printThe plenary power of pardon granted to the president is extremely broad.
But so far no word about the possible pardon by Bush of incarcerated Border-Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
The president had set a precedent in the case of Ramos and Compean. For defending their country, and in the process shooting a drug smuggler in the derriere, Bush sicced his bloodhound, U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, on these Border Patrol Agents who, absent a pardon, will remain locked up for over a decade.
Although Bush has yet to pardon Scooter Libby, you’ll recall that he commuted his sentence. Bush had spared his fall guy, Lewis Libby, but locked up these patriotic, heroic agents—Ramos and Compean—ostensibly throwing away the key. No remorse expressed from the Creep-in-Chief in their unjust conviction.
I’ve said it before: Bush would wrestle a crocodile for a criminal alien. Soon into his presidency, I also pronounced George W. Bush bad to the bone.
As have I defended evangelical leader Pat Robertson in the past. But he’s clearly just a cog in the well-oiled, oleaginous, Republican Party machine. Robertson was interviewed today by CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, who asked him about the pardons.
Robertson put his moral might behind making the case for a Scooter-Libby pardon. Now, as I’ve written, “the ‘crime’ for which Libby was convicted was also the crime for which Martha Stewart went to jail: lying to the FBI. Not for leaking the identity of former (so-called) classified CIA operative Valerie Plame. Richard Armitage did that.”
This was yet another abuse of power by crooked outlaw, US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.
However, given his role in taking us to war, there was some poetic justice in the conviction of Libby (not that I support such justice).
There was no justice—poetic, or other—in the conviction of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.
George Bush has always been in bed with the oligarchs who run Mexico.
Remember the case of the two young women gang-raped and butchered by a gang in Houston? [Immortalized in “José Medellín’s Dead; Cue The Mariachi Band.”]
Bush intervened with the state of Texas on behalf of the Mexican government in order to get the death sentence of Jose Medellin retried. http://www.vdare.com/letters/tl_050608.htm
And let’s not forget him repeatedly celebrating Cinco de Mayo at the White House.
Treason is as treason does.
Ms. Mercer: A complete shame that Ramos and Compean have not been pardoned. I would also like to see Libby and Pollard pardoned. On another matter: Years ago, I had occasion (very briefly) to meet Pat Robertson: The man is good to the bone. (Not infallible, by any means, but truly a decent human being.)
Ah, but Patrick Fitzgerald made Rod Blagojevich a poster boy for Illinois politics. Speaking of which, guess which Messianic Illinois junior senator directed (taxpayer) money to the University of Chicago hospital system … and guess who was executive director for community affairs of said hospital and then got her salary tripled 3 months after the junior senator got his new job Vice President for Community and External Affairs … there’s “honest graft” and dishonest graft… – and Governor Blago wanted to sell the senate seat – even to Jesse Jackson Junior who earlier wouldn’t fork over $ 25,000 to poor Blago to make Jackson’s wife the director of the Illinois Lottery. As for Ramos and Compean – they haven’t paid off anyone – so they can rot forever.
What if:
1. The rules of engagement held that, with a few qualifications and exceptions, border agents were not supposed to shoot suspects in the back if they are fleeing to Mexico, past a certain point, and presenting no threat, and,
2. These agents knew or should have known those rules, and,
3. One of the agents knowingly, intentionally, with malice aforethought, violated those rules, and,
4. That agent knowingly, intentionally, willfully, and persistently lied about a material aspect of the events in question so as to provide himself with an excuse under the aforementioned (#1) qualifications and excuses, and,
5. The other agent, his partner, promoted that lie, and,
6. Both agents, being basically honest men, admitted as much in confidence to their attorneys, and,
6. At trial, defense counsel, not willing to knowingly make a false representation which would subject them to disbarrment and criminal prosecution, did not challenge (impeach) the prosecution’s witness when he testified in contradiction to the agents with regard to the lie, thus signaling, by omission, to all in the courtroom, the agents’ guilty conscience.
What if?
[You’re account is not quite correct. However, as with Bill O’Reilly, you defend the state’s “rules of engagement,” which prohibit any meaningful defense of property and person. On this blog, I defend the natural law. On private property, as was the case in the old republic, a trespasser would be shot.–IM]
Let me correct my account then: they didn’t have guilty consciences, because the rules of engagement were unreasonable as not consistent with natural law. Rather, they had misformed consciences, which, unfortunately, were not corrected.
In my reading of the transcripts, the left-handed/right-handed issue was the key to the whole case. I speculate that they might have done better to say, “Yes, I shot at the trespasser as he was fleeing and we were in pursuit, and I knew it was against the rules of engagement. What of it? The rules stink and task us with an impossible and wrong mission.” But -again, my reading here, they tried to play the game of creating a story that fit within the rules and got burnt when it looked like they were lying. And now they are in the unenviable position of seeking mercy from the regime that, perversely, wrongfully mandated they be merciful to trespassers while guarding the border.
[Glad you agree that it is the border guards who’re the good guys, trapped by the state and its handmaidens and hoods.–IM]