Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Professor, it has been my experience, that when faced with charges that are untrue, it is not unusual for one to be militant about self-defense.

I do not see this with Rep. Weiner, D-NY.

Poker players might refer to this as a 'tell'.

Right!

Sure, why not? But then, the whole business needs to be reported to law enforcement authorities. The Congressman's refusal to do so, his "lawyering-up", speaks to his guilt.

I don't believe for one second that Wiener is guilty. I am a Jewish activist online... and I got myself into a very sticky situation legally (so bad I can't talk about it), but the day I went to talk to a judge was the day a hacker sent something from my twitter account that framed me. It happened a few times and from multiple networks. I am still fighting to tell my story. I'm very involved with my friend the JIDF and Wiener was very involved in fighting Jihadist video on Google. There is a very good chance he was framed.

Timely: Google discloses China-based mail hacking efforts (WSJ).

Ahh, the Professor is just trying to boost his blog ratings with another Wienergate posting. Next, it'll be another Palin entry. (And I'll read that one, too.)

Clever joke/play on rules of evidence and logic, but state-on-state aggression/imperialism online and otherwise is not a joke. It is usually clever and it is the central political characteristic of the age, bar none. Whatever the purpose/cause of this politician's difficulties, it serves (by design or accident, who knows?) to deflect attention from state-sponsored terrorism snapping across the air we breathe.

If you watch the video of the Rachel Maddow interview at 2:10 - 2:25 you will hear Congressman Weiner say the following:

"As far as the yFrog account, I'll be very honest with you, I didn't really know for sure what that was until this thing popped up, and I clicked on it, and then it directed me to where these photographs were being kept, an and I, I kind of quickly deleted it and moved on with my life."

(his verbal emphasis in original).

Popped up indeed!

But all jokes aside, in other words, he told her yesterday that he did not know what the yFrog account was.

Think about that!

His security team should be zeroing in on that, right? Who created it? Who uploaded pictures to it? Who figured out how to "connect" it to his Twitter account? And so on, and so on!

Switch, then, to the NY Times story of yesterday.

From the story:

". . .
Jack Levin, the chief executive of yFrog, the Twitter-affiliated image and video service that was used to upload the photo, said in an interview on Wednesday that his company did not have reason to believe that its user passwords were exposed or stolen. He said it was possible that the photo could have been sent from Mr. Weiner’s yFrog account through his Twitter password or through a yFrog password.

Mr. Levin said neither Mr. Weiner's office nor any law enforcement authorities had contacted him or his company to inquire about the photo.
. . . ."

In answer to your question, either the Chinese have also managed to co-opt the operation of this security company, AND/OR of yFrog, or Anthony Weiner just plain "does not dissemble well."

If any of his past twittering shows he had sent photos from the yFrog account, then he has a worse credibility problem than he had before that interview.

Oh. And while I'm at it, it is also pretty obvious that Rachel Maddow wouldn't know an obvious follow-up question from an entrenching tool!

@Trochilus

"If any of his past twittering shows he had sent photos from the yFrog account, then he has a worse credibility problem than he had before that interview."

Like this tweet from May 5th?
"RepWeiner Anthony Weiner
http://yfrog.com/gz4foatj
5 May"

Or this one:
"RepWeiner Anthony Weiner
The memorial pool. http://yfrog.com/h0t42opj
5 May"

Or even back in February:
"RepWeiner Anthony Weiner
Do I have to pay 1977 Weiner royalties to use this? http://yfrog.com/h8p971j
25 Feb"

All of these point to his yfrog account, all have had the images deleted. I guess he just forgot how to use it.

@VetHusbandFather June 2, 2011 2:30 PM |

A few minutes ago, while I was taking a chicken out of the oven, I thought I heard a noise.

Could I have just heard a door slam, I thought?

It was a possibility, though the dogs didn't bark. But it just had to be!

When I stepped out back onto the deck, there was no wind, nor even a breeze of any kind. And, there was no sign of anyone out there, or down along the hill.

Still . . . we have had strangers pass by from time to time. I'm suspicious of a few of them.

So, then I walked down by the front door and even looked around out front. Again, there was no one there, except the mailman.

But, I noticed that the door was shut! Of course, I normally keep it shut. But if had been open, that would have been inconsistent with the door slamming. Catch my drift?

Still wondering a bit, I sat back down at the computer, and proceeded to read your comment, in conjunction with mine.

Oh!

Gee, too bad Congressman Weiner is now refusing (again) to take any more questions at all, because we could probably frame a pretty damn good one!

Here are a few for starters:

Congressman Weiner,

In an interview with Rachel Maddow yesterday, you said the following with regard to your yFrog account:

"As far as the yFrog account, I'll be very honest with you, I didn't really know for sure what that was until this thing popped up, and I clicked on it, and then it directed me to where these photographs were being kept, an and I, I kind of quickly deleted it and moved on with my life."

(Your verbal emphasis in the original).

Yet, a number of messages were quite recently sent from your Twitter account having items that were specifically attached to them from your yFrog account. Two of them for example, were sent on May 5th, and one was sent back on February 25th.

If, as you say about your yFrog account, you "didn't really know for sure what that was until this thing popped up" then could you please explain how is it that you were familiar enough with the operation of your yFrog account to be able to attach items from the account on at least three recent occasions, and successfully send them out publicly via Twitter?

As a national public figure, you have a significant reputation as a "technophile" when it comes to "social media," and you have recently said you personally did the "tweeting" from your account.

Did you also personally create your yFrog account, and if so when?

If the Chinese were out to get their commie supporting friend Weiner, why post it on a dead day, the Friday evening of Memorial Day when no one would likely be paying attention? Did the Chinese then delete Nicole's accounts? Wiener's yfrog accounts?, etc.? Did they force Weiner to say he couldn't identify his own junk? Did they post the shoutout to Seattle? Did they friend Nicole within days of Weiner's trip to Seattle?

@VetHusbandFather June 2, 2011 2:30 PM |

Not to belabor the point, but it looks like Michelle Malkin has picked up on the claims of his supporters regarding his lack of familiarity with the yFrog account:

"Weiner’s backers argue that he has no familiarity with Yfrog because he never manually logged into its stand-alone site."

She made mincemeat of that claim, pointing out at least 6 instances where he uploaded photos to yFrog and sent using Twitter, ones where he was apparently using his "official" Blackberry!

"Six of these instances were photos tweeted directly from his Blackberry to Twitter. Yfrog has a Twitter app for Blackberry phones and is a default photo host for the Blackberry Twitter app. In other words, Yfrog’s set-up allows a Twitter user to authorize Yfrog as one’s primary photo-hosting site — and bypass a separate sign-in process to the Yfrog site. You can snap a pic with your phone, upload it as part of a Twitter message, and have the yfrog link automatically generate and appear in your tweet."

This information has particular relevance to his utterly disingenuous statement to Rachel Maddow during the interview.

So, I suppose we really should rephrase the question:

Congressman Weiner, a number of messages were quite recently sent from your Twitter account having items attached to them, including digital photos, uploaded from your yFrog account.

Blogger Michelle Malkin has specifically documented a significant number of such messages, including 6 messages sent from your Blackberry.

If, as you said to Rachel Maddow, "As far as the yFrog account, I'll be very honest with you, I didn't really know for sure what that was until this thing popped up . . ." then could you please explain how is it that you were familiar enough with the operation of your yFrog account application to be able to take, upload and attach items from the account on a significant number or prior occasions, including very recently from your Blackberry, and to successfully send the photos out publicly via Twitter?

For example, two such photos you tweeted on May 5th were taken at a Presidential event on the street, both using your Blackberry.

One of them included a candid, up close photo of President Obama himself speaking to a police officer. A second photo, presumably taken at the same event while awaiting the arrival of the POTUS, was also sent from your Blackberry and even contains the twitter "hashtag" #SoIsTheOfficialTweeter."

How do you square these "tweets" with attachments with your statement claiming unfamiliarity with yFrog to Rachel Maddow?

Also, are you "#SoIsTheOfficialTweeter" -- that is, did you create that hashtag?

As a national public figure, you have a significant reputation as a "technophile" when it comes to "social media," and you have recently said you personally did the "tweeting" from your account.

Did you also personally create your yFrog account, and if so when?