ACORN filmmaker arrested

[leftysergeant]

That's why we call people names. It makes us feel better when they sit in jail for 28 hours.

Actually, that the pimp sat in jail for 28 hours as a result of the stupidity of the people he fought for made me feel better. Schadenfreude karma and all that.

 

[BeAChooser]

BAC, be careful of your sources. In this case they are wrong. The Bush administration chose to pursue civil charges instead of criminal charges against the club thug at the polling place. He was prosecuted under civil charges by the Obama administration.

Sorry to burst your right-wing talking points bubble.

No, you're the one whose bubble is about to be burst, Lurker. Because you don't have the facts straight. You must have gotten them from democrat party headquarters.

Now here is the real and complete story folks:

http://voices.kansascity.com/node/2670

Black Panther party members in full uniform are stationed at some 300 polling places in battleground states. Are they trying to intimidate voters who would be voting for John McCain?

http://thebulletin.us/articles/2009/05/29/top_stories/doc4a1f42b32c161287079901.txt

May 29, 2009
Sources told The Bulletin that there is internal dissension in the Department of Justice (DOJ) about a voter intimidation case from last year’s presidential election. Obama appointees did not want to proceed with the case, while the career prosecutors did. The incident occurred in Philadelphia and involved the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (NBPPSD).

The DOJ filed a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act against the NBPPSD and three of its members alleging the defendants intimidated Philadelphia voters during the Nov. 4, 2008 general election. The action was filed in January before President George W. Bush left office.

… snip …

None of the defendants responded to the lawsuit. Instead of immediately filing for a default judgment as is the normal procedure, sources told The Bulletin the DOJ asked for and received an order from the court providing an extension of time to file. Specifically, they asked the court to give them until May 15.

But on May 15, DOJ changed its mind again. Rather than a default judgment, the DOJ filed a notice of voluntary dismissal of the lawsuit for two of the defendants. This included Mr. Jackson, who identified himself to police as a member of the Democratic Committee in the 14th Ward. He also produced credentials to that effect.

DOJ only asked for a default judgment against one defendant, Samir Shabazz, which was granted on May 18. But sources say the proposed order for the default judgment asks for none of the usual conditions the Justice Department would want, such as keeping Mr. Shabazz away from any polling locations for a set number of years into the future.

Hans von Spakovsky is a former career Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. He thinks the inaction by the Justice Department is unprecedented. He told The Bulletin that the dismissal by Justice, with no notice on the Justice Department press site, particularly against an organization listed as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, is a horrible miscarriage of justice. He said DOJ has failed in its duty to enforce voting laws. He is outraged by the action.

“It is absolutely unprecedented for the Justice Department to dismiss a lawsuit after the defendants failed to answer the suit and are thus in default," he said.

Mr. von Spakovsky said that the NBPPSD's lack of response was the legal equivalent of an admission of all the allegations made about the defendants’ organized effort to threaten and intimidate voters.

"And dismissing an individual who was a local Democratic party official who defaulted by not answering the complaint smacks of the worst sort of political partisanship," he said. "It is completely contrary to all of the promises that Eric Holder made when he was confirmed to be Attorney General.”

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/elections/2009/05/29/charges-black-panthers-dropped-obama/

May 29, 2009

... snip ...

A spokesman for the Department of Justice told FOX News, "The Justice Department was successful in obtaining an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon outside a Philadelphia polling place from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law. The department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote."

Let's see how careful that so-called "assessment of the facts and the law" really was, folks:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203550604574361071968458430.html

August 20, 2009

President Obama's Justice Department continues to stonewall inquiries about why it dropped a voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party.

The episode—which Bartle Bull, a former civil rights lawyer and publisher of the left-wing Village Voice, calls "the most blatant form of voter intimidation I've ever seen" … snip …

In the first week of January, the Justice Department filed a civil lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and three of its members, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring voters with the weapon, uniforms and racial slurs. In March, Mr. Bull submitted an affidavit at Justice's request to support its lawsuit.

When none of the defendants filed any response to the complaint or appeared in federal district court in Philadelphia to answer the suit, it appeared almost certain Justice would have prevailed by default. Instead, the department in May suddenly allowed the party and two of the three defendants to walk away. Against the third defendant, Minister King Samir Shabazz, it sought only an injunction barring him from displaying a weapon within 100 feet of a Philadelphia polling place for the next three years—action that's already illegal under existing law.

... snip ...

Then the Washington Times reported on July 30 that six career lawyers at Justice who had recommended continuing to pursue the case were overruled by Associate Attorney General Thomas Perrelli — a top administration political appointee. One of the career attorneys, Appellate Chief Diana Flynn, had urged in an internal memo that a judgment be pressed against the defendants to "prevent the paramilitary style intimidation of voters" in the future.

… snip …

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted on Aug. 7 to send a letter to Justice expanding its own investigation and demanding more complete answers. "We believe the Department's defense of its actions thus far undermines respect for rule of law," its letter stated. It noted "the peculiar logic" of one Justice argument, that defendants' failure to show up in court was a reason for dismissing the case: "Such an argument sends a perverse message to wrongdoers—that attempts at voter suppression will be tolerated so long as the persons who engage in them are careful not to appear in court to answer the government's complaint."

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/jan/15/special-protection-for-black-panthers/

January 15, 2010

… snip …

The smoking gun is the department's refusal to fully sanction members of the New Black Panther Party who were charged with voter intimidation for brandishing a nightstick and using threatening racial language at a polling place during the 2008 presidential election. In this case, Mr. Holder appeared to be undermining equal justice under the law by refusing to protect the civil rights of white voters. Now comes one of the key attorneys in that case to confirm that analysis.

The attorney in question, Christopher Coates, was transferred suddenly to South Carolina after the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights tried to subpoena his testimony with regard to the Black Panther case, which Mr. Coates helped oversee. Mr. Coates is known to have objected to the Obama-Holder team's decision to drop three of the four charges and play softball on the fourth.

Mr. Coates ought to have great credibility because nobody can accuse him of being a conservative ideologue. A former American Civil Liberties Union attorney who has won major awards from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Georgia Environmental Organization and the Justice Department itself, Mr. Coates has made a career of advocating for the rights of black Americans. Yet when he tried to do the same for white voters (and some black ones, too) intimidated by the weapon-wielding Black Panthers, he was hounded, ordered to ignore a subpoena and ultimately exiled.

As reported by the Heritage Foundation's Hans A. von Spakovsky, writing at National Review Online, here's a close paraphrase of what Mr. Coates said to his colleagues at his going-away party:

"A plain reading of the statutory language of the Voting Rights Act indicates that it is aimed at protecting all American voters from racial discrimination and voter intimidation and is not limited to protecting only racial-minority or language-minority voters. ... [Indeed,] the race-neutral enforcement of the Voting Rights Act is imperative to the holding of racially fair elections. ... For the Department of Justice to enforce the Voting Rights Act only to protect members of certain minority groups breaches the fundamental guarantee of equal protection, and could substantially erode public support for the Voting Rights Act itself. ..."

Yet, Mr. Coates noted elsewhere in his remarks, there are those - obviously at the Justice Department itself - who have argued that the department should take into account "disparities between the socioeconomic levels of black and white residents" and "who want to continue to enforce the Voting Rights Act in a racially biased fashion and to turn a blind eye whenever incidents arise that indicate that minority persons have acted improperly in voting matters."

Like I said, Lurker, you don't know what you are talking about … either that or you are just repeating the democrat talking points you were handed. The fact is these Obama supporting black panther thugs were not treated nearly as harshly by the Obama administration or the media as O'Keefe (who caught ACORN, another Obama friendly organization, advocating/supporting VERY serious violations of the law). There is a clear bias and payback in the Obama DOJ that stinks to high heaven. More of that promised *hope* and *change* and *transparency* that folks like you promised, I guess?

 

[Dancing David]

What you fail to grasp is that this is no indication of criminal intent. The burden is on you to show that his next superior is more readily available than was Vera's contact on the police force.

Except he did not contact the police and make report.

You are still on that old lie?

Where is the police report?

Oh you mean he says he called someone and never made a police report?

 

[leftysergeant]

This is a total derail. Maybe you two would like to start another thread on this elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the crimes committed by the pimp gang.(and when you do start another thread, it might be a good idea to cite examples of someone who was assaulted or threatened by the Black Panthers.)

 

[leftysergeant]

Except he did not contact the police and make report.

You are still on that old lie?

Where is the police report?

You mean the police report that contains only a vague suggestion that someone might at a time unkown, try to smuggle some teenaged girls, names unknown, across the border? Like such a report has to exist.

Any data woul;d probably only exist as part of someone's field notes. It isn't as though standard procedure is to go out right away and haul the suspects in and question them about this sort of operation.

Do we have any police detectives following this thread? Do you fill out police reports on confidential informants? Would such reports be available to the general public?

(I would be shocked to learn that the reports are ever written down and entered into trhe record prior to asking a judge for a search warrant.)

 

[leftysergeant]

Do I have time to go start a pot of ful medame while I am waiting for you all to show me the kind of paperwork they prepare when they get a tip from a confidential informant?

 

[Walter Ego]

This is a total derail. Maybe you two would like to start another thread on this elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the crimes committed by the pimp gang.(and when you do start another thread, it might be a good idea to cite examples of someone who was assaulted or threatened by the Black Panthers.)

Agreed. This thread is about O'Keefe's recent arrest not black people who frighten conservatives. ACORN is relevant only in how O'Keefe's mendacious ACORN "exposé " relates to his and his right-wing paymaster's and mentor's equally mendacious defenses about what he was up to in Landrieu's office.

 

[Walter Ego]

All the evidence so far is consistent with his explanation. He announced a new expose he would be doing. Turned out he was trying to catch Landrieu in a lie about her phones being jammed. If there were LEDs on the phone panel which indicate activity, he could film that without touching or tampering in any way. Obviously everything was seized the minute he was arrested so he could not have edited the video. His own video will help his case and it looks doubtful that this will go far in the courts.

"Jammed" means there were more calls coming in than could be answered. How would video of blinking lights video tapped after the fact indicated anyone was lying? O'Keefe and his cohorts posted as telephone technicians so they were at least guilty of entering a federal office under false pretenses.

 

[Newtons Bit]

"Jammed" means there were more calls coming in than could be answered. How would video of blinking lights video tapped after the fact indicated anyone was lying?

The affidavit states that one of the first things the defendants tried to do was to dial the receptionists desk from their cellphones. The defendants stated that they couldn't get through.

There was something wrong with the phones, assuming that the defendants didn't fake not being able to get through. The blinking lights, as you call them, usually mean something. Recording what they are could be useful if the Senator intentionally sabotaged her own phones.

O'Keefe and his cohorts posted as telephone technicians so they were at least guilty of entering a federal office under false pretenses.

Actually, O'Keefe himself didn't enter under false pretenses, and there's no crime for conspiracy to enter under false pretenses that I'm aware of. There is a law for conspiracy to enter under false pretenses with the intent to commit a felony however.

This is typically a "throw the book at them" law. Protesters who interrupt politicians from either party while they are giving speeches (in federal buildings) are not typically charged with entering under false pretenses.

 

[Walter Ego]

The affidavit states that one of the first things the defendants tried to do was to dial the receptionists desk from their cellphones. The defendants stated that they couldn't get through.

Assuming the defendants didn't dial the wrong number and lie about it.

There was something wrong with the phones, assuming that the defendants didn't fake not being able to get through. The blinking lights, as you call them, usually mean something. Recording what they are could be useful if the Senator intentionally sabotaged her own phones.

Blinking lights on my phone at work mean a call is coming in or someone is on hold. I have no idea what blinking lights (or diodes if you prefer) in the telephone closet would mean and I doubt if these screw-ups would know either.

So Landrieu's office got a lot of calls about heath care legislation and some people couldn't get through and this "proves"... she intentionally sabotaged her own phones? That's a stretch.

O'Keefe should stick to dressing up like a white boy's idea of what a pimp looks like.

 

[Newtons Bit]

Assuming the defendants didn't dial the wrong number and lie about it.



Blinking lights on my phone at work mean a call is coming in or someone is on hold. I have no idea what blinking lights (or diodes if you prefer) in the telephone closet would mean and I doubt if these screw-ups would know either.

So Landrieu's office got a lot of calls about heath care legislation and some people couldn't get through and this "proves"... she intentionally sabotaged her own phones? That's a stretch.

O'Keefe should stick to dressing up like a white boy's idea of what a pimp looks like.

You have selective reading problems, don't you?

 

[Walter Ego]

You have selective reading problems, don't you?

Nice Nixonian non-reply reply.

The affidavit states that one of the first things the defendants tried to do was to dial the receptionists desk from their cellphones. The defendants stated that they couldn't get through.

Which means what exactly (assuming they are not lying of course)? That the call was answered but went to a recording or the call couldn't be completed?

O'keefe's stated reason for entering Landrieu’s office.

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars (sic) in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken. In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office – to ask the staff if their phones were working.

This proves O'keefe is either a liar or an idiot. "Jammed" means there are more calls coming in than can be answered. Broken means the phone are not working.

Lets' assume he's merely an idiot and doesn't know the difference between "jammed" and "broken." How does going to Landrieu's office after the fact and videotaping some blinking diodes prove anything?

 

[Dancing David]

This is a total derail. Maybe you two would like to start another thread on this elsewhere. It has nothing to do with the crimes committed by the pimp gang.(and when you do start another thread, it might be a good idea to cite examples of someone who was assaulted or threatened by the Black Panthers.)

Uh dude , you brought it up and I responded. No excuse for your ouright misrepresentations, now is it?

 

[Lurker]

Lets' assume he's merely an idiot and doesn't know the difference between "jammed" and "broken." How does going to Landrieu's office after the fact and videotaping some blinking diodes prove anything?

Do you really think it is about proving anything? I would posit that O'Keefe knows the audience that laps up his palaver is not concerned about proof and is more concerned about what the image portrays. If O'Keefe makes a film with a voiceover of him intoning about Landrieu's office being unconcerned about her phone calls from constituents and the video shows one of her office phones with a panel of red lights blinking I bet that serves O'Keefe's purposes well.

I bet the right would be in an uproar about Landrieu's disinterest in her constituents and you can bet an opposing candidate would be speaking about it everywhere. O'Keefe again collects his conservative accolades and complaints about lack of proof or imaginative editing are drowned out.

 

[Neally]

How does going to Landrieu's office after the fact and videotaping some blinking diodes prove anything?

Like this: The phone panel is video taped showing some activity, proving it is working but not overloaded. A call is placed from a cell phone. It rings but is simply ignored by staff. Landrieu's claim that the phones are "jammed" is shown to be a lie.

 

[theprestige]

O'Keefe and his associates have not actually made any claims or presented any evidence about Landrieu's phone lines. Walter Ego trying to debunk claims that don'texist. Isn't that more of a topic for the Conspiracy Theories subforum?

 

[Newtons Bit]

O'Keefe and his associates have not actually made any claims or presented any evidence about Landrieu's phone lines. Walter Ego trying to debunk claims that don'texist. Isn't that more of a topic for the Conspiracy Theories subforum?

That's the thing. No one knows exactly what they were up to. They were not trying to bug her phones, however. I also find it hard to believe that these men, who consider themselves conservatives/patriots, whatever, would shut off the phone lines to the whole building.

 

[leftysergeant]

That's the thing. No one knows exactly what they were up to. They were not trying to bug her phones, however.

The charging papers mention that Dai had a listening device useful in a bugging operation. They were equipped to commit a felony.

I also find it hard to believe that these men, who consider themselves conservatives/patriots, whatever, would shut off the phone lines to the whole building.

Regardless what they consider themselves, they are immoral thugs and professional pains in the butt.

 

[Sporanox]

Do you really think it is about proving anything? I would posit that O'Keefe knows the audience that laps up his palaver is not concerned about proof and is more concerned about what the image portrays. If O'Keefe makes a film with a voiceover of him intoning about Landrieu's office being unconcerned about her phone calls from constituents and the video shows one of her office phones with a panel of red lights blinking I bet that serves O'Keefe's purposes well.

I bet the right would be in an uproar about Landrieu's disinterest in her constituents and you can bet an opposing candidate would be speaking about it everywhere. O'Keefe again collects his conservative accolades and complaints about lack of proof or imaginative editing are drowned out.

Do you really contest that a ton of ACORN officials were jumping at the chance to enable an underage brothel?

 

[leftysergeant]

Do you really contest that a ton of ACORN officials were jumping at the chance to enable an underage brothel?

Do you contest the possibility that the workers may have been trying to punk the pimp and get his ho into rehab?

One of them did it right in front of the stupid sack of slop. The rest tried to set up meetings with the ho in private.

You really should try to learn how these things work before you show your lack of expertise to the world.

And I am still waiting for you people who doubt Vera's word what sort of paper work the police generate in response to anonymous tips.