James O'Keefe Busted By Feds For Another ACORN Trick...Sen. Mary Landrieu

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James O'Keefe Charged With U.S. Senate Office Infiltration In New Orleans


Four men were charged Tuesday after attempting to illegally access and manipulate the phone system in a district office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, a local U.S. attorney's office said.

Joseph Basel, 24, Robert Flanagan, 24, James O'Keefe, 25, and Stan Dai, 24, were charged with entering Landrieu's New Orleans office, which is federal property, under "false pretenses for the purpose of committing a Felony," according to the attorney's office.

Law enforcement officials say they believe O'Keefe is the conservative activist of the same name who dressed up as a pimp last summer and visited an office of ACORN, a liberal community organizing group, in order to solicit advice on setting up a brothel, among other scenarios.

He secretly recorded the visits on video and posted them on the Web, leading to a media firestorm.

Flanagan is the son of William Flanagan, the acting U.S. attorney for the Western District of Louisiana, his office said.

Articles on conservative Web sites connect O'Keefe to a man named Joe Basel, describing them as conservative student activists and filmmakers.

According to the news release Tuesday and an affidavit by FBI Special Agent Steven Rayes, who is based in New Orleans, Basel and Flanagan attempted to gain access to Landrieu's office Monday while posing as telephone repairmen.

The two men were "each dressed in blue denim pants, a blue work shirt, a light green fluorescent vest, a tool belt and a construction-style hard hat when they entered the Hale Boggs Federal Building," the release said.

After they entered the building, the two men told a staffer in Landrieu's office they were telephone repairmen, according to the release and Rayes' affidavit. They then asked for, and were granted, access to the reception desk's phone system.

O'Keefe, who had been waiting in the office before the pair arrived, recorded their actions with a cell phone, Rayes' affidavit said.

Flanagan and Basel later requested access to a telephone closet, claiming they needed to perform work on the main phone system, the release and affidavit said.

According to Rayes' affidavit, the two men went to a U.S. General Services Administration office on another floor and requested access to the main phone system. A GSA employee then asked for their credentials, and the two men said they left them in their vehicle, the affidavit said.

All four men have admitted their roles in the operation to federal agents, Rayes' affidavit said.

If convicted, the four men would each face a fine of $250,000 and up to 10 years in prison, according to the news release.

"Because the details of yesterday's incident are part of an ongoing investigation by federal authorities, our office cannot comment at this time," Landrieu spokesman Aaron Saunders told CNN.

Articles posted January 14 on CampusReform.org and Political Vanguard, both conservative Web sites, quoted O'Keefe and a man identified as Joe Basel as conservative student activists and independent filmmakers.

"Don't just respond to news, but actually create your own headlines," O'Keefe is quoted as saying by CampusReform.org







ACORN Employee Sues Undercover Filmmakers



The civil lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia accuses the filmmakers of illegally recording their conversation with the worker.


An employee at a Philadelphia branch of ACORN, the national community organization under fire for allegations of wrongdoing, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against the two filmmakers who set off the controversy last fall with their undercover videos.

The civil lawsuit filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia accuses the filmmakers, James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles, of illegally recording their conversation with the worker, Katherine Conway-Russell, and then publicizing the videos, which Conway-Russell says "caused emotional distress, harm and injury."

Conway-Russell is featured in one of several videos recorded by O'Keefe and Giles, who posed as a pimp and prostitute and visited ACORN offices around the country with a hidden camera. The videos, released initially through the conservative Web site BigGovernment.com, showed ACORN employees seeming to offer to help the couple skirt tax and housing laws while setting up a brothel.

Conway-Russell, an office director with ACORN Housing Corporation since March 2008, accuses O'Keefe and Giles of visiting the Philadelphia office July 24 to "entrap ... employees into engaging in inappropriate counseling," adding that she made clear to them that she could only offer assistance with "mortgage possibilities." The lawsuit doesn't go into details of the conversation.

It's hardly the first time ACORN or its employees have responded to the controversy over its operations by suing.

The organization filed a lawsuit in Baltimore in late September accusing the filmmakers and BigGovernment.com of illegally recording conversations at a Baltimore ACORN office and then posting them online.

And in November, representatives for ACORN sued the federal government in an attempt to regain the millions of dollars in funding the community organizing group lost after Congress responded to the undercover videos by voting to block the funding.

ACORN also has faced allegations of voter fraud during the 2008 presidential election.



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Worried Dem Lawmakers Beg Obama To Drop Cap-and-Trade Bill

Senate Democrats To W.H.: "Drop Cap-and-Trade"



Bruised by the health care debate and worried about what 2010 will bring, moderate Senate Democrats are urging the White House to give up now on any effort to pass a cap-and-trade bill next year.

“I am communicating that in every way I know how,” says Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.), one of at least half a dozen Democrats who've told the White House or their own leaders that it's time to jettison the centerpiece of their party's plan to curb global warming.

The creation of an economy-wide market for greenhouse gas emissions is as the heart of the climate bill that cleared the House earlier this year. But with the health care fight still raging and the economy still hurting, moderate Democrats have little appetite for another sweeping initiative — especially another one likely to pass with little or no Republican support.

“We need to deal with the phenomena of global warming, but I think it’s very difficult in the kind of economic circumstances we have right now,” said Indiana Democratic Sen. Evan Bayh, who called passage of any economy-wide cap and trade “unlikely.”

At a meeting about health care last month, moderates pushed to table climate legislation in favor of a jobs bill that would be an easier sell during the 2010 elections, according to Senate Democratic aides.

“I’d just as soon see that set aside until we work through the economy,” said Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.). ?“What we don’t want to do is have anything get in the way of working to resolve the problems with the economy.”

“Climate change in an election year has very poor prospects,” added Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). “I’ve told that to the leadership.”

At least some in the Democratic leadership appear to be listening.

Asked about cap-and-trade last week, Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said: “At this point I’d like to see a complete bill but we have to be realistic."

Moderate House Democrats who voted in favor of the cap-and-trade bill just before the July 4th recess came under fire back home, and Republicans have vowed to make the issue a key line of attack during next year’s elections.

Some Democrats would prefer to deny them that target.

“I’d prefer to do energy, because I think you could get a really broad consensus on a lot of energy legislation,” said Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) ?

But supporters of the climate bill say that cap-and-trade is an inextricable part of any energy package for next year.

“We’ve got to keep them together because they go together,” said Connecticut Independent Sen. Joe Lieberman, who infuriated liberals with his opposition to the public option in the health care bill but who's trying to keep cap-and-trade alive in a bipartisan climate bill he's drafting with Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).

The White House remains firmly behind an economy-wide cap-and-trade system, which would curb greenhouse gas emissions and create a market for polluters to buy and sell carbon allowances.

“We think that a cap-and-trade mechanism is the best way to achieve the most cost-effective reductions," a senior administration official told reporters last week.

But Kerry raised eyebrows last week when he seemed to hint at some flexibility over the issue.

"I can't tell you the method or the means or amount by which we might price carbon," he told reporters in Copenhagen. "We haven't resolved that issue yet.”

A move away from cap-and-trade would bitterly disappoint the environmental community and many powerful utility companies, who’ve lobbied hard for the system.

Many utilities, investors, and even some consumer companies like Starbucks and Nike believe cap-and-trade will unleash a flood of investments in energy efficiency and renewable fuels like wind, solar, and nuclear power But passage will be a heavy lift -- with few signs of Republican support and mounting concern from the moderate Democrats.

Earlier this month, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced a bill that would replace cap and trade with a system that would set a price on carbon dioxide emissions and return all the revenue to consumers, instead of industry.

And Republican Sens. George Voinovich of Ohio and Richard Lugar of Indiana are examining proposals to cap greenhouse gas emissions only on power plants, coupled with energy efficiency programs for buildings and transportation.

After the tough health care fight, Democratic leadership believes a climate bill must pass with significant bipartisan support or risk leaving the party open to attack during the midterm elections.

“Any bill dealing with energy and climate change will have to be bipartisan to pass,” said Durbin. “Sen. Kerry assures me that there are other (Republicans) that he may have.”

But even among Republicans who believe global warming is a problem, few -- if any -- other than Graham support an economy-wide cap and trade system.



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Landrieu, Lincoln Mull Saturday's Health Care Reform Test Vote...Pressure, Pressure

Senate Democrats are under extreme pressure to pass Health Care Reform Bill.

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Landrieu leans yes in Sat. cliffhanger



Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) said Friday night that she’s “leaning towards” voting to start debate on the health care bill – which would leave Democrats just a single vote shy of clearing a critical test for the reform package on Saturday.

Asked outside the Capitol if she’s made up her mind on starting the debate, Landrieu said she planned to announce her intentions Saturday but told POLITICO, “I’m leaning towards it.”

That would mean Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s hopes for a successful vote hinge on one senator: Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.), who remained mum about her intentions as the clock ticked down to the critical vote.

Lincoln told POLITICO Friday afternoon that she has no timetable to make her decision ahead of the vote, scheduled for 8 p.m. "I was told I have time to make my decision," Lincoln said.

And Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) announced he would vote yes on going ahead with debate, even though he is calling for significant amendments to the bill on the floor.

Democrats from the White House to Capitol Hill projected confidence that Reid would have the 60 votes needed to start debate on health reform, despite the reservations expressed by senators on various details in the bill.

But with barely 24 hours left before the Saturday vote, no issue had emerged to immediately derail the $848 billion package, and Reid’s No. 2, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, told reporters, “We will proceed with this bill."

The White House issued a statement of support for Reid’s bill, calling it “a critical milestone in the effort to reform our health care system.”

Other, less noticeable factors broke Reid’s way. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who has long pushed to expand consumers' health care choices, scored a big win today when Reid and Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus agreed to open the insurance exchanges to more consumers.

The change would allow roughly a million Americans who have employer-provided insurance to choose between keeping their employer coverage and buying coverage in the newly created health insurance exchanges. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce criticized Wyden’s plan, saying it would undermine the current employer-based health insurance system, but Wyden maintains that it doesn't impact businesses.

Landrieu, a co-sponsor on Wyden's Healthy Americans Act, said she was "very happy" to hear Wyden had struck the deal.

In recent days, Landrieu has sounded more and more open to voting for Reid’s measure. She told reporters earlier in the week that she was leaning against the vote, but shifted to neutral on Thursday and earlier Friday. By Friday night, with a stack of health care briefing papers under her arm, Landrieu said was leaning in favor of supporting the procedural motion.

She acknowledged that she had fought for changes to the bill to help people in her state. Reid included an extra $100 million in Medicaid funding for states hit by Hurricane Katrina, which includes Louisiana.

“I’m using as much leverage as I have for the issues that I think are important not just to Louisiana but to broad constituencies throughout this country... In some ways, you can’t fix anything unless you keep the debate moving forward but in the other ways, you’ve got to use the leverage when you’ve got it to get some things that are important,” Landrieu said.

It was Lincoln who remained the biggest question mark about the vote. Durbin told reporters that Lincoln had revealed her vote to Reid but Lincoln later said that wasn’t true, and Durbin had to pull back his remarks..

On the eve of the vote, Reid’s plan came under fire from Republicans and the Catholic Church, as one official from the U.S. Conference Catholic of Catholic Bishops told the Associated Press it “the worst bill we’ve seen so far on the life issues.”

It was the influence of the Catholic bishops that made abortion an last-minute issue that almost derailed the House vote on health reform two week ago. The issue seemed to have less resonance in the Senate, and two senators who have in the past voted to restrict abortion, Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania – didn’t seem inclined this week to inject the abortion issue into the Saturday debate.

Republicans tried to step up pressure on Nelson and the other moderates to keep them from voting yes. Republican Sen. John McCain emailed his supporters this morning urging them to call Nelson's office to urge him to vote no tomorrow on moving health reform forward.

But the 11:30 a.m. email probably came too late to make much impact. Shortly after noon, Nelson announced his yes vote.

Senate Republicans also stepped up their attacks on the bill, with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) saying it relied on budget gimmicks to keep its price-tag under $1 trillion – like pushing off the start date of major reform until 2014.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) also tried to knock down the argument of Nelson and others that a vote Saturday is merely a vote to proceed to debate. “No Senator who votes for cloture on the motion to proceed tomorrow I think can with a straight face can contend they have somehow not embraced the bad policy contained in this bill,” he said.

If Reid still had his eye on Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), she dashed any hopes of giving Democrats a surprise "yes."

"How does this bill help small businesses? On balance, it doesn't," Collins said in a floor speech. "America would be better served by a bipartisan deal that brings together ideas on both sides of the aisle."




Health Care's Public Option Would Cover Little of Population


A proposed government-run health insurance program, among the most divisive issues in the health care debate, would cover less than 1.5 percent of the population, new estimates show.

The latest version of the "public option," included in the 10-year, $848 billion health care bill headed toward an initial Senate vote Saturday, would cover up to four million people, according to the Congressional Budget Office report released late Wednesday night.

The issue remains among those that have prevented Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid from securing the 60 votes he needs to pass the bill.



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Free Clinics Place Greater Spotlight On Health Care Reform Fight

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New Orleans Holds Free Clinic For Uninsured


Organizers of a free health clinic for uninsured residents of Louisiana on Saturday said they're pleased with its success.

Not only did the clinic see 1,000 patients, it may have saved the lives of some sick individuals. Many of the patients had not seen a physician since Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005.

Volunteer physicians and other medical providers tended to the health care needs of over 1,000 patients who attended the C.A.R.E. (Communities Are Responding Everyday) Clinic at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center in New Orleans. The clinic was organized by the National Association of Free Clinics and Louisiana Free Clinic Association (NAFC).

“We saw a number of very sick patients today who have not had medical care for many years,” Doctor Corey Hebert, a New Orleans physician and one of the clinic’s medical directors said. “This clinic was a life saver for many people who have no way to pay for their healthcare needs.”

Corey went on to say, “It is important that this is the same facility where people were dying four years ago and today we are giving them life.” His remarks were in reference to the aftermath of Katrina and the human crisis that occurred at convention center.

“It was wonderful to provide free care to so many people in one day,” Nicole Lamoureux, executive director of the NAFC, said. “But it also was important that we were able to connect a large number of these patients with free clinics and other health care providers who can provide them with care on a day-to-day basis.”

The NAFC and the Louisiana Free Clinic Association sponsored the event. The 727 volunteers who participated included physicians, nurses, other medical providers and non-medical individuals.

“I am very moved by all the physicians and other medical providers who volunteered to make this C.A.R.E. Clinic such a success,” Dr. Rani Whitfield, M.D., said. Whitfield, a Baton Rouge physician, served as co-medical director for the clinic. “The dedication to helping those need help was moving.”

The clinic operated from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. today at no cost to patients or taxpayers. Most of the patients registered before the event, but walk-ins were seen on a first-come-first-served basis.

“We did good work today,” Whitfield added. “It was good to connect many people in need of medical care with doctors, nurses and others who can help them on an ongoing basis.”

This was the second massive free clinic the NAFC has sponsored. Over 1700 patients received treatment at the first one, which was held in Houston in September. Two more C.A.R.E. Clinics are planned in Little Rock on Nov. 21 and Kansas City on Dec. 9-10.

“I’m looking forward to building on the successes in Houston and New Orleans to help even more people,” NAFC President Sheri Wood, who is based in Kansas City, said.

More information about the NAFC and the Little Rock and Kansas City events is available online at Freeclinics.us

New Orleans CARE Clinic Preliminary Numbers:

# 68 percent of patients seen seek medical care in the emergency room or do not seek care when ill

# 53 percent of those seen have not seen a doctor in more than one year with many not seeing a doctor since Katrina

# 90 percent of patients seen have more than one diagnosis -- hypertension and diabetes being the most prevalent

# 55 percemt of those seen were women and 45 percent were men



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Sources: MSNBC, WDSU, Free Clinics.us, Countdown With Keith Olbermann, AOL, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps