by Datechguy | May 30th, 2011
…and then decide not to comment.
After all isn’t this what everyone does?
A spokesman for Rep. Anthony Weiner, New York Democrat, told The Daily Caller the Congressman’s team has “retained counsel” and is exploring the “proper next steps” after his official Twitter account posted a picture of a man’s erect penis underneath gray boxer shorts. The internet-driven scandal has come to be known online as “#Weinergate,” a pun on the Congressman’s last name.
I don’t claim to be a law expert if I had a client that wanted advice on what to do if someone hacked my account, the legal conversation I would have would be in two sentences:
“Call the police, that will be $1000.”
Now I’m sure that Mr. Weiner’s counsel not being a fool is going to allow Rep Weiner to pay him big bucks for as long as possible, but rep Weiner’s decision to go this route is going to mean something else to even non-twitter familiar people. It certainly drew a reaction from Stacy McCain.
There are direct questions that Rep Weiner has chosen not to answer at this point. He retaining of a lawyer means that no answers will be forthcoming. This certainly does not bode well in terms of appearances and a media savvy congressman would know this.
One must conclude that given the choice of :
OR
B: Taking actions that would cause reasonable people to conclude he is hiding something.
…Congressman Weiner has decided the less damaging action to his future ambitions is the later.
There is every possibility that Anthony Weiner will come out of this with a whole skin so to speak, but this latest action means that it will come at a cost in the minds of voters , apparently he is counting on the MSM to cover this with the same due diligence that they give any potential scandal that doesn’t involve a republican.
Update: Not to worry Anthony, you have Charles Johnson in your corner. That must bring a sigh of relief. Particularly when you are dealing with some masterful snark from Ace of Spades HQ:
…perhaps I’m being too hard on Congressman Weiner. I mean every PSA I’ve ever seen about crimes always urges people that if you are the victim of a crime or see one committed you should immediately call the cops retain counsel to help you consider your options.
I bet the idiot who illegally accessed Palin’s emails wishes he’d picked on Weiner instead. She called the cops but apparently Weiner is more forgiving of being violated.
Yup Rep Weiner is much too sophisticated to merely go after the “hacker” in court like that hick Sarah Palin did.
Update 2: A report on CNN showed Weiner in person claiming it was a hacker and pooh poohing it. That’s important. Strangely enough nobody at CNN thought to ask why the lady in question was being followed by Weiner. As for the continued “distraction” business, I remember hearing something like that back in the late 90′s from another democratic pol who loved the camera.
Update 3: Two days Two instalanches, and I suspect tomorrow will be even bigger!
The statement of the young Seattle woman purported to be the recipient
of the photo reads like the work of a professional—a lawyer, perhaps, or a public relations consultant—not a college coed.
Before you go too far down the giggle path about his non-denials, maybe take a step back and notice that there’s nothing to suggest this happened.
There is no named person claiming they saw this tweet. All that exists is a screenshot of a tweeted pic that’s been copy/pasted onto another one with Weiner’s avatar.
That screenshot’s a fake. A prank that’s in no way convincing. That’s what you’re writing about.
Go compare it to any other from yfrog, notice what’s missing (probably because it’s tracable, maybe, I don’t care) and then maybe tone it down a bit as though this is going anywhere.
Of course, why didn’t I think of that before!
That’s why the rest of the YFrog stuff was deleted, that’s why the young lady in question deleted her accounts, that’s why the Rep who is known for being right in front of a camera every chance he gets stayed away and hired a lawyer.
And people say Christianity requires a lot of faith.
You seem to be basing your logic on faith.
Show me where this pic was deleted as opposed to never existing.
Meanwhile the only thing suggesting it ever existed is:
1. A news site that ranks #2 behind The Onion in having big scoops that turn out to be hoaxes.
2. An anonymous source as the only person claiming they saw it.
3. A screenshot of a Yfrog pic page that doesn’t look like any other Yfrog page.
This is what you are talking about. There is no story where there’s a tweet coming from his account. There’s just a screenshot that doesn’t look real when you compare it to any other.
And you’re telling us you buy that are you ?
funny the liberal Huff post isn’t making the same claims you are. Nor have the papers that have reported it.
But if the left and Kos fans have decided to attack, I suspect that means I’ve made it. Thanks.
My, aren’t you a strange one. So you’ve got your post where you find the actions of Rep Weiner suspicious based on his actions.
Meanwhile you’re the guy who’d like to hold up HuffPo reporting as a reason to keep buying an unconvincing hoax. LOL
Well, do let us know if some random paint huffer at DailyKos helps convince you further champ.
You are falling behind, it appears Congressman Weiner has lost the daily Kos.
You are more than welcome to believe what you want, but the non-political people I’ve talked to all day aren’t buying what you are selling.
The only thing “I’m selling” is a statement that if you compare this yfrog page to any other you won’t find one with the same missing formatting (AKA woops I pasted over that link which didn’t match).
If you can’t acknowledge this it doesn’t make you one political supporter over the other. It just makes you someone who doesn’t even believe what you are claiming.
Hey, can you believe GWB went fishing in New Orleans during Katrina. There’s a pic on the web which is totally scandalous if it being an obvious forgery isn’t an issue.
I’m not a user of YFrog, it would seem to me if it was a forgery that the Weiner crew would have no problem denying the picture is him.
If I might suggest rather than posting as a comment, set up a free blog and/or link to an existing blog with the formatting details and provide the link. As soon as I’m near a net connection later today I’ll approve the comment and my readers are welcome to check out your data and make up their own minds.
It doesn’t take a tech genius to realize that this issue is not going to turn on any type of Yfrog formatting.
“It doesn’t take a tech genius to realize that this issue is not going to turn on any type of Yfrog formatting.”
Actually the blog CannonFire just demonstrated this is the answer.
This is what a yFrog pic looks like when someone else uploads it to your account, which also puts its link in your feed.
cannonfire.blogspot.com/2011/06/weiner-affair-close-to-solution-but-i.html
Unlike all the self-uploaded pics you can browse from yfrog’s front page which carry a URL, these reader-inserted pics do not show this. Which is what’s shown in this underpants photo.
Like everyone else, my first take on this is “wait, twitter allows that?” but this is quickly followed by “wtf do i care, that only effects people who use twitter”. Either way, the quickest solution to having everyone stop saying things like retweet and yfrog is the best.
Tom at JOM took the bullet and verified this, saving many people from joining twitter….
justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2011/06/revenge-of-the-social-networks.html
twitter.com/#!/Tom_Maguire
One must conclude that given the choice of :
A: answering direct questions
OR
B: Taking actions that would cause reasonable people to conclude he is hiding something.
===
I think Rep. Weiner has a third choice — one that would still satisfy observers like us. He could report this matter to law enforcement and still avoid answering tough direct questions. Rep. Weiner could then say, “I’d prefer not to talk about this matter publicly so that I don’t compromise the investigation of law enforcement”. We’d be disappointed that questions weren’t answered, but we’d understand the reason.
Of course this mitigating scenario hasn’t happened, so for the time being, I’m with you. Rep. Weiner is acting in a way that cause reasonable people to conclude he’s hiding something.
Man, I hadn’t read a LGF thread in years. That place is one hell of a small echo chamber.
Anyway, here is comment 24, from Charles Johnson himself:
“And by the way, there was no hacking involved. The photo was never posted to Weiner’s account. Someone crudely photoshopped a screenshot of a yfrog page to make it look like it came from Weiner’s page.”
So, there was not hacking involved, even though Weiner himself claimed his account was hacked? Sad.
Nothing to see here…Let me rephrase that…
Quoted from and Linked to at:
Weiner Thrown On The Grill