READER COMMENTS ON

"O'Keefe & Fellow Conspirators Plead Guilty to Federal Crime, Sentenced With Slap on Wrist"

(13 Responses so far...)





COMMENT #1 [Permalink]

... Dustin said on 5/26/2010 @ 1:48 pm PT...





He didn't try to tamper with the phones. Give me a break. and you're claiming democrats are persecuted in court? What kind of evidence do you have of that? The Black Panthers were democrats and they were let off the hook after a default judgment. The racism charge you direct, regarding O'Keefe's race, seems random too. O'Keefe is a journalist. I realize you lie about the ACORN expose, but the unedited transcripts have been damning for Acorn. The people have spoken and they don't condone that organization. O'Keefe entered a Senator's office undercover to expose her corruption. Do you even care if that Senator was corrupt in her handling of the people's phones? by some (unproven) accounts, the staffers disabled the phones. THAT'S tampering. How did O'Keefe tamper with phones? By calling them and picking up a ringing phone? The lies about him bugging or disabling phones were long ago debunked. Now, justice is done. He is pleading guilty to the accurate but stupid charge that his undercover operation relied on a false pretense, You're actually lying to accuse him of all these tampering crimes. Why fight a journalist like that? All O'Keefe wants is to video proof a Senator is lying and interfering with her state's ability to protest Obamacare. What in the world would possess you to demonize that noble effort? Partisanship? Pay? What's so funny is that you go on and on about all these lies you claim O'Keefe told, never show how that's the case, and all the while, you're the one actually lying and distorting the truth. O'Keefe committed a misdemeanor. That's not an important issue, equivalent to a minor speeding ticket. This means nothing. He will earn farm ore money selling his story than the fine. This entire event is actually really good for him and America.

COMMENT #2 [Permalink]

... Brad Friedman said on 5/26/2010 @ 2:19 pm PT...





Dustin @ 1 patsied: He didn't try to tamper with the phones. Not only did they try, they succeeded! Did you bother to read the FBI's affidavit describing his co-conspirators having accessed the phones at Landreiu's main reception area? Do you believe everything you read posted by O'Keefe's employer Breitbart or something?? The racism charge you direct, regarding O'Keefe's race, seems random too. Not at all. Do you think if four Muslim men pulled the same stunt in a Republican Senator's office (or even a Democratic Senator's office), they'd be let go with a misdemeanor? What world do you live in, amigo? O'Keefe is a journalist. No. He's not. He's a political activist and dirty trickster. Journalists do not do what he did. Even bad ones. I realize you lie about the ACORN expose, but the unedited transcripts have been damning for Acorn. The people have spoken and they don't condone that organization. "The people have spoken"? Really? Mmm...kay. But what is my "lie about the ACORN expose"? I am aware of none. And, of course, neither are you. O'Keefe entered a Senator's office undercover to expose her corruption. Do you even care if that Senator was corrupt in her handling of the people's phones? by some (unproven) accounts, the staffers disabled the phones. THAT'S tampering. There is no evidence --- ZERO --- not even any provided by O'Keefe, Breitbart or their sycophants, that Landrieu was "corrupt in her handling of people's phones" or that "staffers disabled" them. You have been played for a patsy and a sucker and appear to enjoy it. How did O'Keefe tamper with phones? By calling them and picking up a ringing phone? The lies about him bugging or disabling phones were long ago debunked. I said nothing about either "bugging or disabling phones". Your reading comprehension appears to need as much work as your news and truth comprehension. Now, justice is done. He is pleading guilty to the accurate but stupid charge that his undercover operation relied on a false pretense, You're actually lying to accuse him of all these tampering crimes. Again, please provide evidence of my "lying". Okay? Thanks in advance! Why fight a journalist like that? He is not a journalist. All O'Keefe wants is to video proof a Senator is lying and interfering with her state's ability to protest Obamacare. What in the world would possess you to demonize that noble effort? Partisanship? Pay? Neither partisanship nor pay (unfortunately). Just the quest for the truth. Ya know, the thing that actual journalists do, as opposed to paid, partisan, pretend ones, like Jimmy and Andy. What's so funny is that you go on and on about all these lies you claim O'Keefe told, never show how that's the case, and all the while, you're the one actually lying and distorting the truth. Both James O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart lied, time and again, in regard to their ACORN hit-job. We've got scores of articles here detailing those lies. Feel free to look around. Here's just one of them. There are many more. Beginning with the lie that they were running an "ACORN Child Prostitution Investigation". O'Keefe committed a misdemeanor. That's not an important issue, equivalent to a minor speeding ticket. This means nothing. He will earn farm ore money selling his story than the fine. This entire event is actually really good for him and America. It's good for him. It's bad for America. Criminals often make a great deal of money off their crimes. (See Ollie North, G. Gordon Liddy, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, etc.)

COMMENT #3 [Permalink]

... mikey said on 5/26/2010 @ 2:26 pm PT...





O'Keefe and his Merry little Band of Trickster punk GOP vipers should have been sentenced to do some real hard time in a Federal Prison as Domestic Terrorists and THEN probation. No "Sweetheart Deals, Ands, Ifs or Buts...End of Story !!

COMMENT #4 [Permalink]

... Shortbus said on 5/26/2010 @ 2:45 pm PT...





So, I am wondering the terms of his probation.

Will he be able to roam the country freely and sputter his bullshit or will he have to get a 9-5 in his neighborhood, never cross a state border and report twice a month to a probation officer?

It would be fitting if he had to do his community service at an ACORN office, sad they had to fold.

COMMENT #5 [Permalink]

... Ernest A. Canning said on 5/26/2010 @ 4:47 pm PT...





Why do sites like TPM continue to refer to this con man as a "conservative film maker"? What a load!

COMMENT #6 [Permalink]

... daleyrocks said on 5/26/2010 @ 4:47 pm PT...





Brad - If those "tampering" charges were so strong, why do you think they were withdrawn by Holder's justice department? Read the affadavit, they picked up a handset. You are a complete flake. Oh, and O'Keefe "escaped personal accountability in his New Orleans scam." Do you mean that court process and settlement agreement that we just read about was fictional? Is this case still alive? Brad, WTF are you talking about? This case went through the court system. I know you would have preferred to see O'Keefe get 100 lashes, but unless you can point out so flaws in the process, your statement is complete BS, which is in keeping with the tenor of your blog.

COMMENT #7 [Permalink]

... Bamboo Harvester said on 5/26/2010 @ 11:16 pm PT...





Dustin, (________________________o_______________________).

COMMENT #8 [Permalink]

... Big Dan said on 5/27/2010 @ 4:54 am PT...





It should say: "Conservative Film Editor"...not "filmmaker".

COMMENT #9 [Permalink]

... Marzi said on 5/27/2010 @ 8:11 am PT...





Obviously he pled guilty to avoid a trial which would expose his GOP handlers and dirty tricksters. The phony critics of Brad's excellent journalism regarding this case are either brain free or paid to be brain free, which is actually a lot worse.

COMMENT #10 [Permalink]

... dam said on 5/27/2010 @ 8:44 am PT...





Next time you hear a Republican expound about courts coddling criminals, remind them of this case.

COMMENT #11 [Permalink]

... SreeBee said on 5/27/2010 @ 8:49 am PT...





@ Dustin #1, You write, All O'Keefe wants is to video proof a Senator is lying and interfering with her state's ability to protest Obamacare. Sorry pumpkin, you got it dead wrong. How? Because OKeefe cant even get that story straight. His purported reasons for this stunt were developed long after he was arrested. And it’s a load of complete bs. Eg, Observe O’keefe lame and hurried excuse for his behavior, issued Jan 29 2010– I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars (sic) in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working. Now, lets see how real O’Keefe’s premise actually is.

Observe the reaction by Dave Weigel, a real journalist (with real journalistic integrity) who has been documenting the Tea-Bag phenomenon and its power players in the recent past--- I noted an error in the statement — the controversy is not over whether Landrieu is “taking millions of federal dollars,” but why the Senate added $300 million in Medicaid subsidies that stood to benefit Louisiana.... O’Keefe, trying to clear the air, bends it into a bribery smear. In order to skirt the onus of responsibility and “clear the air” around him, O’Keefe falsifies a reason to commit a criminal act, perhaps all too comfortable in the fact that he has a sitting DA’s son at his side, and wads of cash ready from the party for whom he works (despite his lies about being “independent”, O’Keefe is, in fact, a far-right hack working for far-right politicians... it’s no small thing to have Peter Thiel and Karl Rove in your piggy-bank.) (Btw... after blowing so much hot-air about Obama being a purported “communist”, I find it interesting that Tea Baggers don’t raise a single eye-brow over O’Keefe’s use of the explicitly socialist phrase “the people’s office”... as contradictory self-deluding as ever, comrade!!!) O’Keefe doesnt have a clue what he’s talking about. He’s just a liar, and a rich one at that. There are people doing hard time for far, far less than a professional criminal/liar like James Okeefe. A few years back, I read about an elderly woman who was sentenced to jail for using the paltry amount of extra food-stamps that the government accidently sent her. She used the money to feed the several children left in her charge. She went to jail. It’s a testament to the imbalance of justice in this country that a conniving worm such as OKeefe gets only a slap on a wrist for committing such a tremendous breech in a post 9-11 world, while an elderly women trying to feed hungry children is punished for the government’s own mistake ... it certainly pays to have friends in high places!!!! O’Keefe attempted a felony, and just because he is connected, he gets off with community service and a mere $1,500. What a joke!!!! O’Keefe will not only be remembered as a liar and a crook, but a corrupt shill in a corrupt system that favors him for no other reason than his skin color and his connections... what a shame!! But rest assured, most people in the country can see through this BS. O’keefe is a hero only to the fna-base at bigGov.com... a pack of brain-dead fanaitics who lack the ability (or the desire) to think independently and critically about O'Keefe's over-edited collage of lies.

That’s the real reason he avoided dealing with almost anyone but Fox News when he broke his ACORN smears.

COMMENT #12 [Permalink]

... SreeBee said on 5/27/2010 @ 10:58 am PT...





@ Dustin #1, One more thing--- You write, O'Keefe is a journalist. I realize you lie about the ACORN expose, but the unedited transcripts have been damning for Acorn. The people have spoken and they don't condone that organization. Again pumpkin, you got it dead wrong. The transcripts only make James look like the liar he is. Let's take this from the top, shall we?--- 1)– O’Keefe is NOT a journalist. He’s a propagandist. Journalists who have real stories generally try to get those stories exposure no matter what.... ESPECIALLY if it deals with criminal activity. They don’t pretend that they are in need of such protection (ESPECIALLY from a group like ACORN) that they have to yield the story ONLY to Fox News, the right wing bloggosphere, and no one else. If O’keefe really was a journalist, he would not have refused to interview about his story on CNN on the very day he first released his tapes (see james’s excuse, “On Why I Refuse to Take Calls From an Intrepid CNN Producer”, posted on 9-11, the very day after his first release. ) As you can see from O’Keefe’s illegible rant in cited piece, he and Andrew lied straight through their teeth by pretending to be “ignored” by other media. They claimed (falsely) that only Fox would hear them, and everyone else “ignored” or “impugned” them. But if they were so ignored, O’Keefe would not have made his lame excuse last September about why he refused to take calls from CNN (after all, how can you be “ignored” by someone who is trying to contact you?) See, dear Dusty, that called a lie.... a bold-faced, A1, first class LIE! If you say someone is “ignoring you”, while simultaneously refusing to answer them when they call on you, then that someone isnt “ignoring you”, you are ignoring them, and you are lying about the whole thing. O’keefe refused to meet with almost any other news group simply because he was afraid to answer questions from people outside of his camp. It's really that simple. He then leveled a verifiably false charge of being “ignored”, and you guys fall for it. (His charge is verifiably false, as per his own statement, which again was read by Rush Limbaugh, the very day after O’Keefe’s first launch.) The only people who believed that lie (despite the proof being right in front of them) are those who live and die for the far-right echo chamber. 2)– Furthermore, the malicious style of lying employed by O’Keefe and co. has been seen before. For as much as Glenn Beck might rant and rave about the NEA being the modern equivalent of Joseph Goebbels et al., Beck, Breitbart and O’Keefe nevertheless share entirely TOO MUCH in common with the devious methodology (and goals) used by Third Reich propagandists. One of the signature tactics used by Goebbles and his crew was to malign their political targets by fabricating false evidence of sexual crimes. That’s how they managed to smear anyone they wanted out of the picture. They contrived fake evidence for prostitution, child-molestation, child-smuggling, pornography etc...

This same method is used by the upper strata of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and other such dictatorial regimes. So O’keefe (and by extension you, and the rest of the brainless Breitbart-Borg) can happily claim to be cut from the same cloth as Goebbels, Himmler, Goerring and the rest. Again, remember that these men assaulted their political targets with false evidence of child-molestation and prostitution.

The apple doesnt fall far from the tree... these men are the ideational ancestors of James, Hannah, Breitbart, etc... 3)— And on that note, you should come to terms with the fact that O’keefe DID, in fact LIE about ACORN..., at this point, only the most devoted BreitBorg-bot would say otherwise. With respect to this, I have a question that has yet to be answered--- Why did O’keefe and Giles find it necessary to remove any reference in his posted tapes to “Kenya’s” supposed fear of the abusive pimp, “Sonny”, who she claimed physically threatened her and her charges? Why, for instance, does the tape from Brooklyn include only a partial quote from Volda, in order to make it sound like she’s saying something that she really is not? You know the bit I am talking about... it was frequently aired as the epitome of the type of “corruption” that James (falsely) claimed to be documenting. James edited the tape to have Volda say that Giles must bury her money in a tin-can in the backyard. This has been flaunted, by James himself, as encouragement to hide $$ from the government. But, against your delusional claim that “the unedited transcripts have been damning for Acorn,” the fact remains that the unedited tapes actually make James look like the lying propagandist he really is. Because when you look at the unedited conversation between Volda and Hannah, you see that Volda is actually advising Hannah to bury her money to hide it from the fictitious “Sonny”, who Hannah claims is going to tear up her home to find her cash. All this is clear now, but James had never before made it clear what was actually occurring in that conversation. He deliberately edited it to say something it didnt. And it remains in this partial and misleading form on Youtube. In fact, it continues to be referenced by far-right wing nuts as such... despite the easily accessible truth. (At this point James is not the only liar, but his entire camp is made up of people who prefer hallucination over historical fact.) James lied. He lied just like the little nazi twerp he is. He lied just like the blood-guzzling Karl Rove who he hopes to emulate. One lies about reason for going to war, the other lies by smearing an organization for the poor as a proxy for Obama. (And, for all of Hannah’s lies about “exposing corruption”, all of these jerks seem remarkably quiet regarding the REAL crimes of abduction, gang-rape and torture by companies that receive government funding like Blackwater, etc... Is there yet another over-bearing “Zbig” site to cover that bit of government funded corruption? Of course not... Breitbart knows exactly who is buttering his bread.) So why was it necessary to chop-up Volda’s remark into something it didnt really say? Why was it necessary to omit Tresa’s statement that ACORN “wont go for this”? Why was it necessary to remove any reference in the posted tapes about the mortal danger which “Kenya” (“Eden”, or whatever) claimed for herself and her companions? (A danger, I might add, that many abuse survivors must endure... a danger not to be mocked by a callous mongrel skank like Hannah Giles.) Why did Hannah need to wait for james to turn off the camera before she answered his question about Vera’s taking cell- pictures of them? Why has the Philly video been so distorted and mangled? O’keefe’s claim that a pending lawsuit forbade him from releasing the soundtrack for ACORN employees is belied by his subsequent release from Las Angeles (CA has very similar laws to PA regarding wire-tapping.) On that note, why was it necessary to chop down what Ms Stewart was saying, and insert commentary by James to falsify Stewart's statements? If you sincerely believe (or want to believe) that James didnt lie, what do you call his strategic editing in those (and several other) examples? I have yet to hear one convincing reason (let alone a simple acknowledgment) about these issues from ANYONE at BigGov.com. They avoid the subject like cooties. And you know why? Because they havent invented a reason yet to excuse their complete lack of integrity or honesty (and THAT is precisely why they refused to interview with anyone but Fox.)

COMMENT #13 [Permalink]

... Otto said on 5/29/2010 @ 11:53 pm PT...

