Pretty soon they'll be hosting Jefferson family reunions in prison. I am shocked -- SHOCKED -- to report that Dollar Bill isn't the only criminal in his family. A group of them, including assessor Betty Jefferson, set up bogus "non-profits" that were designed to take taxpayer money and profit the Jeffersons. I reported this before, and Forgotston has given this great coverage. There is no legitimate (or Constitutional) justification for the government to confiscate taxpayer money only to dole it out to pet non-profits of their choosing, whether they are legitimate or criminal. Just return this money to the taxpayers, who can distribute it as they see fit a lot better that our politicians can.
Dollar Bill Jefferson now wants the feds to ignore his family members' crimes. Obviously, he should not have made all these sham companies in their names to launder his dirty money. If my spouse/father/brother was a known criminal who asked me to sign off on a sham company in my name that did nothing but receive suspicious checks, I would say thanks but no thanks.
Congressman William Jefferson of New Orleans is looking to launch a pre-paid bribe debit card for Louisiana residents to more easily pay off state legislators. Story at New Orleans Levee.
I figured out how to add a countdown clock to the blog and decided to have a little fun with it. This week's countdown clock is dedicated to Dollar Bill. It counts down the days, hours, minutes and seconds until he a) provides that honorable explanation for all the cash in his freezer that he's been promising us or b) is convicted. I'll put up a different countdown clock every week or so.
A local group calling itself "Justice for Jefferson" is fighting for Congressman Bill Jefferson. It issued a lengthy statement that makes no sense (full text here) and argues for "justice" for Dollar Bill. When most of us think of justice for Bill Jefferson, we envision him wearing an orange jumpsuit in a cell in a federal penitentiary somewhere. Not this group, which is led by the head of the local NAACP, Danatus King. Black leadership in New Orleans is nonexistent.
Congressman Bill Jefferson, who has achieved a grade of "F" from the NRA for his anti-gun record, apparently only seeks to disarm the rest of us, not himself. He admitted to keeping rifles and shotguns in his home and was forced to surrender them in response to his indictment.
Today, a federal grand jury indicted Congressman William Jefferson on 16 charges including bribery, racketeering, obstruction of justice and money laundering. Here is the full text of the Jefferson indictment.From the New York Observer:
It has been three months since the 110th Congress was sworn in, but Ms. Pelosi still refuses to keep her word and seat that district’s duly elected representative on the Homeland Security Committee—despite the obvious value of such a committee assignment to the Second District, which was decimated by Hurricane Katrina.There are reasons for the Speaker’s reluctance—mainly political, but also very personal.For starters, there’s the identity of the Second District’s Congressman: William Jefferson. All of Washington has been waiting for his indictment since August 2005, when F.B.I. agents raided his home and found $90,000 in cash stuffed in his freezer.Now, Republicans are drooling over the prospect of Ms. Pelosi taking Mr. Jefferson’s committee nomination to the House floor—the perfect opportunity for the G.O.P.’s most sanctimonious attack dogs to force a fight and remind Americans of the Speaker’s promise to deliver “the most ethical Congress in history.”There’s also the grudge factor. Long before that infamous cash began to thaw out, Mr. Jefferson had earned a prominent spot on Ms. Pelosi’s enemies list by seeking to undermine her standing among House Democrats after she refused to appoint him to head the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee in 2002. Cross her even once, and Ms. Pelosi will still be twisting her knife in you years later.So Ms. Pelosi, like a football coach trying to protect a lead by running out the clock, is delaying, hoping that much-anticipated indictment at last materializes and gives her cover for denying Mr. Jefferson his seat. It’s not the worst strategy, considering the damning evidence that has already emerged.
If you're like me, from time to time you need to park a spare $90,000 in cash from a delicate and, shall we say, undocumented transaction. The wad of cash is too thick to fit through the deposit slot at the ATM machine, so where are you going to keep it all? We've all had this problem before. Happens to normal, everyday, law-abiding citizens all the time. Until now, I always hid my cash in the freezer, but everybody knows about that spot because that's where Congressman Bill Jefferson kept his spare change. I have found the perfect solution: the iceberg lettuce safe. Yes, you heard me right, a safe shaped like a "realistic looking" head of iceberg lettuce. That's an actual picture of the safe, not a real head of lettuce, on the left. The bottom of it detaches to reveal a secret hidden compartment. More details and ordering information here and here.
Freezer full of cash? Check. Vote for U.S. surrender in Iraq? Check. Result? Censure? Impeachment? Nope -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rewards Congressman Bill Jefferson with a coveted position on the House Homeland Security panel. "But he's not a security risk!""It sends a terrible message," said King, R-N.Y. "They couldn't trust him to write tax policy, so why should he be given access to our nation's top secrets or making policy for national defense?"
"Members of the committee have access to intelligence secrets, plots here in the country, overseas, and people under suspicion. This shows how unimportant the Democrats think homeland security is," King said.
