ESTÚPIDO SAVANNAH - Sat Dec 27 2008 15:00:53
Oh the ignorance!
From the LTTE:
It is one thing for President Bush to pardon a Thanksgiving turkey, but to pardon so many who have caused us harm would no doubt show the world and countless millions within our own country that this administration cares nothing about decency and justice.
Uh…Pay attention much?
Which of the President’s pardons are you talking about?
Could it be Sonny Aregood who was convicted and served a three year sentence for bringing Mexican’s over the border in 1996?
Maybe it was Carl E. Cantrell busted in 1967 for moonshining?
I bet she is talking about George Glenn, he truly “caused us harm” when he took that $50 bribe back in 1956!
So far President Bush has pardoned 171 people. Most of them are drug convicts or were found guilty of violating some obscure US government regulation. (Leslie O. Collier accidentally killed two eagles with pesticide-laced ground beef that he used in an effort to kill coyotes that were killing a dwindling wild turkey population.) The one thing they all have in common is that they all served their full sentences for the crimes.
As the New York Times put it:
“…in recent history, the list of those who have received pardons has been dominated less by convicts with connections to the upper echelons of American power than by people of modest means in the heartland — an odometer cheat from Mississippi; a bootlegger from Tennessee… …whose relatively minor crimes ultimately led them to be labeled felons.”
A commutation reduces a convict's prison term, but the conviction remains on the person's record. A pardon, however, wipes the slate clean by erasing the record of the conviction.
Here is how recent Presidents wielded this power to pardon:
Carter – 534 pardons, 29 commuted in 4 years
Reagan – 393 pardons, 13 commuted in 8 years
Bush I – 74 pardons, 3 commuted in 4 years
Clinton – 396 pardons, 61 commuted in 8 years
Bush II – 171 pardons, 8 commuted in 8 years
Everyone is still waiting for Bush to pardon some real criminals, like Marc Rich or Oscar Collazo or Tokyo Rose or Jimmy Hoffa or Dick Cheney.
I don’t know who is to blame for our letter writer’s ignorance on this matter. The most likely culprit is the multi-media morons who talk endlessly about a topic without giving any actual information.
In the case of the hundreds of people who will read her letter and will be poisoned by the false claims, the blame lies squarely at the feet of the Savannah Morning News who proves daily they willingly print lies.
