Can the prosecutor now subpoena the unedited ACORN tapes in order to show that this is a behavioral pattern rather than just case of one time bad judgment?
I used to work for a U.S. Dept. of Ed. contractor in an office building also occupied by the local hq of the IRS. Security was so tight that the only place you could get in the building without a microchip-door access badge was the info window in the IRS (if you wanted to see an agent you had to be buzzed in) and the hallways; you couldn’t even get into a restroom without an escort or a badge.
When I was a GovDocs librarian I went to several meetings at the Government Printing Offices. This is a huge warehouse like building in DC that prints the Federal Register and many other freely accessible government print info, and has offices and conference rooms. There’s very little that could do much damage there even if you were let loose like a kid in a candy shop; they don’t keep big stacks of blank passports or Social Security cards or green cards or the like, those are all printed elsewhere. Nevertheless you had to pass through metal detectors and if you had a camera or a cell phone or any electronics you had to turn them in at the front desk and retrieve them when you left; if you didn’t turn them in upon entering you would be made to leave the building and- per signs all around- they could be confiscated.
That this skinny little tamponese trustafarian douchebag waltzed into a federal building and got access to the phones with nothing more than a “uniform” you can buy at any Big Lots and made it all the way into the telephone hub before anyone thought to ask for his credentials. I can’t believe security is that lax even in “the Big Easy”. I hope it doesn’t cost the receptionist her job (though she definitely deserves a big ‘talking to’ and I wouldn’t be asking for a raise anytime soon if I were her), and I’m glad I don’t work in that building because O’Keefe just bought them all HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS of more “security workshops”.
So which do you think will happen first: a movie starring Michael Cera as O’Keefe or O’Keefe getting a panel show on FOX NEWS after a plea bargain?
I will, because you’ve got to read Breitbart’s defense of him (just because he fraudulently entered a federal building to mess with the telephone system doesn’t mean he’s doing anything illegal!) and the classic misspelled grammatically interesting comments that follow. Per wiki, Breitbart owns O’Keefe’s “life rights”. Does that mean that he’s the ACORN Pimp’s pimp? Because that’s a job that might become full time if 25 year old pasty white suburb kid goes to prison.
As for his “the truth shall set you free” comment, that was the motto of the student newspaperhe founded after being kicked off of the official Rutgers paper. He loves stunts involving affirmative action. Boy ain’t right.
The Washington Post has in fact retracted its claim that the scheme involved wiretapping.
The official charge is “tampering,” rather than wire tapping, but I wonder if that just means they got caught before they could complete it.
What other kind of “tampering” could they have been doing, and why?
I saw some other story saying they were invistigating complaints that people were not able to get through to her office to register their unhappiness with health care reform.
My first thought was that they wanted to get video of staff who sat around letting phones ring off the hook and go unanswered. The arrest affidavit says one guy tried (or claimed that he tried) to call the office phone with his cell phone, and the call didn’t go through, and then they asked to get in to the phone closet. They never made it that far, because they were sent to the GSA facilitites office and were detected there.
I wonder if any of these guys actually had the technical skills to do anything at all with phones? I think it’s possible they cooked up some story to get them through the door in order to videotape whatever they could.
If I were O’Keefe I’d be at my villa writing my will, freeing my Greek body servants, and possibly considering which knife to use just in case, because his situation is really bad and the GOP has more reason to wash their hands of him than to help him. Periodically in politics like in the Mafia it’s necessary to deliver one of your own bound and shackled to the enemy lines and O’Keefe is fucking perfect for such a gesture; he’s got Patsy Fallguy written all over him. He’s widely known and high profile BUT at the same time:
*He has no elected office
*He has no real power
*He has no real money (he’s from a well to do family, but not a Dupont or Rockefeller)
He’s not connected enough to any elected officials or super power brokers that feeding him to the wolves will really tarnish them- most they’ll have is some minor embarassment and that will be forgotten instantly once Wilmer Valderrama announces that Wilford Brimley once tried to teabag him or Olympia Dukakis releases a tell all memoir about the time she shagged Ike and LBJ on the same day or some other earth shattering news story, and even then they can say "he was right about ACORN though"
*He’ll give them somebody they can point to for years and say “See? Pawnee friend! Fix this bad Injun for Little White Man!” (i.e. “See? When one of our own oversteps a line we admit it and fix it!”)
*Not that they need conscience salve, but he’s still young enough that a couple of years in the joint isn’t going to totally derail his life
Breitbart isn’t that big a voice and he’s already setting the framework to distance himself (he hasn’t said “Oh perfidy thy name is O’Keefe” but he has said “I’m going to wait to see what the investigation has to say before I pass judgment”- brilliant move because he can totally go either way with that) and Breitbart is the best and most powerful friend he has.
At the same time, you know that Flanagan fils (the U.S. Atty.'s son) is already singing and dancing like Sammy Davis Jr. on speed while his father sits in the room holding a pair of tongs and a pair of neuticles as a gentle reminder of what happens if he misses a note, and the other two are probably going through the scales in the waiting room for when he’s finished, I don’t see any of them saying “I’m not going to betray my friend”.
So I honestly think that James O’Keefe is FUCKE*D. I don’t think he’ll do the “10 years/$250,000”, but he’ll probably plea to something and I think he will do prison time (the others will probably get probation). Though I could be wrong of course, but my money’s on at least a couple of years in prison.
Which means in a few years he’ll write the “Right Wingers are scumbuckets” book or else a “What Jesus told me in solitary” testimony that will be bought by a few and ignored by most and he’ll go about his merry way while he’s still young. He’s perfect for a scapegoat, they’d be fucking morons not to use him like the only woman on a pirate ship for this purpose, and at the same time he’s also a juicy score for the Democrats. It’s not like having Baltar sent over (that would be Rove or, dare I say it, Cheney) but it’s at least a nice snack and only a fool believes Rove or Cheney will ever go down without a pile of bodies around them, if then.
*I know, lots of irregularities in that reporting as well, but it’s safe to say some of their reps behaved badly
Are there any sentencing stats out there for similar infractions? Is he a first-time offender?
Though I think he’s dog shit (i.e., a by-product of the tabloid-style, reality-challenged infotainment that passes for political discourse among a segment of conservatives), I’m not so happy with the idea of him getting an outlying sentence – too political.
Then again, forget about right/left – he’s fucking with democracy.
As more information about the ACORN tapes comes out and paints him and his ilk as deliberate fabricators, it is very suggestive of a wider malfeasance. Therefore, perhaps his propensity to abuse the truth through underhanded editing, his ostensible target falling into line with that propensity, and the potential outcome of such shenanigans combine to justify an assumption that his intended outcome–and therefor his attempt–deserves a sentence of federal *pound me in the ass *prison.
Must have been referring to Ron “The Truth” Killings, who’s going to bust him out of jail
Freedom is just another word for his parent’s basement:
Judge Orders 25-Year-Old O’Keefe To Live With His Parents
He’ll be setting up an account here any day now, I just know it …
Sampiro, I’m straight but I think I love you - that was brilliant.
It’s not hard plug something into an RJ-11/14 jack, or whatever. Anyway, they asked for access to a building’s phone system.
I think I’m going to break into Olympia Snowe’s office and get caught. My parents’ basement is much nicer than my apartment.
Aren’t we constitutionally protected from cruel and unusual punishment?
His parents haven’t even been accused of anything, let alone tried and convicted. What did they ever do to deserve this?
Birthed an idiot?
Are you sure? Have they provided a birth certificate?
Dude, poor judgment is deciding to kill a beer bong and run around campus naked, screaming “Freedom!” while brandishing a sword. What your son did is commonly called “a crime.”
Could be a Kenyan idiot.
I must say, indeed, that was one fine piece of writing.