THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Why We Need Gitmo (second item): Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates wants to shutter Gitmo, really he does. But he can’t. He explained to the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that the U.S. is prepared to release some 70 detainees, but their home countries “either won't accept them or we are concerned that the home government will let them loose once we return them,” reports The Washington Post. His Plan B was to see if these terrorists who “will not be charged and will not be sent home” can be warehoused in state penitentiaries, but he got no takers. He concludes, “we are stuck” with Guantánamo Bay.
† Après Spitzer: The feud between former Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) and the state’s top Republican, Joseph Bruno, became fatal. On May 15th, Gary A. Berwick, 48, hanged himself in his garage, distraught over an ongoing investigation into allegations Spitzer used state troopers to dig up dirt on Bruno, reports The New York Times:
It was a shock to all who knew him. But to his friends in the New York State Police, the agency from which he had retired in April, Mr. Berwick’s suicide is also seen as the grim capstone to a turbulent year. …
Those events began last summer, when the agency’s acting superintendent, Preston L. Felton, was implicated in efforts by Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s administration to discredit Joseph L. Bruno, the Senate majority leader. …
Now the agency faces accusations - from Gov. David A. Paterson, among others - of harboring a rogue unit of troopers and former troopers, said to be engaged in political espionage on behalf of elected officials. … [M]any troopers feel that their agency has been dragged through the mud by the press and discredited by politicians. …
“Gary Berwick should not be dead,” said Keith L. Forte, a trooper based in Tarrytown. “If the former governor and his cronies didn’t try to use the State Police to further their gain, we would not be in this position.” …
At the time of his death, friends say, Mr. Berwick was scheduled to be interviewed by the agency’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which is investigating the policies and procedures of the executive detail, which guards governors and their families.
He also expected to be interviewed by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo.
Spitzer, who thought nothing of destroying reputations as a means to an end, now has blood on his hands.
† Clash Of The Titans: During spin class at the Equinox gym at Third Avenue and 85th Street in Manhattan, hedge-fund manager, Stuart Sugarman, 48, was known to grunt like a rutting pig, and to holler “yeah!” at the top of his lungs. A jury will now decide whether stockbroker Christopher Carter, 44, is guilty of assault after he hurled Sugarman – and the stationary bike into a Sheetrock wall when Sugarman refused to “Shut up!” and told Carter, “You don’t have to be such a baby. If you don’t like the class, there’s the door to the right; just leave,” according to The New York Times. Another spin class participant also testified that after Carter told Sugarman to shut up, Sugarman retorted, “Make me.” Sugarman claims to have suffered a herniated disc that required him to be hospitalized for more a week to get surgery and metal screws put into his neck, reports the New York Post. Sugarman claims he is no longer able to golf, hike or cycle five or six days a week as he did before the incident with Carter. For his part, Carter - who faces a year in jail if convicted - contends Sugarman is faking his injuries so he can sue him.
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