This Story Has So Many Things Wrong On So Many Levels

Oh I wish I were an Oscar-Mayer...sorry, the devil made me do it. I swear. Look, this guy has been a target his entire life. How would YOU like to go through high school with that last name? Ya think he might have had it rough? Crikey, Mate. However, he's bringing all of this on himself by not being direct with the answers.

The only thing missing here is the wagging finger.

Weiner grilled --

If Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) wants to convince us he's the innocent victim of a hacker, he might not be doing the best job. Yesterday during a Capitol Hill press conference, he repeatedly and angrily refused to answer simple yes/no questions such as, "Is that you in that picture?" and "Did you send that picture?" and "Are the police investigating?" Instead, he claimed his previous statements answered those questions already, even though they really didn't. Oh yeah, and he called one guy a rude name for asking.

NY Post: "[Weiner] flashed a tight, uncomfortable smile and avoided eye contact as he tried to deflect point-blank questions from reporters about whether or not he had sent a crotch shot of himself in underwear to a 21-year-old co-ed in Seattle. 'Was it from you or not,' demanded CNN's Capitol Hill producer Ted Barrett.

To which the squirming Weiner replied: 'If I were giving a speech to 45,000 people and someone in the back threw a pie or yelled out an insult, I would not spend the next two hours of my speech responding to that pie or that insult...'

Then in another cringeworthy exchange, the Brooklyn-Queens Democrat unloaded a snarky insult instead of saying why he didn't pass on to Capitol Police his claim that his Twitter account had been hacked -- which would be a federal crime.

'I'm going to have to ask that we follow some rules here. One of them is going to be you ask questions and I'll do the answers. That seem reasonable? . . . You do the questions, I do the answers, and this jackass interrupts me?' a fuming Weiner said of Barrett."

If Rep. Weiner is the victim here, it makes sense that he's angry. It makes less sense that his anger is directed not at the person who allegedly stole his identity, but rather at the people asking him about it. As of this morning, it's unclear whether Rep. Weiner will apologize to Mr. Barrett or just insist that his previous statements covered that.

More ACORN Nuts Fall

The voter fraud hall of shame:
Milwaukee voter fraud conviction makes ACORN’s 2010 total at least 15

Yet another former ACORN employee was convicted of voter fraud last week. This brings the total number of convictions for former workers from the embattled group to at least 15 so far this year.

Kevin L. Clancy of Milwaukee pleaded guilty last week to participating “in a scheme to submit fraudulent voter registration applications,” according to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen. Clancy admitted to filing multiple voter registration applications for the same individuals and registering himself and other voter registration canvassers to vote multiple times while working on an ACORN voter drive.

Clancy received a 10-month prison term for his crime. Clancy’s sentence will begin when he completes another sentence he is currently serving for armed robbery.
“The integrity of elections is dependent upon citizens and officials insisting they be conducted lawfully,” Van Hollen said. “Wisconsin’s citizens should not have to wonder whether their vote has been negated or diminished by illegally cast ballots.”

So far 2010 has been a banner year for ACORN voter fraud prosecutions.
In Milwaukee, former ACORN worker Maria L. Miles, who worked with Clancy, pleaded guilty to “falsely procuring voter registration.” She will be sentenced next month.

Also in Milwaukee, Frank Edmund Walton was convicted of “falsely procuring voter registration.” According to Van Hollen, Walton solicited voter registrations while working for a group called the Community Voter Project. Court documents indicate that after committing the crime he became an ACORN employee. Walton will be sentenced in December.

In Washington state, ex-ACORN canvasser Kendra Lynn Thill was convicted of voter registration fraud and given a 12-month deferred sentence.

In Miami, Florida, former ACORN voter registration canvassers Maurice Childress, Kashawn John, Liltovia Rhodes, Carlos Torres, Evangeline Williams, Lilkevia Williams, and Richard Williams, were all convicted of “false swearing in an election.”

All were sentenced to probation, community service, and forbidden to participate in political campaigns, according to the office of Katherine Fernandez Rundle, State Attorney for Miami-Dade County. In addition, Childress and Richard Williams were ordered to serve 72 days and 125 days in jail, respectively.

Arrest warrants were issued for three other former ACORN canvassers in the Miami area who are apparently still at large.

In Pennsylvania, former ACORN workers Alexis Givner, Mario Grisom, and Eric L. Jones, were convicted of voter registration fraud-related offenses. All three were sentenced to two years probation.

ACORN, the nonprofit shell corporation that runs the ACORN network, is still facing criminal prosecution in Nevada. Although ACORN filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy on Election Day to escape its debts, prosecutor Conrad Hafen, who is Nevada’s chief deputy state attorney general, previously said neither bankruptcy nor dissolution would “necessarily protect (ACORN) from prosecution” in Nevada.

The trial of ACORN for conspiracy to commit felony voter registration fraud was scheduled to begin Nov. 29, but ACORN lawyer Lisa Rasmussen had a scheduling conflict and the proceeding has been postponed. The trial will likely proceed in 2011. Hafen won’t be heading the prosecution’s team because he was recently elected a justice of the peace.

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Back To More Important Things

Here's the thing: there are crazies and wackos on this planet and they need to be dealt with so they don't hurt anyone. I want the people tasked with protecting me, and my right to speak and assemble, to have whatever they need, and be able to do what is needed to get the information required to deal with the above-referenced crazies and wackos. Free speech is such a marvelous tool for id'ing the crazies and wackos. They do it to themselves, if you only give them the opportunity. All we have to do is present our argument reasonably and logically and have the documentation to back it up. We don't need to rant about overthrowing the government or removing sitting elected officials by force. That's what the ballot box and the soap box are for.

Turning COINTELPRO on the tea party?
By: Chris Stirewalt
Political Editor
04/07/10 5:13 PM EDT

Writer David Herszenhorn of the New York Times has the account of how the FBI nabbed the man charged with threatening Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

The suspect, Charles A. Wilson, is accused of leaving messages for Murray saying she should be "strung up" for her support of President Obama's health care program and other ugly-sounding things.

The FBI had the number from which the calls had originated and knew that it belonged to Mr. Wilson. But to make the arrest, they needed to have evidence matching the caller on the tapes with the number -- to eliminate the possibility that someone else was using Mr. Wilson's phone.

To make the match, an agent called Wilson and claimed to be part of Patients United Now, the group behind the "Hands Off my Health Care" campaign. No one from the FBI spoke to Patients United or their parent group Americans for Prosperity about the ruse.

The agent talked with Wilson about the group's effort to see the president's program repealed and asked for his opinion about the legislation, eliciting responses similar to the sentiments left on Sen. Murray's answering machine.
That was enough to get a warrant for Wilson's arrest.

Some questions to consider:

How comfortable are you with the idea of agents posing as activists to elicit anti-government tirades? Sounds like good investigative police work to me.

How comfortable would you be if the Bush administration had done the same thing with Code Pink in an effort to get a anti-war activist to threaten a Senator who voted in favor of invading Iraq? Based on my experiences with code oink, I would have volunteered to help, for free.

Would it be appropriate for an agent to attend a tax day tea party rally next week and elicit similar statements from attendees in an effort to find more threats to lawmakers? See the first question.

A Black Minister Defends the Tea Party