our local newspaper...'Prank or Political Spying'

[spanone]

this is absolute horseshit......

associated press story

Phone-tampering case: Prank or political spying?

guess it's all in the spin

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100127/ap_on_re_us/us_senator_s_office_arrests

[seabeyond]

1. i heard they had no listening device and had no phone tap equip...

if true, really does take away from wiretapping, doesnt it?

[spanone]

3. doesn't take away attempt....you can rob a bank without a gun...still illegal

[seabeyond]

7. if you have no devices, how can there be an attempt to tap? that makes no sense. nt

[lame54]

9. Stan Dai was outside in the car with a receiver

[seabeyond]

10. i heard from shuster and others, wasnt a receiver, but cell or walkie talkie thing. nt

[lame54]

11. ok...

i'll have to wait on that one

[Vinnie From Indy]

13. I'll spell it out for you

It could very well be that these idiots got caught during their FIRST foray into the Sentor's office. This could have been a dry run or a scouting mission. It could very well be that these little douchebags fully intended to tap the Senators phones and the plans they prepared included several trips to the office as telephone repairmen. In fact, there are several explanations as to why they may not have had a "bug" on their person at THIS time. Maybe the bug was sitting all nice and pretty on one of their work benches at home ready forthe next trip.

Makin' sense yet?

Cheers!

[seabeyond]

17. i will spill it out back atcha. they could very well have been checking out to do mass murder

they could have been....

all kinds of things

that is fine. they admit to checking out to possible wiretapping (which they wont do) then they will be charged for that. but not wiretapping. law isnt enforced what they might have been thinking thru guess and could have beens.

that is what i am saying

so you can spell out all you want what they could have been doing, we all could. reality is....

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. You write

"law isnt enforced what they might have been thinking thru guess and could have beens."

You could not be more wrong. There are myriad of charges that could brought depending on the evidence and others that could be brought and argued with hardly, if any, evidence being present. There are a great many people in prison right now as I write this that were convicted of crimes based solely on circumstantial evidence. Means, motive and opportunity has put many folks in jail.

Lastly, there is the area of conspiracy that could be applied to many of facets of this case.

Cheers!

On edit: Prosecutors need only convince a jury or judge about what these clowns were "thinking". So, in short, people are arrested and sent to prison on "guesses" and "could have beens" every day.

[spanone]

21. we can only speculate, we'll see what the prosecutors have....

[blondeatlast]

25. Intent is all that matters. they had the intent, except now they are trying

to excuse the intent.

[seabeyond]

26. if carrying devices yet not put in, i can see intent. if no devices,

i dotn see how there could be intent of putting devices in phone. would seem to suggest the intent was not to put devices in phone since they had none on them

[blondeatlast]

27. We'll have to see what the charges are. A good prosecutor will be able to

make the attempted tapping stick though.

[Vincardog]

5. They admitted they went to the office with the intent of interupting the phone service.

They wanted to 'catch' the staff's reaction to not receiving calls from their constituents.
This was to dramatize the 'fat' that the real people would not get through with their concertns about HCR.

They entered the Federal office.
They gained access to the Phone bank.

They intended to interfere withe the operation of the office.

There is no requirement that they planned or attempted a wire tap.

[seabeyond]

8. when it first came out, charges were wiretapping, (at least on the net). now it isnt

that is all i am saying. interferring with phone service is a whole other, and valid, charge

[Vincardog]

12. Are you surprised the corporate controlled media got something wrong?

[seabeyond]

14. lol, not at all. just looking for confirmation since what i heard last night. hence

this post on this thread. actually i tend to listening and not talking about things and giving time for it to shake out. first post on this subject.

[sharp_stick]

16. They have not been charged with wiretapping

they never were. They were charged with "entering federal property under false pretenses for the purpose of committing a felony". That is a Federal felony in and of itself carrying up to 10 years in the big house plus $250,000 in fines.

The felony could be tampering with the phone system nobody ever said they were tapping them.

[seabeyond]

18. thanks. that is really the clarification i was looking for with my first post

appreciate.

[sharp_stick]

20. No problem

there's so much going around about this, I'm surprised nobody has claimed they are accused of attempted murder.

Personally I'll take any Federal felony against this happy little crew of assholes but I'd really like to see some State felonies added on, seeing them on the bus to Angola would just make my day.

[gkhouston]

22. It's still a felony. And the "no listening device" info comes from one unnamed source.

The prosecutors aren't showing any of their cards yet.

[seabeyond]

24. this is what i was curious about. have been perusing threads, but not seeing anything on it

last night when i heard no devices seemed to change the game and was curious. appreciate info

[gkhouston]

29. Shuster's reported that the "listening device" appears to have only been a

cell phone. I don't know what his source for that was, so I can't judge the credibility of that info. All I know right now is that the story being floated by O'Keefe's attorney (who claimed not to know who was paying him when he first showed up in court to represent O'Keefe) is weak.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

2. Dropping cinderblocks onto cars from an overpass: prank or attempted manslaughter? nt

[Vinnie From Indy]

19. Good one!

Your post reminded of an old joke.

A guy is going through a small quiet town and comes to a stop sign. There appears to be no one around and he simply rolls through the intersection without stopping. Within moments there is a cop on his tail pulling him over. The cop walks to the window and asks why the man did not stop and the man says that he didn't see any cars coming around so what is the difference if he went slowly through the intersection. The policeman asks him to step out of his car and as he stands the policeman pulls out his nightstick and begins whacking the man on the head and chest. The man covers his head and screams "what the hell are you doing"? The cop asks him if he would like the beating to STOP or SLOW DOWN.

[kentuck]

4. That means the ACORN story was a prank.

Or that was real and this was a "prank" because they got caught. They are only "young" conservatives who meant no harm. Yeah, right! If these assholes are not punished in some manner, they will return like G Gordon Liddy and the Plumbers from Watergate. They should be nipped in the bud or we will see them later.

[spanone]

6. precisely

[EFerrari]

28. You bet. It's noteworthy that Authorized Propaganda is minimizing for them.

[KittyWampus]

15. O'Keefe's whole spiel is he was a journalist exposing corruption. Can't have it both ways.

[kentuck]

30. My opinion is that the "prankster" waiting in the van...

was going to take calls from the one inside, once he crossed the wires and and got his tap. He was there to make sure it would work. I believe it was attempting wiretapping.