Meet your new thread, same as the old thread.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Gattigap


Former Senator Fred Thompson (R-TEN), 64 demonstrating his personal violation of the Half-Plus-Seven Rule with wife Jeri Kehn, 35.

Joe Scarborough wants to know if she "works the pole."

Ick.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Joe Scarborough wants to know if she "works the pole."

Ick.

I didn't know he was from Eastern Europe.

[SlaveNoMore]

So when is Nancy asking him to step down:

---

WASHINGTON (AP) - Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., was indicted Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money-laundering in a long- running bribery investigation into business deals he tried to broker in Africa.
The indictment handed up in federal court in Alexandria., Va., Monday is 94 pages long and lists 16 alleged violations of federal law that could keep Jefferson in prison for up to 235 years. He is charged with racketeering, soliciting bribes, wire fraud, money-laundering, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

Jefferson is accused of soliciting bribes for himself and his family, and also for bribing a Nigerian official.

Almost two years ago, in August 2005, investigators raided Jefferson's home in Louisiana and found $90,000 in cash stuffed into a box in his freezer.

Jefferson, 63, whose Louisiana district includes New Orleans, has said little about the case publicly but has maintained his innocence. He was re-elected last year despite the looming investigation.

Jefferson, in Louisiana on Monday, could not immediately be reached for comment.

Two of Jefferson's associates have already struck plea bargains with prosecutors and have been sentenced.

Brett Pfeffer, a former congressional aide, admitted soliciting bribes on Jefferson's behalf and was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Another Jefferson associate, Louisville, Ky., telecommunications executive Vernon Jackson, pleaded guilty to paying between $400,000 and $1 million in bribes to Jefferson in exchange for his assistance securing business deals in Nigeria and other African nations. Jackson was sentenced to more than seven years in prison.

Both Pfeffer and Jackson agreed to cooperate in the case against Jefferson in exchanges for their pleas.

The impact of the case has stretched across continents and even roiled presidential politics in Nigeria. According to court records, Jefferson told associates that he needed cash to pay bribes to the country's vice president, Atiku Abubakar.

Abubakar denied the allegations, which figured prominently in that country's presidential elections in April. Abubakar ran for the presidency and finished third.

The indictment does not name Abubakar. But it describes Jefferson's dealings with an unnamed "Nigerian Official A" who was a high-ranking official in Nigeria's executive branch who had a spouse in Potomac, Md. One of Abubakar's wives lived in that Washington suburb.

Court records indicate that Jefferson was videotape taking a $100,000 cash bribe from an FBI informant. Most of that money later turned up in a freezer in Jefferson's home.

In May 2006, the FBI raided Jefferson's congressional office, the first such raid on a sitting congressman's Capitol office. That move sparked a constitutional debate over whether the executive branch stepped over its boundary.

The legality of the raid is still being argued on appeal. House leaders objected to the search saying it was an unconstitutional intrusion on the lawmaking process. The FBI said the raid was necessary because Jefferson and his legal team had failed to respond to requests for documents.

Some but not all the documents seized in the raid have been turned over Justice Department prosecutors.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
So when is Nancy asking him to step down:

Not soon enough for me. But don't you think he's innocent until proven guilty?

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
Not soon enough for me. But don't you think he's innocent until proven guilty?

Karl "Frogmarch" Rove would be amused by this statement.

[SlaveNoMore]

Tyrone Slothrop
Not soon enough for me. But don't you think he's innocent until proven guilty?

And while Nancy fiddles...

----
Boehner seeks Jefferson expulsion

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) moved quickly to force the expulsion of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) from Congress following his indictment Monday on federal corruption charges.

The Republican leader will ask members of the House to vote on a resolution requiring the ethics committee to review the indictment filed against him in order to seek his expulsion from the House, according to his office.

Boehner will offer a privileged resolution on the House floor as early as Tuesday calling for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to review the 94-page indictment filed against Jefferson Monday. The House will then vote on his resolution calling for the ethics panel to act.

The Justice Department indicted the Louisiana Democrat Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money laundering.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
Karl "Frogmarch" Rove would be amused by this statement.

Woodward and Bernstein called this a "non-denial denial."

[Gattigap]

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
Not soon enough for me. But don't you think he's innocent until proven guilty?

Yes, though I'll admit I'm looking forward to hearing a convincing -- shit, a plausible -- explanation for having $90k stuffed in your freezer, wrapped in foil, and hidden in empty food containers. I mean, doesn't he know that aluminum will fuck up your microwave?

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by SlaveNoMore
And while Nancy fiddles...

----
Boehner seeks Jefferson expulsion

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) moved quickly to force the expulsion of Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.) from Congress following his indictment Monday on federal corruption charges.

The Republican leader will ask members of the House to vote on a resolution requiring the ethics committee to review the indictment filed against him in order to seek his expulsion from the House, according to his office.

Boehner will offer a privileged resolution on the House floor as early as Tuesday calling for the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct to review the 94-page indictment filed against Jefferson Monday. The House will then vote on his resolution calling for the ethics panel to act.

The Justice Department indicted the Louisiana Democrat Monday on federal charges of racketeering, soliciting bribes and money laundering.

Refresh my recollection, if you would, please. Wasn't he the one who was fighting sdo hard to keep DeLay around after his indictment?

[Tyrone Slothrop]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Yes, though I'll admit I'm looking forward to hearing a convincing -- shit, a plausible -- explanation for having $90k stuffed in your freezer, wrapped in foil, and hidden in empty food containers. I mean, doesn't he know that aluminum will fuck up your microwave?

I think the guy is guilty as heck,* but fortunately for all of us our justice system has better ways of figuring these things out.

* n.b. -- criminal-justice term of art

[taxwonk]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Yes, though I'll admit I'm looking forward to hearing a convincing -- shit, a plausible -- explanation for having $90k stuffed in your freezer, wrapped in foil, and hidden in empty food containers. I mean, doesn't he know that aluminum will fuck up your microwave?

There is no plausible explanation. The motherfucker's guilty as sin and we all know it.

Of course, that's why we have the rule of law. Cause it isn't good enough to just say "we all know he's guilty."

[andViolins]

Originally posted by Gattigap
Yes, though I'll admit I'm looking forward to hearing a convincing -- shit, a plausible -- explanation for having $90k stuffed in your freezer, wrapped in foil, and hidden in empty food containers. I mean, doesn't he know that aluminum will fuck up your microwave?

Because he wanted to keep some cold hard cash on hand!!!

Well, it would have worked for him if he told that to the judge:



aV

[Tyrone Slothrop]

• Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Tuesday for lying and obstructing the CIA leak investigation.
  
  Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, stood calmly before a packed courtroom as a federal judge said the evidence overwhelmingly proved his guilt.
  
  "People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton said.

AP

[Replaced_Texan]

I've had issues with the FCC's crack down on obscenities in the last few years, so I was happy to read a federal appeals court agrees with me. The funniest part, though, was this:

Beginning with the F.C.C.’s indecency finding in a case against NBC for a vulgarity uttered by the U2 singer Bono during the Golden Globes awards ceremony in 2003, President Bush’s Republican and Democratic appointees to the commission have imposed a tougher policy by punishing any station that broadcast a fleeting expletive. That includes vulgar language blurted out on live shows like the Golden Globes or scripted shows like “NYPD Blue,” which was cited in the case.

Reversing decades of a more lenient policy, the commission had found that the mere utterance of certain words implied that sexual or excretory acts were carried out and therefore violated the indecency rules.

But the judges said vulgar words are just as often used out of frustration or excitement, and not to convey any broader obscene meaning. “In recent times even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced sexual or excretory organs or activities.”

Adopting an argument made by lawyers for NBC, the judges then cited examples in which Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had used the same language that would be penalized under the policy. Mr. Bush was caught on videotape last July using a common vulgarity that the commission finds objectionable in a conversation with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain. Three years ago, Mr. Cheney was widely reported to have muttered an angry obscene version of “get lost” to Senator Patrick Leahy on the floor of the United States Senate.

“We find that the F.C.C.’s new policy regarding ‘fleeting expletives’ fails to provide a reasoned analysis justifying its departure from the agency’s established practice,” said the panel.

[Shape Shifter]

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
I've had issues with the FCC's crack down on obscenities in the last few years, so I was happy to read a federal appeals court agrees with me. The funniest part, though, was this:

Well, they did promise to elevate the level of discourse and restore honor and dignity to the White House.