Baby steps, baby steps.

Many people were off all weekend and aren't up to speed on this. We'll catch them up.

This is an especially propitious weekend to get "hacked," since it requires we keep the story percolating for a well-nigh eternal 72 hours, waiting for official DC to come back to work. Gee, those Hack3rz were all nice n' stuff yet again.

So it's no big deal if the establishment voices come late to the party; in fact, it probably works out better, as we'll need them to pick up the baton tomorrow through Tuesday.

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Posted by: Ace at 06:31 PM | Comments (379)
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Welcome to virtual Saturday. And don't forget that tomorrow is the official Infamous Memorial Day ONT memorial. Which I will no doubt regret having.

The Agony of Defeat

Morons of a certain age will well remember the Agony of Defeat guy during ABC's Wide World of Sports intro. Well here Lileks reminisces and does a little research: It turns out his name is Vinko Bogataj and his crash was from a 1970 skiing competition in West Germany.

Midway down the ramp for that jump, Bogataj realized that the conditions had made the ramp too fast. He attempted to lower his center of gravity and stop his jump, but instead lost his balance completely and rocketed out of control off the end of the ramp, tumbling and flipping wildly, and crashing through a light retaining fence near a crowd of stunned spectators before coming to a halt.

Meanwhile, having retired to his quiet, private life in Slovenia, Vinko Bogataj was unaware of his celebrity, and so was quite confused to be asked to attend the 20th anniversary celebration for Wide World of Sports in 1981. He was stunned when other, more famous athletes present, such as Muhammad Ali, asked him for his autograph

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:26 PM | Comments (725)
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Cybercrime.

Oh, she has a fuller statement.

She confirms Congressman Half-a-Boner did in fact follow her.

Wow, what are the odds.

Hack3rz

They can do anything.

Posted by: Ace at 04:24 PM | Comments (401)
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It's a coincidence that among the mere 91 people Weiner followed, one seems to have just happened to be a busty coed with a crush on him, who called him her "boyfriend."

It's a coincidence that this Comely Coed wrote an article noting that Twitter was a great way to meet stars you liked, like, for example, Congressmen you might have a crush on, just for a fer instance. (I'm adding that example.)

It's a coincidence that he DM'd (private messaged) a porno actress.

It's a coincidence that a lot of the few people he followed (permitting him to private message them) happened to be young, cute girls. I could prove this, but I don't feel like it.

It's a coincidence that a guy who says he's the Comely Coed's boyfriend (a white guy, just to note who she's attracted to) just happens to have recently started following Mediate's Tommy Christopher, who the Comely Coed also started following, and the NY Daily News. Courtesy of Film Ladd.

It's a coincidence that Weiner has skinny legs, like the "model" the "hackers" used to show off the member of Congress.

It's a coincidence he time-chimed the Bosomy Undergrad's home town, and suggested the Maddow interview of him might make for a good "date night," and then deleted her long-standing FaceBook and Twitter accounts, as if she'd been caught doing something wrong.

And it's a conspiracy, a conspiracy of hackers who remain curiously unreported to the police, to make him look bad.

As Lee Stranahan asks: Would the most naive spouse believe this?

If not, why are reporters buying this crap? Did they pledge to "honor and obey" Anthony Weiner like his wife did?

Bonus: The third category is irony. Courtesy of MR MIKE.

Two video shout-outs. 1, Do you believe hackers can do anything, but oddly act like "nice hackers" and don't lock you out of your accounts when they're trying to scandalize you?

2, Do you believe in magic?

Do you believe in magic?
In a young girls heart
How the music can free her
whenever it starts

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Posted by: Ace at 02:36 PM | Comments (262)
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They continue getting the timeline wrong.

They keep seeing that he tweeted about the Tivo eating his hockey game, in a tweet that comes closer to the top of the twit-feed.

But the tweet-feed is in reverse chronological order, duh. The Tivo/Hockey tweet came four minutes after the dic-pic, when Weiner had discovered he was "#Hacked!," as he claims, and when he really should have been on the phone with the police and the Congressional IT/security people about a serious electronic intrusion.

But instead of doing that, he decided to make a joke about all the malfunctions he was having with his electronics. #WhoCanISue?, he wanted to know, about Tivo eating his hockey game, rather than the more typical, "I have been hacked. Heads will roll for this. I am in contact with the FBI's director of cybercrime division as I type this."

But no, it's a joke, "touches" and "they can't stop with the Weiner jokes."

Here's a question: The Chesty Undergraduate receives a dic-pic, publicly, from a man she calls "my boyfriend," whom friends she has a "crush" on. She is on Twitter at the time.

Here's what I would expect her to write, if she weren't expecting this little package:

@repweiner LOL dude, what the hell is that? You trying to tell me something?!!

That is the reaction of someone surprised to see a dic-pic.

Instead, here is what she writes, publicly:

She writes nothing at all publicly. Just goes silent.

Why?

Because she was writing to him privately in a DM.

A few minutes later, when confronted about this by one of the conservatives who saw the dic-pic, she denies having seen it in the first place.

Really? Your boyfriend, whom you have a crush on, who just time-chimed to you, and suggested that watching Maddow and him at 545 Seattle time, saying it could be a good "friday night date, sorta," just sent you a dic-pic, publicly, when you were on Twitter...

...and you missed it?

Public Displays of Erection

Sometimes you just block them out.

Posted by: Ace at 12:58 PM | Comments (232)
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I originally posted this as a "good" article, in that it raised questions about Weiner's cover story.

In fact, Colby Hall spins desperately and stupidly to claim there are reasons to doubt, as he terms them, "the allegations."

He claims -- this is so stupid at first I thought this was a reason to doubt Weiner -- that a hacker would have wanted to get the information out widely, and because the information was only picked up on by a conservative critic who follows Weiner, that means... it was a hack?

What? The fact that a hacker would want this disseminated widely, and yet only one or two conservatives online at that time saw it (remember, this was only up for a minute or so), suggests it was a hack?

What?

How about this: Weiner has only a few conservative followers; his liberal followers would not retweet this; it was a holiday weekend Friday night; few people were actually online; and ergo only a few people saw the image, who would start retweeting it.

If, as Colby Hall stupidly spins, the hacker would have wanted this to go out to a wide audience -- Why didn't the hacker post it during more highly trafficked hours, and why didn't the hacker lock Weiner out by changing the passwords to ensure the picture would be up more than a few seconds?

Calling My Shot: Prediction:

Weiner will claim he doesn't want to trouble the FBI, or the national intelligence/security apparatus, which really should be interested in a hack of a top-secret-plus level clearance Congressman, and will pay a private firm he controls and he pays with his own money, to look into this matter.

48 hours later this firm will announce he was hacked, but beyond that, the trail goes cold. Fiddlesticks!!!

Posted by: Ace at 12:02 PM | Comments (116)
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Did I say "recommit?" I meant "blow off."

DEAUVILLE, France: Russia, Japan and Canada told the G8 they would not join a second round of carbon cuts under the Kyoto Protocol at United Nations talks this year and the US reiterated it would remain outside the treaty, European diplomats have said.

What nation would willingly encumber their already hammered GDP with socialist re-engineering carbon cuts to preserve Kyoto?

Oh, that's right. None of em.

via Irishspy

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 10:43 AM | Comments (32)
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Content warning for those of you who have avoided the picture.

Give the people what they want.

Daily Mail Is Slightly More Skeptical Than, Say, NRO: I hate busting chops on an important conservative media outlet but what exactly is NRO's problem? They have 800 people over there and 40 blogs. No one can do a ten minute post suggesting some questions that remain outstanding here?

Even in their goddamned "web briefing," apparently there's just no room to mention what is actually happening on the right side of the internet dial.

Anyway, here's the Daily Mail.

Honestly, all they do is report Weiner's claims (now falsified; it's not true he had "no ties" to the Udderlicious Undergraduate), but at least they inject some skepticism into the headline:

Congressman Anthony Weiner's fury as VERY risqué picture is tweeted from his account (but he swears it was a hack job)

Update: Mediaite has some "legitimate questions" about the "hack."

Kudos. Strong skepticism plus presentation of the suspicious circumstances.

Posted by: Ace at 10:09 AM | Comments (208)
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You'd have to print this out and everything to do it, but it is Sunday, so why not.

Posted by: Ace at 09:33 AM | Comments (38)
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Mitt Romney will "officially" roll out his campaign on Thursday by focusing it on what every political commentator has said, evar, about campaigns against incumbent presidents: "This election is going to be a referendum on the president and his handling of the economy."

RomneyÂ’s goal, according to advisers, is to keep his eyes on the bigger prize and to run his own race, not one dictated by the other GOP candidates or by the round-the-clock media culture. His hope is to convince Republican voters that, whatever flaws they may see in him, he is still the strongest candidate for the general election.

A series of interviews with Romney’s top advisers reinforced that message. “The economy is not just a talking point,” said campaign manager Matt Rhoades. “It’s the real deal. He [Obama] took his eye off the ball, doing all these other things. People are hurting out there. He’s the boss.”

With this stunning insight into presidential politics held firmly in the candidate's mind, Romney is going to stand out from . . . nobody.

Economy, economy, economy is a great message for the general election. But Romney isn't running in the general election yet. He's supposed to be telling us why he's better than the other Republican candidates who, BTW, will be repeating the same "it's the economy, stupid" line. So, where's the contrast? Sure, he thinks he's better on the economy than the other aspirants, but does anyone believe that Romney's reputed business judgment will be the first thing that comes to GOP primary voters' minds?

Oh, and lest you think the Romney team learned something from Huckabee's disgraceful Mormon-baiting in 2008, I'd worry:

Four years ago, he made a bid for social conservatives that took him off his core strength — economic issues. His advisers say that won’t happen this time. They believe he has no need to re-litigate social issues and say he has found his comfort zone with the economy and with a campaign of a different style and pace. He is, said several advisers, “less frantic.”

Now, there are no advisers actually quoted in the WaPo piece for the truly alarming pieces of that paragraph, so maybe this is getting a little gloss. If it's not, I've got to wonder if Romney's advisers slept through the flak Mitch Daniels got for his "social issues truce."

This whole Jedi mind trick --- if you just talk about the economy, everyone will only think about the economy --- is an awful idea. Guess what, champs, neither the other GOP campaigns, nor the Democrats and the MBM, are going to talk only about the economy.

RomneyCare will come up. As will Romney's occasional lapses with respect to socially conservative ideals. As will his unwavering support for ethanol subsidies a.k.a. federal price interventions. Romney can pretend that his position on these issues isn't going to motivate opposition from many GOP primary voters, but I bet he doesn't for very long.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 07:11 AM | Comments (210)
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