James O'Keefe Punk'd?

September 29, 2010 7:48 AM

James O'Keefe, the right-wing activist whose previous escapades include fraudulently posing as a pimp to facilitate the shutdown of ACORN and getting arrested for allegedly trying to phone tap a Senator's office, has apparently been caught in the setup of yet another scam expose. According to forwarded emails and testimony from a would-be accomplice, O'Keefe had created a plan to lure CNN correspondent Abbie Boudreau "onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session."
posted by XQUZYPHYR (262 comments total)

And he would have done it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids.
posted by swift at 7:50 AM on September 29, 2010 [20 favorites]

I kind of wished he could have gone through with it. It would have been sport for days, and maybe O'Keefe would've gotten kicked in the nuts by Abbie for good measure. This woman Santa seems to have a modicum of good sense - what's she doing with this gang?
posted by Mister_A at 7:52 AM on September 29, 2010

"My name is James. I work in video activism and journalism. I've been approached by CNN for an interview where I know what their angle is: they want to portray me and my friends as crazies, as non-journalists, as unprofessional and likely as homophobes, racists or bigots of some sort....

"This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.

He forgot 'sexists.'
posted by box at 7:53 AM on September 29, 2010 [24 favorites]

American Politics has turned into the Olympics of Crazy and we're all going for the gold.
posted by The Whelk at 7:54 AM on September 29, 2010 [32 favorites]

This guy needs help.
posted by muddgirl at 7:55 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

The plan apparently was thwarted after Boudreau was warned minutes before it was supposed to happen. "I never intended to become part of the story," Boudreau said. "But things suddenly took a very strange turn."

Unbelievable. The strange turn hadn't even begun yet. Why not use the knowledge of a set-up to goof HIM? Quick thinking there Batman. That would have been some great television.
posted by three blind mice at 7:55 AM on September 29, 2010

this guy just isn't really cut out for espionage-type yellow journalism, is he? i mean, he's just not very bright.
posted by msconduct at 7:56 AM on September 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

James O'Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting...

This is like referring to Bonsai Kittens as "a practice of growing deformed cats in glassware" and then only casually mentioning that it's not real a few paragraphs later. Here, CNN, let me give it a shot:

Fraudster James "faker" O'Keefe, best known for slandering the community organizing group ACORN with an fakey fake undercover video sting-like hoax...
posted by 0xFCAF at 7:58 AM on September 29, 2010 [47 favorites]

These are the next "big idea" men in the Republican party. Even Lee Atwater is shaking is head in shame.
posted by T.D. Strange at 7:59 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wonder what he expected to have happened? Because the reality of it would have probably been Ms. Boudreau stating that she was uncomfortable with the bizarre situation and offering to reschedule at her office, on account of she's

1. A professional.
2. Wary of psycho killers.
posted by Mister_A at 8:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [16 favorites]

This is starting to seem a little less prank-y and a little more rape-y. James O'Keefe seems to have moved several more degrees towards "total creep" on the sketchy spectrum.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [15 favorites]

The Republican Party has gotten so whacked out that I am ashamed to admit that I am a moderate Republican.

I did read something that said they had similar radicalism in the 1960's, and it petered out until Reagan and his crew entered office. I hope we are reaching a similar critical mass now, and that the sensible members of the party can take it back over from the evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, and racists.
posted by reenum at 8:02 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

Here's O'Keefe's response:In a statement e-mailed to CNN, O'Keefe wrote: "That is not my work product. When it was sent to me, I immediately found certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate, and did not consider them for one minute following it."

Hollow words, considering he was basically caught in the act.
posted by muddgirl at 8:02 AM on September 29, 2010

I can't decide. Which do I want:

-James O'Keefe in jail for the rest of his life.

OR

-James O'Keefe free to continue making an ass of himself, continually called out on national news media as the wackjob face of conservative journalism until the very notion of being conservative is associated with stupidity, incompetence and lunacy?

I mean, I know I won't get either because republicans get away with everything, but if I lived in a just world one of those two things would happen.
posted by shmegegge at 8:03 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

Don't worry; the mainstream media will continue to take this guy seriously.
posted by TrialByMedia at 8:05 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

I wonder what he expected to have happened?

It's pretty clear what they expected to happen - a classic adolescent domination fantasy. To them, "punking" CNN somehow makes CNN look bad.

"If they [CNN] admit it was a gag, you should release the footage and focus on the fact they got punked, and make sure to emphasize Abbie's name and overall status to help burden her career with this video, incident and her bad judgment in pursuing you so aggressively."

They think Boudreau will come off looking bad because she was in the same room as a faux creepy jerk. They imagined this complex and humiliating scenario where Boudreau is punished for her "aggressiveness".
posted by muddgirl at 8:07 AM on September 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

Repeatedly trying to ambush people by putting them into contrived, artificial situations, and then reporting the results out of context for the sole purpose of inflaming outrage over a fictitious issue?

Christ, what an asshole young republican.
posted by quin at 8:07 AM on September 29, 2010 [22 favorites]

If they [CNN] admit it was a gag, you should release the footage and focus on the fact they got punked, and make sure to emphasize Abbie's name and overall status to help burden her career with this video, incident and her bad judgment in pursuing you so aggressively.

At least he knows how to pick his battles.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:08 AM on September 29, 2010

Wasn't he caught trying to wiretap an elected official's telephone? Shouldn't he be in jail now?
posted by picea at 8:09 AM on September 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

Shouldn't he be in jail now?

You beat me to it!
posted by clarknova at 8:10 AM on September 29, 2010

He's on probation.
posted by muddgirl at 8:12 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

CNN later obtained a copy of a 13-page document titled "CNN Caper," which appears to describe O'Keefe's detailed plans for that day.

He called it the "CNN caper"? I bet he wears a Tucker Carlson bow-tie too.

If this is the best young activism that the right has to offer, then I'll take it.
posted by codacorolla at 8:12 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

The imaginary seduction dialogue is hilarious. And sad. And pathetic. And juvenile. And psychotic. And delusional.

Maybe not so hilarious, then.

At least he kept Marvin Gaye out of it. Though calling Marvin 'cliche'? Also so not cool.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:13 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

By the way, the logic behind this is amazing.

"CNN thinks I'm not a real journalist! Well I'm gonna prank them! When they show up to do a real and professional interview, I'm going to act like some kind of sex freak and sexually harass Abbie Boudreau! Then we'll see who the real journalist is!"
posted by shmegegge at 8:14 AM on September 29, 2010 [35 favorites]

I feel like I know ....way too much about the inside of O'Keefe's head right now.

Also:

CAPER?
posted by The Whelk at 8:14 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"I did read something that said they had similar radicalism in the 1960's, and it petered out until Reagan and his crew entered office."

No, it wasn't similar radicalism in the '60s, it was Nixon's Dirty Tricks squad, who peaked with a break-in at a little Washington hotel. It didn't peter out, folks were convicted and the president resigned. Now they've figured out that they can outsource the dirty tricks and have plausible deniability, as if the problem wasn't the crimes, it was getting caught.
posted by klangklangston at 8:14 AM on September 29, 2010 [42 favorites]

"So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath"

This is profoundly gross.
posted by dirtdirt at 8:15 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

When they show up to do a real and professional interview

The hilariously and scarily delusional thing is that, reportedly, Boudreau wasn't even meeting with him to do an interview - she was meeting with him to negotiate future access/interviews as part of a piece she is doing on Project Veritas.

It's like, "This reporter is meeting with me in good faith, and when I act like a total creep wad, that'll really show her. Won't she be professionally embarrassed for treating me like a rational adult!"
posted by muddgirl at 8:17 AM on September 29, 2010 [13 favorites]

What kills me is this fucker took down ACORN almost single-handedly with an equally inane plot. ACORN did good work and served the people that are truly disenfranchised.

I should be able to find some pleasure in this but I'm just pissed that he was ever taken seriously.
posted by readery at 8:18 AM on September 29, 2010 [41 favorites]

Shouldn't send a boy to do Sacha Baron Cohen's job.
posted by acheekymonkey at 8:18 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

So, why aren't there any creative types on the right again? The only way this could've been more unbetterly conceived is if it involved a couple of mormons setting up a sting in a fake coffee shop. Abbie Boudreau should've gone along with it just to get an assault charge levied against him and maybe a conspiracy charge against the author, one Ben.

That wouldn't be the same Ben as in Ben Domenech, would it? Just speculating there, but I'd love to see the headers in those emails.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:19 AM on September 29, 2010

This wasn't even an interview - this was putatively an off-camera meeting to discuss getting on set with the righteous rockers or whatever. Bearing that in mind, there might have been serious legal repercussions if O'Keefe taped the meeting and then released the tapes. Dammit it would have been like Christmas.
posted by Mister_A at 8:20 AM on September 29, 2010

My opinion on James O'Keefe has changed. I used to think he was just a cynical Republican operative in it for the lulz. Now it seems like he's a sociopath.
posted by nathan_teske at 8:21 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

but he has a serious problem with women

I forgot to state the obvious.
posted by jsavimbi at 8:21 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I still fail to see how making shit up about your opponent at all validates your own world-view. But that's me.
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:23 AM on September 29, 2010

What the fuck is wrong with this guy?

This is a rhetorical question.
posted by rtha at 8:23 AM on September 29, 2010

I hope we are reaching a similar critical mass now, and that the sensible members of the party can take it back...

I think the more likely scenario is the one where the party splits in two at the next 2012 convention.
posted by R. Mutt at 8:26 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

So his plan to prove he is a professional is to act as unprofessionally as possible?
posted by sandraregina at 8:26 AM on September 29, 2010

I'm confused. If "successful"*, this stunt would have "proved"...what exactly? That Boudreau is kinky? Achieving exactly which right-wing aims?

I'm with XQUZYPHYR. This guy is clearly a misogynistic douche who thinks women should know their place.

*I'm not even sure what success would have looked like. This would have produced video of a reporter looking confused and weirded out, and likely departing moments after she arrived. What would that have accomplished? Or did he think that she would see him and fall under his spell? Fucking pathetic.
posted by dry white toast at 8:26 AM on September 29, 2010

I really hope that the woman, Santa, decides to blow Veritas open. The only reason I can imagine she's still on their payroll is to stop her from immediately accepting the first giant check that CNN throws at her.
posted by codacorolla at 8:26 AM on September 29, 2010

Oh my fucking god. Look at the props list and the dialogue that was written. There is something seriously fucking wrong with this guy.

This is starting to seem a little less prank-y and a little more rape-y.

This. A hundred times over.
posted by yeoz at 8:28 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

This guy should get together with Tommy Wiseau and make some documentary films.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:29 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

I was kind of skimming and missed that where was someone with the last name "Santa". That got kind of confusing later on, I was envisioning some girl dressed in a Santa Claus costume.
posted by ghharr at 8:30 AM on September 29, 2010

Repeatedly trying to ambush people by putting them into contrived, artificial situations, and then reporting the results out of context for the sole purpose of inflaming outrage over a fictitious issue?

Well, when you have a right-wing noise machine willing to broadcast and repeat these things over and over again, it makes a lot of sense. The entire point is to make the entire work of journalism and "news" to appear to be nothing but a set of staged antics by crazy people saying weird stuff. That way the public (more specifically the republican-voting public) won't have the chance to be corrupted by actual news and actual journalism or will filter it out as "more crazy antics." Making the public dialog into a circus is the point, and O'Keefe is their loyal servant.
posted by deanc at 8:30 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

James should have a more sleazy persona than usual, with slicked back hair and exposing his chest.

You mean you weren't sleazy enough already, you sleazebag?
posted by blucevalo at 8:31 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"I'll show them! I'll show them how many boners the Joker James O'Keefe can make!"
posted by explosion at 8:31 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

The phone call was recorded without Boudreau's knowledge, but CNN obtained a copy of the recording after O'Keefe e-mailed it to friends and colleagues.

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal in Maryland to record someone without their knowledge.
posted by dhammond at 8:31 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"The phone call was recorded without Boudreau's knowledge,"

In Maryland? Isn't this a felony wiretap violation?
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:33 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm pretty sure that it's illegal in Maryland to record someone without their knowledge.

Isn't it usual to immediately jail somebody who commits a crime while out on bail?
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:33 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

jinx dhammond - what do you like in your coke?
posted by toodleydoodley at 8:33 AM on September 29, 2010

this guy just isn't really cut out for espionage-type yellow journalism, is he? i mean, he's just not very bright.

O'Keefe usually works with Robert Flanagan, who's father is a well-connected US Attorney. I'm hoping a prosecutor with a pair will eventually arrest them and send them off to jail. I still don't understand how esponaige against the US government isn't a felony. They're more or less jail-proof and know it. Jail is for poor non-connected folk seems to be the only lesson O'Keefe and his supporters have taught us.
posted by damn dirty ape at 8:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I hope we are reaching a similar critical mass now, and that the sensible members of the party can take it back over from the evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, and racists.

What sensible members would those be? These guys are bankrolled by the biggest names in Republican Party campaign funding. This is EXACTLY what the Koch brothers and thier ilk are buying with thier billions. You're looking right at the results of choices made by "sensible members" and outsourced down to idiots like Keefe willing to take the fall for thier betters.
posted by T.D. Strange at 8:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

"This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine,

I'm not sure if I'm more offended by the sexism or that he's a Don Henley fan.
posted by octothorpe at 8:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

HOLY FUCKING SHIT HE QUOTED FUCKING DON HENLEY

YOU CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 8:35 AM on September 29, 2010 [11 favorites]

What Glenn Beck devotees think of Mr. O'Keefe:

[youtube]
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:37 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I hope we are reaching a similar critical mass now, and that the sensible members of the party can take it back

The sensible members of the party became Democrats. Want and anti-union senator and who supports opposition to fast-tracking DADT? You can vote for Blanche Lincoln. Interested in capitalist-friendly environmentalism? Then André Heinz, son of Republican John Heinz is your man. Like a billionaire entrepreneur with pragmatic solutions? How about independent mayor Michael Bloomberg?

Not really sure why you feel that "sensible" members have to take over a political party that doesn't want them. It seems like a more rational move to simply support the centrist-leaning opposition party. The only way "sensible" people will take over the Republican party is if power-seeking "sensible" people see that their path to power comes by joining the Republican party. And right now "sensible" doesn't sell there.
posted by deanc at 8:38 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

Don Henley must be rolling over in his grave over this!
posted by Mister_A at 8:39 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

This guy needs help. -- He's already got it, from this guy.
posted by crunchland at 8:39 AM on September 29, 2010

(from 7:34 or so...)
posted by jet_manifesto at 8:39 AM on September 29, 2010

picea wrote: "Wasn't he caught trying to wiretap an elected official's telephone? Shouldn't he be in jail now?"

It was a "joke".

Also: What a fucking douche!
posted by wierdo at 8:41 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

I'm just pissed that he was ever taken seriously.

31 Republicans took him seriously enough to propose a Congressional resolution stating that he was owed a debt of gratitude by the people of the United States.

But you know, these are the people that we need to put back in power cause Obama's a Muslim alien socialist!
posted by waitingtoderail at 8:42 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

I'm not sure if I'm more offended by the sexism or that he's a Don Henley fan.

He wanted to make that yacht rock.
posted by chillmost at 8:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

That wouldn't be the same Ben as in Ben Domenech, would it? Just speculating there, but I'd love to see the headers in those emails.

The last link identifies him as Ben Wetmore, or the guy who tried to marry James O'Keefe to prove that same-sex marriage benefits could be abused. He was also a minor part of the Landrieu wire-tapping "caper."
posted by gladly at 8:45 AM on September 29, 2010

So this is what it looks like when your prop dildo blows up in your face.
posted by notyou at 8:46 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Isn't it usual to immediately jail somebody who commits a crime while out on bail?

tell that to Lindsey Lohan.
posted by cjorgensen at 8:47 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

He's on a boat!
posted by Xoebe at 8:47 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

No wonder Republicans think Ronald Reagan was and Karl Rove is a genius.

There's "needs help" and then there's "sociopathic" and though the latter may also be the former, I think the latter is far and away the more accurate label in this situation. Who would ever think that somebody could make Joe Francis seem like "that nice boy with a camera" (almost)?
posted by MCMikeNamara at 8:54 AM on September 29, 2010

"So, I'm going to seduce her, on camera, to use her for a video. This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath"

I notice he didn't say try to seduce her, or pretend to seduce her. Did he really think she was going to screw him? Dude must have an extraordinarily rich and twisted fantasy life. Which he probably needs, because if that's his "A" game I can't imagine he's ever gotten laid by an actual female ever.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 8:54 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Yeah, she's really going to say "James, this is not professional," only you're not going to be able to hear it on the tape over the sound of his nads being kicked to smithereens.
posted by chavenet at 8:55 AM on September 29, 2010

The "Equipment needed" section of the dossier notes that the music should consist predominantly of "80s romance songs, things that are typically James." Obviously this includes a Don Henley number ("The Last Worthless Evening" or maybe "All She Wants to Do Is Dance," hard to say) plus "Every Breath You Take" by the Police. For some reason I'm also imagining some Peter Cetera or Phil Collins ("In the Air Tonight" is too obvious, maybe "Against All Odds"?).

So at the risk of veering into ChatFilter: what else would be on the "typically James" 80s power ballad playlist?
posted by gompa at 8:58 AM on September 29, 2010

The last link identifies him as Ben Wetmore

Damnit!
posted by jsavimbi at 9:00 AM on September 29, 2010

So at the risk of veering into ChatFilter: what else would be on the "typically James" 80s power ballad playlist?



Well
posted by The Whelk at 9:01 AM on September 29, 2010 [9 favorites]

I think they should turn this around and use his own narrative distorting techniques against him; because what we have here clearly is a career criminal, out on bail, caught in the middle of committing a felony with all the tools needed to film his rape and abduction of a CNN journalist.

You'd have to be soft on crime to not put this guy in a deep dark hole somewhere!
posted by quin at 9:02 AM on September 29, 2010 [8 favorites]

Please never refer to this little punk again without giving proper attribution:
"Andrew Breitbart's protege and employee, James O'Keefe"
Breitbart should get credit where credit is due.
posted by madamjujujive at 9:04 AM on September 29, 2010 [17 favorites]

If you suspect that they're going to do a nasty/unflattering/"look at the crazy person" story, I can see being irritated and feeling like you're being lied to.

So doing something that will play on their desire to get the unflattering story, wasting their time and irritating them--and making it clear how much they're bullshitting you in order to get their story by catching their pre-interview verbal massages on tape--would be funny in certain contexts.

It's a weird adolescent domination fantasy. Taking out the weird sex bits it's exactly the sort of stunt I would have thought about pulling in grade school when I thought someone was taking advantage of me - set up some complicated scheme whereby I get them to agree to something, then pull the rug out from under them, supposedly humiliating them in the process. It usually backfired on me and it's certainly backfired on O'Keefe.
posted by muddgirl at 9:06 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

what else would be on the "typically James" 80s power ballad playlist?

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 9:07 AM on September 29, 2010 [27 favorites]

You Can't Quit Me Babe
They're Coming To Take Me Away
Foxy Lady (fox news, geddit?)
Sea Of Love
Creep (what the hell am I doing here, I don't belong here (because I'm still on probation))
posted by waraw at 9:08 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Why does he have to drag Don Henley into this?
posted by cmoj at 9:16 AM on September 29, 2010

MSM: fool me once, shame on you. fool me over and over again, maybe I should go hang out with you on your boat without cameras or anyone else with me.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 9:18 AM on September 29, 2010

This douchebag, and this douchebag, should probably start dating each other. They're apt to fall in love.
posted by scblackman at 9:25 AM on September 29, 2010

Ew. Someone has been taking the internet smut much too seriously.
posted by desuetude at 9:31 AM on September 29, 2010

He thinks CNN is liberal?
posted by benzenedream at 9:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

jsavimbi: "Abbie Boudreau should've gone along with it just to get an assault charge levied against him and maybe a conspiracy charge against the author, one Ben. "

Given the rapey aspects of this whole situation, it's probably smart of Boudreau to steer clear.
posted by l33tpolicywonk at 9:34 AM on September 29, 2010

Do you like Phil Collins?

Dammit, Threeway Handshake, I was just thinking along those lines. Then I thought too far along those lines and got a little queasy.
posted by AugieAugustus at 9:35 AM on September 29, 2010

Never get on the boat.
posted by Artw at 9:38 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Ew. Someone has been taking the internet smut much too seriously.

Yeah, that was the first thing I thought as well. It's like he's seen a bunch of those faux-verite porn clips where some "unsuspecting" woman is "tricked" into having sex on camera and thought they were real. Poor, pathetic sad little boy. Maybe porn really is ruining America's youth.
posted by dersins at 9:41 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

So this is what it looks like when your prop dildo blows up in your face.

Perhaps he's just a really big Stormy Weathers fan?
posted by nomisxid at 9:42 AM on September 29, 2010

It would be one thing if all of this was awful and sexist and racist but still clever or diabolical or even mature. But there are no brains behind this operation. Just an incoherent, repressed kid and some nihilistic benefactors.
posted by kosem at 9:42 AM on September 29, 2010

Jesus Christ, this guy's got to be the poster boy for the Dunning Kruger Effect.

He seems to think of himself as some kind of master con artist with a hidden camera, and he's clearly just massively incompetent. He's never successfully "punked" anyone as far as I can tell. Even the ACORN job was a complete train wreck, its success built on editing the tape later and the fact that powerful Republican interests wanted it to work so they steamrollered over the huge, gaping flaws. He just walks into these situations like he's a Bond villain or something, his targets immediately realize what he's up to, and somehow he manages to convince himself that that's even better on some kind of meta-level.

Truly pathetic.
posted by Naberius at 9:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

I did read something that said they had similar radicalism in the 1960's, and it petered out until Reagan and his crew entered office. I hope we are reaching a similar critical mass now, and that the sensible members of the party can take it back over from the evangelicals, conspiracy theorists, and racists.

Critical Mass does not mean what you seem to think it means. A Critical Mass by definition does not peter out.
posted by srboisvert at 9:46 AM on September 29, 2010

Wow, so much crazy to parse.

I do hope, however, that this brings attention to the "bubble-headed-bleach-blonde" problem in TV news.
posted by mkultra at 9:49 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I notice he didn't say try to seduce her, or pretend to seduce her. Did he really think she was going to screw him? Dude must have an extraordinarily rich and twisted fantasy life. Which he probably needs, because if that's his "A" game I can't imagine he's ever gotten laid by an actual female ever.

There are lots of nutso right wing women.
posted by delmoi at 9:56 AM on September 29, 2010

The Republican Party has gotten so whacked out that I am ashamed to admit that I am a moderate Republican.

We have a name for your type these days.

We call you "Blue Dog Democrats."
posted by jtron at 10:02 AM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

Given the rapey aspects of this whole situation, it's probably smart of Boudreau to steer clear.

I guess you're right. The sick part about the whole thing, and we're all just taking this from the third party contextual information received, and knowing what I already knew about Andrew Breitbart's protege and employee, James O'Keefe, is that I get the sense that a sexual outcome is actually what he would've wanted to happen even though he's obviously too fearful of rejection to actually put himself into that situation without the whole charade being planned in advance.

Should, in the wildest drug-addled imagination possible, a sexual encounter actually happened, no doubt his bros would've enshrined him on Youtube forever as a swordsman. Maybe the public recognition of his masculine sexuality is what he's been after all along. I'm no classically-trained child psychologist, but it seems to me that a strong, maternal figure drove his sexuality into the ground at an early age and the only way he can manifest it is to have it hand-delivered with guaranteed success.

tl;dr he frequently short-changes prostitutes.
posted by jsavimbi at 10:04 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

James E. O'Keefe III better pray he's never in a situation where his death would save the Harlem Jazz Orchestra.
posted by Iridic at 10:06 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

"This bubble-headed-bleach-blonde who comes on at five will get a taste of her own medicine, she'll get seduced on camera and you'll get to see the awkwardness and the aftermath.

Really? All it takes to get beautiful anchors ten years your senior to sleep with you is to get them on a boat with strawberries and champagne? Wish I would have known that when I was 26 years old.
posted by Ironmouth at 10:12 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

delmoi: I can't imagine he's ever gotten laid by an actual female ever.

There are lots of nutso right wing women.

Yes, but if I'm to believe what I read, they won't even let you masturbate. Or they only date you in their misspent youth if you're into witchcraft.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 10:12 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Who's taking bets that Project Veritas is a Boondock Saints reference?
posted by dirigibleman at 10:14 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

All it takes to get beautiful anchors ten years your senior to sleep with you is to get them on a boat

I've never slept with one, but they do seem to have a natural affinity for boats...
posted by ryanrs at 10:21 AM on September 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

I keep trying to think of a situation where more then one person could have read and/or listened to O'Keefe's ....caper and not laughed at his face/slapped him.

The only way I can think this happened involves a truly epic amount of blow.
posted by The Whelk at 10:22 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Republican sources how now confirmed that O'Keefe wanted dildos brought in for the interview because he was labouring under the impression he wasn't enough of a dick.
posted by MuffinMan at 10:26 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Ya know, one thing to remember is you're not the choir he's been hired to preach to and just because you don't think it worked doesn't mean it didn't work. Just sayin'. One of the biggest problems with this side of the fence in general, you ask me.
posted by umberto at 10:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Repeatedly trying to ambush people by putting them into contrived, artificial situations, and then reporting the results out of context for the sole purpose of inflaming outrage over a fictitious issue?

You know, in a strange way, I can see how someone could watch interviews on The Daily Show -- in which reporters behave in a contrived, artificial and unprofessional way towards their interview subjects, and then edit the reports to make the results sunny -- and, completely missing the point that it's a comedy program, get enraged and think that this sort of thing is an appropriate response.

Not a justification or an excuse, of course, for this behavior. However, I can see how such a misjudging of what The Daily Show is, and accomplishes, could form the seed of this horrible, horrible idea: "Instead of left-wing reporters ambushing innocent right-wing interviewees, let's be right-wing interviewees who ambush an innocent left-wing reporter! It'll really make 'em look foolish!"
posted by davejay at 10:36 AM on September 29, 2010

Ack! "...to make the results funny" is what i meant to say.
posted by davejay at 10:37 AM on September 29, 2010

just because you don't think it worked doesn't mean it didn't work

Yeah, can somebody go over to FreeRepublic or wherever it is that these lunatics chat and tell us what they think about this guy trying to lure a reporter onto a rape-boat?
posted by Threeway Handshake at 10:37 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Is anyone else surprised that someone associated with this outfit has something vaguely resembling principles?
posted by Artw at 10:39 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

By the way, what in the world is an "obvious sex tape machine?"
posted by davejay at 10:39 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

other than a good album title
posted by davejay at 10:40 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Ooooooh, there's a documentary CNN was doing. I understand now; the purpose was to pretend he was sincere in his attempts to seduce her, then (presumably) when the footage ended up in the documentary, he would reveal that his interview was a hoax, thus undermining CNN's credibility. Or something like that.
posted by davejay at 10:42 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

"Surprise! It wasn't a REAL rape boat!"
posted by Artw at 10:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [8 favorites]

This is hilarious.
posted by brundlefly at 10:43 AM on September 29, 2010

By the way, what in the world is an "obvious sex tape machine?"

A great sock puppet name.
posted by brundlefly at 10:44 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

just because you don't think it worked doesn't mean it didn't work

You mean that people determined to believe that O'Keefe is a genius regardless of anything to the contrary will still believe that he's a genius after this?

If that's what you mean then, yeah, I suppose so.
posted by octobersurprise at 10:45 AM on September 29, 2010

Strangely I'm not seeing any coverage of this story on the Fox news site.
posted by Artw at 10:48 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

I used to think he was just a cynical Republican operative in it for the lulz. Now it seems like he's a sociopath.

One of these things is just like the other.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 10:48 AM on September 29, 2010

Umberto's right, but O'Keefe's intended message -- the reversal of a TV news-personality's ham-fisted seduction of a potential interview subject to thereby reveal, once again, CNN's MSM hypocrisy (which message is not so far off key to this choir on this side of the fence) -- that message has been obliterated by the sordid, tone-deaf delivery.

Worse, it wasn't funny. O'Keefe should study Michael Moore a little more closely.
posted by notyou at 10:50 AM on September 29, 2010

Non—Kool-Aid drinkers will see that this O'Keefe guy is an idiot and possibly dangerous, and it will put a cloud of suspicion over sensationalized video-taped "evidence" put forth by Republican (and probably Democratic, too) operatives in the future. This is not a "win" for O'Keefe et al.
posted by Mister_A at 10:51 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

But I was wrong about Rove caving on O'Donnell*, so take that with a grain of salt.



*He has sort of un-caved afterwards, as well, renewing mild criticism of her wing-nuttery.
posted by Mister_A at 10:53 AM on September 29, 2010

"Andrew Breitbart's protege and employee, James O'Keefe"

Ah ... the future promise of the right-wing media rests in these douchebags' hands.
posted by ericb at 10:54 AM on September 29, 2010

I think Republican Rape Boat beats out Monkey Business. Republican Rape Boat. Just repeat that over and over.
posted by jsavimbi at 10:54 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Reporter Abbie Boudreau blogs about the incident.
posted by ericb at 10:57 AM on September 29, 2010 [9 favorites]

"Bubble-Headed bleach blond"? I'm no expert on CNN, but Boudreau doesn't strike me as a dunce hired for her looks. She's in her 30s anyway -- as an actual television reporter once told me, being pretty and female will, in fact, get you your first job as on on-air reporter. But it won't get you your second one.

And rule number one of pranking is never, ever underestimate the victim of your prank. And rule number one of the media is that you never pick fights with people who buy ink by the barrel. O'Keefe in about 17 flavors of stupid for this.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:08 AM on September 29, 2010

madamjujujive: Please never refer to this little punk again without giving proper attribution:
"Andrew Breitbart's protege and employee, James O'Keefe"
Breitbart should get credit where credit is due.

Last time he pulled one of his retarded stunts Breitbart bascically tried to turn the tables and make it all about the liberal media trying to smear "a right wing hero of investigative patriotic journalism." Man, was that stomach turning, and for a coupla weeks it was just unbelievable fun lobbing grenades into right-wing threads where people were dissembling and justifying like crazy why O'Keefe and his little Tea bagger Scooby Doo team of nitwits was caught in a senators office (on federal property) tampering with her phone and the telecommunications closet. Even then it was painfully obvious that it was only a matter of time before this guy, not the brightest knife in the drawer by any stretch and on top of it floating on the grandiose bubble of his own right-wing blog heroism, was pretty close to complete utter self-destruction, and it would be so brain dead as to be stunningly comical, but this...THIS...just beat out all expectations: Dildos? 80s romance music? (All things James? Ewww...why do idiots always refer to themselves in the third person?), furry handcuffs??, Candles? Viagra?? (....was that supposed to be the thing that convinced Boudreaux, that it was going to be worth it?)

I don't know. I've spent to much time thinking about how stupid this kid is...I'm kinda afraid to go check out the Right-wing boards and see how they're justifying this and how they're defending him...I'll be on them for the rest of the week laughing my ass off and unable to resist getting dragged into all...and taking potshots at tea baggers and other fascists....
posted by Skygazer at 11:12 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

ericb: "Reporter Abbie Boudreau blogs about the incident"

That's amazing. I wish there were more of that on CNN itself. No equivocating. No competing talking heads. Just pointing at someone who is objectively in the wrong and saying that they're objectively in the wrong.
posted by roll truck roll at 11:16 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

CNN has late been desperately attempting to emulate FOX, and generally ends up playing catch up because FOX and it's associates essentialy invents a lot of it's stories. Here they have been handed a story that FOX *cannot cover*, and it has all kinds of tasty angles. I hope they use it to crucify the fuckers.
posted by Artw at 11:16 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

This is so bizarre on so many levels. And on both sides. Is anybody else picking up on that? I can't quite figure out why I feel that way yet, but it's just not right. (Besides the very obvious, 'No that's not fucking right at all!') The framing of this story is all weird. The ambiguities are weird. I couldn't even parse the CNN article. And Boudreau's 'in her words' piece was just alien to me.

I can't even comment on O'Keefe's side of things. That's just crazy scary talk and I'm pretty much speechless.
posted by iamkimiam at 11:17 AM on September 29, 2010

From ericb's link: They just saw my blonde hair. And the ironic thing is that I'm really a brunette.

Ironic that this "prank" was supposed to somehow cast CNN in a bad light for using attractive women reporters...or something? When the worst offender BY FAR of...whatever it is that is the offense here? Is FOX News, with its 24/7 all day lineup on blonde "reporters" and "analysts".
posted by T.D. Strange at 11:17 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Conservative columnist/blogger Matt Lewis @ Politics Daily : "Had O'Keefe quietly transitioned into journalism or traditional activism after the ACORN video, he might well have forever been viewed by conservatives as a hero. Instead, he now appears to be a quixotic youth, desperate for fame and attention."
posted by crunchland at 11:26 AM on September 29, 2010

iamkimiam, what are you not getting about CNN's "side"? Can you elaborate?
posted by defenestration at 11:27 AM on September 29, 2010

The CNN article is a bit confusing because they stuck with the "inverted pyramid" structure instead of just laying it out narratively at the beginning. CNN's story:

1) CNN Correspondent Abbie Boudreau is doing a story on Project Veritas.
2) As part of that story, she wants access to a music video shoot they are doing.
3) O'Keefe asks to to discuss this in person, Boudreau agrees
4) When she arrives, she finds out from one of the conspirators that a weird "sting"/"punk" was planned. Obviously she leaves.
5) Later, CNN receives documents/voicemails that confirm that a really freaky juvenile stunt was being planned by several "conspirators".
6) They also uncover some evidence that they were planning to fake a video that purports to show racist elements within the Tea Party, only for that video to prove to be a hoax.

As far as I can tell, O'Keefe's version of events is: "None of this happened."
posted by muddgirl at 11:34 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

Why not use the knowledge of a set-up to goof HIM? Quick thinking there Batman. That would have been some great television.

Well, no - it wouldn't be, because:
1. The only cameras on the boat were his.
2. He and Breitbart would edit whatever those cameras recorded to serve their own ends.

So - no great television. She was smart to avoid the setup.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:37 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

Michael Landauer | Dallas Morning News:

"Also, on the air just now, CNN said it had proof of another related plot to get CNN to report a fake story while tipping Fox News off to the plot so that it could then undermine CNN's credibility. I doubt the good folks at Fox would participate in such a scheme, and who knows how far that went, or whether it was just a thought, but some adults in the GOP need to get a handle on this kind of stuff sooner rather than later or the kiddos are going to end up with a dirty trick that backfires. Anything that can go viral can also go toxic, after all."

posted by ericb at 11:38 AM on September 29, 2010

I was laughing like a madman (way to get picky about your musical choices, James!) until I got to the part where he basically wrote erotic fanfic about Abbie Boudreau. In script format. As part of an outline.

And then it suddenly got really creepy.
posted by Spatch at 11:38 AM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

I don't get what this would prove. Was he assuming that she would go along with it and therefore he would look like the macho-man conservative who seduced the stupid liberal media "whore." activism or some sort of weird attempt at fantasy realization for him? Also, CNN doesn't have to make him look like a non-journalist, fabricating stories so that they meet your beliefs is not journalism.
posted by djduckie at 11:40 AM on September 29, 2010

I can't imagine he's ever gotten laid by an actual female ever.

Is it wrong of me to find this disturbingly sexist?

Reporter Abbie Boudreau blogs about the incident.

Is it disturbingly sexist of me to suggest that she's in denial about how her looks have influenced her career?
posted by Chuckles at 11:41 AM on September 29, 2010

An um, didn't anyone have a clue that Boudreau has probably walked out on at least a dozen discussions with uncooperative sources, including ones trying to hit on her? Setting aside my dislike for CNN here, she's doing him a favor by having a business meeting to negotiate the terms of press coverage of his event. If he doesn't want to talk business with her, he doesn't get the coverage.

On preview:

Well, no - it wouldn't be, because:
1. The only cameras on the boat were his.
2. He and Breitbart would edit whatever those cameras recorded to serve their own ends.

Yep. Having been informed that she's walking into a situation with hidden cameras, walking away is the only sane choice.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 11:42 AM on September 29, 2010

I have to point this out. O'Keefe's bio from twitter:

Investigative Journalist, Video Producer, Community Organizer, Sailing Enthusiast.
posted by emyd at 11:43 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

what kind of lame plan at 'embarrassing her' is that? strawberries and champaign on a tiny sailboat? I don't know about you but to me that sounds like he'd be recording his own embarrassment.
posted by krautland at 11:44 AM on September 29, 2010

Cocaine's a helluva drug.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 11:46 AM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

So you think maybe his adolescent fantasy date with the pretty lady got spoiled, and the spin is that it was some sort of sting?
posted by crunchland at 11:47 AM on September 29, 2010

I wouldn't be surprised if the unstated goal was to produce a sex tape.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:51 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I'm very curious about what transpired with Izzy Santa just before Boudreau arrived, since she is described as having dirt on her face (?!) and quivering lip. It makes me suspect there's a little bit more to the whole story, unless she was just weeding the garden and was suddenly struck with the notion that she should tip Boudreau off at the very last minute. I don't actually get the whole set up at all, but Andrew Breitbart's protege and employee James O'Keefe *nods to madamejujujive* strikes me as being not just ha-ha-tee-hee loony, but dangerous loony with all his bizarre pimp and sex boat fantasies and apparent problem with women.
posted by taz at 11:53 AM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

Is it disturbingly sexist of me to suggest that she's in denial about how her looks have influenced her career?

I don't think she's denying it at all - she's pointing out that it is sexist for O'Keefe to target her (over, say, Anderson Cooper) solely because she's beautiful and running a story on him. It's sexist to imply that female correspondents use their good looks to "seduce" people into agreeing when attractive male correspondents (like, say, Anderson Cooper) do not garner the same accusations.
posted by muddgirl at 11:54 AM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

I wouldn't be surprised if the unstated goal was to produce a sex tape.

I wouldn't doubt that at all. Which makes this even more amazing: who ON EARTH would think that a woman would actually fall for this shit? Seriously, it blows my mind.

Seduction: You're doing it wrong

posted by Threeway Handshake at 11:56 AM on September 29, 2010

Whatever you think about the likelihood that he would have got anything more than some footage of the reporter's back as she hastily departed his trap, anything he did get would be his to play with. Look what he did with the ACORN tapes. Selective editing. Insertion of staged material. Overdubbed dialog. He thinks nothing of falsifying every aspect of his "journalistic work."

I wouldn't meet with the guy without my own camera capturing every moment. Strike that. I would slam the door in his face.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:56 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Anderson Cooper could interview me crosseyed if he wanted.
posted by Astro Zombie at 11:56 AM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yes, but if I'm to believe what I read, they won't even let you masturbate. Or they only date you in their misspent youth if you're into witchcraft.

There are different types of right-wingers. Anyway, being a hero to the right I'm sure he has plenty of groupies.
posted by delmoi at 11:57 AM on September 29, 2010

I'm almost at the point where I assume the GOP is playing three-dimensional laser chess, because no person could really, honestly think this plot would work.
posted by codacorolla at 11:57 AM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

And if he did get nothing but rejection, he could play it as, "Boudreau the humorless bitch."
posted by KirkJobSluder at 12:00 PM on September 29, 2010

I wonder if he has been getting a lot of groupies and, as a result, has decided no woman can say no to him.
posted by Astro Zombie at 12:04 PM on September 29, 2010

Kirth Gerson: So - no great television. She was smart to avoid the setup.

The messed up thing is that if Santa hadn't warned her, she might've gotten on the boat with all and, in his delusional fucked up mind, that's really all he needs to get some serious mileage out of it. After all, this is all he did with the ACORN "investigation," all he needed was some goofy props, so bemused people humoring his inane questions, some editing and he becomes a "hero activist" who receives adulation from the Right and an award of recognition from Congress. It's unbelieveable and twisted beyond words.

Truth is, Boudreau, had a very close call here and just barely avoided having her career possibly severely compromised and tainted by this retarded assclown. The Right-wing blogs would've defended him, Breitbart's little right-wing media empire would've backed him up, Hannity would've given him soapbox, and the rest of Fox news would've followed suit, so on and so forth....as long as he can make it his word against some 'perceived" demon of the Right wing, he's in the clear.

As it stands now, there is absolutely not a peep (I checked) from any of those right-wing bastions of journalist excellence I mentioned above.

None. At. All.

he radio silence is so damning.

O'Keefe has either just possibly ended his stint as an "activist investigative journalist," or more likely, because this is going to look so bad for Breitbart if he doesn't at least pretend to back him up, Breibart's coming up with some little gimmick or pungent piece of asshattery to twist the facts and muck the events and make this about some sort of MSM conspiracy against the Tea Party and the right.
posted by Skygazer at 12:11 PM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

The "Equipment needed" section of the dossier notes that the music should consist predominantly of "80s romance songs, things that are typically James."

"Their early work was a little too new wave for my tastes, but when Sports came out in '83, I think they really came into their own, commercially and artistically. The whole album has a clear, crisp sound, and a new sheen of consummate professionalism that really gives the songs a big boost. He's been compared to Elvis Costello, but I think Huey has a far much more bitter, cynical sense of humor. "

(Yeah, Threeway Handshake, that's EXACTLY where I went when I read this, too...)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 12:15 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Between his laughably stereotypical "pimp" costume from the Acorn "sting," and this hokey champagne and strawberries seduction setup, I get the feeling that O'Keefe's knowledge of the rest of the world comes solely through bad television sitcoms.
posted by chowflap at 12:23 PM on September 29, 2010 [12 favorites]

And porn. Don't forget the porn.
posted by dersins at 12:28 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I agree with all you wrote there, Skygazer, except that Breitbart already attempted once to deny being O'Keefe's employer. If the Boy Blunder screws up badly enough, Breitbart will certainly disown him.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:30 PM on September 29, 2010

oh my this is juicy. Lawsuit, please?
posted by Theta States at 12:35 PM on September 29, 2010

Considering the setup, what might have been left off the written list but on the mental-remember-to-bring list might have been Rohypnol. Seriously.
posted by edgeways at 12:42 PM on September 29, 2010

O'Keefe, I served with Ashton Kutcher. I knew Ashton Kutcher. Ashton Kutcher was a friend of mine. O'Keefe, you are no Ashton Kutcher.
posted by Joey Michaels at 12:43 PM on September 29, 2010 [7 favorites]

Ashton Kutcher would not be the worst VP ever; nor even the second-worst.
posted by Mister_A at 12:44 PM on September 29, 2010

I like this part on page 5:

6. Persona

James should have a more sleavy persona than normal,

posted by Theta States at 12:47 PM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

...and how come the MSM (Fox News) isn't covering this story?
posted by Theta States at 12:48 PM on September 29, 2010

It's customary to cancel the bail of someone who commits another crime while out on bail, right?
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:48 PM on September 29, 2010

why do people keep referring to o'keefe and his accomplices as "activists"?

is it because "agent provocateur" gives them too much credit for sanity?
posted by lodurr at 12:50 PM on September 29, 2010

He's actually on probation iirc, Pope Guilty, but I take your meaning. Yes it would seem that if you're on probation for wire-tapping type stuff and then you do that exact same fucking thing (more or less) you should head to the pokey.
posted by Mister_A at 12:51 PM on September 29, 2010

I'm a little confused: I didn't know about other stunts besides the ACORN and Planned Parenthood ones, but the script would seem to imply that these are a thing, with a staff and everything. Are there lots of these videos on the conservative circuit, and just a few of them that have gotten mainstream attention?
posted by roll truck roll at 12:55 PM on September 29, 2010

I would think he would have to be actually charged with a crime before revoking the bail? I don't know if he has he been charged yet. It sounds like this is all happening today, so it is likely law enforcement are currently evaluating the level of evidence.

It sounds like wiretapping may be what to actually charge him with, but as fucking skeevy and downright despicable his planned actions where can someone make a knowledgeable non-emotional argument what he could be charged with? I actually would love to see him nailed for something serious enough to do time, outside of the possible wiretapping though what would that be?
posted by edgeways at 12:56 PM on September 29, 2010

edit that to replace bail with probation as per Mister_A
posted by edgeways at 12:57 PM on September 29, 2010

ou know, in a strange way, I can see how someone could watch interviews on The Daily Show -- in which reporters behave in a contrived, artificial and unprofessional way towards their interview subjects, and then edit the reports to make the results sunny -- and, completely missing the point that it's a comedy program, get enraged and think that this sort of thing is an appropriate response.

steve carrell and stephen colbert both apparently took this idea pretty seriously when they were on the daily show. i heard carrell talking about it on fresh air -- he said it was why he developed his idiot-persona, because it felt creepy making fun of people who were sometimes so obviously disturbed. he credited colbert with giving him the idea.
posted by lodurr at 12:59 PM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

That got kind of confusing later on, I was envisioning some girl dressed in a Santa Claus costume.

You should see The Coca Cola Kid.
posted by kirkaracha at 1:05 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

I wouldn't be surprised if the unstated goal was to produce a sex tape.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:51 PM on September 29 [+] [!]

i think that's exactly what he wanted. of course, he knew it wasn't going to happen with her--and was probably planning on using a body double.
posted by lester at 1:08 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

...but the script would seem to imply that these are a thing, with a staff and everything. Are there lots of these videos on the conservative circuit, and just a few of them that have gotten mainstream attention?

They are being bankrolled by Brietbart and some other prominent conservatives, so yes there is a staff and such. I've seen a few failed "caper" videos floating around, so I presume that only the very successful ones make national news.
posted by muddgirl at 1:08 PM on September 29, 2010

Someone please post up links when Breitbart posts his side of the story.
posted by Theta States at 1:09 PM on September 29, 2010

Conservative grass-roots isn't.
posted by Artw at 1:15 PM on September 29, 2010

Astroturf doesn't need roots.
posted by Jimmy Havok at 1:17 PM on September 29, 2010 [9 favorites]

I would love to write some scripts for these guys. Cuz hey, what's the harm?
posted by Mister_A at 1:18 PM on September 29, 2010

I would love to write some scripts for these guys. Cuz hey, what's the harm?

I was going to type up a fake script in parody of this guy and post it here, but there is nothing that can be written that could possible top the real one.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 1:25 PM on September 29, 2010

Politico posted a refresher: O'Keefe's probation restrictions
posted by Theta States at 1:29 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Good point, Threeway. It would be like trying to parody The Room.
posted by Mister_A at 1:39 PM on September 29, 2010

Interesting that Viagra was on the props list. It's a prescription only drug isn't it? Is it scheduled by the DEA? Did he have a prescription for it? Right there is a simple conviction. I assume the "props list" is good probable cause for a search warrant.
posted by formless at 1:50 PM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Keith Gerson: I agree with all you wrote there, Skygazer, except that Breitbart already attempted once to deny being O'Keefe's employer.

Your right, he did disown him once before, immediately after O'Keefe and his band of merry conservative investigative "activists" (it kills me everytime I read that somewhere), all young and in theirearly mid- 20s, (Joseph Basel, 24; Robert Flanagan, 24; James O'Keefe, 25; and Stan Dai, 24). Two (Flanagan and Basel) were dressed as telephone repair men and accompanied O'keefe into U.S. Sen. Landrieu's office in New Orleans which is in a federal building, and one Stan Dai was in car outside the building in communication with O'keefe. Incidentally Dai was some sort of junior black ops GI man with some ties to college conservative groups, and no joke, wrote a parody of The Vagina Monologues called Penis Monologues. You can understand why he'd be perfect as one of O'Keefe's "activists." He and O"keefe share same emotional age of 11.

Anyhow, initially Breitbart denied any involvement or connections to the stunt whatsoever (mucking around in phone boxes and closets that tie into CIA offices in a Fed building is big BIG no no..) on right-wing radio host Hugh Hewitt's show.

Basically he threw O'Keefe under the bus bigtime, probably because he hadn't been able to speak to O'Keefe who was being held and interrogated and assumed the worst, probably assumed O'keefe would roll over on him, and the criticism he was receiving online for not coming to O'Keefe's defense looked damning and sleazy. A day or so after that denial of any knowledge or direct monetary connection to O'Keefe that paid for the Landreiu scheme, he came out swinging and making the story about how various news orgainzations had smeared and libelled O'Keefe by saying there was an attempt at wiretapping. Basically he got together with his lawyers and they concocted this BS story to try and take the focus off the original story, instead they tried to make it about the San JOse Mercury Bee and The Village Voice who both wrote that O'Keefe had been charged with wiretapping. It was repellent legalistic hair-splitting BS. The sort of stuff mob figures would come up with it seemed to me. And it worked a bit, going on the offensive like that, suddenly the Right-Wing blogs, Hannity and Fox and Drudge all had a way of carrying the story that fed into the Right wing narrative and made O'Keefe a Martyr of sorts.

Not only that, it forced Breitbart to polish up and enlarge his presence as a right-wing spokesperson, he became a big celebrity as a defender of tea party issues and a stolid enemy of Obama and the left...

Oh, and there was another BS story Breitbart and the ratfucker media teams honed in on, to present O'Keefe as the victim of a nasty left-wing smear campaign to ruin his good name, due to his ground-breaking story on ACORN. Max Blumenthal, a writer for Salon, wrote a story that linked O'Keefe with racist literature

at an event, which gave anti-Semites, professional racists and proponents of Aryanism an opportunity to share their grievances and plans to make inroads in the GOP.

With Breitbart even going so far as to confront Blumenthal at CPAC Feb. 20 2010, a few weeks after the O'Keefe bust in New Orleans. Here's the footage. It is hard to stomach Breitbart's self-righteous blowhard diatribe, and the fellow CPAC lackey's willing to back up his crap.

It's been almost 9 hours since Boudreau's blog piece went up at 7:46 AM, and not a single Fox wannabe or associated right wing site (Drudge, Breitbart, Fox News of course), has uttered a peep about this. 9 hours!! The boy hero who destroyed ACORN!! It's mind boggling and I await anxiously to see how this is spun, because all this across the board silence is saying something big is coming, a concerted effort to make this about something other than O'Keefe and about making it about whatever crap they can dig up other news sites reporting about it.

Anyhow, that's how I see the anatomy of this playing out.
posted by Skygazer at 2:02 PM on September 29, 2010 [4 favorites]

Another thought is that Izzy Santa, who works for the Veritas Institute, the bogus organization that O'Keefe "works" for, is being pressured to change her story to conflict with Boudreau's. I imagine she signed some sort of non-disclosure agreement and she's the obvious fall-guy for these misogynist retarded fuckheads.
posted by Skygazer at 2:13 PM on September 29, 2010

The messed up thing is that if Santa hadn't warned her, she might've gotten on the boat with all and, in his delusional fucked up mind...

She was interviewed on CNN this afternoon. She said that if she had known he intended to meet her on a boat she wouldn't have even travelled to Maryland to see him. When she arrived at the location for their meeting (which she was told would be held in "his office") to discuss the potential of her attending the music video shoot she found it was a house. It was at that point that Santa approached her car, got in and spilled the beans.
posted by ericb at 2:45 PM on September 29, 2010

Right-wing Newsbusters publisher Brent Bozell denounces O'Keefe.
posted by waraw at 2:49 PM on September 29, 2010

James O'Keefe: hoist on his own petard -- "Conservative activist James O'Keefe's latest stunt – to expose the liberal media bias – has only exposed him. As a sexist ass."
posted by ericb at 2:51 PM on September 29, 2010 [5 favorites]

James O'Keefe: A history of lies, falsehoods, and deception.
posted by ericb at 3:07 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Conservatives respond to alleged O'Keefe seduction "prank" -- "Conservative media figures have begun to speak out about CNN's report that James O'Keefe planned to 'seduce' and publicly humiliate CNN reporter Abbie Bourdeau. A number of conservatives have condemned O'Keefe, while Tim Graham of NewsBusters used the story as an opportunity to attack CNN."
posted by ericb at 3:10 PM on September 29, 2010

"Obvious question for @howardkurtz: CNN 'investigates' and exposes young conservatives, but just celebrates transgenders and gay parenting?"

Well OF COURSE that's the obvious question here...
posted by Artw at 3:15 PM on September 29, 2010

CNN 'investigates' and exposes young conservatives, but just celebrates transgenders and gay parenting?

CNN 'investigates' and exposes young conservatives, but just celebrates puppies and iced cream??

CNN 'investigates' and exposes young conservatives, but just celebrates America and freedom???
posted by muddgirl at 3:19 PM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

That Guardian write-up is spot on, ericb. Thanks for the link. Also, that was a good rundown, Skygazer.
posted by defenestration at 3:20 PM on September 29, 2010

Dirty trickster James O'Keefe's foray into gonzo porn has ended disastrously for him.
posted by quin at 3:23 PM on September 29, 2010

Tim Graham will of course will be caught transing his gender and parenting gay kids any day now.
posted by Artw at 3:31 PM on September 29, 2010

Refund ACORN now! Contact your congressman and demand a resolution on the floor Supporting ACORNs vindication, expressing sympathy for the victims of recent media slurs and condemning the boorish behavior of breitbart and his ship rape freinds.
posted by humanfont at 3:41 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

ship rape

They were trying to seduce the boat as well?!
posted by MikeKD at 3:53 PM on September 29, 2010

O'Keefe had already raised multiple red-flags for any reporter or a woman in that situation:
1: setting up the meeting in person
2: alone
3: in a different city
4: at an "office" that wasn't an office.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 3:57 PM on September 29, 2010

Ooops cut myself off.

So this whole scheme doesn't make a lick of sense to me because it requires that Boudreau act like a horror-movie victim rather than a journalist.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 4:13 PM on September 29, 2010

The Atlantic headline:

James O'Keefe Resurfaces, Allegedly to Try to Hit On a Female CNN Reporter

Yes, that's exactly what this story is about.

Do the political writers at The Atlantic no longer bother to read or do even the most cursory research before plopping out these kinds of posts?
posted by stagewhisper at 4:18 PM on September 29, 2010

It's like the opposite of research...
posted by Artw at 4:26 PM on September 29, 2010

I used to watch that VH1 show with Mystery where he taught dudes who had problems picking up women "The Game" so that they too could be with a lot of women. Mystery has a lot of vocabulary for his moves (you "neg" women by insulting them, which will make them show an IOI "indicator of interest" and so on...). One of the guys on this show kept using the word "caper" as part of his pick up act ("my friends and i just pulled this caper" was his opener), which always made me crack up because who USES that word in any sort of real-life context?
posted by armacy at 4:51 PM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

She said that if she had known he intended to meet her on a boat she wouldn't have even travelled to Maryland to see him.

Well of course she wouldn't have gone down to the Republican Rape Boat willingly. That's why the star of the young conservatives had to hatch the conspiracy to commit kidnapping and sexual battery!
posted by vibrotronica at 5:29 PM on September 29, 2010

Another thought is that Izzy Santa

She's already been removed from the "project" and scrubbed from what a designer would refer to as "their really shitty website". Whistleblowers never get the credit they deserve and in this case, the juvenile minds of the taliban with have a long memory for her. Good luck with your career, Izzy Santa.
posted by jsavimbi at 5:32 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Good luck with your career, Izzy Santa.

Good thing it's not a memorable name or anything.
posted by theredpen at 5:46 PM on September 29, 2010 [3 favorites]

There had better be at least one lawsuit arising from this incident ASAP. This criminal loser does not need to be out harassing actual journalists while posing as one. Or claiming to pose as one. I can't believe anyone would refer to him as any type of journalist!
posted by theredpen at 5:48 PM on September 29, 2010

I hope he tried to pull something in my office.
posted by fuq at 5:56 PM on September 29, 2010

Well, I'm sure he's pulling something in HIS office right now. After all, he's an attention whore.
posted by ericb at 5:58 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

tried=tries.
posted by fuq at 5:59 PM on September 29, 2010

This guy should get together with Tommy Wiseau and make some documentary films.

ABBY, YOU ARE TEARING ME APART!!!
posted by StrangerInAStrainedLand at 6:07 PM on September 29, 2010 [2 favorites]

Right of Center Media leaves James O'Keefe Stranded Over Latest Stunt


Also, in the article, Breitbart sends out a first Twitter, in response to Media Matters, and he does not disappoint as his usual charming self.
posted by Skygazer at 6:59 PM on September 29, 2010

I have to give O'Keefe one thing -- I've never seen a skinny, pimply, jug-eared kid with quite so much sexual confidence. Maybe he's got a really... I mean...

Oh, Jesus, never mind. I have to go wash my brain.
posted by steambadger at 7:11 PM on September 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

If -- and that is always a big if -- if these events are as reported, Izzy Santa is pretty much a Profile in Courage. It's unlikely that anyone on either Team Red or Team Blue will show much bankable gratitude for what she did, but it was the right thing. She's shit the bed with the right-wingers, and mainstream or progressive ones either won't trust her or can't pay much for trust, but I hope she gets a decent living somewhere. Maybe writes a bitchy barely-disguised novel that gets made into a movie.
posted by Countess Elena at 7:14 PM on September 29, 2010 [6 favorites]

I wonder if after he got her on the boat with the sex toys if he was going to yell "Baba Booey!"
posted by Saxon Kane at 7:16 PM on September 29, 2010

Also, in the article, Breitbart sends out a first Twitter, in response to Media Matters, and he does not disappoint as his usual charming self.

That tweet was in response to MeFi's own owillis (who's missed around these parts).
posted by mkultra at 7:18 PM on September 29, 2010

Interesting that even Breitbart is trying to distance himself from O'keefe, disavowing their relationship.
posted by crunchland at 9:02 PM on September 29, 2010

I'm kinda afraid to go check out the Right-wing boards

I looked at a couple, e.g. this comment thread at Red State. It looks like one common perception there is that in this instance O'Keefe was doing something wrong, in the Landreau attempted wiretapping case he would have been vindicated if he'd only gotten the goods, and in the ACORN case O'Keefe is a hero of the republic for exposing the vile corruption. I'm not sure if this progression is a gradual realization of what O'Keefe does, or a rosy tinted rewriting of the past.

(The other frequent opinion, no surprise, is that it's all fake and poor innocent O'Keefe is being slandered by that evil CNN.)
posted by hattifattener at 9:24 PM on September 29, 2010

I can only imagine that he wishes that James Spader was young enough to play him in the bio-pic.
posted by thebrokedown at 10:09 PM on September 29, 2010

Boudreau as she steps onto the boat: "I'm glad we'll have the chance to finally discuss the documentary..." and then sees the props: "You've got to be fucking kidding me; are you insane? What kind of a pathetic little man comes up with this shit? My God, you are a complete psychopath — Oh, hey, is that an obvious sex tape machine?"

AFTER EDITING:

Boudreau: "I'm glad we'll have the chance to ... be fucking. What ... a ... man. My God, you are a ... sex ... machine."
posted by taz at 11:12 PM on September 29, 2010 [18 favorites]

I'm very curious about what transpired with Izzy Santa just before Boudreau arrived, since she is described as having dirt on her face (?!) and quivering lip.

Well, if I was a cop, the obvious conclusion would be that O'Keefe was planning a three-way with at least one unwilling participant, and that he got violent when Izzy Santa refused to play her role. Especially considering the presence of the dildos and lube.

Maybe he was just planning to sexually harass Bourdeux on camera, with Santa as an additional source of embarrassment. Maybe. But I can't help but think an hour or two iwith O'Keefe n a police interrogation would turn up some fascinating shit.
posted by happyroach at 12:35 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Arrgh. Boudreau. I need to get some sleep.
posted by happyroach at 12:36 AM on September 30, 2010

I just went to foxnews.com and entered "james O'Keefe" in the search bar. Odd that nothing about this incident shows up.

Fair and balanced, as usual.
posted by Krapulous at 12:58 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fox News would never print a story that's remotely negative towards the Republican institutions. They are too busy campaigning for them 24/7.
posted by Theta States at 6:49 AM on September 30, 2010

I went to Conservapedia and entered 'Georgia O'Keeffe' in the search bar, and they told me that flowers do not, in fact, resemble vaginas.
posted by box at 7:29 AM on September 30, 2010 [2 favorites]

Fox News would never print a story that's remotely negative towards the Republican institutions. They are too busy campaigning for them 24/7.

Someone needs to start a clock. It would prove to be a priceless way of proving how corrupt and slanted they are as a news agency. On page 2, paragraph 3 of the 13 page Project Veritas Document, that CNN recovered, it clearly says:

....prepare our allies to pounce, it could be a good way to undercut their [CNN's] credibility...

The very same "allies" that would've gained from this caper, are the very same who've decided to suppress it and O'Keefe's comeuppance as a major major weasel scumbag who should've never ever received any of the adulation and attention that a desperate Right wing gave him. It is 5 hours past a 24 hour news cycle, since Boudreau blogged about this, and still nothing on Fox News, any of the Breitbart Web media outlets or on Drudge.

One wonders if these conservative allies and mouthpieces. Employers and enablers, and underwriters of sociopathic pornographic misogyny, will retain their silence as the time approaches for CNN's documentary by Boudreau, which promises even greater disclosure of GOP and Tea Party darling, James O'Keefe and his political media group being exposed as unethical, manipulative, immoral, dishonest, sexually prurient, anti-women, anti-free speech rapists.
posted by Skygazer at 9:53 AM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Eh. Who is Izzy Santa?

O'Keefe denies the documents are his. Assuming Izzy Santa is CNN's source for those documents, then she's the key to the story. What's her credibility?
posted by notyou at 10:13 AM on September 30, 2010

Izzy Santa was listed as the executive director of Project Veritas before sites was scrubbed - I don't have screenshots. She also briefly worked for the Cato Institute. Beyond the event itself, there is a lot of external documentation that has been leaked, according to CNN - incriminating emails, voice recordings, etc. It's plausible that this was all an adolescent fantasy that no one was seriously going to go through with, but I don't think Santa faked the entire planning process.
posted by muddgirl at 10:18 AM on September 30, 2010

I don't think Santa faked the entire planning process

Unless it turns out this was a DOUBLE REVERSE MEGA META-PUNK! Get this, see, so they set it all up to look like they were planning to set up Abbie Boudreau for a seduction/sex tape scenario, then had DOUBLE REVERSE SEKRIT OPERATIVE Izzy Santa "tip off" their supposed victim, all so that they could get CNN and the LIBRUL MEDIA ELITISTS to report this fake story that they totally were just kidding about. Then they'll reveal that ITS A TRAP AND REALLY THEY WERE JUST KIDDING AND LOOK SEE THIS PROVES......uh, something? maybe?
posted by dersins at 10:22 AM on September 30, 2010 [6 favorites]

I really was amazed at whoever said "she should have gone through with it and then..." about the reporter - you do realize that the set up was on a boat right? No one's really looked at this aspect but the only reason I can see for having this on a boat is that once you cast off from the bank/wherever, the female reporter would thus be trapped on board with the O'Keefe and whoever he might have on board. (I know, you could swim to safety, but the escape will still be slower - and the point is the reporter is being detained against her will. Not remotely amusing.) There's no way going into this situation can be seen as safe or smart for any reporter, male or female, in an interview with any subject - but especially this one. One wonders if O'Keefe bothered to look up the legal definition of kidnapping to see how to skirt any laws - but somehow I doubt it.

Obviously creepy and misogynist definitely - but there's a level of lawbreaking in this attempt that so far O'Keefe hasn't been accused of. Yet.
And that isn't the slightest bit amusing.
posted by batgrlHG at 3:51 PM on September 30, 2010 [1 favorite]

Fox News still obsessed with Colbert, but can't mention O'Keefe.
posted by ericb at 4:00 PM on September 30, 2010

batgrlHG: I just read someone claiming sex-worker experience who says that the wisdom is to never do boat parties because you can't easily walk away from that situation. The reasoning goes that the threat of walking out and/or making a scene provides a small safety check.
posted by KirkJobSluder at 5:14 PM on September 30, 2010

I think they actually teach stuff like that in journalism school. I've heard a lot of reporters say analogous things, all boiling down to don't go into a place you can't see an obvious way to get out of if there's trouble. Boudreau did the right thing for her own safety, and not just the smart thing for the story.
posted by lodurr at 8:46 AM on October 1, 2010

Breibart FINALLY publishes something in reference to his employee's failed ploy.
posted by crunchland at 7:43 PM on October 1, 2010

I like how they're all "I respected him so much for his ACORN activism"...

I just don't get it. That massive disconnect. The storytelling occurred that, regardless of actual evidence and means, that ACORN was an evil entity that deserved everything that happened.
posted by Theta States at 10:12 PM on October 1, 2010 [1 favorite]

Breibart FINALLY publishes something in reference to his employee's failed ploy.

My God reaading that was nausea inducing. Especially the lib-weary "avuncular" tone. He glibly repeats the FNC narrative myth that the ACORN stunt was a huge landmark success, reduces the assclown stupidity of the Landrieu ploy as the MSM smearing O'Keefe, and adopting his most polyanna lenses reads this latest bit of epic buffoonary as just some words on paper and an immature gag that went wrong and hailing O'Keefe as a hero with "legions" of supporters...that will be fine as long as he simply apologizes and explains it.

It is, as all thinks befouled by the stench of Breibart's fat dirty loud lying ass, just too much to stomach...

20 bucks says O'keefe shows up at one of the big Fox shows next week, or more likely, since even Fox has distanced themselves a bit, Hugh Hewitt's radio show and basically apologizes and grovels and tries to save his media career....

I really, really, hope Boudreau doesn't pull any punches in her documentary tonight. She's got to be utterly furious on 10 different levels over this unprofessional, immature, dangerous, ,scary, career ending, misogynistic, sociopathic, insulting, objectifying, manipulative (I could do this all day...) deplorable behavior, and she really needs to let him have it.

Then let him man up and apologize and grovel, but this parasite needs to be shown for the dumbass he is....Project Veritas is his baby, he runs that show, as much as there's this attempt at an organization to protect and establish some plausabile deniability...
posted by Skygazer at 10:16 AM on October 2, 2010

James O'Keefe is so pathetic, I'm beginning too hate myself for piling on him. Ultimately the guy has the innocence of the intensely dumb, or those keenly desperate for approval, for a purpose, for a sense of identity, even if it's the prefab heroic "misunderstood" identity many teens find in Ayn Rand books.

Take a weak, thin, weird, insecure kid who was unvalued by his parents and an outcast misfit, who got beat up regularly all through out school for being such a weird duck. Wanting to be someone special and do something special but either inarticulate or silenced by his own poorly developed sense of self-worth with rage building up year after year.

There's a couple of options for kids like that, they either become obsessive following some extreme sub-culture or they become artists, or they do both and slowly begin to build mechanisms to cope and carve out some space for themselves they can like, or they come under the spell of some charismatic person or other who gives them the answers they can't or haven't had the time to find for themselves (if ever) who give them a sense of the self worth. The decent ones will understand they have an important responsibility in helping the individual find his or her own voice, and the abhorrent ones will have ulterior motives as they slowly mold them into their own ideological shape and introduce the necessity for some action that's psychopathic or sociopathic in nature. And they know how to feed the self-worth of people like O'Keefe (Breitbart I'm looking at you...)

There's lots of kids like O'Keefe in Al Queda, I bet, as well as, many extreme reliogions (the American Taliban), O'Keefe luckily came of age in a time when the internet has become such an effective weapon and outlet for these drives.

After the Landreiu debacle, a simply search of O'Keefe and fellow bungling foot soldier, with deficit sense of self-worth (and rage against "libs'), Stan Dai could be found in a YouTube video, tooling around on O'Keefe's sailboat, with a lady or two, awkwardly smoking fat Cuban Cohiba's acting like the right-wing characters in a Tom Clancy novel on their downtime, when their not stopping nuclear explosions or training as 007 type Navy Seals. (O'Keefe took the footage down right after the Landreiu event, but I would think, it has got to be cached on the web somewhere.)

There were a couple of long held shots of O'Keefe, and they were a revelation into the guy, I'm sorry to say. Self-consciously "serious" and "deep-in-thought," looking out into the distance, seeing something-only-he can-see... It was both hilarious and squirm-inducing, like the pretension of "complexity" and "spirit." Like seeing an expression on someone's face that you really wished you hadn't seen because it's a bit too much than you really want to know about that person, and what I say was so badly theatrical: "A patriot" an "individual, " famous and wealthy, with an exaggerated sense of manliness (tm.) "A self-made proto-Howard Roarkian/John Galt figure."

Astonishing and ludicrous to behold. Laughable. Beyond laughable. Gut-bustingly retarded is what it was because the dude was serious.

So with that in mind, I can no longer despise or hate this kid, for he knows not what in the hell he is doing and needs to save himself.... he means nothing to Fox News, Breitbart, Drudge, the Tea Party and the right-wing as well as the idiots in Congress who gave him a commendation They're in the process of feeding him to the lions. If not now, sometime in the near future. This guy needs to ignore the hype and do some soul searching or remain in a fog of confusion and arrested development, the textbook definition of an idiot.
posted by Skygazer at 12:25 PM on October 2, 2010 [4 favorites]

James O'Keefe segment [video | 11:46] of Abbie Boudreau's CNN documentary, 'Right on the Edge’
posted by ericb at 10:41 AM on October 3, 2010 [2 favorites]

Thanks, ericb.
This is just too weird. The bit of the 'O'Keefe comeback video' at the end is even weirder than the whole plot. I thought in most of the unedited Acorn video the Acorn people O'Keefe interacts with seem to know they are part of a gag of some sort,but don't know how to react. And I am amazed that O'Keefe thinks that there are pimps that dress in some kind of fratboy idealized pimp outfits.
And that his peripheral newsworthiness warranted a comeback.
posted by readery at 11:19 AM on October 3, 2010

I find it odd that Izzy Santa was willing to throw away her job with Project Veritas to stop the madness, and yet unwilling to appear on camera to talk about it.
posted by waraw at 9:26 PM on October 3, 2010

If I'd pissed off James O'Keefe I'd be pretty nervous about the idea of further pissing him off.
posted by Pope Guilty at 9:43 PM on October 3, 2010

If I'd pissed off James O'Keefe I'd be pretty nervous about the idea of further pissing him off.

I gotta disagree, Pope G. May I call you Pope G.? Anyway. If I'd pissed off James O'Keefe, I'd redouble my efforts and keep him enraged. The last thing I'd want is that slimy little prick slinking off to lick his wounds and scheme. A snake like that, you keep him riled up and right in front of you, where you can keep an eye on him.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 1:05 AM on October 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, no, I'd assume that pissing him off would result in some kind of nastiness being perpetrated against me. That little Lee Atwater-wannabe piece of shit is exactly the sort of person who'd pull all kinds of vindictive shit.
posted by Pope Guilty at 2:26 AM on October 4, 2010

Maybe she wasn't so much afraid of what O'keefe could or couldn't do to her, but his supporters.
posted by crunchland at 4:15 AM on October 4, 2010

So I wonder when we get to see this "comeback music video" he was working on?
posted by Theta States at 5:04 AM on October 4, 2010

Man now I want to see James O'Keefe versus Pope Guilty. Can we get it on the next Metafilter PPV?
posted by jtron at 10:17 AM on October 4, 2010

BRB, assuming new identity and faking death.
posted by Pope Guilty at 10:19 AM on October 4, 2010

BRB, assuming new identity and faking death.

I think the main thing is if you see anyone approaching you with a dildo and furry handcuffs you should probably drop what you're doing and run like hell....
posted by Skygazer at 11:52 AM on October 4, 2010

Just a FYI, it's better to fake your death before you assume the new identity. Otherwise you end up having gone through all the trouble of getting the bogus passport and birth certificate only to convince everyone that the new you "accidentally" lit up a cigarette while taking a gasoline shower.

It makes for a lot of work for nothing.
posted by quin at 11:58 AM on October 4, 2010

Actually, that's pretty good advice for almost anyone, under any circumstance....
posted by Skygazer at 11:59 AM on October 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

I think the main thing is if you see anyone approaching you with a dildo and furry handcuffs you should probably drop what you're doing and run like hell....
posted by Skygazer at 1:52 PM on October 4 [+] [!]

That's terrible advice.
posted by jtron at 12:41 PM on October 4, 2010 [1 favorite]

She would have had to consent before being filmed and she was not going to be faux ‘seduced’ unless she wanted to be...

O'Keefe's statement.
posted by dersins at 1:23 PM on October 5, 2010

Oh I see... it's just a coincidence that Boudreau's experiences happen to line up with the initial parts of the plan that O'Keefe never agreed to! That's all!

What a bullshitter.
posted by muddgirl at 1:26 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

The rape boat was actually full of puppies.
posted by Artw at 1:26 PM on October 5, 2010

I’ll admit that I liked the basic absurdity of meeting Abbie Boudreau on a boat and the idea of counter-seduction satire executed in a tame, humorous, non-threatening manner.

Pro tip to all the gentlemen punkers out there:

THERE IS NOTHING TAME, HUMOROUS, OR NON-THREATENING ABOUT FUCKING TRAPPING SOMEONE ON A BOAT.
posted by muddgirl at 1:28 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

I never wanted to be part of a CNN documentary because I know that CNN claims to be fair minded yet is not. Their pursuit of a non-story based on a document I neither produced, nor followed, confirms what we already know: “The most trusted name in news” can’t be trusted. Look at their reporting.

Okay. I did. I watched the documentary James didn't want to be a part of, and it was a piece of shit -- it reported all of the "edgy right" ambush tactics without question, pretending there was nothing wrong with anything you did, ignoring the bullshit he's spewed about being dressed as a pimp the whole time when he plainly wasn't. So, James, take your "liberal cnn" bullshit and shove it up your ass.
posted by waraw at 1:36 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

"If you were to roam through my personal emails there are many outrageous plans, some parts of which I may approve of in principal with an 'I like it' in an email thread."

Um, James, it's 'principle.'

If you consider yourself a 'journalist,' first learn proper spelling and grammar!
posted by ericb at 2:00 PM on October 5, 2010

Thats what editers are for,
posted by dersins at 2:08 PM on October 5, 2010 [4 favorites]

“The most trusted name in news” can’t be trusted. Look at their reporting.

Coming from this guy? Are you fucking kidding me?

THERE IS NOTHING TAME, HUMOROUS, OR NON-THREATENING ABOUT FUCKING TRAPPING SOMEONE ON A BOAT.

I know it's a complete coincidence, but I thought that this weeks episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia was particularly apt in the timing of its release.

"...because of the implication."
posted by quin at 2:08 PM on October 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

Woman who stopped CNN 'punk' plan says O'Keefe claims untrue.

“The woman who stopped a plot by conservative activist James O'Keefe to embarrass a CNN reporter said O'Keefe's latest statement on the matter is ‘clearly not true.’

In an e-mail to CNN, the former executive director of Project Veritas, Izzy Santa, wrote: ‘It's clearly a PR statement for damage control. It's clearly not true but what can you do.’

Santa was reacting to O'Keefe's explanation of what he said would have happened on his boat in August after he agreed to meet CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau, who was working on a documentary about young conservative activists.

… In a two-sentence statement prior to the airing of the documentary, O'Keefe said he did not write the document and that he ‘found certain elements highly objectionable and inappropriate, and did not consider them for one minute following it.’

In a statement posted Monday on his Project Veritas website, O'Keefe again asserted he did not intend to carry out the plan as specified in the document.

… CNN's documentary revealed a series of e-mails, which appear to show O'Keefe's intentions.

In one e-mail to a colleague, written several days before Boudreau's scheduled meeting with O'Keefe, he forwarded an audio recording from the phone conversation he taped without Boudreau's knowledge. O'Keefe wrote: ‘Getting closer. Audio attached of conversation with Abbie. What do you think of her reaction guys...Ben, you think I could get her on the boat?’

In a different e-mail to Santa, O'Keefe gives her specific instructions to help him prepare for the meeting.

‘Please go to fedex and print out pleasure palace graphic on large banner,’ O'Keefe wrote, ‘needs to be ready by late tonight -- if possible...’

Those emails contradict O'Keefe's latest statement, in which he says he did not implement plans detailed in the document.”

Squggle and squirm all you want, asshole. You're not getting out of this one -- as you haven't been able to do regarding past shenagians.
posted by ericb at 2:12 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

James O’Keefe abandoned by powerful conservatives.
posted by ericb at 2:15 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I suspect the only thing he knows about veritas is that you supposedly find it in vino.
posted by Grangousier at 3:58 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

Not a shred of humility or regret just hubris andPR denial.

I can barely wait for the next brilliant caper.

20 bucks says it puts him in the running for a Darwin Award.
posted by Skygazer at 8:15 PM on October 5, 2010

I suspect the only thing he knows about veritas is that you supposedly find it in vino.

Oh please, he saw it on one of the guys' hands in The Boondock Saints.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:34 PM on October 5, 2010 [1 favorite]

I guess. I meant he's probably got it confused with drunkenness.
posted by Grangousier at 1:05 AM on October 6, 2010

20 bucks says it puts him in the running for a Darwin Award. -- I thought the criterion for being awarded one of those is that you die trying, and remove yourself from the gene pool for the good of humanity. So yeah, I'll take your bet.
posted by crunchland at 3:45 AM on October 6, 2010

(er... or maybe I should have read your comment more closely. That was your point. Sorry. Need coffee.)
posted by crunchland at 3:47 AM on October 6, 2010