Pardon Season Update

Talk about pay-for-play. Justice doesn't seem to apply to the rich who make judicious donations.

KT thanks for posting on this. OT, I got a huge belly laugh went you mentioned your kids didn't want to be interrupted on Christmas morning by anything like God. Very funny.
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I wouldn't expect a pardon for Scooter or Gonzo until 11:58 am on 1/20/09.

Haven't you heard, KT? This entire financial mess is the fault of predatory "urban" borrowers. Once liberals took away the ability of banks to redline, lenders were helpless to stop themselves from handing out loans no questions asked.
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Bush has done what he could with the TARP money to stand up for the banks, insurance companies, and hedge funds who were scammed by these ruthless borrowers.
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With this pardon, Bush put a human face on the tragedy. A poor real estate developer who was savaged by the greed and deceit of the masses.

I'm curious why what is reported to be a good proportion of Bush's pardons being for drug offenses. Any ideas?
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KT - your tamales are perfectly safe to eat if they haven't thawed. If they've been in your fridge freezer they might taste weird, but otherwise okay. This is from the USDA site on such things:
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/help/faqs_hotline_preparation/index.asp#1
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>How long is it safe to keep a turkey, or other meat or poultry product, in the freezer?
Because freezing keeps food safe almost indefinitely, recommended storage times are for quality only. Refer to the freezer storage chart at the end of Focus on Freezing, which lists optimum freezing times for best quality.'

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From Scott Horton:
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Open criminality is a cancer on democracy. It implicates all who know of the conduct and fail to act. Such compliance presents a practical crisis, in that a government that is allowed to torture will inevitably transgress other legal limits. But it also presents an existential political crisis. Many democracies have simply collapsed as the people permitted their leaders to abandon the rule of law in the face of alleged external threats. The turn to torture was rapid, for instance, in Argentina at the time of the Dirty War and in Chile after the American-directed coup against Salvador Allende. In both cases, that turn had little to do with a perceived benefit from the use of torture in interrogation. To the contrary, the very criminality of the act had a talismanic significance. It asserted the primacy of the will of the torturer. It made the claim, for all to accept or reject, that the ruler was the law. Such a claim is, of course, intolerable to democracy, which presupposes, as Thomas Paine wrote, that “the law ought to be King; and there ought to be no other.”

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Justice after Bush:
Prosecuting an outlaw administration
By Scott Horton
http://harpers.org/archive/2008/12/0082303
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"Clinton came under fire for a flurry of last-minute pardons that included fugitive financier Marc Rich,"
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It is impossible to write a story about Bush and pardons without mentioning Marc Rich.
It is Pavlovian.

The only pardons that Bush can issue that will raise my eyebrows are for people who have not yet been indicted. Once those start happening, expect the worst.

James-let's compliment Horton with a dose of that liberal cheeto eating Greenwald.
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That's exactly right. The same controversies over government lawbreaking arise over and over. And why is that? Because our political leaders keep breaking the law -- chronically and deliberately. And why do they keep doing that? Because there is no deterrent against it. Every time they get caught breaking the law, the Ronald Reagans and Ruth Marcuses of the world step in to insist that they should not be punished, that the criminal law is not for elite leaders in political office, that those involved in the noble function of ruling America are too intrinsically well-intentioned to warrant punishment even when they commit crimes, that it's more important to look forward than back.
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Every time we immunize political leaders from the consequences of their crimes, it's manipulatively justified in the name of "ensuring that it never happens again." And every time, we do exactly the opposite: we make sure it will happen again. And it does: Richard Nixon is pardoned. J. Edgar Hoover's lawbreakers are protected. The Iran-contra criminals are set free and put back into government. Lewis Libby is spared having to serve even a single day in prison despite multiple felony convictions. And now it's time to immunize even those who tortured detainees and spied on Americans in violation of numerous treaties, domestic laws, and the most basic precepts of civilized Western justice.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/?source=rss

The thing about Bush's pardon of Tousies is not just the appearance of a bribe but also the visual of pardoning a guy involved in mortgage fraud during a mortgage crisis in this country. The only thing about it is I doubt anybody is really going to make a stink about it for more than a day or two. After all he was only selling the crappy houses to teh poor blaks. Who cares about them, right?

"After all he was only selling the crappy houses to teh poor blaks. Who cares about them"
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Oh get real SG. You know full well teh poor screwed over all the MBAs and thrust the entire country in to this melt down. Happy Festivus! Now quit crying and fight your father!
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http://www.balloon-juice.com/?p=14894

Hey did you see, this?

http://www.borowitzreport.com/article.aspx?ID=6970

gysgt
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lol. By the way, CNN just released the results of their new poll on Obama. Get this, his approval numbers went UP. How's that attack ad going for you RNC?
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http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/12/24/cnn-poll-obama-transition-draws-approval-of-4-in-5-americans/#more-33485

Gunny and SG have a safe and Merry Christmas. See you after the holidays.

Andy-What makes Caroline Hussein Kennedy qualified? Merry Christmas.

Andy
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Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you and yours.

Most important link of the day. For you kids.
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http://www.noradsanta.org/

"including a rare posthumous one for a man convicted of selling B-17s in 1948 to Jewish resistance fighters in Israel"
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Ahhhh yes, 'resistance fighters'. It's interesting that we don't call Hamas 'resistance fighters'. I wonder why that is?
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Happy Holidays and Merry Xmas. The last one of an era...enjoy it.

sqr1:
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"Once liberals took away the ability of banks to redline, lenders were helpless to stop themselves from handing out loans no questions asked."
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Am I hearing this right? Is sqr1 saying that racist practices in banking (which, incidentally, I had enough money to overcome their tactics) was the bulwark protecting our economy from collapse?
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Excuse me, but sqr1 has officially taken the Ig Noble for the most inanely racist statement since the "property values" argument was used as the bulwark against which a flood of Black Americans migrating into mainstream America had to overcome.
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Christmas cheer for everyone else, but a decidely onerous Christmas pox on sqr1.
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Fry in hell, btard...

I'll modify this was a hope that sqr1 was just being totally sarcastic!
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I simply cannot see how one would state something so otherwise ridiculous. So, if you are still reading, make it clear, and I will be happy to apologize if in fact you are being facetious!

Meanwhile, you won't find lying Beltway hacks like Tumulty discussing this pardon, except perhaps to support it.

KT, LOL.

53_3
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Its pretty obvious to me it was snark. Reread the whole thing.

This is why nobody takes wingnuts seriously except other similarly stupid wingnuts. From the wingtard kattest:
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However, showing exactly where his loyalties lie, one of those pardoned was convicted of conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens:
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John Allen Aregood a/k/a Johnny (Sonny) Aregood - Riviera, Texas
Offense: Conspiracy to harbor and transport illegal aliens; 18 U.S.C. (S) 371, 8 U.S.C. (S) 1324(a)(1)(A)(ii)(iii).
Sentence: Nov. 21, 1996; Southern District of Texas; three years of probation, $1,000 fine.<blockquote<
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I don't know the particulars of the case, but someone with the same name is listed as the contact for Aregood Farms in that town here, where he and one or two other employees provide crop harvesting services

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Outraged over a case that the wingnut acknowledges he has no knowledge of just so they can bring up the border patrol guards who killed somebody, because ya know that just makes you so patriotic. BUHAHAHAHAHAHA. Great job Lou Dobbs wingnut, bravo!

sg:
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It did sound snarky to me, too, but I don't recall sqr1.
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I apologize sqr1, and I wish you a Merry Christmas too!
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Forgive me for the reaction, but sometimes maybe the snarkiness does have to be pointed out.