I'm still haunted by a story in the New York Times about a 13 year old boy who was brutally tortured in Syria. A victim in the battle for freedom.
Of course, my thoughts go to his mother. Jonah will turn twelve next week. What if that had been my son?
While one half of the world is fighting for democracy, the other half has made a mockery of democracy by electing buffoons and criminals for their leaders.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn. Silvio Berlusconi. And that idiot du jour, Anthony Weiner.
Just disgusted.
Apt. 11d 
I’m not sure why you think the Weiner thing is in the same category — Is your hypothesis that he sends random “flashing” posts to random people on his twitter feed? That would be bad, and very stupid (but given what others have done, I’m certainly not going to say not stupid enough for a politician to have done). That he knows the woman who received the tweet?
That he might have taken such photos of himself? Is that a crime? Though stupid, my guess is that it’s not uncommon. Interesting, really, because in the days of film,it would have been less likely, but less distributed. Now, digital makes it seem like it could be private, but it’s not.
Is it that he’s dithered about his tweet?
Strauss-Kahn & Berlusconi are perfect examples of the damaging behavior that the French & Italians allow and then call us Americans prudish because we don’t tell our women to be quiet about being attacked and harassed by powerful men. So they’re evil. But, I’m not seeing the same comparisons here with Weiner.
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Weiner isn’t evil, but he is a buffoon. It’s not a crime to take a picture of your penis, but it is really silly. And his interviews yesterday were so embarrassing. His interviews bothered me more than the penis picture. He’s a moron.
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Though stupid, my guess is that it’s not uncommon.
Every single man in the whole world has pictures of his underwear-clad crotch on his computer. No exceptions and anyone who says different is a communist.
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My guess on Weiner is that he cultivates attractive female admirers via Twitter and eventually proceeds to sending private messages (DM), along with visual aids. So I’m assuming that the reason he is being so evasive and weird right now is that he knows that a lot of stuff is out their in various women’s hands, and if this thing goes on long enough, it’s just a matter of time before at least a few of the women start coming forward (presumably they were sending their own photos, too, so only the less shy are going to go public). He hasn’t necessarily met any of these women in person, but it’s a possibility.
He’s been married less than a year.
http://articles.nydailynews.com/2010-07-11/local/27069600_1_wedding-spot-state-hillary-clinton-longtime-aide
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If it keeps him from becoming mayor of NY, all the better, I say.
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Not a fan?
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I (thankfully) knew nothing about Weiner until reading of his desire to be mayor of NY, and some of his ideas. I came away with the impression that he’d put zero thought into improving the city, and mostly was opposing (quite good, for the most part) changes made by Bloomberg just for the sake of opposing them. Either that, or he’s one of the sort who really think that Manhattan should exist for the sake of people who drive cars into it almost exclusively. Either way, he came across as a jerk who had no particular ideas but enjoyed power, and thought that being mayor of New York would be more fun than being a minor member of congress. He can probably do less harm in congress, but I’d not be sorry to see him go from there, either. He seems like a perfect example of people being successful in politics because they enjoy power and are willing to suck up tot he right people to get connections. If this fairly silly scandal can end his career before he does too much damage, all the better.
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I can’t bring myself to care about Rep. Weiner’s predicament. I’m glad he isn’t my congressman. I presume the next election will settle the issue.
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MH, I’m a communist.
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Matt, oh, is he another one like Schumer, opposed to all Bloomberg’s pro-bike/transit ideas? I still can’t believe the hubbub over the PPW bike lanes. My husband and I used to be in TA-Brooklyn when we lived there, back before Bloomberg became mayor and back when we just wanted a few car-free hours in PP.
I have issues with Bloomberg, but I love what he has done to support fewer cars in the city.
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“My guess on Weiner is that he cultivates attractive female admirers via Twitter and eventually proceeds to sending private messages (DM), along with visual aids. ”
So if this was really true (and he’s married now, so he can’t use the single guy excuse), then I’d see the point. I’m pretty much neutral to the possibility that it might be true, because I have been rudely educated as to the sexual shenanigans these guys are willing to engage in. But, I’d need further proof than pure speculation to decide that’s actually the storyline. (i.e. a woman who admits she’s on the other side of the story). I’m prone to believing those women (unlike in the days of yore, when men could do this kind of thing because the women weren’t believed, or were told to shut up).
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“But, I’d need further proof than pure speculation to decide that’s actually the storyline. (i.e. a woman who admits she’s on the other side of the story).”
All we have to do is wait a week or two to see how this develops.
In earlier times, it would have been embarrassing to admit that you had been exchanging dirty pictures with a married congressman, but today, who knows what information people will and won’t share about themselves? One horse to watch is the porn star that Weiner (for some reason) was DM-ing.
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“I’m prone to believing those women…”
There’s no need to take anything on faith. If my guess is correct, there will be a long and very embarrassing electronic trail. If I’m right, it won’t just be a bad three-day weekend, but a multi-week extravaganza of tacky “erotic” messages.
If I’m wrong, Weiner has nothing to worry about. But he does look worried, doesn’t he?
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“If I’m wrong, Weiner has nothing to worry about. But he does look worried, doesn’t he? ”
I yes, but if you are wrong, will you post “I was wrong.”
I agree that he’s acting weasly, though. And weasliness, say, for example, the hiker in Appalachia, was followed by bigger revelations. The weasles have to give up the hope that info is somehow not going to come out. If it’s bad, they have to press through it — and hope for the best, like Arnold, or suffer the consequences, like Sanford & Spitzer.
I’m thinking that we’re going to have to give up marital infidelity as a bar to public office, though, ’cause then we won’t have any public officials. Hmh, though, maybe I’m wrong — they’ll just all have to be women.
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Sure, no problem. Just prompt me in two weeks, and I’ll do it if nothing else pops up. However, I count as right if Weiner drops out of the mayoral race, even if no other information appears.
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Wendy- yes, he said the first thing he’d do if he was mayor would be to “rip out all the fucking bike lanes”. (Crude language in the original.) He didn’t have any good reason for it, of course- it just seemed like a good idea to him. The more I looked, the more clear it was that he had no ideas, other than that he thought it would be great to be mayor of New York, and then who knows, maybe a Senator or something.
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It’s looking more and more that Matt’s bike lanes will stay and Amy won’t have to break out a mea culpa.
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Also, Breitbart might be a bit high strung.
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I was getting worried there. I was starting to think that Weiner had been careful to choose only true blue political loyalists for exchanging pics with.
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You guys beat me to it, Amy was right. Were these messages of mutual consent? Or was he sending the pictures to random women who follow him on the internet?
If the latter, he should definitely resign. And, this is worse than the other guy, the one who has now been replaced by a Democrat.
(Huda should leave him, too)
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I think these guys are being tripped up by the electronic paper trail and the fact that the power to suppress women’s voices is dying. Isn’t that really how folks like Kennedy (and Clinton) got away with it? Even true blue democratic women don’t lie for these guys any more. And, pressure isn’t put on them to do so.
There’s an essay by a woman who had an affair with Jessie Jackson, Sr., and the pressure that was put on her to remain silent when she became pregnant. And, even in that essay, she didn’t name him. It’s public information now, but she was convinced to be quiet for a very long time.
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“Were these messages of mutual consent?”
At least some of them were. I think one of the main things that would get you a Weiner-gram was publicly tweeting political admiration/erotic interest of AW.
It’s a whole new world.
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The only possibility that would definitely kill Weiner’s career is if it turns out to be true that he was messaging inappropriately with high school girls. He was messaging with some high school girls, but whether the content was inappropriate is unclear at this point.
I think Weiner has a good chance of holding on to his seat, but I don’t think the mayoral race is looking very promising for Weiner. It’s one thing to have a sex scandal, but it’s another thing to have a hilarious, humiliating sex scandal.
Worst case scenario, Weiner can join Spitzer on his show.
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But, tweeting that you think some public figure is a hottie, doesn’t mean that you’ll get lewd pictures from them, does it? Hmh, another reason not to get into tweeting.
(Laura, I hope you’re being very careful).
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“Hmh, another reason not to get into tweeting.”
Forgive the expression, but it seems like tweeting is blogging’s slutty cousin.
Here’s an explanation of twitter culture and how it intersects with women (it’s worth reading the whole thing).
“I’ve not done any investigative reporting for Pundit League or any other site in re: WeinerGate for one simple reason:
“I’m a girl. I’ve been on Twitter over two years. I know exactly what happened.
“If you are female & on Twitter & follow back at least 3 men, you have received a naughty DM whether you provoked it or not. I follow back over 900 people, so do the math. The reason I do not follow back all 1948 people who follow me is because, at some point in the past year, I learned that some people are freaking psychopaths. Folk have to earn my trust now before I allow them to DM me. It’s a sad & simple fact.”
I would have posted this on 11d earlier, but we were away for the weekend, so I wasn’t commenting.
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