This interesting headline comes to us by way of Andrew Breitbart who started BigGovernment.com today. The lead story on the site is by an enterprising young film student named James O’Keefe, whom he describes as “Morley Safer meets Sacha Baron Cohen.” Mr. O’Keefe partnered with an actress and went to visit an ACORN housing assistance office in Baltimore, MD. Mr. O’Keefe plays the roll of a pimp, and the actress accompanying him plays the roll of one of his underage prostitutes. They ask for assistance getting a home loan, and for information about how to classify themselves on tax forms so they can maximize the money they are making. Mr. O’Keefe makes it clear that he is running a house of prostitution, specializing in Salvadoran teens in the age ranges of 13-15. The ACORN people never bat an eye about his “business” and helpfully suggest that he classify himself as a “performing arts” business, suggesting that they should be able to write off somewhere between $7,000 and $9,000 a year.
Mr. O’Keefe’s article includes links to the full audio and a typed transcript of the exchange. You really need to watch the video to get the full impact, and as today is their first day, it seems appropriate to drive traffic to their site rather than simply link to the YouTube clips.
It isn’t often I fail to come up with words that properly convey my level of disgust and contempt for our alleged custodians of the public good, but this is one of them. Fox News is all over this one this morning. I expect Glen Beck will be all over it tonight, as his teaser last night suggested he had already seen previews of the tape.
Update 9/10/2009 6:35 PM
Glen Beck had O’Keefe’s associate on his program tonight
Her name is Hannah and she is a 20 year old journalism student. According to her statements during the program, it was her idea for the script. She called O’Keefe and they worked for 6 weeks planning how they were going to do it. When Glen Beck asked her who funded her (one his current schticks mocking astroturfing charges) she said “I drained my saving account to do the project.” She clarified that her account only covered her costs and O’Keefe covered his costs from his own funding.
Also, they had Judge Andrew Napolitano on. Beck had copies of the tape on Saturday and asked the judge to review it in preparation for tonight’s broadcast. Judge Napolitano rattled off 8 or 9 charges that he thought could be prosecuted, noting that since ACORN gets federal funding, they could be tried in Federal Courts. He also said each of the charges carried a penalty of up to 5 years in prison.
Update 9/11/2009 Wrote a better diary today with lots of updated information.
Moe Lane
Steve Maley
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
After reading the transcript of it
Richard Mullins (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 10:59AM EST (link)it’s sure to be big. After a while, it might bring down ACORN.
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Joe Biden is like a Decrepit Park owner with a Meth lab that happens to not only be a dealer but a user.
Let’s Bankrupt the Democratic paty. Make spend all the money to defend thier candidates.
Those ACORN women need to be in jail.... (nt)
larueladue (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 1:42PM EST (link)Glen said he doesn't really care
The_Gadfly (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 6:41PM EST (link)about those women because they are small fry. The people he’s more concerned about are the people above them who are pulling the strings, including the head of the SEIU.
Sadly, both of you are correct.
I will call my Senators and Congresspeople to ask them...
JadedByPolitics (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 8:35PM EST (link)what they intend to do about this CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE…..There should be hearings in that ACORN is eligible for tax dollars…8 billion to be exact in the “stimulus” bill!
Unified Patriots – How-To:
Activists Taking Action
ACORN FIRED the two on the video BUT
Common_Cents (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 8:39PM EST (link)ACORN said they were being smeared!
Why fire two employees if they were being set up and smeared?
There is NO logic from the lame brainwashed left.
Obama=Golfer in Chief, Leading from,
behind, the Back Nine.Leaders don’t create movements. Movements create leaders. Get involved. Your future depends on it.
Govt “invests” YOUR tax money for POLITICAL return rather than economic return.
When is there a coherent statement
azred (Diary) Thursday, September 10th at 9:01PM EST (link)from a liberal organization or person? Of course it makes no sense. They knee jerk the firing because it’s blatantly real, and then attempt to discredit the event to minimize the damage.
If ever there was a REAL investigation into the bowels (correct term) of this organism I’m sure it would reveal much more corruption, criminal behavior and in general approved liberal activities that would cause immediate prison overcrowding. And the left would cry racist for it all.
PATRICIA COATS JESSAMY, State’s Attorney (Democrat) going after O'Keefe
izoneguy (Diary) Saturday, September 12th at 12:41AM EST (link)This is who you are dealing with:
Baltimore City State’s Attorney Patricia Jessamy can be reached at mail@stattorney.org or (410) 396-4001.
http://www.msa.md.gov/msa/mdmanual/36loc/bcity/html/msa14094.html
PATRICIA COATS JESSAMY, State’s Attorney (Democrat)
The Cost of Failed Teamwork
http://www.steinershow.org/featured-topics/criminal-justice/cost-failed-teamwork
The public should not expect to get the truth out of this. The media needs to be careful about what it publishes.
But one fact it never published about the Jones case was how the State’s Attorney’s Office sabotaged any chance of success. On December 27, 2005, a prostitute alleged that Jones had raped her at the Southwestern police station after he had arrested her that day. When police investigators shared this allegation with the State’s Attorneys Office, prosecutors—not the police—secured an indictment from the Grand Jury on January 5, 2006, merely nine days after the allegation was made. That practically amounted to prosecutorial malpractice.
It’s notoriously difficult to convince juries of rape no matter who the victim and the defendant may be. For prosecutors to prove that a cop raped a prostitute? Only a careful investigation piecing together enough evidence to significantly support the victim’s story would give them a fighting chance.
When the story broke, police told Sun reporters that they had not yet investigated the case. Warren Brown, retained by Jones, claimed that the State’s Attorney’s Office was trying to embarrass the police department.
Right on both counts. The State’s Attorney’s Office, who could and should have assisted police investigators in putting together a solid case, instead halted any meaningful investigation by charging the case and then leaking what police documents they had to the media. When Jones’s trial attorney ridiculed the police investigation, prosecutor JoAnne Stanton could only respond with an irony lost on the jury, “Would I have liked a better investigated case? Absolutely.”
She absolutely had the chance to make that happen. She didn’t. Jones was acquitted, the criminal cases against two other officers dropped, and they all looked like victims.
So was it Stanton’s fault? I don’t think so. The fiasco had the fingerprints of Margaret T. Burns, spokesperson for State’s Attorney Patricia C. Jessamy, all over it. The interference with operational matters, the premature rush to charge a case that would embarrass the police department, the immediate and unethical leaking of documents– that was the Burns M.O. The harmful effects are still being felt by all of those involved.
If all of this was in the past, I wouldn’t bother to bring it up. But Burns and Jessamy are still at the helm of the prosecutor’s office. And they are still doing their thing. It’s quieter now, more subtle, because Police Commissioner Frederick Bealefeld and Sheryl Goldstein, who directs the Mayor’s Office on Criminal Justice, are too professional to fight. The wars of the O’Malley mayoral years are over, even if the damage continues to manifest itself. But Jessamy is no more a crime-fighting partner now than she was before.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
Now comes word the Census Bureau is severing ties with ACORN.
TNJim (Diary) Saturday, September 12th at 1:41AM EST (link)Well, that’s step 1. Now they need to cut off the federal funding and stimulus money. Any bets that will happen to Obama’s pet organization?
Nah, didn’t think so…
What MSM Really Means
lukematthews (Diary) Saturday, September 12th at 12:27PM EST (link)The mainstream media (MSM) is really the myopic-sighted minions for ignoring both the ACORN story and the march on Washington. They are truly making themselves more and more irrelevant by the day.
Filmmaker Demands Apology From ACORN for Claiming Undercover Video 'Doctored'
izoneguy (Diary) Sunday, September 13th at 4:23PM EST (link)Filmmaker Demands Apology From ACORN for Claiming Undercover Video ‘Doctored’
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/09/13/filmmaker-demands-apology-acorn-claiming-undercover-video-doctored/
The independent filmmaker whose hidden-camera videos prompted the firing of four ACORN workers is demanding an apology from ACORN for calling his work a fabricated “scam” and daring the activist group to take legal action against him.
“Bring it on,” filmmaker James O’Keefe said Sunday on FOX News.
The point cannot be made often enough: Modern liberalism, as embodied in the Obama presidency, is the defender of the status quo. And the status quo is a road to economic ruin. Political forces cannot redistribute the wealth that the economic system does not produce.
As Moe would say, pass the popcorn.
The_Gadfly (Diary) Sunday, September 13th at 11:24PM EST (link)This should continue to be interesting. A friend of mine caught Hannity on the way down for the March on DC. Hannity was interviewing O’Keefe and tried to get him to say whether or not there was more film. O’Keefe was cagey and wouldn’t commit. ACORN is digging themselves deeper and deeper into the hole. O’Keefe is playing these guys like a professional pool shark. Which could make the Jessamy angle interesting too. I’ve been thinking about the issue, and I think there might actually be a novel case to be made that the Maryland law is violates the right to self defense, which although not explicitly enumerated in the Bill of Rights, has been recognized in cases such as Heller.