America's favorite Pimp, with the help of a few friends, has attempted to bug a Federal office in Louisiana. The offices of Senator Mary Landrieu. When I say pimp, I'm talking about James O'Keefe of the Acorn pimp scandal of 2009. One of his helpers was Bobby Flanagan, whose father is serving as that state's U.S. Attorney. Not good at all.
What were these youngsters thinking? Well, the general assumption is that they wanted to pull a stunt that would top their antics regarding the Acorn pimp scandal. The troupe is still embroiled in court proceedings since their little act skated on illegal entrapment and false representation. With all that on their backs why would they take such a chance at this level when Landrieu was already looking like a sure defeat in November?
CNN and MSNBC have had some fun with this one, the networks have pretty much decided to wait until tomorrow, and I'm sure you're wondering about the other one. Nadda. Remember how Beck milked the Acorn scandal for all he could for what...7 weeks? Well. I'm curious if they'll spend more than 30 seconds on the Federal lawbreakers they had previously held in such high regard.
O’Keefe’s has already admitted to assisting in the the plan to enter the office under false pretenses and shortly after, a fourth member of their team was caught two blocks away with wireless reception equipment by the same make at what the boys had in the office. Good stuff.
Below is a small portion of the FBI report I found through the AP. It describes the event in better detail than some of the opinion shows on television:
According to the FBI affidavit, Flanagan and Basel entered the federal building at 500 Poydras Street about 11 a.m. Monday, dressed as telephone company employees, wearing jeans, fluorescent green vests, tool belts, and hard hats. When they arrived at Landrieu’s 10th floor office, O’Keefe was already in the office and had told a staffer he was waiting for someone to arrive.
When Flanagan and Basel entered the office, they told the staffers they were there to fix phone problems. At that time, the staffers, referred to only as Witness 1 in the affidavit, observed O’Keefe positioning his cell phone in his hand to videotape the operation. O’Keefe later admitted to agents that he recorded the event.
After being asked, the staffer gave Basel access to the main phone at the reception desk. The staffer told investigators that Basel manipulated the handset. He also tried to call the main office phone using his cell phone, and said the main line wasn’t working. Flanagan did the same.
They then told the staffer they needed to perform repair work on the main phone system and asked where the telephone closet was located. The staffer showed the men to the main General Services Administration office on the 10th floor, and both went in. There, a GSA employee asked for the men’s credentials, after which they stated they left them in their vehicle.
The two statutes that snagged the culprits back then are still on the books today. Sections 1036 and 1362 of Title 18 are offered as links for you to look at, but the more serious charge is section 1362:
Whoever willfully or maliciously injures or destroys any of the works, property, or material of any radio, telegraph, telephone or cable, line, station, or system, or other means of communication, operated or controlled by the United States, or used or intended to be used for military or civil defense functions of the United States, whether constructed or in process of construction, or willfully or maliciously interferes in any way with the working or use of any such line, or system, or willfully or maliciously obstructs, hinders, or delays the transmission of any communication over any such line, or system, or attempts or conspires to do such an act, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.
What effect do you think this will have on the Landrieu Senate race as a result of this botched TappingGate scandal? Will the voters see her as a victim of another conspiracy and re-elect her as a result? Or will they get the impression that these boys were on to something worth risking their freedom?Update: as of 8:32 Wednesday evening, O'Reilly allocated 46 seconds to this story. Pretty much brushed it off as a foolish prank.
12 comments:
Kid you not; the fella they caught in the car is Stan Dais. He's the co-author of...are you ready for this?
The Penis Monolugues
you can't make this shit up.
It's no wonder Glenn Becks Magic red phone never rings. He foolishly had O'Keefe hook it up.
Is anyone surprised? I still think they weren't acting as pimp and prostitute, but really were. Republicanism at its best on display.
Looks like these kids broke the law and will have to pay for it.
But this in no way validates the misdeeds by some of ACORN's people.
This story has legs. The fool had the nerve to post on his Twitter account: "I am a journalist, the truth shall set me free". Actually it was his posted bail that set him free. Atleast temporarily.
This shouldn't have any more legs then when Chuck Schumer's people illegally obtained Michael Steele's social security number in an attempt to get information on him or when the two men stood outside a polling area behaving in a threatening manner to people who weren't intending to vote for Obama or the campaign workers who paid some guy on the streets in Cleveland to register to vote 15 or 20 times. I could go on and on. My point is that there are dirty people on both sides of the aisle and it all stinks.
To try to paint all Republicans with the acts of a few people is every bit as ignorant and small minded as trying to paint all Democrats for the actions of a few.
For people who don't like Beck (I stopped watching or listening to him years ago) you sure sound a lot like him, just from a different direction.
Having the phone tapping equipment raises this from a misdemeanor to a felony. They should squeeze the leader to see if this is connected to the Republican Party. Remember,it wasn't the crime by "small people", it was the cover-up that destroyed Nixon. Being a member of the press or media does not give license to commit a crime.
30 Republican congressmen signed a letter describing O'Keefe as a model citizen after his criminal activity last year. This is an endorsement of crime by a political party. These congressmen need to all resign or this endorsement will stand. Which is it? Will they resign or will all Republicans be burdened with the weight of being criminals? Most people already think they're crooks. Prove them wrong or prove them right? Somehow I doubt they'll be stand up citizens and cop to it. Lincoln is turning over in his grave.
To 8:57...The courts, after intense investigation have found the actions of O'Keefe and company during the ACORN drama had not only broken a few laws, but also got accolades for some pretty fancy editing after providing their scandalous footage.
ACORN has since dismissed the employees they regarded as weak and easily manipulated and the push to get proper funding is under way.
Those of us outside the tea-party movement actually had doubts about the espionage at the onset. Sorry.
Acorn has had scandals in many states from one coast to another. If you thought differently about their work you would look differently at these strings of wrong doings.
You are hoping that the individuals who uncovered only a small portion of these wrongdoings are discredited and that will somehow wipe the slate clean for Acorn.
Replace Acorn with some tea party group, Family Focus or some other group of that type and you would be saying very different things about about both the scandals and the people who exposed them.
All for boys are pretty. They're gonna be very popular in the big house.
A 28-year-old Loyola law school student and conservative activist named Ben Wetmore has emerged as the Fifth Beatle of the Landrieu phone-tampering case.
Wetmore, who hired O'Keefe at the Leadership Institute a few years back to help launch conservative media outlets on college campuses, offered up his New Orleans house as a crash pad for O'Keefe and co-defendants Joseph Basel and Stan Dai for the month leading up to the crime.
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