It’s official.  Former Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY), who resigned in disgrace over a bizarre sexting scandal this past June, was NOT hacked.

Today, eight months after the congressman first claimed he was the victim of a hacking or a prank, the NY Daily News has broken the story that Anthony Weiner spent more than $13,000 in campaign funds to hire private investigators to track down a hacker that never existed.

Weiner paid T&M, a Manhattan-based firm, $13,290 for “legal services” in the fourth quarter of 2011, financial statements filed Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission reveal.

Sources told the Daily News, however, that Weiner hired T&M — a firm loaded with former NYPD sleuths — when he was in full spin mode over the controversy that eventually led to his resignation from the House.

[...]

Two sources familiar with Weiner’s downfall said the Queens pol told investigators the same story. T&M investigated — and learned Weiner had sent them on a fool’s errand.

“They did their job, and then it was time to sit down with lawyers,” another source said. “Self-denial, it dies a slow death.”

Surprised? No, neither were we.

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On today’s edition of Coffee and Markets, Brad Jackson and Ben Domenech are joined by Francis Cianfrocca to discuss Twitter’s decision to sensor tweets, North Dakota’s oil boom and the challenges their rapidly growing economy faces.

We’re brought to you as always by BigGovernment and Stephen Clouse and Associates. If you’d like to email us, you can do so at coffee[at]newledger.com. We hope you enjoy the show.

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From Daily Mail (UK):

An 18-year-old high school senior was scolded by her principal after she criticised her state governor in a tweet.

Emma Sullivan, of Fairway, Kansas, was reprimanded by the head of The Shawnee Mission East High School.

She was summoned to the principal’s office and was ordered to apologise to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback.

Emma posted the tweet during a field trip to the state Capitol.

After meeting Mr Brownback, Emma tweeted: ‘Just made mean comments at gov brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot.’

Mr Brownback’s office contacted the school and complained about the tweet.

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Supporters of the Occupy Wall Street movement took to Twitter to enlist the help of hacker group Anonymous in targeting New York Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman within minutes of his ruling that Occupy Wall Street protesters could not return to camp in Zuccotti Park.

The movants have not demonstrated that they have a First Amendment right to remain in Zuccotti Park, along with their tents, structures, generators, and other installations to the exclusion of the owner’s reasonable rights and duties to maintain Zuccotti Park, or to the rights to public access of others who might wish to use the space safely. Neither have the applicants shown a right to a temporary restraining order that would restrict the City’s enforcement of law so as to promote public health and safety.

This screencap was soon followed by another supporter’s Tweeting of the judge’s home phone number – see below.

The judge’s phone number has been redacted from this Tweet.

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It’s civility week!  Another Twitter montage of #NewTone was just sent our way this afternoon.  Good timing, too, on the heels of Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa Jr.’s warm remarks yesterday.

Lets not forget the lessons in civility that our dutiful media and President Obama conveyed in the wake of the Tucson tragedy. The vitriol does not seem to have died down.  Perhaps this video will help remind people what’s lurking out there on the Twitter public timeline about all you “Sons of Bitches” and “Hobbits” of Terror.

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As I write this, my Android handset is flashing with Twitter updates. I have been engaging in a virtual “war” with a fellow user, who has accused me of being a conservative who wants to murder President Obama and his family ( his exact words). I have several tabs open in my internet browser: Facebook, Drudge Report, Google +. Each page is focused on something I care most about at this point in American political discourse: the economy, the GOP presidential debate, the constant barrage of ludicrous left-wing assumptions that the Tea Party is racist. Again, my phone alerts me that a new blog post has appeared on this very site, and I proceeded to read it. In fact, every little bit of my involvement in conservative politics was birthed from my deep connection to social media, and while I reside here in Dallas, it allows me to keep tabs on the Left, Washington politics, and the various conflicts worldwide.

But this article is not about me. It is about how social media seeks to engage those who have a desire to understand every shift in American politics, but don’t have the luxury of living in the political hotbed of Washington D.C. It does exactly that, but furthermore, it has altered our very perception of the political parties, world leaders, economic, foreign, and social policy, science, and history itself. Our means of communicating ideas has changed dramatically, allowing us to post 140 character statements of the things that matter to us, or create groups on Facebook to promote our beliefs and concerns, or even write lengthy essays on popular websites that push forth certain ideologies. Some would say that this doesn’t affect politics in any significant way, but when simple things, such as a video, have the ability to end corruption at the deepest levels, none can deny just how effective social media has become.

But as we accept just how invaluable social media is to our political discussion, we also must accept just how damaging it can be. While both the Left and the Right have turned to Twitter and Facebook to combat each other, the Left has used these tools more for accusing the Right of immense racism, homophobia, sexism, elitism, and terrorism, and less for espousing rationality and reason. Some even advocated lying for the purposes of winning political debate at one point or another. It isn’t hard to see just how erratic some liberals behave through social networking sites.

Even with the addition of Twitter and Facebook to the equation, blogging is the defined medium for expressing political views. Blogs are where the most impassioned debates on current events take place. Most blogs, such as the ones controlled by new media leaders like Michelle Malkin, Glenn Reynolds, Matt Drudge ( and of course this very site ran by our own Andrew Breitbart), have succeeded in presenting a new type of conservative thought, with a fair perspective on our ever shifting political scene. They hold no punches, and at times, are critical of people within our own movement. If only such civility were commonplace throughout the entirety of the blogosphere. Big name liberal sites like Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Talking Points Memo have used soaring rhetoric and violent language when talking about the things that conservatives care most about, and when discussing conservatives themselves.

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Brian Hall made an insightful observation about the growth and power of Google – one that is worth discussing.  Hall notes that Google has stopped innovating and is using its power to copy, emulate, bully, threaten and manipulate.  The news that Google was purchasing Motorola seems to bolster Hall’s analysis.

Hall wrote:

• Yelp gets popular? Copy their info; shove Yelp to the bottom of the page and put Google Places and reviews at the top.
• Groupon won’t sell? Spend billions from other businesses to destroy them.
• Twitter and Facebook innovate on search? Take their content, whine when they try and stop you then spend billions to prevent their growth and hopefully destroy them.
• Apple working on a touchscreen smartphone? Spend billions from another business and copy everything you can, down to swipes and apps.
• Need a smartphone operating system with Java. Take Java and use it for your own ends.
• Need a location mapping technology and Skyhook won’t sell? Spend billions from your monopoly profits and strongarm your partners and drive Skyhook out of business.
• Buy up the big travel search sites.
• Claim you are open source but share nothing related to what your business claims to be about — search, and nothing related to how you make your money — advertising
• Claim you are open and standards based but control who gets access to your smartphone operating system

Like all rich monopolists, they spend millions hiring high priced lobbyists and public relations teams inside the Beltway — for their direct benefit.

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If we are going to win this thing, this battle to retake our culture and our country, you are going to have to learn to love to fight.

This battle can’t be left to a few champions who do battle on the airwaves or on cable or on the Internet, or who just do their part tweeting and Facebooking.  While we Constitutional conservatives, Tea Partiers, or whatever we call ourselves have been punching above our weight – the merely crappy debt ceiling deal would have been an unholy abomination of a deal if not for the intransigence of our Congressional allies supported by our voices from outside the Beltway – the fact is that we need more warriors.  That’s you.

And to be a warrior you need to want to fight.  You need to need to fight.  I’m not talking about punching and kicking – though if someone wants to go there, hey, let’s rock.  This is spoken or written combat, whether the battlefield is a cocktail party or a Facebook page.  And it’s vital.  These are serious issues that are worth fighting over.   Our Founders didn’t think they were making a country for a bunch of simpering, goody-goody wimps who go all wobbly at a harsh word or a raised voice.  Democracy requires guts.  Nut up.

People whine about fighting, cry over “bickering,” stammer out clichés about “bipartisanship,” “compromise” and being “reasonable.”  Well, I reject bipartisanship, compromise and reasonability, and so must you.  I want to fight and to win; death or glory.  Compromise is for losers – half a turd is still 100% turd.  But enough about the debt ceiling bill.

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An historic first-ever Presidential debate on twitter will take place on Wednesday July 20th 3pm-4:30pm EDT (noon-1:30PDT) with all major candidates expected to participate except one.  The debate is being organized by a group called TheTEAParty.net and will be moderated by FOX News contributor SE Cupp along with popular fellow talk show host Rusty Humphries.  Amato For Liberty will be supporting the event as a participating contributor.

“This is the essence of true democracy”, spokesman Dustin Stockton told me.  “With the tools of social media available today citizens across America will be able to ask their questions directly to the candidates… Instead of the old debate format which is basically a joint press conference…We are going to ask one question of all the candidates and see their answers side by side so that we can really distinguish between what one candidate’s position is and and what another candidate’s position is.  Right there in one form.”

TheTEAParty.net is not an actual TEA Party organization but instead a website which provides helpful resources for all TEA Party members.

“We provide the tools to help TEA Party groups be more effective at what they do.  We can help them build a website, provide phone numbers and voting records of elected officials, help them organize a telephone campaign on a particular issue just to name a few examples”, Stockton said. “We connect TEA Party groups across the country with each other and help provide support from a menu of items as needed.”

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The current issue of The Economist contains a must read special report on the future of the news industry. While there is little in the way of groundbreaking news developments in the report, The Economist’s series of articles provides a condensed overview of the current and future states of the news media; an article of interest to everyone here at BigGovernment.com.

“Bulletins from the Future” celebrates the emergence of “’crowdsourced’ journalism,” which has “turned the news industry upside down, making it more participatory, social, diverse and partisan.” In “How Newspapers are Faring: A Little Local Difficulty,” the writers point out that the decline of print media is mostly an American and Western European phenomenon and in “Reinventing the Newspaper” they examine the new business models that “are proliferating as news organizations search for novel sources of revenue.”

“The People Formerly Known as the Audience” looks at the rise of social media and the impact they have on the news business. “The Foxification of News” partly bemoans and partly celebrates the ideological compartmentalization of the news business.”

A few thoughts. The series makes several references to Arianna Huffington but none of the proprietor and editor of this site. This is unfortunate not because she’s a liberal and Andrew Breitbart and Mike Flynn are conservative/libertarians. Rather, failing to explore what Andrew and his team have accomplished in terms of breaking real stories represents a missed opportunity. Taking nothing away from Ms. Huffington’s tremendous accomplishment, her website is really a highly SEO-ed liberal celebrity site with some reporting, most of it horribly biased, some of it good. Andrew and Mike have moved the needle on key stories and have forced “real reporters” to follow their lead.

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Today, at NOON EDT, BigGovernment will conduct a Twitterview with Congressman Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI). Follow @BigGovt and @ThadMcCotter or #mccotterttv for all the fun. As always, we’ll publish the full exchange later here at BigGovernment.

BigGovernment has been informed by trusted sources that Rep. Anthony Weiner will step down today.

From The New York Times:

Representative Anthony D. Weiner has told friends that he plans to resign his seat after coming under growing pressure from his Democratic colleagues to leave the House in the wake of revelations of his lewd online exchanges with women, said a person told of Mr. Weiner’s plans.

The news comes as Democratic leaders prepared to hold a meeting on Thursday to discuss whether to strip the 46-year-old Congressman of his committee assignments, a blow which would severely damage his effectiveness.

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From Accuracy in Media’s Michael Watson:

In a tweet sent by White House media official Jesse Lee in direct response to AIM’s coverage of the Politico report on the elusive “green jobs” the President has promised, the press office sent “a few folks who disagree.”

The first item was an image of President Obama at a photo-op with workers at a solar energy plant. The second item is more interesting. Lee tweeted an article written for CNBC by “freelance journalist” Rob Reuteman which claimed that “everyone seems to agree there will be many more [green jobs] in the coming decades.” Reuteman claims that “market forces” in addition to regulatory mandates are creating such jobs.

Reuteman notes that “twenty-nine states have ordered their utilities to produce up to 30 percent of power through renewable energy in the next couple decades.” This is a mandate, not a market force.

Reuteman reports that the stimulus program “earmarked more than $70 billion in direct spending, tax breaks, and loan guarantees…most of it for ‘green energy.’” This too is not a market force but state intervention.

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Tomorrow morning (Wednesday, June 15), BigGovernment will feature an exclusive Twitter interview with House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan (R-WI).

We will post 20 questions to Rep. Ryan on the budget debate, Medicare, the presidential race, and more. All questions–and answers!–will be delivered in 140 characters or less.

The fun starts at 11am EDT. Follow BigGovernment on twitter here, or you can follow the interview at #ryanttv.

Also, follow Rep. Ryan here. We can guarantee his Twitter feed is safe for the whole family!

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From ABC News:

ABC News’ Ann Compton (@AnnCompton) reports: Through his Press Secretary, President Obama has finally joined the chorus of other Democrats declaring the behavior of Congressman Anthony Weiner a problem.

“The President feels, we feel at the White house this is a distraction,” White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters on board Air Force One when they asked about the unravelling developments. “Obviously as Rep. Weiner has said himself, his behavior was inappropriate. Dishonesty was inappropriate.”

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BigGovernment has learned from a confidential source on Capitol Hill that, starting tomorrow, Rep. Weiner’s DC staff will depart for other Congressional offices. According to our source, staff from Democrat leadership assembled Rep. Weiner’s staff and offered to assist them finding positions in other offices. Finding positions for everyone in Weiner’s DC office could take a week or two.

“Leadership said they understood that the staff had been lied to,” our source told BigGovernment. “But, they appreciated that the staff had been troopers and wouldn’t be left without jobs. They also made it clear that they didn’t think Rep. Weiner would be back in Congress.”

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From the Associated Press:

The second-ranking House Democrat on Sunday joined the party leadership in urging Rep. Anthony Weiner to quit because of his sexting scandal, a request the New York lawmaker has sidestepped in favor of a temporary leave of absence.

The Republican Party chairman criticized Democratic leaders for not taking a more forceful stand earlier on the affair, which has overshadowed much of the legislative business on Capitol Hill over the past week.

Weiner has acknowledged exchanging messages and photos ranging from sexually suggestive to explicit with several women online, and the latest to surface appeared on the entertainment website TMZ.

The photos posted Sunday were purportedly taken in the House members’ gym and show a shirt-less Weiner with a towel around his waist and his hand on his crotch. TMZ said the photos were sent online to at least one woman.

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Cross-Posted: TobyToons (Conservative Political Cartoons)

Weiner-mania: if the story weren’t so infuriating and sad – and such a damning commentary on our society – it would be laughable. Alas, here we stand at a moment in time when a sitting US congressman – a newly married, sitting US congressman – felt it was “okay” to take pictures of his erect penis and send them – unsolicited – to much younger females. And if that weren’t bad enough, we are led to believe that it is appropriate to have a “discussion” as to whether this idiot should resign or not. Of course he should resign! To believe otherwise is to engage in moral relativism and – contrary to what the Progressive Movement believes – that is a bad thing.

All one has to do to divine whether Congressman Weiner’s actions were as unacceptable as I feel they were, is to consider this singular point. If your daughter was to receive an unsolicited photograph of an erect penis from a man more than twice her age, a photo accompanied by salacious and suggestive comments, would that be acceptable to you? If you say yes then you have some terribly troubling issues that you should seek help with immediately.

The simple fact of the matter is that Mr. Weiner has both an ego and a low self-esteem problem. Obviously (and I am not a psycho-therapist, just a witness of the human condition), Mr. Weiner craves attention and validation. I find it ironic, yet disturbingly appropriate, that Mr. Weiner has chosen a profession that thrives on opinion polling. In the end, however, these personal foibles are owned by Mr. Weiner. But where they affect his personal life – and the lives of those related to him in both familial and professional manners, they also affect the lives of those who depend on Congress to do right by the electorate; the citizenry. To this end, We the People should also hold accountable those who elected Mr. Weiner to office.

Two moments in time lead me to insist that the country hold the voters of New York’s 9th District accountable for their vote to place Mr. Weiner in a position of power: the 17th Amendment and advancing federalism.

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By now, everyone has heard about the controversy Rep. Weiner is embroiled in known as ‘Weinergate‘. Given Weinergate has taken the media by storm and outcries of ‘resign’ are being made even from Democrats (Pelosi has even called for an ethics investigation) we at MRC TV went out to see what people on the street thought Weiner should do: Resign or stay in office.

Here are their reactions….

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