Breitbart Used Mind Control On Rep. Anthony Wiener
And the KosKids have the proof!
There may perhaps be a few Kalahari Bushmen who don’t yet know that the unfortunately-named Rep. Anthony Weiner tweeted a picture of his junk in a reply to a 21-year old college student in Seattle Friday night. They’re probably the lucky ones.
This is, obviously, a story with significant (if sophomoric) humour value. But for real gut-busting laughs, you need DailyKos. They still seem to be going with the increasingly absurd charge that–somehow, some way–this is all Andrew Breitbart’s fault. Weiner is given the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that he’s innocent until proven guilty. But not, of course, Breitbart. He is presumed guilty. And that’s where it gets funny.
The diary entry as it exists right now first states that this is all “an ‘easily debunked fraud.'” A couple of sentences later it repeats Weiner’s statement that his account was hacked. Then, six paragraphs further down the page, it claims that “the screen grab of Congressman Weiner’s twitter page was fake.”
“How,” MinistryOfTruth asks, “do I say EPIC FAIL? How do I count the ways?”
So, despite the fact the KosKids acknowledge that Weiner admits that the pic was sent from his Twitter account and that he himself removed it from his feed, the KosKids have nevertheless convinced themselves that the tweet never actually existed. So, by KosKid logic, Breitbart faked a screen capture of nonexistent tweet and then somehow convinced Weiner that it had appeared in his own Twitter feed and that he himself deleted it.
A lengthy comment thread follows exploring and refining this burgeoning conspiracy theory. You’ll be forgiven if you have a hard time not thinking of how it was entirely possible that there was at least one early 70’s Selectric typewriter in existence somewhere that could have created a document that looked exactly like a default settings MS Word document created in 2004.
“EPIC FAIL” indeed.
People who can see an obvious contradiction when it’s staring them straight in the face will come to somewhat more rational conclusions. Weiner’s excuse that he was “hacked” is far too (pardon the expression) hackneyed a dodge to be believed. Even power users of Twitter sometimes send public tweets as replies when they mean to send DMs (sending a straight reply to an SMS notification of a DM, for instance). But here we’re to believe that, despite not having been (publicly) active on Twitter for hours prior to the tweet in question, Weiner somehow became aware of it, regained control of his account, and was tweeting up a storm less than five minutes after it went live. No wonder the KosKids are going with the mind control angle; that simply beggars belief.
Sorry, Congressman, but Occam’s Razor demands that we presume that you yourself sent the tweet in question and just screwed up. The burden is on you to prove otherwise.
So, unless Breitbart has in fact perfected mind control (in which case, why isn’t he using it on the KosKids?), the most likely explanation for all of this is that, somewhere along the way, a 21-year old coed and a sitting, married Congressman started exchanging inappropriate messages to each other. At some point, the Congressman got the notion in his head that it was okay to send her pictures of his privates (and if did so despite the object lesson recently provided by Brett Favre does not speak well of his judgment, all other considerations aside). And now, thanks to his technological fumble, she’s suddenly infamous.
Small wonder she wants to crawl under a rock and hide.
UPDATE: See Mediaite for some reasonable questions going both ways (of which ‘the hacker could have tried to make him look guilty by posting then deleting’ argument is not one since Weiner’s already said he deleted the tweet himself).
Still, regardless of whether or not Weiner was misbehaving here, the Kos Konspiracy stands alone in its epic fail (to coin a phrase).
UPDATE: (5/31/11) As of yesterday, it appears that someone at DailyKos finally realized [link fixed] that this particular spin just won’t fly anymore:
There is no doubt something was posted to Weiner’s yfrog account, and after talking to multiple folks both liberal and conservative, they all claim to have witnessed this picture on Weiner’s yfrog account.
So, the “Breitbart photoshopped a fake yfrog image” theory (and with it, sadly, the implied mind control) is now, apparently deprecated. Those desperately wishing to maintain their belief that this was all Breitbart’s doing are now left with only the possibility that both Weiner’s Twitter and yfrog accounts were hacked. Regrettably for those us of us who require evidence to decide if something is true or false, that sort of proof can really only come from some sort of official investigation. Which Weiner is strangely reluctant to initiate. For the reflexive Weiner defenders, however, actual proof is a dubious luxury, not a necessity.
UPDATE: Note to Rep. Weiner: When you refuse to answer “No” to a simple yes/no question, it increases, rather than decreasing, how suspicious you look. Yes, we realize you’ve already issued some statements. But it takes less time to definitely say, “No” than to remind us of that fact.
Doubtless your apologists will happily carry your water and screech from the rooftops how horribly unjust it is that you even get asked these questions. But that dog won’t hunt. If the answer is “No,” say so, then say you’re done answering questions. Refusing to do so looks like you know there’s proof out there that the answer is “Yes.”
In related news, Markos should read his own site. He was still pimping the mind control-based theory well after one of his diarists had admitted it was inoperative.
UPDATE: Mediaite employs an expert with fewer Kool-Aid stains on his lips than the KosKids, and finds their analysis wanting. The result: Despite the legions of #P2-types who have already adjudged Andrew Brietbart guilty, he isn’t. Nor does the image undermine Rep. Weiner’s claim to have been hacked.
In short, the only people it doesn’t help are the logic-impaired Kossacks–including Markos himself–who decided what the truth was first and then forced the ambiguous-at-best data to fit their preferred narrative. Must be a day ending in ‘Y.’
Someone explain to me why this is something I should care about.
Oh, come now. KosKid lunacy is a lot more interesting than most of the twenty things a week that Sarah Palin does that you find interesting enough to post about. 😛
KosKid Lunacy. Brietbartian Lunacy. It’s all the same thing.
“KosKid Lunacy. Brietbartian Lunacy. It’s all the same thing.”
Heresy.
KosKid lunacy is a lot more interesting than most of the twenty things a week that Sarah Palin does that you find interesting enough to post about.
No, Palin is far more interesting than what some dude posts on his blog. In fact I’d go so far as to say she’s truly fascinating.
How does one prove that one’s account security was compromised? Does he need a time-stamped photo of himself not Twittering at the time the Tweet was sent?
Someone explain to me why this is something I should care about.
Weiner has accused someone (presumably a conservative) of a very serious crime — hacking his Twitter account to commit cyber-rape against a woman he doesn’t even know. As far as I know, Weiner has taken very tough stances against cyber security crimes. And with the recent cop rape acquittals, I assume he is sensitive to how people feel about simulated cyber-rapes by Congressmen.
But he doesn’t seem to take any of it seriously . He has top secret security clearance, but just laughs off the fact that his accounts were hacked. And he has no regard whatsoever for the cyber-rape victim. I guess he thinks she should just shut up. Plus, by smearing a presumably conservative hacker, he’s suggesting that conservatives think cyber-rape is just fine.
That’s why you should care.
What Dodd said-but add Mataconis lunacy
One way to judge another’s veracity is to evaluate how they deal with problems their own side creates. There are plenty of aspects of this story that I find revealing, not the least being the duplicity of the media in covering it. (remember just why NY26 had a recently concluded special election.)
That you find this story uninteresting does not surprise me. That you make a point of saying you are disinterested reveals a duplicity on your part. It is a “move along, nothing to see here” kind of comment.
For some reason the fringe right has launched an offensive against Jewish Representatives today.
I’m sure we’ll find out what it’s in aid of soon.
bains,
My disinterest in this story would apply regardless of what political party Weiner was a member of. I honestly don’t think that a politicians private life ought to be fodder for the news shows, or that the fact that he or she may have had an affair is relevant to the fitness for office.
How does one prove that one’s account security was compromised?
One asks the appropriate law enforcement agencies to get involved, or at the very least the companies that own the accounts you claim were hacked.
The appropriate law enforcement agency or account-owning company will then take the accuser’s statement and review the access logs for said accounts, and determine if anyone other than the accuser had logged in or attempted to log in and used those accounts.
However, it’s a crime to make a false police report, and a jailable offense (c.f. Scooter Libby) to lie to the FBI, which explains why Wiener hasn’t asked for the appropriate authorities to investigate this “hacking”.
Wiener also hasn’t asked Twitter to investigate the “hacking”, since his account never lost its Verified User status, which Twitter immediately revokes when there is suspicion that one of those account has been hijacked.
If this was genuinely a hacking, and not a botched attempt at cyber rape by the married Wiener against a college girl, he should be demanding official investigations to determine who the real culprit is.
More faux investigative journalism with O’Keefe-style doctored/planted “evidence” from the Breitbart Propaganda Palace for the Propagation of Malicious Gossip.
You know the old saying: Fool me once, shame on Breitbart. Fool me twice, I must be a right winger.
Ah, so the Mind Control theory has at least one adherent amongst OTB’s eclectic readership.
I actually didn’t know Rep. Weiner still was in the House.
That said, the Kos site and its readership are Exhibit Z for why the minimum voting age needs to be increased at least to 30 and for why private school voucher programs need to be enacted in all 50 states — post haste.
Don’t worry. The MSM will remain silent about this.
Heh, heh… he said ‘small matter.’
Was that in reference to the obvious or to Kos KidZ reasoning skills?
Doug, Dodd’s piece related to the Wiener story tangentially; he was primarily pointing out the disingenuous way in which the left was dealing with the issue. As with most scandals of this type, it is not the ‘event’ that causes the stir, rather the nearly inevitable cover-up.
Now while I mostly agree that a politicians sexual proclivities ought not be an issue, it is in the best interests of an open democracy that we know about them. How one behaves when they think no one is watching is a good indication of their character. How they react once that information is revealed is a good indication of their veracity – and that is important determinant for an elected (and appointed) public official.
You may find the original story of little worth, fine. What iI find interesting is the furious machinations of the left to distort the facts, minimize the impact of Wiener’s conflicting statements and actions, and how the media is ignoring the story. You, as the first commentor in this thread, essentially proclaiming that this story ought to be of no import, come off as someone more concerned with burying a story that adversely affects your side. And that reflects poorly upon you.
“Still, regardless of whether or not Weiner was misbehaving here, the Kos Konspiracy stands alone in its epic fail (to coin a phrase).”
In other words, this
“Weiner’s excuse that he was “hacked” is far too (pardon the expression) hackneyed a dodge to be believed.”
Is probably bullshit.
bains,
When I say I don’t care about a story, I also mean I don’t care about the inevitable follow up pieces by left and right. Of course Kos will defend Weiner while Brietbart attacks him. If Weiner was a Republican, the roles would be reversed. This is how things work in the perverse little circus we like to pretend is a political system.
It’s not clear in the post, but is this astory that was ‘broken’ on Breitbart’s site? If so I applaud the MSM if they can resist following it up.
When I don’t care about a story, I don’t spend my entire day in the comments section on that story repeatedly trying to convince everyone else that the dishonest, unethical, sexually perverse, possibly criminal behaviour by an elected Democrat isn’t worthy of discussion.
But then, I’m not a Journolist shill. YMMV.
MarkedMan, the story was broken on Wiener’s twitter feed when he sent the picture of his erection in his underwear to a college girl in Seattle (who had previously claimed Wiener was her boyfriend) publicly instead of privately .
Yeah Doug, the Democrats have someone just like Breitbart who forces the gullible rubes of his party to smear themselves with feces every couple months by regurgitating his phony “news” stories.
FWIW – the young lady involved seems to back up Weiner’s story…LINK
I have no sympathies for Republicans, but Weiner is unsupportable. He is the worst hack in the Democratic Caucus since Alan Grayson was defeated last year.
I’m with Doug on this. We can barely get anyone competent into politics. I mean, I would be thrilled if I believed 10% of them knew what they were doing, had a sense of history and law, and had a capacity for actually getting from Point A to Point Z.
Asking that these people also be good husbands or wives, good children or parents, perfect exemplars of every moral virtue, restrained, sober . . . I’ll take competent. Competent would be great. Competent would save the country. So they don’t have to be competent plus anything else.
Yep, and now Breitbart’s story starts to fall apart. But good work, Dodd: you served your function as echo.
You are a lawyer, Doug, and nobody should have to tell you why you should care. If you really don’t care you should hang up your shingle and become a plumber. BTW, your above quoted comment is exactly what I expected you to say. I wonder why?
Epic who gives a crap…
Oops! slight correction:
What do you have against plumbers, Rock? They have more common sense than lawyers, on average, and I bet most of them will not spend 10 seconds wondering about the Weiner….
michael reynolds said,
Excellent argument for reducing the size and influence of the federal government.
Nobody in their right mind would give any authority to an organization who had their policies developed by that many incompetents.
Duracomm:
Actually I’d be equally thrilled if I believed 10% of lawyers, doctors, accountants, agents, mechanics, chefs, investment advisors, editors, directors, cab drivers, dentists and clerks were competent, too.
The idea that incompetence is somehow limited to government is rather belied by the fact that privately employed financial geniuses blew up the entire f**king economy because they thought if they tied string around a whole bunch of lousy loans they would somehow become really great loans. The failure and fraud and sheer bloody-minded incompetence of those in the free market is a good part of the reason we have such a big government.
Here’s a thought for the free market worshippers: when meatpackers stop selling contaminated food, and pharmaceutical companies can be trusted not to produce Thalidomide, and bankers can be trusted not to bribe and subvert accountants so they can rob everyone in sight, and when airlines stop skimping on safety to pay their corporate officers more money, and cell phone providers stop using phony billing to rip off consumers, why then, we can get rid of a large part of government.
Until then, it is the staggering incompetence and equally staggering amorality and greed of so many in the free market that inflict the need for regulation on society.
That’s obviously what you want to believe, but it isn’t what I said.
Frankly, I care only slightly more than Doug whether Weiner is showing his wiener to coeds or not. Anyone who paid even the slightest attention to him knew Weiner was a consummate scalawag Friday morning before this happened. Whether we’ve discovered he’s an even greater one than was plain from the already-available facts or someone just made him look that way is, quite obviously, irrelevant to the display of willingness by the KosKids and their ilk to totally abdicate their rational faculties in a knee-jerk defense of one of their own. Sadly, the instant example is merely an especially egregious example of that distressingly widespread phenomenon.
That said, calling Doug a JournoList shill or imputing that Weiner is somehow a member of his side is simply nonsense. Doug is many things, but he’s no leftie apologist or spinmeister.
Someone said something dumb on the internet? No way…….
Dodd, you shouldn’t be surprised by this. It happens nearly every time your fingers hit your keyboard.
The rational thing is to believe that anything Breitbart posts is a lie, which is what the Kos people did.
Loos like they got it right and the Breitbart panty sniffers look like fools…again.
There’s nothing rational about posting completely contradictory statements in a single post.
And, I’m sorry, but “Congressman Weiner claims that his Twitter account was hacked” cannot be reconciled with “[t[he pic isn’t fake, but the screen grab of Congressman Weiner’s twitter page was fake.”
And, of course, there’s the small matter of Weiner saying himself that he deleted the tweet. Perhaps MinistryofTruth meant to say something else (or, more likely, didn’t pay attention to what the evidence he thinks supports his point actually goes to), but this is what he said. One’s opinion of Breitbart is immaterial to the logical train wreck that is his post.
Dodd:
Ha, that’s rich, Dodd. That’s like saying the villagers all get the benefit of the doubt but the boy who cried wolf gets none. How unfair.
But, Michael is right, Dodd. Once again, you’ve served your purpose as right-wing water carrier once again.
If Congressman Weiner believes his account was hacked, he should notify the authorities. Then, the truth will come out after the investigation. I’ll bet good money that Congressman Weiner won’t call the authorities. Do you know why?
Is government somehow immune from this amorality and greed? Because unless it is (and please explain how it is), you have given the perfect explanation for exactly why the power of government should be eliminated. The more power that government has, the more the evil among us will be drawn to it.
I am a Kalahari Bushman. Cool.
Have the Kos Kiddies figured out how the Phantom Hacker managed to add the comely coed to the list of 91 people Weiner followed on Twitter yet, or is that more Breitbart Evil Mojo?
J.
If his account was indeed hacked, and the hackers didn’t change Weiner’s login password to lock him out, and he was suddenly made aware that an offending tweet had been sent publicly from his twitter account, it is perfectly logical that the tweet could have been sent by a hacker and then deleted by Weiner. I have no idea whatsoever that this is what actually happened, but it is no logical contradiction to claim that it did.
The funny thing about Dodd’s post is that at least Weiner’s alleged indiscretion can plausibly be considered a story. But rather than focus on a US Congressman, Dodd prefers to put the spotlight on a couple of unknown, unnamed people who have diaries on DKos. Why? To prove that some people who post diaries on DKos are partisans? Wow, great detective work, Dodder.
Michael, I’m late to this party, but those crooks on Wall Street weren’t incompetent; they are pirates and simply saw an opportunity to profit from a well intended, but flawed policy out of DC. I personally know the old Saloman bunch who first took down Saloman, then LTCM, and likely tutored the crooks who orchestrated the present mess. The incentives on Wall Street are similar to those in big government: feather your nest while you can. The incompetents who don’t succeed just wrap themselves in a bureaucratic, moat surrounded cocoon, to provide the security they weren’t smart enough to steal from the unwashed masses.
Sadly, that isn’t the claim being made. According to MoT, the tweet never existed: Breitbart faked the screencap of it.
This is most likely a result of the fact that he doesn’t understand what the evidence he finds so compelling actually might suggest (were it as compelling as he thinks, which it isn’t).
michael reynolds said,
The Government Sponsored Enterprises Fannie and Freddie provided a big chunk of the market for the lousy loans that eventually blew up the economy.
Reckless Endangerment
Doug Mataconis said,
I’m not sure it is something you should care about. However, it will provide another entertaining example of most of the media “rocking on” to cover for the sleazy actions of politicians who have a ( D) behind their name.
Here is an earlier example.
Hey bloggers
My, my… looks like the whole “Weiner-gate” incident was probably faked after all.
And, of course, Dodd is nowhere to be found, since his job is simply to get the unsupported allegations out there in the ether.
You’re right. I should have been reloading DKos like a lab rat trying to get another cocaine pellet all weekend, waiting in breathless anticipation for their next stunning revelation in this matter. Because, obviously, the first place anyone would look for definitive proof that Weiner was hacked after Saturday’s Kos Konspiracy debacle would be DKos.
And, sure enough, you’ve provided a lengthy post with no content not already mentioned in the pieces linked, by me, right here in this post. In fact, your link even acknowledges that the Mediaite piece I posted Saturday afternoon beat him to all of it.
Meanwhile, in spite of the fact that Weiner has said from the start that he himself deleted the tweet, DKos continues to maintain the increasingly bizarre insinuation that is the focus of this post that the tweet never happened at all:
Clearly, my failure to add another update to this post to make note of this third, utterly superfluous example of ineptitude at DKos on this topic proves I am nothing more than a megaphone for scurrilous fascist defamation.
That’s some fine detective work there, Lou.
Oviously, the problem is a big as it’s gonna’ get for Mr. Weiner and his staff.