Driver Accused of Murder in Crash That Killed Cheerleader Ashton Sweet

My oldest son ran upstairs a few nights ago to tell me that one of his friends had been killed. They weren't real close, but the teen girl, Ashton Sweet, was in my son's social circle, for football games and social networking. Ashton was declared brain dead by doctors but she was kept on life support while the logistics of organ donations were worked out. My wife took my two sons to the candlelight vigil at the scene of the accident on Monday. The story was on KABC-TV Los Angeles, "Irvine teen Ashton Sweet dies from injuries following Sunday crash" (with video). And at the Los Angeles Times yesterday morning, "Irvine family and students mourn death of cheerleader in car crash." And here's this from late Wednesday, "Irvine man accused of murder in crash that killed cheerleader."

One of those stories that really does come close to home.

We've said our prayers. It's so sad.

Children Are Among Casualties of Syrian Military Raids After Demonstrations

At New York Times.

Also, at Globe and Mail, "How a 13-year-old became a symbol of Syrian revolution."

RELATED: At CNN, "Report: Syrian abuses could be 'crimes against humanity'."

Anthony Weiner Can't Deny That Lewd Twitter Photo is Him

The Los Angeles Times sums up yesterday's news, "Rep. Weiner says he didn't tweet lewd photo":

Reporting from Washington— Rep. Anthony Weiner continued Wednesday to try to extricate himself from allegations that he sent a college student a lewd photo over Twitter, though the congressman's explanations did little to contain the sordid drama.

Weiner, a brash Democrat from New York who is considered a rising star in his party, maintained that his personal Twitter account had been hacked, but in television interviews he would not say for certain whether the crotch-level photo of a man dressed only in underwear was or was not him.

Weiner denied sending the photo to a 21-year-old female student in Seattle, an incident that became public over the Memorial Day weekend after conservative bloggers circulated the Twitter message.

He said that he had retained a private security firm to look into the matter, but would not call in the Capitol police or the FBI.

"I just don't think it rises to that level," Weiner told CNN's Wolf Blitzer. But "I know for a fact that my account was hacked. It happens hundreds of thousands of times every single day."

More at the link.

I blogged this all day on Wednesday, and perhaps the story's peaked (although I said the same thing previously).

RELATED: Also at LAT, "Anthony Weiner: No photographic memory of his underwear drawer." And from New York Times, "Lawmaker Denies Sending Suggestive Photo but Doesn’t Rule Out It’s of Him."

Lawrence O'Donnell: 'Not all sex scandals are actually scandalous'

Says the MSNBC host on Twitter.

And I watched his show tonight. What a disgrace. O'Donnell's a self-proclaimed socialist who rejects the values of a majority of the American people. Nothing wrong with it? We're all human, blah, blah ...? Well, I'd be more accepting of Anthony Weiner if he came out with some integrity in his response to all of this. Even left-leaning New York Magazine winced at the sheer stupidity of Weiner's press relations yesterday.

I'm not finding the whole clip, but Noel Sheppard has commentary and some video at NewsBusters, "Lawrence O'Donnell on Weiner: 'Voters Need to Realize Sex Doesn't Matter'."

Added: Interestingly, just found this at Neo-Neocon, "More on not caring about Weinergate: morality in private and public life."Maybe it's a libertarian thing. Oh, well, that reminds me why I'm not libertarian.

Bret Baier Gets Best Weiner Interview of the Day: 'I Know for a Fact That My Account Was Hacked'

Well, what is it? Representative Weiner told Wolf Blitzer it was just a prank. The guy's hopeless. And boy does Bret Baier put it to him: "It would take one call to the FBI and they would subpoena Twitter and within five minutes you could probably get the IP address ..."

Man, maybe Weiner should've avoided the media sit-downs today. It's like Ann Coulter said, "He cannot have an investigation for the simple reason that it will show that he posted the photograph himself."

RELATED: Howard Kurtz has a mini-roundup of today's interviews: "Anthony Weiner's Junk Defense."

Humiliating Tiny Stub of a Male Organ

Ouch.

From Ann Coulter, at Human Events:

Only a full and complete investigation will show that he had absolutely nothing to do with that humiliating photo of the tiny stub of a male organ sent to a 21-year-old coed from his Twitter address last Friday night.

And not kidding:

The reason the congressman is so eager to forgive the hacker is that there is no hacker. He cannot have an investigation for the simple reason that it will show that he posted the photograph himself.

In a panic when he saw he had hit the wrong button and sent a private tweet of his pecker to his entire Twitter following, Weiner blurted out the hacker defense, quickly typing: "FB hacked. Is my blender gonna attack me next?"

Unfortunately, there was no lawyer in the room to tell him: "Don't say that! They'll have to investigate!"

On Sunday, his staff followed up with a press release, saying: "Anthony's accounts were obviously hacked."

So he can't now claim he didn't say it.

After hiring a lawyer, Weiner quickly backpedaled from the "hacker" claim and began insisting, in another press release: "This was a prank. We are loath to treat it as more."
If it was a prank, then why did he hire a lawyer?

Weiner isn't a celebrity: He's a CONGRESSMAN. Whoever can hack into his Twitter account may be able to hack into other congressmen's accounts -- or into Weiner's briefing files from, say, the Department of Defense.

(Indeed, unless the alleged hacker is arrested, who knows how many Anthony Weiner penis shots could start circulating on Twitter?)

But when one of Weiner's colleagues, Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., requested a congressional investigation into cybersecurity based on Weiner's self-proclaimed computer attack on his Twitter account, Weiner denounced and insulted Stearns.

The best Weiner can do now is try to take his utterly humiliating penis photo out of the realm of criminal law by eliding "hacked" into "pranked." Legally, it's not clear what the difference is.

Anthony Weiner Google Traffic

It's a pretty big story. I noted previously my personal dislike for Anthony Weiner (still more to come on that), but mostly I'm not one to let a traffic opportunity go to waste. And if you think that's shameless, you should see Robert Stacy McCain, "All the Weiner You Can Handle: Why MSM Can’t Ignore This Scandal Now."

RELATED: An indication of how bad this is for the Democrats is how frantic are the efforts to debunk the story. The progressive blog Cannon Fire's getting some play on Memeorandum right now, but check Red State for the debunking of the debunking. Indeed, idiot progressives are further making the case for a formal investigation: "Case Closed? Leftblog Claims Definitive Proof Weiner Was Framed." Also, at Founding Bloggers, "BREAKING WEINERGATE UPDATE: Lefty Blogger Exposes Massive yFrog-Twitter Vulnerability! Weiner Might Not Have Sent The Wiener" (via Instapundit).

Also, at Christian Science Monitor, "Twitter scandal: a mess for Anthony Weiner, a lesson for Congress":

Rep. Anthony Weiner has been unable to put questions about a lewd picture on his Twitter account behind him. The rest of Congress might become more wary of Twitter.

Ya think?

Joan Walsh on #WeinerGate

I don't like Anthony Weiner, obviously, but another reason I'm fascinated by the story is the fail factor on the left. More on that later. For now just dig into Joan Walsh's dishonest, pathetic partisan rant: "Lessons I won't learn from Weinergate."

Also, Weiner was on CNN, and I'll look for the video later. Meanwhile, Ace has comments: "Wolf Blitzer Asking Weiner The Most Candy-Cane Questions Possible."

Anthony Weiner Comes Clean! — UPDATE! MSNBC Interview Added (VIDEO)!!

Not quite, although the congressman's agreed to media sit-downs. I'm watching MSNBC right now. And at Politico, "Rep. Anthony Weiner 'can’t say with certitude' photo isn't him":

"I was a victim of a prank ..."

Rep. Anthony Weiner says he “can’t say with certitude” that the photo of a man’s crotch sent using his Twitter account isn’t of him.

“I didn’t send that picture out,” Weiner says.

“That’s not a picture of you?” he is asked by NBC News.

Weiner responds: “You know, I can’t say with certitude.”

The New York lawmaker continued to claim that his Twitter account was hacked.

Developing ...

12:15 PDT: The Other McCain reports: "Oh, My: In NBC Interview Weiner Won’t Deny Authenticity of Lewd Photo."

And basically the same story at CBS News.

I'm waiting for Rep. Weiner to sit down with Bret Baier at Fox News. This is gonna be killer!

12:45 PDT: Emily Miller tweets this photo:

Still waiting for further interviews. CNN says they have a sit-down with Weiner coming right up ...

1:10 PDT: Okay, here's the clip from MSNBC:

Kashmir Hill: The Perfect Media Storm That Is 'Weinergate'

She writes the "Private Parts" column at Forbes. And she's good:

Unless you unplugged during Memorial Day weekend, and never managed to plug back in, you’ve heard of ‘Weinergate.’ Back story for those that have been in the hospital with firework injuries: a conservative blog reported over the weekend that New York representative Anthony Weiner tweeted a photo of the Congressional member’s member at a young woman in Washington. No actual nudity was involved, though an outline of the littlest member of Congress is visible in the photo of gray boxer briefs and a man’s thighs.

The story has been the perfect storm for news coverage, involving social media, political scandal, and fun word play given Rep. Weiner’s last name.

Weiner has called it a prank, saying initially that his Twitter account must have been hacked. Lots of media are reporting on the story but with little evidence to go on. The photo was taken down right away from Rep. Weiner’s Yfrog account, saved and noticed only by a Twitter user with a conservative bias with the handle PatriotUSA76. Topsy.com indicates the original tweet was retweeted just 16 times, which seems odd since Weiner has tens of thousands of followers on Twitter.

Weiner himself originally joked about the incident, but now, Day 5 into Weinergate, is making clear that he’s sick of answering questions about it. The scandal would have stamina regardless, but unfortunately for Weiner, this happened at a terrible time — during a holiday weekend, when there’s little other news. Weiner’s attempts to move on seem to just be making it worse.

You can say that again.

More at the link.

Also at U.S. News, "PR Pros Say Weiner Is Bungling the Twitter Sex Scandal."

Fox News is reporting that Congressman Weiner will speak to the media shortly. I asked previously if Weiner would resign? I don't think so, but he may come clean and let the chips fall where they may. We'll see.

London's Daily Mail Reports on Anthony Weiner and Porn Star Ginger Lee (PHOTOS)

And then some. It's a story made for the tabloids. See: "Revealed: The glamorous Twitter girls followed by Congressman Weiner as he denies sending lewd picture."

PREVIOUSLY: "Tony Weiner's Tweetin' Heart!"

Tony Weiner's Tweetin' Heart!

Aaron Worthing's unimpressed with Jon Stewart's Anthony Weiner coverage: "Jon Stewart on Weiner: My Friend is Innocent Because He is Not That Well Hung." Video's at the link. And you gotta admit that's something else. Weiner's definitely in Stewart's wheelhouse. And that's not all. The folks at the New York Post are working up a storm on this. Not only are they digging some dirt on Weiner's 'tweet-hearts', but they're killin' the dude at the editorial page. See, "Weiner's tweet-hearts: Babes revealed amid his cranky non-denial on pic," and "The Weiner weirdness: unanswered questions in Anthony Weiner photo flap":

What a creep.

As The Post reports today, it turns out that Twitter, for the recently married Rep. Anthony Weiner, is a cool place to meet girls.

Which may well explain why he was following the Twitter account of a winsome 21-year-old community-college student from Seattle, Gennette Cordova, who last weekend received a lewd photo apparently originating from the congressman's own Twitter feed.
And maybe why, during an extraordinarily contentious Washington press briefing yesterday, Weiner repeatedly refused to answer any questions on the incident.

Weiner initially claimed he was the victim of a hacker -- and then tried to dismiss the whole thing as a harmless "prank."

But by Monday night, the lawmaker had lawyered up -- saying he might pursue "civil or criminal" avenues, although he still hasn't called the cops and yesterday refused to say why.

That's strange: Identity theft involving ordinary people, let alone a congressman, is a serious crime.

So why the reticence to go after someone he says hacked into his accounts, and thus to clear his name as the candidate field forms for the 2013 mayoral race?

Does he hope that the story will just fade away? Not likely.

And still more at the link. The Post indicates that it's about far more than who Congressman Weiner's following on Twitter (not insignificant in itself, of course), but what his handling of the scandal reveals about his fitness to serve --- especially as mayor of New York City.

RELATED: Via Dan Collins, "Hard On Weiner?" Dan's looking to move on to some breast blogging! And well yeah, I'm, a little hung up on the Weiner story, but you gotta go for the SEO when the action's, er, hot. See AoSHQ on that as well, "No Seriously We're Going To Put Up Other News, But, Just This."

Anthony Weiner on 'Good Morning America'!

Man, that's some morning coffee.

And interesting to see George Stephanopoulos reporting. Word has it that Step's mentor Bill Clinton did the honors at Weiner's wedding. Democrats all around would like this to go away, but news is news, and Weiner's making it hard to ignore.

And that's now all. Mediaite has more on the morning news coverage: "Breakfast Sausage: TODAY Shows Weiner Pic Sent From Rep. Weiner’s Twitter."

And The Other McCain takes stock:

Yesterday’s televised meltdown was, I think, complete vindication for those of us in the online community who spent Memorial Day weekend trying to convince people that #WeinerGate was an honest-to-goodness genuine news story.

It’s not only real, it’s spectacular.

Space Shuttle Endeavour's Final Landing

I watched on Fox, and check NASA's Shuttle page for updates. And at ABC News, "Space Shuttle Endeavour Lands Safely in Florida."

I'll post video later this morning.

Added: AP Video.

Paris Hilton Discusses Sex Tape on 'Piers Morgan Tonight'

In yesterday's post, I went without any scintillating photos, etc., of Paris Hilton (well, I actually couldn't resist posting the Stones' "Respectable). But what the heck? She's in the news again with her Piers Morgan interview, so here you go. Breaks up the #Weinergate reporting.

Emotional:

Sarah Palin Meets Donald Trump

See ABC News, "Sarah Palin, Donald Trump Meet In New York City Tuesday Night, Eat Pizza."

Also, "Palin punks the media — again," and "Matt Lewis: Palin’s bus tour causes media bickering on Twitter." Plus, "Palin fakes out reporters at Gettysburg hotel."

RELATED: At Los Angeles Times, "Sarah Palin's bus tour steals spotlight from GOP presidential candidates":

Reporting from Philadelphia

Sarah Palin's bus tour took her to Philadelphia's Liberty Bell and a pizza dinner with Donald Trump in New York on Tuesday, moves that may not have telegraphed serious presidential intentions but at least gave her another day of something immeasurable: attention.

Republican candidates who are intensely wooing early-state voters found themselves eclipsed for another day by the former Alaska governor, who repeated Tuesday that she was pondering whether to run. Unlike them, Palin found herself surrounded by reporters and voters, her bus tour bringing her back to the forefront of GOP politics regardless of her ultimate decision.

"Whether she runs or not, Palin needs to stay relevant in order to leverage her celebrity, influence and earning capacity," said Mark McKinnon, a Republican consultant who helped coach Palin when she was preparing for her vice presidential debate with Joe Biden in 2008. "She just proved that she still can generate crowds anytime she wants. Her machine just got oiled and taken out for a test drive."

McKinnon said that because of Palin's unique status — 100% name recognition and ability to raise money quickly — she could delay her decision longer than any other potential candidate. "And there's no downside to teasing the possibility just as long as possible," he said.

Republicans on the ground in the two earliest voting states agree.

"I do think she's being very smart, sort of helping to keep all her options open," said David Carney, a political consultant who is helping Newt Gingrich in New Hampshire. He has seen no evidence that she is organizing there, but said that if she chose to run, her effect on the race would be "huge."

Andrews Breitbart Calls Out Jeffrey Toobin for 'His Own Sexual Scandal'

Look, I couldn't believe Jeffrey Toobin earlier today, dismissing the Weiner scandal as a silly little matter. I've never thought that way about Toobin, although I never knew the guy was a total dirtbag either. Turns out that Toobin's alleged to have knocked up Casey Greenfield, daughter of CBS News' Jeff Greenfield. I saw this earlier at Moe Lane's, "Hey, Remember Jeffrey Toobin?" Then I caught Andrew Breitbart's tweets on this as well. And as sure as the spring, here comes the Daily Caller, "Breitbart drops the hammer, calls out Jeffrey Toobin on ‘Weinergate’":

“Look, there’s clearly a double standard with the mainstream media,” Breitbart said. “If this were a Republican, like Mike Lee or Larry Craig or Mark Foley, it becomes the single most important story in the history of the media for three weeks, four weeks. We are inundated with it and then the Nancy Pelosis and Anthony Weiners of the world come out there and say there has to be the ethics investigation because this is how Republicans are but yet the Democrats right now are going out there on TV just like Jeffrey Toobin who has been involved in his own sexual scandal – Jeffrey Toobin who sought out during Monica Lewinsky tried to investigate into Henry Hyde’s sex life going back years and this guy is going on television today to say we shouldn’t pay attention to an alleged hack into a congressman’s computer? It’s ridiculous.”

More at the link, including video.

I'm adding this Anderson Cooper clip, with Dana Bash and Jeffrey Toobin. Bash works hard to be a respectable journalist and Toobin, well, he's another ASFL:

The Other McCain's having a huge traffic day as well, and he's probably resting now, but will no doubt be pumping out blog posts when he wakes up in a few hours.

Meanwhile, at Ace of Spades, "In Which I Attempt To Explain Human Behavior To the Reality-Based Community."

Anthony Weiner Resignation Forthcoming?

Sarah Palin's all over the news channels, obviously, since MFM outlets are generally loathe to report honestly on scumbag Democrats. That said, Instapundit links to Mickey Kaus: "The MSM does not seem to be buying Weiner’s line." (Dana Bash was awesome today.) But check Bill O'Reilly on the odd absence of a federal investigation (via Gateway Pundit):

PLUS, Ace of Spades suggests we "Place Your Bets." Okay, I'm betting Weiner's running outta lifelines. Resignation coming soon? Folks joking about it on Twitter. We'll see though.

Anthony Weiner's Angry Exchange With CNN's Dana Bash

At the Other McCain, "#WeinerGate OMFG! @RepWeiner Gives Worst Press Conference EVAH! (Video)."

I'm going with CNN's clip, "Weiner says he's done talking about Twitpic":

And Doug Ross has the transcript: "Kudos to CNN's Dana Bash: Absolutely Shreds Anthony's Weiner Over His Refusal to State Whether He Tweeted the Weiner (Transcript)."

Kaboom! Anthony Weiner Scandal Explodes!

I was wrong last night. When I posted on the New York Times's Weiner twitter story I thought perhaps the scandal was peaking. Maybe it was just me, although, yeah, we had the long holiday weekend and establishment D.C. is back to work. But still, Weinergate has taken off exponentially on the web. If People Magazine's on the case, no doubt reports of a congressman's bulging underwear have some, er, longevity. See, "Did Rep. Anthony Weiner Tweet a Lewd Photo to a Woman?" Well, to answer, Weiner denies it, but his story's been changing and most folks on the right are having none of it. See Cold Fury: "Of COURSE he’s lying." Plus, Aaron Worthing and Lee Stranahan, at Patterico's, have some great reporting, for example, here, here, here (hilariously), and here.

And check out Andrew Breitbart's interview on CNN:

Be sure to listen through to Jeffrey Toobin's ridiculous comments about how Breitbart's statements are "outrageous" and that, "look, this is a lighthearted story ... and everybody knows that on the Internet stuff happens ..." And get this: "Look, Twitter is not a very secure environment ... sometimes the information is unreliable ... it doesn't even come from the people it appears to come from ..."

Right. My god, that's almost a criminal. Any wonder everyday Americans get so angry at the pompous cable talking heads who don't know shit, frankly? Well, it's not all bad. See also Liberty Chick, at Big Journalism, "Blame Breitbart!: Salon.com Editor Joan Walsh Lies and Bullies on Weinergate."

So, yeah, I was wrong about this story peaking. Coverage continues to build, at ABC News, for example, "Rep. Anthony Weiner Gets Combative With Reporters About Lewd Twitter Photo."

And of course, keep up on things at Big Government.

Added: Don't miss Michelle's essay, "Weighing in on Weiner." (Fit is hitting the shan.)

Also, at Hot Air, Weiner has a heated exchange with CNN's Dana Bash!