First former Congressman William Jefferson (D-LA) was found guilty on Federal bribery and racketeering charges, his 13-year sentence being the longest ever meted out to a former congressman.

Then Bill’s brother Mose was sentenced to ten years for his role in bribing the head of the Orleans Parish School Board.

Now…

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U.S. Attorney Jim Letten and the Federal Bureau of Investigation have achieved a key break in their investigation of the New Orleans Police Department and the shooting of six civilians (two fatally) during Hurricane Katrina’s chaotic aftermath. According to Letten’s bill of information, none of the victims were armed. Former NOPD Lieutenant Jim Lohman has entered a guilty plea to federal charges of conspiracy to obstruct justice and has agreed to cooperate with the prosecution in its investigation of the other police officers involved in the incident. State charges were filed in 2006 but dismissed in 2008.

Letten is a Republican, and a Bush appointee. His office has taken down some 200 corrupt public officials during his eight year tenure in office, making him perhaps the most trusted figure in the New Orleans area. His retention as U.S. Attorney has been supported by both Sen. David Vitter and Sen. Mary Landrieu.

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Chances are, where you live it’s just Tuesday, the day after a Federal holiday. Maybe you recognize the day before the beginning of Lent as Shrove Tuesday (or Pancake Day, if you happen to live in Liberal, KS).

From Mobile to Galveston, though, today is Mardi Gras.

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For those who may have missed the comments to yesterday’s post on New Orleans’ mayorial election, current Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu defeated a large field of challengers to take the election without a runoff.

Mitch Landrieu claims New Orleans mayor’s office in a landslide - NOLA.com.

Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, son of a former mayor and brother of a U.S. senator, routed five major challengers in Saturday’s mayoral primary, riding a sense of regret among voters who rejected him four years ago and extraordinary biracial support to claim an unprecedented first-round landslide victory.

When he takes office May 6, Landrieu will become the city’s first white chief executive since his father, Moon Landrieu, left the job in 1978. Early analysis shows that Mitch Landrieu’s victory owed to widespread crossover voting by African-Americans, who make up two-thirds of the city’s residents.

New Orleans voters to cast ballots for Ray Nagin’s successor today - NOLA.com

Despite wall-to-wall coverage of the Saints’ first-ever Super Bowl appearance in Miami, a high voter turnout is expected in today’s local and special state elections in New Orleans. A 40-45% percent turnout is expected based on the unusually high number of early and absentee ballots cast: over 17,000 out of 272,000 registered voters, more early votes than in last presidential election.

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The Louisiana State Analytical and Fusion Exchange (LA-SAFE) today issued a notice titled Suspicious Activity: Helicopter Leasing Facilities for aviation interests in Louisiana. We received it at work via our membership in the Offshore Operators Committee.

Oil and gas operators use helicopters routinely to access platforms and rigs. There are several large shore bases across the Gulf that serve this activity.

Walk-up inquiries about helicopter leasing qualify as highly unusual. So do men hanging around observing operations at the fence.

Heck, at this point, I’m suspicious of anyone who drives a late-model black Impala.

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Arne Duncan is getting a lot of heat for telling the truth.

You heard me. Duncan said, “The best thing that happened to the education system in New Orleans was Hurricane Katrina. That education system was a disaster.” Yep.

Duncan, of course, did not point the finger at teachers’ unions, the bloated bureaucracy, or any of the major causes, but the fact is that yes, without Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans could not have rebuilt its horrible school system on a charter school model.

That model is already showing great success. But for a natural disaster, it would not have happened.

There are many, many things to go after Arne Duncan for saying and doing. This is not one of them.

Of course, how exactly can you blame Bush here? Duncan may be made to walk it back for that reason alone.

Much has been written and said about James O’Keefe’s incursion into Mary Landrieu’s office in Louisiana. It is interesting to me how Landrieu, through MSNBC and the mouth of David Shuster, made sure to get its spin out quickly before O’Keefe could get out of jail and to a microphone.

More interesting to me is how many on our side raced out immediately to condemn O’Keefe without knowing any facts other than those reported by MSNBC. Even a cursory glance at the initial written charges and statements made it clear that there was no wiretapping — and those documents were released nearly at the same time as the story broke. Undeterred, many on our side and the left attacked based on mis-truths generated by the left.

While we should recognize the uniqueness of the right in its effort to maintain its righteousness (the left would never have reacted in the same way), there should have been a willingness to give James O’Keefe the benefit of the doubt. Agree or disagree with his actions, think it wise or unwise, smart or stupid, it seems now pretty clear that there was no intent to commit the crimes alleged by Senator Landrieu and MSNBC.

Below the fold is his statement.

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Mose Jefferson sentence of 10 years is maximum allowable | NOLA.com

William Jefferson had the limelight as the congressman from New Orleans, but Mose, schooled in the rough and tumble world of Chicago politics, was the architect of his brother’s rise. Now, unless their appeals are successful, both Jefferson brothers will be doing significant time in federal prison.

The family of nine brothers and sisters rose from a small farm in Lake Providence to fame and fortune in the big city, but the political machine they built has disintegrated in a wave of federal prosecutions.

Another Jefferson sibling, 4th District Assessor Betty Jefferson, will go on trial in March in the racketeering case along with Mose, her daughter Angela Coleman and former state Rep. Renee Gill Pratt [who is, BTW, Mose's girlfriend].

On Aug. 21, just two weeks after his younger brother William was convicted by a Virginia jury, Mose Jefferson was found guilty on two counts of bribery and two counts of obstruction of justice in connection with $100,000 he gave to then-school board member Ellenese Brooks-Simms.

Heh. Heh-Heh.

Check out this headline in the (reliably liberal) Baton Rouge Advocate:

GOP win may cost La. $300 million

Even though the deal struck to get Mary on board the Health Care Reform bandwagon was widely regarded as a “payoff”, it had a reasonable justification.

The money was to be used to help fill a gap the state faces because of a federal funding formula that penalizes Louisiana because “per capita income” rose during the infusion of insurance and federal government money to help rebuild after hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

Now, with the HCR bill foundering, a statistical fix that might have been sold on its own merits to Democrats and Republicans alike is as dead as a mackerel.

Cross-posted at The Hayride.