Blogger credited in discovering identity (of former House page)

News 9 Oklahoma ^ | 10-4-06

[truthandlife]

William Kerr knew he was on to the biggest story of his life. But he didn’t know it was in his own back yard.

Kerr, of Moore, is the author of the blog Passionate America, which is being credited with discovering the identity of the former House page who may have exchanged inappropriate instant messages with former Rep. Mark Foley, and that the former page now works for Oklahoma gubernatorial candidate Ernest Istook.

Kerr said he received e-mails and phone calls from national media outlets Wednesday, including the tabloid television program Inside Edition and Internet pundit Matt Drudge.

“I started thinking, ‘I’m not big enough to put this story out,’” Kerr said. “In the four days that we really worked on this, we just said to each other, ‘Do you know how big this is?’”

Kerr said he stumbled onto the former page’s AOL screen name when looking at transcripts of the instant messages on ABC’s Web site Saturday.

He said he typed a slightly-different Web address into his browser and found a version of the transcript with the screen name.

Kerr and another blogger spent several days researching on the Internet.

They had determined the page’s identity and were about to publish it when they found out he worked for Istook.

Kerr said he accidentally posted the story before he intended. Although he removed the post, the information already had spread.

He tried to verify the former page’s identity through Istook’s campaign office, but was turned away.

[TXBubba]

Sorry for replying AGAIN. My mistake for not reading the thread and realizing you had already go the same info. like 10 times already.

[cowboyway]

What did ABC know and when did they know it?

We need a full investigation and the leadership at ABC needs to step down immediately!

[poobear]

"I'm trying not to but I keep getting sucked in -- no pun intended."

LOL! Same here. I think one 'victim' has hired a high profile attorney for his 'defense'. These guys give all new meaning to "Drama Queens", if you know what I mean.

[George W. Bush]

What did ABC know and when did they know it?

They knew from the beginning. It's clear that they deliberately manipulated the story to make Foley look like a pedophile when he was actually doing cybersex with someone over the age of eighteen.

[George W. Bush]

There's more than one page, it appears, one from Louisiana and one from California, and they're different ages.

The emails were to the 16-year-old from LA, pretty innocent, nothing criminal. The IMs were to the kid who turned 18 by the time Foley was doing the cybersex thing with him (but Foley had typed some creepy IMs to him before he was eighteen as well).

It appears Foley knew the law. He was scouting them while they were pages but waiting until after they were eighteen. That's why he kept asking when their birthdays were and apparently avoided illegal conduct while they were underage.

ABC knew all this. But they could skew it into a hitjob on the GOP and Hastert. The goal: the House in Dim hands.

[CobaltBlue]

The age of consent in DC is 16, and Foley lived in DC and the pages' dorm is in DC, so not illegal.

Maybe a violation of some ethical rule, I dunno.

I haven't read the explicit stuff, every time I see something that says, "warning, explicit language" I skip it. My stomach isn't that strong.

Apparently Foley's homosexuality was an open secret, everybody that wanted to know knew, everybody else suspected it but didn't want to make a big deal about it.

If it turns out that the hoorah is just about the fact that some Republicans are Religious Right, well, so what? Some aren't. I don't care whether someone's gay.

[dcrider182]

hold on. Have you ever been to Myspace.com? you can be whoever you want and whatever AGE you want.. Heck. I can make a profile right now saying that I was the page and that i was 15 then..

don't put to much stock into ANYTHING you get from the Space pages.. unless you can ALSO find the same info someplace else.

[George W. Bush]

If it turns out that the hoorah is just about the fact that some Republicans are Religious Right, well, so what? Some aren't. I don't care whether someone's gay.

I'm consider myself Religious Right. That doesn't mean I think all sins should be legislated.

Christ didn't die to institute a legislative agenda, He died to save us from our sins.

There are lots of lazy nominal Christians who want the State to accomplish that which they are too lazy or too timid to do themselves: offer Christ as Savior to sinners. Their sloth and expediency is no excuse to re-enact the worst failings of the medieval Roman Catholic church as an arm of the State. And it is un-American to misuse the state's power in this way. This is what I distrust about FRC/Dobson/Perkins.

Some Religious Righters should really change the Lord's Prayer to be more honest about their ideals: "The State is my Shepherd, I shall not want..."

[mrsmith]

An excellent job by William Kerr.
Thorough and thoughtful.

What makes the right wing internet so good is that the media has to be forced to listen to us, the left wing internet is abysmal because the media holds them to no standard (like themselves LOL!).

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Some Religious Righters should really change the Lord's Prayer to be more honest about their ideals: "The State is my Shepherd, I shall not want..."

I thought that was from the 23rd Psalm.

[CobaltBlue]

Can you tell when a Myspace profile was created?

[LikeLight]

What did ABC know and when did they know it? To put all these IM's up on a web site and either state or imply that the young man corresponding with Foley was underage is a deliberate effort to manipulate the public.

And tamper with a Federal election.

[George W. Bush]

I thought that was from the 23rd Psalm.

It is. I stayed up way too late, gloating over the collapse of Foleygate so I'm a little foggy today. And I'm riveted to Rush now, exposing all this stuff we've been discussing here.

Like watching a (Dim) trainwreck...

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

Like watching a (Dim) trainwreck...

No, it's like a rhine-stone COW-boy . . .

(Chortling over the earwig I just gave you)

[Repub4bush]

I am sure someone has already posted it this on FR somewhere...

But, I think this story came out sooner than they wanted, to get the media off the Sink Emperor's interview on Fox.

While I despise what Foley has done, I like everyone else finding the timing just a tad too convenient.

[FreedomNeocon]

Well thats their tactic.... once something starts to blow up on them they quickly move onto a new issue to distract from the 'revelations'.

They were rattled from surge in Bush's numbers for a few weeks, got jittery, and couldn't help but play the NIE card early. Then when Bush skunked them, declassified the rest of the report a day or two later, they had no choice but to play the 2nd card in the deck. Now that it is starting to fall apart on them, I predict that by this weekend we'll have the 3rd card played.

They are trying to move from one to the next to minimize the effect of the corrections while still going all out on the accusations.

[FreedomNeocon]

Well thats their tactic.... once something starts to blow up on them they quickly move onto a new issue to distract from the 'revelations'.

They were rattled from surge in Bush's numbers for a few weeks, got jittery, and couldn't help but play the NIE card early. Then when Bush skunked them, declassified the rest of the report a day or two later, they had no choice but to play the 2nd card in the deck. Now that it is starting to fall apart on them, I predict that by this weekend we'll have the 3rd card played.

They are trying to move from one to the next to minimize the effect of the corrections while still going all out on the accusations.

[smonk]

He's also lawyered up with McVeigh's defense attorney.

---

okay, a mere side issue, I realize, but I don't think I would pick an attorney who's most notable client was executed.

[dcrider182]

yes.. it'll say on the left hand side.. "member since..." it will also say when it was last updated.. thats a little harder to find however..