[NY Times] NEW ORLEANS -- Former Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans was found guilty on Wednesday of accepting payoffs for city contracts, becoming the first mayor in the city's history to be charged and convicted of corruption.
The jury, deliberated for about six and a half hours in total before finding Mr. Nagin, 57, the Democratic mayor for two terms and the face of the city's leadership during the Hurricane Katrina disaster, guilty in 20 of the 21 counts against him.
Tania Tetlow, a Tulane University law professor and a former federal prosecutor, said Mr. Nagin could receive a sentence of as many as 20 years under federal sentencing guidelines. He will remain free on bond until sentencing, but was placed on home detention.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/13/2014 00:00 ||
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#1
Mayor Ray accused of corruption? Say it ain't so! Next they'll be suggesting he can't manage the motor pool.
#3
Chocolate City Ray? Put him in the skinhead wing of the prison for a little vanilla frosting
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2014 7:09 Comments ||
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#4
Nothing actually new here. He was just as corrupt before, but now he's an official lodge member. (Got the little hat and everything.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/13/2014 7:21 Comments ||
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#5
He is one of the few Donks who got caught. He must have really screwed up or his politics weren't quite straight. Wasn't he funneling money into the Donk machine properly? New Orlean's version of Rod Blagojevich?
#13
The interesting bit here is Nagin got convicted (FTA: first mayor in NOLA history). How Ray managed to do *that* is the story. The corruption is a given.
No, not that Nixon. The headline refers to Jay Nixon, the Democratic Governor of Missouri. Some are getting fed up with his willingness to violate the states Constitution in order to impose a liberal agenda:
Rep. Nick Marshall, R-Parkville, has filed articles of impeachment in the first step toward attempting to remove Gov. Jay Nixon from office.
The resolution cites Nixon's executive order from November, which allows same-sex couples married in other states to file joint state taxes. It says Nixon is "guilty of willful neglect of duty and misconduct in office" for ignoring the Constitutional amendment passed by Missouri voters in 2004. That defined marriage as being between a man and a woman. The articles say Nixon's order on tax filings violates the constitution.
That isnt Nixons only offense.
Rep. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, said late last month he would file articles of impeachment because of Nixons failure to quickly fill vacancies in the Legislature. Moon is a co-sponsor of the measure filed by Marshall.
Rep. T.J. Berry, R-Kearney, is also a co-sponsor. He said he thinks the governor "violated the spirit of the constitutional law."
That would be obvious. But the Nixon who would resign rather than put his constituents through the disgrace of impeachment belonged to a different age and a different party. Democrats are predictably denouncing the impeachment articles as a publicity stunt. They have not offered an alternate recourse for those who want to preserve the integrity of the states government by reigning in the arrogant lawlessness of the head of the executive branch.
By now you are probably reminded not so much of Richard Nixon, but of Barack Obama. Obamas abuses of power that represent serious threats to our system of checks and balances include repeatedly rewriting ObamaCare on the fly, which he does not have constitutional authority to do; his explicit refusal to enforce the Defense of Marriage Act, despite his duty to faithfully execute the laws passed by Congress; his ignoring of Supreme Court rulings that dont go his way, as with provisions of the Voting Rights Act that were found to be unconstitutional; his practice of making recess appointments when the Senate is not in recess, evidently out of fear that his radical appointments would not be approved; and the extreme arrogance he displayed by excoriating Supreme Court justices who sat helplessly before him during his 2010 State of the Union address, and by announcing during the recent 2014 SOTU that he would impose his agenda by working around Congress, both times aggressively violating the spirit of the Constitution.
Missouri House Speaker Tim Jones (R-Eureka) is noncommittal on going through with impeachment proceedings for Nixon, but says this: "Moving forward, I expect the members of the House to take a very reasoned, deliberative approach to what will be a very serious discussion about the governors alleged misuse of his constitutional authority.
Would it be too much to ask for the same at the national level? The future of the country depends on it.
#1
Would it be too much to ask for the same[impeachment] at the national level? The future of the country depends on it. One such effort @ the national level.
..will Andrew Joseph Stack one day become a folk hero.? Sheesh...
HT: Drudge
Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races.
In the wake of the IRS targeting scandal, the Democrats are publicly prodding the agency instead of lobbying them directly. They are also careful to say the IRS should treat conservative and liberal groups equally, but they're concerned about an impending tidal wave of attack ads funded by GOP-allied organizations. Much of the funding for those groups is secret, in contrast to the donations politicians collect, which must be reported publicly.
One of the most powerful groups is Americans for Prosperity, funded by the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch. It has already spent close to $30 million on ads attacking Democrats this election cycle.
"If they're claiming the tax relief, the tax benefit to be a nonprofit for social relief or social justice, then that's what they should be doing," said Sen. Mark Begich (D), who faces a competitive race in Alaska. "If it's to give them cover so they can do political activity, that's abusing the tax code. And either side."
Asked if the IRS should play a more active role policing political advocacy by groups that claim to be focused on social welfare, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) responded, "Absolutely."
"Both on the left and the right," she said. "As taxpayers, we should not be providing a write-off to groups to do political activity, and that's exactly what we're doing."
When I see the IRS audit the Open Society Initiative and Media Matters, and make those audit public, then I'll believe that this is something other than the rankest hypocrisy from frightened Dhimmicrats...
#4
These jerkoffs better be sh!t scared if the Pubs take back the Senate in 2014, and the White House in 2016.
If the Right had an ounce of balls, they'd screw the Left to the wall with their own gamebook. What goes around, comes around.
I'm thinking the Left is confident they have queered the process sufficiently that the Pubs are shut out for good.
Heat the tar, pluck the chickens and stretch the ropes.
Posted by: Titus Noodleman4728 ||
02/13/2014 14:16 Comments ||
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#5
I don't think the left is confident they've cooked the books enough or there wouldn't be so many showing signs of fear about obamacare. I suspect they feel they are close, but need an election or two still.
#7
apparently a purge of IRS agents, middle management, and political hacks is in order next administration. If they misused their position for partisan gain, they should lose their pensions. Enact the law NOW over Obama's veto. Let the Dems sweat THIS for November
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2014 21:10 Comments ||
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#8
..(Progressive) Woodrow Wilson signed it into being primarily for the power, and only secondarily for the $.?
#2
Hypocritical fokkers. Where the hell were these donks when this turkey (Obamacare) was being shoved down the throats of the American people and they were told to chew, like it and shut up?
#3
Where the hell were these donks when this turkey (Obamacare) was being shoved down the throats of the American people and they were told to chew, like it and shut up?
they were voting to shove this down the throats of the American people....
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/13/2014 9:19 Comments ||
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#4
What's scary is that it will probably work for them.
For anyone with doubts about that, I give you the election of 2012.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
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[NY Times] NEW ORLEANS -- Former Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans was found guilty on Wednesday of accepting payoffs for city contracts, becoming the first mayor in the city's history to be charged and convicted of corruption.
