FBI Arrests O'Keefe Attempting to Tap Congressional Phones

[quote name='speedracer']Four conservative activists accused of trying to tamper with a senator's phones were just trying to record embarrassing undercover video of her staff ignoring phone calls from constituents angry that she supported health care reform, one of their attorneys said Thursday. [/QUOTE]

That's some epic fail right there. Just because what he did was stupid doesn't mean it's not illegal.

Cry some more. I hear Bubba likes it when his fresh meat cries.
 
Actually, not taking much of anyone's word on it yet. Waiting to see what all comes out of it. But thanks for the kind words, Myke.
 
Damn looks like threads disappear after about a month of inactivity. I was trying to pull a Jon Stewart on Unclebob.

EDIT: Douchebag is on Hannity tonight. It's ok to enter the Senator's office under false pretenses because, with all due respect, it's 'the people's office' not the Senator's office.

Sounds like he's channeling Scott Brown on this one. Probably not a good idea this time.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Threads don't disappear... Here's the ACORN thread: http://www.cheapassgamer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=236519

I like this line from me...
That's not saying ACORN doesn't have some good in it.
Click to expand...

Here's the major differences between the two cases. In the ACORN situation, I saw, with my own eyes, video of ACORN employees telling people how to evade taxes while taking sexual advantage of underage children. And all of this after the issues with fraudulent voter registration, Rathke's embezzlement and the Post-Katrina mess that ACORN was involved in. While saying that ACORN had some issues, I never called for them to be de-funded, shut down or imprisoned. I said that ACORN had a culture within the organization that was bad situation.

In this situation, you have a small group of people operating on their own (and not being funded by taxpayers). The government says one thing. They say another thing. Then, the government goes back and says "whoops, no, something else". Meanwhile, the government has the video footage of that day and they haven't released it.

Yes, O'Keefe and his crew broke the law and should be punished for doing so. I can say that. Weird how that works, eh?
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Video is the truth.[/QUOTE]

I won't say that the video is everything, but let's look at some of the details of this situation.

First, the official word was that O'Keefe was trying to illegally wiretap the phones. Then, government officials retracted this statement, admitting that there was no such attempt or evidence of any such attempt.

Second, the AG that was on this case has now stepped down. Perhaps it's because he knows he handled this case so badly to begin with?

Third, where's the video? O'Keefe has publically stated that he'd like to see the entire video released. It'd be an interesting watch.

The worst part about this entire situation is how O'Keefe went about the story in the first place. Even if his crew had managed to gain access to the phone system to verify that it was working, the story would have been tainted by the method used to get access. Meanwhile, you have this politician's office that's dodging calls from the people she's supposed to be there to serve.
 
[quote name='UncleBob']First, the official word was that O'Keefe was trying to illegally wiretap the phones. Then, government officials retracted this statement, admitting that there was no such attempt or evidence of any such attempt.[/quote]
4 people wearing uniforms attempting to gain access to the switching closet. I didn't think it was a stretch.
Second, the AG that was on this case has now stepped down. Perhaps it's because he knows he handled this case so badly to begin with?
Click to expand...
Apparently he is a friend and colleague of a father of one of the accused.
The worst part about this entire situation is how O'Keefe went about the story in the first place. Even if his crew had managed to gain access to the phone system to verify that it was working, the story would have been tainted by the method used to get access.
Click to expand...
That and the felony. But nobody really expects these guys to do time for a federal felony now, do they? I wonder how much different the sentence would be if it had been you or me.
 
You saw what O'Keefe wanted you to see. How do you know any of it was actually on the level?

In the ACORN thread, I said that the employees might have seen through the silly outfits and decided to play along because they were stupid, bored, or both. How do we know O'Keefe didn't go in and say that he was doing a gag story for his school paper or television station?

The bottom line is that O'Keefe broke the first rule of journalism. He broke laws to get a story and now he has ZERO credibility.

It's a shame that the internet age of journalism means the ends justify the means. Conservatives will still ride his jock even after he's convicted. Hell, they might even turn him into a martyr.
 
>"How do we know O'Keefe didn't go in and say that he was doing a gag story for his school paper or television station?"

Because no one from ACORN used that defense - several of the employees were fired and ACORN launched an internal investigation into the matter.

The game of "How do you know..." isn't a good one to play. I mean, "How do you know the Democrats didn't plant fake evidence within the intelligence community that Iraq had WMDs as a plot to get Bush to go to war?" "How do you know that Bush and the Jews didn't plan 9/11 as an excuse to wipe out Islam?"

As for Journalists breaking the law to get a story - ehhh... that's a fine line. If Obama had a sex-chamber in a back room at the White House where he kept kidnapped foreign little boys as sex salves (I mean, how do you know he doesn't?) then I would probably support just about anyone "breaking the law" to expose the story.
 
But there are plausible defenes ACORN has used and is using, even to the point of having filed lawsuits against O'Keefe in MD and PA.

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/20...3_1_acorn-bertha-lewis-maryland-court-records
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/fox-analyst-acorn-suit-merit/

EDIT: Let me also add that there is a fine reason that entrapment is something that nullifies an arrest, charge, ruling, and violates procedural law. Those reasons apply here as well - not necessarily legally, but in terms of the coherence of the argument.
 
Myke: I'm just not sure how "It's against the law to record us!" is really much of a defense against the actions in the videos. If the officers in the Rodney King case had claimed it was against the law to record them (and, for the sake of argument, let's say they were right) would you consider that a defense of their actions?

Oh, hey, it's really happened....
http://rawstory.com/2010/01/mass-recording-cop-jail/
 
1) entrapment and the ethical underpinnings of it; in the absence of entrapment, one cannot reasonably determine if illegal/unethical behavior would or would not occur (this is why it's not legally permissible)

2) the videos are edited and therefore decontextualized/assembled as the "filmmaker" sees fit. Like I said the other day, tongue planted in cheeck, "video is the truth."
 
So - your defense is that these people wouldn't have committed these "crimes" had O'Keefe not shown up and asked them to help him engage in this criminal activity?
 
I didn't stutter. The word entrapment has a very specific meaning.

But that's half of it - I'm also saying that he was turned away by some agencies as well as told his "pimping" services would not be handled by ACORN but they were still able to offer some financial/mortgage services. This was edited out of several of the videos in order to make the narrative he wanted more consistent.

He took a very small number of people who were willing to look the other way and used that to assassinate an organization.
 
I guess we'd just have to see the unedited videos to know for sure (kind of like seeing the raw data for temperatures in regards to global warming). Granted, it could have been the editing, but these people seemed pretty quick to come up with awesome ideas like claiming your child sex ring as a orphanage and crap.

But - again - some ACORN members have done good. Some have done bad. I'm willing to admit that. Are you?
 
So, these videos made the "Big Wigs" at ACORN take a good look at what their organization was doing and who was working for it. They fired the bad people and made it clear to the remainder what kind of behavior was and wasn't tolerated.

Sounds like the videos did some good as well.
 
The baby went out with the bathwater when ACORN was defunded by the fed, though.

Supposing the baby in the parable of King Solomon's judgment (1 Kings 3:16-28) was indeed cut in half by a sword, would we have said "his judgment did some good as well" since it was equitable?
 
[quote name='mykevermin']The baby went out with the bathwater when ACORN was defunded by the fed, though.

Supposing the baby in the parable of King Solomon's judgment (1 Kings 3:16-28) was indeed cut in half by a sword, would we have said "his judgment did some good as well" since it was equitable?[/QUOTE]

Once ACORN has demonstrated that they've got their act together, I have no doubt Obama and Co. will be looking to hand out some funds to them (they *might* have to change the name of the organization though)...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top