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The first I heard about the Buffalo Beast‘s prank call to Wisconsin Governor Walker last week was Geoff Willis ranting and raving about it in an update to his “Attack on Unions” story. You would have thought, from Geoff’s level of outrage, that prankster Ian Murphy had ravished everyone’s mom and then gone on to start an unprovoked war. Using the word “scumbag” half a dozen times, drawing shrugs from most of the community when he pointed out that the ruse would have been illegal in some states, Geoff really worked himself up into a fine tantrum over the amusing little affair.
As so often with this fellow, I just have to ask:
It was actually pretty masterful – Ian Murphy, the faux-Koch, got Governor Walker to spill his guts for fifteen minutes, without having to do much more than occasionally grunt “Beautiful.” I admit that Walker comported himself reasonably well and didn’t fall into most of Murphy’s clever traps. His most embarrassing moments were when he admitted – after what sounded like a shocked pause – to having “considered” using provocateurs (I wonder how long and seriously they considered that?) and later when he expressed polite interest in faux-Koch’s offer to “show him a real good time in Cali.”
Still, we supporters of the workers learned a few useful things: Walker laid out the “four or five different angles” he was thinking of using to trick or blackmail the renegade Democrats into returning to the state – hence we were not blindsided by his current hostage treatment of the public employees (threatening to keep firing ’em as long as the Dems stay away.) And he also showed how out-of-touch he is, rashly assuming that the protests were dwindling (this was ten days ago!) and mostly out-of-staters. Sounds just like Kaddafi or Mubarak, blaming all the unrest against them on outsiders and “mercenaries,” eh?
Well, listen for yourselves if you haven’t already, it’s in two parts:
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
The most instructive aspect of the prank was the Governor’s obsequious attitude and awestruck tone, as he breathlessly reported his progress and boasted to his deep-pocketed faux-patron. It was communicative of “I know, you put me in this post to do an important job for you, and look at how well I’m doing it!” And what is the job Walker is doing, or trying to do, for the limitlessly wealthy and greedy Koch brothers? Jon Taplin writes:
The Punk’d phone call between Governor Scott Walker and what he perceived to be his aristocratic patron, David Koch, revealed the truth of Joseph Ellis’s maxim [that “The main story line of American History, cast Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton in the lead roles of a dramatic contest between the forces of Democracy and the forces of Aristocracy (plutocracy).” Like Hamilton, who he so admires, Koch is only interested in restoring the primacy of the plutocracy. His assault on the forces of democracy has three phases.
First, by funding the Citizens United court case successfully, he freed the forces of the plutocracy to completely dominate political speech.
Second, as Paymaster to governors like Scott Walker and John Kasich he is directly attacking the rights of workers to form unions and collectively bargain. By breaking the unions he eliminates the one institutional source of political money that might counter the plutocrats lock on campaign finance.
The final phase of Koch’s plutocratic assault on democracy will come in the years to follow if he is successful in Wisconsin. We will return to an age of radical deregulation. The ability of Koch and his brethren to foist the cost of their negative externalities on the public is the battleground he cares about. Of course David Koch doesn’t want to pay to clean up his factories, especially when he can force the taxpayer to pay for it.
One figure of speech the Governor used more than once, which faux-Koch quickly picked up on and echoed, was “One of us.” This politician or journalist is “one of us,” that other one is “not one of us.” What a winky and divisive way to slice up humanity, to divide the American citizenry. I mean, I go to a lot of events and meetings that are mostly progressive or left-wing, but I never hear any of us speak like that, “One of us,” as though identifying with Masonic handshakes who is to be taken seriously and who merely tolerated or sidelined. The creepy phrase reminds me of Todd Browning’s Freaks:
[Click here to see the classic “One Of Us” scene from Freaks, which, sadly, seems to be embedding-disabled.]
Comparisons to the ACORN takedown
The whole thing reminded a lot of people of the far more elaborate and dishonest prank(s) that the Breitbart-O’Keefe gang pulled on ACORN a couple years ago. Geoff did not bring up the comparison, perhaps wisely, although his repeated use of the word “scumbag” in reference to Murphy seemed like possibly a nod to my three–part report last year on the insidious and malicious dishonesty of the ACORN pranksters, in which I used that word dozens of times. But Geoff’s Sancho Panza Newbie DID go there. And I’m glad he did because I welcome the opportunity to compare those two pranks, which reflect well on the relative honesty and good will of the Left vs. the Right.
First we’ll compare the honesty of the two pranks. Sure, Ian Murphy misrepresented who he was, as did O’Keefe and Giles. Big effing deal – that is a time-honored method of getting important information, used by investigators and journalists since time immemorial. Apart from that, the Walker call was straightforwardly recorded, not edited at all, and was made immediately available to the public in its pristine form.
The case with ACORN could hardly be more different. THESE two well-funded scumbags traveled across the nation for months, trying to trick minimum-wage ACORN employees into doing or saying something embarrassing. We have no idea how many offices they went to, as most obviously did not produce the results they wanted. We know that at least two offices called the police on the scumbags; we know that the ACORN lady in San Bernardino tried to punk them back with a crazy story. When they finally did find a couple of idiots who gave them shady advice and didn’t object to their alleged illegal activities, even the tapes they got there weren’t incriminating enough for their purposes, so they had to cut, edit, splice, and even add voice-overs to make them seem worse than they were. We still haven’t been allowed to view the original unedited footage, and at this point, with ACORN long destroyed, we probably never will. And yet people like Newbie and Geoff have the gall to call O’Keefe and Giles “journalists” and Murphy a “scumbag?”
How about comparing who those two targets were, that’s an edifying comparison too. I’m proud to be on the side that punks the powerful, well-funded political figure who’s on a kamikaze celebrity ride trying to crush the power of workers, rather than the side that punks an organization dedicated to helping America’s most impoverished find housing and their political voice.
And finally, what did we learn from each of these pranks, were they worthwhile? We’ve already gone over the lessons of the Beast-Walker call, but it’s hard to say we learned ANYTHING from the ACORN pranks. I guess we learned that it’s possible out of thousands of minimum-wage workers in a pretty disorganized national group, to find a couple of idiots. Wow, what a lesson. Still, the ACORN prank was tragically successful in destroying its target, thanks to the contemptible cowardice of so many Democrats who should have defended them. It’s always as Yeats wrote in “Second Coming” :
The best lack all conviction, while the worst are fill’d with a passionate intensity.
Oh, and poor, poor Mika
… She got called “a real piece of ass” by a roughneck Buffalo blogger in his effort to impersonate a roughneck billionaire hoping to trick a union-bashing Governor into embarrassing himself by agreeing. (I have to admit that Walker didn’t seem to hear the remark.) This sent Geoff and his fellow righties into a tizzy of pearl-clutching: “WHAT IF A FOX NEWS JOURNALIST HAD SPOKEN LIKE THAT???” Actually Rush Limbaugh speaks like that every day, and I’d say he’s a LITTLE more established in the right-wing hierarchy that the Buffalo Beast is on the left. But since we’re comparing the Beast with the O’Keefe gang, do you really feel faux-Koch’s crude compliment toward Mika is more offensive than barely-legal ACORN prankster Hannah Giles thrusting her butt and tits at us 24-7 in order to get the nation’s salacious attention focused on her utterly valueless and false story?
Hm, Mika Brzezinski, of Morning Joe. That show isn’t hardly worth getting up early for. Do I just imagine it, or does Mika look at Joe Scarborough in much the way that Condi used to look at W? He sure seems to boss her around and dominate her in an old-school way. Her best moments have been when she’d refuse to read what she rightly considered to be vapid stories about flaky women, from Paris Hilton to Sarah Palin. The latter refusal led to one of Colbert’s many brilliant recent clips:
(P.S. I hear that on the morning after this Colbert clip aired, Joe’s folks ran the entire thing – after all, they have three hours to fill. And I hear that when the clip ended, Joe and Mika both sat there looking utterly confused … and then moved on. Couple of real rocket scientists there on that show, that Joe and Mika.)
I notice Gov. Walker likes to use the phrase “REAL MONEY” in this interview and elsewhere, like he’s SO impressed with people who make MILLIONS – not like the pathetic tens of thousands a teacher or nurse might make. Does anyone know this guy’s background – he’s got to be nouveau-riche, he’s so enamored of folks who are “REAL MONEY” and “ONE OF US.” You can see the third-generation pig farmer in his eyes and facial structure…
I don’t have much access to REAL MONEY, and while I’m not resentful of those who do and come by it honestly, I just can’t trust billionaire industrialists, politicians and (sorry GW) MANY attorneys when they try to persuade me that their interests are the same as mine.
Even O’keefe’s pimp persona was a hoax, you’d always see the clips of him walking around with that fur jacket and cane, never happened. He actually dressed much more conservatively when he went into an Acorn office.
http://mediamatters.org/columns/201003020001
Thanks for posting the Colbert clip, I had never seen that one before. The man’s a genius.
Even O’keefe’s pimp persona was a hoax, you’d always see the clips of him walking around with that fur jacket and cane, never happened. He actually dressed much more conservatively when he went into an Acorn office.
Yes, and he would usually go in dressed casually with Hannah, NOT pretending to be a pimp, but pretending to be the boyfriend of this poor girl who was trying to get away from her pimp. And get their sympathy that way, and see if they would give her any advice that could be construed as illegal. FOX News was all hollering about “tax fraud” when what they did was tell her she needs to pay her taxes but is not legally required to incriminate herself by putting “whore” on her 1040 or whatever – what any lawyer woulda told her. Endless scumbaggery from those two and Breitbart and FOX.
I don’t really consider myself a ranter or raver, but if that makes Vern feel better . . ..
I think the comparison between Beast fraud (I really don’t consider what should be a crime to be a “prank”) and the Acorn scandal is apples and oranges.
1) Ian Murphy purports to be a journalist – an editor of a publication called the Buffalo Beast. The Society of Professional Journalists, the non-partisan arbiter of journalistic ethics unequivocally condemned Mr. Murphy’s (and the Beast’s) actions:
“he Society of Professional Journalists, through its Ethics Committee, strongly condemns the actions of an alternative online outlet this week when an editor lied and posed as a financial backer in a recorded phone call with Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.
. . .
‘This tactic and the deception used to gain this information violate the highest levels of journalism ethics,” said SPJ Ethics Committee Chairman Kevin Z. Smith. “To lie to a source about your identity and then to bait that source into making comments that are inflammatory is inexcusable and has no place in journalism.’
. . .
Though the Buffalo Beast purports to be an alternative news site with heavily slanted views that are neither fair nor objective, the fact remains that this interview was underhanded and unethical. Credible news organizations should be cautious about how they report this already widely reported story, and must realize that the information was obtained in a grossly inappropriate manner according to longstanding tenets of journalism.
. . .
SPJ President Hagit Limor said what happened represents “a new low” for anyone claiming to be a journalist. ‘This may be how Hollywood portrays reporters, but no journalist worth his salt ever would misrepresent his name and affiliation when seeking an interview. Murphy should be ashamed not only of his actions but of besmirching our profession by acting so shamelessly.'”
Vern Nelson evidently doesn’t read about journalistic standards of ethics;
“First we’ll compare the honesty of the two pranks. Sure, Ian Murphy misrepresented who he was, as did O’Keefe and Giles. Big effing deal – that is a time-honored method of getting important information, used by investigators and journalists since time immemorial. ”
No Vern, that is simply not true. Real journalists don’t do this and these actions have been largely condemned as gross violations of journalistic ethics.
In stark contrast, those that should the abuses of power of the ACORN folks made no claim at all that they were journalists.
2. Mr. Murphy participated in a real and actual FRAUD. He lied several times saying he was a specific person (Mr. Koch) that he was not. I would see the connection with those that exposed the ACORN fraud much more clearly if Mr. Murphy had simply said that he was a “wealthy supporter.” Instead, he claimed to be a specific person he was not, someone that Governor Walker had reason to talk with.
Those that exposed all of the horrible ACORN abuses led the ACORN folks to believe that they were generic hookers and pimps looking to evade the law. This does fall within the confines of “normal journalistic standards” and is similar to the tactics used by ABC when they had a reporter pose as a meat cutter for an undercover story regarding the “Food Lion” grocery store chain.
For even THAT mild form of investigative reporting, ABC drew heat from the journalistic ethics folks:
“Hidden cameras and any form of deception should be used judiciously and rarely. They should be reserved for those exceptional stories of great public interest involving great harm to individuals or system failure at the highest levels. Furthermore, deception and hidden cameras should be used only as a reporting tool of last resort, after all other approaches to obtaining the same vital information have been exhausted or appropriately ruled out. And, news organizations that choose to use deception and hidden cameras have an obligation to assure their work meets the highest professional standards.”
In this case, Mr. Murphy was not trying to uncover something of a “system failure at the highest levels” he was engaged in a lark, a harmful prank meant to embarrass not uncover some deep breach of national security.
Vern’s true perspective comes out near the end of his post: ” I’m proud to be on the side that punks the powerful, well-funded political figure who’s on a kamikaze celebrity ride trying to crush the power of workers, rather than the side that punks an organization dedicated to helping America’s most impoverished find housing and their political voice.”
Wow, I don’t even know where to start – there are so many choices. Governor Walkers brave stand against public union bosses is a “kamikaze celebrity ride.” Yeah, uhm, Kamikazees weren’t around after they were done and from what I can tell Governor Walker is still in Wisconsin while the weak kneed Democratics are still ordering room service from a hotel with a water slide.
The “well funded political figure” split about $11M with his Lt. Governor running mate on the 2010 campaign. That wouldn’t even fund a decent run for State Treasurer in California. In contrast, The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the biggest public employee union, gave Democrats $90 million in the 2010 cycle nationally. So when Vern says that Mr. Murphy was attacking those “trying to crush the power of workers” remember that the public unions representing the workers had about 9 times the capital of the Walker campaign.”
And that leads us to my next beef with both Vern and Anonster – NONE of this has anything to do with the common worker. Everyone wants to see workers have a decent wage. Vern and Annonster seem to believe that the ONLY way that workers can have a decent wage is to shovel money into the burning hot furnaces of Union Machines which spend far more money campaigning to protect their own selfish positions than they do actually doing any work for their own members.
Funny thing about unions, they have two huge fears 1) giving their own membership a voice as to whether the union should even exist, and 2) giving their own members any say as to the amount of dues that need to be paid to the union and how those dues are spent. If unions were these great democratic centers of human good as portrayed by Vern and Annonster, the unions would have no reason fear these things the most.
I will give it to Vern that his post is an interesting read, unfortunately it is fiction not journalism or non-fiction.
“…NONE of this has anything to do with the common worker….” Really! Really? How many ‘common workers’ lost their jobs at the end of the Murphy call? None.
Acorn was forced to close ALL their offices because of the edited videos.
What was destroyed by the co-ordinated RW funded attacks:
“…ACORN, which stands for the Association for Community Reform Now, was founded 40 years ago and is the largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people, with more than 400,000 member families organized into more than 1,200 neighborhood chapters in about 75 cities across the country. The national organization is based in Washington, DC, and deals with finances and governance. It also coordinates national issues-based campaigns and voter registration drives…”
Defend o’keefe but call Murphy’s action ‘a harmful prank’? Seriously?
Oh, BTW – On June 14, 2010 – A preliminary probe by the U.S. GAO has found no evidence of mishandling the $40 million in federal money ACORN and affiliates received in recent years.
“…None of this has anything to do with the common worker…”?
Deception, lies, pranks.
Both sides did that.
It’s apples to apples. All the partisan defense of your tribe won’t change that.
Geoff,
“Funny thing about unions, they have two huge fears 1) giving their own membership a voice as to whether the union should even exist, and 2) giving their own members any say as to the amount of dues that need to be paid to the union and how those dues are spent. If unions were these great democratic centers of human good as portrayed by Vern and Annonster, the unions would have no reason fear these things the most.”
1) To form a union there must be a vote by the workers or the majority of workers must sign a petition to start a union, a VOTE IS A VOICE.
2) The amount of dues a union member must pay is also VOTED on;
From The LMRDA;
The right to secret ballot vote on rates of dues, initiation fees, and assessments;
Anonster – so you would support the efforts of the “Paycheck Protection” initiative which would have the unions collect their own dues (instead of having the government do it as is now the case), would allow members to opt out of dues going to lobbying efforts and would require periodic votes to continue the union?
Geoff,
What you are (and Gov. Walker) are proposing it just another way to weaken unions, first by limiting their ability to collect dues, which would hamstring them financially, ensuring that they would not be nearly as effective in lobbying for labor friendly politicians and legislation. And by the way, “labor friendly” does NOT have to = a Democrat, perhaps if Republicans ever took up the cause for working people they’d get some of those $’s too.
Secondly, having unions spending the majority of their time and energy “re-certifying” themselves, rather than focusing on worker’s issues is a recipe for certain oblivion, which is exactly what you conservatives are angling for.
From Ezra Klein, WP;
The best way to understand Walker’s proposal is as a multi-part attack on the state’s labor unions. In part one, their ability to bargain benefits for their members is reduced. In part two, their ability to collect dues, and thus spend money organizing members or lobbying the legislature, is undercut. And in part three, workers have to vote the union back into existence every single year. Put it all together and it looks like this: Wisconsin’s unions can’t deliver value to their members, they’re deprived of the resources to change the rules so they can start delivering value to their members again, and because of that, their members eventually give in to employer pressure and shut the union down in one of the annual certification elections.
Being anti-union does not make some one anti-worker – you can’t seem to separate these two concepts.
Geoff,
You have yet to ever address REAL numbers, please respond to this;
Let’s look at the teachers, they went to school and they go to work everyday, that is NOT asking or expecting a handout from the government. The starting salary for a teacher in WI is $25,222, how do we expect that new teacher to pay back their student loans, get married, buy a house, start a family and save for retirement on that kind of salary? I know, I know they are not entitled to do those things, but if we want the middle class to survive, we as a society NEED them to be able to do those very things.
A decent wage, affordable education and a decent retirement plan are the backbone of our middle class, it’s what built it and what we need to sustain it.
The starting salary game is a product of the union. Ignore the fact that a large number of Wisconsin teacher makes more than $100,000 year and that the average pension of a Wisconsis teacher approaches $100,000 a year for life. Those aren’t convenient facts for you.
anonster. While Geoff does not need my assistance in responding to your comment let me tell you that our daughter was a special ed teacher. She knew what the potential compensation offered yet felt her rewards would come from helping others less fortunate than the vast majority of us.
When applying for a job the first thing applicants do, or should do, is ask what the job pays. In fact that research should begin while still in high school where guidance teachers typically provide that info as you pick your initial career path.
If you want to become a brain surgeon you know that you will run up huge student loans and spend decades in school. It’s risk/reward. The larger your investment the larger your potential ROI including your pension.
As to those born with a silver spoon, which rules out Geoff W., let’s not overlook Joseph Kennedy, Sr. Who?
The guy who controlled the flow of whiskey into the USA from Scotland around the time of prohibition a few decades ago. OH. JFK and Robert Kennedy’s dad.
Geoff,
From Factcheck.org;
It’s not true that the average Wisconsin teacher earns $100,000 in salary. In fact, no Wisconsin school district had an average teacher salary of $100,000 during the 2009-2010 school year. But don’t blame conservative commenter Pat Buchanan for the misinformation. Buchanan, who wrote a recent op-ed on the topic for the Union Leader, was referring only to Milwaukee public schools, and he was including both salary and benefits.
Buchanan, Feb. 23: According to the MacIver Institute, the average teacher in the Milwaukee public schools earns $100,000 a year — $56,000 in pay, $44,000 in benefits — and enjoys job security.
Buchanan cited a MacIver Institute report that included a video clip of Deb Wegner, manager of financial planning for the Milwaukee Public Schools. In the video, Wegner said the average Milwaukee teacher in fiscal year 2011 will earn a total compensation of $100,005 — including $56,500 in salary. But Milwaukee is not representative of the entire state of Wisconsin — and that’s where some, including Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, have gone wrong. On the “David Letterman Show” on Feb. 24, the Republican senator made a misleading claim when discussing the “generous” average teacher pay in Wisconsin. (Paul’s comments start at 9:40 in this video.)
There is no official calculation of the average salary of Wisconsin public school teachers, according to Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction spokesman Patrick Gasper. The National Education Association estimates the average Wisconsin teacher’s salary to be $51,121.
anonster. Let’s not get hung up on terminology.
Let’s change the debate from “salary” to “total compensation” which is the actual amount of money that must be found somewhere each and every year. While the president of our country can run his printing press 24/7 we have 50 states that lack that ability and must create balanced budgets.
We cannot tax ourselves out of this deep hole nor can the governor of WISC.
If Democrats in the WISC Senate take an extended holiday in IL I fully support the decision to issue pink slips to public employees beginning with the Democratic Senate staff.
Why them you ask? If their bosses are out of state for over two weeks what are they doing to keep busy?
Larry,
I put quite a lot of information on the rising costs of a college education under Geoff’s, American dream post.
Here’s some ballpark costs for a four year degree in Calif.
(on campus living)
Stanford-200,000
UC Berkeley-120,000
Cal State San Luis Obispo -80,000
From MSN money;
Nationwide the average student loan debt is about 21,000.
At 8%, each $1,000 you borrow will cost you about $12 a month to repay, assuming a 10-year loan. If you’re a student and you borrow the maximum allowed under current federal student loan programs — $23,000 in subsidized and unsubsidized borrowing for undergraduates who are still their parents’ dependents — your monthly payments will be around $276.
That payment level should be manageable if you’re making at least $33,000, which means you’d better be an accounting or business major. Starting salaries in those fields range from about $36,000 for business administration types to $43,000 for management-information-systems graduates.
Liberal arts grads, on the other hand, generally have to settle for salaries under $30,000 to start.
anonster. One of our daughters graduated from CSULB. According to their web site today I find the following. Fees, books, room and board, travel, and misc. expenses range from $14,000 for commuters to $21,000 per year for those living on or off campus.
This includes tuition and fees per semester of $2220 for basic undergrad students to $2577 for teacher credential.
Ironically we, (the cutting edge-atalk show), covered Arnold during his first campaign when he stopped at CSULB in support of the students saying he agreed with them that their tuition should not be increased. He was hit with an egg by one of the students at that rally and removed his jacket.
One of his first acts after replacing his predecessor was to support a fee hike for our public colleges and universities. What did someone famous once say. Read my lips.
The best bang for the buck in higher education is the system we now have across our state. It’s surely nowhere near the cost for attending Pepperdine or USC.
Some Cal state Long Beach graduates include: Ed Arnold; Richard & Karen Carpenter; Steve Martin; Dana Rohrabacher; Steven Spielberg and Carlos Palomino.
Sorry Annonster, the market should drive salaries. Obviously matters of choice such as where you go to college and what that college costs should not drive salaries. You want to go there for college, figure out how to make it work. That is a private not government decision process.
Geoff,
The correlation between salaries vs education costs is vital to how we do as a nation.
To compete with other countries economically we need our citizens to be educated. If we continue down the path that we are already on, where more and more young people are being priced out of an education, we will destroy the middle class. In order to justify the huge financial outlay for an education there has to be a payoff in wages and benefits.
You wrote a whole post about how you were able to achieve the american dream through hard work and education, an education that at that time was still affordable.
The question is, could you do it today?
Your undergraduate degree would cost at least 100,000 today, you could maybe pay for some of that by working low wage jobs, but in the end you would probably have had tens of thousands of dollars of debt and that’s before adding law school.
“Being anti-union does not make some one anti-worker…”
Sure it does. The union is the only powerful voice left for the interest of workers. That’s not a stretch at all.
Thanks for making my point Vern about how lefties feel lefties can never do any wrong but every time it’s from the conservative side, it’s the devil incarnate. And for the record, I don’t believe I called Murphy a scumbag. I believe I called him a faker (though I couldn’t find my comment among the hundreds on here, so if I’m wrong, I’ll recant). The difference is that Murphy got nothing from his baiting and O’Keefe and Giles managed to shut down a corrupt organization (I know it’s rearing its ugly head again under a different name, but all in due time).
O’Keefe was found guilty of a misdemeanor and sentenced to 3 years probation in the Louisiana Federal Building arrest. He also tried to lure CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat…and it wasn’t to talk about the subtleties of sailing.
You can sit there and call Vern out all you want, but until you write “O’Keefe is a scumbag”, then all you’re doing is engaging in the flip side of the very same coin.
You all have noticed, I hope, that I try not to have double standards. Even so, I find what Murphy did harmless, amusing, and moderately instructive; whereas what O’Keefe and friends did was utterly harmful and dishonest. I don’t think I can explain their dishonesty any better than I have above and in my other articles, Newbie. Do you realize how heavily edited their things were, and how the vast majority of ACORN wouldn’t give them the time of day?
Then Newbie says the difference is that O’Keefe was SUCCESSFUL in destroying his target, which he calls “corrupt” just because “ACORN is corrupt” is an item of his orthodoxy. Yes, I admitted, the bad guys won there. As so often happens. This amoral standard that success = superiority reminds me of the kid who came on my Dave Ellis post defending Dave because he “gets shit done.” Machiavellian. They ruined a good organization that helped thousands and thousands of poor people, and they ruined it with lies.
Geoff’s long comment has so much to respond to, I’ll have to respond to it over the next couple days in little chunks.
I think Mika Brzezinski is a great piece of ass….
I for one cannot recollect ever seeing her ass.
Dear OJB readers: This is our top story of the day so far, apparently reached through various links, for obvious reasons. Happily, although almost exactly a year old, it stands up to the test of time. Take a few minutes to enjoy the comparison presented here.