Today’s San Francisco Chronicle’s story about Senator Diane Feinstein’s Senate hearing along with (R) Sen John Cornyn of TX seeking clemency for Border Patrol agents Compean and Ramos points out her concurrence with those of us who feel the punishment handed out to these two men does not fit the crime.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/07/22/MNGPCR4V2M1.DTL&type=politics
Earlier this month I posted about President Bush’s claim that he felt the punishment handed down against “Scooter” Libby was “excessive.”
My plea is for our president to use the same yardstick and issue the same “compassionate Conservative” attitude to these two men who are currently serving 11 and 13 years for shooting Aldrete-Davila, a drug dealer, in the buttocks.
It’s beyond comprehension that we would bring a foreign drug dealer back into the states, grant him immunity, solely to have him testify against these two individuals. Was there an agreement with the Mexican government to take this action? What about our prior efforts to have Mexico send back those murderers who kill US citizens yet their extradition is blocked unless we take the death penalty off the table. What about alleged killer, rapist and child molester Miguel Loza whom the Mexican Supreme Court refused to extradite back to the U.S.? Where is the balance in these examples? Our allegiance must be to the USA not a foreign nation.
The mandatory minimum sentencing laws, enacted by Congress, is why those two ex-border patrol agents are in jail. why doesn’t Senator Feinstein fix the law congress passed?
“The most common mandatory sentences are for five and 10 years, and are based on the weight of the drug or the PRESENCE OF A FIREARM. These laws prevent judges from considering other relevant factors, such as the defendant’s role in the offense or likelihood of committing a future offense.” (cut and paste)
The President can commute criminal sentences, but Congress can fix, and should fix the bad laws they and their predecessors created.
Link to a group trying to get the law fixed.
http://www.famm.org/Default.aspx
http://www.famm.org/ExploreSentencing/FederalSentencing.aspx
You left out some facts Larry. They shot an unarmed man. They lied about the facts of the case to investigators. They tried to cover up evidence in the case. No one in the US is above the law. Not even these guys.
Larry,
I see you’re a law an order conservative until it is someone you feel is being punished unfairly.
Hey!
Where is the “Rule of Law”?
Oh, that’s right, it went out the window when Bush was selected to be our president. oops, my bad.
Cook. Thank you for the links. I will check them out.
Sean. “Punished unfairly?”
It sounds as if you agreed with the Nation of Mexico when they stonewalled extradiction of the man who killed LA Deputy March. Bringing that cop killer back to the states, where he was recently sentenced, took a full court press by Americans seeking justice.
My illustration was to point out president Bush’s compassion for Scooter Libby that DEM Senator Feinstein is questioning in terms of consistency with Compean and Ramos’s punishment.
I am not promoting “sentencing light” for criminals.
Dan.
While we both have read about the prosecutors reports perhaps you can explain why we granted a known drug dealer immunity from prosecution to have him return to the US to testify against these two agents?
I seem to recall reading that we are spending billions of taxpayer dollars in the war against drugs.
Does this picture make any sense to you?
There is more to this story that is above my pay grade.
MMMMMMmmmmm,
just as I thought, no response from LG. Silence speaks volumes.
The USA is also spending many TRILLIONS of dollars on the war on terror, yet, does not extradite known terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a cuban airliner en route from Venezuela to Cuba with 73 poeple on board that were all killed. Rather the Bush admin. only charges him with illegal entry into the USA rather than carry out a trial for terrorism, much less extradite him.
I ask you again, where is “The Rule of Law”?
Or is it that the Bush admin. deemed that his punishment would be “too harsh” as in the case of Scooter Libby?
BTW, there is no consistency from the Bush admin, but you reeps can blame it on B. Clinton, right?
Yup,
No one here but us, chickens…
CQT 96.
While I probably spend around eight hours a day on this keyboard there are non blog tasks in my life. No, I am not dodging your comments.
As to extraditing “terrorist Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a cuban airliner en route from Venezuela to Cuba with 73 poeple on board that were all killed.” As I have not followed the referenced airliner bombing I will look into your comment and give you an answer.I do not give the Bush administration passes. If you follow my many reports, and responses to the readers, my holding people accountable, even within my own party, should jump off the page.
Help me out here. Can you show us one example where I took Bill Clinton to task in any of my posts? The closest would be when another raised the personal life of some Republicans and I said not to go there.
CQT 96.
Thanks for my Central American (and CIA) history lesson. Let’s go back to where it all began with the blundered Bay of Pigs under JFK’s watch. Since that time we have had 9 presidents of which four were Dem’s and five were Reep’s. Or, using the 1976 bombing of the Cubana Airlines DC-8 near Barbados by Cuban exiles/CIA covert operatives we can reduce the numbers by eliminating presidents JFK, LBJ and Nixon.
So let’s set aside who was responsible and not engage in finger pointing.
I have just reviewed a few SECRET CIA documents which are now public record and suggest the following.
For starters neither you nor I will ever know how much CIA covert action has taken place over the past few decades. In this instance
Luis Posada Carriles, a Venezuelan citizen and Cuban exile, whom you mention, operated an industrial security firm. Or should I guess that this was a front for his activities. He is not mentioned in any of the 1975 terrorist activities that took place in the Miami area nor by president Fidel Castro in his Oct 15th speech quoting “well informed Venezuelan sources” to name another CIA agent/operative. Posada was not in the report which I read.
Do you have evidence to back up your assertion that Posada is in US government custody and that we have rejected a requested extradiction? If so, that may be part two of my reply.