Obama issues first pardons (nine of them)

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

Another first from President Obama -- his first pardons.

At first glance, none appears to be controversial.

"The President was moved by the strength of the applicants' post-conviction efforts at atonement, as well as their superior citizenship and individual achievements in the years since their convictions," said a statement from White House spokesman Reid Cherlin.

Read more: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2010/12/obama-issues-first-pardons/1?loc=interstitialskip

[texastoast]

1. I see Leonard Peltier is not among them

What a disappointment.

[NightWatcher]

2. nope, just a handful of coke monkeys

[Taverner]

4. I was gonna say

But I doubt Peltier will ever see justice.

Too many angry cops with a hard-on for violence, too many impressionable bags, too much bull shit

[onehandle]

3. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Ashcroft, Gonzales... Who else? nt

[laconicsax]

8. The funny thing about that...

Accepting a pardon means that you admit to committing the crime.

[Frisbee]

5. "At first glance, none appears to be controversial"

No, but Rush along with Billo, Beck and the rest of the a$$holes at Faux will make them controversial.

[onenote]

6. right on schedule

A couple of weeks ago some folks were complaining that Obama hadn't pardoned anyone yet and I pointed out that both Bush 2 and Clinton didn't issue their first pardons until last few weeks of their second year in office.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=433&topic_id=533192#533320

[Igel]

7. It was widely reported.

Stating the obvious is usually a good thing, however.

The rest of the obvious is two trends: (1) Cross-party, fewer pardons are being granted and those that are granted are granted later; (2) (R) grant fewer pardons than (D) presidents, and tend to so later.

Obama's later than Clinton, but patterns like *. So either he's continuing the trend, and the trend's accelerating; or he's more (R)-like in this regard, which is to say, more concerned with appearing to be weak on crime and less willing to officially forgive crimes even though the sentences have been served.

(The last bit is really important: Few pardons in recent terms have been to those who were still serving their sentences; the pardon restores their rights and records but doesn't mitigate their punishment for the crime. Note that the last of these 9 to even be on probation wrapped up his formal sentence in 2003. The earliest had two years probation as his sentence, and probation ended in 1960. This is one reason that the Marc Rich pardon was notable: He hadn't even started his sentence, much less finish his sentence years before the pardon. Most are also fairly small potatoes.)

[rug]

9. This one showed fearlessness:

Ronald Lee Foster - Beaver Falls, Pa.

Offense: Mutilation of coins. Sentence: Oct. 4, 1963; Eastern District of North Carolina; one year of probation and $20 fine.

[struggle4progress]

17. ... He and a friend cut pennies down to the size of dimes to fool vending machines in the barracks

at Camp Lejeune, N.C. A civilian judge fined him $20 and sentenced him to a year of probation, part of which he spent at war ...
Beaver Falls vet given pardon
By Mike Wereschagin
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 4, 2010
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/s_712213.html

[Politicub]

10. I assume the GOP gave him permission

Otherwise, this would have never happened.

[struggle4progress]

11. ... James Banks was working at Hill Air Force Base in 1972 when he says he was busted for stealing

plywood and nails from a construction site ... “I didn’t lose my job over it ... I got two days without pay ...”
President pardons Utah man after 38 years
BY ROBERT GEHRKE
The Salt Lake Tribune
Published Dec 3, 2010 05:48PM
Updated 2 hours ago
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/home/50802883-76/banks-sentenced-offense-pardons.html.csp

[struggle4progress]

12. ... Russell James Dixon got two years probation when he was caught making liquor illegally five

decades ago ... Roxane Kay Hettinger of Powder Springs ... was sentenced in 1986 to 30 days in jail and three years probation for conspiracy to distribute cocaine ...
2 Georgia residents among 9 pardoned by Obama
By KATE BRUMBACK - Associated Press
http://www.macon.com/2010/12/03/1363960/2-georgia-residents-among-9-pardoned.html

[struggle4progress]

13. ... Laurens Dorsey, 85 ... ran an import-export firm when he made false

statements to the FDA in an attempt to avoid paying his fair share of taxes. He was sentenced in 1998 to five years’ probation and $71,000 in restitution ...
President Obama pardons DeWitt man
Published: Friday, December 03, 2010, 5:31 PM
Updated: Friday, December 03, 2010, 6:19 PM
Douglass Dowty / The Post-Standard
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/12/president_obama_pardons_dewitt.html

[sabrina 1]

18. Geithner was a tax cheat also but never got any probation or

jail time. In fact, he got a job running the economy, paid out of tax-payer dollars, and strategically placed to help his former Goldman Sachs colleagues get away with their economic crimes against this country.

Some guy in DeWitt gets five years probation and a hugh fine. Anyone who thinks that the same laws apply to everyone in this country is simply blind.

[struggle4progress]

14. ... Floretta Leavy ... was sentenced in federal court in Kansas in October 1984 to one year and one

day in prison and three years of "special parole." Her offenses: distribution of cocaine; conspiracy to distribute cocaine; possession of marijuana with intent to distribute; and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute ...
Rockford woman among Obama's first pardons
December 3, 2010 3:11 PM
http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2010/12/rockford-woman-among-obamas-first-pardons.html

[struggle4progress]

15. ... Timothy James Gallagher, of Navasota, was convicted of possession with the intent to deliver

cocaine in Arizona and was sentenced to probation in 1982 ... Scoey Lathaniel Morris, of Crosby, was convicted of  passing counterfeit bills. He was sentenced in 1999 to serve probation and pay restitution ...
Two Texans Among 9 Obama Pardoned
by Brandi Grissom

December 3, 2010
http://www.texastribune.org/texas-newspaper/texas-news/two-texans-among-9-obama-pardoned/

... the indictment charged that the conspirators obtained large quantities of cocaine from Florida and California and redistributed it to co-conspirators in Arizona, Iowa, and Kansas. The appellants, together with Timothy Gallagher, William Gallagher's brother, were among those named as retail customers in the Phoenix area who purchased cocaine for redistribution. Count 54 charged Flick, aided and abetted by William Gallagher, with possession with intent to distribute cocaine. Flick was acquitted on both the conspiracy and substantive counts. Gallagher was acquitted on the substantive count and convicted on the conspiracy count ...
Navasota man among Obama's first pardons of his administration
http://www.navasotaexaminer.com/news/article_840e0008-ff2f-11df-a31d-001cc4c03286.html

... Scoey Lathaniel Morris of Crosby, Tex. ... was sentenced to three years’ probation and restitution of $1,200 for passing counterfeit bills in 1999 ...
In a First for Obama, Nine Pardons Are Granted
By CHARLIE SAVAGE
Published: December 3, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/04/us/politics/04pardon.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss

[struggle4progress]

16. ... Edgar Leopold Kranz Jr., of Minot, N.D. ... received 24 months of confinement and a pay

reduction for cocaine use, adultery and bouncing checks ... No telephone listing could be found Friday for Kranz, and Minot police said they knew nothing about his background. St. Shawn Wegner said that based on the charges, it could be a military case ...
Presidential pardon list includes Minot man
Posted: Friday, December 3, 2010 7:28 pm
http://www.bismarcktribune.com/news/state-and-regional/article_8a18c192-ff46-11df-8f8d-001cc4c002e0.html