil drilling near Florida’s coastline. Supported $100 million to protect the Everglades.
Identity theft – worked with the legislature to pass new laws that dramatically toughened the penalties for identity theft and counterfeiting or dealing in prescription drugs.
Civil rights – worked to pass Florida’s landmark civil rights legislation, the Marvin Davies Civil Rights Act of 2003
Internet – worked to target those who distribute illegal spam on the Internet.
Utility rates – worked to freeze utility rates and telecom deception.
Emission controls – July 2007, announced plans to sign executive orders imposing strict air pollution standards in the state, with aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% of 1990 levels by the year 2050. Wants state to go green.
Creation of Research Flagship Universities – signed into law SB-1710, which allowed the Board of Governors to allow Tuition Differential only for the University of Florida, Florida State University, and the University of South Florida. Supported a $3.8 billion bill to reduce class size.
Insurance companies – has been embroiled in public disputes with property insurers over homeowners’ insurance rates. He had expected insurers to lower their rates, with new reinsurance coverage, available from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund. Doubts exist in the marketplace whether the FHCF can really offer coverage. Moody’s, Standard & Poor’s, and A.M. Best have warned insurers that, if they accept too much reinsurance from FHCF, they risk being downgraded. Therefore, insurers have gone to the private reinsurance market and the rates are significantly higher.
So, what else is there to know about this potential Vice President of the United States?
Governor Crist signed a petition for an anti-gay marriage amendment and opposes repealing the law that prevents gay or lesbian couples from adopting. Having said that, the rumors that Charlie Crist is gay have circulated in political circles for years. Don Jacobsen, a Palm Beach lawyer, was heard to say (at a Donald Trump fund-raiser), “Well, first Crist needs to admit that he’s gay,” according to the Broward Palm Beach News, in the article mentioned above (10/18/06, “Charlie Crist is NOT Gay”). The man who ran against Crist claims they discussed Charlie’s sexuality, and he is bi-sexual, but this individual made these charges on a radio show at the time he was running against Crist, creating a healthy dose of skepticism at the validity of the charges.
A blog devoted to gay issues (the name of which cannot be printed in a family blog) by Phil Lapadula, reported the issue this way: “I’m not surprised that the daily newspapers aren’t covering it. If someone comes forward and says I worked with him and he gave me perks because I was having an affair with him, or he molested me, or he abused me in a relationship, that’s a different story. But the mere accusation that someone is gay is a non-story.” Another individual (McBride) pointed out that in the cases of former Congressman Mark Foley, former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey and former Spokane Mayor Jim West, “It was not the fact that they were gay that brought them down. It was the fact that they abused their power. If they had done that in a heterosexual relationship, it would still be a story.” (Eliot Spitzer, anyone?)
What can factually be determined regarding Crist’s personal life? He was married for 7 months in 1979-80 to a woman named Amanda Marrow They had no children. Since their 1980 divorce, he has lived in a rented one-bedroom apartment in St. Petersburg, has only a single VISA card on which he carries no balance, seldom tips more than 20%, and remains a bachelor. He went from $0 to $400,000 in 20 years, by letting Charlie Crist, Sr., manage his money, which put him ahead of roughly half of Florida’s 160 lawmakers and most of his contemporaries, according to Caryn Baird and Mary Mellstrom, who reported on Crist, along with Scott Barancik, in a July 9, 2006, article in the St. Petersburg Times.
Other facts we might note about Charlie Crist, before reciting his sterling academic credentials: he owns no property or corporate stock. He has zero debt and says it “helps me sleep better at night.” He does not itemize, but uses the standard deduction. He donated $1,000 to 3 charities in 2006. His net worth in 2006 was $422,000. He leases a yellow 2006 Mustang V6 convertible and also drives a yellow 97 Jaguar XK8. He also purchased a 25-foot fishing boat, (one of his few indulgences).
Famous supporters include John Walsh (“America’s Most Wanted”), Donald Trump, and the Reverend O’Neal Dozier, who once called Islam a “cult” and “a dangerous religion” and was forced from the Broward Judicial Nomination Commission as a result of other anti-Islam statements.
Governor Crist’s web-site says that his life “illustrates the American dream,” and cites his Grandfather Adam, who came to America from Cyprus, penniless, nearly 100 years ago, and worked shining shoes. Grandpa Crist owned a small business, raised 7 children, and saw Charles, the Governor’s father, go on to school to become a doctor. Although Charlie Crist, the Governor, was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, the son of Charlie Crist, Sr. and Nancy Lee Crist, the family soon relocated to St. Petersburg, where young Charlie attended Riviera Middle School.
Upon graduating from high school, where he was the starting quarterback on the football team and class president, he played at Wake Forest University, but transferred to Florida State in 1978, where he was named Mr. Seminole and served as Vice President of the Florida State University student body. Charlie then earned a law degree from Cumberland School of Law in Birmingham, Alabama.
After working in the State Attorney’s Office, he took a position as General Counsel for the minor league division of the Baseball Commissioner’s Office. He worked in this position for five years. In 1986, Charlie took a run at a popular incumbent for the 1986 state Senate, and lost by 20-some points. He then worked for Connie Mack as State Director in 1988. By 1992, he was ready. He ran again and won a position as a state Senator.
In 1999, then-Governor Jeb Bush appointed Charlie Deputy Secretary of the Department of Business and Professional Regulation. Despite this tie to the Bush family, Crist did not utilize President Bush in his last run for office, a time when the incumbent President had historically low approval ratings.
Crist campaigned long and hard for John McCain in the Florida primary, and it was a big boost to the Arizona Senator’s campaign. He is also the first Republican governor to accept the state’s NAACP invitation to a convention, and was referred to by Terry Fields, Democratic Representative of Jacksonville, Florida, as the state’s “first black governor,” a post similar to Bill Clinton’s honorary title as the nation’s “first black President.”
Crist categorizes himself as “a moderate Populist conservative.” His strong support of the 2nd amendment (“A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.” 1791) may put him at odds with the 57% of citizens who feel that major restrictions or outright bans on guns are necessary, or the 91% who feel that at least minor restrictions on gun ownership are mandated. Eighty-one percent of those polled (blog fact, Phil Lapadula, Friday, Oct. 27, 2006), said it was “an important issue;” 40% of Americans own guns.
Ever since seeing the photogenic Governor on Florida television ads, while in Florida in January, I have said that I think he could well be the Vice Presidential nominee, (if McCain secured the Republican nomination.) Crist has been a tireless advocate for citizens, never forgetting his humble roots, and, from all accounts, has devoted himself to the citizens of Florida. Lower taxes, less government, more freedom are hallmarks of Crist’s stands, and coincide nicely with McCain’s.
On all the issues above, McCain and Crist seem to fit together logically. The open animosity that could be seen and felt between McCain and former opponent Mitt Romney were totally absent during the McCain/Crist Florida campaigning. Certainly Crist’s positions on the important issues of the day seem more in line with science and the 21st Century than those of one other candidate who doesn’t believe in evolution and seems to blur the line between church and state quite frequently.
McCain/Crist seem to be very similar in their views. I, for one, think Charlie Crist’s selection as the Vice Presidential nominee by Senator John McCain is a very realistic possibility.
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Letter to the Editor:
March 12, 2008
Dear Sir(s):
I read the letter from Helen Heiland in March 12th’s Daily Dispatch entitled “Heiland Sets the Record Straight Over Party Chair” with interest. The letter from East Moline 1st Ward Alder Person Helen Heiland began, “I feel I have to set the record straight.” She then complains about the appointment of a younger candidate to replace John Gianulis as Democratic County Chairman. Mr. Gianulis retired primarily because of old age and illness, according to news reports. Mrs. Heiland and Gianulis are contemporaries.
Ms. Heiland never felt the need to “set the record straight” after she lost the popular vote in the 1st Ward during the last Democratic election. Nor did reporter Jenny Lee of the Daily Dispatch, who was physically present in the room during the recount at the Rock Island County Courthouse, along with then-Mayor Joe Moreno, Dick Leibovitz and others, feel the need to set the record straight in informing the public that I had received more votes at two 1st Ward polling places in the recount than Mrs. Heiland. Not one word of this appeared in the next day’s newspaper(s). Mrs. Heiland made this accurate Gianulis-related statement in her letter of March 12th: “I was picked by him and not elected.”
Helen Heiland went home from her own victory party (the night of the Democratic election) in tears, because she knew she had lost. Democratic State Senator Denny Jacobs congratulated me (at Joe Moreno’s VFW gathering) on my upset victory over Ms. Heiland. I went to bed the winner in East Moline’s 1st Ward. All present that night at East Moline’s VFW Hall for incumbent Mayor Joe Moreno’s Victory celebration were puzzled and upset by Joe’s unexpected loss. But at least I had won, Joe said to me.
Then, the really interesting part began. The newspapers the next morning announced I had lost the 1st Ward election “by ten votes” (a nice round number, I remember thinking). The 38 absentee ballot vote(s) cast were announced as (nearly) all having been cast for Helen Heiland. This was very curious. At least 5 of those absentee ballots were from my immediate family members, my neighbors and one was mine! Yet my announced total was less than half of the votes I personally knew had voted for me.
Election law experts, statewide, were consulted. They told me I needed to obtain and inspect the requests for absentee ballots, saying, “that’s where the tampering takes place.” It was, indeed, the absentee ballots that (supposedly) gave Helen Heiland her razor-thin margin of victory. County Treasurer Dick Leibovitz’s office refused to show me the requests for absentee ballots. Mr. Leibovitz’ office tried the “wait until later” ruse, on me (much like the “I’ll let you know” ploy used by Gianulis on Mrs. Heiland, as recounted in her March 12th letter to the Daily Dispatch). I was told not to file for a recount until months had passed! Documents I went to the Courthouse to collect, in person, were “not ready,”… “have to be retyped,”… “we’ll mail them to you.” I was a political novice, but I knew that something was not right. I insisted on being given the documents to file for a recount, showed those documents to an attorney (fortunately), who told me all the statutes on the document I had been given were wrong, re-typed them myself with the appropriate statutes, and immediately filed for a recount. The absentee ballots were becoming more and more important (just as the Super Delegates will become more and more important at the Democratic Convention in Denver.) And the recount proved that I had won in votes cast in the two polling places of East Moline’s 1st Ward.
It was not until the law firm of Nelson, Keys & Keys agreed to represent me as a client and legally subpoenaed the requests for absentee ballots that the County Clerk’s office would let me examine them. Brett Nelson said, “I like to take cases that make a difference,” something for which I will always be grateful, when other lawyers refused to take the case for fear of political reprisal(s).
I was the Chief Investigator. I, personally, went door-to-door to every single one of the 38 absentee voters who actually existed (some did not) and asked them, politely, “You don’t have to tell me, but do you mind telling me who you voted for in the election?” The fresh-faced teen-aged girl who answered the door on the right side of the duplex at 2169 6th St. B said, “Nobody by that name lives here. Besides, my mom wouldn’t vote using an absentee ballot, because she works at the Courthouse for John Gianulis.” Interesting.
Brett Nelson, Rick Keys and I learned a lot about Illinois election law in a very short time. We learned the names of people bussed in from a retirement center (the old North High School site), which is NOT in the 1st Ward. We discovered the election judge supporter of Helen Heiland who voted two times under two (slightly different) names. We learned that two people who signed absentee ballots were so near death that they had no idea what document(s) they were signing. It went on and on and on.
I thought back to my courtesy call on John Gianulis in his office, when he had said to me, “You can’t possibly win. I guarantee you that you won’t win.” Mr. Gianulis, as Helen Heiland’s letter documents, had made sure that she won each and every election for decades. Few opponents even bothered to declare against her, knowing that she was the Democratic County Chairman’s handpicked candidate. I foolishly gave in to the entreaties of former students who live in the 1st Ward and wanted to have their Ward better represented by someone capable of doing the job with greater vigor. I had only a Children’s Crusade of my high school daughter and friends to work for me, but I went door-to-door, personally, 3 times, was endorsed by the Illinois Chamber of Commerce and Democracy for America. I spent $500, total, on my campaign. Meanwhile, Mrs. Heiland and Mr. Thodos were spending thousands (some say $25,000) of dollars at Victory Enterprises, as a team, on their joint campaign. My daughter and her boyfriend and Sonny Soliz, (a former teaching colleague at Silvis Junior High School), hand-painted my large pink-and-black signs. David vs. Goliath.
Under Illinois election law’s “proportionate reduction” policy, I discovered, for each fraudulent absentee ballot we discovered, one vote would be taken away from Mrs. Heiland’s vote total and one vote would be taken from mine. The system, in other words, is “rigged” in favor of the incumbent, just like championship-boxing matches are weighted in favor of the title-holder. This is because of the expense of printing ballots and running elections. No challenges are really wanted, especially successful ones that might mean reprinting ballots. As attorney Rick Keys said, “We need more absentee votes to have been cast.” (It was within the absentee balloting that the fraud primarily occurred in the 1st Ward election.).
Each absentee voter who had voted for me signed a legally notarized affidavit obtained by a lawyer with a notary seal who went door-to-door (no easy or inexpensive task to accomplish.). The absentee vote total that had been announced was proven wrong. This, also, was not reported in the press. [So much for Alder Person Heiland’s announced desire to “set the record straight.”]
Even after the votes were recounted in a room at the Courthouse, with a Dispatch reporter and various officials present, and it was clear that more voters had voted for me at the two polling places in the 1st Ward than for Helen Heiland, nothing was reported. The absentee voters who voted for me (who had already signed legally-notarized affidavits to that effect) were required to physically appear in court in person the very next morning at 9 a.m., with no time allowed to subpoena them. This was, of course, impossible to achieve. Most were unable to leave their homes to go to the polls, which was why they voted absentee to begin with. Mrs. Heiland’s next-door neighbors at 2315 Kennedy Drive, who voted for me, are elderly and incapacitated. One neighbor of mine who voted absentee for me was then visiting her grandchildren in Michigan.
This was how the election in East Moline’s 1st Ward was stolen. I can only assume—from the large amount of money spent at Iowa’s Victory Enterprises to unseat incumbent Joe Moreno—that this is how the election was stolen from the popular Mayor Moreno, city-wide, as well, although I know of other dirty tricks perpetrated against Joe that would put Karl Rove to shame. But Jose “Joe” Moreno did not have the luxury of spending thousands of dollars on his campaign, nor of personally investigating a smaller number of homes and voters, so that he could actually track and find the fraud that had been perpetrated, city-wide, in the election— something that I was able to do. However, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a sound? If fraud occurs in an election and the reporters present don’t fully report it, do the voters even know? Does honesty in elections matter, or should we just let the party Grand Poo Bahs select our representatives, letting those people run unopposed year after year and making sure that an opponent running for the right reasons is beaten using any means possible, ethical or unethical? I fear this in our current national election, and I personally experienced this in our local election(s). Let’s really “set the record straight,” which was Alder Person Heiland’s announced desire in her March 12th letter to the Daily Dispatch.
I, at least, had the opportunity to track down each and every instance of fraud and “underhanded” (Helen’s term) double-dealing. It was quite an eye-opening and expensive experience for someone never involved in county politics, someone who ran only with a Children’s Crusade of high school kids as campaign workers and didn’t have the luxury of using franking privileges as Democratic County Chairwoman to mail campaign literature. Sure, they cheated Al Gore in Florida, but could that sort of thing happen in Rock Island County, Illinois?
Next time a Daily Dispatch reporter is physically present and hears that the challenger has received more popular votes than the incumbent in a recount, it would be nice to see at least one line mentioning that fact in the next day’s newspaper. That kind of fair and honest reporting is what we count on our free press to do for its citizens. It’s the least we should expect from our newspaper(s). And when a recount is ordered by a Republican judge and that recount finds instances of wrongdoing in the election, wouldn’t that be worthy of mention by the news media?
I don’t often agree with Helen Heiland’s demeanor, actions (or inaction), and I hope any literature I distribute is considerably more error-free, but I do agree with her closing remark: “This has been an unbelievable experience.” When Alder Person Heiland wrote, “Is this why we have so much (sic) dissention in the Democrat (sic) Party?” (after rolling my eyes at the grammar and spelling errors), I thought: What goes around, comes around (as Eliot Spitzer just discovered).
Helen’s long-time champion, Democratic County Chairman John Gianulis, (the man who installed her in office and kept her there for decades, regardless of the wishes or votes of East Moline’s 1st Ward residents) finally came to the realization that, as a man in his mid-eighties, in failing health, his time had come—and gone. Rather than railing against the man who single-handedly kept her politically viable for decades, Helen Heiland might seriously consider why he folded his tent and left the political stage…and didn’t nominate her to take his place.
Sincerely,
Connie (Corcoran) Wilson, M.S.
CEO, Quad Cities’ Learning, Inc.
Letter to the Editor of the Moline (IL) Daily Dispatch
from 1st Ward Alder Person Helen Heiland
(March 12th, 2008)
Heiland Sets the Record Straight
I feel I have to set the record straight. An election was held on Wednesday, March 5 for Chairman of the (sic) Democrat Party of Rock Island County.
Back in September I talked to John Gianulis about the possibility of him retiring. During that conversation, he said he was thinking about retiring. I asked him to stay on since I felt he had done so much for the party and we were on the brink of having a Democrat president.
When this conversation was over; I told him that if he did retire I would like to pursue the position. His exact words, “Helen, you would be my first choice. If I decide you will be the first to know.”
Therefore, because of that conversation, I decided I would not even discuss the position until I was notified of his retirement. I received a letter with all the other committeemen when he decided to give up the position.
At that time I started to pursue the position. Then came the betrayal nomination from a man who had picked me as his chairwoman for more than 20 years and many times told me that I was his right arm and he could not do it without me.
I was picked by him and not elected. There was not enough time, and John Brown, “office manager,” had already started working on getting his candidate elected from the Democrat office.
Everyone says that is just politics. I disagree. Why does politics have to be so underhanded? Is this why we have so much dissention (sic) in the Democrat (sic) Party?
To the few that stood up and supported me at the “election,” I thank you. I truly believed that I had a lot more to give to the party, but others have thought otherwise. This has been an unbelievable experience.
Helen Heiland
1st Ward Alderman
East Moline, Illinois
(*Editor’s note: the letter above appeared in the Moline, Illinois Daily Dispatch newspaper on March 12th, 2008. Below is the response I sent to the newspaper, which may well never see the light of day, so read it here and learn about how elections are run in Rock Island County, Illinois.)
I just knew that all of you were awaiting the results of my latest blood draw. Yes, I can hear you now saying, “I wonder how Connie’s blood is doing, these days.” It is actually the truth that I had to have blood drawn and go in for a routine physical. It was mainly to see what effect, if any, Lipitor has been having on my previously-high (272) cholesterol.
Mind you, I have been the proud possessor of high cholesterol since my teens, I think. I know I had cholesterol of over 300 at one point, just before I began a diet at a hospital where I ate no solid food whatsoever and my cholesterol dropped from that, alone. I also remember inflating it, artificially, at a nurse’s suggestion once, to qualify for a hospital diet program, by eating tubs of cottage cheese. But nevermind about all that ancient history.
On March 4th, 2008, I had blood drawn because my doctor was going to check my liver function (which they check if you are on statins) and, for that reason, I was very careful to take a Lipitor (10 mg) a night every night for a week. My normal pattern is to take one 10 mg. pill every OTHER night, because my John Deere insurance will not pay for my Lipitor at all. They will pay for all kinds of inferior brands that make me physically ill (I tried them all), but that is it. All of the inferior brands were costing me (in addition to my insurance coverage) a minimum of $56, so I figured I might as well pay for the Gold Standard (i.e., Lipitor) and comparison shop it. In other words, I don’t get any insurance coverage for my Lipitor, as I buy it at Sam’s Club, and those little pills are PRICEY! I never get out of the store having paid less than $70 for 30 pills and, lately, I think it has gone up closer to $90. Anyway, because the pills ARE so pricey, and I am absorbing the total cost myself, I asked my doctor (Dr. Mihm), to write the 5 mg. prescription as a 10 mg. prescription, which I would take either cut in half or every-other-day, to keep MY costs down (and it is MY cost, not my insurance carrier, which prefers that I become physically ill on Brands X, Y and Z.). If you have a 10 mg. pill, it will take you through 2 months on that $70 to $90. Capice? If I were taking a 5 mg. pill daily, I would pay the same price ($70 to $90) but the pills would only last me 30 days. Therefore, I can get my daily cost for my Lipitor (which Dr. Mihm, himself, takes) down to a manageable $1 a day.
Today, the results of having taken my 10 mg. pill for at least a week (more faithfully than usual, in other words) were revealed to the public, who does not really want to know. My cholesterol has gone from 272 to 133. My HDL has declined from 76 to 51, which my doctor said would be “normal,” since the overall cholesterol has declined so much. My LDL has gone from 185 to 70, which he described as “ideal.” He said he could hardly believe that a broken-down old relic like me now had such “good” cholesterol…that I was “almost an ideal patient”…or words to that effect. He was almost giddy with excitement, as, I am sure, you are.
Afterwards, Dr. Mihm and I talked about politics, and I learned that he supports Hillary (!) and I heard about his nice time in Florida. It is always a pleasure to visit Dr. Mihm, who is almost as old as I am old and delivered Stacey 21 years ago. He is truly a Great Guy, and I know his wife Georgia, who used to be on the Davenport School Board. At the end of the meeting, after we had talked about Eliot Spitzer and politics and cholesterol, he said, “Good talking with you,” and I hobbled off into the day, to go shopping and celebrate my wonderful cholesterol levels. And, as an added bonus, nobody weighed me, this time. (hehehehehehe).
Current Governor of New York Eliot Spitzer, the 48-year-old successor to Republican Governor Pataki, fell from grace with a resounding thud, today, as he was implicated in a federal investigation into a prostitution ring operating in several international cities known as “The Emperor’s Club.”
“The Emperor’s Club” rated prostitutes in “diamonds,” and a day with one of the 7-diamond girls could cost you $31,000. Hourly rates for the 50 escorts who worked New York City, Washington, Miami, London and Paris ran from $1,000 to $5,500 an hour. Spitzer was supposed to have paid for the services of “Kristi” (who sounds as though she physically resembled his real-life wife, Silda Wall Spitzer) and left some additional money “on account.”
Not only did the service, owned and operated by 62-year-old Mark Brener of New Jersey, take credit cards, it also took cash and Euros.
Spitzer made his reputation in New York as a Governor crusading for better ethics. He alienated those in his own party by introducing unpopular bills, such as one legalizing same-sex marriage and the move to issue drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens that surfaced during a Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama debate.
Spitzer, born June 10, 1959, was a Jewish child of privilege born in the Bronx who attended Princeton, where he graduated in 1981. After Princeton, he scored a perfect score on the LSAT (Law School Aptitude Test) and entered Harvard Law School, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. As an undergraduate at Princeton, Spitzer was elected chairman of the undergraduate student body, and it was widely reported that he hoped to become the first Jewish President.
On October 17, 1987 Spitzer married his wife Silda and they are the parents of three daughters, Elyssa, 19 (born in 1989), Sarabeth 16 (born in 1992) and Jenna 14 (born in 1994).
Four people were arrested last week for their connection(s) to the Emperors’ Club. Spitzer was caught on a wiretap interacting with the prostitution ring.
Spitzer, accompanied by his wife, gave a mid-afternoon press conference, in which he said, “I apologize, first, and most importantly, to my family. I apologize to the public, whom I promised better. I do not believe that politics, in the long run, is about individuals. It is about ideas, the public good, and doing what is best for the state of New York. But I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself. I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”
It was rumored that Spitzer would resign at 7 p.m. but, as of this writing, there was no confirmation of that action.
In his short tenure as Governor, Eliot Spitzer alienated even his friends, after winning in the general election by 70%. A Siena College poll showed that, when asked if they would re-elect him Governor in 2010, only 25% said they would vote for him again, while 50% said that they would not. His ratings had sunk as low as 33% favorable, although the Siena College poll showed it to be 41% favorable, versus 46% unfavorable.
Spitzer allegedly paid $4500 in cash on February 13th…the day before Valentine’s Day… making the phone call himself to a 5’5″ petite brunette (105 lbs.) called “Kristi.” Spitzer had “Kristi” take a train to Washington, D.C. to the Mayflower Hotel. Some say the entire act by Spitzer showed a hubris that was self-destructive, but consistent with his arrogant personality. Bill O’Reilly, on his nationally-televised Fox network television show, “The O’Reilly Factor,” argued that Spitzer wanted to get caught.
David Paterson, Spitzer’s Lieutenant Governor, is both legally blind and African American. If Spitzer resigns, Paterson would become only the second African American Governor in the United States, along with Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. No word on whether he would be the only legally blind Governor serving, but we can conclude from Spitzer’s actions that “love is blind.”