Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin Guity on 20 of 21 Counts of Bribery & Corruption Charges

Ray Nagin, the former Democrat Mayor of New Orleans (The Chocolate City) has been found guilty on 20 of 21 counts of bribery, fraud and corruption charges.

Ray Nagin, the former two-term mayor of New Orleans indicted after he left office, was convicted Wednesday of 20 federal corruption charges for illegal dealings with city vendors, dating back to 2004. A jury delivered its verdict just before 1 p.m., after six hours of deliberations that followed a nine-day trial.

Nagin, 57, joins a list of Louisiana elected officials convicted of misdeeds while in office, but he is New Orleans’ first mayor to be convicted of public corruption. Under federal sentencing guidelines, he could face a 20-year prison term, possibly more, lawyers have said

CNN:

Ray Nagin came into the mayor’s office in New Orleans as an avowed scourge of corruption and led the city through the worst disaster of its modern history.

He left a federal courthouse a convict Wednesday, after a jury found him guilty of taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and other favors from businessmen looking for a break from his administration. Of the 21 counts against him, he was convicted of 20.

“He got a lot of media attention as being a reformer, a non-politician, first run for office — a businessman who was going to come in and get it right,” said Pat Fanning, a veteran New Orleans lawyer and no fan of the former two-term mayor.

After Hurricane Katrina ravaged the city in 2005, the onetime cable television executive would reassure people queasy about sending taxpayer money to a state with an epic history of corruption by telling them, “Google me. You’re not going to find any of that in my record,” Fanning said, quoting Nagin. “Well, Google him now.”

Nagin, who left office in 2010, had little to say as he left the courthouse Wednesday afternoon, telling reporters only, “I maintain my innocence.” A small knot of supporters yelled, “Keep your head up” and “He’s just a patsy,” CNN affiliate WDSU reported.

UPDATE I: Ray Nagin juror: Defense should have put on more evidence.

To the juror who wished that Nagin’s defense team had provided more evidence during the ex-New Orleans’ Mayor’s trial … the answer is, because they couldn’t.

A juror wished Ray Nagin’s defense attorney put on more evidence to help his client in the federal corruption case that ended with convictions on 20 counts that could send the former New Orleans mayor to prison for 20 years, possibly more.

Speaking outside the federal courthouse after the verdict was read, Lisa Hamaker, a juror from St. Tammany Parish who described herself as a “stay-at-home-mom,” said she wished defense attorney Robert Jenkins put on more evidence. Much of the prosecution’s case went unchallenged, she said

The Gateway Pundit has a list of the 20 charges that Nagin was found guilty.

Count 1: Conspiracy – Guilty
The charge: Creating, through a variety of bribes and kickbacks, “a scheme and artifice to defraud” the residents of New Orleans of his honest services as a public official. Many of the individual elements of this scheme make up the other 20 crimes with which Nagin was charged.
Maximum prison term: 5 years

Count 2: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting $60,000 from the three principals of Three Fold Consulting, an engineering firm, in exchange for special treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 3: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting a $2,500 bribe from Rodney Williams, a principal in Three Fold Consulting, in exchange for favorable treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Count 4: Bribery – Guilty
The charge: Accepting a shipment of granite from Frank Fradella’s company, Home Solutions, in exchange for favorable treatment.
Maximum prison term: 10 years

Read the rest here.

Barack Obama Unlawfully Rewrites Obamacare Again … Obama Delays Employer Health Insurance Mandate Until 2016, After Elections

AMERICA, THIS IS WHAT TYRANNY LOOKS LIKE …

Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of their Democrat minions were so quick to ram Obamacare down the throats of Americans with a 100& partisan Democrat vote, now they want to do everything to delay this disastrous healthcare law.

First President Barack Obama unlawfully delayed the employee mandate one year until 2014. However, Obama did not think that his signature piece of legislation would be such a fiasco and disastrously unpopular with the American people. So much so that Democrats are finding it impossible to run for reelection in the 2014 midterm elections with this anchor around their neck. So what does Obama do with the so-called Affordable Healthcare act that is not so affordable that was supposed to be for We the People … why delay the employer mandate until 2016, after the elections of course for political purposes. As reported at The Daily Caller, the Obama administration won’t enforce the rule until 2016 for business with between 50 and 99 employees. All companies with 100 employees or more will be subject to the employer mandate beginning in 2015, after an initial delay was announced before the Independence Day holiday in 2013.

Just curious … why did Congress even vote on Obamacare?

For the second time in a year, the Obama administration is giving certain employers extra time before they must offer health insurance to almost all their full-time workers.

Under new rules announced Monday by Treasury Department officials, employers with 50 to 99 workers will be given until 2016 — two years longer than originally envisioned under the Affordable Care Act — before they risk a federal penalty for not complying.

Companies with 100 workers or more are getting a different kind of one-year grace period. Instead of being required in 2015 to offer coverage to 95 percent of full-time workers, these bigger employers can avoid a fine by offering insurance to 70 percent of them next year.

How the administration would define employer requirements has been one of the biggest remaining questions about the way the 2010 health-care law will work in practice — and has sparked considerable lobbying. By providing the dual phase-ins for employers of different sizes, administration officials have sought to lighten the burden on the small share of affected employers that have not offered insurance in the past.

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO AMERICA? Why are we allowing these illegal acts by this administration to happen? Did we or did we not fight a Revolutionary War to rid ourselves of a King’s oppression? But Obama is just allowed to change and ridiculous, unambiguous statutory mandate that requires by law and the US Constitution the approval of Congress. However, the Imperial supreme dictator Barack Obama thinks he can do anything and often decided the law is whatever he says it is. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COUNTRY I GREW UP IN?

US Constitution, are you kidding me … I can do anything I want to

WSJ: Obama Rewrites ObamaCare – Another day, another lawless exemption, once again for business.

‘ObamaCare” is useful shorthand for the Affordable Care Act not least because the law increasingly means whatever President Obama says it does on any given day. His latest lawless rewrite arrived on Monday as the White House decided to delay the law’s employer mandate for another year and in some cases maybe forever.

ObamaCare requires businesses with 50 or more workers to offer health insurance to their workers or pay a penalty, but last summer the Treasury offered a year-long delay until 2015 despite having no statutory authorization. Like the individual mandate, the employer decree is central to ObamaCare’s claim of universal coverage, but employers said the new labor costs—and the onerous reporting and tax-enforcement rules—would damage job creation and the economy.

Remember in the past when the MSM had reported that the GOP was just an obstructionist party, but the Republicans response was that it was impossible to work with a president who kept moving the goal post? Use your own brain and decide for yourself. Once again we see Obama changing things that is supposed to be “the law of the land”. Obama keeps changing the goal post and as Ed Driscoll says, the Obamacare law is whatever Barack Obama says it is.

WHEN WILL THIS NATIONAL NIGHTMARE BE OVER?

Attorney Cleta Mitchell Says to Congress: IRS Scandal Against Tea Party & Conservative Organizations is Real and the DOJ Investigation of the IRS Is a Sham

Attorney Cleta Mitchell addresses Congress regarding the continued IRS scandal … IT IS REAL, STILL NOT OVER AND THE INVESTIGATION IS A SHAM!

It would appear that there is more than a “smidgen” of corruption in IRS-gate.

1. The IRS scandal is real. It’s not pretend, it’s real.
2. The IRS scandal is not just a bone-headed bunch of bureaucrats in some remote office contrary to what the president of the United States told the American people on [Super Bowl] Sunday.
3. The IRS scandal is not over. It is continuing to this day and the Department of Justice investigation is a sham.

Explosive testimony lit up a House hearing on the IRS targeting scandal Thursday, as GOP super lawyer Cleta Mitchell told representatives that the systematic effort to delay the processing of grass-roots groups’ applications for nonprofit status continues to occur.

Mitchell represents several grass-roots conservative organizations whose applications under sections 501c3 and 501c4 of the internal revenue code were delayed for years in the run-up to the 2012 election. She said that targeting had not stopped.

Must See VIDEO … LIES, LIES, LIES from the IRS and President Obama

Tea Party Leaders Testify on IRS Targeting Scandal: Watch the Full Hearing.

Witnesses scheduled to appear before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform include Catherine Engelbrecht, founder of the King Street Patriots, and Justice and Becky Gerritson, founder and president of Wetumpka TEA Party.

Additional witnesses will include Barbara Bosserman of the U.S. Department of Justice, Cleta Mitchell of Foley & Lardner LLP and Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the American Center for Law.

The full hearings can be seen here.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) Hammers DOJ’s Eric Holder on Compromised Integrity of IRS Investigation

How could this not be considered a conflict of interest?

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) questioned Attorney General Eric Holder on the impartiality and conflict of interest in the IRS investigation of conservative groups and Tea Party organizations by the IRS. To data no one has been held accountable, even though President Obama and Holder both initially proclaimed their outrage. However, of all the attorneys in the Justice department, he managed to find one to lead the investigation that was a big Obama campaign donor. ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!! What would happen if a Republican administration did the same? These folks are as corrupt as it gets.

“In the 280 days since that inspector general report, nobody has been indicted,” Cruz said. “Not a single person. In the 280 days since that inspector general report, it’s been publicly reported that no indictments are planned. Today in this hearing, you were unwilling to answer a question whether even a single victim of targeting has been interviewed.”

And, Cruz said, “most astonishingly, it has now been publicly reported that the lead lawyer heading the investigation was, No. 1, appointed from the civil rights division, which has historically been the most politically charged division in the Dept. of Justice. And even more astonishingly, is a major Democratic donor and donor to President Obama.”

Hmm, what does the Obama administration and IRS have to hide … I thought this was supposed to be the most transparent presidency ever? Time to appoint an independent prosecutor. Where is the MSM reporting this abuse of power?

The Blaze:

Attorney General Eric Holder had a long day on Wednesday. He clashed with a number of no-nonsense lawmakers during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, including Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Cruz pressed Holder on the Justice Department’s investigation into the IRS targeting scandal, calling the results of the probe “astonishing.”

“In my view, the integrity of the Department of Justice has been severely compromised,” Cruz told Holder. “Predecessors of yours in both parties, Democrat and Republican, when faced with serious charges of abuse of power for partisan gain have made the right decision and appointed special prosecutors.”

“I would call upon you to carry out the tradition of independence that attorneys general have honored that office with for centuries and protect the integrity of the Department of Justice,” he later added. “Given the political sensitivities, given the fact that individual citizens believe they are being persecuted by the federal government for partisan reasons.”

Full VIDEO fron CSPAN can be seen HERE.

At SOTU Emperor Obama Says He Will Bypass the Congress & US Constitution … US ‘does not stand still’ and ‘neither will I’

If I can’t get people to agree with me, I will tear it down myself … 2014 Will be a Year of Action whether you want it or not.

Last night at Barack Obama SOTU he stated, “the US ‘does not stand still’ and ‘neither will I.” Of course this was code for the Congress, the US Constitution and the separation of powers be damned … he have less than a year to destroy America and remake it into his twisted vision of a socialist Utopia . However, with Obama’s poor approval numbers, not only will Republicans not back any of his agenda, neither will Democrats heading into the 2014 midterm elections. Rather big talk from a president who terrible job approval ratings, Obamacare disapproval at an all time high, and a president who is no longer trusted by “We the People.” The people have lost complete confidence in Barack Obama to do the right thing, so he is going to do it any how and go it alone. What a complete and total ineffectual leader.

President Barack Obama won’t wait for Congress to take action on his agenda, vowing in Tuesday’s State of the Union address to use executive powers to sidestep Republican roadblocks on Capitol Hill.

“America does not stand still — and neither will I,” Obama said. “So wherever and whenever I can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more American families, that’s what I’m going to do.”

Despite the congressional logjam, Obama declared, “I believe this can be a breakthrough year for America.”

“What I offer tonight is a set of concrete, practical proposals to speed up growth, strengthen the middle class, and build new ladders of opportunity into the middle class,” he said. “Some require congressional action, and I’m eager to work with all of you.”

How is it that a Congress stands up and cheers when a president says directly in front of them that he is going to bypass them and do their jobs? Why are we paying anyone of those who stood and abdicated their legislative job to the executive branch?

Instead of apologizing to the American people for causing millions of Americans to lose their insurance thanks to the unpopular Obamacare law as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) has suggested, Obama instead doubled down and said he would go it alone if the House and Senate did not agree with his unpopular agenda.

Just curious, how would the MSM be reacting today if a Republican president said he was going to bypass Congress?