Who ARE these people Bush is pardoning?

[Union Thug]

So, maybe I'm just not paying attention, but who are these people that Bush recently pardoned? Why were they pardoned? Why is Bush interested in them?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34484-2004Jul7.html

WASHINGTON - President Bush has issued full pardons to two men convicted in separate fraud cases in Wisconsin and Oklahoma....
...Anthony John Curreri, of West Bend, Wis. Sentenced to three years' probation for mail fraud in March 1976.
...Craven Wilford McLemore, of Gracemont, Okla. Served six months in prison and 18 months probation and fined $10,000 in February 1983 for fraud conspiracy conviction

[Dookus]

1. hrmm...

Google only turned up the story on their pardons. But I'm sure they're good, upstanding white folk.

[rfranklin]

3. Perhaps you should check...

donations to the RNC?

And I'm sure they're much better people than Marc Rich.

[baby_bear]

2. "Craven" McLemore?

I guess fraud conspiracy is pretty cowardly, at that.

s_m

[NNadir]

4. Well, Bush would be expected to have sympathy for frauds.

Ralph Nader should be comforted. If Ralph has his way and Bush wins and Ralph is arrested for his life of fraud, he's very unlikely to serve much time.

[calimary]

5. Just shoring up his base.

[Don_G]

6. Define "Fraud" To The GOP

And I'm certain Google and Drudge can come up with more answers than I ever thought about.

[tkmorris]

7. Am I the only pardon hater here?

I really don't see any compelling reason for these to exist anymore. What purpose do they serve?

[bigbillhaywood]

9. Hey, maybe someday we'll get a President who pardons Leonard

Peltier. Nice avatar, by the way.

On edit: Though I doubt a Democratic president would have the balls or principle to do it, except for maybe Kucinich.

[unblock]

10. disagree

the right of pardon is an important safeguard against overzealous prosectution, bad laws, unfair trials, and other miscarriages of justice.

it's one of our fundamental checks and balances.

i agree that it is subject to abuse, but it's better than not having it at all.

[unblock]

8. just an interesting connect-the-dots:

combine presidential pardons with disenfranchising felons and you get an unreviewable right of the president to decide who votes and who doesn't.

bush could, perfectly legally, pardon all the cuban felons in florida so that they could vote, but pardon no black felons in florida. to be vaguely politically palatable, they might make sure that all the pardons go to ex-felons with clean records for at least, say, 5 years, and throw in a token black or two to have a fig leaf to hide behind.

for all we know, this is what these pardons are all about.

this goes back to a major point of mine, which is that the government should NOT have the right to disenfranchise ANYONE.

[Senior citizen]

11. Who are they? Why them?

Edit: oops, no "n" in digs...


There has got to be more to the story. I hope a good investigative reporter digs into it.

[Zorra]

12. Here's a start

Mclemore

He was convicted in federal court in Oklahoma of conspiracy to defraud the United States and Caddo County, Okla., and was sentenced to two years in prison. He has served six months in prison and 18 months on probation. He was also sentenced to a $10,000 fine.

http://feeds.bignewsnetwork.com/?sid=7e73c4c8d003bb2c

[lostnfound]

13. All that comes up in Namebase for Curreri is NACLA --

Namebase.org has something on Curreri..references all tie back to a publication by NACLA.

North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA), 475 Riverside Drive, Suite 454, New York NY 10115, Tel: [phone].
The University - Military - Police Complex: A Directory and Related Documents. 1970. 88 pages.
NACLA began in 1966 and quickly became one of the most important research organizations to emerge out of the U.S. student movement. Through the mid-seventies their publications concentrated on the role of U.S. corporations and foreign policy in Latin America, with special emphasis on U.S. universities, development policy, police training, and CIA covert activities. Reports were well-researched, with more facts than analysis.

In the sixties students were concerned about defense and law enforcement contracting, and its influence on academia. Today our universities still sell to the highest bidder. This report contains hundreds of faculty names collected from lists of think tank directors and Defense Department contract summaries.

[Zorra]

14. And a little more:

Bush pardons former county commissioner
7/8/2004
President Bush issued a full pardon Wednesday to a Gracemont man who was convicted of fraud in the county commissioner corruption scandal in the 1980s

http://www.tulsaworld.com/SiteSearchRESULTS.asp

[Zorra]

15. There's oil in Caddo County but don't know if it's relevant.

Anadarko Basin , W central Okla. including all parts of Caddo, Washita, Beckham, Roger Mills, Ellis, Woodward, Dewey, Blaine, Canadian, Custer, McCain, Garvin, Stephens, and Comanche cos. A subsurface basin just to the N of the Wichita Mtns. An area of significant oil and natural-gas reserves, up to 30,000ft/9,100 m deep.

http://reference.allrefer.com/gazetteer/A/A04662-anadarko-basin.html

The Eakley-Weatherford Field is located in western Oklahoma in Caddo and Custer Counties within the Anadarko Basin . Productive intervals include the Skinner, Red Fork, and Morrow producing sands ranging at depths of 10,000 feet to 13,000 feet. The deeper Springer series sands are also productive in the area at depths of approximately 15,000 feet. Interests in the Field were acquired as part of the Bravo acquisition. The Company plans to drill approximately six wells in the area during 2003 while continuing its evaluation of the acreage position. Various wells in the Field exhibit productive behind pipe intervals that will eventually be exploited.

http://www.patinaoil.com/BackgroundMidcontinent.html

[Zorra]

16. UH-OH: Harken and Bu$h:

My tin foil hat is officially on.

But that deal still left Harken with crushing debt. At the July 1990 board meeting, Mr. Bush and the other directors decided to "establish a 'joint venture' " with Harvard Management's venture-capital arm, Aeneas Venture Corp., the minutes say. At the next month's meeting, Harken President Mikel Faulkner laid out a proposal to form a partnership with Aeneas that would take on much of Harken's debt, moving it off the balance sheet. The proposal also provided Harken with desperately needed cash, in the form of fees to manage the new entity. "After discussion, upon motion being made by Mr. Bush," the minutes say, the board unanimously agreed to open negotiations with Harvard.

A partnership deal was struck shortly thereafter. Harken contributed $20 million in debt and liabilities, plus a group of poorly performing oil-drilling assets valued at $26 million -- many of them in Oklahoma's Anadarko basin -- for a net of $6 million. Harvard's Aeneas contributed $64.5 million of its drilling assets, 91% of the investment, but agreed to accept just 84% of the so-called Harken Anadarko Partnership's earnings.

http://foi.missouri.edu/usenergypolicies/harvardharkenwsj.html

[Zorra]

17. A little more

New Evidence Regarding Improper Financial Manoeuvres at Harken Energy During the Bush Era
A HARVARDWATCH MEMO

October, 2002

BUSH, HARKEN, AND HARVARD: THE PARTNERSHIP

• Bush served as a director of Harken from October, 1986, when Harken bought his failing oil company, until his resignation in October, 1993. He sat on Harken's audit committee from the 1980s until he resigned, was paid up to $120,000 a year as a consultant, and received a company loan of over $180,000 in order to buy Harken stock

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/WO0210/S00082.htm

[Zorra]

18. Harken apparently had operations in Oklahoma in1986-87.

The article pointed out that back in 1986, "a little-known oil company
called Harken Energy Corporation of Dallas, Texas, merged with another
firm, Spectrum 7 Exploration Corporation". Spectrum was owned by none other
than George Bush Jr, the son of the then-Vice President. Under the merger,
George Jr became a director, stockholder and $120,000-a-year consultant to
Harken.

Harken's operations at that time were based mainly in Louisiana, Oklahoma
and Texas and brought in revenues of around $8 million a year. Two years
later, in 1988, Bush Sr was elected President and the following year
Harken's annual revenue was $1.1 "billion". These two facts are of course
unconnected.

http://www.cpa.org.au/garchve3/1039cult.html