[quote]Conservative blogger
and entitled brat James O’Keefe became a darling of right-wing pundits after a series of satirical stunts culminating in the entrapment of ACORN staff across the country during a prank in which he posed as a pimp in some ACORN offices. Although information later came out suggesting O’Keefe’s footage was edited and he wasn’t exactly forthright in the campaign, the damage to the organization that works to swell voter ranks in poor areas was already done. O’Keefe blatantly admitted that wrongdoing in ACORN offices was not a concern of his, but rather the issue of brown people getting to vote:
James O’Keefe, one of the two filmmakers, said he went after ACORN because it registers minorities likely to vote against Republicans: ”Politicians are getting elected single-handedly due to this organization,” O’Keefe told The Washington Post. ”No one was holding this organization accountable.”
Now O’Keefe has landed himself and some cohorts in very hot water down in Louisiana, in an attempt to illegally wiretap Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office. An affadavit filed with the US Attorney’s Office describes the circumstances under which the “citizen journalist” was caught trying to bug the Senator’s phones:[/quote]
LULZ fer days… this douche bag edits footage to make Acorn look criminal and now he ends up being…A CRIMINAL.
Once again the right finds heroes in shiesters (sp?) and pins their hopes to falsehoods (the reality of this clowns ‘exposure’).
Sad thing is most would rather bury their head and think the way they want rather than deal with the truth.
10 yrs sounds a little long, but he certainly should serve at least a year or two (and not just probation). Wiretapping IS a serious crime and not some silly fraternity prank, as these obnoxious little punks apparently thought.
I concur. He let his fame (infamy/notoriety) get the better of his common sense. Just because he broke the ACORN story doesn’t mean he gets to pretend he’s J. Edgar Hoover. His entire credibility is called into question now. What an idiot.
I concur. He let his fame (infamy/notoriety) get the better of his common sense. Just because he broke the ACORN story doesn’t mean he gets to pretend he’s J. Edgar Hoover. His entire credibility is called into question now. What an idiot.[/quote]
10 years is the max, he won’t get that unless he is a real moron in court.
his credibility came into question when he doctored the footage of his Acorn visits.
Funny how the ‘Liberal Media’ is giving this story very little attention, you’d think the ‘Liberal Media’ would be all over this, this is the kind of thing the ‘Liberal media’ loves, I wonder if the ‘Liberal Media’ is still the ‘Liberal Media’?
I believe the Watergate burglars/wiretappers each served about a year or so. What these guys did is not so different from what those installing the Watergate taps did, except that they were stopped before they succeeded in their mission.
Regarding Watergate:
[quote]Mr. Barker was found crouching under a desk at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office building. Three other men caught with him also had ties to the Bay of Pigs operation. A fifth, James W. McCord Jr., was security chief for Nixon’s re-election campaign. . .
Mr. Barker pleaded guilty in January 1973 to seven charges of conspiracy, burglary and wiretapping. Later, however, he asked Judge John J. Sirica to allow him to withdraw his guilty plea and stand trial. Judge Sirica denied that request and on Nov. 19, 1973, sentenced Mr. Barker to a prison term of 18 months to six years.
In January 1974, Mr. Barker was freed from prison to appeal that decision. On July 11, 1975, Judge Sirica told Mr. Barker and the other three Cuban-Americans involved in the Watergate break-in that he was reducing their sentences to time served[/quote] nytimes.com/2009/06/07/us/07barker.html
Point is, he looks like a praying mantis with a fungal infection. That alone ought to earn him multiple back-door reamings in the joint, shouldn’t it? Or maybe I’m out of touch.
I think you guys are getting a little premature on this one. I expect this to hash out in a way that you may not exactly expect. The is the guy who duped numerous ACORN offices, Planned Parenthood, and his own university’s diversity coordinator. He’s getting serious airtime from leftwing pundits and MSM outlets that wouldn’t dare touch the ACORN story.
What a clever chess move! Sneaking into a US Senator’s office, setting up an illegal wiretap, getting arrested, being indicted and facing up to 10 years in prison and a quarter mil in fines… all in an attempt to embarrass liberals. The sheer genius!! :roflmao:
So far the evidence doesn’t support the assertion that they were setting up an illegal wiretap, as it’s not in the affidavit from the FBI, only the Washington Post byline. There was no wiretap seized by law enforcement when the three guys in the building were arrested.
Wrong. So far the evidence doesn’t support the assertion that they DID set up an illegal wiretap. It definitely appears to support the assertion that they were trying to do so, but I agree it will be interesting to see what further evidence arises.
[quote]Mr. Basel and Mr. Flanagan entered the building dressed in “blue denim pants, blue work shirts, light green fluorescent vests, tool belts, and construction-style hard hats.”
They said they were there to do repair work on the telephone system, and later claimed they had left their identification in their car.
Mr. O’Keefe was already inside the building and told a person at the office that he was waiting for someone to arrive, according to the complaint. It said he was “holding a cellular phone so as to record” video images of Mr. Basel and Mr. Flanagan.
Mr. Basel picked up the handset of the main telephone at the reception desk and both he and Mr. Flanagan tried — or pretended to try — to call it with their cellphones. Saying that they could not complete the calls, they asked to be directed to the telephone closet, so they could work on the building’s telephone system.
Wrong. So far the evidence doesn’t support the assertion that they DID set up an illegal wiretap. It definitely appears to support the assertion that they were trying to do so, but I agree it will be interesting to see what further evidence arises. [/quote]
Wouldn’t “setting up” mean they were caught in the process of installing said wiretap? They weren’t caught after having set up the wiretap, nor were they caught in the process of installing it to the phone bank. I would think that makes a difference, but it may just be semantics.
[quote=“Okami”]I think you guys are getting a little premature on this one. I expect this to hash out in a way that you may not exactly expect. The is the guy who duped numerous ACORN offices, Planned Parenthood, and his own university’s diversity coordinator. He’s getting serious airtime from leftwing pundits and MSM outlets that wouldn’t dare touch the ACORN story.
I think an Admiral Ackbar quote is in order. [/quote]
I think a new avatar is in order, unless you were also duped by his edited footage.
I guess it depends on what evidence has already been obtained and will arise through the investigation.
I don’t believe they need to actually splice into the phone wires and install a listening device to be found guilty of a crime any more than one doesn’t need to actually crack open a safe to be found guilty of a crime. If you meet with colleagues to discuss how to rob a bank, make preliminary visits to the premises to scope it out and learn the location of the safe, draw maps and discuss with your colleagues how to do it, buy gloves, ski masks, explosives and other materials, drive down to the bank together, demand to be shown to the safe, but you get caught before you actually open the door to the safe and remove the money, that’s obviously a crime and you’ll likely be found guilty (if the authorities obtain such evidence). Same should be true here. No reason they can’t be found guilty of attempted wiretapping (or whatever they call it), if there’s sufficient evidence of their motives, preparations and intent (in addition to the actual fraud and other crimes they actually did complete).
While it’s true we’ll need to wait to see what that evidence is, it does seem likely they planned to tap into the lines, given that they were all wearing phone repairmen uniforms, they lied to staff saying they were there to fix the phones, they demonstrated to staff that the phones purportedly didn’t work, and they asked staff to direct them to the phone lines. Hmm, I wonder what they planned to do next. . . .
