Former state Sen. Malcolm Smith was convicted Thursday of operating a big buck bribery scheme aimed at getting him elected mayor of New York City.
A jury convicted Smith and former Queens GOP leader Vincent Tabone in the scheme, which involved getting the once-powerful Democratic majority leader on the GOP line for the 2013 mayoral race.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Perry Carbone had described the case to jurors as a story "about a man who wanted to be mayor and the men who were willing to be bought."
He accused Smith of having engineered a $200,000 bribery scheme to get himself on the ballot.
Smith's lawyer, Gerald Shargel, had contended that the feds had tried to entrap his client, and that everything Smith did was on the up and up.
Prosecutors said Tabone accepted $20,000 during a boozy dinner at Sparks Steak House in Midtown on Smith's behalf from a man who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
Smith faces up to 45 years behind bars, while Tabone faces a maximum of 25, although neither are expected to get the max when they're sentenced by Judge Kenneth Karas later this year.
The four-week trial was actually the second for Smith and Tabone -- the first one last year ended in a mistrial for them, but resulted in the conviction of one of their co-conspirators, former city Councilman Daniel Halloran.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/06/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
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#1
I see one of the miscreants had GOP affixed to his name. Does that mean the star of our show is a (D)?
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/06/2015 7:32 Comments ||
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#2
Yup
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
02/06/2015 9:43 Comments ||
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#3
Just like the Inner Beltway Party, working together to screw everyone else.
"At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isnât exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.
Obama said that even though religion is a source for good around the world, there will always be people willing to âhijack religion for their own murderous ends.â
âUnless we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ,â Obama said. âIn our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ.â
Obama also denounced Islamic State terrorists for professing to stand up for Islam when they were actually âbetraying it.â
'We see ISIL, a brutal vicious death cult that in the name of religion carries out unspeakable acts of barbarism,â he said criticizing them for âclaiming the mantle of religious authority for such actions.'" Aside of "This guy is a moral-equivalency a$$hat.", words fail.
Posted by: Hupineger Glomomp0036 ||
02/06/2015 00:00 ||
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Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under: Islamic State
#1
Trying to establish moral equivalency with ISIL???
Hmmm, last I checked the Christians and the Jews sorta put all of that away about 500 years ago.
And further, when was the last time you saw a Jewish or Christian suicide bomber randomly take out a crowd of kids at a pizza joint???
If this doesn't send up warning flags all over the US, nothing will.
#9
According to records considered authentic by Muslim consensus opinion the Islamic prophet Mohammed committed terrible deeds in the name of Allah.
According to records considered authentic by Muslim consensus opinion Mohammed, in his home country, justified slavery and dhimmitude in the name of Allah.
#10
Not to mention. Just compare the aid sent by Christian and Muslim countries whe,n there is an epdidemic or a tsunami. Eve, whe,n the tsuanami strikes a Muslim country.
#11
All that Crusades and Inquisition stuff was only 500 years ago. Muslimes have another 10,000 years of getting-even before they'll be able to let go. If they last that long.
#13
Right now, in the public high school in your town, children are being taught that the Crusades were a stand-alone unprovoked attack against peaceful muslims instead of a response to the conquering and destruction of Christian and Jewish communities in the Middle East and North Africa.
These same teachers are telling kids that the Crusades and Inquisition and witch hunts were comparable to the great mass murders of the 20th century, when they were a fraction of a percentage of that even when viewed against a much smaller population.
They are also not teaching kids one thing about the holocausts committed by muslims against Zoroastrians and Hindus, the death count of each being comparable to or larger than the Nazi Holocaust.
These same teachers are also telling kids that Christians are responsible for the bulk of deaths by violent governments in the 20th century instead of regimes which were frankly atheist (Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ceaucescu, etc.) or neo-pagan (Hitler, Tojo).
This will happen today, in every municipality in America, with tax money from all of us.
If we can't stop this from happening, how can we be surprised when Obama comes out with this ort of statement?
Posted by: no mo uro ||
02/06/2015 5:37 Comments ||
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#14
Let's not forget the death toll of the Muslim invasion of India.
While we're at it, the partition of India had a bigger death toll than the Inquisition, and that was ENTIRELY Muslims deciding they couldn't be good neighbors.
Posted by: Rob Crawford ||
02/06/2015 8:27 Comments ||
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#16
The open display of actual historical ignorance of the Marxist writers who've constructed their narrative on fantasies and falsehoods, and then wonder why things don't unfold in the manner they expect as they throw their power around.
#17
Christ was crucified and the Apostles martyred. The beginning of Christianity started when He appeared again in the flesh to many 3 days after His crucifixion proving only He has the power over death.
That is the HOPE Obama Hussein should have focused on at the annual Christian Prayer Breakfast that the world needs to hear. Not condemnation of the Christians at that event.
#18
I've been hearing the same crap from liberal elites for almost as long as I can remember. As far as they are concerned, Christians are more worthy of their scorn and disapproval than practically any Muslim, anywhere, at any time.
The only way I could ever see a liberal openly condemn a Muslim would require that said Muslim stand in front of them, holding the decapitated head of one of their yoga-going, Whole-Foods-shopping, Bill-Moyer-watching, 0bama-voting neighbors.
However, they would most certainly preface their condemnation by stating that the blood-thirsty psychopath killer in front of them was not a real Muslim. At which point the killer would proceed to decapitate them while shouting, "allahu Akbar!"
#19
Reading a history of the REconquista should be a osberring experience for every believer in "peaceful Islam" when, during the three centuries where Spanish Christin Kingdoms clung to life by the skin of their teeth, you read how the Muslim chroniclers delight in horrendous massacres of both combattants non-combattants, the capture of slaves and the fate awiating female-ones.
Oh, and forget about the myth of Muslim tolerance. Even in the "Golden Age" before the Caliphate the fate of dhimmis was harsh enough to have a continuous drip of Christains (of course) but also of Jews towards the poor and endangered Christian Kingdoms.
#20
Presently, efforts on the homefront center around spaying our leader of the "Occupy the White House" movement. Congress is trying to find ways to keep him from doing more harm in the last year and a half. O came into the WH with absolutely no experience that qualifies him to be COC. He has spent much of his time being an apologist for the Islamicists.
His remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast were shameful and have nothing to do with an accurate account of history or with the present day menace of ISIS.
#22
Unless we get on our high horse and think this is unique…
With a backdrop of the most barbaric inhumanity ever committed in the name of a religion the self-righteous Obama chooses to sanctimoniously lecture adherents of another religion on humility. If that wasn’t insulting enough he continued on to recount Americas’ historic struggle with race. Inexplicably Obama failed to mention neither the Christian reformation nor the 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. As they say…this speaks volumes.
#23
Since we are branding people with the deeds of their ancestors - wouldn't that make Obama someone who enslaves people and sells them for profit like his Kenyan and African ancestors?
#24
Obama failed to mention that it is the Muslims who practice slavery today. Moreover, they institutionalize it in their religion. So Obama, you nitwit Muslim apologist, get off your high horse and quit lying about America; quit hating our country and quit abetting the Islamicists in their evil.
#25
Obama goes to great lenghts not to mention Islam when discussing modern day terrorism as to not hurt the 'good' muslims. Yet stands up and makes a broad disparaging statement about Christians without flinching (and yet he calls himself a christian).
Posted by: Total War ||
02/06/2015 14:20 Comments ||
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#28
As far as I'm concerned if one is going to go there. Pro-Muslim is pro-pedophile since the Mohammad had a child-bride and one is supposed to follow him as an example.
My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit card bills and at the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let our kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest. Also he has been so arrogant and abusive towards our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch to whom he has been giving a lot of expensive gifts, running up our bills even more. Also he has gotten religious. One week he hangs out with Catholics and the next with people who say the Pope is the Anti-Christ, and the next he's on his knees 5 times a day with Muslims. Finally, the last straw. He's demanding that before anyone can be in the same room with him, they must sign a loyalty oath. It's just so horribly creepy! Can you help?
Signed, Lost
Dear Lost,
Suck it up and stop whining, Michelle. You're getting to live in the White House for free, travel the world, and have others pay for everything for you. You can divorce the jerk any time you want. The rest of us are stuck with the idiot for 2 more years.
It's interesting to think about the moral equivalences he won't draw, like:
"Yeah, the Republicans unreasonably opposed the bill I wanted, but hey, I'm sure we Democrats did the same thing to Bush. It's just politics."
or
"Yeah, Bibi insulted me, but I'm sure I've insulted lots of folks over the years. It's just that he passionately wants to preserve Israel and I -- well, let's just say I have a different view."
Posted by: Matt ||
02/06/2015 17:18 Comments ||
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#37
"At which point the killer would proceed to decapitate them while shouting, "allahu Akbar!""
If I think said leftist got exactly what he deserved, and smiled, does that make me a bad person, Mr. Green Bull? :-D
Posted by: Barbara ||
02/06/2015 20:25 Comments ||
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#38
As for me, I am lucky to be a 4th generation American, thanks to the British Anglicans murdering, enslaving and starving my Irish Catholic Ancestors, enough for them to move here. Fewer people live in Ireland now than 100 years ago. As for the planet, 1 in 3 of English speakers in the world claims Irish decent. Yeah ya tried we are still here. Éirinn go Brách
Posted by: Titus Snore6365 ||
02/06/2015 23:09 Comments ||
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#39
I have no issues with the Brits, that was long ago. While in the USAF, I served 3 years at an RAF base in Bedfordshire. I learn and take pride from my history and pass to my children.
Posted by: Titus Snore6365 ||
02/06/2015 23:21 Comments ||
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A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
"At the National Prayer Breakfast, President Obama reminded attendees that violence rooted in religion isnât exclusive to Islam, but has been carried out by Christians as well.
