Another October Surprise

When the Foley page scandal broke in late September, it was due to the anonymous blogsite Stop Sex Predators, who posted copies of emails that Foley had sent to a 16 year old page. The authorship of Stop Sex Predators has been a source of widespread speculation, with accusations aimed at both the Democrat and Republican parties.

Since last week, I've been watching another anonymous blog called Stop October Surprises, who seems to have found proof of the authorship of Stop Sex Predators, by putting a ReadNotify request on emails sent to the blog. The owner of the IP at which the emails were read may surprise you.

The Human Rights Campaign.

I am stunned, to be honest. Somebody at HRC actually looked into their pants and found their balls. There's no way to tell at this point if this was a renegade staffer at HRC working on his own or part of an orchestrated top-down plan to hurt the Republicans in November. The person behind Stop October Surprises claims to know the exact person behind Stop Sex Predators. I attemped an email interview with him, but his responses were slightly obtuse and I suspect that English is not his first language. (UPDATE: English is his first language, he tells me he was merely rushing through a large volume of emails.)

Joe.My.God.: Has the HRC previously disavowed any knowledge of the Foley IM leak?
Stop October Surprises: to my knowledge, the HRC hasn't been implicated until now

JMG: Isn't it possible that the IMs were leaked internally at HRC without the knowledge of top management?
SOS: no comment.

JMG: And since the IMs were proven to be factual, ultimately how does it make a difference where they came from, as it's no secret that the HRC would like the Republican candidates to fail at election time?
SOS: not IMs, emails, stopsexpredators did not leak IM's. and to be precise, no one has proven anything to be factual, frankly, think about it... just because something is out there in the MSM doesn't make it a fact. fact is not equal to mass

JMG: How does Mike Rogers figure into this? Do you think that someone at HRC is feeding him the leaks? Does it matter where he gets his information, as long as it continues to be proven true?
SOS: read my initial blog entry to learn more of how i think. if politics is all about this bullshit, how will anything real get done? i guess we are talking human nature, what must wait for a crisis...

(Stop October Surprises rightfully corrected me that the initial leaks on Stop Sex Predators were emails, not IMs.)

Mike Rogers of BlogActive responded to the above, via email: Those seeking to locate the origins of the emails and instant message chats need look no further than Representative Alexander, Simkus and Reynolds. THEY are the ones that had them first and instead of taking responsibility for ignoring the needs of a 16 year old and placing priority on politics and now seek to confuse the electorate by pointing fingers. It won't work. The origins of the emails are, I believe, irrelevant. My greatest concern is that despite at least three Republican Hose members knowing about the emails, it still took a long time for law enforcement to be contacted. This isn't about October surprises. This is about a cover up... I commend all people responsible for putting this information out there.

With the current legal climate around these matters, I am unable to expand my remarks on the emails, other than to say, I had them before they were published and I was aware of the Instant Message chats before Mr. Foley's office offered to negotiate to keep them hidden from the public. Additionally, when I received the emails, my first move was to verify that they had already been turned over to law enforcement, which I confirmed they were.

So. What do we think about this? Death to the Republican agenda by any means, including anonymous leaks on blogs? Or embarassing dirty trick that may ultimately rob the gay movement of precious integrity? The fact that the Foley leaks did take down a shit-for-brains legislator cannot be discounted, but what will this mean for the HRC in the future? And what, if anything, will the HRC do to address the seemingly damning evidence unearthed by Stop October Surprises?

I will say this: If this all originated from the HRC, I'm impressed that they did something this bold and I'm disappointed that they did it in such an inept fashion.

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