On the 26th, the Washington Post retracted its claim that the feds are charging O’Keefe with an attempt to bug Sen Landrieu’s phones.
A law enforcement official says the four men arrested for attempting to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) were not trying to intercept or wiretap the calls.
What the four were trying to do, clumsily indeed, was to document allegations that Landrieu’s staff has been ignoring phone calls about the Democratic senator’s health care position. A number of sources have said that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.”
I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working. On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. – James O’Keefe
The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
Most likely, the four will plead to a lesser sentence than trespassing and receive community service or probation. Don’t hold your breath for the Government Run Media to retract phrases like Watergate and wire-tapping. Just wish they’d had the interest in the REAL ACORN story, instead of this one. Guess I can say it just like the ACORN apologists did.
Case closed.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
tery i wonder what acorns leader FAR LEFT VERN thinks of this .
Nice try Terry, but Firedoglake’s blogger Marcy Wheeler punches holes through pimp-boy O’keefes “story”.
TeaBugger O’Keefe: Liberate the Tapes!! (No, Not THOSE Tapes!)
By: emptywheel Friday January 29, 2010 1:14 pm
There’s a real irony in James O’Keefe’s latest explanation for why he committed an alleged felony in an attempt to embarrass Mary Landrieu. He is now calling for the FBI to release the tapes that he and his accomplices made while in Landrieu’s office.
We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
As you recall, one of the reasons why O’Keefe managed to impugn ACORN even though they had not engaged in any illegal activity is because he edited his videos significantly. He has refused, repeatedly, to release that raw video.
The unedited videos have never been made public. The videos that have been released appear to have been edited, in some cases substantially, including the insertion of a substitute voiceover for significant portions of Mr. O’Keefe’s and Ms.Giles’s comments, which makes it difficult to determine the questions to which ACORN employees are responding. A comparison of the publicly available transcripts to the released videos confirms that large portions of the original video have been omitted from the released versions.
[snip]
Experienced forensic investigators would be able to determine the extent to which the released videos have been manipulated to distort, rather than merely shape, the facts and the conversations, as ACORN alleges.
So when O’Keefe wants to rebut the FBI’s affidavit alleging that he “by false and fraudulent pretense … did in fact enter [] real property belonging to the United States for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated and controlled by the United States,” he’s in favor of releasing his video tapes. But when O’Keefe seeks to sustain an inaccurate narrative about ACORN’s alleged corruption, he refuses to release his tapes.
Once again, this reveals O’Keefe’s attempt to limit the damage of his alleged crime. Here’s the part of his statement that doesn’t attack the MSM, with my interjections.
The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.
Note the careful wordplay here. O’Keefe claims that the government agrees that “nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines.” But that’s not quite the same as having the intent of “maliciously interfering” with her phone lines, which the FBI did allege. Now, for starters, given that Landrieu’s staffer stated that “BASEL [took] the handset of the phone and maipulate[d] it,” Basel did do something with the main phone in the office. Moreover, since the TeaBuggers never got to the phone cabinet, where they might be able to “cut or shut down” her phone lines, it may well be that the TeaBuggers never had a chance to do so, even assuming they’d be competent to do so. Sure, they didn’t try to do so. They were arrested before they got a chance to.
As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN. For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.
Note here how O’Keefe’s entire excuse depends on the veracity of the claim that he “revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.” But of course he didn’t. He revealed that a couple of volunteers, part-timers, or other employees that ACORN didn’t directly control were way too credulous. He didn’t reveal anyone breaking the law (because no ACORN employee did anything in response to O’Keefe’s stunt). And O’Keefe specifically chose not to reveal that a number of other ACORN employees called the cops to report him and his accomplice.
In other words, central to O’Keefe’s excuse is a lie, a lie meant to obscure what he has and hasn’t “exposed.”
I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.
While I’m sure this kind of fiction works for many of O’Keefe’s biggest fans, it is a lovely example of the extent to which O’Keefe was framing Landrieu, rather than “exposing” anything about her conduct. First, even assuming the TeaBaggers who were having trouble getting through on Landrieu’s line were actually Landrieu’s constituents (of the TeaBuggers, only Flanagan is a Landrieu constituent), the belief that she, personally, was taking millions of federal dollars for her vote on the healthcare bill is backed by no evidence. Rather, the TeaBaggers were mischaracterizing the Louisiana Purchase, which actually involved Landrieu getting millions for her constituents.
And then, similarly, O’Keefe takes Landrieu’s explanation that her “lines have been jammed for weeks” (which was actually true of a great many members of Congress during this time frame) to mean that “her phones were broken.” Another false leap in logic designed, even after having been caught in a potential felony, to frame Landrieu inaccurately.
And then my favorite part of this whole explanation: “we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.” First, I repeat my question: if the phones that – TeaBaggers had alleged – were jammed were in Baton Rouge, then why go to her NOLA office?
And nowhere in the FBI affidavit does it record the TeaBuggers “ask[ing] the staff if their phones were working.” Instead, it describes the TeaBuggers telling Landrieu’s staffer that they were there to fix something: “FLANAGAN and BASEL represented to her that they were repair technicians from the telephone company and were there to fix problems with the telephone system.” In other words, they never asked if something was broken. They simply asserted something was–and then “manipulated” the phone. Of course the entire clown outfit get-up would make no sense if they intended to “ask” if the phones weren’t working. Key to the narrative O’Keefe was spinning, then, was the claim that the phones weren’t working.
And if you were just asking if the phones were broken, why go to the telephone closet? And why have Dai on call with his walkie-talkie, in a car rather than Flanagan’s office practically next door? If you were just asking if the phones were broken, why delete all your friends on FaceBook after you get busted?
No, it’s clear that, at best, O’Keefe intended to pretend the phone was broken to film Landrieu’s staffers’ response.
On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation, particularly given the sensitivities that people understandably have about security in a federal building. The sole intent of our investigation was to determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents who were calling to register their views to her as their Senator. We video taped the entire visit, the government has those tapes, and I’m eager for them to be released because they refute the false claims being repeated by much of the mainstream media.
Once again, if your sole purpose was to “determine whether or not Senator Landrieu was purposely trying to avoid constituents,” it would involve no more than a question. Heck, you could even film the receptionist answering the damn phone to see how she was responding to real constituents. That would be a way to expose the truth, whatever that might be. But to do what O’Keefe and his accomplices did–even accepting the parts of his statement that aren’t obvious lies as reasonably accurate–necessarily involved the depiction of false narratives rather than the truth.
Just like his ACORN tapes did.
Which is why O’Keefe only wants select tapes released.
Blowjob Wheeler??!! She is more interested in uncovering the treatment of terrorists in custody than she is uncovering their specific crimes. And she whines about how KSM wants to be put to death so we won’t find out everything about his so-called torture. Emptywheel just can’t cut a break and get them terrorists to cooperate and condemn America as the reason they became terrorists in the first place.
Conspiracy nuts like Wheeler are going to squeal everytime the truth gets out. So what? There’s nothing about the phone closet or Facebook in the official reports. Nothing. That’s purely an blogger invention. Just like the rest of the Lefts “reality”.
And this argument that somehow the undoctored tapes weren’t given in the ACORN scandal, so O’Keefe doesn’t deserve to be judged on his tape of the current scuffle is ridiculous. All one has to say is, the ACORN tapes ARE undoctored! Nothing you can say or do will change that.
Where in the world do they find these people? I am really glad the O’keefe kids and his mate exposed these dirt bags for what they really are… I hope more people have the guts to expose these left wings wack job organizations.
You got all that, Grate One, Terry, or was it too long and complicated?
You’ll notice I never said in my “Scumbag FAIL” story that the scumbags were attempting to “bug” the phones – it wasn’t clear exactly what they were trying to do yet, and maybe I’m a more careful journalist than some at the Post or elsewhere! But it’s goofy to call it “slander” to get the precise nature of their probable FELONIES a little wrong.
So what do you think, shouldn’t we be able to see ALL the tapes – the NOLA break-in tapes as well as the unedited ACORN tapes? Sounds fair enough to me.
(#5 was written after #2, while Crowley and Quinn were churning out 3 & 4)
All one has to say is, the ACORN tapes ARE undoctored! Nothing you can say or do will change that.
HUH??? Just sayin’ it makes it so eh? “All one has to say.” What, this is advice to your two loyal followers to just continue to ignore facts and investigations I guess.
Yes, Vern. If there is truth that all the ACORN tapes haven’t been made public, then they should ALL be seen. Should be entertaining.
Whether we will ever agree they were doctored is another matter…
I only borrowed the term “slander” from the breitbart discussion at the end of the piece. But since you throw it around so “liberally”, I thought it fit.
The other day when this story broke, Crowley wrote
“I’ll wait until the facts are out…”
Now he’s ready to apparently conclude that the facts are out and that the allegations against O’Keefe and his cohorts were nothing more than “slander”. This before the facts are REALLY out. Credibility, Crowley…you’re running low on it!
Just watched that stupid video too “Acorn Employee Arrested etc.” Or rather, alleged ACORN employee. Out of thousands nationwide. What a cheap piece of shit. As relevant as “Republican Congressmen have sex with underage pages.”
Terry,
facts and the truth does not matter to the left!
“facts and the truth does not matter to the left!”
Jeezus, what a bunch of ideological, simplistic claptrap.
The only victim of slander here is ACORN itself. O’Keefe made these doctored videos – the material he used was himself posing not as a pimp, but as the prostitute’s boyfriend and he was telling them of plans to break away from an abusive pimp and to free other prostitutes from him also – some of which included underage prostitutes. He then doctored the videos to make it falsely appear as if he entered the premises in his pimp getup. It appears that earlier encounters where they spoke of plans to smuggle new underage prostitutes caused the police to be notified. All of this shows that the ACORN employees acted appropriately – the famous suggestion that prostitutes pay taxes and claim to be “performance artists” or whatever is the law. People making illegal money must pay taxes on it but they also are not obligated to incriminate themselves for it. I think it’s very disturbing to see that people have a problem with people who help others to escape very dangerous situations – then again, as that South Carolina lieutenant governor said it, they are only “stray animals” who must be starved.
O’Keefe also has a past where he is a known racist and user of racial slurs, or so it is alleged, and this never made its way into the media ACORN witch hunt that he instigated. His desire to prevent people from voting as motivating his attacks is also on the record and no one picked that up as somehow tainting him and his work.
As for O’Keefe supposedly being slandered over the wiretapping issue, he remains accused of sending fake telephone repair people into a secure area in a federal building – that should be enough to put him away. Even if he never wanted to interfere with telephones, that should not be enough. Remember that Squeaky Fromme had no bullet in the bullet chamber and just brandished it before President Ford, she still got decades in prison as having carried out an “attempted assassination” – she said that this was a stunt to put Charles Manson back in the news and who is to doubt that – but she still got decades in prison as an attempted assassin. In this paranoid post-911 time, had Arabs sent fake telephone repairmen into the office of a senator, particularly one on the Homeland Security committee, they would not be taking chances that it was just an innocent prank. Throw the book at them!
Great info, Mr. XYZ. I hadn’t heard a lot of that. Do you have a link or source?
Leftist losers will say anything Vern. YOU know that!
O’Keefe also has a past where he is a known racist and user of racial slurs, or so it is alleged, and this never made its way into the media ACORN witch hunt
In your eyes, everyone is a racist that is white i expect… Here in the US the fact that your skin happens to be white makes you a suspected racist.. You cant even bring up facts and figures related to people of color if you are white.. It is a fact that most of the ACORN scumbags that were giving advise to aid Mr.Okeefe were black.. In general i find Amerian blacks a population in deep trouble socially, they have 80% unwed rate – black men are horible at comitting to black women and to their children ( and i suspect even to white/hispanic/Asian women). jails are full of black and hispanic men and welfare among blacks and hispanic is high, not to mention the dropout rate.. The fact that most of the people in the videos where black who seamed to have no moral values, did not shock me.. I think the black population in THIS country are in real trouble and i think it’s because they get everything they want like spoiled chidren and i think the hispanic’s are going down the same path… They fact that i would say the above does not make me a racist, it makes me realistic.. But you i am sure will call me a racist and thats ok by me!
The only victim of slander here is ACORN itself
The victim is the tax payer who have paid into this corrupt and ridiculous scam!
In this paranoid post-911 time, had Arabs sent fake telephone repairmen into the office of a senator, particularly one on the Homeland
It is the foolish mentally like you’s that caused the death of 3 thousand American lives.. the fact that the world did not watch and take heed of the crazy bastard Bin Laden, resulted in the death of many!
Really, being an outsider coming into this country, the left mind set will result in corrupt Government, Orangizations and the death of many more Amerian lives… Both Repub/dem who seam to be the same party with a leftist lean will share the blame!
“facts and the truth does not matter to the left!”
Jeezus, what a bunch of ideological, simplistic claptrap
Sure it is! NOT.
a fact to a liberal is like kriptonite to superman . vern yoUr still blind . ACORN IS CROOKED AND YOU DONT SEE IT .
So they were just “clumsily” committing numerous crimes? According to O’Keefe:
” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for ‘weeks’ because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.”
Gunna be hard to sell this one to a REAL jury to a REAL prosecutor, since two of the four were dressed up as phone repair men. Kinda hard to argue that you just dropped by to see if “the phones were working” when you 1) lied about who you are, 1) lied about what you were doing, 3) misrepresented yourself, and 4)entered federal premises under false pretenses.
Too bad his main problem isn’t ACORN or the “MSM” anymore, its the federal prosecutor.
As far as getting anyone on the phone in DC lately good luck, the phones have been jammed up in nearly all offices for months, with people on both sides of several issues.
Perhaps an upgraded phone service is needed for Congress.
BTW- MSNBC a Government run media outlet? I will agree that the have a liberal veiwpiont overall, but come on now.
If that is the case then was FOX being run by the Government when Bush was in office?
Too bad his main problem isn’t ACORN or the “MSM” anymore, its the federal prosecutor
Well it will be interesting to see just how the federal government handles this case, when they did nothing regarding ACORN voter fraud and employees giving advise on tax fraud and child prostitution..
We will find out if this Government is as sound a Mexico’s
Now won’t we?
(Am I on Quinn duty right now?)
Ya ding dong. The feds looked into ACORN voter fraud many times at length, and there was just nothing there. There is also obviously nothing there with the tax fraud and child prostitution, although I WISH they would investigate that, just so Breitbart & O’Keefe would have to turn over the UNEDITED tapes! (What I wouldn’t give to see those…)
#22 Vern,
“(Am I on Quinn duty right now?)”
LOL, yep, sorry Dude, but really we have to stop wasting our time trying to reason with her, she’s like the living embodiment of Einstein’s definition of insanity.
“Insanity; doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
No, anonster, that is not her. That is us.
Although actually, it’s not necessarily all a waste. For all the Nelsons and Crowleys who blog here, and for all the Quinns and anonsters who post here, there are dozens or hundreds of “lurkers” who are reading these threads, making up their minds what’s making most sense. (Hello lurkers!)
Ya ding dong. The feds looked into ACORN voter fraud many times at length, and there was just nothing there
LOOKED INTO! thats like saying the mexican government is LOOKING into the deaths of thousands of people who have been murdered by drug cartels.. Look into and actually do something about it, DING DONG is the problem.. 😛
(Am I on Quinn duty right now?)
What, i’m so good that you need to take turns – but thats ok if you need to attack me in groups… COME GET ME:)
Einstein’s definition of insanity.
Wow.. Stop it, your making me blush..
Michelle, if you’re responding to someone’s statement, you should put their statement in quotations, then your response afterward. If you don’t, it look like you’re repeating what people says and your message confusing.
Let me make it as plain for you as I can, Quinn:
There have been multiple investigations into ACORN “voter fraud.”
No ACORN voter fraud was found.
There IS no ACORN voter fraud.
It is all Republican lies.
I WISH there would be an investigation into the scumbags’ prostitution allegations, so that ACORN could exonerate themselves, and so we could all see what BS those doctored videos were.
Unfortunately there probably won’t be an investigation, BECAUSE THERE’S JUST NOT ENOUGH CREDIBLE EVIDENCE THAT ACORN DID ANYTHING WRONG!
(And you clowns who insist they did, just inhabit your own crazy reality.)
Thankyou Lam Pho… I will do that 🙂
This is where Einstein’s definition of insanity comes into play,
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over again, and expecting the result to be different.”
The lesson of history is that Keynesian economic policies don’t work. You cannot tax and spend yourself out of an economic slowdown. To revive an economy, you need good, private sector jobs. You need jobs that are a net credit to the economy, not a net debit, as public sector spending on works programs invariably are. You need companies to be able to hire people – people who can then spend their money buying products that will then cause businesses to make profits, and expand their operations to meet greater demand, in turn hiring more employees. Companies can’t do this unless they have the money available to pay more workers – money that isn’t taken in taxes or wasted on meeting oftentimes useless and counterproductive regulations.
“And you clowns who insist they did, just inhabit your own crazy reality.”
Vern, I have a piano with no keys to sell you…Mate, you either have no ability to see the Corruption going on around you or you only see the corrupt when it suits you.. I see corruption both with the Dems and the republicans.. I see in on the left and on the right. You can not pick and choose right and wrong..
“The lesson of history is that Keynesian economic policies don’t work. You cannot tax and spend yourself out of an economic slowdown. To revive an economy, you need good, private sector jobs. You need jobs that are a net credit to the economy, not a net debit, as public sector spending on works programs invariably are. You need companies to be able to hire people – people who can then spend their money buying products that will then cause businesses to make profits, and expand their operations to meet greater demand, in turn hiring more employees. Companies can’t do this unless they have the money available to pay more workers – money that isn’t taken in taxes or wasted on meeting oftentimes useless and counterproductive regulations.”
Really? Then what the hell do you call WWII? Funny how armchair econ’s love to separate “good” public spending (i.e. war) from “bad” public spending (i.e. not war). Read much history?
#24 Vern,
You’re right on both counts;
“No, anonster, that is not her. That is us.”
I think that was my point, but hell, I’d just had a go-round with Michelle on “Scumbag Fail” and I am just now climbing back from the crazy.
“Although actually, it’s not necessarily all a waste. For all the Nelsons and Crowleys who blog here, and for all the Quinns and anonsters who post here, there are dozens or hundreds of “lurkers” who are reading these threads, making up their minds what’s making most sense. (Hello lurkers!)”
Longboobs, although not a lurker, gave me some nice feed-back on “Scumbag Fail”, so you’re right, it’s not all for naught.
ww – that is the most ignorant re-telling of history i have ever heard. if it was true, we could just build a bunch of tanks and planes and drive them into the ocean and that would solve our economy! the reality is, tens of thousands were inducted into uniform and THAT solved the unemployment problem, temporarily.
Government spending, whatever its international political effects, did not rescue the country from the Great Depression, did not increase standards of living during World War II, and did not provide weapons at competitive prices after the war.
Not to mention the Great Escape from the Great Depression came finally from 45-47. You might read a bit of history yourself sometime.
all government outlays should be deducted from the GNP. that would give a REAL indication of growth.
once again, Leftist theories prevail to make things worse.
I’m still trying to figure out why & where Quinn found & copied that tendentious and wrongheaded economics paragraph from (it sure ain’t her writing) and what the hell it has to do with this thread. Maybe I should make another post on how we got out of the Great Depression and Crowley and ww can argue about that there.
Meanwhile let’s wait and see what shoe drops next with the O’Keefe/Breitbart scumbags.
“Then what the hell do you call WWII? Funny how armchair econ’s love to separate “good” public spending (i.e. war) from “bad” public spending (i.e. not war). Read much history?”
I really am not trying to offend any of you.. But do you all live in a bubble?
Money is spent on war for survival and it is not wise to waste money on welfare recipients because it is a fact that welfare and continued provery go hand in hand.. I suggest getting out of your confort zone!
“I think that was my point, but hell, I’d just had a go-round with Michelle on “Scumbag Fail” and I am just now climbing back from the crazy.”
I hate to tell you this, but i think your climbing INTO crazy… YOU just had to go – around with Me.. That’s what drug addicts say when they need that hit!
Are you addicted to me?.
I suggest a cold shower if your a man and more interesting friends if your a woman!
“I’m still trying to figure out why & where Quinn found & copied that tendentious and wrongheaded economics paragraph from (it sure ain’t her writing) and what the hell it has to do with this thread.”
I thought i would just throw it in – so i could imagine your head spining Mr. Vern..
And your right “it sure ain’t my writing”, yeeha cowboy:)
Good night Terry, sleep in the comfort of knowing conservatives are about to cream the libs:)
And some how i don’t think it will be too hard.. 🙂
Cheers