Monday, June 06, 2011

About Breitbart's latest: More fishers of men (Various updates)

I think the most pertinent paragraph is this one from Mediaite:
To Breitbart’s assertion that this alleged evidence “undermine(s) severely” Weiner’s position that the previous tweeted picture (that caused so much controversy last week) was a result of a hack or prank, we’re not sure how that is. It is entirely plausible that the “intimate” communications of which Breitbart is now claiming to be aware were privately shared by to consenting adults, one of whom no longer feels the need to protect the other’s private identity. Put another way, Weiner could easily have participated in online sharing of private images and messages and still have been the victim of some sort of online fabrication that launched the so-called “Weinergate” scandal.
I've suggested all along -- and, truth be told, Weiner has pretty much said the same thing -- that Weiner was concerned that a political enemy had somehow gotten hold of images involving an earlier cyber-dalliance with someone other than Gennette Cordova. (Yes, I wrote that. Many times.) I've also consistently stated that the Twitter "scandal" was manufactured to set the stage for a fishing expedition, the purpose of which was to grill the congressman about his entire life, not just about the night of the 27th.

That is precisely the scenario now being played out.

Note that in the latest revelations, we learn that Weiner was bright enough to send photos via private email. We may fairly presume that the recipient was someone he had gotten to know and whom he considered trustworthy. So far, the images are hardly salacious, though Breitbart intimates that this situation will change. Weiner knew that Twitter places photos in one's personal "twitterstream," which is available to all -- even when the images are sent via direct message.

Nothing undermines Gennette Cordova's claim that the Congressman's communication with her was entirely appropriate. The idea that he would send "the crotch shot" out of the blue, via Twitter, to a woman he did not know, remains inane and risible.
Link
Given the very worst interpretation, what are we seeing here? In several earlier comments, I called the shot: This is a replay of the Whitewater scenario. A bullshit charge sets the stage for a fishing expedition.

Added note: As far as we know, the "woman" who received the new Breitbart pictures was Mike Stack in cyber-drag. He has impersonated females online before.

Update: Breitbart is reporting that the crotch shot appeared in an email sent via a private Yahoo account. That is the only part of this whole story that surprises the hell out of me. If he were built like that -- well, his other photos would read differently! At any rate, it is pretty clear now that the Brietbart crew got the shot from this source. Perhaps via a hack...? Keep in mind: If the password for one account is compromised, most of the accounts go wide open -- because most people do not use more than one or two passwords.

From the Breitbart comment stream:
Face reality PeePee, this wasn't a big deal until you abused the power of your office to cover it up.
Abused power how? What cover-up?
A married man sending photos to young girls? Imagine the fathers rage?
Which young girls?

Further update: From Slate...
Is it possible that a hacker got access to Weiner's sexy photo trove and hacked his Twitter account? Sure, like that matters.
It matters a great deal.

The conspirators obviously have had these photos for a while: It has previously been established that images were sent to a top conservative blogger on May 12. (Mike has said that the blogger was Drudge.) That fact alone -- along with many others -- buttresses the contention that the events of the 27th were engineered by outsiders.

Obviously, the conspirators did not think that communication between two consenting adults would shock many people. The record clearly indicates that they were trying to make the situation look far worse than it was. That's why they were cyber-stalking an uninvolved college student and two underaged girls.

If the current pictures were obtained because Yahoo, AOL and/or Facebook email accounts were hacked, then the Breitbart crew could face jail time.

One must wonder about the woman to whom the emails were sent: Why is she divulging this material? Has she, in fact, done so voluntarily? If she volunteered the photos to Breitbart's crew, then we may fairly suspect a classic honeytrap.

If this is a honeytrap, then we should ask just when the photos were sent; they might have been traded before the congressman's marriage. We cannot take the word of someone who acted as bait in a honeytrap. And we cannot take Breitbart's word.

52 comments:

Anonymous said...

HuffPostPol HuffPost Politics
New Anthony Weiner photos emerge http://huff.to/iSah8v
..................
So, Breitbart never cut off communication with his informers.

Woman Voter

Anonymous said...

it's over now

see latest pics on Breitbart

including the underwear shot you have been wasting time trying to prove as a fake

Anonymous said...

Radar online has a lewd facebook chat log supposedly with Weiner.

Dear politicians: DO NOT USE TWITTER OR FACEBOOK. There is no such thing as privacy on there. Jesus Christ.

The gigantic network of twitter people that dedicated so much of their time just to bringing down Anthony Weiner is amazing, regardless of whether he has affairs or not.

milowent said...

it is still *possible* that photo tweet was a hack to expose all this other shit, but i dunno, we may never find out. weirdly enough breitbart now has the dicktweet up (right side up), i wonder how and when it got turned around - remember weiner talking about a picture being altered? this is weird stuff.

Anonymous said...

This appears to have been setting the stage for a "gotcha moment" on Weiner. Someone has it in for him, bigtime.

The original accusation was that he was harassing young women and girls with lewd photographs [the young college student and the two silly, underage girls, who were making things up]. That appears to have been a false flag with information and histories out on Breitbart's highly questionable sources.

This, however, appears to be something entirely different and would explain Weiner's awkward answers to the original accusation. He might have had good reason to believe that the original smear was a preface to what was coming.

If so, he's guilty of real foolishness. Nothing is private on the Net. But as far as I know, sexting and/or carrying on a relationship via e-mail with a consenting adult is not illegal. Embarrassing, yes, particularly for a married Congressman.

But this is a far cry from cyberstalking. Unless, of course, other details emerge.

If anything this should serve as a reminder: there ain't nothing private anymore.

Anonymous said...

Wow, good catch on the dick being right side up on Breitbart's site. Why would Weiner flip it before he sent it to Gennette?

Also why would the person who was having the lewd conversation with Weiner save a screencap of it if not to hurt him politically?

According to Breitbart some of the Weiner shirtless pics were found on a public yahoo profile. If that's true then maybe Weiner is dumb enough to twitter a dick pic? Blah. Weiner should just strap a camera to his head and make his life The Truman Show.

Anonymous said...

BREAKING: Anthony Weiner is about to make a statement within the hour, says MSNBC. I noticed his 'official' website has taken down his bio???

Will we have anyone to represent the people? Will Third Party candidates be allowed into the debates?

Woman Voter

theOtherOne said...

" If the current pictures were obtained because Yahoo, AOL and/or Facebook email accounts were hacked, then the Breitbart crew could face jail time."

Joe, As a conservative, I agree. The Congressman should go to the proper authorities and open an investigation. However, I think that increased scrutiny would not help him at this point.
~j

alix said...

What this means is that it's very easy to get trapped by these guys who will do anything-- lie, cheat, pretend to be girls, try to trick teenagers, harass women-- to get what they want.

And it also means that the MSM will ignore all the above and focus on what it loves-- personal stuff so they don't have to really learn about anything important.

I hope Weiner, unlike Spitzer, stands firm. Barney Frank always has, and look where he is.:) Go ahead, AW. Say, "I'm not going to resign. Do your worst. I'm still going to be here fighting for my values and my principles."

But he'll probably collapse too.
Alix

Anonymous said...

Cannon - I'm wondering. When Weiner admits to all of this - including mistakenly sending (publicly) the original photo that started this, will you FINALLY admit you were wrong. Or, will you then try to prove that Weiner has been either taken over by body snatchers, otherwise mind controlled, blackmailed into admitting something he didn't do, etc etc?


He may well have been taken down by political enemies who knew he was in the habit of sending lewd and naked pictures of himself to women not his wife and were just waiting for him to slip up, knowing it would happen eventually. Well they got that. Still means it's all on him.

Anonymous said...

The right wingers must really have some dirt on Weiner to get him to admit to all this.

George said...

So. How about them apples? I'd advise you take down all the silly posts you've written about this now. Yes?

glennmcgahee said...

oh no. its revealed to be true.

Lippard said...

Looks like there have been a few errors in your analysis. Good time to take a step back and identify where and why your reasoning went wrong.

Susan Duclos said...

Wondering when you will be apologizing to Breitbart since Weiner just admitted he was guilty of it all.

Anonymous said...

OOPS Weiner confesses he did send the photo! APPROVE THIS COMMENT you ignorant fool!

Jake said...

Further update: Weiner admits he sent the picture... but that probably wont change your view of him anyway.

Anonymous said...

"I take full responsibility for my actions," Weiner said. "The picture was of me, and I sent it."

Anonymous said...

So, when will your apology to Breitbart be coming?

Anonymous said...

FAIL

Anonymous said...

Congressman Weiner apologizes to Brietbart, Will you? Or will you continue to spread lies and hatred?

Anonymous said...

Sadly, it was him (so he is that big). The one thing you did achieve was to close a yfrog bug/feature.

Campbell said...

Bwahahahahahahahaha! LOL! LMAO! How much of an enormous fucking retard do you look like now? Admitted EVERYTHING!!! No hack! No trick! No conspiracy! Just Anthony's fucking dick which Anthony fucking admitted that Anthony fucking sent and that no conspiracy ever existed and you're just fucking WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG...

But you're a liberal so you should just be used to that -- being constantly fucking WRONG! LMMFAO! You guys are fucking schmucks!

That taste in your mouth? That's Anthony's dick! The thing you kept swearing was prime rib and not Anthony's wiener!

I have never, ever, ever, ever, fucking ever seen someone look like a bigger douche bag than you! Ever!

LOL! Gotcha bookmarked so I'll never miss one of your scintillating updates of idiocy!

Thanks, dude!

Maroon!

Campbell said...

ROFFLMMFAO! The mysterious cabal behind the dastardly conspiracy to make Weiner look bad was headed by...

Anthony Weiner! And he said so today himself!

Just read every one of your moronic posts on this. You look like the biggest fool EVER!!!!

Funny, funny shit there, dude! Keep up the "good" work!

RobbieC said...

So...uh...your NEXT post/update should be very interesting. And taste a bit like crow, too, I would imagine.

DaTechGuy said...

Amazing! Who would have thought that Anthony Weiner was part of the conspiracy to frame himself!

Yancey Ward said...

Breitbart had the story correct the entire time. Weiner is an idiot, a complete idiot, and those that tried to defend him are fools.

Dave said...

Does it hurt now that you have been exsposed as a complete liar?

So much for that "hacked" theory, so much for conspiracy, Weiner is just a liar...

djmm said...

I wanted to believe it was not true, but when he would not deny the picture was of him, I had my doubts. Now Rep. Weiner admits the picture is of him and that he accidentally tweeted it:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics

"The New York Democrat added that he had engaged in other online relationships with women, though no physical contact ever resulted." ...

"In the press conference, Weiner acknowledged that one of the women with whom he had engaged in inappropriate online conduct was a 26-year-old single mother and Texas woman named Meagan Broussard."

Why are so many otherwise sane Democratic politicians so self-destructive when it comes to sexual behavior? Do they all think they are JFK?

djmm

Tiro said...

That's certitude for you.

Unknown said...

Looking forward to your next update...

henwy said...

Wow. This blog has been absolutely amazing in uncovering the truth of things. The amount of investigative work and rigor involved is truly breathtaking. After reading the last several entries, I'm absolutely convinced that Weiner was framed. I'm just hoping that your next investigation is into who's blackmailing him and forcing him to lie saying he did it.

Anonymous said...

It would appear that the only thing that Weiner supporters would accept as proof was the admission of the Representative.

Well now they have it, so hopefully they can put their conspiracy theories behind them.

Anonymous said...

I'm not technically up to date, don't use these social media, and have relied upon the analysis I've been reading here. Accordingly, I bought your thesis on this, Joe.

Now it appears from the Congressman's stated admissions that despite the arguments and facts I read here, those were incorrect.

I am not baiting you, but how do you think it could be true despite what you've argued, and/or do you think this current admission is itself the lie?

XI

Russell said...

So, how's that conspiracy working out? Apparently Congressmen Weiner was part of the smear conspiracy! Wow, that's a deep deep conspiracy!

Keep rockin'!

Greg said...

Well, how does it feel that all of your smears and calling others liars and "reporting" was false?

This is good lesson to everyone - be a reporter and not a stooge to any political party.

Anonymous said...

LMFAO! Done like toast! How tall do you feel?!

Anonymous said...

Weiner apologized to Breitbart, if obliquely. Will you?

Anonymous said...

You are hands down, the biggest, most idiotic fuckheaded blogger on the face of the earth.

Enjoy eating your crow, you pathetic excuse for a human being. LOL

Anonymous said...

Looks like YOU were part of a conspiracy to falsely attributed federal felonies to innocent people. Presumably the FBI will be at your door soon. Better lawyer up!

Scratch said...

I am a Republican, but I have to say that I was pretty impressed with how Rep Weiner came completely and unreservedly clean on everything he had done. I challenge you to retract your accusations and analysis with the same vigor. I assure you that any embarrassment you feel is nothing like what he's feeling.

Anonymous said...

Do you feel betrayed by Weiner?

Anonymous said...

One lesson that you should learn from this: the idea that you can tell the size of a dudes equipment from the girth of his neck -- or chest, shoulders, etc. -- is simply not based in reality. There's lots of little birdlike dudes with impressively large fixtures, and lots of giant mofos who are hung like cashews. Just a fact.

Anonymous said...

So, when will your apology to Breitbart be coming?
posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 1:53 PM
................

Andrew Breitbart has NEVER apologized to Shirley Sherrod for labeling her a racist and getting her fired.

As to Yfrog, the security flaw was there, and as to the 21 year old she said the contact was on the up and up. Now, as to what Anthony Weiner did going back to three years ago, and the lie of protecting his wife, well that is for Weiner to sort out...as his lies seem to continue.

As to the Pimping and Acorn, well, that was not true either, but that didn't matter.

So, why isn't Breitbart out looking for the WMDs lie (The guy admitted he lied and said why he lied about the WMDs) which have cost us billions of dollars, or the torture.

So, I will say sorry when he apologizes to Shirley Sherrod and also, investigates Clarence Thomas and his undeclared income for many many years and asks Clarence Thomas why he didn't recuse himself from conflict of interest cases. When Andrew Breitbart does the latter I will apologize!

Anonymous said...

All your work just to "prove" your extreme partisanship. I used to read you at times back in 2007/2008 when I the impression that you were a Hillary Clinton supporter. Even though Rep. Weiner is a Democrat, a dog is a dog. You went all out for him, and for what? A delicious egg on your face? Most Democrat politicians disgust me anymore. I now consider myself a Democrat in name only. Until this Obamacrat party changes back to something that is at least "Democratic", I will continue to vote against every one of them for sh!ts and giggles. My bitterness has not abated.

Paul Rise said...

You did a good job Joe, and it seems to me Weiner had plausible deniability in regards to the twitter photo and who knows - maybe even this latest round of stuff that all sounded fishy to me.

It seems obvious that they have other dirt on him, my guess something to do with his wife, Huma Abedin, who was also connected of course to the Clintons.

So this is a big two-fer for the powers that want us to forget the accomplishments of the greatest Democratic president since Roosevelt, a three-fer if you include the fact that this embarasses and compromises a Hillary 2016 run.

I tend to agree with your analysis of the twitter photo, and am skeptical about how these other photos/chats/etc were obtained. I just think in the end, they had a lot of dirt on him and he is trying now to keep that quiet by giving his enemies what they want.

He'll resign within days.

Don't give up Joe.

Anonymous said...

Joseph,

Your previous attempt to portray this as a hacking was interesting but your theory had many holes in it. In order to stay with the theory you came up with more and more elaborate conspiracy theories.

Just face it, Weiner seeks out women that follow him on social media sites and initiates relationships with them. Part of that is sending those women dirty pictures. Weiner has admitted this.

You should stop attacking other people and trying to ruin their reputations because of what Weiner did. Weiner did it, he is responsible not Breitbart or Wolfe or whoever it is that you are trying to blame now.

The real issue here is how Democrats and the media don't hold Democrats to the same standard they hold Republicans. I guess it is true what they say, being a Democrat means never having to say you are sorry.

- Wodun

b said...

So the comments section here has become a fest for vile right-wing nasties. It's obvious that Joe hasn't lied at all, and you all know it. And while all you right-wingers are foaming at the mouth, let's not forget that Weiner has NOT said it was his penis under his knickers. It could have been his forearm or whatever.

I'm still wondering 'why now?' against Weiner. So he won't be mayor of NY, and Strauss-Kahn won't be president of France. Next?

gary said...

Buell's Law vindicated again (If a prominent politician is accused of some sort of sexual misconduct, he did it).

Anonymous said...

Wow! The gloatmobile seems to out in full swing. Knock yourself out people. Breitbart managed to get one story right out of how many? Even losers get lucky sometime.

But no fear, the slime machine will roll out again with the same dubious list of accusers and undercut any short term 'win' today. And meanwhile, we all lose.

As for Weiner? He was dumb, dumb, dumb. Nothing is private or privledged anymore. He hurt his family, his credibility and those that supported him by not admitting the truth from the start. What's next?

The circus train just keeps on rolling.

And Joe Cannon? You're a good man.

sue said...

ABC News: she contacted Weiner on April 20th.

She has a Republican friend with political ties.

Who told her she should inform Matt Drudge and Breitbart.

Setup? You betcha.

Video clip of her in the ABC News link: http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/rep-anthony-weiner-picture/story?id=13774605

lastlemming said...

Hmmm....something very weird is going on here. Young girls harassed by right wing bloggers, photo placed using loophole to girl who never received it, which was deleted immediately. Someone who hates Weiner who also claims he can hack anything, anytime, anywhere. News shows that go with a single sourced piece of dirt from a partisan player. . . . Oh, yeah Weiner, confesses! Don't worry about that other stuff.