Matt Lewis points out that Bush's latest list of 19 pardons leaves off three major names we're looking for in the waning days of the Bush Presidency.
The two we're looking for closest, the ones who deserve it, perhaps more than any Presidential Pardon has been deserved in any of our lifetimes, are Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. Ramos and Compean are currently looking at 20 years in prison because (get this) they shot a drug dealer who was shooting at them in a cross border bust gone wrong.
As Matt puts it, this is a "no-brainer." The case itself is a terrible miscarriage of justice (the drug dealer lived, though its doubtful he deserves to), and puts a damper on our ability to enforce our southern border.
So... as the President pushes out another batch of pardons, the question has to be asked - why not Ramos and Compean? We're pardoning dead guys who helped Israel become a nation, but not two guys who help protect our own nation? (FYI: I have nothing against pardoning Charles Winters, especially since he's already moved on to the Great Weapons Depot In The Sky, and since Reagan and Clinton have already pardoned his two fellow smugglers... but I digress.)
Forcing these two agents to spend another Christmas in prison is not justice, and President Bush should be ashamed on this one. Hopefully these two are released before the end of his term, but this does ask the question - what is he waiting for?
As Matt tweets, "If Marc Rich can be pardoned..." I couldn't agree more.
***
The other name we're waiting for is Scooter Libby. Scooter doesn't deserve prison either, in my estimation, as we already know he wasn't the source of the leaks (Richard Armitage was.) Yet, he gets nailed for perjury (on an unrelated matter) and the prosecutor gets his scalp. Libby is less important to me than Ramos and Compean, simply because they were in the line of duty, and Libby is "just" a political appointee. Still, it'd be awfully nice if these three guys got out in time to celebrate a New Year...
1 comment:
I was wondering about these 2 men couldn't remember their names). I was hoping against hope that somebody in the press would pick up the story. Of course it has to be "right-wing" bloggers or broadcasters, the last remaining print source of sanity, decency and what used to be called journalism.
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