s skippy the bush kangaroo: it's hard out here for a pimp

skippy the bush kangaroo



Tuesday, January 26, 2010

it's hard out here for a pimp

we've always suspected that all we really need to do to discredit the hardly-ever-right wing is just leave them alone; sooner or later they will show themselves to be the raving lunatic fools that they are.

case in point: head acorn "investigator" james o'keefe, the man who made the youtube films showing under-trained employees getting tricked by stereotypes that would have embarrassed the writers of laugh-in, has been arrested on incredibly serious federal charges. n'awlins times-picayune:
alleging a plot to tamper with phones in democratic sen. mary landrieu's office in the hale boggs federal building in downtown new orleans, the fbi arrested four people monday, including james o'keefe, 25, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at acorn field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

also arrested were joseph basel, stan dai and robert flanagan, all 24. flanagan is the son of william flanagan, who is the acting u.s. attorney for the western district of louisiana, the office confirmed. all four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.
apparently james, under the (perhaps incorrect) assumption that his pimp costume wouldn't blend in so well in the senator's offices, convinced his buddies to dress as telephone repairmen, with the intent to screw w/the phones in the federal building. not a good idea, if you plan on staying out of prison.

details of the plan, if one can call it such, can be found in the affadavit of the arresting feeb.

thinkprogress points out that faux news, which relentlessly hawked o'keefe's youtube escapades, is not taking this well:
fox news aired a report about the arrests shortly after the news broke. however, reporter tim vaughn tried to downplay the news:
vaughn: [it's a] very weird story that probably needs a lot of context and a lot of looking into, which is what we’re going to do here. i just wanted to get it on the record with it right now.

shep smith: so, they’re saying basically, they’re in there — it sounds as if what they’re saying is, they’re looking for some acorn hanky panky and they try to tap into mary landrieu’s telephone to get it.

vaughn: that could be one way of looking at it, yes.
yes, that could be. another way could be that they are all morans.

(thx and a tip o'the kangaroo tail to memeorandum for the links, and the best news progressives have heard in a week!!)

addendum: we are reminded by digby to remind you that the original acorn youtubes were doctored before they ever hit the mighty wurlitzer...

double addendum: found via twitter:
there's a lot we still don't know about the four men implicated in the alleged attempt to bug sen. mary landrieu's phones yesterday, but a little-known organization called the pelican institute appears to be key to the story.

located at 400 poydras st. in downtown new orleans -- half a block from landrieu's office at 500 poydras st. -- pelican describes itself as a state policy think tank dedicated to advancing "sound policies based on the principles of free enterprise, individual liberty, and limited government."

...

another of the charged men, robert flanagan, works for pelican, his attorney told the times-picayune. flanagan allegedly dressed up a telephone repairman to infiltrate landrieu's office.

...

what appears to be his linkedin profile says flanagan was an intern for rep. mary fallin (r-ok) in washington last year. fallin spokeswoman kathryn bruns tells tpm that flanagan was a "helpful guy." he attended rhodes college in memphis.

the wall street journal opinion page published a glowing profile of pelican and its leader, kevin kane, in august 2008[.]
...

in yet another possible connection to the landrieu case, kane also blogs at big government, the andrew breitbart site.

big government is where o'keefe's acorn sting videos were posted, though breitbart has said, "we have no knowledge about or connection to any alleged acts and events involving james o'keefe at senator mary landrieu's office."
posted by skippy at 3:40 PM |

4 Comments:

well done, skippy! a trifecta of reportage. they are all in very serious trouble. might be fun to follow up the money that motivated o'keefe. i doubt he'd just dream this up and take this risk on his own. or maybe he really is that stoopid. we'll see!

-mf
commented by Anonymous monkeyfister, 5:02 PM PST  
I'd be curious to know if the Feds moved quickly to check out Landrieu's Louisianna office for taps? Also, since I understand that O'Keefe was documenting his little escapade*, did they search his home and whatever passes for his office for additional tapes?


(* there was an interview with the woman who is in charge of getting people (criminals) shown on the show "Cops" to sign releases allowing their faces to be shown on television. When asked why so many of them signed the releases, even though they could then be easily identified while they committed acts both illegal and idiotic, she replied, "Because criminals are stupid". Gotta say, videotaping yourself while committing a federal offense is a Darwin Award level of stupidity.)

HAHA! word verification: "telly"!
commented by Blogger daveawayfromhome, 7:59 PM PST  
Pelican Institute? Offering, perhaps, briefs?

History isn't taught anymore, is it? Because shouldn't these goofballs have known that bugging a politician's office yields Trouble, and I don't mean in River City?

Apparently one has to flunk the IQ test to be employed by Republicans. Sheesh!
commented by Blogger D., 9:54 PM PST  
It's tough to be a "Teabugger", isn't it?
commented by Blogger Comrade E.B. Misfit, 1:02 PM PST  

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