I wonder what Andy Alexander will make of this:
James O’Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show.
[….]When Boudreau arrived at the address, a house located on a tributary of the Patuxent River, (conservative activist) Santa approached her with a tape recorder in her hand and said she wanted to talk in the car, Boudreau said.
“I noticed she had a little bit of dirt on her face, her lip was shaking, she seemed really uncomfortable and I asked her if she was OK,” Boudreau said. “The first thing she basically said to me was, ‘I’m not recording you, I’m not recording you. Are you recording me?’ I said, ‘No, I’m not recording you,’ and she showed me her digital recorder and it was not recording.”
Santa told Boudreau that O’Keefe planned to “punk” her by getting on a boat where hidden cameras were set up. Boudreau said she would not get on the boat and asked Santa why O’Keefe wanted her there.
I don’t need to remind you that James O’Keefe was, for a time, the de facto assignment editor for most establishment media.
Xboxershorts
Dig into his background and you will find his education was paid for through conservative backed grants and he spent his entire college career honing his “conservative activist” skillset….
I don’t really know of anything comparable on the ‘left”.
These are serious monsters intent on establishing Rove’s permanent republican majority. It’s more than a dream, they’re really trying to do this.
lawnorder
It is not only 1 man.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/8/2/889547/-Confessions-of-a-Tea-Party-consultant
(safe for work link, but the original at playboy is nsfw)
r€nato
I’m disappointed that Bill Maher had Andrew Breitbart on his show last Friday, and introduced him as a, ‘right-wing impresario’.
He’s a P.T. Barnum, if that’s what Maher means by, ‘impresario’: a flim-flam man, a shameless liar who will do anything for a buck or another 15 minutes of fame. A sociopath who will calmly state flat-out lies as if they are obvious truths.
And O’Keefe is Breitbart’s protege. Clearly O’Keefe has serious issues with minorities and women.
Conservatism is often a symptom of mental illness. Read Max Blumenthal’s Republican Gomorrah if you think I’m exaggerating.
Chyron HR
That’s right, kids, Santa is a Teabagger. No SociaIist presents for you this year!
Xboxershorts
@Chyron HR:
UN-POSSIBLE….
http://www.mrail.net/data/interests/photographs/santa/santa.htm
r€nato
Yeah, not sure where they would have gotten that idea…
aimai
I think “PT Barnum” is exactly what Maher had in mind when he called Breitbart an emprisario. Of course PT was also an abolitionist and a pretty good guy. But still.
Also, I hate to get all sexist and stuff but has anyone looked at a picture of O’Keefe recently? That kid has the sex appeal of a starveling rat, and the jaw line too. Its impossible for him to get close to anyone in a sexual way *without* some level of deceit or heavy use of roofies. He has predatory scum written all over him.
aimai
John Bird
That’s a little . . . weird, even for O’Keefe.
James, your 15 minutes are up, man; you already took down a bunch of clipboard-wielding canvassers who get paid by the week after Glenn Beck told you they were the USSR. That’s pretty much as far as you’re going to get in life, so I suggest you start writing two or three books about it.
Xenocrates
Why is this little shit not in a PMITA prison right now?? Christ, what a little douche…sent by a much bigger douche, Andrew Dimbart. It’s to laugh, really…but we are “through the looking glass here, people.” I loved Taibbi’s piece this morning, but it’s not going to convince anyone, I’m afraid. Keep up the good work, John, don’t let the Firepups get you down…
r€nato
@aimai: I wish Boudreau had verbally castrated that little twerp.
But, she’s far too professional, apparently.
People who act like this (O’Keefe), seriously need help from professionals. This is not how one exposes the truth. This is how one acts out irrational rage and hatred.
We should be grateful he at least uses a video camera to act out his revenge fantasies, rather than a firearm.
CT Voter
There’s a conservative activist named Santa???!@?
Then why are they always whining about who killed Christmas?
I’m confused.
RedKitten
What a pathetic loser he is. I hope this incident does to his career what he tried to do to Boudreau’s.
And good for Izzy Santa! Unfortunately, her ethics will probably make her persona non grata in the right-wing crowd.
SpotWeld
This is a cautionary tale of what happens when people believe thier own bullshit.
Michael Moore (like him or not) has made a carreer of using disrespect and humor to bring focus to any number of topics.
Because of his political stance he’s pretty much the enemy of a lot of conservitives. This means he gets ridculed an charactured hugely in conservative media circles.
O’Keefe is someone who has assumed those charactures to be reality and has modeled himself to be “The Right Wing Michael Moore” But he can’t because he really doesn’t know who Moore is and what he actually does. Just the eagerated Glenn Beck version of that reality.
And now we see the result. An ugly, in artful and abusive attempt to be “funny” and bring light to a pseudo-issue (“liberal” media are mean).
Is Moore a nice guy? No idea. Do I agree with him, sometimes. But he’s competent. Like him or not, he knows what he’s doing.
O’Keefe is a wannabe. And that’s the best that the conservatives can hope for.
lawnorder
@aimai:
According to the article I linked above, old rich conservative women are all over O’Keefe and his buddies.
If this is true, no wonder he feels so irresistible. Kid, those women would bed anything with a pulse, which excludes their rich conservative husbands!
Gromit
From the CNN story:
Isn’t this a crime?
Corner Stone
Can we go ahead and ask Congress to pass a bill defunding CNN now?
pragmatism
if bubble headed blondes are objectionable, is megyn kelly going to get the boot at fox?
jacy
From TPM:
You look at O’Keefe and think, “How can this plan possibly fail?”
r€nato
@SpotWeld: nice analysis… explains very well why conservative humor often fails spectacularly to be funny.
August J. Pollak
Why is this guy not in prison as we speak? And it’s not even about the prank part. By his own admission and CNN’s evidence he illegally recorded someone without their consent.
It’s illegal do do it in Maryland, and he’s already on parole for an illegal wiretapping violation.
Again, can this please be the element of the story that gets emphasized: why is a repeat criminal not being arrested for breaking the law and violating his parole?
J
Yes, everything everyone is saying is true, but this little swine–who is rightly being held up to contempt and ridicule–managed to destroy Acorn (with the cooperation of our truth-averse media and cowardly Democrats) and his master was able to have Shirley Sherrod (with help from the same quarters) fired. A society in which people like these call the shots is in a very bad way.
Blue Neponset
Jesse Taylor at Pandagon made a great point. If O’Keefe had pulled this off it probably would have worked like a charm.
He would have been the center of attention for 15 more minutes and we would all have been an audience for his narrative (whatever the hell it is).
Tom Hilton
It’s worth checking out Boudreau’s blog post about the thing (linked from CNN story), which puts O’Keefe’s stunt in a broader context of women’s struggles to be taken seriously in a male-dominated industry. O’Keefe’s misogyny is breathtaking.
Of course, in retrospect, that should have been obvious from the ACORN stunt. Creepy fantasies about child prostitutes, anyone?
John Bird
What the hell was the plan, anyway?
“That’s right, honey bunny! You thought you were here to find out if I should be taken seriously, but check out all these dildos I have laying around here for my CNN interview! PUNK’D!”
“Kid, you’ve just given me the takedown story of my life. Please stare directly into the can of mace as I exit the boat.”
O’Keefe has obviously been hard at work (in the meth lab? outside the liquor store?) on ideas to nail the media and the Democrats.
I suggest we all come up with our own O’KEEFE PLAN.
Here’s mine: kidnap a pro-choice politician’s kid and send a cut-and-paste letter saying she’s been murdered. Then reveal that she was alive all along, because conservatives don’t kill babies! ROCKED IN THE FACE.
Punchy
Just what was the whole big picture outcome supposed to be? Make it look like she was there to film prOn?
I’m not understanding what the plan was.
Bubblegum Tate
When asked for comment about his BFF O’Keefe, Andrew Breitbart screamed at a palm tree for being a lazy soshulist.
Catsy
@SpotWeld: This. Epic win comment is win.
@August J. Pollak: This, also too. This seems to be a clear violation of parole, and with the very same kind of misconduct that got him there. I have been through the meat grinder of the legal system and know just how fucked someone can get based on fabricated bullshit–so I am generally loathe to sic that on random douchebags for being douchebags. But this little shit is not going to learn until he spends some time being very bored in a very small room. And maybe not even then.
Guster
@Punchy: That’s my question. I don’t see why ‘CNN reporter sitting in same room with my condoms and dildos and naughty pictures’ is an indictment of the reporter.
I don’t get it.
r€nato
@Guster: Likely has something to do with heavily and selectively edited videos…
Matthew B.
Holy flaming Christ. You can read the outline of their grand master plan here. I like the bit where they try to anticipate exactly how the conversation is going to go:
AB: Is this a gag?
JO: Abbie, I’m not really into S&M, so I don’t have any toys like that…
AB: No, is this a joke, are you kidding?
JO: Oh, I’m sorry, I thought you were talking about S&M, what do you mean is this a gag?
AB: You can’t be serious, I’m married.
JO: Abbie, there’s never going to be a right time for you and I. There’s only right now. We have to make the most of the time we’re given, and we’re being given right now.
Ken Pidcock
No! Really?
Shalimar
@Punchy: The only thing I can think is that he and his friends think it would be really hilarious to put a professional reporter in a very uncomfortable sexual harassment situation. There also has to be some kind of media bimbos as prostitutes narrative going on there too. But the whole thing is incredibly uncomfortable and scummy, so I don’t really get what they think the end result would have been that could possibly have been funny.
r€nato
@Matthew B.: How the real conversation would have went:
JO: Abbie, there’s never going to be a right time for you and I. There’s only right now. We have to make the most of the time we’re given, and we’re being given right now.
AB: James, not even if you were the last man on Earth. Which you’re not. You’re a boy. A boy who, judging by your looks, wouldn’t have the slightest idea how to please a woman if you had spent your entire life studying the Kama Sutra. If you’re looking to get laid, you’ll have a lot better luck with a pedophile or a Catholic priest. And make sure to bring $50, because I’m certain they have a lot better to choose from than you.
r€nato
@Shalimar: again, I say:
selectively and heavily edited videotape. It doesn’t matter if it’s not even remotely close to what happened. All that counts is to get the message out there. Reporter ends up on the hot seat, management gets lots of angry emails from right-wingers, management loses their nerve and sidelines reporter or lets her go entirely.
Truth comes out months later, after the damage is done.
That’s what they did to ACORN. Legions of wingnuts insist ACORN somehow helped Obama win the election in 2008. I bet you can’t find even a single one that knows the videos which created the media sensation, were a fraud.
They will keep doing this so long as they think they can be rewarded for it.
freelancer
@Matthew B.:
TWO GUY’s make these movies! One guy films his own ass, the other guy has a wah-wah peddle and comes up with titles!
‘Hey, lets call this one Stewardesses in Heat.’
‘Good Title, Timmy! Film mah Butt!’
Wackachicka-Wackachicka-Wackachicka
‘Lets call this one Waitress Daisy Chain’
Wackachicka-Wackachicka-Wackachicka
Where are the Fucking Chicks?!
“Heh, you the guy that bought all the hairy-bobbin’ man-ass films?”
It didn’t say hairy-bobbin’ man-ass, it said “Pink Librarians”?! If it’d said hairy bobbin’ man-ass, I’d’ve never bought the motherfucker!
Goddamnit!
Is it me?
freelancer
@freelancer:
Here’s the whole bit, and it’s perfect for this.
hilzoy fangirl
Um, that doesn’t mean you’re not a creep. In fact it just makes you even creepier, you creep. Creepy creep creeper. Jeebus H. Creep.
I suspect that, in a better world, Mr. O’Keefe would be getting the excellent mental health counseling that he apparently desperately needs.
Xboxershorts
I don’t know how much folks on the left realize. he’s not hatching these stunts on his own. Nor is he financing them on his own. There is both seed money and seed ideas passed to him to discredit anything percieved as “left”. And boy, the communist news network is on their radar….
Remember this, O’Keefe is a minor bit player, a grunt, a foot soldier. These plots are coming from the command bunker and O’Keefe is just carrying out orders.
Guster
@r€nato: Oh! Of course. Sheesh. I guess that’s why I’m not a highly-paid rightwing activist.
I forgot the lying.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@August J. Pollak:
Because when
the Presidenta white conservative does it, it’s not illegal.This is just the democratization of Nixon’s dream – lawlessness for the little people, as it were. But only the right sort, mind you.
asiangrrlMN
@aimai: Right there with you. I saw a pic of him over at TBogg’s place, and yeah, no. Just disgusting. What he planned to do was twisted and disturbing, too. I am also curious on his admission of breaking his parole and how that’s going to play in Peoria.
retr2327
“I wish Boudreau had verbally castrated that little twerp.
But, she’s far too professional, apparently.”
I agree with the first part, but have my doubts about the second. As it happens, I caught the CNN segment where she recounted her experience, including when Santa (no, really, that’s her name!) tipped her off.
At which point, Abbie said, “luckily, I had my Flip video with me.” Does this mean she filmed the tip-off? No, it means she spoke into the Flip video, and filmed herself recounting it, while sitting behind the wheel of her car and, apparently, driving (!!) (or at least moving around for no good reason). Why this was an improvement over re-enacting it in front of somebody else’s camera was not explained.
Nellcote
Boudreau is doing a CNN Special about “young conservative activists”. Maybe OKeefe was planning to blackmail her.
lurkergirl
To paraphrase Triumph the Insult comic dog, “Has James O’Keefe ever talked to a woman without having to give a credit card number?”
Kidding aside, what a weaselly little creep.
birthmarker
@Nellcote: Embarrass her, discredit her. Release a sex tape of them together. Ruin her professionally and financially. It’s a shame this will never get more media play. Fox would go wall to wall if it were one of their reporters.
lurkergirl
actually, it will be interesting to see how the usual media suspects treat O’Keefe this time, since he was trying to smear a TV reporter. Community activist groups and obscure government employees are one thing, but another journalist? He may have crossed a line there.
Xboxershorts
@retr2327:
Hey, she narrowly avoided being raped. Professionally raped and near literal too.
She ran, and I don’t blame her at all.