Unless his conviction is overturned on appeal, Jefferson will almost certainly face serious jail time

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Corruption serves justice!

Former US representative WILLIAM JEFFERSON (D-LA) was found gulity of 11 counts of corruption in Virginia.

Prosecutors alleged that Jefferson used his office in order to elicit a series of complex bribes and payoffs relating to business ventures in Africa, pulling in hundreds of thousands of dollars. His case made national headlines after authorities found $90,000 in cash in Jefferson’s freezer, hidden in frozen pie crusts.

Unless his conviction is overturned on appeal, Jefferson will almost certainly face serious jail time, with the charges carrying up to 150 years in jail.

From an article at Reuters:

Former U.S. Representative William Jefferson, who was caught with $90,000 in cash in his freezer, was found guilty on 11 of 16 charges related to a bribery and money laundering scandal, a U.S. official said on Wednesday.

The ex-Louisiana lawmaker was accused in 2007 of soliciting millions of dollars in bribes from a dozen companies while using his office to broker business deals in Africa.

In a search of his residence, FBI agents said they had found the $90,000 in a freezer.

Jefferson faces up to 150 years in prison and could face forfeiture of payments totaling $456,000, plus stock certificates, according a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia, where Jefferson was tried. Jefferson can appeal his conviction.

“The power base of black politics is shifting to elsewhere in the country.“

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With President Barack Obama in the White House as the country’s first African American commander-in-chief, one may think Harlem, a center of black politics in this country for decades, would be soaring. Harlem produced New York’s first black governor and the city’s first black mayor.

Instead, the power base of black politics is shifting to elsewhere in the country and the city, according to an article in Tuesday’s New York Times.

As the article points out, two of Harlem’s, and the nation’s most well-known, black politicians–Congressman Charlie Rangel, chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, and New York Gov. David A. Paterson–are experiencing difficulties. Rangel is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee regarding his financial disclosures, and Paterson is polling so poorly that the White House has requested he not seek the Democratic nod for governor next year.

According to the New York Times:

Nationally, Harlem is increasingly eclipsed by Chicago, the home base of President Obama and much of his inner circle, while the power Mr. Rangel and others once wielded in New York City affairs is rapidly dispersing to Brooklyn and Queens, home to a younger generation of elected officials eager to assert themselves. If Mr. Paterson goes, some black leaders say, the Harlem machine goes with him.

Younger politicians in Brooklyn and Queens who supported Obama’s unlikely candidacy over that of Hillary Rodham Clinton are now stepping up to fill the potential power void:

But while Harlem and its voters remain influential, Governor Paterson and Mr. Rangel have few heirs. The president pro tem of the State Senate, Malcolm A. Smith, is a product of southeast Queens. His likely successor, John L. Sampson, the Democratic leader in the Senate, hails from central Brooklyn, part of a close-knit group of younger black lawmakers with overlapping districts and ambitions. The party’s standard-bearer in this year’s New York mayoral race, William C. Thompson Jr., is also from Brooklyn, as is the chairman of Albany’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus, Assemblyman Darryl C. Towns.

“That’s how it is. The younger generation will challenge the older generation, and that’s how it should be,” said Ronald Walters, professor emeritus of government and politics and former director of the African American leadership Center at the University of Maryland. “Back in 1984 to 1988, when Jesse Jackson ran for president, a new generation of people came aboard and learned the skills needed to make it into politics and worked their way in to the media and policy.”

The reluctance of some African American elected officials to support Obama’s candidacy, combined with the failure to groom the next generation of African American leaders, is being cited for the shift.

In what’s sure to be the biggest moment from the internet, Obama affably downplays the suggestion that opposition to his administration and its policies is racially motivated.

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Nothing wrong with easing a little tension!

Seeking to downplay accusations that those against his health reform plans are racially motivated, Obama chose to go for laughs on Letterman tonight.

In what’s sure to be the biggest moment from the internet, Obama affably downplays the suggestion that opposition to his administration and its policies is racially motivated, deadpanning, “I think it’s important to realize that I was actually black before the election.”

It’s a nice laugh line, only helped by Letterman ably playing the straight man and asking back, “How long have you been a black man?”

Obama also does a bit of policy pushing, lightly touching on the economy, unemployment, and his strategy in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Still, he knows how to end strong, ending with a bit on how Malia and Sasha Obama are handling living in the White House: “They basically just goofed off all summer, which I couldn’t do.”

In her Today show debut, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager interviewed the 11-year-old motivational speaker and YouTube phenom Dalton Sherman.

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In her Today show debut, former first daughter Jenna Bush Hager interviewed the 11-year-old motivational speaker and YouTube phenom Dalton Sherman.

After Sherman appeared as a surprise guest speaker at a back-to-school convention in Dallas last year, the video became a hit on YouTube, and led to the precocious student jetsetting his way across the United States for speaking gigs. Sherman’s 4th-grade teacher, Irene Redmond, was having a hard time dealing with the too-talkative boy when she decided to channel his gift for gab.

Redmond encouraged Sherman to enter an oration contest about Martin Luther King, Jr., in which Sherman won the $1,000 first prize and caught the attention of the Dallas educators.

Jenna Bush’s interview kicked off the 27-year-old’s budding network broadcast career. Sherman told her he’d like to become president, or maybe a broadcast journalist like Matt Lauer.

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President BARACK OBAMA gives a speech directly to Americas students welcoming them back to school. He emphasizes their hope and potential but makes clear they will need to take responsibility for themselves and their education to reach that potential. September 8, 2009.

When sworn in, Sotomayor, 55, a federal appeals judge in New York since 1998, will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the 220-year-old Supreme Court.

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You go girl!

Judge SONIA SOTOMAYOR won U.S. Senate approval on Thursday to become the first Hispanic on the U.S. Supreme Court.

The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines, 68-31, to approve President Barack Obama’s nomination of Sotomayor for the lifetime appointment on the highest U.S. court.

The large number of Republican “no” votes reflected the party’s resistance to the Democratic president on several fronts including his bid to overhaul healthcare.

When sworn in, Sotomayor, 55, a federal appeals judge in New York since 1998, will be the first Hispanic and the third woman to serve on the 220-year-old Supreme Court.

“Another barrier has been broken in American life,” said Senator Joe Lieberman, an independent who voted for Sotomayor, the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was born in poverty.

Democrats hailed Sotomayor as fair-minded but Republicans charged she lacked impartiality.

Critics had zeroed in on her past comments that a “wise Latina” woman might reach a better decision than a white man.

At her confirmation hearing Sotomayor, a federal judge for 17 years, offered no apology but said a jurist had to guard against internal prejudice.

QUESTIONS REMAIN

In replacing retired Justice David Souter, Sotomayor is not expected to change the court’s ideological balance. Souter sided with the liberal wing of the court, which in recent years often issued 5-4 rulings in favor of conservatives.

If history holds true, it may take years to determine what sort of justice she will be.

The appointment underscores an effort by Obama, six months in office, to move the court to the left after eight years of rightward pushing by his predecessor, Republican President George W. Bush.

As a senator, Obama voted against Bush’s two successful Supreme Court nominees, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito.

The Supreme Court is the final judicial arbiter and rules on matters from abortion and gun rights to anti-trust laws, the death penalty and civil rights.

In opposing Sotomayor, Republicans risk a backlash from her fellow Hispanics, the fastest growing U.S. minority.

Janet Murguia of the National Council of La Raza, a major Hispanic civil rights group, said: “This vote will matter — and it will be long remembered.”

Hispanics make up 15 percent of the U.S. population and voted by a two-to-one margin for Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

But Republicans seemed unconcerned. They said many Hispanics were conservatives and more interested in such issues as jobs and the economy.

Adding more controversy to Daniels Senate bid, her political advisor was the apparent target of a car bomb earlier this week.

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Well honestly, I already know – why! … LOL!

Porn star STORMY DANIELS has been mulling a senate bid for the past few months, but after a rough week and a bad mug shot, her political aspirations might have to be put on hold.

Granted, there are different expectations for a politician who makes most of her money starring in XXX DVDs, but her Saturday domestic abuse arrest isn’t the kind of thing that’s good for a budding political career. Daniels was arrested by Tampa police after her husband, Michael Mosny, called 911, complaining that Daniels (real name Stephanie Clifford) attacked him over laundry and unpaid bills.

According to a police report, Mosny said Daniels was upset over the way he did the laundry (apparently those g-strings are temperamental things), and got more upset over the bills not being paid. Mosny said she proceeded to break a flower pot, throw around their wedding album and her wedding ring, and hit him in the head several times.

Daniels announced in May she was considering running for Senate against Louisiana incumbent David Vitters. Daniels, who is originally from the state, was drafted for the race by a fan who built the site draftstormy.com.

Adding more controversy to Daniels Senate bid, her political advisor was the apparent target of a car bomb earlier this week. Brian Welsh was walking his dog with his wife near his home in New Orleans when his car was blown up with a bomb. Police don’t have any leads, but Welsh told ABC it might have something to do with his connection to Daniels.

“Clearly, if someone tried to blow up my car, it’s cause for concern; it’s not cause for me to stop doing my job, stop me from talking about the things that are important,” Welsh said. “If anybody had been walking by when that car blew up, they would have been seriously injured or killed.”

“I really wish this had not happened,” Welsh said. “I need a car.”

As for the president‘s guests, Crowley had a Blue Moon wheat beer with a slice of lemon while Gates veered from the domestic brews for the popular Jamaican beer Red Stripe.

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Sip! Sip! HOO-RAY!

President BARACK OBAMA played it safe at the press-dubbed “Beer Summit” Thursday. Avoiding another dijon mustard elitist debacle, the president stuck with Bud Light as he had a beer with Harvard Professor HENRY LOUIS GATES and Cambridge Police Sergeant JAMES CROWLEY.

Insisting it was an informal meeting to discuss the differences between Gates and the officer who arrested him after he was seen forcing open the front door of his home, Obama and VP Joe Biden both arrived in shirtsleeves. The two munched on pretzels and peanuts while sipping beer as White House photogs looked on.

As for the president’s guests, Crowley had a Blue Moon wheat beer with a slice of lemon while Gates veered from the domestic brews for the popular Jamaican beer Red Stripe.

No news yet on whether the Beer Summit helped resolve the tense race relations piqued by the Gates arrest and Obama’s comments that Cambridge police had “acted stupidly.” But we all know alcohol helps resolve conflicts, right?

Smalls, his Campaign Manager, I Love New York 2 winner and I Love Money 2 runner up George “Tailor Made” Weisgerber and a team of volunteers canvassed the district for 5 weeks in June and July. They were able to obtain signatures in excess of the number required by Election Law demonstrating that the community supports Smalls’ candidacy.

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All I have to say … is WOW-SERS!

KWAME SMALLS also know as “IT” from VH1 Reality Shows I Love Money 2 and I Love New York 2) has been put on the Democratic ballot for City Council member in the 26th District of Queens. (Which includes; Maspeth, Long Island City, Sunnyside, Woodside)

“I’m running to represent those with disabilities and also to show minorities in my community that we can run for political office and make a difference instead of being on the street” Says Kwame Smalls who suffers from Retinitis pigmentosa.

Smalls, his Campaign Manager, I Love New York 2 winner and I Love Money 2 runner up George “Tailor Made” Weisgerber and a team of volunteers canvassed the district for 5 weeks in June and July. They were able to obtain signatures in excess of the number required by Election Law demonstrating that the community supports Smalls’ candidacy.

The Democratic Primary is September 15th. Smalls and Weisgerber will be conducting Town Hall meetings with voters each week for the next few months to better understand the needs of the constituents.

The President responds to critics who say he wore “mom jeans.“

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Critics are annoying! LOL!

Forget his policies on health care, Iran and and North Korea, apparently what people want to know is: What’s up with those jeans?

After wearing these to throw the first pitch at the All-Star game in St. Louis last week, fashionistas criticized the usually dapper PRESIDENT for wearing an outdated pair of Levi’s.

When asked about his choice of denim on NBC’s Today Show, Obama said, “I’m a little frumpy. I hate to shop, those jeans are comfortable. For those of you who want your president to look great in his tight jeans I’m sorry, I’m not the guy.”

But I guess we can fogive the guy, seeing as he’s the President and all.