Bush begins pardons with Southeast Missouri farmer
Bush
President George W. Bush has already begun the tradition of granting pardons on the way out of Washington.
Today, the Justice Department announced the first batch, including a Southeast Missouri farmer who admitted causing the death of several bald eagles.
Leslie Owen Collier of Charleston, Mo. pleaded guilty in Cape Girardeau federal court 13 years ago to unlawful use of a pesticide and violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.
Collier was guarding against coyotes on land he was farming near the Bootheel, using hamburger meat laced with the pesticide Furadan to target the animals.
However, the tainted meat was also consumed by several birds — a red tailed hawk, a great horned owl, and and three bald eagles, which are protected under federal law.
Collier was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to pay $10,000 restitution. Though he won’t get the money back, Collier’s record has now been wiped clean of the charges by the White House.
Bush also granted leniency to Grammy-award winning rapper and music producer John Edward Forte — caught at a New Jersey airport with two suitcases full of cocaine — and James Russell Harris, a former Detroit cop also linked to drug trafficking.
Also today, Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin said he is considering asking Bush to commute the prison sentence of former Gov. George Ryan, who is serving six and a half years on racketeering and other charges.
He might begin with a Missouri farmer, but he will end with:
Abramhof, Ney, Cunningham, Libby, Ted Stevens, Frist, Fletcher, Allbaugh, Taft, Tobin, Kjellander, Wilkes, Secchia, etc., etc,…..and about 200 Wall Street investment bankers and hedge fund managers….
It’s just amazing me that a Newspaper continually misspells words - like in this article - hamburger “meet” - come on now, even my 2nd grade granddaughter knows the difference between meat and meet. Amazing.
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And then Bush is going to pardon FALN terrorists, fugitive financier Marc Rich, former Weather Underground terrorists, and then … huh, what?
They were already released? Never mind.
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It amazes me that people would post about a typo in a column, when a good number of these posts appear to be written by 3rd graders.
Why would anyone pardon a person caught with two suitcases full of cocaine? No doubt in the guilt there.
How one man can overturn what a 12 person jury decided is just wrong……
Something about this pardon business just doesn’t seem right to me, it doesn’t seem like the true American Way, oh wait a minute, it is exactly how the American Way works. Do whatever it is you want there are no consequences. (see current economic crisis and golden parachutes)
Bush pardons a man for killing bald eagles. Any symbolism there?
Ms. Richardson: Thank you for pointing out the error. We’ve corrected the typo.
Wait, how does the president decide who to pardon? Is there some lobby for criminals looking for a get-out-of-jail-free card? Do they have lawyers looking at this stuff? It seems to me that he is just picking names out of a hat. What do these people have in common that merits a pardon?