What I don’t understand is how people can be so stupid as to use email for their shannigans, in this day of CSI, Law & Order, and To Catch a Predator Dateline Specials. Don’t these people watch TV??
Here’s the emails :eek:
oog oog oog oog oog :eek:
To put it mildly, the sixteen-year-old doesn’t seem to object to Foley’s flirtations in their instant messaging.
There are multiple teenagers involved. The one who received the emails that started it all is not the same person as the boy (or boys) chatting with him in the IMs. The one who received the emails is quoted as saying things like “sick, sick, sick …” in regard to the correspondence.
And it’s hard to tell just from the chat logs how willing the other boy or boys are. Part of the reason that we don’t let adults fool around with minors is that the inherent power differential may lead the teenager to go along with what the adult suggests despite feeling uncomfortable.
For some reason, I keep being reminded of this bit from Family Guy … .
I’m sure a sixteen-year-old page isn’t necessarily a helpless victim, but that in no way excuses the 52-year-old congressman pervert. What exactly constitutes a “job perk?”
I just have to say that I love this headline on CNN: “Congressman’s notes to teen spawn probe.”
I have not seen one person defend him yet. The way it looks, there is no defense here. I was only making an argument as to the possible defense. But on a side note, what can they actually charge him with. I was reading my Saturday morning paper and it was from a local university law professor that he never asked for sex (that we know of as of now) so it might be a little hard to prosecute.
Very true. Were they hoping it would never get out? Was there any attempt at a cover-up?
You would think many people would learn by now. You hear so much about internet predators getting caught, and with the internet there is almost always a trail. Perhaps he thought he was invincible? Or perhaps he got caught up in the moment.
But is a 16 year old able to legally consent, willing or unwilling? I saw that immediately when I read the instant messages. Do I make you horny? - A little. - Cool. It’s still sick and not in any sense politically correct.
I think Lev meant that he was prepared to defend Foley. Until he got more details, of course.
Well, Foley was on a committee that was apparently pretty darn strict about adults talking online with minors. So whatever his committee would dish out to someone else.
I also wonder exactly why he wanted to be on that committee. Trying to balance his moral bookkeeping? Or doing his own research to see how close he could skate to the line without getting in trouble?
Yes. I phrased that poorly. Thanks.
The first article I read sounded pretty innocent, but after reading more there’s just no way I can see how a person could explain, “I’d like to slip you out of your t-shirt & shorts.”
Whoa…that was really TMI. And icky, too…the kid definitely did the right thing to report him.
Is it just me or does the following IM"
remind you of:
?
Not when I know they were sent to underage boys, more or less in his employ.
As far as I understand it, none of the boys was in his employ at the time he sent the messages to them.
There’s more: Republican leadership has known about this for months.
The next month is going to be very very interesting…
Not tangential enough for its own thread.
The idea that these guys went along with it because Foley was an adult in a position of power has already been raised. But I’m wondering, especially since one of the IM logs has the teenager mentioning a girlfriend: Would two straight 16 y/o guys be inclined to have discussions like “What do you use?” – “A towel, but it’s kind of rough”? I mean, would the relative impersonality of IM make this seem less skeevy to the 16 y/os, so that they’d be less aware that they were talking to a guy 2 1/2 times their age? Or could Foley have been leading them in a direction that they wouldn’t normally go with anyone?
That’s pretty innocent compared to the ones where he was talking about masturbation.
The PDF link to the IMs that astro posted above is really weird; he’s explicitly talking to the kid about whether he has a girlfriend - why would a 16 year old boy who’s into girls be having steamy IMs with a Congressman anyway? Was the kid afraid to piss Foley off, or was he actually into it? :: shudders :: Ugh! Creepy creepy creepy!
Well, that’s my point. He could have just as easily told Foley to buzz off, or ignored him.
Yeah, pdf’s are disgusting, and I didn’t care for the content either.