You Really Can Fool Some Of The People All Of The Time.

Especially so when they want to be fooled.

The Detroit News: 'The one who came back': Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returns to Detroit to preach at Historic Little Rock Baptist Church

Yep, disgraced ex-mayor and playa Kwame Kilpatrick, after ripping off the City of Detroit and engaging in really impressive amounts of corruption that fleeced the city for millions, has announced he has found religion and is now preachin' and declaring he's a pastor.

And the credulous fools in Detroit love him for it and gave him a pulpit to do it from.

He took the pulpit to shouts of “Kwame!” and “We love you, Kwame!” and delivered a sermon that drew standing ovations. He thanked churchgoers for praying for him.

They bought his claim of now being a changed man hook, line, and sinker and along the way forgot that the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose:

Pope said he liked that Kilpatrick stuck to biblical references in delivering his sermon because it showed his commitment to his faith.

“I think he’s already a phenomenal pastor,” Pope said.

Detroiter Gwen Greenlee agreed.

“(Kilpatrick) did a blessed sermon,” Greenlee said. “He used the Bible. He is a changed person.”

. . .

Evangelist Rosemary Washington-White said she believes the former mayor is “born again,” and it showed with his knowledge of scripture and his application to his own life.

“He did an awesome job,” said Washington-White as she left Little Rock Baptist Church Sunday. “He’s a changed man.”

Con men are gonna con, and the credulous sheep will continue to be fleeced in the City of Detroit.

One of the many mistakes Trump made during his presidency was commuting this con man's sentence to seven years after he fleeced an entire city.

Michiganders: Criminals Here Will Be Out Of Lock Down Long Before You Will Be

Gov Half-Whit has again decided to extended yet again the stay home order - while she foes to her her vacation home up north - epalingin t he partial reopenign ordered there to apply this weekend.

Just to keep the irony meter running, Ex-Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick is going to be out of jail before you're out of lock down, getting an early release due to the pandemic, after serving only 7 years of a 28 year sentence for corruption. So he's getting out now instead of in 2037.

On top of that, a Federal Judge is ordering the Oakland County jail to release "vulnerable" prisoners due to the Covids, and even better, newly caught "vulnerable" criminals, no matter their crime, "vulnerable" arrestees cannot be incarcerated under the judge's order - if you're "vulnerable" you now have an automatic "get out of going to jail free card" for any crime you may now go forth and commit.

I guess they need the jail space to punish small business owners who violate Gov Half-Whit's shut down.

You can't make this stuff up.

Checking Out His Possible Future Residence, Or Just To Visit An Old Buddy?

The Detroit News: Obama to visit Kilpatrick’s prison in Oklahoma

President Barack Obama will visit Kwame Kilpatrick’s federal prison in Oklahoma on Thursday, offering a reminder of how far their careers and fortunes have diverged since both were viewed as rising political figures eight years ago.

The News then quotes Kilpatrick's memoirs:

Kilpatrick wrote that he felt pride at seeing a fellow African-American win the historic election, but he writes that feeling later turned to enmity.

Kilpatrick writes he “hated on” Obama “a little, asking God, ‘Why? Why him and not me?’”

Because you got caught red-handed with your hand in the cookie jar Kwame, that's why. Well, that and your opponents were other Democrats so the media wouldn't keep covering up for you in the face of your blatant corruption.

That Sounds Like Someone Else Too....

A headline in The Detroit Free Press: How Kwame Kilpatrick fooled us all with charisma - and hope

Remind you of anyone else we know?

Oh, and a quick correction to the headline. Kwame did not "fool us all".

He only fooled those credulous enough to be taken in by his smooth talkin' con game. Much like others are finally realizing about a similar smooth talker with charisma and hope on the national level.

Not all of us were take in by either of their con games, only the suckers who wished to believe despite what their observations and intelligence told them to the contrary.

Welcome, Welcome Friends, To Detroit, Where The Corruption Never Ends

Denial, as we've noted before, is not just a river in Africa. Meanwhile in Detroit the rivers of denial and corruption both run deep.

The Detroit News: Kilpatrick's sister says ex-mayor 'innocent,' will continue fight

Of course his family will continue to claim he's innocent in the face of a mountain of evidence to the contrary, if anything to cover the benefits they've received and their roles in the scandal.

Kwame's sister making this declaration of Kwame's innocence is hardly an uninterested party to the show:

Ayanna Kilpatrick Ferguson herself has appeared in text messages that have come under legal scrutiny in regard to the former mayor, one of which she complained to her brother about Bobby Ferguson blocking others from getting contracts.

"Here we go with this Bobby bull again," Ayanna Kilpatrick Ferguson wrote in a 2004 text message to former mayoral aide Derrick Miller. "Can we make a $ too?"

Not to worry, it sure looks like she did:

Ayanna Kilpatrick was also member of the New Vision Foundation, a charity founded by the Kilpatrick family to help Detroit students.

In 2004, it was discovered that nearly $400,000 of the $717,000 the foundation had raised in the two previous years was paid in salary to Ayanna Kilpatrick, Carlita Kilpatrick (Kwame Kilpatrick's wife), and to attorney, and family friend, Lisa Cylar Miller.

When over 50% of the "donations" to a charitable foundation are going to friends and family of the Kwamster as "salaries", you can tell this foundation was designed more to further feather the nest and wash money rather than truly act as a charity as most people understand the meaning of the word.

I suspect we still haven't seen the bottom of the sewer of corruption that has been Detroit under decades of one-party Democrat rule.

And The Verdict Is.....Very Guilty

And the Verdict is announced and its quite a a long one:

Kilpatrick was found guilty of 24 of 30 counts, including racketeering, but the jury apparently couldn't reach a verdict on some of the remaining charges including some bribery charges.

Bernard Kilpatrick was found guilty of only one of the four charges against him, filing a false tax return only and not the racketeering charge. Should be interesting to get the rationale behind that decision.

Joel Ferguson was convicted on nine of eleven counts: racketeering, extortion, and filing false tax returns.

That brings the most overtly corrupt mayoral administration in Detroit to an end.

Note: revised once reporters count their count charges straight.

Ex-Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick and Friends Verdict Coming Soon

Apparently the Jury has finally reached a verdict and will announce it shortly.

The Detroit News: Jury reaches verdict in Kilpatrick corruption trial

Should be interesting to see what they'll do, as some jurors have requested to speak to the media after the verdict is announced.

Are The Kilpatrick Snakes Starting To Commit Suicide?

Kilpatrick's codefendant Victor Mercado pleads guilty in middle of trial

I always figured Mercado for the sucker being played by the Kilpatricks, acting as a middleman in their criminal enterprise of robbing the city blind - all the while the Kilpatricks were busy dispensing patronage to Democrat supporters in return for bribes and money to enrich themselves and be reelected.

The Detroit Free Press:

In a stunning potential setback for former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and two others, ex-city water director Victor Mercado pleaded guilty to conspiracy today, admitting he helped steer lucrative contracts toward Kilpatrick’s contractor friend Bobby Ferguson.

And Mercado said he did so at Kilpatrick’s behest.

Under the terms of his plea deal, Mercado, 61, faces up to 18 months in prison and a $100,000 fine for conspiring to commit extortion. He also could get probation. He is not cooperating and is not expected to testify against Kilpatrick and the two other codefendants at trial.

Darn it, one of the conditions should have been he testifies against them. How they let that get by is interesting. Then again his guilty plea now won't be in a vacuum, and he sure as anything didn't act alone but was the conduit.

Meanwhile, yet another figure in this incredibly broad corruption scandal gets, in return for his cooperation, a year in prison for tax evasion arising from the bribery scandal: Restaurant owner who admits bribing Kilpatrick's right-hand man gets 1-year prison term

The more that's revealed, the clearer it becomes that Kwame and Kompany were busy using the City of Detroit as their own personal piggy bank and patronage system on such a blatant scale that's hard to imagine outside of the one-party (yes, and you can play name that party! with this article) cesspool that is Detroit.

Kwame Krony Kracks

As US District Attorney Barbara McQuade pushes forward in her corruption investigation, a key aide of Kwame Kilpatrick has pled guilty and apparently agreed to testify against the tainted former mayor.

The Detroit Free Press: Kwame Kilpatrick aide Derrick Miller pleads guilty in stunning setback for former mayor

Derrick Miller, one of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's closest friends and trusted aides, pleaded guilty to bribery and lying on his taxes this morning in U.S. District Court in downtown Detroit.

As part of his guilty plea, he will be cooperating in the case against Kilpatrick and is expected to testify at the ex-mayor’s trial, which is scheduled for September 2012.

Kilpatrick; his father, Bernard Kilpatrick; Miller, longtime pal and controversial contractor Bobby Ferguson and former head of Detroit's water and sewerage department Victor Mercado were indicted in December on charges they perverted the city’s contracting system by shaking down city contractors to steer millions in public funds into their own pockets.

The lying on his taxes part comes from not reporting the hundreds of thousands of dollars he received as bribes, pay-to-play fees (ie you pay him or you don't get a shot at doing busienss with the city), and kickbacks from developers.

When you read the article and look at the influence Miller was peddling its amazing both how much money he was receiving and how cheap at times it could be to do "business" with him and make out like a bandit at the expense of the city.

For example, in return for a $10,000 dollar bribe, he allegedly

authorized that at least $4.4 million in U.S. Department of Homeland Security funds be paid to Security Communications Alert Network to install security cameras and television screens in the city to detect potential threats to the public.

Not a bad return on an investment.

Of course these sweetheart deals increased the cost and financial strain upon both the city of Detroit, and in the case of the massive corruption going on at the Water Depertment, to the entire region.

Kudos to USDA McQuade for her determined and fruitful pursuit of this wretched hive of scum and villany.

The investigation is not over yet, and I bet we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg of the corruption under the Kwame regime.

Kwame, tired of the Race Card, reaches for the Joo card

Kwame is truly the Detroit Democrat that just keeps on giving.

Michigan Citizen: Kwame Kilpatrick was victim of Jewish conspiracy, says Kwame Kilpatrick

If you thought Kwame Kilpatrick’s downfall was the result of his own hubris, prepare to have your mind blown by Michigan Citizen writer Zenobia Jeffries. Oh sure, Kilpatrick made some mistakes, but he was really brought down in a plot instigated by…wait for it…the Jews

The "progressive" rag the Michigan Citizen reviews Kwame's book thusly:

There’s always been somewhat of an underlying question in the midst of the Kilpatrick scandal: Who the hell did he piss off to bring this level of scrutiny?

This question could be answered in Kilpatrick’s account of visits by Detroit attorney Reggie Turner on behalf of the area’s powerful Jewish community.

I guess when your basic race card stops working, its back to blaming the Jews to regain your follower's support.

Frankly, I'm surprised Kwame didn't blame the bicyclists for his demise.

Kwame Korruption - The Gift to Detroit that Keeps on Giving

If we hadn't known before, this is even more confirmation that Kwame and Krewe used the city as their personal piggy bank.

The Detroit Free Press: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's cousin charged with stealing from nonprofit

Nneka Cheeks may love Trouble -- the dog she is accused of caring for with money embezzled from a nonprofit -- but she is likely less thrilled about the double trouble the Michigan attorney general is bringing.

Attorney General Bill Schuette charged Cheeks on Thursday with eight counts of embezzlement and one count of racketeering -- all felonies -- accusing her of stealing more than $19,000 from a nonprofit established to maintain the Manoogian Mansion, Detroit's mayoral residence.

Schuette said Cheeks -- a former mayoral aide to Kwame Kilpatrick who is also Kilpatrick's cousin -- used $1,300 of that money to pay a veterinarian who cared for Trouble.

The article goes on to list the numerous ways in which Cheeks enriched herself by tapping the funds including jewlery, furniture and wedding items.

We've certianly not yet reached the bottom of the Kwane & Kompany Detroit rabbit hole. Just wait until the federal investigation really gets rolling.

Kwame's Lawyer: Kwame Can't Pay Restitution As He Must Live A Lavish Lifestyle

Kilpatrick must live lavishly, his lawyer says

Yep, that's the defense hizzoner da former hip hop mayor has left as to why he can't pay more than $6 in restitution on a $120,000 base salary + commissions.

Kwame Kilpatrick is living large because, his lawyer says, he has to.

Kilpatrick's attorney, Daniel Hajji, made the claim in an impassioned 14-page motion filed with the state Court of Appeals late Tuesday in an effort to postpone the ex-Detroit mayor's Friday probation-violation hearing in circuit court -- one that could eventually land him behind bars.

Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner will arraign Kilpatrick for failing to pay $79,011 toward the $1 million he owes in restitution by last Friday's deadline. Kilpatrick and his lawyers say he doesn't have the money, despite his plush lifestyle in a tony Dallas suburb and $120,000-a-year sales job for Covisint, a Compuware subsidiary.

"The clientele he must establish a rapport with are likely to be the privileged and the affluent," Hajji said in the motion. "Burgers and beer at the local bar is not going to be sufficient."

I'm amazed his lawyer didn't just get up in court and say "Your Hona, The Kwamester has gots to represent, dig?

Look, when you owe 1 million dollars to the city you ripped off and helped push over the edge into the abyss, burgers and beer are too high a lifestyle. I say Ramen noodles ought to be the high point of your daily gastronomic feast in such a situation.

Kwame if he wasn't living so large and rubbing it in the prosecutor's and judges face could have gotten away with it. But spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and then claiming you can only afford $6 a month in restitution toward paying down a 1 Million dollar fine is not going to cut you any slack, and is instead an attempt to make the prosecutor and judge look like fools.

Understandably, prosecutors and judges do not like to be made to look like fools, especially, as in this case, when they're holding all the cards.

Adding to the mix is that Kwame may soon be facing even bigger problems - Federal bribery charges: Feds have evidence ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick took bribes

On the upside, Federal detention centers are far more stylish and lavish than the Wayne County Jail, probably a more privileged and affluent class of criminals to mix with there as well.

When in a Hole, Even Ex-Mayors of Detroit should stop Digging

Once again, its not the crime but the cover-up, or in this case an apparent failure to be candid about his financial ability to pay his court ordered restitution that is plaguing the ex-mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick. The story keeps changing and spinning and it may end up with his returning to jail if he can't get his story straight.

Kilpatrick's friends helped pay part of his restitution, hearing reveals

One would have thought that he would have learned after already being caught committing perjury and lying to cover it up. As his former honor keeps trying to brazen it out, its not going to get any better.

New doubts surfaced Wednesday about former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's claim that he doesn't know how his rent is paid on his million-dollar Texas home when an FBI agent testified that Kilpatrick was intimately involved in the lease negotiations.

And Kilpatrick, who testified three weeks ago that he didn't know whether his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, had a job, said Wednesday on the witness stand: "At this particular time, I have the only income in the home."

Kilpatrick raised more eyebrows during the third day of his restitution hearing when he testified that he has borrowed thousands of dollars from friends to make his restitution payments.

"There's so many different people giving you so much money that you can't even keep it straight, is that what you're telling us, sir?" asked Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Athina Siringas, drawing a rebuke from Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner.

The revelations stood out on a day in which prosecutors sought to convince Groner that Kilpatrick has violated his probation by hiding his assets.

They also tried to prove that a $240,000 loan Kilpatrick received from local business leaders was really a gift that should have been reported to the court.

But the top Compuware attorney who drafted the deal testified that the business leaders always had intended only to lend Kilpatrick the money.
Doubts raised on rent claim

Three weeks ago, Kilpatrick said he didn't know who was paying his rent.

On Wednesday, an FBI agent testified that Kilpatrick approved the deal.

Lying doesn't work because it can be hard to keep your story straight, especially if someone checks up on it. That's why you tell the truth under oath as when its followed up and you're found to be lying, its not going to go well:

Siringas also grilled Kilpatrick on how he pays his monthly restitution to the city.

He said he might borrow $1,000, go to the ATM, withdraw money here and there. He said he stockpiles the money.

"Stockpile?" Siringas asked.

Kilpatrick caught himself.

"I shouldn't have said that," he said, chuckling.

Ooops, that had to hurt.

It also seems that Kwame's friends who were appointed to office by him have been generous in helping him out now:

Another surprising development Wednesday came when Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Athina Siringas divulged that the mother of longtime Kilpatrick friends DeDan and Kandia Milton paid $12,500 toward Kilpatrick's restitution.

Even Kilpatrick was surprised about one aspect of the revelation: He testified that he thought the Miltons' mother, Sandra Ramsey, loaned him only $10,000. He learned from prosecutors that an additional $2,500 he thought DeDan Milton had loaned him had actually come from Ramsey.

Ramsey and her sons were all high-ranking political appointees during Kilpatrick's nearly two terms as mayor.

DeDan Milton was an assistant to Kilpatrick who later represented Kilpatrick on one of the city's pension boards. Kandia Milton had risen to deputy mayor by the time Kilpatrick resigned in September 2008.

Siringas slammed Kilpatrick for borrowing the money from Ramsey shortly after receiving a $150,000 installment of a $240,000 loan from four prominent local businessmen.

Kilpatrick said Ramsey helped him make the payment because "to leave town, to get to my wife and children, I had to pay that. ... She gave me some money."

Nice to have such loyalty.

And the gift/loan from the four Detroit Businessmen continues to be in question, with the loan documents only being created after the IRS and FBI started investigating:

Prosecutors argued Wednesday that a $240,000 loan to Kilpatrick from four prominent businessmen was actually a gift.

As evidence, the prosecution called as a witness Compuware lawyer Daniel Follis, who testified that the repayment terms on the loan -- the promissory notes -- weren't completed until after the FBI and IRS came calling.

Siringas argued that was evidence the loan was a gift.

Schwartz attacked the prosecution's theory that it was a gift with Follis' testimony that not one of the business leaders who made the loan to Kilpatrick ever said to Follis that the money was a gift.

The real question is who put these businessmen up to these "gift/loans" and what were they either promised to receive in return or threatened with to ensure their compliance:

John Rakolta Jr., chairman and chief executive officer of the Walbridge construction company, reiterated Wednesday that he never agreed to lend any money to Kilpatrick.

"I was asked and declined the opportunity to participate in the loan after consulting with my closest advisers. I know Pete, Jim, Roger and Dan very well, and I have the utmost respect for them both professionally and personally. They are men of honor and integrity and have worked tirelessly for the betterment of the city of Detroit," Rakolta said in a statement issued Tuesday.

You'll note it does not identify who asked him for his donation, and curiously there is no follow-up.

You can be sure that Kwame's Kontortions aren't done yet.

Loans so the Mayor can leave - Kwame's Kontributions in the news

It turns out that several prominent Detroit businessmen made substantial loans or outright gifts to now ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert, Jim Nicholson and Peter Karmanos gave Kwame $240,000.

Also, it turns out magnate Matty Maroun gave Kwame a gift of $50,000. Maroun owns considerable Detroit property and the bridge that is the international crossing between Detroit and Windsor. He also made some major donations to Kirkpatrick's mother, Congresswoman (for life / D-Detroit) Carolyn Kilpatrick. Pay to play anyone or just business as usual in the D?

The loans were apparently part of a deal, agreement or simple understanding in return for him to resign as mayor of Detroit, not to mention ending a serious Democrat scandal in Michigan in an election year, and possibly even agreeing not to attend the Democrat convention due to potential embarasment over Obama's endoresement and friendship with Kwame -



You could say that Kwame, like Blagojevich, knew the position he held was a valuable thing, and he got some value for leaving and both sparing the City, Obama, and the Democratic establishment some high-profile embarrassment during a crucial election. At least Kwame made some cash and a nice well-paying job after his exit in exchange for his valuable thing.

It should be interesting to see what happens if the court decides to have the businessmen testify under oath as to the reasons for their generous gifts, and if any of them were quietly promised either favors if they made these "gifts" or disfavor if they failed to do so.

Detroit Mayor off to the slammer for violating his bond

Kwame Kilpatrick gets to spend some time with some of his constituents - up close and personal.

FoxNews:Detroit mayor ordered jailed after bond violation

This was his second bond violation and it led to the Judge, quite properly, ordering some jail time.

The problem with people in powerful positions is that they think they do not have to abide by the rules laid out for everyone. That belief leads them to do rather stupid things - in Kwame's case violating the terms of his bond order.

Now hizzoner the Mayor will get some privileges due to his exalted public status - a separate cell and not being introduced into the general population of the jail. Given the charges pending against him, he may want to get used to it.

Nice try Kwame but too little, too late

The Detroit News:Mayor Kilpatrick issues new rule: City text messages private

Given Kwame' downfall was due to the text messages he sent, on Detroit City equipment his new policy seems to be in anticipation of his next scandal to try and keep private the texts he may send the next time around.

Of course, this new policy certainly hurts his current case, because if he had to make a new policy that City employees now have some expectation of privacy in their text and electronic communications on City equipment, he certainly lacked such an expectation up until he issued this policy today.

To add to the fun,the purported date of the effectiveness of this policy, just unveiled today was April 15.

Detroit City lawyer suddenly remembers the secret deal she signed

About to be faced with an order to produce her emails, Detroit's chief assistant corporation counsel, Valerie Colbert-Osamuede suddenly had her memory refreshed and recalled signing the deal.

From the Detroit Free Press:

A city lawyer who told a Wayne County judge that she wasn't aware of any confidential agreements in Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's text message scandal changed her mind Friday.

Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, the city's chief assistant corporation counsel, wrote in a letter to Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. that she now recalls signing a confidential settlement agreement Oct. 17 (- the deal that secretly settled the Kwame lawsuit case -) and that she also received subsequent e-mails about that deal.

Her letter came a day after her e-mails were ordered to be produced in a Free Press Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the city.

"I have discovered ... my answers did not fully reflect all of the circumstances," Colbert-Osamuede wrote. "This letter is submitted to clarify my prior statements. The responses to the court's questions were my best recollection at the time and were truthful."

It will be interesting to see how far the scandal reaches in Detroit. These memories that suddenly reappear pending the inevitable discovery of the truth are rather convenient aren't they?

New County Building to be named for Kwame?

It may be too late, or it may be premature to have buildings named for now indicted Mayor of Detroit Kwame Kilpatrick.

However, renaming the Wayne County Jail the "Kwame Kilpatrick Correctional Facility" may prove reflective of his legacy to the city, as well as a timely idea.

Kwame is looking for a few good cops

As long as they're the right color, of course.

In the midst of the text messaging scandal and the possibility that Wayne County prosecutor Kim Worthy might actually prosecute him, Kwame went in front of Detroit's City Council and indicated he wasn't worried.

Instead he discussed city business and the city needs 500 more police officers.

Yhere's a little problem: He's having trouble finding the "right" kind:

Kilpatrick said the city needs about 500 more cops, but is having a hard time getting the right types of cadets --whom he described as black or Detroiters -- into the academy. He said the city has 300 openings for police officers and only 40 cadets in the police academy.

He then indicated that he's having trouble with recruiting this right kind o' cop because:

Too many potential candidates were failing the urine test that screens for marijuana, he said.

The rest were failed for having felony records but hey, that's Detroit.

Nice of Kwame to come right out and say he's directing the police to hire using discriminatory criteria. Normally racists and bigots just use code words.