‘ACORN’ film-maker arrested by FBI in wiretap plot
Posted this afternoon by the New Orleans Times-Picayune:
The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O’Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group’s credibility.
FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O’Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office’s telephone system.
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157 comments Add your comment
RJ
January 26th, 2010
5:59 pm
@ABVM – I do not for one second believe the notion that you care what I think about you. I am able to objectively analyze thoughts and ideas allowing me to form my own opinions. I am a socially liberal, fiscally conservative tax paying citizen of the greatest nation on Earth. I do not agree with either party whole heartedly, however you are making the broad assumption that everyone who would like to be informed of global ideas and concepts regarding our future are irrational and not thinking. I read CNN and FOX equally along with a vast array of sites somewhere in the middle of those two.
You have done a fine job of broadcasting your ignorance to a large number of people and for that I would like to thank you. Maybe, just maybe one day down the road you will take your blinders off and surf around to read and analyze situations from multiple points-of-view, form your own opinions and finally for once make a comment that makes sense.
MUSTANG100
January 26th, 2010
6:07 pm
Just got off the phone with some close friends who live there. Well sourced rumors are that the FeeBee guys set them up under the guise of a ’sting’, and the entire episode was planned and orchestrated by the NewAwlins FBI Field Office. Time will tell.
Avery
January 26th, 2010
6:09 pm
Lol @ the right wing lunatics who seem to believe Obama forced a right win lunatic filmmaker to illegally wiretap US citizens.
patrick
January 26th, 2010
6:10 pm
here are a list of 50 Obama lies….this does not include the massive run up of debt of almost 2 trillion dollars (450 billion was the debt before he took office). This does not include over ten percent unemplyment (he said it would not go over 8 percent) my God his lies and deceit is almost too much to stomach
http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/50lies.asp
patrick
January 26th, 2010
6:12 pm
obama lied…the economy died
patrick
January 26th, 2010
6:14 pm
In After only two months in office, President Obama may have fallen short on a number of his campaign promises.
1: Sunlight Before Signing — “When there is a bill that ends up on my desk as the president, you the public will have five days to look online and find out what’s in it before I sign it,” he said.
2: Capital gains tax elimination — Just weeks prior to the election, Obama advisers Austan Goolsbee and Jason Furman told the Wall Street Journal that Obama planned tax cuts that included “the elimination of capital gains taxes for small businesses and start-ups.”
3: New American jobs tax credit — During his transition, Obama’s promised to provide a $3,000 refundable tax credit to existing businesses for every additional full-time U.S. employee hired in 2009 and 2010.
4: Hiatus on 401(k) penalties — In October 2008, Obama released his “Rescue Plan for the Middle-Class” in which he promised to allow financially distressed Americans to withdraw up to $10,000 from their 401(k) accounts and retirement savings without having to pay penalties. They would only pay income taxes on the amount.
5: No jobs for lobbyists — “I am in this race to tell the corporate lobbyists that their days of setting the agenda in Washington are over. I have done more than any other candidate in this race to take on lobbyists — and won. They have not funded my campaign, they will not run my White House, and they will not drown out the voices of the American people when I am president.”
6: Earmark reform — at the first presidential debate in Oxford, Miss., Obama declared, “[W]e need earmark reform. And when I’m president, I will go line by line to make sure that we are not spending money unwisely.”
7: Bring troops home in 16 months — Even as combat troops are brought home, Pentagon officials have said fresh units will continue deploying to Iraq.
8: Sign “Freedom of Choice Act” — Obama expressed his support for the sweeping plan that would repeal all national and state regulations of abortion passed over the last 35 years.
9: $4,000 college credit — Obama pledged to make college “affordable for all Americans” when he announced his American Opportunity Tax Credit.
No. 10: Transparency — On the White House website, the Obama administration claims it will be “the most open and transparent in history……………How did that work out?
patrick
January 26th, 2010
6:16 pm
As another example, consider Obama’s stirring tale for the Selma audience about how he had been conceived by his parents, Barack Obama Sr. and Ann Dunham, because they had been inspired by the fervor following the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights demonstration that was commemorated March 4. “There was something stirring across the country because of what happened in Selma, Alabama,” he said, “because some folks are willing to march across a bridge. So they got together and Barack Obama Jr. was born. So don’t tell me I don’t have a claim on Selma, Alabama. Don’t tell me I’m not coming home to Selma, Alabama”
Obama was born in 1961, and the Selma march occurred four years later, in 1965. The New York Times reported that when the senator was asked about the discrepancy later that day, he clarified: “I meant the whole civil rights movement.”
Does ANYTHING that comes out of his mouth resemble the truth IN ANY WAY?
NH
January 26th, 2010
6:16 pm
Jail Obama he is the next Baby Doc Duval.
Mike
January 26th, 2010
6:18 pm
Right wing lunatic’s? If your just a little liberal your an idiot.
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
6:19 pm
O’Keefe played the pimp, for an encore he’s gonna play the bitch.
James
January 26th, 2010
6:19 pm
Patrick do you realize you posted as supporting evidence, a link that disputes much of what you and the original list of “lies” purports?
Kamchak
January 26th, 2010
6:25 pm
“Independent film-maker” James O’Keefe punks planned parenthood.
TheManMike
January 26th, 2010
6:28 pm
I’m rather curious as to what they expected to record…Surely they understood that any tape recorded in that manner would be considered illegal. Must have been something good, yeah? If not, why go to all that trouble? Politics aside, you all know a part of you wonders what they could have uncovered…….
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
6:29 pm
Names or a boyfriend O’Keefe…Names or a boyfriend… what’s it gonna be college boy?
ProgressivePeach.com
January 26th, 2010
6:30 pm
Watergate 2: Conservative Boogaloo. We Americans can’t do enough to marginalize this Republican Party of hypocrisy (law & order? Family values? HAH!) lies and deceit. How could anyone in their right mind cast a ballot for a Republican for ANYTHING?
patrick
January 26th, 2010
6:39 pm
This administration is acting like it wants to bankrupt the country, convert it to an entirely socialist economy and end all meaningful debate about it before the year is out.
GARed
January 26th, 2010
6:42 pm
When are all of you left wing idiots going to stop blaming Bush? The taxi left the stand a year ago and now it’s your “man” running the ship and it is sinking fast! Can’t wait to run that idoit and his Chicago political mafia out of office!
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
6:43 pm
This sounds like a good time for some Thompson quotes:
“Nixon’s spirit will be with us for the rest of our lives — whether you’re me or Bill Clinton or you or Kurt Cobain or Bishop Tutu or Keith Richards or Amy Fisher or Boris Yeltsin’s daughter or your fiancee’s 16-year-old beer-drunk brother with his braided goatee and his whole life like a thundercloud out in front of him. This is not a generational thing. You don’t even have to know who Richard Nixon was to be a victim of his ugly, Nazi spirit.”
uh..courtney?
January 26th, 2010
6:56 pm
Courtney, and you others that are conservatives: Hitler was a National Socialist, which is far, far Right–just to the right of you. Castro is to the far, far Left because he’s communist. He is Chavez’s mentor, though his country is not communist. Remember, the Nazis and Communists hated each other in WW2. They are not near each other on the political spectrum. Please get your blaming straight.
Bjork Falafel
January 26th, 2010
6:57 pm
It is as it was…
DMR
January 26th, 2010
7:02 pm
Folks,
We have laws. We have a Constitution. ANYONE regardless of Party affiliation, race, religion, or seat of power, should pay the price for their actions. This is the problem with both sides of the aisle. Even worse, it is the problem with most American voters. Everyone is pointing the finger and saying, “Well, your guy did this or she did that or blah, blah, blah”. The ability to get the voters to fight amongst themselves is why politicians on the whole don’t have to worry about the citizenry.
If the film maker and his friends broke the law, arrest them, arraign them, give them their day in court, and if guilty, put them in jail. I don’t care if they are Conservatives, Liberals, Republicans, Democrats, or whatever.
I did not vote for the President, but HE IS THE PRESIDENT. So that makes him my President. And because he made promises…not of policy, but of principle, I hold him to that. Transparency has not existed. Accountability of the large financial companies does not exist. Listening to the American people has largely been ignored.
George Bush made horrible mistakes as President, no question. He’s gone now. Now it is up to the CURRENT PRESIDENT. When you have people like Chris Dodd and Barney Frank killing housing through Fannie and Freddie, when you have Tim Geitner cheating on his taxes, when you have Charles Rangel cheating on his taxes…and by the way he is the Chairman of Ways and Means (WRITING THE TAX LAWS).
I don’t hate Obama. It is not that I dislike the MAN. I don’t agree with his policies, that in many cases will do more harm than good. We need to be able to have civil disagreements with being uncivil. “Here ended the lesson…..”
Michael C
January 26th, 2010
7:03 pm
GaBlue: “subjunctive case” — NICELY DONE! I’ll bet 95% of the folks on here don’t know what that means (including myself). I’m going to look it up, and it will be the first thing I will have learned from spending the last 10 minutes reading this train wreck of a blog.
DMR
January 26th, 2010
7:03 pm
It should read….”WITHOUT BEING UNCIVIL”.
Alf's Dad
January 26th, 2010
7:03 pm
what we need is a born-again, plain-speakin’, silver-spoonin’, draft-dodgin’, brush clearin’ texan to smite the evil-doers….mmmmmm never mind!
Alabama Communist
January 26th, 2010
7:07 pm
LOL! So Fox Network little tiny Retarded super neo-con Republican Spooks blow one as the “Gang that couldn’t wiretap a dead Cell phone”……
jconservative
January 26th, 2010
7:07 pm
Its deja vu all over again!
Csquared
January 26th, 2010
7:08 pm
good luck with that DMR. Well Said BTW.
t-bone
January 26th, 2010
7:09 pm
Attorney General Holder will probably choose not to prosecute the wiretappers just like he chose not to prosecute the Black Panthers who were intimidating voters on election day. FAT CHANCE!!! Wiretapping is a crime and should be prosecuted. The Panthers committed a crime and should have been prosecuted. Where was CNN’s outrage over the latter?
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
7:10 pm
I nominate O’Keefe to be inducted into The Abermoth Hall of Shame.
Hey! Maybe they’ll be roommates!
Mikeymike
January 26th, 2010
7:35 pm
What makes this story incredibly rich is the fact that these idiots wanted to uncover acorn doing illegal things when they themselves are doing illegal things.Hello pot meet kettle! Hopefully these idiots will blow the whistle on the people who put them up to this for immunity and then we will know who is behind this stupidity.
DividedWeFail
January 26th, 2010
7:38 pm
I love how everyone is comparing the left to Hitler, Stalin, etc… How typical of rightwing nimrods, regurgitating what they hear on conservative media. Sounds like it was taken directly from ‘Liberal Fascism’; the same tactics used by idiots like Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort who think the banana was designed by God to fit into our hands even though the modern banana was designed by man through artificial selection… but I digress. The point I’m trying to make is that uneducated people like that, rather than using reason and evidence to progress their argument, simply invoke names like Hitler and Stalin, and compare them to the individual or group they disagree with. Pathetic.
Counting the days
January 26th, 2010
7:39 pm
I cannot wait till November. I have HOPE there will be CHANGE
Jim
January 26th, 2010
7:41 pm
I cannot believe some of the B S, total crap, I have read about this article.
S.B.
January 26th, 2010
7:49 pm
Gayelle, stop being so obtuse. This isn’t about Obama, it’s about the poor judgement of these men in trying to bug illegally. Fear the left, Cortney? You are kidding, I hope. The ‘left’ is about equality so we should fear fair treatment among the people, eh. Read other sources (and your preacher or Fox aren’t reliable sources or resource); you may be surprised how misinformed some are and you may have to change your mind. .. .. It’s possible.
Whatever
January 26th, 2010
7:52 pm
Funny, I do not remember the AJC running any story at all online when the ACORN videos were released, but let the filmmaker get in trouble and wham! Front Page!
say what?
January 26th, 2010
7:53 pm
DMR thanks but your comment will fall on deaf ears. The folks blaming Obama for setting up the FBI sting, you are starting to believe your own conspiracy theories. Grow up and think for yourselves. The young men were WRONG, but of course they thought they were untouchable.
Csquared
January 26th, 2010
8:05 pm
for those folks blaming Obama, FBI, etc for the travails of the would be wire-tappers, whatever happened to PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY? or is that just something you throw around when it suits? They MADE a CHOICE, knew it was wrong, and upon suitable judicial process, will either be exonerated (thus vindicated) or tossed into prison.
Oh Please
January 26th, 2010
8:17 pm
You right wing freaks have no idea how stupid you sound. History is going to laugh at your ignorance and gullibility. You’ll believe any tin-hat rumor you hear as long as it slams Obama. You’re pathetic!
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
8:23 pm
Looks like the Republicans are nothing but a lynch mob of Nixonesk thugs still on a patriotic quest to turn this country into a plutocratic dick-tatorship. This is just business as usually for these Dick Armies of the world.
Gwinnett Mom
January 26th, 2010
8:28 pm
And when I speek the truth, the AJC sensors it!
Gwinnett Dad
January 26th, 2010
8:34 pm
God is evil, he created Gwinnett Mom…
Csquared
January 26th, 2010
8:49 pm
and took one of your ribs to do it too Dad. That musta hurt….
Whoooooty Boy
January 26th, 2010
8:52 pm
I wonder if Presbo and hi s band of clowns had anything to do with this…bunch of two faced liberal dweeebs…just wait til November…
DannyX
January 26th, 2010
9:24 pm
This is probably a case of stupidity at its ridiculing best!
Wow, this is right up there with gay Republican model/escort/reporter Gannon/Guckert! Remember the fake reporter from Talon News that lobbed Bush soft ball questions during his rare press conferences! (The same guy that spent the night at the White House about 100 times according to official records.)
Theses fools thought they were being clever. They even recorded their “caper,” funny stuff.
Gosh, you think? Just maybe? Could be? Just opening the door to that phone room had to have set off alarms.
John Stewart, David Letterman, Colbert, SNL, and the others, you’ve been given a gift, enjoy!
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
DannyX
January 26th, 2010
9:33 pm
Catch these guys soon on their new Fox News show, “Dumb, Dumber, Dumberer”
I hear their first guest is going to be Joe The Plumber! Riveting!
DannyX
January 26th, 2010
9:52 pm
So here is the recap, the Republican blogger version of what is on the phone video camera that “ace” reporter was busted with…
Their version of the video shows Obama planting those poor young Republicans in that phone room. I hear Obama is seen holding 2 screaming hysterical skinny boys by the collar, forcing them to pose with a handful of phone wires in the Senator’s office. It was awful.
IMPEACH OBAMA NOW!!!
I’m sure these boys discovered Obama’s real Kenya birth certificate and were about to expose it. More conspiracy later.
Btw, here is a preemptive “LIBERAL MEDIA.”
G. Gordon Liddy
January 26th, 2010
10:10 pm
These fine young men are American heroes…
Polly Wog
January 26th, 2010
10:24 pm
Looks like someone might be going to federal p-m-i-t-a prison.
DannyX
January 26th, 2010
10:54 pm
Mustang100? Do you work for Senator Vitter (Republican La.)?
I believe Senator Vitter (Republican La.,) you know the other Senator from that state, has done a lot of business with Mustang Ranch. You see the other Republican from Louisiana used to hire hookers. These hookers would actually put diapers on the good Republican Senator. Senator Vitter (Republican La.) would get sexual gratification from these paid acts.
He will be re-elected. If you by chance see one of his campaign speeches give him a holler for me will ya MUSTANG100, ask him, “Pampers or Huggies?”
Louisiana needs a change.
appaloosa
January 26th, 2010
11:05 pm
Let the right destroy themselves… online.