Free Republic

WASHINGTON—If former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. is ordered to spend time behind bars, he would like to go to either the federal prison camp in Montgomery, Ala., or the low-security portion of the federal correctional institution in Butner, N.C., one of his lawyers said today. **SNIP** In the request, defense lawyer William Drake said the facility in Alabama is the closest federal prison camp to Washington, D.C., and would “allow Mr. Jackson to maintain contact with his wife and children during incarceration.” The prison in North Carolina is within 500 miles of the nation’s capital and would serve the same...

<p>Former Florida Rep. Allen West had some harsh words for nationally known civil rights activists like the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, who have remained silent on a video showing black teens beating a white boy on a school bus.</p>

**SNIP** The Jacksons will learn their fate Wednesday after a fall from grace in which he quit Congress and she resigned from the Chicago City Council and both pleaded guilty to felonies involving a spending spree with $750,000 in campaign cash. **SNIP** Berman agreed with a point made by Jackson Jr.'s lawyers, who told the court: "The harsh spotlight of the media that has followed him at every step of the investigation, his plea and his sentencing has already punished Mr. Jackson and his family immeasurably." Berman said the Jacksons, not being "run-of-the-mill tax cheats," had endured stigma and loss...

<p>According to FEC records, the campaign has missed its last three report deadlines and has not filed a disclosure since December, a few weeks after Jackson resigned from office.</p> <p>The FEC's warning letters have gone to Jackson's treasurer, Vickie Pasley, a Chicago attorney. "It is important that you file this report immediately," a commission official wrote her Friday when it sought financial information for this year's second quarter.</p>

WASHINGTON — A judge signed an order today that will give former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. time to pay a $750,000 forfeiture arising out of his criminal case. In the order, the judge agreed to a request from lawyers in the case to postpone until Oct. 25 a decision on whether the government may seize Jackson’s interest in two homes and an individual retirement account should he fail to pay up. **SNIP** The order came after prosecutors and defense lawyers involved in Jackson Jr.’s case told the judge Thursday that the former congressman will "make his best efforts" to satisfy...

Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. has filed his final House financial disclosure report more than six months late, a filing that sheds little light on how he will pay a $750,000 forfeiture for looting his campaign treasury. **SNIP** The Tribune reported last month that Jackson Jr. appears eligible for federal disability payments of $8,700 a month, or 60 percent of his congressional pay. That works out to $104,400 a year, though payments in later years would drop to $69,600 annually. On top of the financial hit from his criminal case, Jackson Jr. could have another one: a possible $200 late...

LOS ANGELES, July 25, 2013 — July 19 marked the 50th anniversary of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The commemoration of this powerful and world-changing oratory was co-opted for two reasons. One was President Obama’s impromptu ramblings on race a week after the Zimmerman acquittal. The other reason was the marches across 100 cities to protest that same verdict, and to put pressure on the Department of Justice to lodge civil rights charges against George Zimmerman. So how effective were the protests? If news coverage is any indication, not very. National papers like the New...

At the July 20 Chicago “Justice for Trayvon” rally, which garnered somewhere between 5-10 thousand people (predominantly African-American), mainstream public figures like Jesse Jackson and celebrities like MC Lyte demonstrated alongside radical groups like the International Socialist Organization (ISO), the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA (REVCOM), Occupy Chicago, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). The event was one of hundreds sponsored by the National Action Network (NAN), run by Al Sharpton. At this particular rally, as was undoubtedly the case at most of the other Justice for Trayvon rallies across the country, the message was clear: the United States...

The furor over the shooting of Florida teen Trayvon Martin is being “exploited” by the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton to “racially divide the country,” a civil-rights leader charged yesterday. Martin’s “family should be outraged at the fact that they’re using this child as the bait to inflame racial passions,” the Rev. C.L. Bryant, a former NAACP leader, said of the 17-year-old hoodie-wearing black youth who was shot dead by a mixed white-Latino neighborhood-watch volunteer. The pastor accused Jackson and Sharpton — who yesterday organized a thousands-strong protest in Sanford, Fla., where the shooting occurred last month —...

As a response to the Trayvon Martin case and Florida's stand your ground law Jessie Jackson is calling for a boycott of the state: "No doubt, the inclination is to boycott Florida, stop conventions, to isolate Florida as a kind of apartheid state..."

Does the persecution of Zimmerman have racist underpinnings?

Where's the Outrage? Marches? Protests? Maybe a speech or two? Hello? Relatives recall Gizzell Kiara Ford as a smart, mature and respectful 8-year-old girl. Prosecutors said today her grandmother, Helen M. Ford, 51, of the 5200 block of West Adams Street, inflicted so many injuries on the girl over a long enough period and neglected her so badly that before she died Friday, Gizzell had maggots living in a head injury that had spread to another part of her scalp. Ford cried today as prosecutors detailed the girl's injuries to Criminal Court Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr. and the judge set...

Get ready for the bribery bids to go out. There are still three-plus years to go on the Obama presidency, but the city that gave the world shakedown artist Jesse Jackson is already getting in gear for a racial spoils fight over where the presidential library should go. USA Today puts the squabble more delicately in a story Sunday, “Race, class emerge in battle over Obama library.”

CHICAGO, July 3, 2013 ― Sentencing for disgraced former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife Sandi has been delayed, but the question is, why? Is there a legitimate reason for the delay, or is something else going on behind-the-scenes? **SNIP** The Chicago Way is also no longer confined to the Illinois state line; it has impacted and altered the way business is done in Washington, perhaps permanently. The president’s Chicago advisors ― Rahm Emanuel, David Axelrod, Valerie Jarrett, to name a few ― have seen to that. So can the judge be influenced? Judge Amy Berman-Jackson was nominated to...

WASHINGTON — Aug. 14 is the new sentencing date for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandi Jackson, a former Chicago alderman. The federal judge who will decide the fate of the South Side Democrats announced the new date today. On Monday, the judge had ordered a postponement of the sentencings, which were scheduled for this Wednesday. Jackson Jr. will be sentenced at 8:30 a.m. Chicago time and Sandi Jackson at 9:30 a.m. Chicago time on Aug. 14, which is a Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The sentencings of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., and his wife, Sandi, were postponed Monday, with no new date set. The South Side Democrats had been scheduled to learn their fates Wednesday, until the delay was announced by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is not related to the pair. A court spokesman said neither the prosecution nor defense asked for the postponement. "The matter was rescheduled to accommodate the court's schedule and workload — neither side requested a continuance," said Jenna Gatski, a spokeswoman for the U.S. District Court.

**SNIP** His age and his tenure in Congress — almost 17 years — are short of the mark for a standard retirement annuity from the Federal Employees Retirement System, or FERS. Members of Congress can collect a pension from FERS starting at age 50 if they have completed 20 years of service, or at any age after 25 years of service, according to the Congressional Research Service. But Jackson appears eligible for another FERS program that pays out "disability retirement" payments. Under program rules, potential payments in the first year would total $8,700 a month — or $104,400 a year....

WASHINGTON—Jesse Jackson Jr. asked a federal judge on Monday to let him serve his prison time first—before his wife, Sandi, if she is given a sentence—and not the probation her lawyers are requesting. Meanwhile, federal prosecutors, in a memo filed on Monday, brushed aside earlier pleas from Jesse Jackson Jr. lawyers that he get a break because he is suffering mental illness and could not receive proper treatment while in a federal prison. They noted that the two doctors who submitted letters on behalf of Jesse Jackson Jr. wrote only about three pages combined; those letters were “surprisingly bereft of...

Here it is ... the Michael Jackson death scene ... every single shocking photo taken, from the doll he slept with, Propofol bottles, Dr. Murray's mysterious medical bag, portentous writing on the wall, old costumes ... everything. The photos were taken by LAPD investigators on June 25th, 2009, the day Michael died. A few of these photos trickled out during Dr. Murray's criminal trial, but now they're all here in one gallery ... ALL 155. The gallery is a fascinating window into how Michael lived ... and how he died.

Lawyers for Jesse Jackson Jr., in asking a judge for a lenient sentence, are arguing that his lavish spending sprees — paid for by money looted from his campaign fund — were tied to his bipolar disorder. The attorneys also are pleading for a shorter sentence by arguing that Jesse Jackson Jr. will “unlikely” be able to relate to a prison psychiatrist and as a consequence, his mental health may suffer. “It is unlikely that Mr. Jackson will be able to establish a trusting relationship with a Bureau of Prisons psychiatrist quickly enough to maintain his progress toward improved mental...

The Sun - Showbiz with Gordon Smart @TheSun_Showbiz Michael Jackson Beyond the grave ... Jacko in Thriller video Jacko’s ghost: My death was an accident What dead star told Lionel Richie's ex By PETE SAMSON, US Editor Published: 1 hr ago 17 MICHAEL Jackson’s death has been declared an accident — by his own GHOST, a court heard. Jacko, 50, was said to have told Lionel Richie’s ex Brenda that he inadvertently killed himself. The claim was revealed in LA by Randy Phillips of gig giants AEG — blamed by Jacko’s family for the Thriller star’s demise. They are alleging...

A day after federal prosecutors announced they will ask a judge to send his son, former U.S. Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., to prison for four years and his daughter-in-law, former Ald. Sandi Jackson, for 18 months, the Rev. Jesse Jackson appeared at Rainbow PUSH on Saturday but said nothing about the prison future that may await them. But others attending the regular “Saturday morning forum” at Rainbow PUSH headquarters on the South Side said they worry about the Jacksons’ two children, ages 9 and 13. “I think it’s really unfortunate that both parents are going to be without their children...

Federal prosecutors urged today that former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. be sent to prison for four years and his wife, Sandi Jackson, be incarcerated for 18 months. In making the recommendation, prosecutors suggested the prison terms could be structured so that the Jacksons, who have two children ages 9 and 13, are not behind bars at the same time. Prosecutors asked that Sandi Jackson be imprisoned first. If she is given an 18-month sentence and gets credit for satisfactory behavior while behind bars, they said, “she will be back with her children, on home confinement, a little more than a...

WASHINGTON — Former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s bid to seal parts of soon-to-be-filed court papers containing sensitive details about his medical condition was denied Tuesday, though the judge said the ex-lawmaker may ask again when the papers actually are filed. **SNIP** But Judge Jackson, citing local court rules governing criminal cases, denied the motion without prejudice, meaning he may make his request again. She said that without the actual memorandum she could not "make a reasoned judgment about the necessity for the order." She said Jackson could file the sentencing memorandum with an accompanying motion to seal and that it...

10:28 AM PST: TMZ has found several photos of Paris in which it appears Paris' arm has possible cutting scars. We don't know when the other was taken. 9:51 AM PST: A source closely connected to Paris tells TMZ ... she has "tried this [a possible suicide attempt] in the past" but "this was far more serious. It was not a cry for help." 10:14 AM PST: A source connected to the family tells TMZ ... Paris "threw a fit" last night after she was told she couldn't go to a Marilyn Manson concert. We're told she ran into her...

**SNIP** They also requested that the sentencing memo, however, be partially "under seal," or out of public view, as it "will contain personal sensitive details about [Jackson's] medical condition, as well as the medical condition of one of his family members," the Sun-Times reported. **SNIP** "I'm not bound by the sentencing guidelines," Judge Robert Wilkins said earlier in court, noting he cannot go beyond the maximum of five years. "The sentencing guidelines are advisory, and they are something I am bound to consider."

Richard Windsor may be the most famous Environmental Protection Agency employee. Oddly, he does not exist. “Windsor” is the e-mail alias that Lisa Jackson, former head of the EPA and now an environmental adviser to Apple, used to correspond with environmental activists and senior Obama-administration officials, among others. Windsor, we have learned, was also an employee of significant achievement. Documents released by the agency in response to a Freedom of Information Act request reveal that, for three years, the EPA certified Windsor as a “scholar of ethical behavior.” The agency also documented the nonexistent Windsor’s completion of training courses in...

Journalists and Democrats have designated a new Republican scandal: Bishop Earl W. Jackson "compared" Planned Parenthood to the Ku Klux Klan. On May 18, Jackson became the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor of Virginia in this November's 2013 elections. An important detail in this drama is that Bishop Jackson is African-American. Much more alarming, Jackson has been leading a hard-hitting campaign to call on Blacks to leave the Democrat Party. Jackson argues passionately that no Christian -- Black, Hispanic, or Caucasian -- can remain any longer in the Democratic Party that booed God at the Democrat National Convention in 2012...

E.W. Jackson Electrifies RPV Convention via kwout

**SNIP** “I will not bore you with his history as a congressman. You, I am sure, have received more information about his tenure than I have.” “Therefore I will reduce my letter to this statement. Please let mercy temper justice.” Butler directed his comments to the wrong judge, however. His letter is addressed to Judge Robert Wilkins, who is no longer assigned to the case. Judge Amy Berman Jackson received the case through a random reassignment April 16. Jackson is to be sentenced July 1.

Several of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.’s (D-Ill.) constituents are asking a federal judge to show him no mercy when he hands down his sentence. The charges of using campaign funds for personal use, which Jackson has pleaded guilty to, are worse than murder, Chicago resident Gregory Ritter said in a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Robert L. Wilkins. “[M]urder would be a lighter crime, as these defendants have used the political hopes and dreams of the constituents as a blank check for deceit,” Ritter wrote. “The crimes of this magnitude are not like a traffic ticket. “While the...

The lawyer for famed choreographer Wade Robson tells TMZ, Michael Jackson was a "monster" who sexually abused Wade for seven years as a child ... and threatened him if he ever went public. Robson's lawyer, Henry Gradstein, tells TMZ, "Last year, on a career trajectory that was off the charts, he [Wade] collapsed under the stress and sexual trauma of what had happened to him for seven years as a child." Robson spent many weekends with Jackson at Neverland Ranch and his other homes in L.A. and Vegas between ages 7 and 14. Gradstein goes on ... "He [Wade] lived...

Rep. Marcia Fudge (D., Ohio) has asked a federal judge to show leniency in the sentencing of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D., Ill.), describing him as the “highlight of our karaoke nights” in a letter, the Huffington Post reports: “Not only is he highly intelligent, he is charming and entertaining,” Fudge wrote. “When things got tough or extremely difficult on the House floor, we could count on Jesse to bring levity to an otherwise daunting situation with a bad joke or a one-man skit. Jesse was the highlight of our karaoke nights and always made everyone feel like...

Booker T. Washington, America’s great Black-American Educator wrote in 1910, 'The first white people in America, certainly the first in the South to exhibit their interest in the reaching of the Negro and saving his soul through the medium of the Sunday-school were Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.”

WASHINGTON — The felony cases of former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, former Chicago Ald. Sandi Jackson, have been assigned to a new judge — named Jackson. Court papers filed Tuesday moved the cases to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson, but did not explain why the judge who accepted the Jacksons' guilty pleas, Robert Wilkins, would not be the one to sentence them this summer. Harvard law professor Charles Ogletree Jr., who recently joined Jesse Jackson Jr.'s legal team, told the Tribune that Wilkins is a former law student whom he knows well, and that Wilkins may...

(CHICAGO) (WLS) -- Disgraced former congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. made his first public appearance in months when he sat alongside his father at Saturday morning's gathering of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition. While Jackson Jr. did not speak, his attorney called on those gathered to call the judge in his case and plead for leniency before his June sentencing for misusing campaign funds. **SNIP** "Our judge needs to know, needs to understand, the character and the qualities of this extraordinary congressman," attorney C.K. Hoffler said. "This is the time to let the judge know how important he is to you." **SNIP**...

Poverty pimp Jesse Jackson hung up yesterday morning on Frank Beckman from WJR (Detroit) radio. They were discussing the Emergency Financial Manager appointed by the Governor to try to help Detroit get its finances in order. The financial well-being of its state's cities is a law in the Michigan Constitution. Jackson came to The D to call for mass civil disobedience to protest Mr. Orr being given the overwhelming and difficult job to try to untangle the mess left by forty or fifty years of corrupt liberal democrats. The mess in Detroit has been simmering and coming to a boil...

**SNIP** There was no evidence that Blago planned to spend the money on, say, a football signed by all the living ex-presidents. Although he could have used it. The vain governor and his first lady had spent $400,000 on clothes during his six years in office. As a result of such profligacy, their house was falling apart from disrepair. As the Tribune’s Mary Schmich wrote, “The roof needed repairs. The paint on the windowsills was cracked. The lawn was tired.” So how much would Blagojevich have had to steal to make his 14-year-sentence worth it? Using the Jackson standard of...

Shuster tries to tell Jackson, that the Tea Party is Racist. Jackson points out that it's all hype and that Democrats have a very racist history.

Reviewing the charging documents in the case against former Rep. Jesse L. Jackson Jr., D-Ill., it is impossible not to wonder how he got away with stealing his campaign funds for so long. For a period of at least seven years, Jackson misused his campaign funds to buy personal items, including a $40,000 Rolex watch, mink capes, mounted elk heads and Michael Jackson memorabilia, among other things. Part of the problem is that since 2001, the Federal Election Commission — the agency charged with monitoring campaign finances — has specifically permitted candidates to use campaign funds to pay family members....

President Obama will formally inaugurate Organizing for Action, his newly-formed independent advocacy group, with a headline speech Wednesday night before the group's Founders' Summit in Washington. Obama's appearance, confirmed to ABC News by an OFA official, will be his first in-person with the group's core team of advisers, donors and grassroots organizers since its formation following the 2012 election. It comes as Obama seeks to re-energize his expansive grassroots campaign infrastructure around top second-term priorities - from new gun-control measures to comprehensive immigration reform and a plan to replace sequester - and cement the foundation for his presidential legacy. The...

The Jackson file... Ensconced in the safety of their home in Washington, D.C., former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. and his wife, former Ald. Sandi Jackson, are struggling to make ends meet before their sentencing in June. To wit: The shattered couple, who recently pleaded guilty to felonies, could lose their law licenses. They are desperately trying to pay the bills and figure out a financial plan for their two children. Although writing a memoir is on the table if Jackson Jr. can find a publisher (or publish it himself), Sneed is told their major financial support now is Triple J’s...

**SNIP** Once the Jacksons are sentenced, those items, including the stuffed elk heads and the celebrity memorabilia, become the responsibility of the U.S. Marshal, reports CBS, per Belkis Sandoval in Chicago, a senior inspector with the U.S. Marshal. An auction is not definite, but some of the items may be worthy to put up for bid, with proceeds going toward paying restitution.

The Environmental Protection Agency and its disgraced former boss Lisa Jackson are under fire from lawmakers and activists for, among other reasons, having recently been exposed violating federal law by using bogus identities and e-mail accounts to coordinate propaganda and policy with media allies, "green" groups, and policymakers to advance the Obama administration’s radical “environmental” agenda. Other EPA corruption is also still in the headlines, too, with the agency being criticized for ripping off U.S. taxpayers and foisting more unconstitutional regulations on the economy by working with extremist pseudo-environmental groups using a controversial scheme dubbed “sue and settle.” The most...

Former Illinois congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. pleaded guilty on Wednesday to federal conspiracy charges of using campaign funds to purchase personal and luxury items, bringing what’s likely a grim end to a fast-rising political career. Jackson was charged Friday with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements. He is accused by prosecutors of spending $750,000 in campaign funds for personal use. Prosecutors also say that Jackson failed to report $28,000 in gifts he received. In U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, Jackson told Judge Robert Wilkins that he was guilty of the charges against...

**SNIP** Ask how he could humiliate not one but three generations of his globally known family — his famous father and his young children included. No, Jesse Jackson Jr. wouldn't be the first to purposefully slow-walk that yearslong walk. Not the first to delight in secret luxuries and expensive acquisitions along a reliable, efficient path to the self-destruction of his career and his reputation. Imagine, though, the depth of conniving, or self-delusion, or entitlement, or sheer audacious recklessness, that the federal accusations against Jackson would have required of him. What the feds on Friday suggested had happened here is a...

An attorney for former Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.'s wife says she signed a plea deal with federal prosecutors related to accusations her husband misused campaign funds. Tom Kirsch tells The Associated Press former Chicago alderman Sandi Jackson agreed to plead guilty to one count of tax fraud.

(Newser) – Looks like Jesse Jackson Jr. didn't exactly work out a sweetheart plea deal for himself. Prosecutors intend to recommend 46 to 57 months of prison time for the former congressman, along with a fine of between $10,000 and $100,000, Politico reports. As part of the deal, Jackson admits to having conspired with his wife to illegally spend $750,000 in campaign money on such vagaries as fur coats, airplane tickets, a $43,000 Rolex watch, celebrity memorabilia, booze, cigars, and even groceries. Jackson was formally charged today with felonies including conspiracy, reports the Chicago Tribune. His wife, former Chicago...

**SNIP** One in the pack running for Jackson’s vacated house seat is one who’s been there before, former congressman Mel Reynolds. “At a time when we are living in the killing fields of Chicago, our federal government seems obsessed with the Jackson,” said Reynolds. Reynolds points to stories that include Jackson’s wife Sandi who’s also resigned her elective seat as alderman. “Do they really now want to put both parents of small children in jail or is their strategy to get Sandi Jackson to flip on her husband so they can put even more pressure on that family?” said Reynolds.

It’s been nearly three months since Jesse Jackson Jr. resigned from Congress, but now NBC News confirms that Jackson has signed papers in a plea deal within the past several days. Jackson’s case is being handled by the US Attorney’s office in Washington DC. While no public announcement is expected today, those with knowledge of the investigation believe the loose ends now deal with Jackson’s wife, former Alderman Sandi Jackson, and whether or not she is ultimately charged. Under the terms of the deal Jackson signed, he pleads guilty and his fate – as to jail time – would be...