A/S/L?

I once wrote about Spokane Mayor James West and how it was found that he used government computers to cruise for hot young gay booty to get his groove on and then offer them internships.

Now West is all up in arms because he says his right to privacy had been violated. Waah. Steve "The Eugster" Eugster, some lawyer and former councilmember in Spokane, is throwing terms around like "entrapment" and "violation of privacy." Waah.

Now look Jim, here's the thing.

1. Conversations you have on chat are not private. Your chat recipient could save the text of your conversation and send it to Jah knows who. I've done it. People I know do it. We all do it. And if one of your young, nubile gay.com boys find out they're chatting with the MAYOR, best believe they'll do it too. ("Girrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl, you won't believe who I'm chatting with!")

2. If you are on a pay-in ISP such as AOL (full disclosure: I am a subscriber, don't judge me), not only is there no reasonable expectation of privacy, but your speech while on the ISP does not enjoy any First Amendment protection. You buy into the service, you abide by their rules, they have you by the nuts. Basically.

It's amusing how they're crying "invasion of privacy," and "entrapment," and how Jim West is being victimized.

"Brutally outed"? Sure. But: What we have here is a closeted gay public official who a) is part of the Republican party (like that's not cognitive dissonance in and of itself), and b) has voted for the Defense of Marriage Act. Basically, the hypocrite is getting what he deserves.