The smile that says I'm free:

'Incredibly grateful' Kerry Kennedy beams as she is ACQUITTED of drugged driving in New York

THE KENNEDY GREAT ESCAPES: 

OTHER INFAMOUS CASES OF MURDER, RAPE AND DUI WHERE MEMBERS OF THE STORIED CLAN WERE ACQUITTED

Douglas Kennedy- Kerry's brother- Acquitted of harassment and child endangerment after kicking a nurse in the maternity ward as he tried to leave the hospital with his newborn child in 2012. Like Kerry, he brought up his father's assassination during his testimony in the courtroom, saying that he wanted to bring the newborn out of the hospital in order to spend time with it like he was never able to do with his father. 

Senator Ted Kennedy- Kerry's uncle- Infamously drove off a bridge in Cappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts in 1969, killing his passenger Mary Joe Kopechne. He fled the scene of the accident and didn't report it for nine hours, during which time Ms Kopechne died. He received a two month suspended jail sentence after pleading guilty to leaving the scene of a crime. 

Former Congressman Patrick Kennedy- Kerry's cousin- Crashed his car into a Capitol Hill barricade at 2.45am in May 2006. The then-Congressman from Rhode Island, who has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, initially claimed that he was disoriented due to Ambien- the same drug that was in Kerry's system at the time of her crash- but he also had reportedly been drinking. He went to rehab and made a deal with prosecutors that by pleading guilty to driving under the influence, he would be let off with one year's probation and a $350 fine. 

William Kennedy Smith- Kerry's cousin- Acquitted of rape after he was charged following a sexual encounter with a woman in Palm Beach in 1991. He was out at a bar with his uncle Ted and Ted's son Patrick (both mentioned above) when they met two young women. The group went back to the Kennedy's house in the area and William, then 30, went on a walk on the beach with one of the women, aged 29. She claimed he raped her while he said they had consensual sex. He was acquitted of all charges. He later had a sexual assault case brought on by a female coworker dismissed in 2005 and settled out of court when a second such case was brought that same year. 

Mary Richardson Kennedy- Kerry's deceased sister-in-law- Just days after her husband Robert Kennedy Jr filed for divorce, Mary was charged with drunk driving in May 2010. She pled guilty and had her license suspended, but was arrested for drugged driving a month later. The mother-of-four killed herself in May 2012. 

Michael Skakel- Kerry's cousin- Charged with the 1975 murder of his 15-year-old neighbor Martha Moxley and spent 11 years behind bars following a 2002 conviction but he has been released from jail while he awaits a new trial. A judge recently allowed him to have a GPS tracking device moved from his ankle to a different part of his body so that he can fit his foot in a ski boot.

The smile that says I'm free:

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin guilty of corruption, taking bribes

What a shock!

NEW ORLEANS -- Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was convicted Wednesday on charges that he accepted bribes, free trips and other gratuities from contractors in exchange for helping them secure millions of dollars in city work while he was in office, including right after Hurricane Katrina.

The federal jury found Nagin guilty of 20 of 21 counts against him. He sat quietly at the defense table after the verdict was read and his wife, Seletha, was being consoled in the front row.

Before the verdict, the 57-year-old Ray Nagin said outside the New Orleans courtroom: "I've been at peace with this for a long time. I'm good."

The Democrat, who left office in 2010 after eight years, was indicted in January 2013 on charges he accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes and truckloads of free granite for his family business in exchange for promoting the interests of local businessman Frank Fradella.

He also was charged with accepting thousands of dollars in payoffs from another businessman, Rodney Williams, for his help in securing city contracts.

Nagin is best remembered for his impassioned pleas for help after levees broke during Hurricane Katrina, flooding much of New Orleans and plunging the city into chaos.

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The buses arrived and were assigned to the "bus pool".

Nagin testified that key witnesses lied and prosecutors misinterpreted evidence, including emails, checks and pages from his appointment calendar linking him to businessmen who said they bribed him.

The defense repeatedly said prosecutors overstated Nagin's authority to approve contracts. His lawyer said there is no proof that money and material given to the granite business owned by Nagin and his sons was tied to city business.

The charges against Nagin included one overarching conspiracy count along with six counts of bribery, nine counts of wire fraud, one count of money laundering conspiracy and four counts of filing false tax returns. He was acquitted of one of the bribery counts.

Each charge carries a sentence of three to 20 years, but how long he would serve was unclear and will depend on a pre-sentencing investigation and various sentencing guidelines. No sentencing date was set.

Prosecutors say Nagin took hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of bribes, including money, free travel and granite for Stone Age LLC, a family granite business.

They allege the corruption spanned the time before and after Hurricane Katrina struck in August 2005.

The charges resulted from a City Hall corruption investigation that had resulted in several convictions or guilty pleas by former Nagin associates by the time the trial started on Jan. 27.

Fradella and Williams, both awaiting sentencing for their roles in separate bribery schemes alleged in the case, each testified that they bribed Nagin.

Nagin's former technology chief, Greg Meffert, who also is awaiting sentencing after a plea deal, told jurors he helped another businessman, Mark St. Pierre, bribe Nagin with lavish vacation trips. St. Pierre did not testify. He was convicted in the case in 2011.

Nagin said he did not know his vacation trips to Jamaica and Hawaii were paid for by St. Pierre. He also said he wasn't told that a family trip to New York was paid for by a movie theater owner who, prosecutors said, received help with a city tax issue after Katrina wiped out the theater.

Former New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin guilty of corruption, taking bribes

Obamacare Definition:

To insure the uninsured we first make the insured uninsured and then make them pay more to be insured again so the original uninsured can be insured for free.

 

Obamacare Definition:

Joe Biden says there’s 'no obvious reason why I shouldn't run'

Here's one.

Vice President Joe Biden has now said that there is no reason for him not to run for president except for the fact that he likes driving his own car. 

'There may be reasons why I don't run, but there's no obvious reason for me why I think I should not run,' Biden told CNN. 

Biden has been plagued by questions about whether or not he will be running for President a third time in 2016, and he has stuck to his standing line about how has not yet decided.

No reason not to: Vice President Biden said that he needs to see the field and see if he is the only person that would fight for middle class values and a sound foreign policy.

(Maybe he could host another one of those $10,000 a plate fund raisers and invite the middle class) 

'For me the decision to run or not run is going to be determined by me as to whether I am the best qualified person to focus on the two things I've spent my whole life on: giving ordinary people a fighting chance to make it and a sound foreign policy that's based on rational interests of the United States where we not only are known for the power of our military but the power of our example,' he said. 

Biden, who is 71 and will be 73 at the time of the next election, previously said that he and his wife, Dr Jill Biden, had not had a formal conversation about 2016 and this time he took a different tact in answering the same question. 

'After I ran the first time, she didn't want me to run again. The second time, she came to me and said you've gotta run. The reason she wanted me to run was because she was convinced if I ran we'd end the war in Iraq and have a sounder foreign policy and she was convinced if I ran I would work like hell to make sure the middle class got a fighting chance,' Biden told CNN on Thursday. 

'I think the future for this country- I know people think I'm too optimistic, but it is incredible and there is so much just within our grasp.' 

Addressing the issue: Biden gave himself the deadline of 'a year this summer' to figure out if he will run.

(You didn't think he could figure it out right away did you?)

He said that his best bet on a deadline for the decision would be that he will have a verdict by 'realistically, a year this summer' which would give him just over a year to launch a formal campaign. 

'Doesn't mean I'm the only guy who can do it, but no one else I think can, and I think I can then I'll run. If I don't I won't.'

The obvious other competitor that he will- or won't- be facing is Hillary Clinton. 

The former Secretary of State is also mulling her decision about 2016, but her polling numbers and formal fundraising operation are significantly more suggestive of a run. 

The bevy of recent polls matching the various Republican candidates up with one likely Democrat all use Clinton as that figure, and the most recent take on the possible Democratic primary line up- done by Quinnipiac on January 31- has Biden with 9 per cent of the vote as compared to Clinton's 64 per cent.

I suspect this guy would have a better chance of becoming POTUS.

Think about it for a moment. Of all the people in the United States... the one most eminently qualified is Biden? 

Have we learned nothing from the current resident? You know... the one who said at his nomination victory speech, "this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal..." 

Fell a little short...ya think?

Joe Biden says there’s 'no obvious reason why I shouldn't run'

Here we go again

Here we go again