Yeah, I know, you're like...Rachel Maddow?? Isn't she like the uber-liberal? Why, yes, she is. :) But I think you'll find that on this story, she's got the goods on Fox News and especially Mr. James O'Keefe III.
Eric said 2 days later
That's the best she can come up with? They showed (gasp!) edited video on Fox News! The horror! You mean he didn't dress up as a 70's pimp? No way! No wonder he was able to trick all these poor folks at ACORN, those guardians of all that is good and rightous in our society! Maybe he was dressed in a shirt and tie because he didn't want to look like a 70's pimp, since he would have been thrown out on the street immediately! That charlatan! And that worker from California that offered to get young girls over the border from Tiajuana. He was just trying to get more information out of them for the police! Great! Let's take a look at the police investigation! (chirp, chirp)
Okay then. At least we can't punch holes in the investigation from Jerry Brown. Oh wait, he's the liberal Democrat that's running in the 2010 election for Governor of California. Maybe he has an angle? Hmmm....
Oh and did you see her comments on the "Climategate" scandal? The British House of Commons did a "complete" investigation on all those pesky emails that were stolen. "Nobody lied," is what she said. So the global warming supporters in the House of Commons investigated the global warming scientists and found nothing irregular. Well I'm sure glad that's settled!
Put down that Kool-aid and crack open a Bud. Sure it tastes like crap, but it helps me put all this garbage into perspective.
I love our little talks!
GJ said 2 days later
Wow, dude, you are simply...amazing. I'm almost not sure where to start.
GJ said 2 days later
1) It was claimed that O'Keefe and his companion made it clear what they were after, emphasized by their dress and mannerisms. Truth: in talking to the female ACORN employee, they just happen to insert the word prostitute into the conversation, and the ACORN employee turns to O'Keefe's companion and gives her the heartfelt message that she'll succeed. Fox News and O'Keefe portrayed this instead as the ACORN employee encouraging her to find housing to run their prostitution ring from. (source: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2009/09/11/acorn-employees-fired-face-criminal-charges/ )
2) It was claimed that the male employee in California offered to facilitate the smuggling of thirteen young girls into the country. What did Fox claim? See that link above again. What happened? O'Keefe was pushing for exactly that, and the employee pretty much made him explicitly state what he wanted. Once established, he collected enough information he thought was needed to report to the police--and yes, we could probably track those phone calls down to confirm this. The fact that Maddow's report mentioned specific names of officers likely means this is true--mentioning names if false invites a lawsuit from the named party. NBC has deep pockets, so yeah, they'd go after that in a second.
So, a criminal probe? You kind of need a crime, don't you? What O'Keefe did isn't illegal, neither is what the ACORN folks did. However, if I was the fired ACORN folks, I'd sue the pants off him and Fox News. Meanwhile, what has O'Keefe been up to? Oh yeah, that's right, he got busted for trying to tap Senator Landrieu's phones back in January. Meanwhile, ACORN gets to go out of business. Mission accomplished, right?
ACORN's biggest sin: they helped register poor voters...who vote Dem over GOP pretty much universally. If only there was some group of disenfranchised rich folk who they could help register...they'd probably balance it out and vote GOP. But of course, the GOP likes to win elections, so ACORN was eeeeeevil.
Now, you may consider all this just crap, and very silly...but a lot of people actually suck this stuff right up and believe it. They then base their votes on outright falsehoods...not differences of opinion, but total falsehoods.
Compare this to, say, the whole climate change debate. Climategate aside for the moment, this is a topic that is still very much debated in the science world, but not quite the way it's debated in the media and politics circles. Should we stick our heads in the sand and suppress studies of it (Bush)? Nope. Should we just jump right in a legislate carbon taxes / trading /whatever they want to call it (Obama)? Nope. Instead, let's try to figure out what's going on here. Obama's making ground there too, thankfully--launching that satellite (DSCOVR) at long last hopefully next year.
Eric said 5 days later
At least we can agree on one thing - I AM SIMPLY AMAZING!!!
Geoff said 5 days later
lol
GJ said 5 days later
Wait, you mean we can't agree that Bud tastes like...oh, wait, you said crap. I think it tastes like piss. Dammit, we couldn't be farther apart on the most important issue in the world!
Meanwhile, all this chit-chat is leaving me thirsty. I'm gonna go grab me a Stella.
