… aka ‘sewers’. Charlie Pierce reports that “one of creepy-peepy James O’Keefe’s operatives is spilling the beans to Howard Kurtz that Andrew Breitbart’s personal Bill Sykes is a fraud and a bit more creepy than even I’d imagined, and I can imagine the desperate flop-sweaty little homunculus being pretty damned creepy indeed.”
In the words of journalistic herpetologist Kurtz (warning, Daily Beast link):
… James O’Keefe, the man behind the undercover project, wanted to make the hidden-camera video public immediately last February as Congress debated whether to kill NPR’s funding. Templar insisted on waiting, and a confrontation ensued.
__
In a series of interviews with The Daily Beast, Templar says he had designed the effort to be “a very thoroughly researched and impeccably executed project that was by no means limited to NPR. James wanted it to be a hit job.”
__
What’s more, says Templar, O’Keefe “didn’t seem to care about the reasons why we were doing this. All he cared about was that he had people saying embarrassing stuff on video. I came to learn how desperate he was in terms of money and needing to rehabilitate his reputation.”
__
Shaughn Adeleye, who worked with Templar in posing as another member of the phony Muslim group, also disagreed with O’Keefe’s tactics. “We were both sold a false bill of goods,” says Adeleye, who devised the NPR scheme and persuaded O’Keefe to adopt it…
__
“I felt deceived and misled because James did not live up to what we all agreed upon would be a multifaceted project,” says Adeleye, who was born in Nigeria. “After a while I could not deny the truth anymore.”
Well, sir, as the old parable tells us: You knew what O’Keefe was when you agreed to collaborate. But — to riff off Pierce — Simon Templar?
I propose the next young wannabe-wingnut-welfare imago go back to his ideology’s Victorian roots and christen himself after Arthur Raffles, the Amateur Cracksman. Or perhaps Raffles’ mouthpiece/assistant, Harry Manders, who had just the right humectant tone for Breitbart-supported “journalism”: Reader, I was tempted — and I fell!
kc
O’Keefe the dildo boat captain cannot possibly be any creepier than I already imagine him to be.
Poopyman
When I read the Pierce piece I did a White pages lookup. No Simon Templars in DC or VA, but one did show up in Baltimore. No address attached (of course), so I’m unable to ascertain his countertop material.
Yeah, “Simon Templar” doesn’t exactly give off a distinctive vibe, unless he was shooting for “The Saint”. And really, is that all ya got?
(Rhetorical Q)
kc
Someone who is more clever than me (i.e., anyone) should write a song for O’Keefe. To the tune of, “Ride, Captain, Ride, upon your dildo ship . . .”
catclub
It is difficult to imagine an article that is a more perfect ‘dog bites man’ story than this.
Although, “Lie down with dogs, get up with fleas is also relevant”.
The Ancient Randonneur
Maybe Roger Moore or Val Kilmer are trying to punk ol’ Howie? Difficult to say for sure, but no one could have predicted that O’Keefe is a right wing grifter. He’s still no match for Palin.
c u n d gulag
Why not combine the best of the 19th and 20th Centuries:
‘Your name?’
“Holmes, Sherlock Holmes.”
jafg
First Anne Laurie treated us to that ridiculous “The black helicopters came to tear down OWS” horseshit hit piece.
Now she (he? it?) treats us to this pathetic ‘dog bites man’ story.
This Anne Laurie person is a pretty pathetic blogger even by Wrong Again Coles bottom of the barrel standards.
HyperIon
i think that’s redundant, Charlie.
but funny anyway.
NeenerNeener
“Oh, bother”, said Pooh, and quietly added the name “jafg” to his pie filter.
arguingwithsignposts
@jafg: WTF is your deal? jealous?
jafg
Anne Laurie with another hard hitting ‘dog bites man’ journalistic masterpiece.
Is this Anne Laurie just another terrible Cole typing monkey or the worst ever?
andrewsomething
That’s rich. The guy I pitched about running a deceptive sting on NPR deceived me?
Brachiator
OT. Tech boys and girls are squealing over the announcement of google music.
fasteddie9318
This being an open thread, does anyone here know anything about DSL? I’m getting DSL noise on my phone line, rendering the phone line useless and noticeably slowing down the DSL. I replaced our filters to no effect, then went online with customer service and was told I should replace our filters, after I said I’d already done that. I’m going to try a different brand of filter, but is there anything else I could be doing? I’m about ready to switch back to cable, although we went to DSL in the first place because we kept having cable outages all the time.
lamh35
Ah to be young, stupid, entitled and Republican…4 strikes in my book:
Texas College GOP Leader: Obama Assassination ‘Tempting’
Ugh!
jafg
@NeenerNeener: Oh noes……
I’m just so devastated. Please, go out of your way to say you added me to your pie filter once again. That will really show me.
arguingwithsignposts
@jafg: derp derp
cathyx
@fasteddie9318: Check your dsl box and see which port your internet line is plugged into. It should not be plugged into the phone line.
dmsilev
Maybe our intrepid hero envisioned himself as an actual Knight Templar? Presumably not one of the ones killed in the purge, of course.
The Populist
@jafg: …and your a boring troll who is more wrong than the same nonsense you post over and over and…
The Moar You Know
James O’Keefe untrustworthy.
Wow. Who could have guessed?
Is there anything newsworthy going on?
The Populist
@jafg: Wow, attempts at humor. FAIL.
dmsilev
@fasteddie9318: What cathyx said. If it is wired correctly, try stacking two filters on your phone line. That is,
wall jack -> filter input -> “Phone” output -> filter 2 input -> “Phone” output -> phone
The Populist
@arguingwithsignposts: Nah, he’s clueless and bored. I guess he must really need the money seeing how little the right pays idiots like him to post nonsense nowadays.
scav
@andrewsomething: And grace points for scamming a Nigerian. Is there no honor among scammers? ! It’s all gone incredibly meta.
ETA: No ruemara, you’re not alone.
ruemara
@lamh35: She comes across as quite vacuous too. Lord.
And is it just me, but is anyone finding a Nigerian conservative is upset that a con artist is a con artist the very definition of ironic?
eemom
Hey, fredderfpjafg. As we lawyers say, let’s stipulate that you have a continuing comment that everything posted here sucks. That way you won’t have to keep coming back and straining your itty bitty brain coming up with new letter strings to rename yourself every time you get banned.
Frankensteinbeck
This is actually kind of important from the organized crime (you know, Republican) perspective. You’re supposed to have very clear ideas of who your friends are and who your enemies are, and who it’s RIGHT to shaft in any way you can think of and who should be treated with dignity.
cathyx
At least reality check doesn’t insult our hosts.
David in NY
@fasteddie9318: Try stuff. Two filters on the line. I think I hooked them up coming and going or something. Might work.
ETA: This. @dmsilev:
David in NY
@cathyx: Oh please. He just insults our intelligence.
cathyx
@David in NY: Yes,of course does, but he doesn’t call our hosts names.
Jay in Oregon
Anne, you get points for this:
David in NY
@cathyx: You set a low bar (but these are trolls, I suppose).
fasteddie9318
@cathyx: The DSL runs to a splitter/filter and on into the wall. The box itself is wired correctly. Other than swapping filters, which I did after the problem appeared, nothing about the DSL setup has changed from what has been working fine for probably three or four years now, save the last month or so.
@dmsilev: Thanks, will try.
Joel
These guys are revolting. They’re also revolting against James O’Keefe.
Villago Delenda Est
What the fuck is next?
Luke Skywalker? Bilbo Baggins? Arthas Menethil?
Warmongerer
@fasteddie9318:
Might also be shitty copper wiring in the house. In one living situation, my roommates and I connected the DSL modem directly to the phone box in the garage and ran 100 feet of CAT-5 to the other side of the house where the router was.
cathyx
@fasteddie9318: My dsl box started to fail and I had to replace it. My internet service started getting really slow although I didn’t notice any problem with my home phone.
gbear
Wonkette had a pretty good video of O’Keefe being laughed out of someone’s office while trying to do one of his ‘hard hitting’ investigations. He couldn’t have come off any lamer.
Even lamer than a BJ troll.
Jebediah
@jafg:
Hey fucko, did you know that other blogs exist? Maybe one will meet your standards. Please spend a lot of time checking out every other blog.
We all get it – Cole wouldn’t go to the prom with you, and you won’t ever get over it, and you’ll show him!
At least the other trolls sometimes add some content to their bile. You’re just ill.
JPL
Why NPR? NPR does a fine job of losing listeners all by themselves.
JGabriel
@kc:
I used to think that, until Jerry Sandusky came along. I’ve never imagined O’Keefe as a child rapist, so that’s at least one way he could be creepier than I’ve imagined him to be.
Presumably there are other, even creepier ways it’s possible to be that I don’t even want to know about.
.
fasteddie9318
@cathyx: Thanks. I think if double filters fail I’m going to at least call the cable company and see what kind of deal they’re willing to offer. But replacing the DSL box may be a next step.
gbear
@fasteddie9318: How old is the phone line coming into your house? I called Qwest when my dsl and phone connection were failing on a regular basis. The tech who was sent to check out the problem wound up replacing the old wire from the utility pole to my house. It’s been working well ever since and the repair didn’t cost me a dime.
Jebediah
@arguingwithsignposts:
Not that it matters much, but I noticed that last night lokoloko actually did not let you or Chris get the last word. She came back about two hours after your last comments and tooted some silly blather. Predictable, I suppose, but I still had to point and laugh.
cathyx
@fasteddie9318: I called my company too when I was having problems and they told me that those boxes only last a couple of years. But some people I know said theirs have lasted longer than that.
ETA after I replaced the box, everything worked fine.
jeffreyw
firing test
yay! silk browser works
harlana
wow, the republican candidate Mega-Gaffes are just rolling out every day. if i knew Mitt wasn’t smiling, i’d be delighted.
Catsy
@jafg: I’m pretty sure at this point that I could filter out any comment containing the text “Wrong Again [Name]” and not miss anything of value.
Villago Delenda Est
@Jebediah:
She has this really rather pathetic tendency to come back onto the field long after the other team and the crowd have gone home, then kick the ball into the empty net, and declare victory.
scav
@Jebediah: Oh yeah, you can generally see a class of bottom feeders showing up at the end of dead threads posting stuff as though having the highest comment number was equivalent to having the last word and winning the discussion. She also seems to lurk at the bottom of old threads exclusively when something blows up in her face spectacularly in a thread with active commenting.
jeffreyw
w4dinner
Disgruntled Lurker
Did Pierce mean Bill Sikes, the Dickens character?
I’d go over there and ask myself, but apparently you can only comment via your Facebook account and I’d prefer not to put a face to my stupid ramblings.
Jebediah
@Villago Delenda Est:
That is kind of sad. Every once in a while I spend a few seconds trying to figure her out – mostly what she gets out of posting here. It doesn't seem she is interested in actual, clear communication, otherwise why all the lol/leet speak and neologisms and acronyms? Doesn't seem like typical trolling, either, although I could certainly be wrong about that. Maybe it's just an ego boost – "I tried to enlighten all those benighted JAFI's but they just can't keep up with my intellect."
But then I see a pigeon or a cloud or something and I realize looking at it would be a better use of my time.
Jebediah
@scav:
Wait, are you saying highest comment number doesn’t win? I’ve been going about this thing all wrong!
I think I saw what you are referring to in action in the thread where she didn’t want to be pinned down on whether or not execution for being the wrong religion is just. I was a little startled at how quickly she started a bunch of flailing attempts at mis-direction, etc.
arguingwithsignposts
@Jebediah: WAI Assange field theory JAFI WEC etc. yeah, i tend to ignore her at that point.
jafg
@Catsy: Don’t talk about it. Like the commercial says…just do it.
Shout out to all my furry little groupies. You are all too kind and continue to inspire me to post even more.
gbear
@jafg: quit masturbat!ng.
El Cid
@fasteddie9318: Double filters won’t likely help. Most often the most obvious problem is the problem — bad terminations (cord ends), worn cords, and DSL modems just go bad after a while. Like DVD players. And routers. Not all of them. Few enough for people to think it’s unlikely. But it happens.
Also, the distribution block in which one phone line enters the home and then is patched to different connections throughout the home from the homerun — those blocks fail too. (“Fail” including some little break in a wire or connection which is more than enough to be worth replacing.)
Actually, so do the actual phone wall jacks, often with modular popout connections you could swap for $2 or $3 from Radio Shack.
And as much as phone companies hate to be driven to agree to it, the actual line entering the home goes bad as well. I’d try to test plugging the DSL modem in different jacks.
ET
That boy was just stupid think O’Keefe is a serious journalist.
Ruckus
@fasteddie9318:
I sometimes have problems with my DSL and the cure so far has been to turn it off and unplug. Reverse the process and my line and speed return. Of course the one time that I just remembered about the modem was bad and had to be replaced by the vendor. That was fun. Fortunately the vendor was the one who tested the line and told me the modem was bad but it was still a pain.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jebediah:
Honestly, I have raised a child like this, and very slowly trained out the behavior. This is the ’19 year old libertarian’ schtick. It centers around finding The Secret that everyone else is too stupid to see is right in front of their faces. The only way to do this is to hugely oversimplify the world. Making up her own buzzwords also helps her feel smarter than us.
The cure was to patiently explain over and over that everyone already knew what he’d discovered, and to explain some of the many reasons why it wasn’t that simple. You can’t straight out argue, or they think they’ve outfoxed you. You have to show them that they’re on the ground floor of wisdom by explaining the next few layers.
Jebediah
@Frankensteinbeck:
I wonder if anyone is doing that with her. It sounds like a lot of effort over a long time (I have no kids, so no personal experience.) If she goes through real life as she does here, I expect she wouldn’t have too many rewarding personal relationships. And despite my occasional point-and-laugh, I’d prefer that people be sane, well-adjusted, and happy.
Frankensteinbeck
@Jebediah:
It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort and it is tremendously frustrating, yes. I believe the harsher version without someone specifically to help you involves repetition of being laughed at for your idiot schemes and having them fail repeatedly. The combination of the two cuts off both avenues they have for feeling superior, which is the very blatant motivation of the behavior.
4jkb4ia
I have witnessed Pitt losing to Long Beach State by about 10 points via the crawl on ESPN.
Chris
@Jebediah:
I noticed that too, just didn’t comment. As usual, she threw in a sentence or two in a foreign language (French) to rub in her cultured cosmopolitan awesomeness, and as usual, she fucked up the grammar in a way even a first year student would be ashamed of. That was LOL enough for me.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
Oh, Anne Laurie, so close, yet so far…The correct answer is, of course, Sir Harry Paget Flashman.
Thanks for playing. Enjoy your Rice-A-Roni.
Anne Laurie
@Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again): Bite your tongue, craven! Flashman may have been a coward, a deserter, and during his schooldays a bully (I may be the last living person to have read ‘Tom Brown’s School Days’ outside of a literature class — I was nine & had just finished ‘Stalky & Co’), but he was not stupid, mean, hagridden by half-understood socioreligious scruples, or guilty of lying to himself. Also, for the squirmy homoerotic Breitbart aroma, “Bunny” Manders is a much better fit.
Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)
@Anne Laurie:
Okay, okay, point taken. I think we disagree over O’Keefe’s motivations- I think he’s in it for nothing but the notoriety and, down the road, the money. The “scruples”, half-understood or not, are just part of the con.
BTW, I read Tom Brown a couple of years ago, just for the hell of it. It was much easier (and enjoyable) than trying to get through Ulysses- which I don’t mind if it’s being read to me, but if I’m trying to read it to myself, something happens to my eyes. They close. Then I sleep.
fasteddie9318
Dead thread, I know, but thanks to everybody who offered suggestions. I wound up calling the cable company just to see what kind of deal they’d give me to move my internet and phone over to them (already have cable TV), and what they offered will save me a little over $50 a month so I just decided to do it. I hate Comcast, but no more than I hate AT&T so it’s a wash. I’m a little concerned because we had cable internet and then dumped it because our neighborhood kept suffering outages, but I get 30 days to test it out at no charge so I can see if they’ve fixed the problem (anecdotally I haven’t heard any neighbors complaining about their internet going down for a while now, so maybe they fixed the problem).