Category Archives: Law

Pardon Me, Mr. President, I Was Just Following Orders

Bush, Criminal Injustice, Homeland Security, IMMIGRATION, Iraq, Law

The White House has confirmed that President Bush is considering a request that an eastern Idaho soldier convicted of killing an unarmed Iraqi receive a pardon, the soldier’s father says.

Didn’t I tell you, in “Take this, Mr. President, For Ramos and Compean,” that a soldier shooting up civilians in Iraq has more of a shot at a pardon than Ramos and Compean, who grazed the derriere of a Mexican drug dealer?

So I did.

Sgt. Evan Vela, a 24-year-old Army sniper assigned to Fort Richardson, was convicted in February and sentenced to 10 years in prison for killing an unarmed Iraqi civilian who stumbled upon him and five other soldiers sleeping on May 11, 2007.

The president has already sent an encouraging note to Sgt. Evan.

Compean and Ramos defended a border Bush wants open.

Update III: Take This, Mr. President, For Ramos And Compean

Bush, Foreign Policy, Homeland Security, IMMIGRATION, Iraq, Justice, Law, Middle East, War

The excerpt is from my new WND column, “Take This, Mr. President, For Ramos And Compean“:

“Their names are nowhere on the list of pardons and commutations George W. Bush has issued before saying adieu. They are the brave Border-Patrol agents, Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.” …

“There was no justice, poetic or other, in the convictions of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean.”

“Had Ramos and Compean been shooting up Iraqis while defending that occupied country’s borders, Bush would be pinning purple hearts to their lapels.”

“As luck would have it, a brave Baghdadi journalist stood up to the bully. In what will go down as the high-water mark of his career, journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi lobbed a loafer at Bush for invading his country, during the president’s last official trip to that country.”

Iraqis, tens of thousands of whom were killed and millions displaced, have every reason to throw boots, baklava and even bombs at Bush. But they’ve come a long way. Shoe tossing is much better than bomb throwing.

“Speaking of significant progress, the Muslim world responded to the melee in a thoroughly American way. The man—Muntadhar—and the moment became iconic, immortalized on YouTube, and replayed over and over again around the world.”

“Even better: the shoe became a best-selling brand. …”

Read the complete column, “Take This, Mr. President, For Ramos And Compean,” on WND.

Update II (Jan. 2): “withered little cretin” aka George (Bush), according to W. Grigg. That’s about right.

Update III (Jan. 3): “The trial of the Iraqi man who threw his shoes at US President George W Bush earlier this month has been postponed. … A spokesman for Iraq’s Central Criminal Court said the decision to postpone the trial was made following an appeal by Mr Zaidi’s lawyers. A new trial date would be set later, Abdel Sattar Beyraqdar told the AFP news agency. The lesser charge would incur a maximum sentence of two years.”

Airport Animals Gone Wild

Criminal Injustice, Fascism, Homeland Security, Justice, Law, The State

Watch this scene:

This woman is doing nothing unusual. She’s hovering close to the baggage screener, overseeing his rummage through her belongings.

The fat, thuggish, affirmative appointees then zero-in on her and proceed to toss her across the room. Then they climb into her.

The lowly subject clearly angered her overlords. A snippy word, perhaps? How dare she!

In a free society NO ONE has the right to lay a hand on another absent a clear threat of physical aggression. Verbal provocation is no excuse for this kind of aggression. As I wrote in “Tasers ‘R’ Us”:

Liberty is a simple thing. It’s the unassailable right to shout, flail your arms, even verbally provoke a politician, unmolested. Tyranny is when those small things can get you assaulted, incarcerated, injured, and even killed.

Did the victim, Robin Kassner, look as though she posed a threat to anything other than her captors’ sense of omnipotence?

Of course, America is not a free country, no matter how many freedom concerts Hannity holds.

Why does the ACLU not tackle the tackling and killing of innocent Americans at airports and elsewhere?

We have:

Don’t Tase Me, Big Bro
Tasers ‘R’ Us
Lunatic Government Occupies Airports

Pardon Me, Mr. President? Et tu, Pat Robertson?

Bush, Christian Right, Crime, Criminal Injustice, Law, Morality

The 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.