Monday, February 22, 2010

Max Blumenthal @ CPAC 2010 - Vol. One

Honorary Alaska blogger, and author of Republican Gomorrah, Max Blumenthal dropped by CPAC last week, for his fourth or fifth year. They're on to him now, though, and he was pretty much surrounded by aspiring young Republican videographers, their followers, and - eventually - racist Andrew Breitbart. Breitbart kept on asking Max to detail his accusation toward Breitbart, but every time Max tried to get an intelligent discussion going, Breitbart derailed it with epithets.

Breitbart issued a video late last week that purported to clean Max's clock on the issue. It didn't. And over the weekend both Eric Boehlert and Digby came to Max's defense. Here's Boehlert:

Last September, when the ACORN scandal that his website helped launch was breaking in the press, Andrew Breitbart wrote a column for The Washington Times detailing the rollout of the undercover, right-wing gotcha. He recalled a 2009 meeting with "filmmaker and provocateur James O'Keefe" that took place in Breitbart's office in June. It was there that O'Keefe played the columnist the surreptitiously recorded videos he'd made with his sidekick, Hannah Giles, and which captured the two famously getting advice from ACORN workers on how prostitutes could skirt tax laws.

In his Times column, Breitbart was quite clear about what he saw that day in his office: He watched videos of O'Keefe "dressed as a pimp" sitting inside ACORN offices "asking for -- and getting -- help" from the misguided employees.

But today we know that's almost certainly not true. Breitbart didn't huddle in his office and watch clips of O'Keefe "dressed as a pimp" chatting with ACORN employees, because based on all the available evidence, O'Keefe wasn't dressed as a pimp while taping inside the ACORN offices.

Make no mistake: Last fall, both Breitbart and O'Keefe, with the help of Fox News, did their best to confuse people about that fact. It's true the duo seemed to purposefully push that falsehood and mislead the public and the press about the ACORN story. And more importantly, they did it to make the ACORN workers captured on video look like complete jackasses for not being able to spot O'Keefe's pimp ruse a mile away.

But the story was not true.


And here's Digby, taking Breitbart's dishonesty and its most likely purpose to the logical next level:

But the less than obvious reason this is a big deal is that the pimp and ho costumes were a send-up of over-the-top racial stereotypes that both reinforced some very ugly notions about the African American community, but more importantly, made these ACORN workers look as though they were so dumb they shouldn't be allowed to cross the street, much less handle tax dollars. And this was done for a reason. The little dirty tricksters,it turns out, had relied on some other stereotypes to perform this sting --- he had dressed like a nice, young, preppie fellow, just trying to help this unfortunate young white girl caught in a bad situation in order to gain the ACORN workers' trust and compassion. He used his stereotypical innocent, youthful, studiously upstanding looks to create a false impression with the ACORN workers and then turned around and filmed some bogus footage of him dressed in a ridiculous pimp costume to give a false impression to the mostly white audience. It was a very clever way to use racial stereotypes on both groups to get what he wanted.


Here's Max's YouTube of his encounters as he wandered the lobby at CPAC. He's trying to persuade Breitbart employee Hannah Giles (aka - "the hooker") to convince Breitbart employee James O'Keefe (aka - "the pimp") to sit for an interview with Max:

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Phil...thanks for this. Max, as usual, holds his own. More than holds his own, if fact.
Breitbart, apparently, has some anger management issues....

welliam blaked said...

the comment about taking meth w/ levi's mom was pretty weak. i thought it was unnecessarily hurtful to a person that has no connection to the topic at hand and a long stretch for lame joke. i wonder what he was going for there. i expected better from someone you seem to hold in such high regard.

what does that mean anyway, Honorary Alaska Blogger?

Anonymous said...

That's probably one of the best posts you've ever made. That video should be called "Andrew Brietbart is a Douche"

Anonymous said...

Ha, ha, your boy Maxie got his clock cleaned by Breitbart at CPAC. Watching Lickle Maxie slink out of the event as people were singing "Na, Na, Na Say Goodbye" was pure comedy gold.

As for your disgusting accusation that Breitbart is a "racist" please provide evidence or retract your filthy slur.

Anonymous said...

"And this was done for a reason. The little dirty tricksters,it turns out, had relied on some other stereotypes to perform this sting --- he had dressed like a nice, young, preppie fellow, just trying to help this unfortunate young white girl caught in a bad situation in order to gain the ACORN workers' trust and compassion."

I see your blog has succumbed to outright lying now. Anyone who has watched the unedited tapes of the ACORN take-down would know that O'Keefe didn't try to help a young white girl out of a bad situation...he ACTUALLY asked advice about how to set her up as a prostitute and how to get other girls into a brothel. Your ignorance of this fact is matched only by your willingness to run to other sites to get your information. Try doing some decent research or just link to Daily Kos and save yourself any effort.

Anonymous said...

"Anyone who has watched the unedited tapes of the ACORN take-down would know that O'Keefe didn't try to help a young white girl out of a bad situation..."

Given that the FULL, UNEDITED footage has yet to reach the public, pray tell, how do you manage to secure said film?

jesse cornish is an impotent weirdo said...

Phil,

Were you aware that, per Andrew Breitbart, "within the next three weeks" he will personally "[take] down "the institutional left"?

He gave no further details, but I assume he's going to somehow disband the Service Employees International Union, force The Nation to cease publication, assume the Chancellorship of Berkeley, and begin drawing his own, conservative version of Doonesbury.

He's a gangsta, that Breitbart, a gangsta I tell you.

Anonymous said...

He may be a "gangsta" (whatever the hell that means in Leftie-speak) but where is the evidence he is a racist?

Anonymous said...

".he ACTUALLY asked advice about how to set her up as a prostitute and how to get other girls into a brothel."

Anyone still actually denying this happened ?

Makabit Bat Guriel said...

Breitbart a racist? Not too sure about that one but...
I do know Maxie Pad Blumenthal is a self hating Jew.