Thread: Bush fiddles; agents beaten

http://nctimes.com/articles/2007/02/15/ ... _14_07.txt


Bush fiddles; agents beaten
Feb 14, 2007
By: MARK MUSH - For The Californian

If the recent jailing of U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean doesn't infuriate you enough, how does the callous disregard of President Bush to intervene on their behalf make you feel?

If you are unaware of these two men by now, in brief, they were sentenced to up to 12 years in federal prison for -- get this -- shooting a drug smuggler. They were charged and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and violating the civil rights of the drug smuggler -- who is now suing the government. That's right; drug dealer gets millions; Border Patrol agents get 10-plus years in prison.

The vast amount of evidence that the agents' trial was a sham is in stark contrast to the evidence that the prosecution used to convict these brave agents. The bottom line is that something must be done to convince President Bush to pardon them immediately. Afterward, the Justice Department should investigate how their original trial was conducted.


Unfortunately, President Bush has turned a blind eye to their convictions and would rather see them rot in jail or worse, get killed in prison by the very same criminals Ramos and Compean helped convict. Recently Ramos was severely beaten in prison by five illegal aliens.

That President Bush is allowing these sentences to continue either makes him stupid or complicit in their wrongful arrests and convictions. Even if one or both of those are not true, the president is doing his best to damage the Border Patrol's ability to defend our borders.

If Ramos and Compean are to be used as the standard, what's a Border Patrol agent to do the next time they confront a van filled with illegal aliens or drug smugglers? Do you have any doubt that these convictions will weigh heavily in their mind as they reach for their gun?

Border Patrol agents are some of our country's most important public servants and we have seen their good work in this area for many years.

President Bush and his U.S. attorney are effectively neutering the Border Patrol with these convictions. His arrogance in seeing what happened and letting it stand is, in U.S. Rep. Dana Rohrabacher's words, "impeachable."

Our own congressman, Darrell Issa, in a written response to my queries strongly questioned "...why a drug smuggler has been given a free pass for his crimes." Issa also asked why the prosecutor used a firearms charge "of questionable appropriateness" that carried a 10-year minimum sentence.

Many other Republican congressmen are applying enormous pressure on the White House for a pardon, but President Bush, like Nero, fiddles while these agents are beaten.

Perhaps we can join the congressional efforts to persuade Bush by abandoning the Republican Party and doing so in droves. Even a lifelong Republican like me readily admits that there is something wrong with a president who doesn't recognize this major miscarriage of justice.

If tens of thousands of other Republicans protested by leaving the party, even his sycophant aides would be forced to say, "Mr. President, we're losing the base."

Maybe then Bush will get the message that the people are upset at a government that allows a drug smuggler to gain immunity from prosecution and possibly several million dollars, while two dedicated Border Patrol agents serve time in federal prison.

-- Mark Mush is a regular columnist for The Californian. He can be reached at markwmush@hotmail.com.

Bush doesn't care about his base. Bush only cares about the Mexican government can do for the Bushes. He is trying to get the Hispanic vote so that his brother can be president. The elites are trying to sponsor the elites. what he doesn't realize that unless the republican party really changes, other than RINOs, they don't want criminal aliens in the country.

Bush has a one track mind...Iraq/Iran...oil.

Bush has a mind??????
That's news to me.

31scout wrote:

Bush has a mind??????
That's news to me