Shuster v. Breitbart: The TeaBuggers' Latest Story
Everybody’s talking about this slapdown David Shuster had with Andrew Breitbart, the guy who employs chief TeaBugger James O’Keefe.
Aside from all the yelling, what I find notable about this is the way Breitbart succeeds in preventing Shuster from explaining what O’Keefe has been charged with: entering US property “for the purpose of willfully and maliciously interfering with a telephone system operated by the United States of America.”
And the TeaBuggers don’t deny that claim–they now say they wanted to cut off Landrieu’s phone system to see how she’d react.
I’ll have more to say about this going forward. But even accepting the TeaBuggers at their word, that makes several things very clear.
- They had the intent of illegally shutting down tampering with the phone systems of a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security
- They planned to do so to get a reaction out of Landrieu (and, apparently, to film that reaction)
Now, given that O’Keefe’s prior film on ACORN was about framing people and editing video of that frame for political maliciousness, it’s probably safe to assume that if O’Keefe’s current story is true, he had the same intent to falsely frame Landrieu and then edit his film to exacerbate her reaction.
Maybe that’s why Breitbart is so desperate to prevent Shuster from explaining that to his viewers.
Update: TPM got a response from Landrieu to the TeaBuggers’ latest excuses.
“Senator Landrieu believes this feeble explanation is a clear and calculated effort to divert attention away from the fact that his client stands accused of a federal crime that could land him in prison for up to 10 years,” said Landrieu Press Secretary Rob Sawicki, in a statement to TPMmuckraker.
And the circus continues: Judge Orders 25-Year Old O’Keefe to Live with His Parents
Link.
This is probably the biggest farce of this entire thing. These individuals openly targeted a United States Senator and if the law doesn’t hold them to account then people will feel that they can do anything. The fact that these individuals were allowed to go home on a measley $10,000 unsecured bond means that the judicial system is not taking this thing serious. My goodness they used deception to gain access to a federal building. Imagine if one of these individuals had been a terrorist.
Please see my comment at #51.
A bond should never be more than is reasonably necessary to insure appearance for required court proceedings; it is not a punishment and has nothing to do with how “seriously” the matter is being taken. There is no reason to believe these individuals would fail to appear or would pose a threat to society; there actually would have been no problem in releasing them on their own recognizance.
And there you go again, being all reasonable about how the law works instead of being an advocate for punishing before the (alleged) criminal goes to court
That has me thinking. Imagine if we could use the Teabuggers to shortrack the restoration of our constitutional rights.
So go ahead FBI: Knock down the Teabuggers’ doors and announce (or not) afterwards. Go ahead and put the Teabuggers in Gitmo before a trial.
Then let the Teabuggers’ parents and sponsors rediscover the protections to our personal liberties and freedoms that the US Constitution provides. The ones that the prior and current administration have been quick to toss aside.
That, sir or madam, is IMHO a rather clever line of thought.
I wonder if the parents were the ones posting his bond, and perhaps even agreeing to paying his attorney (i.e. mortgage on home guarantee).
As far as I can tell, the only pair of clowns who had a paying “job” (if you could call wingnut welfare a job) were Flanagan at the Pelican and O’Keefe via Breitbart.
That begs another simple question without an answer yet of just how these clowns could afford to fly into New Orleans, rent a vehicle, perhaps stay at a hotel, etc.
Yeah, Flanagan lives in Louisiana, but how about Basel and Dai? Basel doesn’t sound like he’s employed anywhere, and it’s not like he could just float down the Mississippi from Minnesota to New Orleans.
Perhaps O’Keefe and Flanagan used their VISA cards and offered to foot the bills knowing they’d be reimbursed by Breitbart.
Those are decent questions. My guess is the G-Men are all over it.
Here is an excerpt from an article published today:
O’Keefe, Basel and Dai stayed with Benjamin Wetmore, a friend of O’Keefe’s, while they were in New Orleans. Wetmore, a 28-year-old law school student, was O’Keefe’s boss when he worked at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based program that trains conservative activists.
Wetmore declined to discuss their stay at his house and what they did while there. But he praised O’Keefe’s work targeting ACORN on his Web site and said he hired O’Keefe in 2006, helping him hone his undercover camera craft.
In an Oct. 16 blog post, Wetmore criticized the Leadership Institute, where he no longer works, for not supporting O’Keefe’s budding activism. Wetmore said he was “nearly fired for buying the initial video equipment that James used.”
YAHOO news,link to follow
Your link at comment # 124 doesn’t function, but here’s one to the same story via the Houston Chronicle’s site.
So, I’m guessing Wetmore has a visit from the Feds in his very near future, and as a lawyer himself, I’d recommend getting an attorney, because otherwise, he’s gonna have a fool for a client.
So if the Leadership Institute supplied the equipment he uses or used to commit crimes does that make them or their employees an accomplice?
If these punks were white poor Appalachian dudes or young black men from inner city Detroit and had tried to pull off such a crime would they send them home with their parents? That’s all I want is the law to be applied across the board
I hear you, but ain’t never gonna happen. One law for them, and a completely different set of laws for the rest of us peons.
Here’s my question: How’d the feds get involved? The stories read like they were just suddenly there.
If there was an FBI tap on the phone, the teabaggers may have fouled it up. Or there may have been more active survellance.
Boxturtle (Wondering if they blew up a much larger investigation of the Senator)
Federal building, Federal official’s office therefore a Federal crime?
WI was wondering if the FBI field office was in (or near) 500 Poydras to explain the quick arrival of the FBI, but it’s not. FBI’s office is down near Lakefront Airport.
I wasn’t clear. Who called them? They showed up while the teabaggers were still there, either somebody got wise and KNEW to call the FBI (I’d have called building serurity or 911) or the FBI was monitoring the area closely for some other reason. And they seem to have taken alarm about the time the telco room was accessed.
Boxturtle (Just wondering)
These idiots never got to the wiring closet. You can tell that because the FBI affidavit doesn’t mention them getting in. The GSA employee must have called someone. I was think the U.S. Marshal was in the same building, but he’s next door.
But there would be US Marshalls at the door–at least a few of them. THey’d be the ones running the metal detectors at the door.
But the Marshals are not an investigative body.
No. But I can imagine it working this way: GSA flips out, calls the Marshalls who are in the building if not on the floor. They come, start questioning the TeaBuggers, and quickly call the FBI.
The affidavit refers to the accused having “admitted to federal agents”. O’Keefe, Flanagan, and Basel were clearly detained in the building. I’m really curious how they picked up Dai. Did his buddies rat him out?
The Boggs Federal Building presumably houses other federal government agencies and entities who wouldn’t be too keen about having their phones tapped or messed with… since presumably Landrieu’s circuits share a telephone closet with other federal circuits. I bet GSA called them.
Who knows what other federal phone circuits ran through the cabinet. From my understanding, the Federal Courthouse is also in there, and the Coast Guard. And “freezer bucks” Rep. William Jefferson had an office in there, same floor as Mary’s.
They way I understand it, building security was called and they contacted the feds. This is a federal building, I’m betting the feds were not that far away.
The GSA has an office down the hall from Landrieu.
Since they handle the vendors for the phones in the building a Landrieu staffer directed them there.
The 4 were asked to produce ID and when they couldn’t GSA called the FBI.
Ah, so. That explains that. The guard at the gate didn’t detect them as frauds, but the GSA folks did. They would have known to contact the FBI, not local police. The FBI didn’t have far to travel, because they were in the same complex.
Boxturtle (Still betting the charge gets dropped to no worse than criminal trespass)
They might not have identified themselves as phone repairmen at the gate. They could just say they were going to visit the Senator’s office.
I too am still puzzled by the attempt on the phone closet. All I can think is that they had never been in one and didn’t understand its sensitivity. Maybe they thought that they’d unplug the Senator’s phone like you would the wall jack of a household extention. Maybe they were too naive to realize the reaction that trying to access a phone closet would provoke–in any office building, much less a Federal building. I have never yet been in an office building large or small that didn’t secure and limit access to phone closets. In this case, the clowns met up with Marshals followed by the FBI. But they’d have met Security followed by the local police anywhere else. It hardly seems reasonable that they could think this would not lead to some kind of jail time.
i think their plan would have been…
1. shoot video in receptionist’s desk showing that the phones “didn’t work”
2. turn off camera, go to phone closet, yank out a couple of wires, perhaps cut them. close door.
3. start camera, open closet door, get shot of cut phone lines. add some banter along the lines of “who could have cut the senator’s phones? maybe her staff did it because they were getting so many calls from ordinary americans? as we say in law skule ‘coo-ee bone oh'” (cue scary music)
4. shoot a little footage outside, showing ‘decent citizens’ trying to call the senator, and never getting an answer.
5. profit!
dai was the getaway driver. once the Boy Wonders wrapped up their shoot, dai gets a call to drive past the front door, slow down and they’d jump in the car. much less suspicious than parking in front of a federal building with a walkie-talkie. might be interesting to look at the patterns of one-way streets there.
since Katrina, most of the democrats in Louisiana have moved out. Taking down Landrieu would guarantee that Louisiana would be solidly red for the next 10 years. I’ll bet Louisiana never sends a democrat to an office higher than dog catcher in our lifetimes.
Which raises the question…what excuse did they provide to the door security to enter the building and did someone within the building clear them? Was there an inside confederate? Did they wear their attire at the entrance door or did they don theie gay apparel later (in an office or a bathroom)? How could the dooer security miss a couple of hardhats?
BoxTurtle, it is a federal building the feds are already there. That is where they work. The affadavit states the FBI is involved but it is the United States Marshal Service who provide security inside the federal buildings. The only reason the FBI is involved is because of the involvement of a U.S. Senator and the fact that there is an allegation of possible tampering with telephone lines which would involve interstate transaction. It doesn’t matter which federal agency was involved, these guys need to go down.
No, the reason the FBI is involved is to investigate the purported criminal conduct; US Marshals don’t generally do investigation, they call in the FBI for that.
Any crime committed on Federal property, be it office building, park, museum or monument is under the jurisdiction of the FBI. The Federal Protective Service on duty in the Boggs building (or possibly GSA) would have called the closest FBI office to send agents as soon as they knew they had a problem.
As a receptionist in a Federal office, I would be calling GSA if someone showed up asking to see our phone closet, especially if they had NO credentials…
especially if they had NO credentials…
But what if they left them in the truck?
They almost certainly had to show credentials of some sort–a driver’s license–at the door the building. So for them to later say they didn’t have any credentials is a sure stinker.
Yup.
But what if they left them in the truck?
Especially if they left them in the truck.
That’s one thing that will get you noticed, at any place that wants to see ID on you at all times while you’re in their building.
(My company makes you get a temporary badge – it has a very large ‘T’ on it – if you forget your own. Visitors get stick-on IDs. No badge means Trouble.)
Now thats when it gets nasty…don’t it
Just spitballing here
What your talking about in my playbook is what the CIA played on the KGB when they showed satelitefotos of the Nile delta many years ago, so our vodka sobbing’ friends would know that they couldent hide misconduct? are you with me so far.
Lets just say that it that op was run by me, say from office of FSB or mossad..thats exatly how i would play it
A. i bug the place (do recall that in most of my strategic goal here are the same as your potus)
B. i dump the results if criminal to the FBI/ a newsdesk via go betweens..if she’s bent as in illegal the FBI would deff. be my first choice…if its flimsy or she’s playing a shaddow agenda or miss the picture as defined in “National security”..say she’s missing the boat on why heathcare is important to the US 25 years from now, cuz she reads numers and take money from wrong companies…then you need to intall the fear off god into her..so you flash your behind (remember fumble the football as one of my favorite plays BMAZ) so even the FBI figure out that somethins going on..so they bug the place..and then u just send these bozos into the office. LOL
C. there’s is still the option that she has something to hide and these Bozo’s walked in on a legit FBI op
OT Anyway my money is still on the saints “who dat” for the Superbowl A. they got nasty reciewers in more ways than one, the town needs it, if we forgot that i surgest you all take a hard look at the Haiti deal..But hey this redcoat is still trying to find the manual on that game..
BTW anybody know some dudes in that game who whants to expand thier branding overhere..Some nasty backing of a pro cycling team that runs the “tour” in france would deff be my choise..as i humbly beg for salvation with BMAZ and EV..thiese guys would be my choise..do recall that im goverment and don’t have any money tied up in that kind off interest…on the countary…LOOOOL i just ow money everywere..so if anybody got freinds of freinds in the NFL commisioners office and whant to expand your game overhere…this would be my bet on getting over the wall BIGTIME over here, my only interest that a. they run a decent operation, b. its pro, c. i figured we owe it to them as they have used some off the ideas from our shop and made them into a proffesional sportsbrand
http://politiken.dk/sport/cykling/article888094.ece
The coffemaker put on his kevlar nighpisspot as he awaits a barrage of political corretnes, in hope off the lord of the site recocnize a clean heart and open visir
Just my five cents woth
Yup. I joked yesterday on Twitter that O’Keefe’s daddy might ground him and take away his allowance for what he called his “prank.” Little did I know the court had already grounded him.
“…planned to get a reaction out of Landrieu…”
If that reaction was one of heightened anxiety, this could be construed as an act of intended terrorism. Hehe.
If they fouled up an FBI tap, that would be obstruction of justice. :-)
My prediction: The charges will be reduced to trespassing and possession of criminal tools. There will be fines, perhaps a suspended sentance or reduced to time served.
Teabaggers can afford good lawyers, and the typical charge for an activist group disrupting a senate office is trespassing on government property.
Boxturtle (They’d have to promise not to tell about anything else they may have seen in the telco room)
That is a scary thought because of all the “special” extra-constitutional things the government can now do in our name to so called terrorists.
Why did Bobby Jindal feel that he had to issue a statement on this? Is he connected to any of the four perpetrators?
Because he knew folks were disappointed that he didn’t give the “response” to the SOTU, and was just wanting to give people their “Jindal fix”?
Frankly that VA Governor was such a dullard C street type that I kinda missed ole Bobby Jindal. At least Jindal provided some much needed laughs last year. That VA Governor: not so much… zzzzzzzz
Is testing for alcohol/other drugs part of the arresting process these days? I realize these guys are awfully dim, but . . .
and that is a criminal act
three criminal acts:
that’s about 20 years consecutively
an I did it without hyperbole
does breitbart wanna discuss RICO ???
bet he don’t
at this point, andy oughta consider his fifth amendment rights
aw, now you’ve gone and done it…
I wanted more of those interviews, and you’ve told him he better lawyer up. Gosh durn, I wanted to see more of those interviews, and those lawyers are gonna tell him to shut up…
Andy should have just kept repeating, “I can’t comment on the subject of an ongoing investigation.” This interview makes him look like Orly Taitz.
Okay — just a quick check yiedls AT LEAST 20, perhaps 40 years (this is Homeland Security afterall!), thus:
There are at least four separate predicate acts:
(1) willful interference;
(2) willful obstruction/and or delay; and
(3) the attempt to acheive (1) and (2).
I think the boys’ lawyer is smart to say it was an attempt to frustrate the Senator, not break communication devices.
But these guys are in a LOT of hot water.
Namaste
So its not so much the content but the intent,right?
And who’s to say WHAT they may have not perpetrated, had they not been apprehended early on.
One could imagine some ominous scenarios re:the accomplice sitting a half block away.
Hey nolo–good to see you!
Ditto!
Hey grrl</em — glad to be “seen“!
Now, I seem to have been largely-misunderstood by freepatriot (and my good buddie — the estimable bmaz, too!). I was just going too fast. I should have been clearer: No matter who represents these wanna-be “world’s dumbest criminals“, this will be a tall order.
Their own video has them (arguably) committing multiple felonies — the defense lawyer looks to be saying “Hey, this is more akin to political activism (gone way awry), than actual government-communications-infrastructure destruction — they wanted to frustrate and embarrass the Senator. . . that’s ALL. . .”
That’s the defense lawyer’s likely best spin on it. Any other path looks like 20 to 40 years — in federal custody, for multiple felonies involving intentional (attempt) interference with governmental communications equipment and infrastucture. And that, regardless of what they say they meant to do — looks a lot like domestic terrorism.
So — the defense lawyer has a decidedly stupid set of clients — and thus, a weak hand.
I think a judge will have them eventually do at least some (small amount of) time (perhaps in a minimum security facility, plus lots of community service) — to dissuade other
nut jobs/tea-baggers, erh. . . exuberent youth from free-stunting like this. Just my guess.Finally, I agree with several commenters upthread that, were this 2006, and a [black] man from Detroit trying to disrupt — even momentarily — say, a Cheney walk through a crowd, in Beaver Creek — by simply telling him his “policies (in Iraq) are reprehensible” — he’d be locked UNDER the jail.
Wait — almost all of that actually happened — Howards v. Cheney, et al., Case No. 06-1964, U.S. Dist. Ct., Colorado District.
[So bmaz — Saints it is, right?]
Namaste
Damn straight, Saints all the way! I would be rooting for them anyway because they have never been there and I love Nawlins; but the way the Colts laid down the final two games of the regular season, they just deserve no respect at all.
As to the bit on the idiot’s lawyer, I agree it is the smart play, but not yet and not in public. Neither the lawyer not client have anything to gain by yammering to the press and public, and it will not endear them to the Feds. Talk to the Feds and prosecutors and get the fuck out quietly. That would be my idea of how to do it. They have made a spectacle of themselves already, they should just stop and dry up now. But they are idiots and won’t do that. As to time, can’t remember if I posted this earlier or intended to and forgot, but my guess is, without more aggravating factors, and if they mitigate by accepting responsibility etc, I would guess somewhere around a year or so, maybe as little as six months time. Might be eligible for alternative confinement.
A felony, though?
you’re not misunderstood
but if my defense attorney released a stupid statement like this, you better have a couple of dozen marshals at my next court appearance, or my lawyer ain’t gonna survive
that statement is THAT BAD
any effort to disrupt or impede a federal official is a felony
and okeefe’s lawyer just claimed that okeefe did just that
when a defense lawyer has a bad hand, he should just say “no comment”
sayin “My client is guilty of a whole different set of charges” isn’t really a good way to defend a client
anywho, glad to see ya in the neighborhood
and ya got one thing right
DREW FOOKIN BREES
he ain’t that fuckin smart
he might have explained away the wiretapping violations
but he just admitted that the asshole intended to harass or impede a federal official
with the conspiricy charges, the asshole is in the same boat, doin the same amount of time
cept we get a free admission, in open court
no exactly what you would pay a defense attorney for …
I agree.
Luckily they have all these guys emails and text messages stored on the NSA supercomputer so they can just look them up and see what their real intent was….
Why do I keep thinking of the Miami Seven? Speaking of comedy, here’s Jon Stewart on O’Keefe.
NO is the fifth largest port in the country, terrorists are salivating to attack us, Louisiana is an open border state, this is a time of war.
Some say “but they are only 24 years old.” Guantanamo has housed prisoners younger than 24.
Dumb entitled whitists. Why are white 24 year olds too young to be taken seriously when brown 24 year old have been horribly tortured? If 24 is too young to know what’s going on, then why hold, question, detain, and even torture Al Queada members under age 24?
“Maybe that’s why Breitbart is so desperate to prevent Shuster from explaining that to his viewers”
__________________________________________________________________
Wednesday morning I borrowed a friends car and was listening to an FM station that had a ‘Hannity Minute’,I guess it is a regular feature. The thing he said that was interesting is “never feel you have to answer any of ‘their’ questions. If they as ask if this is the Bush recession, reply did you vote for the stimulus”.
Thats what I see Breitbart doing in this interview, and what Palin did during the debates.
Precisely.
And what troubles me is how completely their approach always absolves them of any responsibility to consider their own conduct, which means they have no means of correction.
Shuster did the right thing; as if on cue, Breitbart tries to turn Shuster’s honorable conduct against him.
Classic.
Better to start the questioning of ‘bart with the Homeland Security angle. Messing with the phone of a member of the Homeland Security Committee, is that a patriotic action, sir?
And speaking of Marshalls, remember that a couple of them got shot just a few weeks ago in a building not dissimilar from this one.
When I was in SF for the Prop8 trial, the Marshalls mentioned the underwear bomber. But I gotta wonder if they’re also a bit on edge because there are Marshalls out there getting shot because people infiltrate Federal buildings.
Dunno, but what happened in the Seattle/Tacoma area before the holidays is so tragic that I can’t stand to think about it.
Which, IMVHO, is just one more reason to tamp out Breitbart’s hissy fit and clarify for all who might hear that these guys were acting in a way that — politics aside — was illegal.
And that law enforcement officials are there to protect everyone’s interests, not any one member of Congress.
In that respect, it might have been best just to leave Landrieu’s name out of it altogether; if it happened to Vitter’s office, it would be equally illegal, but I’m not convinced some of these guys can think that through.
Well I don’t know for sure of course as I have never been inside the Boggs building but if all of the congress critters are on one floor they may have been tampering with the phones of everyone in the building who has an office there.
TPM gives hattip to Marcy Wheeler about her original take on this story,FYI.
MSNBC has a really smart reporter in Shuster, and post-Plame, a lot of people on the right seem to dislike him intensely; it’s so much easier to blame Shuster’s coverage than to look at their own conduct…
I admire the hell out of Shuster (as I do Ratigan and Maddow) for refusing to let guests hijack interviews. And I think that Shuster was really standing his ground here, both personally and on behalf of his employer.
But here’s my worry: a ‘low info voter’ who already distrusts ‘the media’ is probably going to ‘side’ with Breitbart against Shuster.
Shuster talks about ‘facts’, and he corrects his facts.
Breitbart gets away with saying of O’Keefe, “He’s an independent filmmaker”. Then, there’s the implication that Shuster has somehow smeared O’Keefe, which apart from showing how desperate Breitbart is to disassociate himself, at the same time makes it appear that some injury has been done here — by Shuster (!) Breitbart is not going to let go of that ‘imagined insult’ — it’s his best hope of keeping his own ass covered.
MSNBC needs to give Shuster more resources; he’s doing his job with one arm tied behind his back. He needs some graphics to back up his point and help educate viewers.
Some decent overlay graphics could show the sequence:
— ACORN political hit job by O’Keefe
— O’Keefe celebrated by rightwing
— O’Keefe’s recent twitters
— O’Keefe and the other 3 associates, along with their histories of rightwing foundations, ‘intel’ college programs, etc
— Show that this is not simply a prank, the FBI is pressing charges
— This is **federal property**, and a diagram could easily show coordinated activity, that there were 4 involved, etc.
I don’t say this to stir the pot.
But I’ve worked with adults (including 20-somethings) who have trouble processing information, including written information and also a clip like this interview.
They don’t see it at all as most here probably do: they would almost certainly identify with Breitbart, and I fear that without clearly understanding the seriousness of what’s going on with people interfering with federal phone equipment, that some of these lower-info types would just think it’s some media guy trying to piss off Breitbart.
(FWIW, now I know who Breitbart is… )
Breitbart doth protest too much.
A humble attitude would have worked better regarding the weight of this issue.
(my bold)
So when is Breitbart going to apologize to ACORN on national television?
About the time the Sun expands and roasts the planet like a big marshmallow.
If Landrieu’s phones were jammed up with calls in Baton Rouge you can bet your bippy this was on purpose ,done by those with concerns about the health care reform and abortion funding.
Now,wouldn’t it be pretty clever to purposely overwhelm her phone sysytem,so you can complain you can’t get a call through?
Or as a pretext for other phone related fabrications?
WHERE have we seen this strategy before?
I sure as heck hate quoting/linking to this individual, but it’s to prove just how crazy these people are. Here’s Rush Limpdick today:
Well, I sure as hell don’t listen to Mr. Oxyincontinent,but there is a point there.
I find it odd that the phones,if they were in disrepair ,were not reported by Landrieu’s staff themselves,or that there seems to be no report of a Landrieu staffer saying-hey,our phones are working.,,what are you talking about?
HOWEVER, as I said upthread,my guess that the creationist ,evangelicals who have been coalescing to fight health reform had marshalled phone banks to purposely overwhelm Landrieu’s office.
Not just a good guess, but a fact! Per the NYT:
I had posted several comments about the Vitter and Perkins connections on the previous two ew teabugger threads.
Perkins,before he founded Focus on the Family,had been a campaign manger for Woody Jenkins-Landrieu’s opponent many years ago.
Perkins was so desperate for Jenkins to win,that Perkins purchased Nazi/KKK member David Duke’s mailing list.(Duke had unsuccessfully run for Governor of Louisiana many years ago.)
Jenkins lost.
Perkins aligned himself later with Ralph Reed and other Abramoff Evangelicals.
Within the past few years, Vitter and Perkins have been joined at the lip.
You may want to review the earlier teabugger threads for extended info on these matters.
I remembered, but wanted to re-emphasize it here again.
Interesting connecting the dots. Lush Rimjob exonerates criminal Teabugger activity by blaming it on Landrieu sending phone calls from “concerned constitutents” to “dead lines” or whatever and attacks Landrieu for deliberately avoiding Teabagger phone calls. Then there’s this connection with Tony Perkins (yuck) & Family Research Council types picketing and complaining about Landrieu not answering her phone calls.
And these folks are associated with Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Diaper Vitter??
Woa… the hits just keep on coming. Very fishy.
Well, good for Shuster; I agree about his journalistic/reporting capabilities. He’s very good, but he doesn’t get enough support.
My prediction is that these wankers will get off with a tap on the wrist, which is cravenly wrong. I’ve worked in federal courthouses before, and this is really serious business. That these fools were attempting to mess with federal phone lines and disrupt federal business is contemptible and is a felony. But I’ve said it a zillion times: there are numerous systems of “justice” in this land, and these white boys (who will just be boys; frat pranks, after all) are on the “right” (in every sense of the word) side of “justice” here.
Somehow, though, it always ends up: IOKIYAR, don’t it?
But thanks everyone for some good info and helping to connect some dots. You know, all this whining about Landrieu not answering her phone and saying she ignored them, added to Rethuglican tactics of jamming Democratic phone banks during elections… you know, conservatives are constantly projecting onto liberals exactly what it is that they, themselves, are doing.
I think this O’Keefe knucklehead is out for fortune & fame, but I think he’s being pushed to do this by the powers that be. Listen to what they’re accusing the Democrats of doing, and rest assured that it’s at least a good clue/insight into what the conservative players are actually doing. unbelievable.
Classic.
At no point does Rush allow the fact that these ‘buddies’ were on federal property.
It’s all about what Rush ‘knows’, what Rush ‘says’, what Rush ‘will tell you’.
Not a fact within 5 miles of the guy.
And no inkling to any of his listeners that this is a federal crime, on federal property, by people who have spent recent years in very ideological environments.
And we wonder why we have a dysfunctional political culture…*sigh*…
This makes more sense than the earlier MSM spin cycle where these clowns were only trying to video-document that Senator Landrieu’s office was somehow call-blocking anti-HCR callers.
If that had been the case, there was zero reason for the clowns to try to get into the wiring/phone closet.
Now just how these clowns were going to cut off Landrieu’s phone system should be another one of those simple questions awaiting answers.
And another simple question I’d like answered is just who got O’Keefe his attorney and who is paying for that attorney?
O’Keefe’s attorney is Michael Madigan out of Washington DC while Flanagan’s attorney is J. Garrison Jordan out of Louisiana.
Actually, here’s what AP says one of the lawyers said, which I view as a further retreat:
Yeah, it was nuts to affirmatively go into what he may have been doing as opposed to generically denying he was violating this or that law. Never box your client in.
Right. And I was thinking something along those lines when Breitbart answered Shuster’s question today. Shuster asked if he knew what O’Keefe was up to. There was a pause, ever so slight, before he responded that he did not know. I think he was trying to decide whether to fess up, or go on record (a record that could be replayed in the future, if investigation turns up proof he did know) denying it. He should have had the “No” right on the tip of his tongue, no thinking required.
Which takes it right back to that simple question unanswered of just why these clowns wanted/needed to get into the wiring/phone closet.
I suppose one could claim that they were simply trying to make their charade as Telephone Company repairpeople more realistic, but that begs the question of why they didn’t just “pretend” they were going to the wiring/phone closet after leaving Senator Landrieu’s office, and then beat feet.
Instead, these clowns actually went to the GSA office to ask to get into the wiring/phone closet.
Simple questions without answers yet.
Yeah, while a buddy of theirs was blocks away in a car with listening equipment. An ‘intel’ specialist, he called himself. But nothing to see here, move right along…
Um, the reports are that the “listening equipment” was either a cheap walkie talkie or push to talk cell phone. The “intel specialist” and/or “spy” bunk is all incredibly overrated on this guy.
Sorry bmaz, I did need to put snark after that.
Sadly, a quick review of Lindsay Beyerstein’s (?) link that someone put on a previous post on this topic led to the info about his being trained in ‘intel’. Plus, see Sara’s comments on prior thread about how the government has outsourced so much intel that this young man could well have thought that he had an ‘intel’ background.
But your point is well taken.
I needed to put a snark notation with my comment.
Apologies.
Meh, no you don’t, there is just so much misinformation out there on things that I wanted to make sure we were not propagating it here.
And it’s quality control that makes for such a great blog.
Plus, with all the guessing and wondering about motives of these guys, it’s quite easy to go too far afield.
Continuing-
Why
The FBI?
Well, maybe the senator had previously lodged a complaint that some group (perkin’s?) was disabling the senator’s phone system by jamming it.
Might doing so be a federal matter?
See my comment @#122
The fellow that O”Keefe and company stayed with in New Orleans was actually O’Keefe’s former boss at the Leadership Institute a couple of years ago.
That same fellow,Wetmore, is now a law student according to the Yahoo news article.
I wonder if he has any links to either the Washington attorney, or the Louisiana attorney?
So does anyone know how (or if) Fox is covering this thing in any way? Back in the halcyon O’Keefe/ACORN days, they could barely contain their round-the-clock glee. I’m guessing it’s crickets right about now.
So what are the chances these kids will do a little time? Think there’s anything/anyone else to be found as the thread gets pulled?
And maybe that is why the MSNBC brass used a Twitter email sequence in order to reprimand Shuster.
Are you serious?!!
Did this turn out to be true? Did NBC brass slap Shuster around for going too hard on Breitbart? If so, bad on them.
Just added this update:
Update: TPM got a response from Landrieu to the TeaBuggers’ latest excuses.
Does Flanagan’s daddy have an office in that building? He might also know a few lawyers in DC.
Any word on who’s picking up the check on O’Keefe, etals’ attorneys fees? I assume the numbers will get up in the air in a hurry.
I thought that the first story I read was that these goobers had a van with some sort of listening equipment set up down the street from the Federal Building in a van or something. Anything they did to Landrieu’s phone was/is a criminal act, and the DoJ ought to make sure these knuckleheads get prosecuted for something that is basically a felony offense. No plea bargains… at least for the folks actually inside the offices wearing repairman gear.
Love the conspiracy charge… and RICO might be really fun! Can we safely prosecute these “terrorists” (I think ACORN might classify O’Keefe as an enema combatant, being that he’s an asshole) in the US?
Perhaps they need to be sent to GITMO… */s
No plea bargains
However, if this thing reaches beyond a few snot-nosed wannabees, the prosecutor might be in a mood to cut a deal in exchange for some Real Heads. That’s what I’d do…
Weakening tea-
Thu Jan-28-10
Bachmann Is Latest To Pull Out Of Tea Party Convention
Source: Talking Points Memo
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has become the latest to pull out of a scheduled speaking gig at the controversial National Tea Party Convention next year.
Like Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) earlier today, Bachmann’s office cited concerns about the event’s financial arrangements. Some Tea Partiers have accused the convention’s organizer, Judson Phillips of Tea Party Nation, of seeking to profit from the confab.
…snip…
Bachmann’s office had earlier said it was concerned about the possibility of violating Congressional ethics rules.
Sarah Palin is currently still scheduled to speak, but is reported to be under pressure to bow out as well.
Read more: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/01/bachm…
Yeah…tragic, ain’t it?
Smarter than they look, no?
Smart enough to know they need to rent a much smaller TEApee in the future?
We’ll see how serious Phillips is about his
profitspolitical activism.Folks, a rhetorical question, if these individuals had physically been of a particular racial or ethnic profile– would folks like Limbaugh,Fox et al be reacting in such a nonchalant manner?
Not that is their entire modus operandi. There are completely different rules for them and their friends and the people they agree with. They can break the law with impunity but the instant someone they disagree with even so much as steps on a crack in the sidewalk. They are on the fainting couch and saying the people they disagree with are terrorists, literally. See Michelle Bachman et all.
This is the most disgusting behavior because it limits the possiblity of civil discourse about real issues. As the pres so eloquently pointed out in his speech, we have lots of problems to solve. Calling the president and other people you disagree with a terrorist does not help matters.
Now that I know landrieu is on u . S. Interior ministry, ana dept of Homeland security,
It seems likely that o’keefe’s script was to demonstrate how “easy it was” to break into her telephone system.
Since there wasn’t a telephone closet in Sen L’s office,
And with the senator’s staff telling them they’d have to go talk with the GSA folks,
The four video journalists trooped downstairs hoping to capture gov’t security laxness down there.
As for the presence of the FBI (including a spec agent)
That might, might be explained by the fact that o’keefe is bring watched.
There might be high officials in the Obama admin who admire what acorn has long done, and done well,
And who took a very dim view of acorn Being set up by a smartalec right- wing smearmeister in the making.
Maybe even a former community Organizer – who knows.
Did the judge remand him to his parents’ basement? If so, he can put on a pair of pajamas and by doing the combination of the three – parents, basement and PJs, pretty much have a resume ready for Pajamas Media.
Seriously, this was a job for Joe the Plumber, not these morans.
According to one story, someone in the office thought that the electric company costumes were hokey and called security.
Schuster should have a mute or volume control button to keep people from shouting him down. It’s his show.
And what if they HAD disabled the phones and someone would have needed to call 911 for a medical emergency?
Cell phones can lose valuable moments as they do not directly connect to 911,but are rerouted ,to my understanding.
I welcome correction if I am incorrect about this rerouting .
Ignore the salutation @65.
It was not written in response to anyone.
http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2010/01/hackers-attack-gov-websites-with-political-attack-on-obama.html
Hackers attack gov web-sites, with political attack on Obama…
Cyber-terrorism attack on 49 House web sites last night:
“Congressional investigators are exploring how hackers managed to infiltrate 49 House web sites overnight, zeroing in on the technology vendor that manages some House Web sites.
Only hours after the State of the Union, hackers replaced the usual pages that congressmen and committees use with a profane attack on President Barack Obama. As of Thursday afternoon, many of the affected sites still appear to be down.
Each of the pages is managed by GovTrends, an Alexandria-based provider of web services. House servers host sites for members of Congress, but all members are free to use outside vendors to manage and upgrade their pages. This practice appears to have allowed third parties access to the Web sites outside of congressional firewalls.
———————————————————————-
I thought this was interesting over at Larissa’s “At Largely”
UPDATE
Ratfuckers strike again…(updates)
http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2010/01/ratfuckers-strike-again.html#more
I noticed something odd. Earlier today I checked the Facebook pages of Stan Dai [CORRECTION, I WROTE O’KEEFE BY ACCIDENT] and he had friends. I checked it about two hours ago, and all of his friends were scrubbed. So, did this guy delete all of his friends from jail or did he do this shortly after he got home. The question is why would someone just arrested on federal charges think that deleting his Facebook friends is a priority?
I am sure Mike Connell would have been able to tell us “who done it.”
Here’s is some interesting background on Basel,one of the buggers.He’s the one from Minnesota.
Read the comments-they are VERY informative.
Joseph Basel: Phone-tapping suspect and former U of M-Morris …Jan 26, 2010 … Minneapolis / St. Paul News. Joseph Basel: Phone-tapping suspect and former U of M-Morris conservative editor. City Pages news, blogs, …
blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/01/joseph_basel_ph.php – Cached
The washington lawyer for o’keefe interests me too.
Maybe it’s just a case of friends in High places
But I can’t help thinking about new Hampshire and robo calls
designed to disrupt a candidate’s election communications.
there was talk on Redstate before the MAss. Senate election of doing the same thing to the Dem Phone banks for that election. Don’t know whether any of it came to pass, but there was talk to that effect.
This is old but for some reason nags at me in the context of this Teabuggers story.
Rove has been going after LA for a few years from a political strategy POV.
That article is old, but they did recruit then Democrat John Kennedy the state treasurer to not only run against Landrieu but he switched parties to do so. He obviously lost.
I know the article is old, which is why I stated it is old. The implied element of the article that nags at me is the strategy of Rove mentioned in it irt taking certain states as Repugs, LA being one of them. (Which gives the Siegelman case even more traction too.)
That strategy, above all, seems to fit with the crimes committed by the young men. Hope the Feds do get to email from the young men quickly.
Rove has had a focus on North Dakota and LA becoming solid red, especially for the Senate.
Adam says:
FYI, Basel also was recently at a couple of events in St. Louis: http://stlactivisthub.blogspot.com/2010/01/fake-wash-u-student-arrested-in-new.html .
He and O’Keefe secretly videotaped administrators during a “campus gulag” and edited the video to try to make it look like the admins had a grudge, and they later attended an LGBT rally holding “free abortion” signs.
Posted On: Tuesday, Jan. 26 2010 @ 10:36PM —————————–
Joseph Basel: Phone-tapping suspect and former U of M-Morris …Jan 26, 2010 … Minneapolis / St. Paul News. Joseph Basel: Phone-tapping suspect and former U of M-Morris conservative editor. City Pages news, blogs, …
blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/01/joseph_basel_ph.php – Cached
This is a type of character assination.
Quite the MO there.
http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2009/12/deep-throat-emerges-in-mike-connell.html
http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/2164
NOTE: Yesterday morning a posted a few comments over at a Seminal thread by Cocktail hag,entitled telephone man,that has some tangential references to Rove,Minnesota and robocalls.
Coincidentally,Mike Connell had a connection to this Minnesota based telecommunications PR firm.
So did Norm Coleman.
You may want to take a look.
Yep, that’s why I made my Mike Connell comment @ 83.
Let us not forget the sad case of Don Siegelman,and the subterranean influences in that travesty in Alabama.
Legal Schnauzer website is ground zero for that Machiavellian miscarriage of justice.
a possible connection to Rove was pointed at during an interview on Keith Olberman’s
Wasn’t this guy Duke, the Doonebury character in another life
Who Breitbart? In his wildest fantasies maybe.
No, the ‘prototype’ for Raoul Duke was Hunter S. Thompson
David Duke is a racist asshole, former KKK Grand Wizard, son of Louisiana, etc. Raul Duke was Sports Editor for Rolling Stone for a while. There was (continues to be) Duke in Doonesbury. Raul Duke and the Doonesbury Duke are both modeled after Dr. Hunter S. Thompson (who really wasn’t a doctor, neither MD nor PhD, but made “Dr.” part of his name–and he richly deserved it, too).
the good dr. thompson not a doctor? you lie!
i clearly recall him saying that he had received a degree from a “prestigious west-coast degree-granting institution.” a lot of us got them to avoid the draft in the 60’s/ early 70’s.
for some reason, i don’t recall much more of that evening…..
Great story. And I stand corrected. Maybe he was Doctor of DIvinity for, as I recollect, lotsa folks become ministers during that period also.
And I do believe this is one of the most popular churches granting doctorates. The Universal Life Church. Ah, what a trip down memory lane.
Having performed engineering surveys dozens of secure buildings (military bases, brigs, oil company HQ’s), I can tell you this stinks. Everybody is highly protective of their turf. You get nowhere without an escort. My guess is that the FBI/Marshals were called within minutes. The only defense of the group is to claim it is a really bad prank.
This link
shows how Acorn tapes are fake – the story bogus – all shown via the transcripts that the kid himself released on his site!
Two folks were not as careful as they should have been and were fired – end of story. He did not con anyone. The con is the editing of the tape to tell a story that never happen.
Is there any relation between this – and the strange messages that were reported posted about on the sites of several Congresspeople after the State of the Union?
marcy, this is off topic but your cup, it’s brilliant, snarkish, legalish and I think you’ll really get a kick out of it
corporation runs for maryland congresional seat
they are doing it to point out how REDICULOUS alito and roberts are in that decision and it is BRILLIANT;
wow, a corporation demonstrating social responsibility…who’da thunk it?
Busted in the Big easy
Jonathon Turley on Orleansgate
“I.q.’s room temperature”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036697/#35132908
Turley “amazed these four could find the building”
In this clip they show Obama’s Supreme Court “not true”
Here is what I was referring to: The Red Eye crew. Are any of these fellows in any way related to this? The timing is so close.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/28/congress-hack-attack-house_n_439906.html
Maybe these fellows were trying to remove something that had been placed there – after realizing they were in way deeper and into way more serious stuff along with/paralleling the Red Eye folks?
As recently as last August, US representatives’ websites were defaced by an Indonesian hacker-and the weak passwords were deemed the culprit in those incidents,too.
Here’s a link:
GovTrends – news tag – SoftpediaGovTrends – news tag. … Home > News > Tags > GovTrends. 30. Stories about: GovTrends. Mass Defacement of U.S. House of Representatives Websites …
news.softpedia.com/newsTag/GovTrends – Cached
@#104 I said the same thing on another thread earlier today- about removing something,I mean.
Incidentally, I wonder if security tapes would show if any of them had been in that building in the previos days.
Remember, O’Keefe was bragging four days earlier,at a Pelican Foundation luncheon of Teabaggers- that something regarding Landrieu was going to come down.
How did the MSNBC producers let this segment continue??? Jeebus.
As to Federal Buildings and Security — two words
Tim McVeigh and Oklahoma City.
That was an operation from the Militia Right, with overtones of the Neo-Nazi Subculture. Hundred and Eighty dead as I remember, and many more seriously injuured. Remember that one? We should NEVER let the Rush Limbaughs and all the rest forget where that all came from.
After OK City, the Federal Buildings all got a Security Makeover, blast walls, no parking or unloading facilities, Big Concrete tubs of dirt to protect entrance areas, and every office has panic buttons. If the Marshalls are not officed in the building, if FBI and Prosecutors are in other facilities, they have private security. If Senators and Reps had offices on non-Federal property (and many do) they got budget for a security compliment. The response was very much in line with the kind of increased security that the McVeigh attack brought about.
Reasoning from gitchegumee @87
If Basel and o’keefe had worked together before
And if both were in new orl at the same time (along with Dri),
Then some video recording event must have been planned prior to o’keefe’s showing up in new orl.
That event Might have been an effort To embarrass sen landrieu.
Then again, ew has noted that landrieu’s brother may be elected mayor of new orl in a couple of weeks.
Maybe going after sen landrieu was an effort to effect the election for mayor.
O’keefe burst on the political scene in sept last year in what seems clearly an effort to disrupt voter registration that would probably have benefited democrats.
o’keefe and those who support him financially may be focusing on influencing election results in new Orleans.
This sounds rather like a mild version of the swiftboat crew.
So when was the prior planning done?
With whom was it done?
Who promised to pay expenses?
Who’s the really big beneficiary from all these shenanigans?
I still disagree with everyone who thinks that these “boys” are going to get off with a slap on the wrist for this “prank”. Who THEY are is irrelevant. The victim is the only person that matters here. Nobody’s going to get away with a stunt like this in the office of a sitting US Senator. She’s probably already gone stomping through a bunch of FBI offices, shrieking, “Do you people have any idea who I AM!!!???” David Broder is probably already working on a column about how “unseemly” this whole affair has been. The only way any one of them is going to stay out of jail is by turning on the other three.
that’s what I’m waiting for.
Srsly, if you really wanted to show your senator or rep was unresponsive, just call 10 times a day for a week, keep a log, and go to the paper or put it on the intertoobz. never assume malice where incompetence will suffice and these yahoos are amply blessed with incompetence.
Speaking of which, riddle me this: Man in car can hear everything that happens to the three men in the building. The three men in the building get arrested. Why does the man in the car not flee? What explains him getting arrested too? How do the US Marshals, FBI, or NOLA PD find man in car? Seems like either a) some of the three must have turned against the one, or else b) LE was already out there proactively watching.
Also, I’m still waiting for any answer at all on where the video from Tiny-Helmet-Cam was being broadcast to, or alternatively what it was being recorded onto. I see from John Stewart’s re-airing of the PimpyBoy footage that they had some sort of Tiny-Hat-Cam then as well, and the video quality was decent. So a) it’s part of the MO, and b) if they used similar gear this time, the idea of a video radio link to a recorder outside the building is a bit less likely.
Without exacerbating circumstances I have not seen, a brief look at the Federal sentencing guidelines looks like if convicted of the offenses currently charged with, they would be expected to serve a year or less. Now that depends on them helping themselves along the way some, but gives kind of an idea.
Palau @97
Thank you very
Much for that link.
Details are important in responding to propaganda like o’keefe’s acorn propaganda piece.
I think people are giving these guys too much credit for being connected. To me this reads like the Ashton Kutcher – Punked/ Johnny Knoxville – Bam Margera generation thinking it’s all good. It’s all TV. I won’t get in trouble. O’Keefe seems like he has an overconfidence in himself despite the fact that he appears to not be very smart. The pimp costume? Good lord, 1970’s and never on a white boy. That is his image of what a pimp is in 2009? Unless he is trying to be campy for entertainment sake but I think no, sadly, no. He’s just stuck at 14 having fantasies of being James Bond but like any uber right wingnut he doesn’t know any history, he doesn’t know the laws and he thinks he’ll never get in trouble for anything he does.
Tonight on Hardball Jonathon Turley said “their I.Q.’s seemed to be about room temperature” and that “he was surprised they even found the building”
over at largely
http://www.atlargely.com/atlargely/2010/01/the-they-were-setup-meme.html
“When Flanagan and Basel entered the office, they told the staffer they were there to fix phone problems. At that time, the staffer, 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 Flanagan and Basel went in. There, a GSA employee asked for the men’s credentials. They said they left them in their vehicle.
The U.S. Marshal’s Service apprehended all four men shortly thereafter.
An official close to the investigation said one of the four was arrested with a listening device in a car blocks from the senator’s offices. He spoke on condition of anonymity because that information was not included in official arresting documents.”
————————————————-
So a listening device is not generally a taping device too?
Lawyer: Phone scheme meant to embarrass senator – Yahoo! NewsJan 29, 2010 … Four conservative activists accused of trying to tamper with a senator’s phones were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of …
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/…/ap_on…/us_senator_s_office_arrests – 1 hour ago
way ot
but was just wondering what had happened to this investigation
Investigators: Kentucky Census Worker Killed Himself
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,576647,00.html
Continuing-
O’keefe was the hit man, brought in to do some sort of utube-useable, may-go-viral video attacking a dem or a dem position.
Flanigan was the Indian scout, tonto (do you know what “tonto” means in Spanish?),
The local boy who could guide the hit man and his “colleagues”, I.e., he knew where the fed building was and where to park.
So who was behind this karl-kristian-rove style plot?
And for what hoped-for benefit?
Is there a Perkins/anti-choice connection?
A vitter connection?
An rnc connection?
A k-street medical insurance lobby connection?
A billy tauzin connection?
Did I just hear on KO that the Washington lawyer for O’Keefe has ties to James Dobson,formerly of Focus on the Family?
Do some think this is GOOD TEEVEE? If I wanted to hear a bratty child interrupting constantly and repeating himself until his face turned blue, I would visit a pre-school somewhere.
Clue Phone, MSNBC: This is not “riveting TV.” It makes me change the channel.
Respectfully disagree.
Shuster kept his head, and did his job.
Breitbart, whom I’d not seen before frankly, showed himself to be the kind of person that I personally would cross the street to avoid. I’m sure that Breitbart also believes that all judgeships are ‘political appointments’, a la K-k-k-karl Rove.
Breitbart showed himself to be a person unable to keep his cool under pressure, unable to marshal evidence — rather than sink into ad hominum attack — and did not thoughtfully discuss the tragic situation in which these four young ideologues now find themselves.
If I were in charge of the world, I’d order progressives and the media to stop calling this a prank (insert the word crime instead) (or felony), and I’d stop talking about how stupid they were. Stupidity can be seen as an excuse — and with youth and prank in the mix it can gain them sympathy. They’re taking control of the story in ways that I, as Head of the World, would not permit. With national personalities chuckling and saying in effect “those darn kids,” the seriousness of what they did in even planning this thing, let alone trying to carry it out, is lost.
And if I were the judge, I would not let them off lightly. It will just encourage others to use federal facilities for their own political agenda, and spur these guys into planning their next “project.”
It would be irresponsible to let this thing go lightly. Chaos at federal buildings should not be encouraged. This sort of thing could help people that want to carry out violent attacks. I think you are correct the media themes of dumb kids an prank are inappropriate.
No one is above the law, despite what GWB and gang have gotten away with.
OT, but wow Howard Fineman hits a homer on KO tonight explaining why the Supreme Court blew the doors off the campaign funding barn. Really good explanation
He was on the Chris Matthews show the night of the decision. Can night find the clip. I had never seen Fineman so pissed. But as Bmaz has pointed out Fineman is not a lawyer…whatever that means
It means that if you are citing Howard Fineman for the proposition that corporations can now make unlimited direct contributions to campaigns and/or that the statute against foreign interest campaign involvement has been overturned, which is exactly what you previously did, you might want to find a better and more properly educated expert to rely on.
I was always under the impression that Howard Fineman was a lawyer.
Here’s some info from Wiki about his educational background:
Fineman holds an A.B., from Colgate (where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi), an M.S. in journalism from Columbia, and a J.D. from the University of Louisville.*
His legal education included a year at the Georgetown University Law Center.
He received Watson and Pulitzer Traveling Fellowships for study in Europe, Russia and the Middle East.
* JD-Juris Doctor
Mr O has a JD also, but he seems to be little weak on things like the Constitution and how law flow from it.
A JD degree is the professional graduate degree usually required to practice law in the United States.
JD is the abbreviation for “Juris Doctor” or “Doctorate of Jurisprudence.”
I stand corrected; sure can’t see much evidence of it in his work.
rOTL @ 140,
B-b-but bmaz sez that Fineman is, um, no great shakes in legal matters!
Bob in AZ
Just a thought, but given that these clowns desire to join the “journalism” club (albeit only the Faux News kind), I wonder if they put any of the plans in writing.
Yes writing, that first and foremost tool of real journalists.
And to continue following that bouncing ball, what then is the likelihood that these twentysomething clowns wrote about their plans using email?
Twentysomething clowns who Twitter says to me that the Internet world composed of electrons is their idea of a comfortable residence with little thought about the breadcrumb trail they leave behind.
So, I would ask our esteemed Legal Eagles hereabouts, given the state of the law these days regarding the Feds access to email (pretty bad), what is the likelihood of the prosecuting attorney and/or FBI getting their hands on the clowns’ email accounts?
And if the Feds get such, and if the twentysomething clowns left that incriminating breadcrumb trail as I hypothesize, anyone want to bet on their chances of avoiding a Federal mailing address in their near future? *g*
Continuing-
A final mystery is the involvement of young flannigan.
Normally spouse and children of higher level officials
Learn a sort of public etiquette which
Is mostly along the lined of
Keep your Head down,
Keep quiet about mom’s work.
So what was the younger flannigan doing putzing
Around with o’keefe?
From o’keefe’s standpoint,
Having flannigan along was probably perceived as a license, a get-out-of-jail-free card.
My question would be why flannigan Allowed himself to get involved?
And more importantly,
Did he feel that he had the approval of his father, the acting u.s. Attorney?
Either implicit or explicit approval.
Republicans encourage illegal activity and far worse.
Republicans foment domestic terrorism!
Here’s a little manifesto they should explain. It dates from 1993, and it has never been repudiated by their merry band of assholes:
The feckless and unenforced FACE act answered the Army of God in 1994.
But Republicans continue to inspire homegrown terrorism right out in the open with a resolution honoring O’Keeffe, their latest martyr for the cause:
Congressional Democrats for the most part remain bumfuzzled. They don’t know what to do. They’re afraid. Mostly, they don’t like to fight for anything because that usually means trouble.
@#156
Just for the record, he is married to an attorney,also.
Amy L. Nathan, an FCC lawyer.
Well then, with all that legal firepower at their disposal, it makes you wonder how he could say the things Leen reports. Maybe he did not; I have no idea because Leen did not make any specific quotes or direct links, so it is hard to tell – I am simply responding to what Leen has alleged. There is a hitch in one of their giddyups though, because I have read the opinion and am pretty confident about what I have said.
I find Fineman far less egregious than most of the Spinocchios.
I am not aware of exactly what Leen has reported or not reported.
I had recalled exchanges betwen he and KO on earlier occasions where his being an attorney had been referred to…and I was actually curious if my memory was correct on that.
The 5-4 Decision:
Reaction: Soap box or poison pill?
Here is another take with a reference to Teddy Olsen.
My take is that we could end with a problemo cuz one should never understimate the power of corporations…
I’m sticking with Stevens over Alioto (sp)
http://www.salon.com/news/state_of_the_union/index.html?story=/opinion/conason/2010/01/28/foreignbucks
Conason is full of crap; he is describing activity by American corporations with foreign interests and/or investors that has always been the case, the only thing Citizens United removed was the time restrictions as to when the particular political advocacy can occur and allowed the funds expended to come from general coffers of a corporation as opposed to a designated PAC of the corporation. Obama disingenuously mischaracterized the Citizen United decision, and so too is Conason.
Just noticed that Breitbart went to Tulane.
You lost me on that one mate?
It’s in New Orleans. Thus, he may have a special interest in the area and in what the senator is up to. If so, I’m thinking he may end up being more involved in the “project” than he has so far admitted.
I posted this last night,excerpted froma Yahoo article:
O’Keefe, Basel and Dai stayed with Benjamin Wetmore, a friend of O’Keefe’s, while they were in New Orleans. Wetmore, a 28-year-old law school student, was O’Keefe’s boss when he worked at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based program that trains conservative activists
Note: It would be useful to know exactly WHAT lawschool Wetmore is attending,and if there is a Breitbart connection….or a connection bewteen Breitbart and the perps’ attorneys.
Maybe Breitbart was a law clerk or something down the line. Don’t know too much except,right now he looks like a not so Breit BartSimpson./S
BTW, on KO lastnight the dots were connected between O’Keefe’s lawyer and Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. Uh,Isn’t Tony Perkins-the one who was protesting on Landrieu’s steps in Baton Rouge in December-Dobson’s successor as head of Focus on the Family?
FYI- The national headquarters for ACORN is located in New Orleans..
Incidentally,dooes anyone know if Breibart received any training at the Leadership Institute. Oddly enough,Jeff Gannon was,briefly.
On other subjek..sorry if im spamming here.but not really sure were you guys whant it…on valarie plume/david kelly matter..here is my local version on that subjekt and the guy on the right of the foto is deff. my prime suspect..but hey thise guys put freinds of mine in harms way for political cheap shots..they get the ol’ hammer ,-)
Are they gettin off the hook this time? not bloody likely, no more papa dick tricks around my shop, when they have the dobbel standard off throwing the legal book(secresy act) on my friends when it gets political problem….a small deal called “jægerbogen” bledin SOB’s whanting to throw small soldier in jail for pety stuff…when they(Anyone recognice MO from love and papdick vs ploume) are doing it bigtime and with real danger in the balance
Hope some off you guys can use it:
http://www.berlingske.dk/politik/spindoktor-afviser-laek-af-jaegerhistorie
LOOOL nothin like having the SOB’s on the run
Just my five cents worth
Here at the coffemaker vere trying to to figure out the concepts of love and the understand one of lifes very big riddles…women…Ol sneaky suppose to be the smartest SOB on strateical and tactical analyse…but he don’t understand the woman he loves
What is this boy stuff that the attorney is spewing. The criminals are average age 25. They stopped being boys a long time ago.
OT for EW on Gruber from Columbia Journalism Review
http://www.cjr.org/campaign_desk/a_tale_of_two_jonathans.php
The feds got involved because it is a Federal building with a federal government security staff. There is also a US Marshall’s office in the building and they have the power of arrest.
Looking at the statements given in the affidavit, either the TeaBuggers were busted when they entered Landrieu’s office, or the GSA employee was able to call the Marshalls over before they could escape.
The most likely scenario seems to be that Landrieu’s staff were immediately suspicious and called security who set up a trap for them. Alternatively, the GSA employee was able to call security without alerting them.
The Affidavit does not mention a chase or an attempt to escape. Given that there is a courtroom in the building, all the entrances and exits are guarded and there will be procedures in place to stop a prisoner who might be trying to escape.
Yeaah but as i said before im just observing from the other side of the big pond so im a little lost when it gets to the nity grity. I assume the he were refering to is either his father or this “good fellar” in the movie?
Sorry if i seem a little preocupied..as were in the final stages of hanging another “rowe” carakter over here…
But i gateher from the chit chat that what were lookin at is on the up and up is more or less local then?
Anyway have fun..ill chek in from time to time…and give u guys a hand when possible…anyway u can leave a message to me if u need my sorry advise
Too4r..aka the coffemaker
Dai was recruiting female and minority persons to be spies, in addition to writing gripping prose about his penis (deepest apologies for the pun).
More accurately, Dai was working for a neocon welfare program whose theoretical purpose was to recruit spies. Why theoretical?
-The grant was a one year, renewable payment from the ODNI. (What business does ODNI have in grantmaking?)
-The program’s last year at Trinity was 2008 (why no 2009? because Obama took over)
-The program was headed in 2007-2008 by Dr. James S. Robbins who is a neocon figure (writes for Wash Times, National Review, Rumsfeld Pentagon). Presumably Robbins hired Dai.
-Any connection between Dai and intelligence or national security is smoke and mirrors.
Precisely. I wonder how many spies this program produced? My guess is the number approaches zero.
Adolescent pipe-dreams. And if it did produce a single official spy, then we’re in more trouble than we thought.
As i recall my own words…i don’t see the chess players here “snark” (what does that mean? us bleding redcots look rather like them rebels lost there blidin mabels)
Anyway prins pihlip just told a dirty one…and the gang just whet singing GOD SAVE THE QUEEN ,-)
I’ve written this before (so pardon the re-hash), but…
Dai’s co-conspirator Flanagan was on a similar track.
Flanagan’s resum indicates he is enrolled at the Missouri State University’s Department of Defense and Strategic Studies. This curious institution is in Fairfax, VA (not in Missouri). It is headed by William Van Cleave, another neocon figure (a member of Wolfowitz’ Team B!). It graduates 15 people a year. And it is next door to NIPP (National Institute of Public Policy).
Flanagan, too, is on his way to window-dressing expertdom in national security and intel.
Sad for the next neocon generation that that all of this “education” produced such a boneheaded op.
Has anyone sought Robbins (for Dai) or Van Cleave (for Flanagan’s) comments on their prodigies?
O/T, or back to the Supremes’ decision: They are now preparing us to accept massive infusions of corporate cash to campaigns.
Here are two bills supposedly to remedy the Supremes’ decision. How effective do they look?
That article does not say that at all; in fact, it is consistent with what I have been saying. The one caveat I would give is that while I do not think the effect of CU is what many are hyperventilating about (and falsely painting) on the national level, I think it has the potential to be very problematic on the state and local level and especially troubling as to jurisdictions that elect judges.
The article is what it is; the interpretation is mine. I do hope you are correct, bmaz. I have hung around so long and witnessed so many times all the shenanigans they can and do pull to confuse and overwhelm us, that I simply can find no solace in their saying it really won’t matter that much (at least on the federal level). Again, I do hope you are correct.
FWIW, O’Keefe has now posted an explanation over on Breitbart’s site. I don’t want to go there, so here’s TPM’s story about it.
Dick Armey has ties to this Leadership Institute. According to the media transparency article,the Institute teaches “political technology” and is a prime recruiting tool when politicos on the Hill are seeking staffers.
Jeff Gannon’s alma mater: The Leadership Institute | Media Matters …1 post – Last post: Feb 11, 2005
According to its website, The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism is “[a]n intense two-day seminar … designed to give …
mediamatters.org/research/200502120002 – Cached – Similar
Daily Kos: Leadership Institute Broadcast Journalism SchoolThis diary is a site for investigation of the Leadership Institute’s Broadcast Journalism School, the institution which trained fake newsman “Jeff Gannon. …
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/30/193243/265 – Cached
Leadership Institute info – Gannon’s journalism “school …12 posts – 8 authors – Last post: Jan 8
Leadership InstituteWhile Talon News appears to be more of a Republican political advocacy group than a media outlet, The Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism …
old.mediatransparency.org/recipientprofile.php?recipientID=600 – Cached
and @187.
OMG. This is becoming quite bizarre.
EW’s got an article up now about Dai and spy recruiting.
Just for the record, with the visiblity of the pro life,creationist groups that have been opposing health care reform,in tandem with this Landrieu incident,it is worth noting that all this week the man who murdered abortion Dr. Tiller is currently on trial.
Remember how Bill O’Reilly referred to him as Tiller the Killer?
IMVHO,how much you wanna bet if the Landrieu deal hadn’t been “foiled”, Fox would have been praising O’Keefe,running the video 24 x 7, and calling it a victory for ALL pro-life groups?
More interesting is that he(Gannon) and Karl Rove seem to share a mentor — a largely under-the-radar wingnut named Morton Blackwell. It seems that “Jeff” also is a graduate of the the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism — a conservative propagandist training school that was founded and is run by Blackwell and that operates on an $8 million annual budget which comes from God knows where.
Remember the lame stunt during the Republican National Convention in NYC where many delegates taunted war hero Kerry by wearing purple band-aids that said: “It was just a self-inflicted scratch, but you see I got a Purple Heart for it”? It was Blackwell, a GOP delegate from Virginia, who handed the band-aids out to the conventioneers.
Less well known is that Blackwell — who was the youngest Barry Goldwater delegate in 1964 — is also a former national executive director of the College Republicans, who had trained the teen-age Karl Rove to be a “field organizer.” According to a May 2003 New Yorker article, it was Blackwell who urged Rove to shun the growing reliance on pollsters and media consultants and go back to the grassroots. We all know how that turned out.
We’d never heard until tonight of the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism, which apparently trains hundreds of “Jeff Gannons” every year. They were hiding in plain sight
Link to follow
Campaign Extra!: “Jeff Gannon” and Karl Rove — one degree of …It seems that “Jeff” also is a graduate of the the Leadership Institute Broadcast School of Journalism — a conservative propagandist training school that …
http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001437.html – Cached – Similar
One more point. Do the metal detectors at the entrances to Federal Buildings keep a photographic record of the screening scans? The definitely should go back over these to see if these lads had other electronic devices or other gear in their possession that were discarded before their apprehension. I’m wondering if they may have had “bugs” but dumped them.
I just now finally realized who Breitbart looks like. Spittin’ image of John K.’s character George Liquor. Been bugging me for days. (So to speak.)