Bush Commutes Sentences of Two Border Agents Convicted of Shooting Drug Dealer

AP ^ | 1-19-09 | DEB RIECHMANN

[luvadavi]

I agree. He waited till the last minute, perhaps heard someone say, "You'll have this on your record, Mr. Prez--the people won't forget it." But he couldn't bring himself to absolve them, so at least they could make a decent living and own guns to protect themselves & families. This is small-minded, cheap-shot stuff , but he has behaved this way toward the American people in general at various times when we disagreed with him--the Dubai ports thing comes to mind. I have never been so disappointed in a President as with him, liked him so much in his first year.

Glad anyway that these two poor guys are or will be free and I feel good for their families. Just a few days ago there was a letter--think on WND--by Jose Compean, to all of us in thanks for our efforts to win their freedom. It was so sad.

[RepublitarianRoger2]

Agreed.

[deport]

Try the following regarding federal:

http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa081402a.htm

In Texas they have to get clearance from a court if I remember correctly. They can restore their voting rights after serving their sentence, fines, and supervised release time.

[a fool in paradise]

A day late and a dollar short. Scooter Libby didn’t wait until January 19th.

Bush pardoned dope smugglers (one rapper had 31 pounds of liquid cocaine on him) before these 2 agents.

[ReignOfError]

As felons, they cannot run for office.

There is no federal law that says so. There might be laws in some states, but I'm not aware of them.

[hunter112]

We have a Rat controlled nation because of him and HIS GOP.

Agreed. If he had asked Cheney to step down so that the GOP could groom a worthy successor, we would not have been stuck with McLame as our nominee. It's the duty of a successful President to ensure the continuation of his legacy. I could forgive GWB for forgetting that, if it had not happened to his own father.

I can see holding off on the commutation until after the election, but the day after, they should have been sprung free. As it stands, they won't get out for a little while, no doubt they've been terrorized in prison by criminals. I just hope that the corrections officers have been looking out after them.

Letting the Fed put the pedal to the metal on interest rates during the first term was the cause of the present financial difficulty. Not keeping an eye on the true status of the economy was the failing that undid Bush's legacy in at least the near term.

[adlucem]

Let my people go!

[ConfidentConservative]

Pouring out the half full cup?

Or has it always been empty?

Guess you will be very happy with a Democrat for president these next four years.

Reading only what your want? I SAID there were some things I didn’t like about what President Bush did. I just didn’t dump every thing in the trash because I didn’t like some things.

I can name things that Reagan did too that I DID NOT like.
Equally I didn’t “empty the glass” then either.

But as I noted, some only want to remember OR read what they want and leave the rest.

[CottonBall]

It’s about time.

At least Bush will leave office having done the right thing (on this issue).

[screaminsunshine]

Beat Obama to the punch.

[CottonBall]

Should have been a pardon. Typical Bush, minimal loyalty to the guy (wrongly put) in jail and a finger in the eye of those that "brung him to the dance".

What does commuting the sentences mean vs. a pardon?

[Iron Munro]

And rather than grant a full pardon, he granted a commutation

WHERE IS THE COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATIVE???

To me the most petty aspect of the president's action is the fact that he didn't commute their sentence to time served so they could be released immediately.

They won't be released until March 20 and they still have to serve three-year terms of supervised release and they still have to pay the fines that were a part of their sentences.

The president just couldn't bring himself to do the 100% right thing for these two persecuted men. Some compassion.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j6mH44rWD9yyZf_AZ7YxQDVFL7WwD95QGVU80

"Under the terms of Bush's commutation, their prison sentences will expire on March 20, but their three-year terms of supervised release and the fines will remain intact."

"During his presidency, Bush has granted a total of 189 pardons and 11 commutations. That's fewer than half as many as Presidents Bill Clinton or Ronald Reagan issued during their two-term tenures. Bush technically has until noon on Tuesday when President-elect Barack Obama is sworn into office to exercise his executive pardon authority, but presidential advisers said no more were forthcoming."

Clinton issued a total of 457 pardons or commutations in eight years in office. Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, issued 77 in four years. Reagan issued 406 in eight years, and President Jimmy Carter issued 563 in four years. Since World War II, the largest number of pardons and commutations — 2,031 — came from President Harry Truman, who served 82 days short of eight years.

[a fool in paradise]

On the contrary. GW Bush was very loyal... to his friend Johnny Sutton who engaged in Nifongism in this case to see that these men were convicted and that the jury was denied basic information (such as that the star witness, the man who’d been shot, had violated his own immunity agreement when he was caught yet AGAIN smuggling dope into the country).

[mkjessup]

The reason we now are inaugurating Obama is because of George W. Bush. Let no one forget that. The inane "change" mantra was in fact change of presidents. So all Obama had to run on was that the incumbent was hated. And it resonated well enough to be a winning platform.

Why then was Bush disliked? Because he was too liberal to the extent that he appeared to hate conservatives and conservative principles, in the classic way that Eastern patrician Republican-RINOs hate people like Sarah Palin and real conservatives such as those who write on this site. This made the conservative base mad... (the same base that stayed home and implicitly elected Obama).

But that is not all-- He came across as petty, preening, passive-agressive, and condescending (which pissed everyone off).

A perfect example of this is the fact that he let this Ramos thing go on for so long. There are many other such cases which really infuriated me, for years: He also let Wuterich and the Hadditha Marines hang in the breeze for years (after they had day after day put themselves in extraordinary and excessive danger to try to engage the enemy according to his ridiculous Viet-nam type rules of engagement). He also let that female soldier get eviscerated because of the stupid but harmless fraternity pranks she participated in at that prison.

These instances were signs of Bush's spinelessness, pettiness, bitchiness, and lack of integrity.

Why do I say that? Because war is extremely messy, and when you put young people into it to do your dirty work as Commander-in-chief, according to ass-hat stupid PC rules of engagement, you should stand by them unless they are doing something really, really wrong. President Bush never stood by them.

Oh, yeah, I just remembered Rummy. That really angered me and many others.

He just cut them loose, when he could have instantly protected them by making a few phone calls as C-in-C.

And don't forget former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Marine General Peter Pace, a patriot's patriot, who became 'politically incorrect' in the view of the Senate, and rather than back him up and fight for another term as Chairman, GWB sent word that it was time for General Pace to retire. That was just cowardice.

He also naively (fecklessly is perhaps a better word) let the press set his agenda, instead of him setting THEIR agenda, as he should have done as a wartime President.

The President overall performed solidly in some things, but he screwed up in many ways: He disregarded his duty to the Constitution: maintaining porous borders, starting ridiculous LBJ type entitlements such as universal prescription coverage

Please let's not forget that massive and useless boondoggle aka "No Child Left Behind"

, bailing out all the Wall Street executives, who were engaged in the mortgage scandal and took down our financial system, (by the way, notice how aggressively they are being pursued by 43's DOJ), and developing all the stealth One-World crap like the Mexican NAFTA highway that he and his class are so hell-bent on executing.

So please, let's not talk about BDS on this thread, because there are a lot of very solid reasons why I and many, many others are pleased not to have to defend this President any longer.

And if you think I am full of it, just remember that it was President Bush 43 that got us Obama, in exactly the same way President Bush 41 got us eight long years of Clinton.

As they would say in the hood?

WORD!

[rodguy911]

thanks interesting.

[Czar]

"To me the most petty aspect of the president's action is the fact that he didn't commute their sentence to time served so they could be released immediately."

Couldn't agree more. A petulent slap in the face of two guys who didn't deserve such treatment. Even worse, Bush demonstrated no empathy whatever for the families who have suffered more than enough.

So much for "compassionate conservatism".

[CardCarryingMember.VastRightWC]

Although he should've done this immediately

Agreed. But I can understand why he waited until the last minute. Because if he had commuted their sentences months or years ago, there would have been a second campaign launched to pressure him to change the commutes to pardons.

[RJL]

The embarrassment is your knee-jerk unwillingness to consider the broader scope and complexities of this case and your eagerness to lash out at Bush.

I know this Johnny Sutton persecution very well.

Did you ever support W?

That's why it's such an embarrassment, I was a "broken glass Republican" for Bush and then he turned out to be such a poor president.

[hinckley buzzard]

It's all typical Bush lipservice BS. If commutation is the right thing to do now, then it was the right thing to do shortly after the fact. Did he just "get around to it" now? Is that why he waited till his last day? Or is he just a smug self-righteous prig who finally, grudgingly, relented.

[ichabod1]

He never let Scooter go to jail - he commuted him right after his sentencing. That was one of the problems — the guy that was in the administration got a get out of jail free card, but these frontline grunt fellows got to spend a couple of years in prison, where they are targets, and have generally been treated like Shiite.

I’m pretty sure they have been held for political reasons, and to keep them silent, so I pray they get out safe, and that they speak out as soon as they’re released.

I’m pretty sure they’re going to be OK careerwise. There is no shortage of people who would be willing to help these guys, as many people know the truth.