What’s interesting in the news today?

Open thread, with a few from me to start off.

1. And he called the Bush admin corrupt for the Katrina response. Looks like he may have been projecting. Here’s a running report on Mayor Ray Nagin’s 20 convictions for corruption and tax evasion.

From NOLA.com  “Ray Nagin has been found guilty on 20 of 21 corruption charges. Here’s our early take on the conviction.“

” Tania Tetlow, a former federal prosecutor who is now a Tulane law professor, said Nagin’s decision to take the stand might add years to his sentence.

Federal sentencing guidelines allow Judge Berrigan to penalize Nagin if she believes he lied under oath. She can assess the extra time without prosecutors bringing a formal charge of perjury against the former mayor. It won’t be clear just how much the potential penalty would impact his sentence until after a pre-sentencing report has been conducted.

That report will fill in variables in the federal sentencing guidelines, a complex calculus that takes into account not only the charges, but the facts in the case. For example, part of the calculus depends on how much Nagins bribery scheme cost the city of New Orleans. The contractors accused of bribing him benefited from millions of dollars in city work, so there’s a lot of  potential for stiff penalties.”

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2. I’m not a Redskin’s fan, but I sure like their response to this liberal whiner.

From FoxNews  “As the former Chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Cantwell should be aware that there are many challenges facing Native Americans, including an extremely cold winter with high energy bills, high unemployment, life threatening health problems, inadequate education and many other issues more pressing than the name of a football team which has received strong support from Native Americans.

If the Senator wants us to change our team name, has she already told that to the team named ‘Redskins’ in Wellpinit, Wash., where the school’s population is more than 90 percent Native American?  We hope Senator Cantwell has visited with those students in order to hear their thoughts. We hope Senator Cantwell is aware how upset the students in Port Townsend were when they were forced to change their name.

In an ESPN report on Sept. 18, 2013, Tim Ames, the superintendent of Wellpinit schools stated, ‘I’ve talked to our students, our parents and our community about this and nobody finds any offense at all in it. Redskins is not an insult to our kids. ‘Wagon burners’ is an insult. ‘Prairie n—–s’ is an insult. Those are very upsetting to our kids. But ‘Redskins’ is an honorable name we wear with pride… In fact, I’d like to see somebody come up here and try to change it.’

Finally, why did Senator Cantwell send her letter to the New York Times before she had the courtesy of sending it to the NFL?  No one other than a politician does that. Surely, with all the issues Congress is supposed to work on such as the economy, jobs, war and health care, the Senator must have more important things to do.”

She does, but those things would require really work and solutions. She has none of those and she is unqualified for leadership. So she panders to her base instead of tackling the hard issues and real work.

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3. This is not shocking. Say it with me now…..

Most transparent administration EVAH! 🙄

From TheWashingtonTimes  “The Obama administration’s handling of whistleblower Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaks and the investigation of a string of leaks produced a plunge in the country’s rating on press freedoms and government openness, according to a global survey released Tuesday.

The U.S. under President Obama, who once promised to run the “most transparent” administration in the country’s history, fell from 32nd to 46th in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index, a drop of 13 slots. The index, compiled by the press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders, analyzes 180 countries on criteria such as official abuse, media independence and infrastructure to determine how free journalists are to report.

Officials of the group said press freedoms were under attack around the world as governments grow increasingly sophisticated in collecting sensitive data and in tracking down those who leak it.”

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4. Also not shocking. This should put to bed the liberal meme that leftist groups were targeted too.

From TheWallStJournal  “On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (R., Mich.) said his committee’s continuing investigation has found that the IRS also singled out established conservative tax-exempt groups for audits.

“We now know that the IRS targeted not only right-leaning applicants, but also right-leaning groups that were already operating as 501(c)(4)s,” Mr. Camp said in a statement. “At Washington, DC’s direction, dozens of groups operating as 501(c)(4)s were flagged for IRS surveillance, including monitoring of the groups’ activities, websites and any other publicly available information. Of these groups, 83% were right-leaning. And of the groups the IRS selected for audit, 100% were right-leaning.”

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