Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Spy vs. Senator

FBI Accusing Suspects Of Interfering With Senators Phones

Wow, they're all in their early 20's. I hope the RNC is going to pay their legal bills for them and give them jobs when they get out of prison in a couple of years. Maybe they can work for Tom Delay.

UPDATE: scratch Spy vs. Senator as title

ACORN gotcha man among four arrested for attempting to tamper with Mary Landrieu's office phones

New title: DUMB + ASS = James O' Keefe

I guess it really is hard being a pimp. What a fucking moron.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey did you listen to WWL's interview of Troy Henry... he told you to suck it today and that you don't know how to understand corporate hierarchy ...

hahaha... that guys really got it in for you now

Anonymous said...

I was in favor of the reporting he did on Acorn, because it opened peoples eyes to the shady side of that organization. I will agree that organization had done alot of good things for the under privileged however, along with any other entity, they need to clean their shit up.

This was just stupid. I would love to interview him and ask at what point did anyone stop and say maybe this was illegal or what is the risk if we get caught and what was the response from the group?

Unfortunately, O'Keefe clearly didn't do very much digging about our local law enforcement because he would have seen Letten is not to f-d with. You know what, despite what little tidbits they might have gotten off of old Mary's phone, I'm okay with knowing Jim has this under control.

Anonymous said...

Uhm one of the cohorts is the son of the acting USA for Western LA.

No, not the USA appointed by Bush, a guy just filling in.

And guess what Obama named a replacement just a few days ago.

Curious, curiouser, most curiouser.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/82260077.html

Anonymous said...

28819. Tim Whitmer learnd how to do it from Steve Lee
by watchstevelee, 1/25/10 16:10 ET
1.On April 28, 2005, Mr. Steve Lee (AKA St. John Parish Partnership) sold United HealthCare health insurance to the St. John the Baptist Parish School Board. (Video Exhibit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYmCUuF1YDI )
2. United HealthCare’s Schedule A (IRS Form 5500) certified that from June 1, 2005 to May 30, 2006 United HealthCare Insurance Company paid a total of $60,149.22 in total commissions to Wayne Francingues C/O Francingues Financial Group (Exhibit: 2 http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6ChE2YLK2lGOTVhMGNmMDYtYzY1NS00OWQ2LWJiYjItY2Q5YzEzODdiM2Nh&hl=en )

5. United HealthCare’s Schedule A (IRS Form 5500) certified that from June 1, 2006 to May 30, 2007 United HealthCare Insurance Company paid a total of $67,493.63 in total commissions to Wayne Francingues C/O Francingues Financial Group. (Exhibit: 5 http://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B6ChE2YLK2lGZDAwZTU3OTMtYmQ4ZS00ZGM5LTkwMzYtMzZkYmY0YjgwYTRk&hl=en )

6. On April 25, 2006, as a member of the St. John the Baptist Parish Insurance Committee, Councilman Lee voted to approve a health insurance proposal submitted by United HealthCare to provide health insurance coverage to St. John the Baptist Parish Council. (Exhibit: 6 ) (Video Exhibit: B http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5niUXMT4gk )

It should be apparent from the foregoing facts that Mr. Steve Lee has violated his fiduciary duty to the citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish. It is clear that he has received economic benefit from his purported acts on behalf of the people. At the very least, he has violated the public trust in receiving economic benefit from the very same insurance company in which he, as a public servant, voted to reward with public contracts of substantial value. These acts reek with the odor of impropriety. Mr. Sexton's legalese attempting to justify his client’s actions as a public servant is a subterfuge to Mr. Steve Lee’s actual intent. It is suggested that it takes no great leap in logic to read between the lines.

Beth said...

Who did the WWL interview?

Jason Brad Berry said...

Beth,

It was Garland. I told them who I was, I didn't want to ambush him. They may have asked him if the wanted to take the call but I don't know.

jeffrey said...

What, specifically, were Mr. Henry's comments?

Beth said...

That's a big disappointment. I like Garland, as much it's possible to like any radio personality, that is.

Jason Brad Berry said...

He basically said, once again, that I don't know what I'm talking about. He said I don't understand "corporate structure".

It was pretty funny though, he twisted "President" two or three times and finally Garland just gave up. I wanted to get on with him because I wouldn't give up on that or the numerous questions I have for him about the mounting allegations against him, per lawsuits, and people who know him.

If I can get him in public forum again I have a litany of issues to address with him, that I have yet to post.

Anonymous said...

Methinks Judge Leander Perez gave a thumbs-up from his grave to the youngsters in his parish. By the way, my word verification is WhitmerGeorges.

Clay said...

I was at the Federal building today and was wondering why there was so much security.

If these guys were Chinese, they’d already be in GITMO and their balls would be hooked up to a taser and turned extra crispy.

One interesting thing to note: they were taken to St. Bernard Prison instead of O.P.P. Any idea why?

Orleans “Perish” Prison has one of the highest fatality rates of any prison in the nation:

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2009/02/death_rate_at_orleans_parish_p.html

This is an old story, but years ago, the guards used to hand out condoms to new inmates. The theory went that they were supposed to beg their attackers to wear the condom so they wouldn’t get AIDS. I warned friends of mine to never do something stupid that could land them in O.P.P. (like peeing on a police car). One friend didn’t heed my advice and got nailed doing 105 in a 55 and went to O.P.P. He said it was far worse than I described.

More links:
http://righthandthief.blogspot.com/2010/01/big-pimpin.html

http://gawker.com/5457611/what-we-know-about-the-young-republican-gang-that-couldnt-shoot-straight?skyline=true&s=i&autoplay=true

This story has long legs...

Also, all you Republicans that were foaming at the mouth in joy after winning one senate seat? There goes ALL your momentum. Nothing could kill a "Republican Rally" in November like yet another Bush scandal.

Now we just need a good name for this scandal. Any suggestions?

Anonymous said...

This HuffPo link gives a little background on each of the suspects. If someone can figure out how these four guys from four different states came to be working on this "project" together...... hmmmmm, how do they all know each other?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/26/james-okeefe-arrested-in-_n_437506.html

Anonymous said...

A name for the scandal? How about Pelicangate? It is apt state-wise and the fact that the Pelican Institute had this moron as a speaker just a few days ago.

Captain said...

Dambala, your wish has been granted; Troy Henry is going to be at the Icehouse this Friday for the "meet the mayoral candidates" series. I went to the one for Perry last night and it was an intimate environment with questions and comments flowing freely between the candidate and the audience (Perry nailed it, BTW). See: http://trumpetgroup.com/.

Anonymous said...

These brownshirt pelicans need to be stopped.

"Son of a" scandal? Is that a contender for names?

I'm a little sick of the -gate suffix, and I'd love to see good name contenders that do without it. My effort isn't great. Someone please be clever and come up with a good one.

One of these dudes being the son of a muckety-muck interests me, as does the 'coming from four diferent states' thing.

This seems organized.

I don't like that. I hope they get everyone who knew about this.

How did the culture raise up civically engaged people who have had the heart of what it means to be a citizen cut right out of them?

Bugging or trying to bug a Senator's office is really bad.

Anonymous said...

Pelicanapalooza = Pelican + looza

Though it may semantics-wise sound a little too celebratory.

Anonymous said...

These comments really seem to be on two things:

> Troy Henry on Garland: I'm surprised no one noted the early confrontation when Garland raised suggestions elsewhere that Henry was 'just another Nagin'; things got very heated. Henry accused garland of being part of the 'media' and then suggested he was being unfair. That got Garland very upset, and he really got upset about the idea he was 'unfair'.

> On the Landrieu phones thing:

someone should look at that affidavit.

Am I right in saying:

- there's no mention of devices or bugs. One of them has a "tool belt" but apparently that was just part if the disguise.

- how in the heck does someone get through the fed building's security with devices or bugs or wires in the first place; Answer: you don't.

- something weird is up with this; who knows what it is but something really weird is going on. these guys never had credentials to begin with (if you were really trying to bug a US Senator GG Liddy style wouldn't you make some *fake* ones?) and I'm not saying they're not morons (well they are young) but are they so moronic (one is the son of a US Attorney, albeit a fill-in/temporary one, so he at least probably had a clue about the legal dangers) as to think they could walk into a US Senator's office and tap someone, much less THEN head on down into the GAO office and try it from *there*? No way. However, they may have been trying something that was not wiretapping that they thought they would not get in trouble for and that they *could get away with. This may have been an 'embarrassment' operation, not a spy operation. - Just a theory.

- One other thing, just look at this objectively: the USA for the Western Fed District of LA is NOT the long term USA appointed by Bush Jr. This guy is the fill-in, he was in there for just days or however long it would take for the new appointee to come in. We know O'Keefe's motive: embarrassing Democrats. But what is Flanagan's motive? Embarrassing Landrieu? To what end? If he embarrasses her, so what, the appointment of the new USA replacing his dad is still in the works and nothing's going to change there the new USA has already been teed up (and his dad's just a temp anyway, and he's likely a GOP'er like his son so even then he would not be a candidate).

Did anyone catch this from the TP piece?: "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." - Why is there a listening device there but not with the guys in the building? Also do you notice that Basel, Flanagan and O'Keefe are reported as being the ones entering the office (with permission) but not Dai? Dai's likely the guy out in the car with the listening device.

Also Dai (in the article, again) has a background in intelligence (and yet he's the one *outside the building if the above is correct), but all of these guys are really young (24-25). If you were hatching a nefarious plot these yahoos would hardly be your choice.

Three of these guys WRITE: Dai, Basel, and Flanagan are or were all on papers or blogs, some or all were editors. The only guy NOT was O'Keefe who does "documentaries" and he styles himself a "journalist" but he works for (maybe as a kind of independent contractor) for the conservative website that broke the Acorn story.

- They do say that Flanagan and Basel asked to get into the telephone closet. Flanagan is teh son of a USA and apparently a blog writer. Basel apparently just a writer/editor (below).

http://blogs.citypages.com/blotter/2010/01/joseph_basel_ph.php

What the heck were they going to do in there? You think a couple 24-year olds who write blogs have got the background to wiretap a US Senator's phone by way of the phone closet down the hall?

Anonymous said...

Ok (same poster):

Look at this:

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/archive/2010/01/27/2187074.aspx

>A law enforcement official says the four men arrested for attempting to tamper with the phones in the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D) were not trying to intercept or wiretap the calls.

Instead, the official says, the men, led by conservative videomaker James O'Keefe, wanted to see how her local office staff would respond if the phones were inoperative. They were apparently motivated, the official says, by criticism that when Sen. Landrieu became a big player in the health care debate, people in Louisiana were having a hard time getting through on the phones to register their views.

That is, the official says, what led the four men to pull this stunt -- to see how the local staffers would react if the phones went out. Would the staff just laugh it off, or would they express great concern that local folks couldn't get through?<

- And then this from one of the perps, Flanagan:

>On January 11, 2010, Senator Mary Landrieu was confronted by protestors outside the Vermilion Parish Library as she spoke about coastal protection. The protestors were there to discuss the Senator’s vote on health care reform. As she responded to criticism, she noted:

“The idea is to require personal responsibility. People have to have insurance but we’ll help you pay for it.”<

Aside from his pretty laughable (and foreshadowing) line which follows about personal responsibility (given what he did just less than a couple weeks later), it does appear he had a beef with her lack of responsiveness.

So, to me, this all depends on whether they had wiretapping devices on them or not.

If they did then this is one dumb defense.

But if they did not it's the only thing that makes sense.

But even if it's true they will still get hammered, just not for wiretapping. And they will still be morons.

Anonymous said...

totally not related at all except you should check this link out -
http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/the_sporting_blog/entry/view/53416/did_a_90s_wb_sitcom_foretell_the_future_of_super_bowl_44_in_miami

Anonymous said...

Can I ask another question?

What if these guys were trying to prove that Landrieu's phones had been turned off altogether?

Look at Paragraph 6 of the affidavit:

Basel asks to use the phone, he takes the handset and "manipulate it." - Does that mean he hit the buttons to try and call out?

Then Basel then tried to call the office phone with his mobile phone, and "he stated he could not get through." Then Flanagan uses his mobile phone calls Basel's mobile phone to make sure *that'ss working.

These guys probably work with the Family Research Council who brought up this complaint long ago, or they were acting because of that complaint and were seeking to embarrass Landrieu by showing her phone ws not working.

Now why they went the extra step of going into the GAO's phone closet, who knows. Maybe they were just going to take a picture of the thing with all the wires to show they all looked okay and not damaged, or maybe they were just going to come back and tell teh staffer that they checked everything out and ask her if anyone had disconnected the phones to get Landrieu in a gotcha moment, who knows, but I am betting this will at least be their defense.

lbowface2000 said...

One quick note, regarding the idea that O'Keefe et al. "broke" the ACORN story. "Broke" implies the filmmakers uncovered some cold hard facts, when in actuality they patched together and edited in footage to bolster their claims, they added voiceover to appear as real time dialogue they recorded in the moment, and they did not show their attempts at pandering and financial malfeasance that were rebuffed by ACORN staff. To ignore these manipulations is to bestow legitimacy on their past and current actions. I am not a huge fan of ACORN, but that doesn't mean I can ignore obvious spiteful and amateurish actions.

Anonymous said...

Funny Comments at Fark.com
http://www.fark.com/cgi/comments.pl?IDLink=4978131&viewmode=1&startid=57760055

crichmond1000 said...

I think they didn't take them to OPP because they didn't want to raise a big bruhaha about what goes on in there. The authorities knew this would get national media attention. They knew those guys were probably going to get all mouthy, screaming about their civil rights, and you know the deputies HATE it when you mention civil rights. Best not to bait them into an assault that would be plastered across every paper in the U.S. For God's sake, there's an election coming up.