Was Landrieu's Office Set Up By Operatives Like Family Research Council? Help Me Find Info Please

[KittyWampus]

Regarding O'Keefe's claim through his lawyer- they claim to be investigating why Landrieu's office isn't taking calls.

I did not know Landrieu's office wasn't taking calls. But several DU"ers have stated her office and several other Democratic congresscritters have been getting inundated with calls from out of state and also threatening phone calls.

That sounds orchestrated and actually quite serious. So I googled for info and came up with something from the Family Research Council.

It sounds like some Republican operatives organized something akin to a phone jamming of Landrieu's office and then followed up with a protest... and perhaps they are also involved with O'Keefe stepping in this past week. Note date of following article.

http://www.frcblog.com/2009/12/senator-landrieu-closes-office-constituents-turned-away-at-the-door-callers-reach-only-busy-signals/

Senator Landrieu Closes Office: Constituents Turned Away at the Door, Callers Reach Only Busy Signals
by JP Duffy
December 22, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 22, 2009
CONTACT: J.P. Duffy, (866) FRC-NEWS

Senator Landrieu Closes Office: Constituents Turned Away at the Door, Callers Reach Only Busy Signals

FRC’s Tony Perkins Calls Closure the “Height of Arrogance”

Baton Rouge, LA – This afternoon, Family Research Council President Tony Perkins attempted to deliver a letter to Senator Mary Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office only to be told by a federal marshal that her offices were “closed for the holidays.” Over 150 concerned citizens joined Perkins at a rally in front of Senator Landrieu’s office to urge the Senator to oppose the government takeover of health care.



Family Research Council President Tony Perkins made the following comments:

“We were stunned to learn why so many phone calls have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals: As the Senate debates one of the most far reaching pieces of legislation in history, Senator Mary Landrieu has closed her office and her ears to Louisianans.

“Senator Landrieu sent press aides to offer the Senator’s spin on the health care bill but she did not make a staffer available to receive letters or answer phone calls. Senator Landrieu knows that almost two-thirds of Louisiana voters oppose the health care overhaul. However, refusing to take their phone calls is insulting and the height of arrogance. Americans are outraged at the conduct of the Majority in the United States Senate and they should be.

“If Senator Landrieu’s office had been open, she would have heard a clear message that Louisianans want her to stop this abominable health care bill that will force every American to support Planned Parenthood in the killing of unborn children, saddle families with higher insurance premiums, raise our taxes and deny our parents and grandparents the essential health care they need.”

[kickysnana]

1. Good catch n/t

[mmonk]

2. Indeed.

[KittyWampus]

3. Apparently, the Chamber of Commerce is providing signage to the Teabaggers harassing Landrieu

Tea Party, group join in Landrieu protest

About 100 people showed up Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Baton Rouge to protest U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu’s support of the Democratic health-care bill being debated in the U.S. Senate.

Supporters of the Family Research Council and the Baton Rouge Tea Party marched along the Florida Street sidewalk, many carrying signs provided by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, others waving poster board with hand-lettered messages, all criticizing the legislation that would overhaul the way health care is delivered nationwide.

Carrying his 2-year-old son, Tony Perkins, who is president of the Family Research Council, was turned away at the courthouse door by federal security officers who said Landrieu’s Baton Rouge office was closed this week.

“I had a personal letter written to her asking her to reconsider her stance,” Perkins said a few minutes later. “Why she and her staff are not working this week, it’s certainly irresponsible.”

The Family Research Council is a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying group that claims it wants to shape public policy “as it pertains to families” from what Perkins calls “a Christian perspective.”

“We were stunned to learn that so many phone calls to Sen. Landrieu have been unanswered and met with continuous busy signals,” Perkins said. “We asked them to call their senators. They could get through to Sen. Vitter, but not Sen. Landrieu.”

“Our lines have been jammed for weeks, and I apologize,” Landrieu said in interview after giving a speech on the Senate floor Tuesday. “But no amount of jamming is going to keep me from supporting a good work for Louisiana and the nation.”

Dwight Hudson of Central said many of his fellow Baton Rouge Tea Party members had phoned Landrieu’s office unsuccessfully for weeks. “The point is they’re not getting their opinion heard. Maybe that’s why they’re out here today,” he said.

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/79959137.html

[KittyWampus]

4. And the phone jamming was orchestrated by Teabaggers- or whoever gives Teabaggers marching orders

[glinda]

15. In part the Chamber is headed up by Big Pharma Execs. Insurance, oil, etc...

[protect our future]

6. Good work, Kitty.

My response to the above quote from Perkins: “We asked them to call their senators. They could get through to Sen. Vitter, but not Sen. Landrieu.”

Landrieu was deluged with calls since she was a Dem and on the fence for so long about health care. She was targeted in an effort to convince her by whatever means necessary to say no. Bolstered by media coverage of angry teabaggers and emboldened by the anonymity of being just a voice on the phone, callers -- many from states other than Louisiana -- were pretty vile in their language when they got through to her office or left a voicemail message.

Vitter was not targeted and was not deluged. Why should he be? After all, he's a Republican and he's opposed to health care reform. Callers don't usually deluge a politician's office merely to say "thank you."


(edited to provide clarity)

[KittyWampus]

10. I'd love for someone to find an actual 'call to action' regarding the jamming of Landrieu's office

Or did Teabaggers really just all converge on her by random coincidence.

The reason I wonder if it was a targeted action is because Perkin's did hold the rally. And the timing of the rally was Christmas when it's pretty understandable her staff would be on vacation.

And then a few weeks later O'Keefe ends up getting caught and he uses this whole thing as his excuse.

It just does all seem so "tidy".

[protect our future]

13. No, teabaggers didn't converge upon Landrieu by coincidence.

l. The targeted Dems were ones who appeared to be fence-sitting or not very firm about support for health care reform. The opposition was hoping to convince these Dems, such as Senator Landrieu, to vote no. Hey, nothing wrong with that if it's done with civility and ONLY by constituents, but it wasn't.

2. Senator Landrieu was specifically targeted by Glen Beck in ... November, I think. He called her a high-class prostitute. That ignited an avalanche of calls from Beck's faithful. The tone of those calls and the sexual references must have been sickening.

And yes, the timing of the rally is suspect. Did the organizers know Landrieu's office was to be closed the Monday of Christmas week? Why not schedule the rally for the previous Friday?

A couple of other observations. I may be wrong, but anyway here's my thoughts:

If Landrieu's constituents were oh so very very concerned about contacting her, why not phone one of her other State offices? New Orleans, Lake Charles, Shreveport? Isn't that what someone would do out of sheer common sense?

Sticking Landrieu with a "doesn't care about us" label would also get stuck on her brother who is running for mayor of New Orleans. Guilt by association/guilt by accident of birth. So who's financing whatever Republican is running against the brother?

[tanyev]

5. She closed her offices so her employees could celebrate Jesus' sacred birthday.

Something Tony Perkins chooses to highlight or ignore purely for political expediency.

[KittyWampus]

8. that's a part of this whole thing that makes it seem orchestrated. It was Christmas,

for pete's sake.

Along with everything else that stinks about this chain of events.

[alfredo]

7. Have you sent this to any Louisiana newspapers?

[KittyWampus]

11. No, not enough facts regarding Teabaggers and who, if anyone, orchestrated their calls to

Landrieu and then Perkin's holding the rally... at Christmas time.

[alfredo]

12. I hope you can connect the dots.

[grasswire]

9. is the chamber of commerce a non-profit?

I know they are right wing. Are they overstepping their bounds under law?

[glinda]

16. They have hosted "Pro-Life meeting(s) in our area.

[Emit]

14. And FreedomWorks

This dates back to November, but there is stuff on their wesbite that continues to coordinate phone calling into December and even currently.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has just announced that the Senate will vote at 8 pm on Saturday on the "motion to proceed" to the health care bill. This is the first of the last two significant hurdles in the Senate for the health care takeover. He needs 60 votes, and rumor has it that he's still fighting to secure the last couple Senators. We've activated our members in the top 5 target states to buck up those Senators with a flood of phone calls, emails and district office visits over the next 48 hours.

These next 48 hours are a big deal--if Reid doesn't get 60 votes it will be a major set back, certainly pushing the bill into next year. If that does happen, we will need to remember to spend significant time supporting the key Senators who voted against Reid. They'll be under enormous pressure from the left to switch their vote. And Reid will be offering sweeter deals than the $100 million he included on page 432, in section 2006 for Louisiana to buy Sen. Landrieu's vote.

If Reid does get the 60 votes, we will have one last chance stop the bill, and only a couple weeks in which to do it. Saturday's vote would begin debate. Reid will again need 60 votes again to end debate and move to a final vote, where he will only need 50 votes, which he already has. The Senate will go home for Thanksgiving recess after Saturday's vote for the next week. We will need to overwhelm the pivotal Senators with our objection to their vote while they are home so when they come back to begin the debate, they will not want to do so again when Reid asks them to end debate.

Reid will call for an end to debate as soon as he feels he has 60 votes lined up. We must push this past Christmas, which will give us another recess during which they must face their voters, and push the bill into 2010. The mentality of the Senators will change as the calendar changes, as the key targets will know it is an election year for them. Their priority is to get reelected, which means this is when they listen more closely to their voters than the powers that be inside the Beltway. This is why President Obama is so determined to get this done before Christmas, and why the next 4 weeks will be the determining weeks of this fight.

This is what we've been fighting for all year. It's why FreedomWorks members have sent over 250,000 emails to Congress this year on health care. It's why hundreds of thousands of Americans paid their own way to Washington for our 9/12 taxpayer march. It's why FreedomWorks members have logged over 10,000 calls into Congress in the past month, engaging in 120 hours of conversation with the key staff who will be advising the pivotal Congressmen how to vote. This is the hour when it will be decided who will win and who will lose. This is when everyone needs to step up--there will be no next time.

This is what we need you to do over the next 48 hours:
1. Click here to go to our online Health Care War Room and call your Senators and send an email.
2. Find out where your Senator's district office is, call them and stop by for a visit. If you can find a couple other people to go with you, bring some signs protesting the health care take over and call the local paper to tell them you're going to protest.
3. Email this blog post or a link of the online Health Care War Room to at least 5 friends and ask them to do the same. There are Senators who are still undecided and whoever puts in more phone calls and district office visits will decide their vote--the next 48 hours is the time to get your friends and family who otherwise don't engage to engage.
4. Make a small (or large!) contribution to help us help more Americans be heard by their representatives in Congress.
Remember, this is it!

http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/max/urgent-update-and-call-to-action-on-senate-healthc



Also, Here and at other Tea Party Websites:

http://thebrandon9-12project.com/URGENT_CALL_TO_ACTION.html

[protect our future]

17. Thanks, Emit! n/t

[glinda]

18. Page worth bookmarking:

http://site.pfaw.org/site/PageServer?pagename=issues_right_wing_organizations

[Sebastian Doyle]

19. Stan Dai is affiliated with "Foundation for Defense of Democracies"

a.k.a. PNAC 2.0

Mary Landrieu is no longer right wing enough for the neocon shitbags? :wtf:

[Emit]

20. KittyWampus, it appears O'Keefe at al are definitely being encouraged by anti-abortion groups

at a minimum, and it wouldn't surprise me if there was some coordination going on.

Check out this guy - definitely a prolife right wing nut: Benjamin Wetmore. O'Keefe and the others stayed at his house when in New Orleans and Wetmore was O'Keefe's boss when O'Keefe was at the Leadership Institute:

~snip~

O'Keefe, Basel and Dai stayed with Benjamin Wetmore, a friend of O'Keefe's, while they were in New Orleans. Wetmore, a 28-year-old law school student, was O'Keefe's boss when he worked at the Leadership Institute, an Arlington, Va.-based program that trains conservative activists.

Wetmore declined to discuss their stay at his house and what they did while there. But he praised O'Keefe's work targeting ACORN on his Web site and said he hired O'Keefe in 2006, helping him hone his undercover camera craft.

In an Oct. 16 blog post, Wetmore criticized the Leadership Institute, where he no longer works, for not supporting O'Keefe's budding activism. Wetmore said he was "nearly fired for buying the initial video equipment that James used."

~snip~

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/top/all/6840660.html

Wetmore and O'Keefe did this video together last fall:

~Veritas Visuals Love Thy Prisoner Campaign
by: Rob "EaBo Clipper" Eno
Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 16:32:04 PM EDT
RMG's own Ben Wetmore and James O'Keefe, the "Pimp" in the Acorn video went to a Progressive fair of some sort in Boston on June 29. They took video of their "Love Thy Prisoner Campaign" canvassing. The "Love Thy Prisoner Campaign" is an attempt to get people to take Guantanomo prisoners into their homes. It was more successful than I would have thought. ~

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:9A9sShpiRM8J:redmassgroup.com/tag/Veritas%2520Visuals+Ben+Wetmore+James+O%27Keefe+Veritas+Visuals&cd=6&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Wetmore was the President of Students for Life (SFLA):
www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/about/directors/ - Cached Version

Published on: 12/4/2007 Last Visited: 12/4/2007
Ben Wetmore, PresidentBen has been the President since 2006 and has been involved with SFLA since 2002.He has worked for the National Catholic Educational Association and the Leadership Institute.He has worked on a variety of campaigns, and has been involved with campus organizing for over four years, and campus activism in various forms for ten years.Ben was involved with starting campus newspapers and publications at the Leadership Institute, where he helped over 125 publications start in less than three years, and he helped train over a thousand activists in 46 states.Ben works at SFLA in fundraising and planning.Email Ben.

More: http://www.zoominfo.com/people/Wetmore_Ben_228208485.aspx

Here from SFLA he refers to O'Keefe's work/equipment on a proposal for Video Activism:

Fr: Students for Life of America
Re: Video Activism Proposal and Request
Date: May 25, 2007

Overview: Two videos have been produced that have already gotten national media attention, caused a reaction by Planned Parenthood that may include litigation, and have interested Congress in starting an investigation into Planned Parenthood’s practices.

Students for Life of America would respectfully request $71,800 to fund one new employee with the proper equipment and resources to undertake a year of video activism. This project would document abuses by Planned Parenthood specifically in the area of statutory rape and parental notification. This project would also be beneficial in training students how to undertake similar projects and activism events and apply significant media and political pressure to Planned Parenthood.

This project could also be undertaken as a 90-day test, at a cost of $32,000

Purpose: To expand the qualitative offerings of Students for Life of America to include training in video activism and document specific activist incidents.

History: The recent Lila Rose investigation at UCLA was undertaken with the training and equipment of James O’Keefe, it has resulted in numerous media stories including appearances on The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes. Jay Sekulow was even discussing the issue yesterday on his radio show.

~snip~

Personnel: James O’Keefe is ready to take the position, is trained in the video editing software Final Cut Pro. James has been a regular SFLA volunteer. This new position would be a “Programs Coordinator” to be in a new department of SFLA, “Programs” that would seek to increase the qualitative development of campus pro-life groups.



~snip~

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:-G9O3KDOctwJ:www.benwetmore.com/documents/SFLA/070525_SFLA-Video-Activism-Proposal.doc+site:benwetmore.com+benwetmore.com&cd=15&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us

Wetmore's "Pro-Life Training Proposal": http://www.benwetmore.com/documents/training/081222_Training%20Proposal.doc

His resume:

Editor, BenLadner.com

Director of Student Publications, The Leadership Institute

Consultant, Vote Yes for Life campaign, 2006 campaign

Chairman and President, Students for Life of America

Campaign Manager, Jack Hoogendyk for U.S. Senate

Executive Director, Holy Cross Cardinal Newman Society

Consultant, former Congressman Steve Stockman (R-TX)

I’ve also worked with or interned for: Americans for Tax Reform, Office of Senator Jesse Helms, Council for National Policy, National Catholic Educational Association, Human Events

http://74.125.155.132/search?q=cache:_IG0dqlAAdYJ:www.benwetmore.com/documents/training/MCFL/081105_lecture_org-basics.htm+Steve+Stockman+ben+wetmore&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us




So far, the connection between O'Keefe, Ben Wetmore and Perkins is through Prolifer, Jill Stanek:

Stanek writes, "Ben Wetmore, chairman of Students for Life, has alerted me to a new series of videos secretly taped inside California abortion mills...." http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2007/05/planned_parenth_1.html

Stanek seems to think O'Keefe is a real hero:

September 11, 2009
James O'Keefe, undercover ACORN "pimp"... and pro-life activist
UPDATE, 9/12, 7:05a: ABC News is reporting the Census Bureau has severed its relationship with ACORN. Go, James, change the world!
~snip~

James is a real hero, going farther than most would to expose the underbelly of the liberal and abortion industries.

http://www.jillstanek.com/archives/2009/09/james_okeefe_un.html

Stanek has been on panels and co-authored letters with Perkins in the past: http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2010/01/blogs_for_life_4.php

http://www.studentsforlife.org/index.php/letter-to-senate-judiciary-committee-members/

http://www.prolifeblogs.com/articles/archives/2010/01/fifth_annual_bl.php

More on Stanek:

Two weeks ago, BornAliveTruth.org (website), an anti-abortion group headed by Jill Stanek, launched a major attack on Sen. Barack Obama with a very personal and heart-wrenching television advertisement aimed at the voters in the toss-up states of New Mexico and Ohio. The ad, which according to Stanek cost the organization $338,000 to run -- in addition to what it is paying its public relations firm, CRC Public Relations -- was titled "The Gianna ad," and features Gianna Jesson, who is identified as an "Abortion Survivor."....

The major donor to BornAliveTruth -- a 527 allowed to raise money from individuals in unlimited amounts -- is Raymond Ruddy, who is described by the AP as "a prominent anti-abortion philanthropist in Massachusetts who supported Mitt Romney for president in the GOP primary."

In 2004 Ruddy, who sits on the board of the Reston, Virginia-based Maximus, a giant government services provider that is heavily involved in welfare privatization, donated nearly $400,000 to Dr. James Dobson's Focus on the Family Action's anti-gay marriage campaigns. He also gave $117,916 to the anti-abortion Your Catholic Vote, a group that mounted an anti-Kerry campaign attacking the Massachusetts Senator in newspaper ads that ran across the country. For the 2006 midterms Ruddy and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth financier Carl Lindner kicked $847,000 into Common Sense Ohio that ran push polls and deceptive ad campaigns in seven states.

Publicity for BornAliveTruth is being handled by CRC Public Relations (website). Founded in 1989 by a group led by CRC's current chairman, Leif Noren, the company, headed by its current president, Greg Mueller, provides "strategic counsel" for "designing ... media program to tactical implementation, ... delivers a full range of media relations services in today's 24 hour news cycle."

http://old.mediatransparency.org/story.php?storyID=248

Jill Stanek fought to stop "live-birth abortion" after witnessing one as a registered nurse at Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn, Ill. In 2002, President Bush asked Jill to attend his signing of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act. In January 2003, World Magazine named Jill one of the 30 most prominent pro-life leaders of the past 30 years. To learn more, visit Jill's blog, Pro-life Pulse..

http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=117712

[applegrove]

21. Limbaugh said he had a conversation with Michelle Bachmann about

Landrieu not taking calls. So it was on the minds of right wing pundits and politicos all across the country.

[Emit]

22. kick

[blogslut]

23. kick

For the exposure of these cockroaches

[MinM]

24. kick.