The Current Crisis
Liberal Unfairness vs. James O’Keefe
The double standard is pie-throwingly ridiculous.
WASHINGTON — Irving Kristol, the recently deceased godfather of neoconservatism, once said to me, “Fairness is not a Liberal value.” I thought about his asseveration while observing the Liberals’ colossal indignation over conservative activist James O’Keefe’s entry under false pretenses into the district offices of Senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.). O’Keefe is the merry prankster who entered the offices of the left-wing community action group ACORN under the false pretense of being a pimp. Repeatedly and in ACORN offices across the country the ACORNiacs counseled this faux pimp on how to be a successful sex entrepreneur. He taped them! The tapes exposed ACORN for the criminal enterprise it has become. O’Keefe became a hero to some conservatives but a scoundrel to all Liberals.
Now O’Keefe is under threat of indictment for bringing a couple of fellow pranksters into Senator Landrieu’s office, though he has toned down his act. This time his associates claimed only to be employees of the telephone company, which I guess is understandable. One would not expect a United States senator’s staff to counsel young men on success in the sex trade. For that matter, I doubt that the senator’s staff would even counsel them on phone sex. Rather it appears that O’Keefe wanted surreptitiously to film Landrieu staffers working the telephones. His intent had something to do with a controversy about telephone callers not getting through to Landrieu’s office. At any rate, all hell has broken loose because O’Keefe and his faux telephone repairmen were up to something tricky on federal property.
Now if they claimed to be members of a protest movement and were disorderly in a senator’s office, Liberals would remain tranquil. In fact. Liberals did remain tranquil when this happened at Senator Lieberman’s office last November. Or if they claimed to be environmentalists they could disrupt a member of Congress’s office with no Liberal outrage. This happened in 1997 in Congressman Frank Riggs’s office. Or for that matter they might claim to be associates of filmmaker Michael Moore and disrupt various congressional offices with cameras and microphones and general unpleasantness.
Liberals have a double standard when it comes to political protest or even political parody. We have seen this unfairness for over a generation. During the youth rebellion of the late 1960s (and it was the youth rebellion of left-wing youths — most 1960s youths were conservative and in 1972 the youth vote went to Richard Nixon), the Yippies’s coarse and often criminal mischief was applauded by Liberals as idealistic, heroic, and amusing. At the time it became fashionable among left-wing youths on college campuses to ambush “establishment” speakers at public lectures with a pie in the face, no matter how old or decrepit or unaware the poor lecturer might be. I cannot recall one pie heaver ever being denounced as a violent assailant — though all of them were.
Suspecting that a double standard was at work, I and some fellow conservative students at Indiana University in 1971 (they were my colleagues at the nascent American Spectator) held a debate, invited a faux Columbia University sociologist, Professor Rudolph Montague (actually a grizzled Vietnam vet who had returned as an undergraduate), to participate, and in the middle of his absurdist left-wing discourse had a co-conspirator run on stage, call him “a goddamn Communist,” and assail him with a pie. Rather brilliantly Professor Montague shouted his apologies to the fleeing student — very Liberal of you, prof! Our intention was to demonstrate the double standard: peaceful conservative forums get no media attention, disorderly forums (usually left-wing) do.
What we got was an even more brilliant demonstration of unfairness. When Indiana University officials called Columbia University to apologize and discovered there was no Professor Montague, we were accused of a violent assault. So far as I can recall, we were the first pie heavers ever accused of violent assault. But can a thrown pie be a violent assault when engaged in by “consenting adults”? Somehow that does not seem right.
Yet it does not seem quite right to accuse the conservative O’Keefe of federal crimes when left-wingers disrupt federal offices as frequently as they do. Some years ago I was in Congressman Bob Barr’s office when the drop-dead beautiful Hollywood figure Michael Moore came in claiming to high journalistic endeavors and being disruptive. He was asked to leave and became more disruptive. Then he followed us down the hall when Barr left for a meeting and continued his obnoxious mission of enlightenment. His efforts have been crowned with artistic awards. What will O’Keefe’s award be?
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
St. Thor| 2.4.10 @ 7:33AM
What I don't understand is why people, including the author, keep calling these toads "Liberals" instead of what they are: fascist scum.
Ken (Old Texican)| 2.4.10 @ 9:43AM
St. Thor, I second your motion!
Change your language, AM SPEC! Let's start calling a spade...a spade.
Communists, (pardon the shorthand), are never "fair"! (Uh that is why they murdered millions of their people.) Duh!
If O'keefe goes to trial, I for one will contribute to his defense fund.
Accidentally or on purpose, his acts have gotten the fight on the PRAVDA media. God bless him.
rhonda Welsch | 2.5.10 @ 3:36PM
O'Keefe is a creative young man who deserves to be applauded for his ingenious plans to uncover coruption in Government and I too will gladly help to defend him! He uses inteelect and creativity as his weapons and the liberals despise free thinkers with intelligence! Look who they support in DC!
Margie| 2.4.10 @ 4:51PM
I don't know if I can see Mr. Tyrell incorporating fascist scum into his articles, but I did appreciate his description of "the drop-dead beautiful Hollywood figure, Michael Moore." THAT was good.
Marik| 2.5.10 @ 12:56PM
How does Mr. Tyrell know what Mr. O'Keefe was intending to do in that office? Does he have the key to Mr. O'Keefe's inner thoughts, or is he making this stuff up as her goe along? And if he's making it up, how is he any better than the liberals?
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:03PM
I guess RET took O'Keefe at his word; you're the only one making things up.
You got liberals right, though--bunch of friggin' liars and cheats!
Alan Brooks| 2.4.10 @ 8:13AM
Do you know how low the sexual morality of many libertarians is?
Why do you cut libertarians slack, but not ACORN?
I know this piece is in reference to government-oriented activists; but still, most of you at AS don't like how lowered morality has affected some people in your lives. Perhaps friends and distant relatives-- or not so distant relatives.
No one says we have to be consistent, but we have to think carefully about morality.
Ryan| 2.4.10 @ 8:25AM
I am semi-libertarian (differ on drugs and abortion). I am also a highly conservative Christian who believes in moral absolutes and right and wrong.
I simply believe that your rights end where mine begin (in a general sense).
Be careful with that broad brush.
Missy| 2.4.10 @ 4:17PM
You claim to believe in moral absolutes and right and wrong-- and you SUPPORT abortion? It's going to take a while for me to wrap my brain around that little nugget.
Guess right and wrong don't mean what they used to mean--at least for SOME of us.
Marik| 2.5.10 @ 12:59PM
The government has no right to make laws prohibiting abortion or requiring it.
It's not the government's business. That's an absolute. And freedom-loving people know it.
Authoritarians don't.
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 2:59PM
No one has the 'right' to kill another, including a pregnant woman. That's an absolute.
Justice must be for ALL or it's for NONE.
Real freedom is 'principled' freedom.
Who is the REAL authoritarian here?
Fortycal| 2.5.10 @ 8:41PM
I don't believe reasonable person would disagree that an "abortion" at 9 months would constitute infanticide. But let's wind back the clock. What about 6 months? Still queasy--at least I am. How about 3 months? Hmmm. Not really sure. How about 3 weeks?
At some point, one reaches a stage where the personhood of the embryo is purely a matter of religious conjecture. At that point, the decision rests with the mother. The government has no standing, other people have no standing. That is an ethical absolute.
Where we can reasonably agree to draw the line is a matter for reasonable people to discuss reasonably, and for different states, counties, regions etc. to respect each other's determinations in the matter. I do agree with the Ron Paulists in that is exactly the kind of issue where Federal regulation can only divide and hurt people.
Jason| 2.5.10 @ 10:46PM
"No one has the 'right' to kill another,"
The state of Texas does it all the time. When Bush sent troops to war, he was condemning them to their deaths as well. So when does your teabagger hypocrisy end?
Missy| 2.6.10 @ 9:15PM
My statement stands: No one has the right to kill another.
You can bleat and bray and try to hide behind Capital Punishment and the wages of war but it still doesn't exonerate YOU from the willful act of killing more than 50 million helpless infants.
Hypocrisy? Try your STINKING DEMOCRAT NAZI hypocrisy.
alan Brooks| 2.4.10 @ 11:04PM
"Be careful with that broad brush."
Same when you say 'statist!'
Stuart Koehl| 2.4.10 @ 2:51PM
Because, whatever else their failings, Libertarians as a rule don't try to use the government purse to support their lifestyles.
Stuart Koehl| 2.4.10 @ 2:52PM
Or use the government to get others to accept their lifestyle choices.
Margie| 2.4.10 @ 4:23PM
Libertarians want no rule of law, though. That in order to be as immoral as they wish to be in the name of freedom. There is no freedom apart from the rule of law. In fact they want to push their immorality on the rest of us. They say things like, "It is my right to smoke dope if I want to or do drugs. It is none of your business!" And, "It is my right to abort my baby if I wish to. Government ought not make a law against it!" This is more like Anarchy.
If one believes in the rule of law and limited government, a strong Military Defense. low taxes, that is conservative.
Be aware of the true definition and platform of Libertarianism.
SoCon| 2.4.10 @ 4:29PM
Libertarian: All of the rights and none of the responsibilities. No thanks.
Fortycal| 2.5.10 @ 1:34PM
@SoCon - Rights imply responsibilities, e.g.:
You have the right to keep what you earn --> you have no right to take what another has earned;
(meaning that the right of property --> the responsibility to provide for yourself.)
The right to be free from unprovoked harm --> the responsibility to avoid harming others unless in self-defence.
This last point is why many libertarians are pro-life or "anti-choice" on this single issue, whereas they are generally pro-choice on behaviors where there is no question that only the doer is affected.
"Libertarian" is a fairly broad brush, but as neither nor Margie have provided a true definition, libertarianism is simply the acceptance of the principle that unprovoked violence is unethical, and the implications of that principle should be taken seriously.
Finally, libertarians most certainly do embrace the rule of law, as opposed to the rule of men. Thus, they tend to favor common-law traditions over bureaucratic fiat. They are definitely not anarchists, as any anarchist will tell you!
SoCon| 2.5.10 @ 3:08PM
Many libertarians are unprincipled: They demand their rights but ignore the attendant responsibilities.
I wasn't referring to ALL libertarians, just those who are unprincipled.
Fortycal| 2.5.10 @ 8:28PM
Then I guess I'm not sure I understand your point, because libertarianism _is_ a principle. There are many unprincipled people out there, who love to make excuses for their lack of discipline, or some other failing. They call themselves all manner of things. None of that has anything to do with the soundness of libertarian philosophy.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 9:09PM
That confuses "libertarian" with "libertine"--though I will admit the former can often slouch into the latter.
SoCon| 2.6.10 @ 9:23PM
Thank you, Stuart.
An unprincipled libertarian is a libertine and many libertines call themselves libertarians.
I'm a pro-life libertarian--which to me is a conservative.
It's not the philosophy, it's human frailty.
Alan Brooks| 2.4.10 @ 8:15AM
... morality begins at home, with the Right.
Warrior | 2.4.10 @ 9:39AM
Nice attempt to bait and switch. I would call you something but it might offend Sarah Palin.
Alan Brooks| 2.4.10 @ 11:07PM
"I would call you something but it might offend Sarah Palin."
the 'b' or 'c' word?
RAMIII| 2.4.10 @ 4:35PM
You, Sir are a hypocrite. You don't even believe in morality, yet you seek to hold others to something you do not apply to yourself.
Alan Brooks| 2.4.10 @ 11:59PM
One tries not to use too broad a brush,
however dealing with libertarians one has to be strong; the future belongs to the strong-- of stomach. Broad of a brush? If there exist all sorts of libertarians then can't libertarians admit there are all sorts of statists, too? It's understood hypocrisy is the "tribute vice pays to virtue", yet libertarians acquiescing in their friends and relatives being aided by the government is almost nauseating. Also, incredible. Literally unbelievable that libertarians don't know that most today see right through to the hypocrisy. Amazing-- again literally so-- that so many think it's a one way mirror: "I can see your hypocrisy, but you can't see mine." And libertarians raise their voices even more than hard-line (as distinct from goo goo) communists, no one can accuse libertarians of being shy. We must always be thankful for small favors, at least few serious, i.e. violent, communists are seriously involved anymore.
So far.
What, that is to say for now, When, are you people looking to? I'm looking to midcentury; the next few decades are going to make some of us seasick on dry land.
Ryan| 2.4.10 @ 8:28AM
I am of two minds on O'Keefe - he definitely broke a few laws, but props to him, because he seems to be cooperating FULLY with authorities on the matter - as he should.
On a second glance, it appears that he didn't break a whole ton of laws in doing what he did, but will probably get something (I imagine some sort of extended probation and very brief jail time, if any).
It really is a double standard - he would be hailed as a leftist hero if he was on the other side; we have standards, so we actually are in a moral quandary on what should be done.
Stuart Koehl| 2.4.10 @ 2:53PM
Which particular laws did he break? Impersonating a phone repairman? Sitting in a public office?
Now, it's been many years since I was working on the Hill, but in my day, we got all sorts of people just wandering into the office--there was no security back then--and we never called the cops unless someone got violent.
Ryan| 2.4.10 @ 4:17PM
Probably some form of false representation in a federal office or something. I imagine that posing as someone else to gain access to equipment (no matter the motivation) is a crime, particularly in a federal office.
Christopher Holland| 2.4.10 @ 8:47PM
I hope this is true. Then Obama can be arrested for pretending to be President and we don't have to wait 3 years to kick his silly butt into the street.
muldoon| 2.6.10 @ 9:35PM
Fake phone company uniforms, fiddling with the phones (was O'Keefe's crew more expert at diagnosing problems with inner workings of telephones than, say, the phone company?) Not to mention a guy posted in a car down on the street with a 2-way radio.
C'mon. Get real, Ryan. That act would have made Curly, Moe and Larry look like rocket scientists. Nobody in their right mind would hail those idiots as heroes. Not even lefties.
As for them receiving light sentences. Probably. But only because in sentencing matters, judges often make some allowances for abject stupidity.
Chalkdust| 2.4.10 @ 8:31AM
That bit of strangled logic appears to be the residue of 10,000 monkeys pounding away on 10,000 typewriters.
ZerObama| 2.4.10 @ 4:21PM
How many monkeys are responsible for yours?
Ran / Si Vis Pacem | 2.4.10 @ 8:39AM
Many thanks Mr Tyrrell!
Let's hope the Good Senator Landrieu has the compassion to request that all charges be dropped.
Joan Wayne| 2.4.10 @ 8:40AM
Alan: Just what is your point? How does what you say relate to this article?
ralph| 2.4.10 @ 8:51AM
I belong to a family, church group and have many friends. They range from tree huggers to Glen Beck huggers. Even the most liberal of them did not brand O'Keefe as a scoundrel. His sting was probably one of the most recent events that we could all agreed on. Even Jon Stewart toasted him, in a good way.
As far as double standards go, it seems to me that with opposing ideologies, that's going to happen.
Nate| 2.4.10 @ 10:25AM
Agreed. Everybody--regardless political leaning--applies double standards in some facet of life.
I would also add that in this case, there is an important distinction to be made; as far as I can tell, Michael Moore has not (yet) entered a federal building and pretended to be anything other than a disruptive fat guy with a Detriot Tigers hat. O'Keefe et al misrepresented themselves in a federal setting, which carries different legal implications than simply being disruptive. O'Keefe certainly doesn't deserve the max penalty, and I would be very surprised if it were sought/given.
2Anglico| 2.4.10 @ 8:54AM
The old "getting a taste of your own medicine" comes to mind.
MikeBee| 2.4.10 @ 9:05AM
Alan, I know it's difficult; but try to stay on point.
Bob, excellent article! You point out very well the double standard of liberals, and also the need for the science of heuristics. At the highest levels of academia, heuristics is applied to various historical analyses, in an attempt to get at the complete truth. The science of heuristics attempts to understand the complete environmental picture surrounding an historical figure(s). In this way, a better understanding of the historical figure's worldview can be made, and inherent biases may, at least, be recognized for what they are, and sometimes removed from the historical factual picture, if need be. Heuristics acknowledges the findings of another area of philosophical study, the study of human c0gnition, that human beings do not process thought in a vacuum, but are influenced by their formal educational training, and by the environments in which they live.
Liberals seem to be the only ones today who do not recognize these facts. They continue to deny that they could possibly carry biases. In so doing, they become blind to their own biases, and are only capable of seeing bias in the thoughts and expressions of others with whom they disagree. This leads to liberals' harsh treatment of O'Keefe, even in the face of their own similar journalistic antics. This also leads to such things as the abuse of the scientific method to "prove" that liberal bias is correct, as in the Environmental studies department's Global Warming analyses at the University of East Anglia.
No, the study of human cognition has long recognized the place that one's environmental biases plays in the process of the development of thought. We ignore these findings only to be doomed to eventually make ourselves look foolish, as liberals do today.
ralph| 2.4.10 @ 9:57AM
Are you saying that conservatives (or any group)are not guilty of bias?
MikeBee| 2.4.10 @ 4:22PM
Ralph,
Absolutely not! Everyone has some bias built in, due to circumstances surrounding his/her life. That's why the study of heuristics is so important to historical analysis. It just seems to be liberals today who think that they are free from bias. Liberal journalists and liberal scientists are especially guilty of this. Conservatives tend to leave their bias out of their news reporting and their scientific analyses a bit better right now. Things can change; everyone needs to simply recognize what their inherent biases are, and deal with them.
ralph| 2.5.10 @ 11:01AM
Which is why I read more than one side of an issue and try to find the truth. However, my experience on conservative blogs and in company of such people is that I'm wrong to even think of looking at a different viewpoint from theirs. And I disagree about conservatives leaving out bias in their reporting. I find they are just as bad as liberals.
Margie| 2.4.10 @ 4:39PM
I'm definitely biased for the Truth.
You can't go wrong.
You're always on the right side.
And it's always your friend.
ralph| 2.5.10 @ 11:06AM
Absolutely! But it's time consuming for me because I have to constantly shift through the bias of the reporters.
I happen to like factcheck.org and politifact.com as springboards. If they skewer the liberals as often as the conservatives, it seems they may be less biased than, say Fox News or MSNBC.
MikeBee| 2.4.10 @ 4:36PM
My apologies, one correction (writing and thinking too fast): insert "Hermeneutics" where "heuristics" exists above. Wrong word.
muldoon| 2.7.10 @ 12:08AM
MikeBee, you provided an excellent text book summary of heuristics in your first paragraph. And I was with you all the way there, man.
But then in your second paragraph you lept into unsubstantiated opinion, and you lost me. In no way does heuristics support your claim that liberals claim they have no biases. You just made that up, didn't you? And attempted to pass it off under a pseudo scholarly umbrella.
You disappoint me, MikeBee. I expected better of you.
MikeBee| 2.7.10 @ 6:20PM
Muldoon,
I apologize for the poor communication. I was not trying to say the study of hermeneutics supports the bias of liberals. What I was trying to say is that it is well founded that everyone operates with certain biases. At the highest levels of academia, hermeneutics (not heuristics -- my own ignorance for using the wrong word when typing so fast) is applied to analytical historical study, precisely because academics realize that human beings are affected by environmental bias.
Today, liberals don't seem to realize this fact. Liberal journalists, for example, think that they are keeping professional distance from the "facts" that they report. But they often miss their own inherent biases. It is not because of the study of hermeneutics that liberals are biased. They are biased because they are normal, thinking human beings. True scientists and true professionals in every field realize that their own inherent bias CAN play a part in their analyses, and make numerous attempts to remove this bias. But today's liberals don't even realize that all humans carry these inherent biases, and make NO attempts to remove their own bias from their reporting.
Clearer? Or is this still like mud?
Anthony| 2.4.10 @ 9:06AM
The hypocrisy of the Left is breathtaking, we've know this for decades. As Mr. Tyrrell points out, civil unrest amd criminal behavior from the Left is applauded and held up to martyr status.
We conservatives have not forgotten how the NY Times and other Leftist rags have committed treason in revealing national security secrets, especially during the Bush Administration. We have not forgotten how the Times' public editor chortled over these disclosures and told the rest of America to essentially" chill out".
This double standard will soon be a thing of the past; may the Left enjoy its advantage for the brief time it has left.
Curly Smith| 2.4.10 @ 9:06AM
Mary Landrieu, and most members of Congress, are there on false pretenses. Let's go to the videotape and check their campaign "promises".
Louis Jenkins| 2.4.10 @ 10:49AM
O’Keefe stepped on a liberal landmine while in search of Empirical Truth. He was not satisfied with his gut perception (Intuitive Truth) that Landrieu’s phone lines were really working and the staff was lying. Intuitively Conservatives knew Bubba lied when he said he didn’t inhale, but since there was no visual evidence no Conservative protest followed his comment, and out of loyalty his supporters went along with the story. Bubba didn’t have sex “with that woman,” but the blue dress showed otherwise. Again, Empirical Truth, but this time no media protest. I, for one, would like to see the Pretender n Chief’s birth certifcate, but the Statists claim that he was elected and that’s a good enough Truth for them. (Even some Conservatives say the same because Biden could become the Chief and admittedly it's a good point.) Obviously the Statists have a different warped understanding of Truth.
To Statists Truth is loyalty and agreement with a standard rule, ie, Conservatives are bad and always wrong, even when Conservatives have the evidence (Empirical Truth) in their hands for public display, and Statists are always right because Conservatives are always wrong. In the case of O’Keefe the Statists point to the seriousness of the charge, not his good intentions. The mere charge of a Conservative with a Federal crime will get a lot of propaganda milage for a long time truth be da—ed. Again, Conservatives are wrong. Until this nation seeks the truth, as guaranteed by our Constitution, instead of swallowing the lies and fabrications of the Statists and the news media parasites, we will remain under the thumb of Statists.
Paul from SA| 2.4.10 @ 11:37AM
Still no answer from Landrieu as to why she and her people in our office stopped answering our phones.
Road Kill| 2.4.10 @ 4:25PM
That's because their phones aren't working! How can she answer? If she wanted to answer her phones would be working. You can't have your pudding if you don't eat your meat. You can't eat your meat if you don't having any pudding.
muldoon| 2.6.10 @ 9:48PM
No fan of Landrieu here. But she and her people have repeatedly said their phones have been jammed for weeks because of the high number of calls coming into her office--and same goes for many other legislators. No mystery there.
Find another reason to justify O'Keefe's stupidity.
Pingback| 2.4.10 @ 11:43AM
Bob Tyrrell: Liberal Unfairness vs. James O’Keefe – The American Spectator | FrontPag links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 12:27PM
Mr Tyrrell,
As always, you make good points here. I'd accept the criticism that there is a double standard in the way the popular culture TALKS about political "pranks" and protests.
To be sure, if leftists had sneaked into Tom DeLay's office and filmed him making slimy deals with casinos or companies that use something near slave labor in the Mariana Islands, forcing women to be prostitutes and have abortions, all in the name of Capitalism and God's Invisible Hand at Work in the Free Market, the left would uproariously have cheered them on, even had they committed a crime.
O.K. Fair enough. Did these young men expose such malfeasance? I don't know.
But perhaps we should be fairer in how we talk about them. Perhaps they should be allowed their due as activists.
Either way, right or left, the judge should pay no heed, and if they committed a crime, they should be punished. Rule of law, not Rule of Rightwing Talkshow Hosts, thank God, still prevails in this country.
LiveFreeOrDie| 2.4.10 @ 12:48PM
"Rule of law, not Rule of Rightwing Talkshow Hosts, thank God, still prevails in this country."
When in this rule of law going to be applied in the voter intimidation case?
Mike| 2.4.10 @ 12:56PM
GO HOOSIERS!!!
Ryan| 2.4.10 @ 2:33PM
Whatever yankee.
WHO DAT!
Oldefarte| 2.4.10 @ 1:51PM
As one who lived through the 1960's radicalism of the liberal/leftist movement; let me state that their tactics were NOT amusing and/or jestful in any manner. Obama's close friend, Bill Ayers and his Weatherman faction that bombed buildings, were an example of their activities nationwide. The Kent State shooting occurred because these radicals threw bottles/debris,etc at the military national guardsmen, which cause same to panically fire upon the radical students and kill some of them. These radicals were [and are] egged on and promoted by the liberal/leftist members of society as a force of goodness and righteousness; when all they are are THUGS/CRIMINALS. As to Okeefe, he was simply trying to provide recognition of Landrieu's staff members not answering the phone calls of protesting constituents; but the liberal establishment will use this situation to make a political point by attempting to legally prosecute OKeefe in federal court over his minor activities!!!!!
WAKE UP| 2.4.10 @ 2:30PM
The REAL subtext here is: the fact that they got IN once again proves that security is lacking (Fort Hood, the Washington party-crashers). What if they'd had really evil intent?
Stuart Koehl| 2.4.10 @ 2:55PM
Excuse me? People's representative, people's business, people's building. Congressmen and Senators already live in a cocoon the insulates them from reality. Let them take their chances with the rest of us peons.
Besides, what terrorist in his right mind would blow up the one institution that keeps us from winning the war against terror?
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 3:43PM
Sorry, Stuart.
Just because it's the "people's building" does not mean anyone can go there anytime they please and do anything they want.
Your response seems a little adolescent, as do many of the clamorings on behalf of these young men.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:48PM
As I said, I actually worked on the Hill in the 1970s, and back then, anybody who wanted could come see their representatives--or any representatives at work on THE PEOPLE'S BUSINESS. Today, it's easier to get face time with the CEO of a major corporation than to talk to a real live Congresscritter.
I'm also an historian, and I can tell you that citizen access to all parts of the government was much more open even as recently as the 1940s. Given my druthers, the fence around the White House would come down (maybe we could turn it back into a cow pasture), the Secret Service would be cut back by about 75%, and government officials would have to mingle with the hoi polloi.
Really, I thought liberals were the ones who decry the "national security state" and the imperial government--but then, I suppose it's different you are in power.
John| 2.5.10 @ 11:16AM
Well then by your logic, it must have been republicans that mailed the anthrax after 9/11 right?
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 3:47PM
I'm sure I'm not the only liberal that feels at least a little spiritual and moral solidarity with these young men.
And I would be disappointed and a little offended if I heard they were incarcerated for any substantial period of time.
I say a just result would be a 100 hours community service -- working in a soup kitchen or hospital.
We jail too many people in this country anyway.
Missy| 2.4.10 @ 4:26PM
On the other-hand, when it comes to those lawbreaking ACORN miscreants-- lock 'em up and throw away the key, right?
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 7:08PM
Missy --
Depends.
If someone at ACORN breaks a law, they should be punished accordingly.
Some of the "journalism" on ACORN being carried out by right wingers is pretty fudged.
Obviously there are some problems in that organization, and there have been legal troubles.
So I say let justice be done, but not because Glenn Beck doesn't like black people who agitate for more political power.
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:14PM
Snort! Beck's not a racist and you know it; he's effective. He really makes you libs' heads explode, and it's a beautiful thing to behold.
Truth to democrats is like sunlight to vampires--anathema!!
Oldefarte| 2.4.10 @ 4:43PM
Let's see, LR, what would you propose for say, Bill Ayers and his liberal thugs that blew up buildings; the eco-terrorists that destroyed car dealer lots full of expensive Hummer,etc vehicles; liberal morons that throw blood onto women wearing animal fur garments; etc [some COMMUNITY SERVICE hours, perhaps]?????
MikeBee| 2.5.10 @ 8:38AM
LR,
It was liberals in the '60s and '70s who were actively railing against the Establishment. One of the things I always admired about this was the ability to question authority. Don't just accept what Authority says blindly; don't become sheep; take responsibility for yourself and for your decisions; don't simply give others in authority power over you and your life blindly. This part of what happened then was correct.
However, today, the Establishment are those in authority who tell us that we have to submit our wills (and money$$$$$) to them, because we aren't smart enough to run our lives by ourselves. Government knows better. These people today we call liberals. In today's world, it's actually conservatives who are the radicals, not accepting what the Establishment says, questioning authority, daring to be bold. Perhaps this is the reason that you feel a little moral and spiritual solidarity with these men. These men are actively attempting to reveal the Establishment and its supporting tools for what they are: people and organizations who are attempting to radically change the U.S. to a society which relies entirely on the Government for everything. If they can help it, the Government will make all decisions. If this is how things had been 40 years ago, the '60s radicals wouldn't have made even a small dent in our society.
Marc Jeric| 2.4.10 @ 4:22PM
Confusion with names:
1) Early 20th century - the leftist were proud communists;
2) After Hitler-Stalin pact the same people became socialists;
3) After 1956 when Stalin's mass murders became known they transformed themselves into liberals;
4) When the word "liberal" stated to smell they became progressives.
But it is still the same communist scum!
Margie| 2.4.10 @ 4:42PM
Thank you for that reality, once again, Mr. Jeric!
This biased person for the Truth appreciates it.
Pingback| 2.4.10 @ 4:36PM
Liberal Unfairness vs. James O'Keefe links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Margie| 2.4.10 @ 4:45PM
O'Keefe probably had a "tail" on him for some time. What do you think? Well, I'm with Tex on this one. I will contribute whatever I can to his defense if they send him up.
Charles Stevens| 2.4.10 @ 7:38PM
Their secular religion disguised as philosophy allows progressives to engage in postmodernist narrative lies, while at the same time smugly letting them think their understanding of a morality-based value system can always successfully brand its adherents as hapless hypocrites.
Don| 2.4.10 @ 7:39PM
Sneaking into a Federal facility is a violation of the law, not a prank nor a theatrical disruption. Good actions do not excuse bad ones.
Bohred| 2.4.10 @ 8:35PM
Sorry, but as a conservative I hold myself to a higher standard. What O'Keefe did was wrong. On the other hand, he should be prosecuted right after Sandy Berger.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01344.html
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 8:53PM
Again, even though Mr Tyrrell's analysis seems reasonable, I'm struck by the lack of importance of this piece.
Let's be serious. In the great scheme of things, what happens to these young men is not all that earth shattering. It's not as though they're going to be executed.
This country is in real trouble. The debt, as conservatives rightly warn, is staggering; unemployment is higher than the government acknowledges, and Congress seems incapable of tackling any problems.
Nominees are being held up by cynical old coots. Tax policy doesn't match our economic reality; spending is bloated.
There don't seem to be any adults in DC. The pundits are nothing but a bunch of bawling fools. Glenn Beck has gone from being silly to seeming outright deranged. Sarah Palin communicates by face book, like a 13 year old girl.
Two trillion dollars have been spent on wars abroad to make us "safe from terrorists," but we're no safer today than we were a decade ago.
I fear this country is losing the smarts and the fortitude for sober, prudent self-government.
Missy| 2.6.10 @ 9:27PM
That "13 year old girl" changed the course of ObamaCare with her 'death panel' post on Face Book.
Pretty damn smart. I can understand why you're bitter about it though, LR.
WAKE UP| 2.4.10 @ 9:01PM
O'Keefe was foolish, but the black thugs intimidating voters were... black thugs intimidating voters. Which is STILL supposed to be what this "controversy" is about.
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 9:44PM
What difference does it make that they were black?
Unless of course you're a racist.
WAKE UP| 2.5.10 @ 1:08PM
Gee, I dunno - why don't you ask your incompetent, divisive, un-American President.
Very handy word, "racist" - stops you having to think about what's actually going on. .
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:21PM
Right. Democrats use race to truncate debate and control the dialogue. Identity politics are a weapon by which liberals grab more power and control.
Incompetent? President Obonehead screwed up the word 'corpsman' THREE times in his speech yesterday.
CORPSEMAN??? This clown is no Commander-in-Chief, he's a stupid joke.
JimE| 2.4.10 @ 9:53PM
LB,
Once again you have added nothing to the debate but pre-programed KOS talking points. You are no doubt an liberal but I don't believe you can read.
Liberal Reader| 2.4.10 @ 11:04PM
I don't know what a "KOS" talking point even is. Care to offer an example of what you mean?
Pingback| 2.4.10 @ 10:25PM
LeBron James Block on OJ Mayo HD | Denver Nuggets NBA Announcer links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Yosemeti Sam| 2.5.10 @ 12:36AM
" Liberal Unfairness ...."
Hinges exponentially on the collaborative LMSM - aka PEN1 aka Public Enemy Number 1.
otto| 2.5.10 @ 10:19AM
Conservatism does itself a disservice by defending buffoons like this. The guy is an idiot plain and simple. If he was my son I'd give him a kick up the ass!
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:26PM
You'd rather have your son aiding and abetting those you thought were trafficking in a sexual slavery ring for young immigrant girls?
Nice priorities, 'dad'.
Jason| 2.5.10 @ 10:24AM
O'Keefe has been photographed appearing at white supremacist rallies. Former co-workers have expressed disgust at his deceptive video editing practices. Now he has been arrested for interfering with a Senator's phones.
It beggars belief that you want to defend this numbskull. I suppose if you don't care about truth or justice, but just want to be cheerleaders for your political "team", it makes sense... of a sort.
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:24PM
Liar. That deceitful hit-piece by Sydney Blumenthal has been discredited. Nice try, though, moron.
Time to go back to your DNC talking points for some new lies.
Jason| 2.5.10 @ 10:43PM
Go burn a cross outside the whitehouse, teabagger scum.
Smitty| 2.6.10 @ 3:42PM
Bleat, racist, snort, racist!!!
Typical liberal retort when they've been caught in yet ANOTHER liberal lie. Won't work anymore, Nazi tool.
Jason| 2.8.10 @ 3:16AM
Look at all the white-supremacists hanging out at the TeaBagCon. Nice to know the company you keep.
wwwexler| 2.9.10 @ 10:58PM
Look at all the commie sympathizers trolling this web site.
See you November 2, loser. Mark the date.
Tim Kelly| 2.5.10 @ 10:25AM
Oh no! O'Keefe and his pranksters entered into federal property (sacred land) under false pretenses. Didn't he know that "everything changed" on 9/11 and that such pranks, even innocent mistakes, are now considered potential acts of terrorism. By the way, it was recently revealed the FBI had obtained phone records and other private information illegally. As of now the US Justice Department isn't pressing charges even though the snooping was a clear violation of federal law. Which is worse, federal agents snooping through our private information without so much as a self-written warrant (security letters) or O'Keefe's prank?
What if the Obama administration declares O'Keefe to be "unlawful enemy combatant" and ships him off to Gitmo or Bagram, or Diego Garcia and gives him a tase of the 'dark side?"
Dave 24| 2.5.10 @ 10:35AM
I've written this before and I'll write again until we conservatives get over the 60's. Liberals have and we need to. Do you have anything from this century? Appropos the supposed topic of this embarrassing rant, James O'Keefe is a punk and a twit. He broke the law and gave folks on the left yet another reason to think poorly of conservatives in general. We need to distance ourselves from these kinds of shennanigans and start acting like grown ups.
And as for these supposed "liberals" being fascists, please, let's stop using this term. It's a real term with real meaning. With all due respect to Goldberg (who is an idiot), liberals like conservatives were and have been on the right side of history (for the most part) in opposing totalitarian regimes including fascist regimes. Liberals shed their blood in our wars, sacrificed financially through their taxes, and provided their leadership in key moments of national crisis. Would conservatives have done a better job? Probably usually, but even here not always. So, let's remember this: liberals are our political opponents not our mortal enemies. If you need to hate someone, pick more deserving targets.
And finally, let's stop being clowns. The country is in peril (and not from Obama, but from threats we conservatives in part created through our own miscalculations and arrogance - that is, when we forgot we were conservatives and decided to act like cold war liberals) and we need better from our intellectual and political leadership than what we get from Rush and Mitch, etc. who are again, fools playing us for fools.
The American Spectator has a chance to be a real voice for a sensible, mature American conservatism. To be so, it needs to stop being a meeting house for old frat boys and angry white guys. I remember the first time I picked up an American Spectator (in the way old days whne the world was new) and what a breath of fresh air it was. It is now just a rant sheet. Too bad. It could be great again, but only by reversing the prevailing tide in conservatism and try the Reagan approach to coalition and consensus building. What made Reagan so successful was not his liberal bashing, which only appealed to the emotionally challenged in our ranks, but his ability to make basic American instincts popular again: a real downhome patriotism, the spirit of community, the virtue of hard work, etc. He blah, blajhed the crazy conservatives - the bible thumpers, loony libertarians - but never really gave them anything beyond rhetoric. Now these goofs run the Republican Party, and real conservatives are left shaking our heads as to how we - not the left - managed in not even a generation, to completely repeal the Reagan revolution and turn over the controls to really dangerous people.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:50PM
Liberals have gotten over the sixties? When did this happen?
Or do you mean that, by inaugurating Jimmy Carter's long delayed second term, they have advanced into the 1970s--another decade without quality control?
Smitty| 2.5.10 @ 3:30PM
Thanks Dave 24/Mr. Concern Troll for all your BS.
Stop the phony lectures and go back under your Axelrod Astroturf rock, libtard. Dead Fish Emanuel is waiting for you.
Joe Heathen| 2.5.10 @ 10:43AM
Simple rejoinder to all of this is "don't do the crime if you don't wanna do the time".
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Boy wonder shouldn't have been in a Federal building playing telephone repairman under false pretenses.
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He's a terrorist for all WE know. Could've been looking for a location in the good Senator's office to plant a time bomb.
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TS, and I don't mean Eliot.
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Let the FBI and American justice do its work.
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Betcha, by golly, wink wink, that the FBI will make a solid case to young O'Thing that he's better off squealing to them than he is to his new friends in a Federal penitentiary as he attempts to discuss conservative proctological techniques.
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Face it. He's stupid, like the rest of his fellow travelers.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:51PM
And what, pray tell, would the crime be? Still waiting for a bill of indictment here.
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:35PM
Yeah, O'Keefe's stupid--unlike the democrat morons who aided and abetted people they thought were trafficking in sexual slavery.
How convenient that you democrats try to ignore a REAL crime.
Joe Heathen| 2.5.10 @ 7:11PM
But, but . . .
They're Baptists and you know, don't you, that wherever you find four Baptists, you'll always find a fifth?
Surely even a retard can grasp that concept.
Nobama| 2.5.10 @ 8:51PM
Maybe we'd understand if the f'ing ret@rd you are explained what you're talking about.
John| 2.5.10 @ 11:10AM
As hard as you try to spin it, you really sound foolish in this article. The bottom line is O'keef broke the law. Period. The right is always so willing to ignore the law when it gets in their way: war crimes, torture, warrantless wiretaps, rendition.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:51PM
What was the law he broke? Cite title and section of U.S. Code, if you have it available?
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:42PM
WAR CRIMES?? Obama continues to order vicious Predator drone strikes that kill innocent civilians in Pakistan and Afghanistan--where's your moral outrage now, libtard?
You clowns are such jokes.
Dennis Bergendorf| 2.5.10 @ 11:15AM
Mr. Tyrrell must remember David Maxwell, one of IU's student radicals of that era. David was my wife's first cousin, and when we attended his funeral a few years back we heard how he was one of the organizing forces of the "campus free-speech" movement.... AND... instrumental in blocking George Wallace's talk in Bloomington. I didn't know David, but I assume his philosophy was "free speech for me but not for thee."
matthew | 2.5.10 @ 11:54AM
he didn't go into acorn dressed as a pimp. he was dressed in a suit and tie. he spliced images of himself dressed as a pimp into the video that was distributed for dramatic effect.
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:43PM
Drink too much of that Marxist Kool-Aid and it's gonna leave you braindead--oops, too late!
Tim Kelly| 2.5.10 @ 12:07PM
There is no doubt O'Keefe has made himself vulnerable by breaking the law but that does not mean he should 'do time.' How can any rational or moral person think that such a prank merits incarceration? How does O'Keefe' s crime compare to political crimes committed everyday on Capitol Hill? Senator Landrieu sold her office and violated her oath to defend and uphold the Constitution when she agreed to vote for Senator Reid's unconstitutional healthcare bill in return for federal pork. Too many people lend too much respectability to what elected officials do for a living, that is steal our money and buy votes with the pilfered cash all the while driving the country towards bankruptcy.
This week Congress voted to raise the debt ceiling by $1.9 trillion, thus piling on more debt on future generations so they could buy more votes this election year. But it's all legal. Whadda country!!!!
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:53PM
What law did he break? Of what crime has he been convicted? I'm really curious about this, because it seems he broke "The Law" in general, but not in particular.
I did not know that "lese majeste" was a crime under U.S. law.
RON| 2.5.10 @ 12:19PM
Bottom line is O'Keefe and the boys broke the law and i don't care if he won a academy award for playing a pimp at ACORN . Trying gloss it over as this site is trying just isn't correct and shows this site has no integrity .And that goes for the resty of you that are crying well what if or well they did it first garbage.
Stuart Koehl| 2.5.10 @ 12:53PM
What law did he break? Of what crime was he convicted?
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:46PM
Axelrod and Dead Fish, f'ing ret@rd Emanuel have really called out the troll dogs today!!
Whatever happened to 'innocent until proven guilty'?
Joe Heathen| 2.5.10 @ 7:48PM
"Innocent until proven guilty" went away when the tea beggars went after ACORN once Pimp O'Keefe fed his videos to Mr. Breitbart.
Never was a trial. Just protestations of guilt.
Looks like you've reaped what you've sown.
Take two Midol and get used to it. You'll like it. There's lots more to come now that the activities of Todd Palin as sub-governator of Alaska are becoming known as the e-mails are decrypted.
Nobama| 2.5.10 @ 8:54PM
Oh, bend over and take it up the ass, moron--that's the way you libtards like it anyway.
O'Keefe will NEVER go to jail. You'll see.
See you in November.
Jason| 2.5.10 @ 10:42PM
What is it with the teabagger party's fascination with homosexual behaviour? Repressed feelings perhaps?
Smitty| 2.6.10 @ 3:45PM
Jason, why don't you tell us since YOU'RE the party of perverts. Racist Nazi.
Jason| 2.8.10 @ 3:15AM
Nazis are a right-wing phenomenon. Catholics too. Everybody knows that.
Smitty| 2.9.10 @ 10:54PM
Communists are a left-wing phenomenon and are responsible for savagely killing hundreds of millions of innocent civilians in the 20th century.
Democrats are a left-wing phenomenon, too. Everybody knows that.
Jean| 2.5.10 @ 1:14PM
I'm old enough to remember when the Earth Liberation Front was vandalizing heavy equipment and spiking trees in Washington and Oregon in order to protest logging. Those spikes maimed and disabled a number of loggers who were doing their jobs. ELF was regailed by the liberal press, most notably reporter Mike Wallace of "60 Minutes." I guess permanently disabling a logger in defense of trees is perceived by "liberals" as more admirable than defending the rights of Louisiana's taxpayers to have adequate representation. And they wonder why Michael Savage says that "Liberalism is a mental disorder"?
Joe Heathen| 2.5.10 @ 10:44PM
Michael Savage? You mean Michael Weiner. A model kapo.
Anonymous| 2.5.10 @ 1:42PM
Yes, Jean, I remember those things, too. I also remember Ron Eachus violently taking over the U of O President's Office though NOW he preaches that conservatives are too rowdy!!!!! What a joke.
MattZ| 2.5.10 @ 1:58PM
"What I don't understand is why people, including the author, keep calling these toads "Liberals" instead of what they are: fascist scum. "
____________________________
Wow, first comment! What a great publication. Keep up the, uh, whatever it you do here, American Spectator.
MZ
Missy| 2.5.10 @ 3:48PM
Just 'trolling' by, Matt? You can go back to your bong now.
Lee R.| 2.5.10 @ 8:24PM
All this indignation and the posters still haven't figured out wht laws they are charged with violating? You can't be all that interested if you really don't know.
They are charged with violating section 1036 of Title 18 of the United states Code:
§ 1036. Entry by false pretenses to any real property, vessel, or aircraft of the United States or secure area of any airport or seaport
(a) Whoever, by any fraud or false pretense, enters or attempts to enter—
(1) any real property belonging in whole or in part to, or leased by, the United States;
(2) any vessel or aircraft belonging in whole or in part to, or leased by, the United States;
(3) any secure or restricted area of any seaport, designated as secure in an approved security plan, as required under section 70103 of title 46, United States Code, and the rules and regulations promulgated under that section; or
(4) any secure area of any airport,
shall be punished as provided in subsection (b) of this section.
(b) The punishment for an offense under subsection (a) of this section is—
(1) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 10 years, or both, if the offense is committed with the intent to commit a felony; or
(2) a fine under this title or imprisonment for not more than 6 months, or both, in any other case.
(c) As used in this section—
(1) the term “secure area” means an area access to which is restricted by the airport authority, captain of the seaport, or a public agency; and
(2) the term “airport” has the meaning given such term in section 47102 of title 49.
Nobama| 2.5.10 @ 8:56PM
O'Keefe's NEVER going to jail, moron. Give it up and get a job.
Joe Heathen| 2.5.10 @ 10:06PM
The FBI is gonna give Pimp O'Keefe the choice of going to jail and becoming the Bride of Bruno or maybe wearing a wire and interviewing Todd Palin about his deeds as sub-governator of Alaska and some unpaid taxes.
Poor tea beggars and birfers. A lifetime of unceasing bad choices and still wallowing in intellectual dysfunction and thinking it's a social virtue.
Hey, where's Orly Taitz? She ever pay off the $20k sanction levied against her by the Federal judge or is she still drilling teeth and selling houses trying to raise the money? Boy, she's another example of a hard-core birfer looser who must think Ben Stein and his fellow travelers walk on fetid pools of water.
Smitty| 2.6.10 @ 3:47PM
More liberal fantasies about forced anal sex--you people are a piece of work.
Get a job, troll.
Lee R.| 2.6.10 @ 8:22AM
In the world of Nobama, providing basic information for a "debate" makes me a moron. No wonder I had to put "debate" in quotes.
Wonderful "discussion" here.
Since Nobama obviously doesn't read much, let me point out that O'Keefe and his buddies pretty clearly violated section 1036(a)(1). Read on, please, No-Nobama.
Nobama| 2.6.10 @ 3:52PM
Did I say O'Keefe didn't break the law? No, I said O'Keefe won't go to jail.
There's a difference, troll; try reading the comments before responding to them (erroneously, I might add).
You need to work on your reading comprehension.
Lee R.| 2.6.10 @ 7:59PM
Two responses from No-Nobama, and we have one "moron" and one "troll."
I'll work on my comprehension when you approach comprehensibility and "debate."
Nobama| 2.6.10 @ 9:32PM
You are a troll. I'll work on debating points when you work on telling the truth.
BTW, my posts were correct--I never said O'Keefe didn't break the law. Maybe that's a little above your IQ paygrade-- I understand.
Lee R.| 2.7.10 @ 10:35AM
One "moron," two "troll"s, an insult to my intelligence, and another dodge of anything like a "debate." I guess you're "winning" in that odd universe you inhabit.
Nobama| 2.7.10 @ 11:14PM
You have to HAVE INTELLIGENCE before someone can insult it, libtard. Add that to your silly 'list'.
Lee R.| 2.8.10 @ 1:35PM
One "moron," two "troll"s, an insult to my intelligence, a "libtard" and yet another dodge of anything like a "debate." Still "winning" in that odd universe you inhabit.
Nobama| 2.9.10 @ 10:50PM
What debate? All you did was copy some laws on the books and whine about my posts.
Useless doesn't begin to define you.
Later, troll
Rick| 2.6.10 @ 5:02AM
What part of "Federal Offense" did O'Keefe not understand?
Pingback| 2.6.10 @ 12:31PM
Public Records Of Deceased People - The Blog Planet links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Drew | 2.6.10 @ 3:06PM
Is this now the cri de coeur of American Conservatism? Wallowing in self-pity.
Let us for a moment, consider the case of poor benighted O'Keefe. Who exactly is "persecuting" him? Answer: He was arrested by United States Marshals, and the prosecution of him and his alleged co-conspirators is being handled by the US Attorney's office.
If Mr O'Keefe et al are to face punishment, it will be because they either plead guilty, or they are convicted by a jury. They will be afforded the oportunity to present a defense; and the Jury that hears the case will have the opportunity to weigh whatever evidence the Prosecution has of their alleged wrong-doing.
Forgive me for pointing this out, but this is exactly the way things ought to be.
O'Keefe is not being persecuted by "liberals" - is being charged with a crime by the duly authorized law enforcement arms of the Government. Law enforcement is not a political action it in this country.
Have certain media outlets publicized his arrest? Obviously they have. The same media outlets that reported the arrest and prosecution of Governor Blagojevich for fraud and extortion , and Representative Patrick Kennedy for driving under the influence. Because that is what media outlets do: They report cases where political figures are charged with crimes (among other things.)
There is a long history of people making political protests or statements being arrested or charged in connection with their actions. Sometimes the arrest is a deliberate, and desired, outcome of the protest. Protestors who trespass on military bases to protest the war in Iraq are arrested and charged. They (usually) know that trespassing is illegal - and yet they have sufficient courage in their beliefs to accept whatever punishment is meted out to them as a result.
Why them does the Conservative press believe that O'Keefe should be afforded any different treatment? It is one of the hallmarks of the American legal system that people are considered equal before the law. To cry "foul" when someone making a political statement is charged with a crime in connection with that action, strikes me as an utter abandonment of any shred of credibility.
Nobama| 2.6.10 @ 4:02PM
The armed Black Panther thugs accused of voter intimidation in Philadelphia were given 'different treatment' by Holder's Justice Department.
Holder dismissed charges against the Black Panthers, making them 'more equal' under the law.
O'Keefe should man up for his actions--and so should the armed Black Panther thugs; that's equal before the law.
Got a problem with consistency?
Nobama| 2.7.10 @ 1:09AM
Problem with your LIES is more like it.
"The Voting Rights Act is very clear. It prohibits any attempt to 'intimidate, threaten or coerce' any voter or those aiding voters."
Holder's Justice Dept. never provided any reason for dropping the case.
Legal scholar and former FEC Commissioner, Spakovsky, states, "I have NEVER heard of the Justice Dept. refusing to take a default judgment. If a Republican Administration had done this, it would be front-page news and every Civil Rights group in the country would be screaming about it."
Bartle Bull, an RFK organizer who worked on behalf of Black voters in Mississippi, testified that, "it was the most blatant form of voter discrimination I have encountered in my life."
Eric Eversole, a litigating attorney with the Voting section of the Civil Rights Div. of the Justice Dept. said, "It is truly UNPRECEDENTED for the Voting Section to voluntarily dismiss a case of such blatant intimidation. The video speaks for itself."
The New Black Panthers actually blocked access to a poll; one of the armed Black Panther thugs, Jerry Jackson, was an elected member of Philadelphia's 14th Ward Democrat Comm. who was a credentialed poll watcher for Obama and the Democrat party.
Conveniently, the Obama Administration has asked that the charges be dropped against Jackson, two other Black Panther defendants and the party.
Only worthless liberal hacks would defend this indefensible action by Obama and Holder. You would be screaming bloody murder if the KKK had pulled this stunt on Black voters.
No wonder you democrats are busy attacking O'Keefe: Anything to distract from Holder's abuse of power. It won't work; Obama will pay politically for your filthy liberal corruption.
You're asking for racial violence in the next election. Americans will not put up with your democrat treachery.
Shame on you. You're not even Americans any more.
Drew| 2.6.10 @ 5:08PM
You obviously have a problem with the facts.
From December 3 testimony by Tom Perez, Department of Justice assistant attorney general for the civil rights division, before the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties:
PEREZ: The case was not dismissed. The case was reviewed by two attorneys, including Loretta, who have a combined total of 60 years of experience, and they made the determination that, based on the law of the Third Circuit, that the case against the person who wielded the stick, that we should indeed seek the maximum penalty, and that maximum penalty was sought and obtained, and the case against the other defendant should be dismissed, and the case against the national party should also be dismissed. So that was the determination that was made and so I needed to correct the record because the case was not indeed dismissed and those two career attorneys, with 60 years of experience, made that decision.
Got that?
1) This was CIVIL case.
2) The decision as to how to proceed in the matter was made by career attorneys.
Lastly, this entire tu quoque argument is absurd. There is no connection or parallel whatsoever between the two incidents.
Look up the expression tu quoque - I think you will discover it is a logical fallacy. Keep making the argument, and you keep proving the moral, legal, ethical, and logical worthlessness of your argument.
Lee R.| 2.6.10 @ 8:02PM
You're wasting your time. No-Nobama's logic and desire for actual debate are no-no-shows.
Nobama| 2.6.10 @ 9:35PM
Snort! Like you understood one point Drew made.
Troll.
LOL!!
radicalmoderate| 2.6.10 @ 10:39PM
O'Keefe is only a hero for reminding us all that deception and real "gotcha journalism" is no better than police entrapments that break the law for their perceived "good". In this case Mr. OKeefe and his band of "phonies" entrapped themselves. It was not well planned and most definitely skirted the law in our super security minded times. If you tried to go through airport security with a false ID or posing as a flight crew member you would surely be arrested and charged with a near terrorist act. His was not so bad as that even though it falls under the same statute being as security is beefed up in all government offices since 9-11, the anthrax mailings and more recent shooting of a guard in the holocaust museum. I do believe ACORN at least fired the persons who answered Mr. OKeefe's questions with the answers he was seeking. I could be argued that they were also entrapped into showing what idiots they were to answer his questions. No excuses folks. Grow up and stop being shills for exaggerated causes. There is too much BS reported as news from extremist elements on both sides in the name of "free speech." The more extreme you all get the more the rest of us have to give up our freedoms. Any dupe with a cellphone can now be a journalist or a hit squad for their reactionary beliefs. Either extreme in absolute power, from the left or the right, leads to some form of fascism, corruption or with so many lines drawn in the sand today all we have to show is a paralyzed government with folks more worried about their jobs and political coffers.
Nom De Guerre| 2.7.10 @ 2:16PM
I'll have to agree with (radicalmoderate) a contradiction in terms by the way that OKeefe's attempt at journalistic discovery was poorly planned and inapt. But I must vehemently disagree with his conclusion that fascism can come from both left and the right, a masterful job of history revisionism has taken place in this country that now many Americans believe that fascism was a product of the right as in Nazi Germany, Glenn Beck's documentary of a couple of weeks ago clearly show in historical context that Hitler's Nasi Germany, Mussolini's Italy, Marxist revolution in Russia, China's Chairman Mao. Castro's Cuban revolution with Che Guevara's murder squads, Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Cambodia's Khmer Rouge's Pol Pot all have a common thread and that is the left, as seen with the writings, audio and video of icons of the progressive movement of the early 20th century (a frightening and eye-opening study) in lockstep philosophy with tyrants responsible for the murder of over 100 million people so don't let anyone tell you that fascism comes from the right it's historically inaccurate.
Woodrow Wilson, FDR and Theodore Roosevelt were early Progressives until that term turned caustic and went underground then they usurped the term "liberal" which before then meant exactly the opposite of what we think of it now but now liberalism is becoming a dirty word so now they're bringing out progressivism again because people have no memory but it is rapidly losing its appeal because the word is spreading and the people are waking up no doubt they would try to usurp the word "populace" now to keep the shell game going about who these people really are.
The level of corruption in government is at a galactic scale the so-called mainstream media is in bed with them up to their eyeballs they can no longer be trusted to bring the people the truth so we are doing the best we can to find it for ourselves, I don't play the Republican vs. Democrat game the restoration of our constitutional republic with limited government should be our goal because right now we have radical socialists and some self-avowed Communists at the top of our government who clearly have contempt for any constitutional limitations and the destruction of our free market capitalist system that has given our middle-class the best standard of living of any country in the world their goal, these people are playing us off one group against another divide and conquer don't fall for tactics like tax the rich which play on the worst parts of human sin nature envy and covetousness, read your history that's how you get stuck with income tax.
"Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself."
John Adams
If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. ~ Thomas Jefferson
wwwexler| 2.6.10 @ 10:47PM
O'Keefe is clumsy and may have broken the law; but he is not a threat to our country like Holder and ACORN. They are serious threats.
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Jeff| 2.9.10 @ 7:01PM
Im sorry Tyrrel. I know how hard it is being a persecuted Conservative, you never get invited to the "cool" parties! But you are conflating to very different things. Michael Moore storming into Bob Barr's office, as well, Michael Moore, fatass that he is, and causing "unpleasantness" is very different then dressing up as phone repairmen to gain entrance, under false pretenses, to a Senator's office and federal building.Whatever O'Keefes objective, video taping the phones the phones or what have you, is not really the issue.
If you cant see the distinction then you really are just a dumb conservative.
wwwexler| 2.9.10 @ 10:46PM
"Cool" parties? You mean liberal cocaine orgies?
Thanks, but no thanks--'our party' will be November 2, 2010! Mark the date--we have!
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