n/t

Link to tweet

n/t

on the planet.

which is why when he said he didnt "remember" it that way, a classy way of saying she is lying, I agreed.

Proud to say I wasn’t one of them either.

tip of the cap to a fellow non sucker

We don't need spineless Dems who roll over at the first gust of RW spin!

Great Sig Line

I had forgotten how explicit Colbert was when he said that.

...but these are different times. I wonder if the repugs are trying to lenny bruce us? Where something loses its potency and shock value because its become so 'common place'? They are going to work overtime to dredge up every incident of what they will think we will perceive as inappropriate behavior and let us waste our time trying to determine if its a real assault or a 'whoops'...until we get tired of hearing about it and it just becomes part of every day behavior.

pedophilia. It won't stop here. If Moore is elected, he won't be removed.

I think that the Breitbart types are setting her up, and I think, too, that she may ultimately have felt uncomfortable on the whole USO tour. One thing that makes me distinctly uncomfortable with the clips I've seen is that she seems to be the only prominent woman there (of course, the clips could be selective).

Raunchy humor doesn't always appeal to me (sometimes it does, I admit), but in this case, it seems that she's in every skit, just her and a bunch of men. Maybe she was trying to be one of the guys, maybe there were more women there that we don't see, and I don't know who wrote all these skits, but I think it's odd that she seems to be in almost all of them.

And after putting up with that to entertain the troops, now the right-wing is using her again, to try and set up people she worked with. I don't like that aspect at all. In other words, I do think Franken is a good guy and I withheld judgment on him, too, but if these clips are any indication of what it's like to be a woman on a mostly-male USO tour, I don't think that's a healthy situation at all.

It's all very complicated. I do think she was being used, I just think she's turning her fire on the wrong target.

That is how the best and easily remembered lies are told.

I know what you mean, but we’re not all perfect.

Franken kisses the woman accompanying him. Then she'd say something like "I'd rather kiss one of these soldiers/airmen/Marines." Then they'd bring up someone from the crowd for a kiss.

Are you sure the photo her kissing someone isn't also part of the skit?

Then I asked a question for clarification.

Thanks for your enlightening response.

routine. It was nothing new or spontaneous IMO.

I just was looking for clarification was this part of the skit or not.

The poster's point was that this kiss wasn't a separate incident; it was Tweeden performing a part of the skit. At best it shows she was more than happy to kiss other men. Just not Al Franken.

The “offending event” took place during a rehearsal, not the actual performance. Nonetheless, I tend to think that the whole affair was a hit job. This was not a spontaneous disclosure. It was planned with RW media stars and Roger Stone.

THAT was always part of the skit. (So was the part where Al Franken kisses her, as a matter of fact. That part was NOT written expressly so he could kiss her, as she claimed.)

The offending kiss that so traumatized her she couldn't ever look at Franken again without clenching her fists? Except of course at the Awards dinner a few years later where she was photographed having a jolly old laugh with him? Yes, that happened at the backstage rehearsal, if it did.

She does have a few problems with her story. No wonder she doesn't want an investigation.

Added to the general atmosphere of license

And her claiming that he wrote the scene for her?

All part of Franken’s 2003 USO tour. There’s video.

Cable news just wants a “two sides” narrative so it doesn’t look like they’re biased against Roy Moore. “Feels like” is probably a better term. We’re being hosed.

That's why I said his female counterpart, not necessarily her.

For one, she was wearing a bikini in that photo. She wasn't wearing a bikini in the skit.

The tour was two weeks long. I think they went to different bases, so they were doing more than one show.

“but have you seen her kissing a surprised soldier clean on the mouth?“

Fraud, lies, deception, and don’t look at the real issues........

.... is that these allegations lodged by Senator Franken's accuser are still being reported strictly from the view of Tweeden without even a mention of the photos referenced in the OP. Most notable is the absence of these photos and comments from some people who were there on The Rachel Maddow Show, All In With Chris Hayes, and the Last Word With Lawrence O'Donnell. That it's coming from Keith Olberman is no surprise to me being that he is just about the last true journalist we have. Meanwhile Roy Moore's accusers have been scrutinized up one side and down the other. She put herself out there with the accusations so when will the public get a glimpse of tweeden' s personal life in the mainstream media?

Many years ago, not long out of college, I took job that had an assignment involving a healthcare enterprise project. The majority of the staff for this particular project were composed of registered nurses. RNs often get burned out on patient care and want to put their skills to work in more of an office setting rather than direct patient care. Not uncommon. So I started work in the information tech part of the project, among the numerous RNs, so I was very much the minority male.

So shortly after I started work there, one of the ladies in the office had a birthday. Among the crowd, one of the other ladies made the comment "we need to get out the birthday boy". The "birthday boy" was a life sized cardboard cutout of a hunky sort of Chippendale type guy, naked except for holding a birthday cake in his, uh, area. They put the cardboard "birthday boy" out in the common conference room area, and all of us chatted and had cake and such, and it was otherwise sort of a kind of normal office birthday celebration for an employee. The casualness of the action though led me to believe this had been a rather common occurrence prior to my arrival and the arrival of others, as they had gone on a bit of a hiring binge at that time. I made no stink about it, just sort of sat there wondering if there was even one of the women who would not have been up in arms if men around the office trotted out a "birthday girl" in a scantily clad bikini cardboard cutout carrying a cake. The hypocrisy was not lost on me, though it apparently did not occur to those women at the time. For whatever reason, they never did that again. Perhaps someone complained, or they came to realize this just wasn't something they should be doing. For whatever reason they just stopped.

Point is, the problem with this type of thing, is that it fosters a mindset that this type of semi raunchy behavior is more or less acceptable. After all, how can men be expected to live up to a standard if the women are not? What's good for the goose has to be good for the gander in these situations. Looks to me like Leanne Tweeden is guilty as charged along these lines, between the ass grabbing of the guitarist in the above photo, as well as the ass slapping of Robin Williams in earlier footage posted on this board. How can it be argued that she did not foster this type of behavior? I have little hope her actions are going to get any mainstream coverage, for fear of being accused of employing the "blame the victim" mentality.

I had a photo I'd taken of a friend of mine in a sea-shell bikini. It was in my cubicle in such a place that you could only see it if you came into my cubicle.

One day, my boss (female) called me into her office to tell me that I had to take down my photo, as someone had gone into my cubicle, saw the picture and complained that it was offensive.

I pointed out to my boss that she had, at that very moment, a calendar with Hawaiian pin-up boys on the wall behind her, that I had to see every time I came into her office. She claimed that was different, to which I told her she was correct: my photo was of a friend of mine and hers was just puerile. She never admitted I had a point.

I am surprised that some old time DUer's were involved.

Tweeden has some surprising defenders here.

I do indeed get your drift.

I don't think that is where we should go immediately — witness this Al Franken/Tweeden situation.

I was listening to Michelangelo Signorelle's show on satellite radio today and he had a guest on who actually said that (always believe the woman), and he agreed with her as they talked about Moore, Charlie Rose and Al Franken.

They lumped him in with all the others.

Hope this #me_too movement matures quickly towards more reasoned and considered stances on this issue.

they are dirty from wallowing all that slimey filth they call "family values."

Got it.
And what about the 2nd woman who came forward? She a fraud too?

Jeez.

The one who claimed Al Franken OMG! totally molested her! while her husband snapped a photo of the two of them.

I can’t believe what I’m reading here.

Did you believe that woman? it was released last week with a similar story.

Your going to tell me a strange man grabs your ass and doesn't let go and your going to serenely SMILE and not even look shocked?
Oh did i mention your husband is TAKING that picture?
Did I mention both women are maggot voters?

Go check it out. Nobody is dismissing her statement. Its very easy to grab someone as a picture is being taken. 3,2,1..simple.
Do I KNOW theses legit? No, and I dont know if the Bush one is either
But I believe women should be listened to when they bring up what they consider inappropriate acts. I also believe there are different levels that you cannot equate. Such as either of these incidents and ANY of Roy Moore's.
Are we not to believe a woman based on who she voted for? So the Moore accusers who are not trump voters or republicans should be dismissed?

"But I believe women should be listened to when they bring up what they consider inappropriate acts..."

Thankfully, no one is making that argument, regardless of how your bias may interpret it otherwise.

But yeah... keep pretending that argument is being made-- many narratives require we believe self-validation is not quite so great a flaw as mere accuracy.

The fact that someone is or isn't a trump voter is constantly being mentioned in these discussions as though it is a qualifier. Please educate before you participate in your personal entertainment of condescension

with every passing day. Remember this,next week we are seeing Net Neutrality being taken down. BTW,this piece of crap appears to have been in the can since 2009. Coleman-Weber Lobbying group?

so i'm not shocked. I was closer to expecting it.

During his college years, my father rented a room from the warden of a penitentiary that incarcerated a large number of men for rape. The warden felt that 30% of the men incarcerated for rape were innocent - many convicted back then on the basis of who the jury believed: the man or the woman.

My father cautioned me on this. It's always stuck with me.

Having said that, the allegations against Moore, Trump, Charlie Rose, Weinstein, etc are daunting and we cannot immediately dismiss anyone coming forward.

i'm just reserving judgement more than some.

They're not on KO's twitter page.

Did to her before she put her leg around him.she just laughed it off.

to give the troops a little music, a little comedy (sometimes suggestive), and a nice looking woman to show off a little T&A, this sort of thing has been going on for years ... makes you wonder who Bob Hope was grabbing.

I'm convinced al Franken shouldn't even have apologized for the faux "groping" photo.

A) the entire "act" is non stop grab-assery

B) the entertainment pretty much sucks. I guess any entertainment is good enough when you are thousands of miles from home and in a war zone.

I am a woman, and I did not believe her for two reasons: 1. Roger Stone knew about it before the public, and 2. The Senator ran for two elections and she never said anything, that I find very strange.

But it's not because she took naked pictures once or twice a or a hundred times.

One has nothing to do with the other.

I was going to say welcome to DU, but you've been here quite a while. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Like Stone contacting her or Hannity telling Stone he remembered seeing that pic with her and Al?

It has nothing to do with partying.

She said she had a picture of her being groped. She did not. That was a lie.

She told a tale of being forced into a kissing scene against her will. Then we found out that those precise words were a part of the script and had been for years. It’s the equivalent of accusing Marlon Brando of being abusive because of Streetcar Named Desire. So that was a lie, too.

There is no simple truth here, but there are a couple of simple lies.

From the beginning.
I call foul on the second one who claimed he grabbed her ass and held on while her husband took the picture..
BULLSHIT.

Curious...

Perhaps moose and squirrel references are on the money

Can neither be at fault or are both at fault?

If a woman acts in a certain manner with other men, is it a license or open invitation for a different man to grope or kiss her without her permission?

she thinks nothing of it when she’s doing the goofing off

Does not excuse or have anything to do with what may or may not have happened to her or any unrelated accusations she is leveling?

It's ok to attack or attempt to discredit a female accuser as long as it's to protect one of our own is the vibe I'm getting from many here.

was full of raunchy, bawdy behavior.

And she also LIED in her statement when she said she was just expecting to be an emcee or host, not for Franken to ask her to be in a skit. She was in multiple other bawdy skits on the 2006 tour; and she had been in previous bawdy tours, also as a performer, not an emcee.

She told so many lies she has no credibility. For all we know she was awake with her eyes closed for the fake-groping picture, and was participating in the gag.

People are just looking at specific circumstances in this specific case.

I hope you would agree that accusers shouldn't just get a blank check.

But the fact she patted a guy on the butt doesn't make it less likely that Franken could have done something to her that she didn't consent to.

It’s not like she was young and afraid and couldn’t say get the hell away from me. There’s a moment when we have to ask ourselves what’s real sexual abuse or assault. He stole a raunchy kiss, ewe, but not assault and cause to be forced out of your Senate seat!!!!!

Could be politically motivated or just for revenge.

What matters is if it is the truth or not. Al already apologized and admitted some fault, with more accusers coming out now I don't think he lasts much longer.

Fakes, posers, liars and media whores, do not influence a well informed electorate. Support freedom of the press to represent US when a foreign government, Russia, is trying to destroy the fabric of democracy? Greed and worship of authoritarians is not in the best interests of the US, or the World. imo

The Playboy/Maxim model seems to get around.

Tweeden has a real history of being a RW zealot. I saw an old clip yesterday on a DKos post that showed her attacking Shirley Sherrod AFTER everybody, including even Hannity guests with her, knew how innocent,actually inspiring Sherrod's comments were. She's a longtime RW Fox news/Hannity regular hatemonger. It's apparent in that old clip on Hannity

Roger Stone knew ahead of her going public, the RW propaganda machine was primed; the TIMING: to cushion Roy Moore (and Trump's) sexual perversions w the MSM knee jerk "both sides" awa drown out this hideous REpug Tax Scam and Net Neutrality Repeal .....hmmm

Her immediate $ deals with ultra RW Sinclair broadcasting, that's pretty much stinks to me of pay to play for the RW money machine..


Tweeden and the other Franken accuser....if these things really happened, why in the world did they not do what most women would have done at the time ....just slap him on the spot? They were in pubic, he had no power over them, there was no reason not to call him out. Instead, years later, they are "reporting" Al Franken.

I haven't bought into either of these attacks against Al Franken. And I am disgusted at all the Democrats who turned on him immediately instead of letting the Senate investigation he requested play out. These 2 accusations ag Franken are just too thin and too convenient. And I do believe other charges against other Democrats . Just not these against Al Franken.