Elaine Santore
Photo by Luke Thomas
By Elaine Santore
March 14, 2008
Spitzer escort becomes the latest notorious nobody
Whenever my dad visits his family in upstate New York, they always ask him, “So, how’s your governor?”
I guess Dad will be asking them the same question this summer, but that won’t make California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger any less embarrassing.
Years from now I’ll be asked where I was at the exact moment I found out New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, client #9, was caught soliciting prostitutes. Maybe by then I’ll remember.
Sen. Charles Schumer and New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer
at the New York Giants Super Bowl victory parade in February.
You had your parade, Spitzer, and they can’t take that away from you!
Photo courtesy WireImage.com
But Spitzer isn’t the big story anymore. His alleged escort “Kristen,” aka 22-year-old aspiring singer Ashley Alexandra Dupre, has become quite the internet celebrity.
The New York Times discovered Dupre’s MySpace profile. She also has a Facebook profile, and there are several fake Facebook profiles with her name and likeness. There’s even a fake Tumblr dedicated to her.
Ashley Alexandra Dupre (center).
Photo via MySpace.
The glare of the spotlight apparently became too much for Dupre who fled her New York apartment this morning. But I have a feeling that won’t be the last we’ve seen of her.
The lesson here, kittens: set your Myspace profiles to “private.” (Even though this doesn’t actually protect you.) Or just don’t have a Facebook profile at all, as it takes quite a bit of effort to erase one.
And for SF politicos, don’t get caught with your pants down with any hookers. Duh.
I guess this is the point in the column where I find some sort of local angle. But that’s not really necessary.
I’m talking about the race, but you want to talk about race
Image via someecards.com
Everybody’s talking about black people. And for once Kanye West is not involved.
First, Sen. Hillary Clinton fundraiser Geraldine Ferraro started talking about Senator Barack Obama’s race. Then a YouTube of Obama’s pastor and spiritual advisor, retired Rev. Jeremiah Wright, began circulating which included a sermon about race.
This put the mainstream media in a bind: they don’t want to talk about race, but they don’t want to not talk about somebody else talking about race.
It’s all very complicated.
As a mixed race person, only a certain percentage of me can speak on this topic. But the other percentage doesn’t want to look racist.
The Hunger Site
March 15, 2008 at 11:53 am
Funny thing, it’s hard to find a person who will admittedly say “I’m a racist.” It’s kind of like no one is an admitted racist but racism happens. Even white supremicists like to say things like, “I.m not a racist, I just don’t want to live around ‘those people.'” Racism is puzzling sometimes.
March 15, 2008 at 10:16 am
Does anyone else out there think that Al Gore should have stood up in front of the cameras in November and December 2000 and said repeatedly, “I won!” and that Eliot Spitzer should have stood in front of the cameras this past week and said, “I may be a cad on a personal level, but I didn’t lie this country into a war!”
March 15, 2008 at 8:45 am
nice try. google “switzerland racism.” loads of racists.
March 14, 2008 at 5:56 pm
Switzerland.
March 14, 2008 at 2:44 pm
“whites universally say” america isn’t racist? wow, thanks a dubious blanket statement. i think every white person i know would say that racism is a problem in our country.
then again every country in the world has racism. please tell me one place in the world where racism isn’t an issue.
March 14, 2008 at 10:53 am
Funny thing about the subject of race–a lot of smart people are always asking “Is America a racist country?” The answers always breakdown along predictable lines. Whites universally say, “No, it isn’t.” Non-Whites universally say, “Yes, it is.”
The trouble is, this isn’t the right question. The pundits should be asking, “Why do all Whites say no and all Non-Whites say yes?” If racism doesn’t exist, why the clear dichotamy in answers?
I have a hunch that the answer lies somewhere in a basic misunderstanding about what constitutes racist behavior. Whites usually speak of the Constitution and laws and such and argue that our legal system is color blind (a debatable question in and of itself), whereas Non-Whites usually think in terms of social acceptance and rejection, which is often very subtle but quite overt as well. Legal behavior versus social behavior.