Blatant Delusions From The Right

I was reading an article for The American Spectator by Ben Stein, the actor, writer, lawyer, and commentator on political and economic issues, regarding the arrest of James O'Keefe. He begins his article, titled "Free James O'Keefe" rambling about various legal issues involving the Democrats, such as Black Panthers showing up at polling places during the 2008 elections or the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed set in Manhatten. This is all presumably mentioned to make a case for why O'Keefe is innocent. Stein then mentions the arrest of O'Keefe and his pals.

"A few days ago, four young conservatives posed as telephone repairmen and entered the branch office of Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana in New Orleans," Stein wrote. "Their goal was to check to see if the phone system in the office was working." He continues by saying that the group was arrested and being charged with a "federal felony of something called tampering with a federal phone line," but his account gets worse. He mentions a New York Times front page story picturing the conservative activists in prison orange, "presumably to humiliate" the men. Stein then jumps off the deep end.

He insists that this was just a bunch of journalists following their story, and that "they didn't even touch a phone" as far as he is aware, even though an affidavit by witnesses state otherwise, as I am sure their video recordings will also show (this seems to be a classic conservative method of alleging the inverse in an attempt to override the facts). Stein insinuates that this arrest is a violation of First Amendment rights, but I would assume that if anybody were to dry to gain access to, say, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann's telephone system, the right would be fuming and demand retribution, claiming it was a terrorist-subversive-Marxist-whatever plot masterminded by the upper echelons of the Democratic party and Attorney General Eric Holder. Stein even goes far as to mention some sort of double standard within the Democratic party, where Black Panthers, most likely not associated with the original Black Panthers, since it dissolved in 1976, are not investigated, while a couple young conservatives, are. He asks the question "When was the last time you read about federal charges against a liberal reporter for going undercover?" I ask the question as to when a "liberal reporter" fraudulently entered a federal building and tried to access the telephone systems or interfere with the workings of the government? It's funny because conservatives seem to be upset that O'Keefe is being called "Watergate Jr.", trying to spin the title to compare him to the reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein then to fellow Fox News gold pitchmen G. Gordon Liddy, who masterminded the Watergate break-ins.

Ben Stein is not the only conservative to rush to the defense of the gang of four. O'Keefe's one time prostitute Hannah Giles responded to the arrest via Big Journalism, citing liberal media bias and Mary Landrieu overreacting to the plot as to why O'Keefe and his pals are in so much hot water. The mainstream media is the voice of the Democratic party, and it was the Democrats that pushed the story against O'Keefe, Dai, Basel, and Flanagan. She also questioned the loyalty of those involved in the conservative movement, turning on Michelle Malkin, who fell victim to liberal media coverage.

Commenter mousiemarie shows the blatant disregard from the right, writing "those who place themselves higher than others are always afraid of the 'rabble'." It seems to me that the fraudulent telephone repairmen decided to place themselves above the average American, taking the law into their own hand and conduct their own form of "vigilante journalism," attempting to expose perceived violations of law and hold them accountable before a proper investigation. For the right, one is presumed guilty until proven innocent, not the other way around...