Peeing in the Pool

For some reason, it seems that a lot of people imagine there is some sort of wall between the world of escorts and the world of streetwalkers. Clearly, the escorts think that way; they imagine themselves to be better than the SWs. They will say out loud that they would never stoop to that level of depravity. And — the biggest self-delusion of them all — they seem to think that they enjoy a greater level of insulation from the dangers of STD infection.

Nothing could be farther from the truth. The reason is obvious: it’s the clients.

Let’s use the the two ‘*reviewboard.org’ sites (swreviewboard.org and clreviewboard.org) as a convenient, and highly illustrative, example. If you look through enough of the posts on these two sister sites, you will begin to notice something: incest. Particularly in the early days, before a lot of the members became savvy to the realization that a lot of ‘escorts’ and ‘courtesans’ don’t care to see streetwalker aficionados, there was rampant crossover. Indeed, you will even find some of the supposedly extra-high class TRB guys posting there if you delve back into the first half of 2005.

And so, when we do just a little research, we find that a large percentage of senior members on the ‘escort board’ used to be (and in many cases, still are) very frequent visitors to the strolls and tracks, where they delight in finding runaways and I.V. drug users for around $40 a pop. These very same guys then step back ‘up’ to the escort world, where the $250 girls are living the hallucination that they are seeing a better class of client.

Whoever said that we all swim in the same pool had no idea how right they are. Don’t believe me? Pick a random sample of, oh, say 10 or 12 longtime TNA seniors and plug their handles into SWRB search. I’ll bet something like 25% of them — maybe more — are seniors on both boards.

I have to wonder how the ‘inside’ providers feel about this. Especially the ones providing uncovered services of various sorts.

Just a little something for you girls to think about next time you let some guy splooge in your mouth. Ask yourself… do you know where that penis has been? Is this upscale ‘client’ really just a street monger who came to see you because there weren’t any methers walking the track down at 125th and Aurora? Chances are much better than you think that this is precisely the case.

Time For a Reminder

Geezus Christ, some of you nit-wits out there are pretty fucking gullible. Let’s go over this again, shall we? Short version: you are being sold a bill of goods. Update: since the changeover, reliability has not improved… it has gone downhill.

If you truly feel the need to pay for a valuable service that is gladly offered for free, perhaps you should try this instead.

Every dollar that goes into Tek’s pocket (over and above the $25/month that TNA actually costs, that is) is nothing more than a reward for operating the extortion and free pussy vending machine that is already paying off rather nicely for him and his buddies.

When it comes right down to it, Tek should be paying you.

Palfrey Update

This afternoon’s follow-on hearing regarding Deborah Palfrey’s telephone records has been continued to Thursday, so in the absence of any fresh news on my new favorite cause, I decided to do a little checking up on the person at the controls.

I am not encouraged.

It turns out that the judge in Palfrey’s case is none other than U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler, the same judge who recently handed down an opinion of no less than 1683 pages explaining why she felt the tobacco industry is organized crime. The actual ruling — the part of the document that explains the court’s orders — consisted of only 20 pages, and seems likely to be overturned on appeal as it reaches way beyond the scope of Kessler’s jurisdiction.

Great… juuust great. What we have here is a moral crusader willing to bend the law in order to superimpose her own values on to her court’s rulings. Swell.

On the upside, Kessler has also seen notoriety for standing up to the Bush administration on the detention of prisoners at Camp X-ray. Well… at least she was willing to deliver a tongue lashing, having fallen short of penning a ruling that might have the effect of actually preserving the Constitution.

I’m not feeling good about Palfrey’s chances of getting a fair shake.

End of An Era (but not a sad farewell)

Anybody who has any background doing streetwalkers around Tacoma undoubtedly remembers a little dive called the Kingdom Inn, which sits just across the Puyallup River from the Puyallup Avenue stroll. Myself, I can remember visiting the place as far back as 1985 when, as a young man with money to burn and time on my hands to match, I would occasionally grab a young hottie from an old stroll that is today a shiny new convention center/hotel complex and make the 5-minute drive over to Fife. The place eventually became a genuine cesspool of crack and meth addicts, unfit even for streetwalkers IMO, and today the inevitable was announced: the property now belongs to the Fife Police Department, which apparently has no future plans to engage in the hospitality industry.

With the Lakewood P.D. having taken down a couple of the Kingdom Inn’s more egregious counterparts down in Ponders, one can only wonder how much longer the notorious Calico Cat Motel can stay in business. Arguably, the stretch of Pacific Avenue just north of that motel has become Tacoma’s busiest stroll precisely because of the Calico’s handiness (and willingness to host hookers). I think that if I were the owner, I would be looking for a strip-mall developer to take the place off my hands. (I doubt if the police pay top-dollar when they yank someone’s real property.)

Gawd, I’m glad I don’t do SWs any more.

Serving Two Masters

Many of us have made the assertion that TNA Reviews is not really a “guy’s board” at all, because of the undue influence enjoyed there by providers. But perhaps that is not the entire story. Perhaps TNA is now run not only by the providers, but also by the police. Or, if not the police, then by lawyers.

How else could you explain this latest development, where it is now forbidden to discuss police activity… even police activity which is obviously public information that could be published in any newspaper?

What’s that, you say? There is another explanation? Of course there is… but that would involve admitting that I have been right all along, and y’all wouldn’t want to do that, now would you?

There’s a fly on the wall

Integrity. The word means lots things to lots of people, but to me it means how you act or what you do when nobody is looking… or, at least, when you think nobody is looking.

But of course, sometimes there is somebody looking. So it goes with TNA’s Ladies’ Room, where the “ladie’s” carry on just like they are in a… well, in an actual ladies’ room. (hat tip: IL)

#15 03-05-2007 06:42 pm
Antoinette
Established Provider
From: West of Portland on 99W
Registered: 03-03-2006
Posts: 123 E-mail Re: She’s threatening to take us all down…

…What we ladies need to do is to find a way to make his life a living hell just as he is doing to Roxy. Find out where he works, lives and goes to market etc. Or better yet get him to schedule a meeting with one of us or you Roxy if you are up for it. Then 4 or five us women and one willing male are waiting in the bathroom of the motel room with rope a ball gag, cameras, a large cucumber, and a diaper. after getting his photo in various positions, we will pay ourselves for our time from his wallet. Finally we can throw his clothes in the dumpster downstairs. In 3 or 4 hours we could call the hotel manager, his boss or his wife and tell them to check on him that he may be “tied” up somehow doing business. Oh how I want to be a part of this get even plan!!! Lets go! Anyone else tired of these types of creeps doing their power tripping bullshit on us!!??

Oh my… how very ironic to hear one of the Established Providers rag about ‘power tripping’.

By the way, the last thing I heard about making a post like this was that threatening to out someone — even in jest — was supposed to get you banned. Apparently, that is yet another rule that only applies to certain people (all of them hobbyists, incidentally).

Guys, there’s a reason that they don’t say this sort of thing out in the open: it’s bad for business. And there’s also a reason why they would say this sort of thing behind closed doors: they dislike men.

Choose your providers well, my friends. And take a moment to consider just exactly who you are giving your hard-earned money to.

One way or another…

Deborah Palfrey, the alleged madam who is fighting a federal prostitution rap with the gloves off, is determined to keep the pressure on her persecutors.

Following a judge’s ruling last Friday that Palfrey will be barred from selling her telephone records as planned, Palfrey’s attorney, Montgomery Sibley, let it be known that the records have already been given away, to an undisclosed (and undoubtedly, high-profile) news outlet.

Though not explicitly stated by Sibley, I suspect that the transfer of the records took place well in advance of Friday’s court order. Once in the hands of journalists, the records are all but out of the court’s reach save for a compelling national security argument (though don’t be surprised if such an argument were to materialize, given the government’s over-the-top tactics thus far), and not without further legal entanglements that would be sure to generate exactly the sort of ink that the government wishes to avoid.

Journalists (and more importantly, their publishers) do not like to be pushed around by the courts, and tend to fight back ferociously when 1st Amendment rights are threatened. Sibley knows this, and has probably made the best move possible by safeguarding the much-discussed and much-worried-about telephone records, while still keeping them very much in-play.

Just for you, Jim-Dandy

Ladies and gentlemen, meet your ‘classic American pimp‘ that some of you seem to think is so fucking kewl.

Yeppers, this guy is juuust like the strutting, ebonics speaking, feather-hatted roosters from those 70’s cop shows… driving fancy cars, wearing fancy clothes and diamond studded watches… and on his way to prison, in part, for turning out a 12-year-old girl.

I’ll say it one more time, Casey. You are a stupid fuck.

Better Him Than Me

Regular readers will recall that, a few weeks ago, I postulated that certain aspects of our local prostitution forums put them directly at odds with Washington’s ‘promoting prostitution’ statute (Chapter 9A.88 RCW). And, some of you might also recall the angry and rather defensive rebuffs meted out by a certain anonymous commenter(s?).

Well, anonymous one(s), I hope you’re still out there because I have a little something that you might want to take a look at.

Holmes and his detectives started investigating the first website titled “Utah’s Independent Escorts” in early 2005. They were finally able to introduce an undercover female officer to act as a prostitute this year. She met with Williams and scheduled several appointments with male clients of the website. That led to Williams’ arrest. In recent years, Holmes says the internet has become a common vehicle for sex solicitation.

“Twenty years ago we had the circuit girls – prostitutes that would travel from city to city on a circuit like Salt Lake City, Vegas and Boise,” says Holmes. “Now all the circuit girls are the internet girls. Over 90 percent of travelling girls on the internet have pimps.”

Holmes says Williams was not charged as a pimp because he did not appear to profit from the prostitutes on his website. The two-year investigation also led to the arrest of at least 18 women for sex solicitation.

Important take-home points just for you, anonymous: the man was arrested merely for operating a website that advanced prostitution; he was NOT arrested for pimping, because he hasn’t been taking in any money; but making money from prostitution doesn’t appear to be a legal requirement for being a principle participant.

Yes, yes… I realize this happened in Utah. Yes, yes… I suppose that their laws might be significantly different than those in this state. But then, I’m not the one betting my ass on the legality of the whole thing, so hey… c’est la vie. What Tek does is his business. And, word is that he finally talked to a lawyer, so I’m sure it’s all good.

Another point to note here… this happened in Salt Lake City, which just happens to be the very same city where one of Portland’s more mouthy vocal prostitutes has been collaborating with the media. But that’s purely a coincidence, I’m sure.

Craigslist Follies — If this really worked, we would ALL be doing it

I see these ads all the time on CL, and I just don’t understand the logic. Here is a guy, trying to get something for free in the very same place where it is being sold for cash. His sales pitch? Essentially, ‘you should do me for free because I have no clue what it’s all about.’

On a side note… it seems that prostitution is the last place left where racism is socially acceptable.

Virgin – m4w – 18

---

Reply to: pers-294623556@craigslist.org
Date: 2007-03-15, 2:24PM PDT

any white girl in puyallup. looks dont matter please be between 18 and 30. just want to lose my virginity. 5’10 black male athletic. pic for pic. got a myspace and stuff. get at me 253 241 8864. no fuckin dudes. im serious. i HATE gay guys tryin to get with me with a passion

• Location: Puyallup
• it’s NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

PostingID: 294623556

They call this ‘prostitution’?

I’ve heard of some highly puritanical laws in this country of ours, but today’s news from New Hampshire puts that state squarely in the running to be the pre-eminent prude-haven nationwide. You see, in New Hampshire, not only is it illegal to pay someone to have sex with you — it’s even illegal to pay someone to have sex with somebody else.

In the news from Concord, NH, we have the case of a courthouse security officer, convicted on prostitution charges after offering a couple money to have sex while he videotaped the act.

Theriault, 49, who was convicted Tuesday, took the stand in his own defense and said he only offered the couple, whom he met in court, jobs in a restaurant. Theriault faces a maximum of two years in jail and a $4,000 fine when he is sentenced.

New Hampshire’s prostitution laws prohibit people from offering to pay for sex whether it involves themselves or other people.

(Emphasis added.)

Now, don’t get me wrong… this guy is clearly a deviant. But what he did would probably be perfectly legal in the other 49 states. And to my mind, that by itself should be grounds for a successful appeal. No, not because ignorance of the law is a valid defense; but rather because laws that are clearly this absurd should be struck down on general principles.

Tennessee Turncoat?

Discussions of LE tactics are pretty frequent on the pooner forums. When the topic comes up, it’s not uncommon to see somebody theorizing about how a provider could be ‘turned’ — coerced into working for vice detectives. I’ve always scoffed at the idea. Not anymore.

We all remember last November’s big sting in Seattle. Those who follow closely know that not only were the police using CLRB to gather intelligence, they even went so far as to post a phony shill review to smooth the way for their decoy. (Yes, that’s right… the woman in the photos is a police officer.) As intimidating as it was, at the time we all took comfort in the knowledge that we would be safe as long as we stuck with known providers.

But in Nashville, TN, it might have actually happened. Police are being coy about it, but they want hobbyists to at least think that they may have drafted a snitch. ‘Can’t happen here,’ you say? Don’t be so sure. And if it ever does, participation on a review forum will no longer be a tool; it will become a liability.

Room With a View

It really is too bad that B9Tumor’s blog is invite-only. He has some tasty stuff to draw on. Take, for example, this Yahoo IM exchange between TNA‘s Trishah (hrhtoby) and TallBrunette (bobbidollisback), chit-chatting about having access to the (then) CLRB men-only Locker Room.

bobbidollisback (6:08:42 AM): i edited

hrhtoby (6:08:59 AM): Ahh, the privedges of being a senior!

bobbidollisback (6:09:08 AM): heheh

bobbidollisback (6:09:10 AM): yup

hrhtoby (6:09:29 AM): Sola’s pushing hard for that.

bobbidollisback (6:09:34 AM):

hrhtoby (6:09:46 AM): braggard!

bobbidollisback (6:09:53 AM): hehe

hrhtoby (6:09:57 AM): Who was second? I can’t even remember when in the line I was.

bobbidollisback (6:10:03 AM): i dunno

hrhtoby (6:10:03 AM): where

hrhtoby (6:10:13 AM): I should look.

bobbidollisback (6:10:20 AM): can you tell?

hrhtoby (6:10:30 AM): Just by going back that manyposts.

bobbidollisback (6:10:30 AM): oh see when yer first post was in there

hrhtoby (6:11:30 AM): I posted on your first Hi msg.

hrhtoby (6:11:37 AM): first reply to it.

hrhtoby (6:11:54 AM): Then Adrian

bobbidollisback (6:11:55 AM): musta been you then huh

Wisdom of the Ages

Abe Lincoln wasn’t talking about prostitution here, he was speaking out against the then nascent temperance movement. But I believe the general principles are the same.

“Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809-65), U.S. President.
Speech, 18 Dec. 1840, to Illinois House of Representatives

Palfrey Strikes Back

Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the Washingon, D.C. madam who has threatened to out her entire client list is said to be thinking of selling her telephone records, is fighting back. Following her arraignment in U.S. District Court today, Palfrey initiated some legal action of her own. She’s suing one of her former escorts for breach of contract (warning: PDF file).

It seems that Palfrey had all of her escorts sign a written agreement to refrain from “illegal activity” while on company time. It’s not clear at this point how or why Palfrey singled out the one escort that she named in her lawsuit — a one Dr. Paula Neble. An additional 15 ‘Jane Does’ were included in the suit, who Palfrey says she is unable to name because the government has seized her business records.

This comes one day after the government filed it’s own motion to suppress any public release of evidence that Palfrey might obtain in discovery — which, presumably, would include the very same business records that Palfrey says she needs to pursue the new lawsuit.

Meanwhile, despite the fact that Palfrey has been convicted of no crime, her assets have been seized under the color of being the proceeds of illegal activity. Not satisfied with stripping the accused of any possible means to defend herself, the government is also doubly anxious to suppress the sale of the telephone records. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Cowden was quoted as saying that the government was looking at seizing any funds so raised, in a move clearly designed to discourage Palfrey from the sale.

Straight From (or is it ‘to’?) the Horse’s Mouth

Gawd, I hate hypocrites. Especially the ‘do as I say, not as I do’ variety. Doubly so when it’s someone who fancies themselves an authority figure.

But, here it is… the Northwest’s very own Chief of Hobby Police, Alyssa Delora, bragging about bare-mouthing a fellow provider — after she told us all that she has sworn off of uncovered sex of any kind in Hobby-related activities.

Every inch of her skin that went into my mouth was delicious. She softly moans and uses encouraging language so you know you are licking her just the way she likes it. Her pussy began to rapidly quiver and then she spilled. I felt a shot of liquid enter my mouth. It was about a TBSP and had a musky scent to it. It was not at all unpleasant. Rachel’s cum is an aprodesiac!

Now, I’m not an M.D… and I’m far from being an expert on the topic of STDs… but when they’re talking about STDs and they mention ‘body fluids’, they don’t draw any distinction between fluids based on the gender of the person secreting said fluids, do they?

Don’t get me wrong, now… I’m not taking issue with the idea of a couple of providers getting together and have a nice time, be it for business or pleasure. That part is kewl. Where I have a disconnect on this is the part where Alyssa told us all that she’s all done having full-contact activity with people from the Hobby because of the infection risk. This next quote is from the TNA (nee CLRB) post linked above, where she is telling us all her story of angst and turmoil on discovering that another east side provider might be spreading genital herpes to clients that they had in common.

At first, I decided to go all covered. My specific fear was not giving uncovered french, it was just the opposite. Uncovered DATY was my greatest fear. I did not like the idea of a man performing DATY on a herpes & wart infested twat, then attempting to stick his tongue in mine. Fuck that noise. This didn’t last long because it just wasn’t much fun to be that covered. I was already offering FBSM so I decided to this exclusively. Once I did, I was set free. Before I made the decision, I was destroying myself inside. I am a natural pleaser and a very sensitive girl. If I don’t feel like I am giving my best, I self punish. Having a constant nagging fear in the back of my mind: “Does he have anything I can contract? Did he see THAT girl and just didn’t mention it? Am I being careful enough?” made me well aware that I could not possibly be giving my best. The realization I came to is that I can’t control what other people do.

Folks, this is a provider who would drink horse piss before she would allow your semen into her mouth. But for some reason, when the shoe is on the other foot, everything changes.
Seattlesgeishagirl alyssasplayground.com/Seattlesgeishagirl/ thegeishagirl@mac.com 425-214-2576 seattle bellevue escort alyssa delora alyssadelora@mac.com alyssasplayground geisha fbsm fbst psen puget sound escort network

TNA T.K.O.’d

It could only be one of just a few things… but my money is on a DoS attack.

UPDATE: Tek says the “server was down“. Well no shit, Sherlock. It might be interesting to see how (or if) he explains this once they get it back up. Perhaps he should call naked_valor for a good cover story.

UPDATE: Ok, Ok… so Tek says he didn’t pay his hosting bill on time. That makes as much sense as anything. One must admit, though, given the timing of this outage with respect to other goings-on out there, that while TNA was 404ing it seemed that any damn thing was possible.

As an aside… since TNA changed domains and (supposedly) moved to a new server, reliability has gone into the toilet.

Cop Fancies Spouse as Mushroom

Having been spurred to do a little checking by commenters, I have a humorous, yet sad, update to the story of a (former) Mesa, AZ police officer recently fired who recently resigned over allegations that he had had an inappropriate relationship with a prostitute.

It turns out that, while Jeffery Beaulieu resigned from the Mesa P.D. on January 11, his spouse didn’t learn of what had happened (and why) until she saw the details in news reports sometime after January 30.

…Leanne Beaulieu, said Friday that she has filed for divorce.

“My heart just breaks for my children … more than anything else,” she said as she stood alongside her attorney, Steve Ellsworth.

Married for 14 years, she filed for divorce Feb. 9. On Jan. 30, Jeffrey Beaulieu had left their home and told her there was an investigation involving the police department and a computer, Ellsworth said. But, in news reports she learned details about why he might have left, she said.

“This was quite shocking to me,” she said. “I had no knowledge of this at all,” she later added.

One can just imagine what went on in the Beaulieu household between January 12 and January 30. Newspaper subscriptions mysteriously canceled, TVs going on the blink…

The Beginning of the End

Mark those words — the demise of TNA Reviews has begun.

Tek wrote:
… When you first register. You will be a Lurker. You will be able to search and use the gallery, but you will not be able to post. After 15 or 30 days (we’re still deciding on how long), you will need to ask for an upgrade to be able to post.

This policy or anything similar will bring growth of the user base to a screeching halt, for hobbyists and providers alike, and from there it will be down hill due to routine turnover and attrition. Quite simply, with a policy like this people will retire from the Hobby faster than new users can replace them.

Damned few hobbists are going to return after 2-4 weeks and request anything. This is the age of instant gratification — people either get what they want on the spot or they won’t get it at all. They will either lose interest, forget about the board totally or join up someplace else where they feel welcome. And providers? Only a small fraction have the attention span for a two week waiting period. Again, and even more so than with the hobbyists, they will find a venue where they are wanted and gravitate in that direction.

Without an inflow of new talent, TNA Reviews is bound to finally become the ‘guys board’ that it has always claimed to be. Trouble is… hobbyists don’t want to play on a guys-only board.

It will take a long time, and any prediction as to the time frame would just be a wild-ass guess. But rest assured, the process has started. Actually, it started about four weeks ago… but now it’s started visibly.

Are You on Candid Camera?

I listen to AM radio a lot. What can I say? I’m a talk radio junkie. Today, during the drive home from work, I was cycling through the stations looking for something that would stick (because Michael Savage wasn’t as captivating as usual), and I caught a few words — a few phrases, really — that are resonating with me right now, two hours later. The speaker said, “… one thing that all rich people have in common is that they are always working. The people who make it in life are the people who work hard and work late, and they are almost always doing something to further their financial interests…”

Those words are playing over and over in my pate right now, as I ponder the prodigious work ethic of one particular prostitute down in Portland, known to many of you as Sexy Shayla.

What’s that you say? A hooker with a strong work ethic? Oh, yes… yes, indeed. You see, not only is Shayla a full service (and Greek-friendly) provider, and not only does she run her very own pooner forum, but she also has her very own porn site. And that’s where things get a little bit funny (read: blog-worthy). Here, I’ll throw out a couple bits of text from each site, and you can tell me if you see what I’m talking about.

From Shayla’s prostitution site, SexyShayla.com:

* Incall: 10am to 5pm Every Day

And now, from Shayla’s porn site, ShaylaSwallows.com:

I also have a voyeur cam in my house streaming 24/7…you can spy on me any time you like.

I dunno ’bout y’all, but if I were to see Shayla… it’s gonna be outcall.

"I could have been a brain surgeon, but I decided to be a prostitute instead because I LIKE it!"

OK, now how ridiculous is this: a discussion board to discuss postings on another discussion board to discuss postings on Craigslist. Using the very same bulletin board software and layout template, no less.

I’m not sure how long it lasted, but… alas, it’s gone now. The domain was registered last May, and there are indications that something was up and running on the domain between February 22 and March 4. There’s no telling if that was the aforementioned bulletin board or something else, though.

But, if you sniff around some, you can find out what it was that TallBrunette (Bobbi) had in mind for maryjanescloset.net:

Announcement
MARY JANE’S CLOSET IS IN NO WAY ASSOCIATED WITH TNA REVIEWS (FORMERLY CLRB). WE ARE A BULLETIN BOARD THAT HAS DISCUSSIONS ABOUT POSTINGS AND REVIEWS ON TNA REVIEWS (FORMERLY CLRB). This forum is a repository for reviews and posts that appear on TNA REVIEWS (FORMERLY CLRB).. Other sources are welcome too (newspapers, classifieds, online classifieds, independents).

The Law of Unintended Consequences, Part 247

Meanwhile, across the pond, the nascent ‘United States of Europe’ (known officially as the European Union) continues to struggle with the ramifications of open borders and free trade. The latest casualty is Switzerland, where they are now wondering what to do with all of the newly arrived prostitutes who have come to take advantage of a new treaty that was originally designed to bring in (other types of) skilled professionals.

The lack of restrictions, combined with the country’s wealth, has pushed the number of prostitutes per capita in Zurich to the highest among industrialized countries, estimated Rolf Vieli, a city employee heading a project for improvement of the Langstrasse area, Zurich’s red-light district. Based on police figures, Zurich has about 11 prostitutes per 1,000 people, similar to the rate in Amsterdam, known for its sex trade.

I have no idea what the numbers might look like in other parts of the world, but I would wager that in the U.S. the proportion of prostitutes among the general population is nowhere close to 1%. Well, actively working prostitutes, that is.

Not mentioned in the news story — but clearly written between the lines — is that business must be pretty good in Switzerland. Otherwise the prostitutes would leave.

The Best Defense: A Good Offense

Today we have some superb follow-up to the recent discussions on escort services and their propensity to keep detailed records about their clients. (hat tip: mixmaster via The Petulant Pooner Tipline)

To recap, my own assertion is that such record keeping is harmless, as it doesn’t place a hobbyist in any significant legal jeopardy. Other voices, naturally, have voiced other opinions, using the current dust-up over Washington, D.C. madam Jean Palfrey’s announced intent to sell her records to raise money for legal fees as an example of why one should never deal with an escort service at all.

Hogwash, I say. I stand by my original remarks: for the average Joe, giving your information to an escort service is still less hazardous than crossing a busy street. If you are a politician, movie star or some other kind of public figure — fine, there are some risks. But then, if you have so much to lose, you should probably find another hobby anyway.

But, let’s get back to Palfrey. Normally, I would slam her for this kind of indiscretion or for dealing with the media at all when it is clearly going to be detrimental to the Hobby. But this case is truly different. Palfrey is facing a ruthless prosecution, with authorities moving to seize her assets and leaving her with few options.

Of course, there is another side to this beyond raising money for legal fees. As a defensive tactic, threatening to release the client list is pure genius when the list contains (or might contain) the names of powerful people who just might have the pull to make the whole thing go away. Early indications demonstrate, to my mind, that it just might work. How can I tell? Easy. The prosecution is screaming bloody murder:

In recent filings, Assistant U.S. Attorney William R. Cowden expressed concern about what he called Miss Palfrey’s “recent threat to harass potential witnesses whose identities remain secret . . . through calculated public disclosures of former customers’ and former co-workers’ identities.” Mr. Cowden also said authorities want to hold off on the pending civil seizure proceedings because it could affect the ongoing criminal investigation. He said Miss Palfrey’s attorney wants the government to turn over the names of cooperating witnesses. That could compromise the ability of criminal investigators to gather confidential information, he wrote.

This is pure posturing for the benefit of the media, I would have to say. Are we to believe that any of Palfrey’s clients are likely to testify? Think about it… those “potential witnesses whose identities remain secret” will have to be named if the case goes to trial, and they will have to be made known to the defense well before the last minute, too. If the prosecution had a legitimate legal gripe, they could have had an injunction. Instead, they are talking to the press. It could hardly be more clear that the prosecutor is worried.

So, what’s the lesson here? I see several. For clients, obviously, it is about rocks, glass houses, playing with fire, ‘can’t do the time, don’t do the crime’, and all of that. For escort services, the directive points towards keeping secure, off-site — and more thorough — client records. Prosecutors — who have entirely too much discretion to begin with — ought to think outside the box a bit when considering the overall viability of a case.

And, just as it has always been — for women, it’s not what you know, or who you know… it’s who you’ve been fucking that matters most.

And The Beat Goes On

It’s happening all over, from the big cities to the small towns: vice cops are wising up to Craigslist.

This time, it’s Aberdeen, WA. A classic, motel outcall sting. A complacent Craigslist hooker. Same-old, same-old.

Oh, the futility of it all.

The Blue Code

We have more details now on the police officer in Mesa, AZ who was the subject of an internal affairs investigation after he mistakenly put a fellow officer’s phone number on the Internet instead of a prostitute’s when he was updating the prostitute’s website. And I have to say it: this is the sort of thing that makes me sick. The police caught one of their own — red-handed — acting as a web pimp. Hell, the guy even admitted it:

Investigators asked Beaulieu if he thought he was facilitating her business, he replied, “I guess if you look at it like that. Looking at it back now. Yes.”

So, now that he’s accepted the invitation to resign, what’s going to happen to him? Nothing, that’s what. There appears to be ample evidence to support prosecution, but — once again — police officers are above the law. How else can you explain it?

Trading Places

If you’ve followed this blog for any length of time, you know that I am fascinated with web traffic statistics. After all, what’s the point of putting a site out there if not to have people visit it? There are lots of ways to measure traffic, lots of ways to slice and dice the numbers, and lots of companies out there offering to do it for you. My favorite is Google Analytics, but there’s a lot to be said for the ranking service offered by Alexa.

A while back, I offered my gut-level observation that Seattle’s thereviewboard.net is in decline and on it’s way towards sleeping with the fishes. Now I have some numbers from Alexa that show I wasn’t too far off the mark. Here’s the graph (clickable, opens in new tab or window):

The trend is pretty clear — TRB has gone steadily downhill since CLRB was founded. After roughly 6 years, and being the only game in town for much of that time, TRB is currently drawing traffic roughly equivalent to what CLRB was able to pull in 3 months after launch. If you go to Alexa and look at the 3-month view, the news is even more grim for TahoeTed and his merry men — the usurper, TNA, is drawing three to four times the number of page views.

What does it all mean? Well, that depends on who you are. If you are set in your ways and prefer $250-400/hour providers that come from a limit pool of talent, then TRB is for you and everything is fine. If you are a hobbyist interested in viewing the best available research, it should be pretty clear where you are going to find it.

And, if you are a provider who wants to put her advertising in front of the maximum number of eyeballs, you now know where to do that. Maybe you don’t need me to tell you this… maybe you already know that anything posted on TNA will be seen by far, far more potential clients than if it were on TRB. Here’s the data that demonstrates that it wasn’t just a hunch.

The (Wildly Exaggerated) Danger of Keeping Records

Every so often, the cops will take down one of the local escort services, which is usually good for two or three days worth of ink in the local papers (which is, of course, the primary motivation for doing it).

Inevitably — usually as a follow-up item a day or so after the bust is announced — word gets out that police have seized the client list. This revelation is often accompanied by a ‘you know who you are, and you will be hearing from us’ statement. Indeed, following the recent Spokane sting, police even had the unmitigated chutzpah to suggest that “it might be better for clients to contact them before detectives contacted those clients.”

Of course, this is nothing less than a steaming crock of horseshit. Nothing has ever come of being found on an escort service’s client list — and nothing ever will — because, quite simply, it isn’t actionable. Being on such a list is not a crime, nor is it court-usable evidence that a crime was committed. The police make these announcements because they want to scare people which, of course, is how a lot of police officers get their jollies. Unless you are a public figure, there is next to nothing to worry about.

Think about it, and consider this statement by sheriff department spokesman John Urquhart immediately following the high-profile Garden of Eden bust in 2003:

John Urquhart, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, said police lack resources to go after all the escort, massage and entertainment businesses. And he said the public tolerates that kind of prostitution more than streetwalkers.

“We have to prioritize what we do,” Urquhart said. “We don’t have the resources, the money and bodies to go after every single crime.”

So, if they don’t have the time and money to go after the escort services, then for damn sure they don’t have time and money to go after the guys on a list of johns — no matter how many ominous-sounding threats they make. I got a real kick out of this one:

…If your name is in their black book, you should expect a visit from a detective, and perhaps criminal charges as well.”

No customers have been charged in the case. The Sheriff’s Office is “still going through the trick book,” said department spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart. He said letters have been sent to people on the list, informing them their name came up in an escort-service investigation and asking them to contact the sheriff. He said they’ve had some responses from lawyers representing people on the list.

But of course, the contents of these “responses from lawyers” wasn’t mentioned, because you can’t print ‘go fuck yourself’ in a family newspaper.

Rip Van Winkle Lives! (he’s a TV news editor now)

They’re treating it as if someone had just invented fire or something.

From Milwaukee’s TMJ4 TV:

“Men Log On To “Rate” Prostitutes”

…The site has close to 4,000 members who grade prostitutes in Southeastern Wisconsin on their looks, their attitude, and their sexual performance.

Rachelle from Sheboygan is one of more than 50 women in the Milwaukee area reviewed on Heaven-Or-Hell. Besides her phone number and physical description, the review describes exactly what she will and won’t do in bed.

Let’s pass the hat and pony up enough money to buy some clues for the ‘old media’ dinosaurs, shall we?

Liquid Slime

Many years ago, the word ‘pimp’ was an obscenity, not to be uttered in polite company. Today, it’s part of the trendy slang lexicon of ignorant youth who have only the vaguest of notions about the word’s actual connotations. And that includes a great many — otherwise bright — young females who would blanch at the suggestion that women are subhumans who should be treated like property.

How could this happen? One word: hip-hop. A pox on our land if ever there was one, but that’s a matter for another blog on another day. But, in a nutshell, that’s the short answer. Hip-hop culture, among it’s vast array of offenses against our people in general and our youth in particular, has conceived and relentlessly promoted the idea that anything and everything having to do with pimps is cool.

I’m pleased to tell you that I’m not the only one who is saying “Enough!” And it’s about goddam time, too.

If only some of the young women out there had a clue. Just one fucking clue. Because there are only two things that the rap thugs understand — money and pussy. Cut them off from one or the other, and they will fall in line pretty quickly. Are you listening, girls?

Bring ’em on

There’s been lots and lots of ink over the last couple of years about human trafficking and the sexual enslavement of female immigrants. It’s a hot-button issue for the anti-freedom anti-prostitution camp, because it gives them something to point at while they insist that all prostitutes are victims, regardless of their circumstances.

But there’s just one little detail that they always neglect to mention about imported prostitutes: chances are, what they are doing is considered normal and acceptable in their home countries. Indeed, their own societies may very well consider immigration to the west in exchange for indentured prostitution to be a very good deal.

Consider the between-the-lines implications of this scholarly article (hat tip: HG), written to expose the vagaries of prostitution but inadvertently exposing the truth instead:

A survey compiled in the social and economic chaos of the 1990s revealed that Soviet women ranked prostitution eighth in a list of what they felt to be the top twenty most common employment positions in the USSR.[2] In the same year, a separate survey indicated that 60 per cent of high school girls in Moscow admitted that they would exchange sex for hard currency.

As the conservatives have stated so emphatically over the last year or so in the public debate regarding Hispanic immigration, this country depends on a steady flow of newcomers to fuel the economy and drive birth rates. But what they have overlooked is that opportunities for those first hitting the ground here are limited, and there is not an inexhaustible supply of convenience stores.

And now, my unanswered question is… where are all the Russian CL whores? With all of the Russian immigrants in this city, and with so many Russian and eastern European women admitting that prostitution is an acceptable career choice, it stands to reason that more of them should be working the circuit here.

Moonlighting

Here’s a story about a police officer who was originally looking to make a few extra bucks, and is now out of a job as a result. Perhaps the officer in the story should have stuck with ‘rent-a-cop’ duty to earn his mad money. Or, if he really had his heart set on web design, perhaps he should have been a little more selective about his clients.

I always thought you had to be at least minimally intelligent to be a cop. I guess the standards in Arizona are a little lower than in my own state.

The investigation began after a female Mesa police officer received more than 25 calls on her personal cell phone in late December and early January from people requesting to meet her in response to an advertisement for an escort, Sgt. Chuck Trapani said.

The officer had no idea what the callers were referring to and researched the Web site, which advertised for a well-known Mesa prostitute. The officer contacted the prostitute, who told her she didn’t maintain the Web site. The prostitute, whose name was not released, gave officer Beaulieu’s name.

You just can’t make shit like this up.

Hobby News Roundup

Sorry… I’ve been slackin’. But there’s an upside — after two or three days of light posting, we have a backlog of tasty prostitution news.

U.S. 11th Circuit Court Presents: Theatre of the Absurd

It’s one thing for judicial types to become disconnected from daily life, it’s quite another when they become disconnected from logic and common sense. In a ruling handed down last week (warning: PDF file) concerning a challenge to an Alabama law prohibiting the sale of… ahem… marital aids, the 11th Circuit equated the sale of such items to prostitution.

Yep, that’s where they wound up, as the court was twisting through all manner of contortions (which tends to happen whenever the law delves into the bedroom) to explain the difference between Lawrence v. Texas (a case concerning consensual sodomy) and Haggermaker v. Alabama (the case being decided, regarding Alabama’s law against the sale of sexual aids). Here’s a excerpt from the court’s decision:

However, while the statute at issue in Lawrence criminalized private sexual conduct, the statute at issue in this case forbids public, commercial activity. To the extent Lawrence rejects public morality as a legitimate government interest, it invalidates only those laws that target conduct that is both private and noncommercial.
…
It does not involve persons who might be injured or coerced or who are situated in relationships where consent might not easily be refused. It does not involve public conduct or prostitution. Unlike Lawrence, the activity regulated here is neither private nor noncommercial.

Hmm, OK. So, prostitution is not — and can not ever be — a private matter, or one where ‘consent might not easily be refused’? Who knew? (hat tip: Boing Boing)

Across the pond, a step backwards

In the wake of the Ipswich killings, authorities are looking at starting a ‘john school‘. Evidently, the bobbies haven’t gotten the memo regarding the efficacy of such tactics. I can sympathize, however, given the political pressure that must be in force to do something — anything — even if it’s wrong. You see, in England, when somebody starts killing hookers, people actually care.

Still, prostitution is legal there when done behind closed doors. So, eliminating streetwalkers isn’t so much a matter of drying up demand (which is the goal of john schools). Perhaps the problem could be better framed as a matter of ensuring an adequate supply of affordable housing.

A page from Vice’s playbook

Spending habits sure do change when one is paying with someone else’s money. Or, for that matter, when they don’t plan to spend any money at all. WCAV in Charlottesville, VA brings us this rare glimpse into the anatomy of a vice bust. Notable: the officer agrees to cough up the full asking price, even after the hooker preemptively offers a better deal.

POLICE: What about the whole sex thing, straight up?
PROSTITUTE: At least 40.
POLICE: At least 40?
PROSTITUTE: I would like to have $50 but if you can do 40 that would be okay.
POLICE: I think we can swing $50
PROSTITUTE: That would be great.

Funny how this wound up on TV news, when one considers that, had the shoe been on the other foot, a person could be arrested for taping a conversation with an undercover cop and sharing the recording.

Change in the weather?

Am I the only TNA user who has noticed that threads have been closed without explanation lately? It used to be that, nearly 100% of the time, whoever cut off a discussion would drop a note to let us all know why. Even if it was just a perfunctory “This is bullshit. Closing…”, at least people knew who did the deed and (supposedly) why.

But even if you caught that, I’ll bet you didn’t catch another unannounced change: TNA no longer has any moderators. No, they haven’t left… they are now all administrators. Lots of ramifications to that… few of them good.

Just something to keep in mind the next time that knew_guy claims that he doesn’t have the power to ban people.

Aloha

Well now, here’s a surprise. A small coalition of state lawmakers in Hawaii are taking a serious look at legalization.

Don’t expect any breakthroughs, though. At least not this year. A pair of bills are working their way through the committee process but are not expected to make it to the floor for a vote. That’s OK, this isn’t the sort of thing that is likely to pass the first time around anyway. These things take time, and this is not an issue that many politicians are likely to jump on without being certain of solid support from their constituents.

However, given that the economy in Hawaii is driven by tourism, it’s not so much of a long-shot as it would be in, oh, say… Utah.

So far the only naysayers are, predictably, the thought police vice detectives (who would be out of work if the bill passes). Oh, and of course the story has a token voice of dissent from the moralist camp:

These women should be helped out of their situation, but legitimizing them is not the answer, said Kelly Rosati, a spokeswoman for the Hawaii Catholic Church and executive director for the Hawaii Family Forum.

“Oftentimes, the point at which a woman is arrested is where help begins,” Rosati said. “This is exploitation, and the woman deserves to be helped out of this industry.”

Some day, I hope someone can explain that whole ‘we have to save them by putting them in jail’ argument. I just don’t get it.

Pwned

A coupla days ago, I blogged a bit about this story, an expose of the Craigslist prostitution scene by a local TV station in Salt Lake City. The story prominently features one of those anonymous, ‘in the shadows’ interviews with a prostitute, whose name was given as Eva. It occurred to me on the first read-through that we have an Eva up here in this neck of the woods, who also happens to have long, curly blond hair, just like the woman in the interview. I thought that maybe — just maybe — it could be the same woman, but the chances seemed too remote and there wasn’t an easy way to tie our Eva to the woman in the story.

It turns out that there is no need for sleuthing, now that Courtesan Eva of Portland has stepped forward to take credit.

You know folks… it’s one thing to be a whore. It’s another thing altogether to be an attention whore. Especially when being an attention whore also involves being a traitor.

(Notice that I didn’t use — and won’t be using — the word ‘courtesan’. Make no mistake about it, we are discussing a prostitute here.)

Had this been a story about prostitutes as victims of the system or victims of violent crime… I wouldn’t have an issue. Had this been a story about an effort to reform prostitution laws… I wouldn’t have an issue. Had this been almost anything other than a cheap-shot — a hit piece designed to stir up public outrage against the Hobby — I wouldn’t have an issue.

But that’s exactly what this was. It was nothing but an anti-hobby public awareness message, designed to generate outraged calls and letters to SLC’s police and politicians. The story said very little of substance, other than to tell the people of SLC that there is a ‘problem’. And clearly, Eva is all but giddy for having had a chance to help the Dark Side.

I can hear her now… “You mean I’ll be on TV? Really?!” Because clearly, that’s all that mattered to her — being the center of attention. Any resulting consequences for her peers in SLC were of no importance because, as she stated on TNA, she had already decided that she was leaving the area and not coming back.

Quite frankly, I’m amazed that she got through the interview without throwing in, “Oh, and by way… did I mention that I’m part of the 12% of all women who, uh… squirt?”

And now, she’s sooo full of herself that she thinks she’s going to write a book. You’re not going to write a book, sweetie… you’re not an author, you’re a hooker!

Me… DEAD? Really?

Recent reports of my demise are greatly exaggerated.

Not only am I still alive and kicking, but I also have eyes, ears — and friends — all over the place. Consider, for example, how I might have obtained the text of a certain TNA post from this morning that survived for all of 24 minutes before it was yanked. More on that below.

It seems that our dear friend and phoney-baloney porn producer wannabe, RIS, finally got wind that I had been doting on him and he, well… he had a hissy fit about it. Sorry, no link… but I do have the text of his post on-hand. And, I must say, it was awfully nice of him to confirm pretty much everything I’ve said about him so far.

Quoted from Seattle Discussions/’SCARFACE is dead….REALINTERNETSLUTS IS ALIVE!….lol‘

Although many of you on this board may THINK SF dead, dont be fooled. He is on this board. He has NUMEROUS handles and screenames that hide his identity. Technology is his business. Unfortunately for him, PORN has many more “TECHIE’S” than him. lol. He really has NO idea who is watching him.
The porn biz is a VERY lucrative business……and when you START digging into someones BUSINESS, sometimes you get bit. The right people have been informed to his “DIGGING”, and it will only be a matter of time before he halts his hateful spew.

Im not sure why SF was trying so hard to give my website a bad name, I never posted anything about him anywhere, even when he was a valid member.

Geezus, what as asshat. OK, so you didn’t post anything about me when I was still a CLRB member because, well… because you didn’t join until a week after I was banned. But, if you really are wondering why I’m picking on you, I’ll be happy to explain. It’s like this: you meet the criteria.

You are…

• in Seattle
• involved in some way with the online prostitution scene, and
• a fraud

And that makes you a legitimate target, as far as I’m concerned. You may as well paint a bullseye on your ass, because if you match the criteria — and I am able to get you — I will. Nothing personal, dude (at least not in your case), it’s just business. It’s what I do.

And what about that thread that came and went so quickly? You know, it’s kinda funny… threads get closed all the time on TNA, but their contents are seldom tampered with. Now and then, the mods will edit out select snippets of personal information or other indiscretions. But I can’t think of another time when an entire topic was pulled — lock, stock and subject line.

Hmm, I wonder. Why do you ‘spose they did that?

I may not be dead, but apparently I have become ‘he who must not be mentioned‘.

UPDATE: Anybody know what a ‘Google Bomb’ is? The bomb, in this case, has gone off.
RIS real internet sluts realinternetsluts realinternetsluts@yahoo.com Vince Young Seattle 13717

The View from Texas

Chavalier discusses the ins and outs of ‘bad client’ lists, and the reasons for keeping them private. Got a minute? Go have a look.

The Jihad Continues

There are really only two possible explanations for this kind of reporting. Either the media is clueless, ignorant and out of touch; or they have an agenda. I’m having trouble figuring out which it is. It might be interesting, though, to know a little about the ownership of this TV station (KUTV in SLC), and whether or not they also just happen to own any print newspapers. That would explain a lot.

$3 bill, anyone?

Just a little follow-up to an earlier post.

In case anyone still has any doubt that RIS is a complete and total phony, here’s a little tidbit that I stumbled across on a site called xpeeps.com where he exposes himself as a liar. (It’s about halfway down the page, in the comments. Or just check out the image below.).

Keep in mind, this guy wants us all to think that he’s a big-time Internet porn producer with years of experience under his belt. Yeah, uh-huh.

Go check his review history at TNA. He claims to spend $2K per week on porn production. Looks to me like he spent $2K the week that his tax refund came in, so that he’d have something to whack-off with the other 51 weeks of the year.
RIS real internet sluts realinternetsluts realinternetsluts@yahoo.com Vince Young Seattle 13717

Gee, now why didn’t I think of that?

Golly, so now all of a sudden — after two years — we are worried about routinely disclosing fixed brothel locations in provider reviews? Isn’t it great to know that our forum administrators are looking out for us?

Remember where you saw it first, folks. Oh, and Tek… no need to say ‘thanks’, it’s thanks enough just to know you are reading.

Puget Sound Escort Network — Rank Has its Privileges

Part 13 of a Series

We’ve been told over and over that PSEN was founded to help protect all of Seattle’s providers. But isn’t it interesting that, with over 180 providers participating in PSEN, so many of the blacklist entries are attributable to a fairly small number of individuals? Here again we will see that the secret lists at PSEN have been turned into the private plaything of their steward. Because often, when someones gets their hands on a little bit of power, they tend to, you know… use it.

J[xxxx] D[xxx]

Date of Occurrence: 9/14/06

Multiple Complaints: No Call No Show/Time Waster/Shorts Donation

I had an expanded fbsm session with this guy for 2pm. I received a cancellation and asked him if he would like to visit me at 12pm instead. He told me he would send me an email at 10am to confirm. At 11:30 I write to him asking for the confirmation so I could schedule the rest of my day as I had three other clients wanting to see me yesterday. At 12:30pm, I wrote to him saying I did not appreciate the position he put me in. I had left a big time slot open for him and because of his lack of consideration, my day had been ruined.

People do not appreciate how much prep work I invest into my expanded fbsm. I rearrange furniture, prepare and sanitize my air mattress, customize their sessions with their favorite items which means I go shopping daily for each date. At 2:30pm he sends me an email saying there was an emergency with a co worker and he was at the hospital. Based on our prior email correspondence and the work screen I conducted, I don’t buy his explanation. I give no shows 24 hours to give me a plausible explanation on why they could not take a few minutes to send me an IM or email. He did not meet this requirement so on the list he goes.

his email is longhorntom@hotmail.com

Yes, this was posted by Alyssa. How can I tell? Let’s do a little experiment. Go to Google, and type in “expanded FBSM”, with the quotes around it. Go ahead, I’ll wait.

There, see what I’m saying? That phrase appears a total of 13 times on the entire Internet. Every single one of those occurrences was generated by our esteemed “Bellevue Geisha“. Satisfied? I am. In fact, I’d say that’s pretty damned conclusive.

OK, so this guy flaked. People have lives. People have jobs. Shit happens. Poor, pitiful, long-suffering Alyssa (who charges upwards of $200/hour) wound up with a vacant time slot at the beginning of her workday, and — oh my gawd! — her whole day is ruined. Can you imagine… she rearranged her furniture for nothing! Well then, there’s really only one thing to do, right? That’s right, Alyssa figures she’ll fix it so that this guy can’t get a date with any of her 184 disciples. That’ll teach ’em.

NOTE TO COMMENTERS: Due to the controversial nature of this material, and also due to the absence of accountability that providers have enjoyed (up until now) while engaged in the creation of this material, I will NOT approve anonymous comments that are negative in character. If you have something nasty to say, fine… get in line. But be prepared to put your name, email and/or website address along with your words.

425-214-2576 seattle bellevue escort alyssa delora alyssadelora@mac.com alyssasplayground geisha fbsm fbst psen puget sound escort network

‘Back Draft’

The BBC reports today that young conscripts in the Russian army are being pressed into service as male prostitutes. That’s the Beeb’s wording, not mine. My read on the story is that they are being forced to work as sex slaves, not so much as actual prostitutes. That said, in an even more egregious distortion the report goes on to say that ‘older servicemen’ are procuring clients and keeping the money for themselves… and yet the word ‘pimp’ never appears.

WTF?

There’s been a lot of ink since 9/11 about the BBC’s hyper-liberal bias and tendency to distort facts in favor of the bad guys. When the distortion becomes this visible at a glance, and on a story that should be pretty easy to get right, one has to wonder.

Have a Cigar

I haven’t decided if it’s a he or a she yet (my old laptop was definitely female), but… isn’t it pretty?

Meanwhile, a little closer to home…

This just in… the Bellingham Herald reports that three people have been arrested on prostitution-related charges stemming from an investigation of ads placed on Craigslist. Not a big sting, to be sure, but in a small market such as Bellingham, three arrests are probably equivalent to ten times that number in a market like metropolitan Seattle.

Notable features of this story: one arrestee accused of being a prostitute, whose full name was published, was pegged as a Seattle resident. Also, the story mentions that another arrestee will be charge with promoting prostitution in connection with a specific ad. Yes, evidently in Bellingham the police are actually ‘walking the talk’, by taking down a pimp instead of just blustering about how bad they are.

A Predictable Reaction

We have a bizarre bit of prostitution news this morning, courtesy of the Philadelphia Daily News. It seems that students at Cheyney University are all atwitter following the arrest of a prostitute by university police, who say that she was working at least two of the dorms on campus. The woman, age 36, told officers that she is HIV-positive after she was taken into custody. Concerned students wasted no time printing and passing out fliers to spread the gossip news.

Yes, that’s right… male college underclassmen were paying a woman, who is bordering on middle age, for sex. Female students, quite predictably, are outraged.

The girl, a resident of King Hall, said all the students in her dorm are taking advantage of the free testing.

“Safe sex is always the best sex,” the female student added. “I feel bad for everybody else though, especially for the females on campus with boyfriends who may have been creeping around – there is no way for them to know.”

Yep, that’s how it goes. There are hundreds or maybe even thousands of male students… one hooker gets busted… and everybody with a penis is declared guilty until proven innocent. How very, very… female.

Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose

Please pardon my French.

Do as I say, not as I do

Whoever said “you can take the girl out of the street but you can’t take the street out of the girl” must have know what they were talking about. WBAY-TV of Green Bay, WI reports that a woman picked up in a prostitution sting last week was none other than the founder of a Christian ministry targeted at newly released convicts.

Ann Schrader, 46, is herself an ex-convict who did time for ‘keeping a house of prostitution’ and drug charges before founding StretcherBearer Ministries in 2004. The unwritten subtext here is that, as an ex-con, she stands to suffer more severe consequences than your average hooker would. Although, it might be interesting to see if her ‘ministerial work’ carries any weight with the court at sentencing (assuming, of course, that she is convicted or pleads guilty).

Oh, and that sting she was caught up in? You guessed it… it was an ‘Internet sting’ (read: Craigslist).

Walks like a duck, talks like a duck…

Once upon a time — in a ‘past life’, so to speak — your good buddy Scarface was a pro photog. It was a sideline thing, it never superseded my primary career, but for a few years it was where I put nearly all of the time and energy that I didn’t expend at my day job. After dabbling in few different markets, such as senior portraits (boring and too cutthroat for my liking) and portfolio work for wannabe models (more fun but lacking profit potential), I finally settled on adult still work (hella fun and rather lucrative) as my niche. I became, in the nomenclature of the industry, a ‘primary producer’ of adult material.

Along the way, I moved through the many circles that make up a thriving underground society comprised of guys with cameras and the women who stand in front of them. It’s a world filled with many archetypes and modi operandi, some of which were common enough to warrant pejorative slang terms. If you think about it, it’s an inevitability… the combination of middle-aged guys with money and attractive young women willing (with the right coaxing) to shed their clothing is a rich breeding ground for scam artists.

So, having that background, when I read this post on my erstwhile favorite pooner board the other day, I said to myself, “Gee, that’s a familiar-sounding tune.” So, I did a little poking around because, well… because that’s what I do. And here’s what I found…

The username ‘RIS’ stands for ‘Real Internet Sluts‘, which is a website that used to be linked to this TNAR member’s profile. Taking a close look at this website, I discovered some interesting things. For instance, the site doesn’t appear to be in business at all. If you click on the ‘Instant Credit Card Access‘ button, you get an error which indicates an inactive (and perhaps never activated) account with CCBill. It is exactly the sort of thing you would see if someone were to build a website and register it with CCBill, and then never fully enter the business (don’t ask me how I know this) or, perhaps, fail to pass the scrutiny of CCBill’s 2257 compliance verification.

But there’s more. If you look around a little, you will find some internal pages which indicate that the site is operated by ‘Pacific Century Int’. Other pages show that Pacific Century is (ostensibly) located in, of all places, a small town on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Could there be a local presence? Well, maybe. A quick check of the Washington State business records database shows that there is, in fact, a Pacific Century Intl. Inc. registered to an address at a condominium in north Seattle. Alright, now that’s the sort of thing that I would expect to learn about the operator of a small potatoes adult website.

Except for one thing. RIS claims to produce his own material. For his sake, I hope that isn’t true. Have a look at the federally required ‘Custodian of Records‘ information at the website. Do you see any producers listed with a Seattle address? I don’t either. What I do see though, is the address for a different website, which in turn leads to another, and from that we can see that ‘Real Internet Sluts’ is actually part of a family of adult sites, all operated by Pacific Century, and which all sport the same list of well-known adult content providers — none of which happen to be some dude up in Seattle who might be pegged as the “adult website owner” that RIS claims to be.

So, I suppose it could be true that RIS operates six or seven adult sites… but for some reason only mentioned to us the ONE site that didn’t quite make it off the drawing board. And I suppose that the mysterious ‘Mr. Chang’ in Sliema, Malta might actually be Mr. RIS’s overseas minion. And I suppose that the kingpin of this far-flung international porn empire might even be a guy looking to employ providers from Seattle, because he isn’t satisfied with the products of industry workhorses like Tom Mayes and Matrix Content.

But is a guy who looks set to be the next Larry Flynt going to self-produce his content and not comply with federal laws while he’s doing it?

Just a little something for the ladies to think about before they ‘work’ with this guy.

Bring Bail Money

Anybody want to start a betting pool on the next massage parlor to go down? Whatever you do, don’t bet against Airport Massage in Everett. LE in Snohomish County has already used TNAR to gather intel for stings (as reported by KIRO TV), and this place has more reviews to its credit than Paradise Tanning did before they got popped.

Not With a 10-foot Pole

I’m not sure just how the info was leaked — or, more precisely, how it was leaked to this particular person — but a reader got wind of some plans that I once had. I was pretty sure that I would abandon this plan, but I wasn’t absolutely certain until it came up here on the blog. I guess I should thank that reader for making me think it over carefully, because now there is no question in my mind about the correct course of action.

So, I’m blogging about it because there was a question-and-answer in one of my comment threads the other day which, in turn, has prompted several curious emails from readers. I’ve made my own decision without any help, but since the information seems to be out there in the wild, I’ve decided to answer those queries publicly.

youknowwho-checkIP said…

…I heard about your board/blog and am curious as to what plans you have to actually initiate an alternative?

Can we begin to focus more on future direction and less upon “the other board?”

You appear to have the technical background necessary to launch an alternative, I think we can slowly garner a following. What about it?

February 07, 2007 12:54 PM

It’s a good question, which I sorta answered on the spot.

Scarface said…

Very astute observation. In fact, I have an alternative board — complete with innovative features that Tek could only dream about — mostly tooled up and ready to go.

Why haven’t I launched it yet? Because I have decided that the legal ice under these boards is very, very thin. Quite frankly, I’m pretty fucking happy that I’m not Tek right now, and I can’t think of any good reason to go down that path.

February 07, 2007 1:01 PM

So… yeah. I registered a domain, and built a board — but stopped short of launching it. How come? I guess a more detailed answer is in order, especially since there are some readers out there who seem to think that it’s all fun and games. Hardly.

Ok, now follow along carefully…

RCW 9A.88.080
Promoting prostitution in the second degree
(1) A person is guilty of promoting prostitution in the second degree if he knowingly:

(a) Profits from prostitution; or

(b) Advances prostitution.

(2) Promoting prostitution in the second degree is a class C felony.

Note the phrase that I have emphasized. What does it mean? Look at this:

RCW 9A.88.060
Promoting prostitution — Definitions.
The following definitions are applicable in RCW 9A.88.070 through 9A.88.090:

(1) “Advances prostitution.” A person “advances prostitution” if, acting other than as a prostitute or as a customer thereof, he causes or aids a person to commit or engage in prostitution, procures or solicits customers for prostitution, provides persons or premises for prostitution purposes, operates or assists in the operation of a house of prostitution or a prostitution enterprise, or engages in any other conduct designed to institute, aid, or facilitate an act or enterprise of prostitution.

See that? Put these two RCWs together, and what you get is that any activity “designed to aid or facilitate” prostitution is a class C felony.

What’s that you say? You think this blog runs afoul of these laws? Guess again; I am exercising Constitutionally protected free speech here, and I “aid or facilitate” nothing. For instance, I don’t run advertisements for prostitutes, and I don’t provide email facilities for prospective clients to contact them. Almost any pooner board (that anyone would want to use), however, serves both of those functions.

And what’s more, there is a fairly recent Washington State Court of Appeals ruling that addresses (albeit tangentially) the Constitutional distinction that I’m talking about. In State v. Edward Hills (Washington Appellate Reports – 2005 to 2007 , Slip Opinions Part III, 50428-2-I), the court said, in relevant part,

Since statutes can only be overbroad if they sweep within their grasp constitutionally protected speech and since the Washington Supreme Court has held that the promotion of prostitution statutes do not prohibit any constitutionally protected speech,

therefore, speech which “aids or facilitates” is not protected, and is subject to prosecution under RCW 9A.88.080. Perhaps this theory could be disproven, but I think I’d rather let Lush, Tahoe Ted or Tek be the test case.

So, while hobbying is a misdemeanor — a calculated risk that many of us are willing to take — running a board is, quite arguably, a felony. And, tempted as I may be, I’m going to leave it to somebody else.