HumidCity

Who says The System doesn’t have a sense of humour?

Yesterdays indictments of Betty Jefferson, her brother Mose and daughter Angela Coleman, were announced exactly one year to the day that brother Bill Jefferson was indicted on 16 counts of bribery, fraud, racketeering and obstruction of justice. Elder sibling Mose has previously been indicted on charges related to bribing former School Board president Ellenese Brooks Sims. Sibling rivalry can be a real gas sometimes.

The charges are as follows:

Count 1: Conspiracy to steal from agencies receiving federal funds, and to commit mail fraud, Penalty: five years maximum imprisonment.
BJ AC MJ

Counts 2 - 11: Aggravated identity theft, Penalty: two years max.
AC counts 2, 4, 5, 9, 10 and 11. BJ counts 3, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10.

Count 12: Stealing money from an organization receiving federal funds, Penalty: 10 years max.
BJ MJ

Count 13: Stealing money from an organization receiving federal funds, Penalty: 10 years max.
BJ AC MJ

Counts 14 - 23: Mail Fraud, Penalty: 20 years max per count.
BJ AC MJ

Counts 24 - 26: False statements by Mose Jefferson to the FBI, Penalty: five years max per count.

Counts 27 - 30: Income Tax Invasion by Betty Jefferson. Penalty: five years max per count.

Count 31: Conspiracy to commit money laundering, Penalty: 20 years max.
BJ AC MJ

If convicted on all counts Betty faces 279 years in jail, her daughter 257, and Mose is looking at 250 years. In addition each count caries a fine of up to $250,000 or double any profit to the defendant or loss to victim. Mose faces 50 years maximum for his earlier indictment and William is staring down a possible 235 years for his alleged shenanigans. That’s a lot of baloney sammiches!

These charges all center around three “non-profit” organizations run by the Jefferson clan: Care Unlimited, an organization meant to provide “educational support services” to pregnant teens and “focus on the broad problems of black males between the ages of 9 and 21;” Orleans Metropolitan Housing & Community Development, lord only knows what they do, no information is available on the web; and Central City Adult Education Agency, also cloaked in mystery regarding its exact nature.

All three organizations have received millions in state and federal funds through the help of Renee Gill-Pratt, protogé and paramour of both William and Mose, and Jalila Jefferson Bullock, William’s daughter who both held the same seat in the state legislature and used their position to earmark money for the organizations.

WDSU’s Gina Swanson reports that this may cause the public to associate the Jefferson family name with public corruption. Really? And you get paid how much for stating the obvious? Silly me, I thought the connection had already been made. Why else would the Feds be hammering away at them? Jefferson family attorneys are already hard at work pounding out Change of Venue paperwork like they did for William whose trial will be held in Virginia. Strange. I would think that New Orleans would be the best place to hold the trial considering the non-stick coating this family has been wearing for the last thirty or so years. Especially if, as they say, the Jeffersons are innocent.

This morning a WDSU poll asked if these new charges would affect voters in William’s upcoming re-election bid and the results were interesting. 72% of responders said no, they were planning on voting for someone else and 6% said they still supported Bill. 22% said that they would no longer vote for Jefferson. There may be hope for us yet! Of course, only ten percent of those people will bother to vote anyway.

So it looks as if New Orleans darker side will be thrust naked and mewling in the National Spotlight once again for everyone to see, and that’s a shame and a blessing. It’s a shame the nation will once again see our local “leaders” as greedy pigs, gorging themselves on the taxpayer teat, but a blessing that we will be seen taking action to clean our own house and that may serve as the impetus for businesses to move into the area, create jobs, lower the crime rate, fund education, fix the blight, promote local music, restore the Lower Ninth, cure West Nile, defeat the Formosans and carry the Saints to a Superbowl victory!!!!

Or am I just being overly optimistic?

For more on the William and the Jeffersons:
http://nationofmorons.blogspot.com/2007/06/jeffersons.html

if you have lived in, driven by, or passed through the big pothole — er, big easy — since august 29, 2005, you, like everybody else, have experienced the joy of nails, building materials, shrapnel, or some sort of unidentifiable refuse in your tires… it has been a goodyear indeed…NOT.

tire manufacturers seem to be in cahoots with FEMA…. the longer the debris remains, the more tires will be sold…. personally, i haven’t seen such a tire/ gov’t conspiracy since the buses replaced light rail and street cars across america (you know street cars need low maintenance, buses need tires, gas, oil, maintenance, and ultimately replacement)….speaking of buses…. maybe the reason why we didn’t use the buses is b/c they were on Tulane Ave. and couldn’t make a left turn (&%$#@?)…where’s Oliver Stone when you need him? Like we ever need him? hmmmmmm….

i have had 5 flats since the storm…. the latest was a doozy as i drove across the causeway at 1:30am saturday morning follwoing a surreal UN-BIRTHDAY gig in Covington, LA. (more on that another time) 8 miles on my trans-ponchartrain trek, i had a blowout as the belt ripped from my radial….. swerve swerve swerve,,, thump thump thump…. water, death etc. DESPITE the possible cancellation of the freddy fred show and inevitable bodily harm to yours truly, my nerves remained calm as my drivers ed instincts kicked in…. and i safely navigated to a turnaound…. sort of

i waited 90 minutes for a tow truck… made frantric calls to wife, AAA, and Mazda road care. Thoughts of lupe garou, serial killers, and landsharks danced in my head like sugar plum crossdressers (ok it was late and i was sleep deprived). To my combined joy and dismay (paranoia?), 4 cops visited perhaps thinking i was smuggling donuts, migrant workers, drugs, or books? (afterall we are in louisiana) when the wrecker finally arrived i had already loosened two bolts,,,, the rest beyond my diminutuve brawn, intellectual giant, mechanical dwarf….. i found out i was not covered on spouse’s AAA… (grr) the resulting bill for 4 loosened nuts….85 dollars plus 6 dollar toll….

perhaps i can forward the bill to George W, FEMA, Bill Jefferson, or Ray Nagin…. unless of course they’re doing something… BLOG THIS

TPMmuckraker May 30, 2006 06:58 PM “The agent provides a detailed narrative of catching Jefferson trying to hide the document. According to her, Jefferson, while sitting at his kitchen table during the search, hid the papers under a copy of the subpoena that agents had served on him. He then asked to move to the living room after it had been searched and placed the documents in a blue bag there which agents had already been through.”

Last week, Congress could not agree on funding for housing and levees in time for hurricane season before breaking for vacation. Yet, yesterday, Congress convened an extraordinary recess to hold hearings about the raid of Rep Bill Jefferson’s office. They sacrificed their vacation time to draft legislation that would bar the FBI from searching Congressional offices in the future!

Please tell Congress how you feel about these actions by our Congress Members by writing a letter to the Washington Post and the New York Times. Here are some talking points:

1. 95,000 homes were destroyed by flood water in metro New Orleans due to broken levees.
2. Community block grants for housing are still not approved and are in danger of being slashed in the House.
3. A recent study by the U.C Berkeley lays the majority of the responsibility for the flooding on the US Army Corps of Engineers.
4. Hurricane Season begins on June 1. (which means it is probably hurricane season already by the time you’re reading this -Loki)

Your letter will more likely get published if you use your own words. Please send your letter in separate emails to:

letters@washpost.com and to letters@nytimes.com

Writing letters not your thing?   Go to: http://www.levees.org/advocacy/congress1.php and use our letter writing tool and with one click of a mouse, send a letter to your Congress Members! The letter is already there, just add your address and click “Send.”

Thank you,

Sandy

Shock & Awe - Congressional Style If you are not from Louisiana, you cannot begin to understand how pissed off we are with this guy. Please do not hold this against the people of South Louisiana who have suffered so much over the last nine months and continue to suffer. We are not only outraged with Jefferson but with those who are now attempting to use the Constitution of The United States as their own personal shield.

Suspect Device | Greg Peters today provides a wonderful perspective on William Jefferson. It really is amazing the place thta refridgerators have taken in our new Post K mythology…