FOLEY: I would like to know

[blogslut]

How old are these Foley IMs? Seems to me, the newer they are, the worse the Repubs look.

I'm also desperately trying to find out if they were, in fact, from AIM software. I have found a link that says Foley used AOL as his email client:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/09/sixteenyearold_.html

Logic dictates Foley would use AIM as his IM program. However, that doesn't stop him from using Yahoo Instant Messenger or MSN Messenger when chatting with those pages in IM. The point being that Yahoo and MSN automatically save IM conversations in a text-based history log. AOL AIM does not. The Repugs are going to bring this up, I fear.

Now I know how to save history in AIM. There's notepad/copy paste and there's screen caps. There's also a bunch of software that saves AIM history:
http://www.filesland.com/download/instant-message.html

Looking at the pdf's of the IM conversations on the ABC site:
http://abcnews.go.com/images/WNT/02-02-03b.pdf

The red and blue lettering do resemble the default font colors for users on AIM software. Then again, those could be the same colors used in Yahoo and MSN IM chat windows. I use ICQ and it displays those colors. Red for for my screen name, Blue for my chat partner.

Do we know positively that Foley was chatting with these young men on AOL Instant Messenger?

[Demit]

1. Just curious. Why would the newer they'd be be worse for Repubs?

And what would be the implication of whether he used AOL or Yahoo?

[blogslut]

3. Newer is more damaging

...because it shows that Foley's behavior was longrunning and progressive.

My point about the software is, as I said:

AOL instant Messenger does not save coversations into history files. Look at the ABC pdfs of the IM coversations. Those look like actual history logs from a chat. If they were cut-and-paste text files, there would be no colored fonts. Was that a creative choice by ABC? Were these pages using a AIM history-saving plugin? If they were Chatting with Foley via Yaho or MSN, then the history files would be automatically created with time stamps n stuff. Did they perform screen captures? How long have the young men been holding onto these IMs?

These are things the Repubs will point out. They are going to attack these young men. They've already started. We need to know as much as we can about how these IM convos went.

[Seen the light]

6. You're incorrect

I saved a funny conversation I had with someone over AIM just the other day and when you pull it up in Word, the color scheme remains and it looks just like the one ABC has shown. I think you're worrying too much.

And I can personally understand why a page would save IM logs like that, especially if it was the same kid that thought it was "sick sick sick sick sick" (I'm still not clear on the difference between these two pages.)

[blogslut]

8. Yeah, I guess it would in Word

Being that Word saves formatting n stuff.

As for my worry, I am thinking of that ass buckeye and his typewriter "expertise". I am thinking of that hag Ann Coulter and her tatement that there's no proof behind the validity of these IMs. I am thinking like they do because they certainly are.

You bet I understand why those pages would save IM conversations with Foley. I would too.

PS: How did you save your AIM convo? Did you copy-/paste? As I siad, from what I understand, versions of AIM from at let 5.9 back, do not save history automatically and there's no "save history" setting.

[Seen the light]

27. Yeah, cut/paste nt

[Demit]

10. When I cut & paste from the web into TextEdit or Stickie Notes on a Mac,

those two programs preserve the formatting. It's reasonable to assume the kids saved the messages similarly. And that ABC would want to preserve them in the way they received them too.

O god, please don't let this turn into another "but the fonts are different!! It must mean they are forged!!!" diversion.

[blogslut]

15. Exactly!

I don't want it to turn into that either. That's why we should find out.

My assumption is that the pages copy/pasted these conversations into txt/word type format and saved them. It would be fascinating to know how long they were saving them. I think these young men are heros. Whether individually or alone, each one had the foresight to save this incriminating evidence in spite of their allegiance to their jobs.

We already hear some of them are being threatened. It will only get worse.

[Spazito]

2. I don't see where there should be concern if they were AIM IM's...

Anyone using AIM/AOL can choose to log their IMs and the IMs ABC received would be from the recipients of Foley's disgusting "chat" not Foley.

[blogslut]

4. It does make a difference

read post #2

I don't believe someone using an AIM client can exchange IM with someone using Yahoo or MSN, unless they're using software like Trillian. Even then, I don't think you can cross IM clients that way.

[Spazito]

11. Ahhh, I see your point...

but why are you thinking the pages were not using AIM as well, I haven't seen any news reports saying whether they were or they were not. Many people have both AOL/AIM and Yahoo or MSN, indeed, I know more than a few that use all three.

[blogslut]

12. Yes, they can use all three

But (and correct me if I'm wrong) one can't use Yahoo Instant Messenger to chat with someone using AIM.

[Spazito]

14. I guess I was not making my self clear....

I saw your point about not being able to chat with a person using Yahoo with your AIM chat program and I believe you are right. My question was why you are assuming the pages were not using AIM as well. Why are you assuming they were using Yahoo or MSN? I have not seen any articles detailing what program the pages were using and it is more than likely the IMs were given to the media by the pages who CAN log their AIM chats as well as cut and paste them into Word to save them.

Again, to be clear, do you have something that has said the pages were NOT using AIM?

[blogslut]

17. I'm not assuming anything

I'm trying to suss this out. If they were using AIM, then each page would have to take extra steps to save those conversations - extra steps one doesn't have to take when using Yahoo or MSN. I bleieve those IMs are evidence. They will be examined.

[LondonReign2]

5. Does it really matter?

Foley resigns and admitted it. Seems impossible for Rethugs to now claim it wasn't true, and the more they do that they worse they will look.

[blogslut]

9. I guess not

Then again, it will in court if this makes it to court.

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. If I was the prosecutor, I'd ask a simple question

If these were forged IMs, would his behavior when shown them be reasonable? he resigns, and makes no attempt to deny them. is that a reasonable response to forged documents purporting to demonstrate your deeply hidden sexual deviance? Any juror who requires more than that - if Foley continues to NOT deny their authemnticity - is a fucking idiot. His behavior, and the behavior of those around him, make the authenticity of these documents clear. Nobody with any connection to the case has YET denied their authenticity. NOBODY. Except a few grasping right wing bloggers who increasingly look like imbeciles, as the non-denial continues.

What is the evidence?

He was asked about the "innocent" emails, and denied he had done anything wrong, aggressively attacking those who brought it up as partisans flinging sleaze.

He was shown the IMs. Did he aggressively deny them? No. he did not. He immediately resigned and went into seclusion. More: his chief of staff begged Ross of ABC not to release them, even offering the scoop of Foley's resignation as incentive. So, does Foley now deny their authenticity? No. He checks himself into alcohol rehabilitation - the obvious reaction of someone who's been framed with fake documents, right? The obvious reaction of someone who tried to defend the email documents prior to being shown the IM's, right? Of course not. Any fool knows that his response is clear evidence of their authenticityy. Any child knows it. But not the right wing bloggers, hoping against hope that it's not true. And, apparently, some DUers won't believe it either without "provenance." Lawyers have a term for such jurors. Idiots. You can catch a killer standing over the bloddy body, holding a knife, with motive, means, and opportunity, all laid out, and these jurors want to see DNA. Idiots.

[blogslut]

20. I agree with your post

Foley quit right after he was shown these IMs.

I just worry. This stinky pile of scandal is gonna get stinkier. I am fearful of how low they will go.

[alcibiades_mystery]

22. You should have just stopped at

"I am fearful."

We need backbone now, not fear. That your fear is without sound basis only exacerbates the problem.

[blogslut]

23. Sound basis

...has never stopped the Repubs. Okay. I'll stop asking questions. But when the validity of these IMs become the center of this scandal, don't say I didn't warn you.

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. LOL

Their validity has been demonstrated. I have no doubt that various imbeciles will try to call them into question. The way to deal with such imbeciles is not to accept their premises, as you do, but to laugh openly in their faces. Instead, you validate their nonsenses by denying the obvious reality yourself. It's laughable, and yes, very fearful indeed.

[blogslut]

25. The validity of Dubya's AWOL activity

was demonstrated in the Killian Memo. That didn't stop his minions from discounting it based on it being a copy of the original.

[valerief]

7. I thought they wiretapped everything transmitted over the internet anyway.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. Oh for God's sake

Positively know? He was shown the IMs and he immediately resigned. He hasn't denied it, nor has anyone else. What the fuck is there to discover?!?

[blogslut]

16. the facts

Look, I know and you know how things will go down. They will pull every trick in the book to make this go away. Those IMs are the strawberry handkerchief of this whole, ugly scandal.

[alcibiades_mystery]

19. Nonsense

It will be nice to have the provenance, but it is utterly unnecessary. Foley's reaction tells REASONABLE people all they need to know about the authenticity of those documents.

[blogslut]

21. Ahhh

reasonable people...yes, they exist.

[karlrschneider]

26. Perhaps but nobody can guess what a judge will allow to be introduced.

...

[blogslut]

28. Yay Brian Ross

In his newest article, the Foley/Page IMs were from 2003:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/new_foley_insta.html

"This message was dated April 2003, at approximately 7 p.m., according to the message time stamp."

So these pages have been keeping these files for 3 years. Wow.

Okay, I'm going to get flamed like hell for this but let me show you all how easy it is to fake an IM log...then again, maybe I shouldn't...sigh