Wash Post on alleged wiretapping plot on Senator Landrieu

Tomorrow's Washington Post:

The conservative young filmmaker whose undercover sting damaged a liberal activist group last year faces federal criminal charges in an alleged plot to bug the New Orleans office of Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).

Federal investigators charged that James O'Keefe was among four men who created a ruse to enter the lawmaker's downtown office, saying they needed to repair her telephones. O'Keefe used his cellphone to take pictures of two men involved in the Jan. 25 plot, according to court records unsealed Tuesday.

Those men, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, are accused in an FBI agent's sworn affidavit of impersonating telephone company workers, while O'Keefe and another man, Stan Dai, are accused of aiding the plot.

All four were taken to a suburban New Orleans jail and charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony. If convicted, each man faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

Flanagan, 24, is the son of William J. Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, based in Shreveport. U.S. Attorney Flanagan declined to comment through an office assistant.

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What a great kid

How many seven year olds do you know who could pull this off and be so selfless? You can still click through to his site here to donate more. Wow.

He's no Wyclef Jean or George Clooney, but that hasn't stopped seven-year-old Charlie Simpson from raising more than £136,000 ($220,000) for the Haiti earthquake.

Simpson from Fulham, west London had hoped to raise just £500 for UNICEF's earthquake appeal by cycling eight kilometers (five miles)around a local park.

"My name is Charlie Simpson. I want to do a sponsored bike ride for Haiti because there was a big earthquake and loads of people have lost their lives," said Simpson on his JustGiving page, a fundraising site which launched his efforts.

On the other side of the spectrum, you have the Scientology "gift" that includes doctors and medical supplies - very nice - with creepy Scientologist "ministers" to evangelize to those in need. Yet another reason to avoid anything tied to Travolta and that odd group. Read More......

A federal law-enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device

Wow.

A conservative activist who posed as a pimp to target the community-organizing group Acorn and the son of a federal prosecutor were among four men arrested and accused of trying to tamper with phones at Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office here.

A federal law-enforcement official said one of the suspects was picked up in a car a couple of blocks away with a listening device that could pick up transmission.

If true, this is all out espionage on a member of Congress who sits on the Homeland Security Committee. Read More......

On Obama and fear

From Tom at 538.com:

Look, liberals should be rightly upset with the Obama Administration for failing to recognize that battles to effect major, non-incremental policy change require (1) a lot of political capital in the first place; (2) and the exertion of unusual presidential influence on other Washington elites; (3) and a sophisticated and coordinated message campaign; (4) and probably a bit of luck.

Obama--who, incidentally, is not only a former community organizer fully conversant in the history of social movements and the resistance to them, but a former constitutional law professor and student of presidential politics--needed to recognize from the jump that a supermajority-worthy personal and public campaign had to be waged on behalf of healthcare reform. A few heads should have rolled, a few prisoners taken. Rather than worrying as she was today about disgusting and devious wiretappers, Sen. Mary Landrieu--no Senate titan she--should have spent the past few months worried about the Wrath of Obama. Joe Lieberman, ditto.

Meanwhile, there should have been a rollout explaining that reform was not only good for corporate employers and thus American productivity, but also for worker and workplace performance and, thus again, American productivity. He should framed reform in those terms--rather than as a series of vignettes, true and as sad as they may be, about people with dropped coverage or bankrupting bills--and then publicly dared Republicans and their tea-partying conservative allies to vote against a bill that would make the American economy and the workers who fuel it more effective, more efficient, more productive and more competitive because we would no longer lose time and money and paperwork and missed work days to a cobbled-together health care system constructed more or less around the time The Edsel rolled out.

Joe and I have raised pretty much every single point, repeatedly, including the need for a concerted campaign and linking health care reform to American productivity. Neither ever happened, from the White House or the Hill, and the kind of kick in the balls campaign we needed never really came forth from the groups either. Read More......

The alleged wiretapping accomplices

Media Matters looks at who was behind the alleged wiretapping attempt in Senator Landrieu's office, including the author of "My Angry Penis." Read More......

Scary as hell article linking cell phone use and brain cancer

From GQ:

EARLIER THIS WINTER, I met an investment banker who was diagnosed with a brain tumor five years ago. He's a managing director at a top Wall Street firm, and I was put in touch with him through a colleague who knew I was writing a story about the potential dangers of cell-phone radiation. He agreed to talk with me only if his name wasn't used, so I'll call him Jim. He explained that the tumor was located just behind his right ear and was not immediately fatal—the five-year survival rate is about 70 percent. He was 35 years old at the time of his diagnosis and immediately suspected it was the result of his intense cell-phone usage. "Not for nothing," he said, "but in investment banking we've been using cell phones since 1992, back when they were the Gordon-Gekko-on-the-beach kind of phone." When Jim asked his neurosurgeon, who was on the staff of a major medical center in Manhattan, about the possibility of a cell-phone-induced tumor, the doctor responded that in fact he was seeing more and more of such cases—young, relatively healthy businessmen who had long used their phones obsessively. He said he believed the industry had discredited studies showing there is a risk from cell phones. "I got a sense that he was pissed off," Jim told me. A handful of Jim's colleagues had already died from brain cancer; the more reports he encountered of young finance guys developing tumors, the more certain he felt that it wasn't a coincidence. "I knew four or five people just at my firm who got tumors," Jim says.

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31 House Republicans signed on to resolution praising suspected wiretapper

From Media Matters Action:

Todd Akin [R-MO2]
Roscoe Bartlett [R-MD6]
Joe Barton [R-TX6]
Rob Bishop [R-UT1]
Jo Bonner [R-AL1]
John Boozman [R-AR3]
Paul Broun [R-GA10]
Henry Brown [R-SC1]
John Campbell [R-CA48]
John Carter [R-TX31]
Howard Coble [R-NC6]
Tom Cole [R-OK4]
Michael Conaway [R-TX11]
John Culberson [R-TX7]
Mary Fallin [R-OK5]
Trent Franks [R-AZ2]
Louis Gohmert [R-TX1]
Kay Granger [R-TX12]
Ralph Hall [R-TX4]
Jim Jordan [R-OH4]
Steve King [R-IA5]
John Kline [R-MN2]
Doug Lamborn [R-CO5]
Blaine Luetkemeyer [R-MO9]
Daniel Lungren [R-CA3]
Kenny Marchant [R-TX24]
Joseph Pitts [R-PA16]
Bill Posey [R-FL15]
Phil Roe [R-TN1]
Jean Schmidt [R-OH2]
John Shadegg [R-AZ3]

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Lots of updates on alleged attempted wiretapping of US Senator's office

MSNBC:

The FBI said in an affidavit that James O’Keefe was among the four men who were arrested Monday. Special Agent Steven Rayes said O’Keefe was helping two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who were dressed as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office’s telephone system, The Times-Picayune of New Orleans reported Tuesday on its Web site.

Flanagan is the son of William J. Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for western Louisiana, a Democratic official told the political newspaper The Hill.

All four were charged with entering federal property under false pretenses with the intent of committing a felony.

An FBI criminal complaint charging the men was unsealed Tuesday, and a magistrate set bond at $10,000 each after they made their initial court appearances wearing red prison jumpsuits.

Landrieu is on the Homeland Security Committee. This could have been a potentially massive security breach. How long before US anti-terrorism laws get invoked?

As usual, FOX tried to downplay it a bit.

Fellow conservative Breitbart, who helped promote the suspected felon, claims to have no knowledge of the criminal conspiracy.

Here's the FBI affidavit:

FBI affidavit against men who tried allegedly bug Senator Landrieu's office Read More......

Guy who did ACORN 'gotcha!' video arrested for trying to put a bug in Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu's office

Someone is going to jail for a very long time.

The FBI, alleging a plot to wiretap Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in downtown New Orleans, arrested four people Monday, including James O'Keefe, a conservative filmmaker whose undercover videos at ACORN field offices severely damaged the advocacy group's credibility.

FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes alleges that O'Keefe aided and abetted two others, Joseph Basel and Robert Flanagan, who dressed up as employees of a telephone company and attempted to interfere with the office's telephone system.

I wonder if FOX News' Chris Wallace still finds this kid "fascinating." Read More......

Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) will oppose Dem efforts to move health care legislation through Congress using budget reconciliation

Her move is predictable and logical. Time and again she's seen that if you stand up to the President and the congressional leadership, they cave and give you what you want. Unless they roll some heads, and set an example, this kind of thing is going to happen all the way until the President loses re-election and the Democrats lose the Congress. Read More......

A New 'Candidate' for CA Governor

It seems Linda McMahon, who has stepped into the senate race in Connecticut, is not the only semi-high-profile-celebrity-ish candidate running this cycle.

Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, is announcing his candidacy for Governor of California today:

When I came to California 26 years ago we had the 'Good Life.' We were prosperous; people had jobs, affordable homes and money to spend. The economy was great. I loved the state so much that I decided to make my home here, marry and become a citizen.

About 10 years ago things started to deteriorate, and last year when the state was at its worst I decided I had to try and make a difference. I decided to enter the political realm and get California back on the right track.

So today I am announcing that I plan to run for Governor of California! We’ve had Irish-American, African-American, Armenian-American, and Austrian-American Governors and now it’s time for a German-American to lead the state.

His campaign platform, which is titled “Return the Good Life to California,” would “create a Sin Tax” to generate money on the legalization of marijuana, add a 10-cent tax on every drink sold in a restaurant, and “add a buck to every liquor bottle and pack of cigarettes sold.” He would also like to open the border with Mexico and lift the ban on Cuban cigars and products.

I am not sure there is lots to be worried about for Jerry Brown (who has yet to "officially" announce) and the rest of the gang here, but should prove for some entertaining political banter. Read More......

Whole Foods to offer greater employee discounts to people who are skinnier, have lower cholesterol and blood pressure

Keep in mind that the guy who runs Whole Foods is a right-wing Republican nutjob. His latest brilliant idea is to give employees greater in-store discounts if they have lower blood pressure, cholesterol, body mass index, and don't smoke. The idea is interesting, but also a bit unnerving. I have low blood pressure (good low blood pressure), but it's not because of anything I've ever done. It simply is. I've also been relatively skinny most of my life, again simply because I am. Why should I get more employee benefits for things I had zero control over? And an even bigger question, what does the Americans with Disabilities Act have to say about employers who decrease employee benefits based on their physical maladies (high blood pressure and high cholesterol)? Read More......

Zasloff on the spending freeze

Apologies to Zasloff, I'm posting his entire post:

Obama’s Self-Inflicted Lobotomy Proceeds Apace
by Jonathan Zasloff

If this is true – and right now it is unconfirmed – then there seems little reason to support Obama on anything:

President Obama plans to announce a three-year freeze on discretionary, “non-security” spending in the lead-up Wednesday’s State of the Union address, Hill Democratic sources familiar with the plan tell POLITICO.

The move, intended to blunt the populist backlash against Obama’s $787 billion stimulus and an era of trillion-dollar deficits — and to quell Democratic anxiety over last Tuesday’s Massachusetts Senate election — is projected to save $250 billion, the Democrats said.

The freeze would not apply to defense spending or spending on intelligence, homeland security or veterans.

I’m trying to think of what could possibly be a worse plan. Let’s see: we might be entering a double-dip recession and unemployment is in double-digits, and you are going to freeze spending? What in God’s name are they thinking?

Perhaps the worst thing about this is how it cedes the ideological ground to the Republicans. At some point someone must make an argument for government. I think it was former Senator Paul Simon Harry S Truman who said: “give the voters a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they will choose a Republican every time.”

What next? The rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary? Or do we already have that?

UPDATE: Seemingly confirmed by the New York Times. Why exactly did I give money and make calls for this guy in 2008?

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Freezing the recovery

I guess it isn't that much of a surprise that Obama wasn't going to push for a second stimulus package. Many of us economics-professor-types thought the first one was too small right from the beginning - big enough to prevent us from going down the drain we were circling, but not big enough to get us back on a self-sustaining growth path.

But to cave so utterly to the deficit scolds is not something I would have predicted. If Obama freezes spending (but not on the military, oh no, heaven forbid we spend less than 10 times what the next 10 countries spend on their militaries) he ties our hands in a way that is completely unnecessary in the long run and counterproductive in the short run. This is the Republican economic program we are seeing unfold: Recession? What recession? Let's reduce the deficit instead!

It is a seriously bad idea to start attacking the deficit in January 2010. We should NOT be trying to cure the deficit one year after the stimulus has been put in place, and before half of it is even spent. The main economic problem we have is that consumers arent buying. 17% of them are unemployed or work only part time. And the rest are still looking at houses and stock portfolios that are worth way less than a couple of years ago. Businesses aren't investing, because there is weak demand and loads of excess capacity. That leaves only the government to take up the slack and fill the missing demand. Yes, that means deficit spending in the short run (e.g., last year's stimulus bill), but it also means jobs and higher incomes as a result of that spending.

It is hard to avoid the conclusion that Obama and his advisors don't believe in their own policies. If they did they wouldn't be cutting them off before they are even fully implemented. They are channelling Herbert Hoover, who tried to reduce the deficit for three years after the stock market crash in 1929 (we all know how well that worked out for him). For God's sake, Mr. Obama, if you won't learn what every economist learns in 'Intro to Macroeconomics' (which I last lectured on just this morning) then at least try and learn what FDR taught us:

1. When you spend money in a recession and people get jobs as a result, they vote for your party for the next five decades; and

2. The voters dont give a damn about the deficit. A job is more important than whatever share of the deficit they end up helping to pay in the future.

But I can tell you one group who will be ecstatic about this spending freeze - bond traders! A lower deficit might mean somewhat lower interest rates at some point in the future. (Though certainly not now since they can't go any lower than where they are - zero). So lets hear it yet again for the most important constituency in the USA: Wall Street. Read More......

In Florida, Crist loses his lead in GOP Senate primary to a darling of the teabagging crowd

It seemed like a sure thing for Charlie Crist last year when he announced his run for U.S. Senate. But, it's not. The latest poll shows Crist is now losing in the GOP primary to Marco Rubio, who has the backing of the hard-core conservatives in the state:

For the first time, a new poll shows that Gov. Charlie Crist is losing to former Florida House Speaker Marco Rubio in Florida's nationally watched Republican U.S. Senate race.

Rubio leads by just three percentage points -- 47-44 -- which is well within the error margin of the Quinnipiac University poll.

Crist has a large cash advantage over Rubio and ample time to catch up before the Aug. 24 primary. Yet the trend of Rubio's rise and Crist's fall is stark and troubling for the governor, who once looked like he would waltz into the Senate.

Last Tuesday night on CNN, while the pundits were awaiting the results of the Massachusetts Senate race, Eric Erickson, the Editor of the Red State (a right-wing blog) said:

We don't know for sure, but, even if Scott Brown gets close, the fact that we're taking seriously that a Republican in Massachusetts is running close to the Democrat establishment candidate, frankly if I were a Democrat or a Republican establishment guy, I would be a little bit sick tonight, because Scott Brown ran against the Republican establishment and he ran against the Democratic establishment.

Marco Rubio is running against the Republican establishment -- and it's working for him.

There are a couple other races where establishment GOPers are running in primaries against hard-core conservatives. Missouri is one. Long-serving Congressman Roy Blunt is being challenged by State Senator Chuck Purgason, a real, right-wing conservative. Blunt has deep ties to notorious lobbyist Jack Abramoff, as demonstrated in a new website, BluntAndAbramoff.com. And, Purgason isn't afraid of saying "uncomfortable things" about Blunt. The primary in Missouri is August 3rd.

Both Florida and Missouri have August primaries. Primaries usually have low turnout. But, I suspect August primaries attract only the very hard-core voters. That doesn't bode well for either Crist or Blunt. None of these Republicans will be good for us if they win. And, the GOPers are going to mover further and further to the extreme right to assuage the teabagging base.

We really need Obama and the Democrats on the Hill to get their act together ASAP. Read More......

Krugman on Obama's spending freeze: 'It’s appalling on every level'

Last night, when I posted about Obama's plan for a spending freeze, I wrote that the gimmick "just seems dangerous right now from an economic sense." But, I wanted to hear from real economic experts like Krugman and Stiglitz.

Well, Krugman weighed in:

A spending freeze? That’s the brilliant response of the Obama team to their first serious political setback?

It’s appalling on every level.

It’s bad economics, depressing demand when the economy is still suffering from mass unemployment. Jonathan Zasloff writes that Obama seems to have decided to fire Tim Geithner and replace him with “the rotting corpse of Andrew Mellon” (Mellon was Herbert Hoover’s Treasury Secretary, who according to Hoover told him to “liquidate the workers, liquidate the farmers, purge the rottenness”.)

It’s bad long-run fiscal policy, shifting attention away from the essential need to reform health care and focusing on small change instead.

So, that answers the economic question. Very bad move.

The Obama administration is sacrificing sound fiscal policy for a short-term political gain. But, the question is whether there will be any short-term political gain. I don't see it. This feels like the White House brain trust is grasping and it's just not authentic. People figure that out pretty quickly -- and that's not good for a President. Read More......

Bob Herbert asks: 'Who is Barack Obama?'

Brutal column today from Bob Herbert at the NY Times on Obama's credibility:

Mr. Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose rhetoric, however skillful, cannot always be trusted. He is creating a credibility gap for himself, and if it widens much more he won’t be able to close it.

And, there's this:

Mr. Obama promised during the campaign that he would be a different kind of president, one who would preside over a more open, more high-minded administration that would be far more in touch with the economic needs of ordinary working Americans. But no sooner was he elected than he put together an economic team that would protect, above all, the interests of Wall Street, the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance companies, and so on.

How can you look out for the interests of working people with Tim Geithner whispering in one ear and Larry Summers in the other?

A lot of people have been asking that same question about Geithner and Summers.

Herbert doesn't hold back at all. This isn't the kind of pre-State of the Union analysis that Team Obama needs or wants. But, Herbert is an ally. His words should permeate the White House bubble. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Good morning.

One more day til the big speech. Yesterday, every couple hours, there was a new leak about what the President is going to say. It started with news that the focus would be on the middle class. Then, we got a hint that Obama might actually address the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. And, the day ended with the bombshell about a freeze on spending.

Today should be really interesting as the leaks hit a fever pitch.

Let's get threading. Read More......

Blair to cash in working for hedge fund

Cashing in with a hedge fund? In 2010? Really? In this climate, is offering increased access to politicians really ethical? For many it's going to appear as though Blair is helping the troubled hedge fund industry to gain additional power and support inside the political machine. Helping a hedge fund receive more beneficial treatment after cashing in on the fall of the British banks is not likely to be viewed positively but he doesn't care as long as the cash arrives. He hasn't had any issues working for JP Morgan, so this is not much more of a stretch.

The real Blair shows more and more every day. It's always about Tony Blair and nothing or no one else.

Tony Blair will add to the riches he has made since leaving office after agreeing to become a paid speaker for Lansdowne Partners, a London-based hedge fund managed by a major Tory party donor.

Blair will give some private speeches to staff of the Mayfair-based fund this year, potentially earning him hundreds of thousands of pounds, it has emerged.

The former prime minister's spokesman declined to comment on his fees, although he is reported to earn as much as £180,000 for 90 minutes for his thoughts on geopolitical matters in countries from Spain to the Philippines. That works out at about £2,000 a minute.

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Will the envionment be another casualty?

If so, what else is left to support with this administration? How pathetic that they are even considering dropping the words "climate change" from the discussion. What a way to rally the supporters.

Environmental organisations believe some Obama aides are advising the president to downplay or even avoid mention of the words "climate change".

"There has always been nervousness on whether the administration is playing an aggressive enough role," said Steve Cochran, of the Environmental Defence Fund. "[Everyone is] looking to see what he might say in the state of the union to suggest the administration continues to move forward on this agenda, or that they are going to back off somehow because of a variety of political realities."

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