JAK---
Coggins really doesn't have much credibility in attacking sources, given that his number one source for news is frontpagemag.com. Sure, he'll tell you that it routinely publishes "top notch" folks such as Daniel Pipes, but do you think he'll also tell you that it is a regular forum for Ann Coulter?
Here is Coulter's bio:
Coulter is the legal correspondent for Human Events and writes a popular syndicated column for Universal Press Syndicate. She is a frequent guest on many TV shows, including Hannity and Colmes, Wolf Blitzer Reports, At Large With Geraldo Rivera, Scarborough Country, HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, The O'Reilly Factor, Good Morning America and has been profiled in numerous publications, including TV Guide, the Guardian (UK), the New York Observer, National Journal, Harper's Bazaar, and Elle magazine, among others. She was named one of the top 100 Public Intellectuals by federal judge Richard Posner in 2001.
Coulter clerked for the Honorable Pasco Bowman II of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and was an attorney in the Department of Justice Honors Program for outstanding law school graduates.
After practicing law in private practice in New York City, Coulter worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee, where she handled crime and immigration issues for Senator Spencer Abraham of Michigan. From there, she became a litigator with the Center For Individual Rights in Washington, DC, a public interest law firm dedicated to the defense of individual rights with particular emphasis on freedom of speech, civil rights, and the free exercise of religion.
A Connecticut native, Coulter graduated with honors from Cornell University School of Arts & Sciences, and received her J.D. from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an editor of The Michigan Law Review.
Ann Coulter is smart as a whip, successful, and a graduate of two prestigious schools. She has made her name as a polemicist, not a Buckley type political philosopher who approaches things in a subdued, philosophical way. She has made her name as a polemicist, and heaven knows, after several decades of smarm, sanctimony, defamation, and bigotry from a Left that had a total testicle clamp on the institutions that create, disseminate, and interpret information, she has been a welcome and entertaining respite. You see, for most of my life, conservatives were supposed to step back when liberals walked by and say "yes sir" and "no sir" when speaking to them. They got to insult, impugn, and slander us, but we weren't supposed to sas back to our moral and intellectual betters. Then came Rush, and with him Paul Shanklin. Then Ann.
Now we were making sport of the Left, and the Left went Ape poop. The conservatives were uppity. I don't read Ann much because I'm really not into her style (although, her savage lampooning of the Left is hilarious precisely because of the truth it contains), but I have no problem with her.
Or that its editor, David Horowitz, is a former Marxist flip-flopper who once worked with the Black Panthers? (This website gets cited by Coggins more than any other source, so I have to believe that he peruses it on a more or less daily basis.)
This is such classic Scratch that I just cannot let this opportunity pass. You see, to Scratch, Horowitz's major sin is that
he is no longer a communist. He left his revolutionary socialist ideology and his naïve infatuation with ideologically glorified street thugs and became a classical liberal-a conservative. Scratch apparently thinks he should have stayed in a movement dedicated to the overthrow of the Constitution and Declaration and the imposition of a collectivist police state upon American society. Well,
anything but a Reagan Republican.
And dig this:
Quote:
On January 1, 2007, FrontPage Magazine named Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean its "People Of The Year - 2006". The two United States Border Patrol agents shot drug smuggler Osvaldo Aldrete-Davila near the US-Mexico border. They had been convicted of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, violating the civil rights of an illegal alien, and obstruction of justice “for not reporting that their weapons had been fired”. They had been sentenced to 11 years and 1 day and 12 years imprisonment, respectively, and were subsequently incarcerated. FrontPage Magazine deemed them guilty only of "bureaucratic infractions"; "these men have lost their money, their reputations, and (perhaps soon) their freedom trying to protect our nation. For that, they deserve our thanks".
FPM's 2003 "Man of the Year" was Col. Allen B. West, former commander of the 20th Field Artillery Regiment, 2nd Battalion, 4th Infantry Division, who had been punished with a $5,000 fine and allowed to retire only as a Lieutenant Colonel after being charged with mistreatment of an Iraqi prisoner.
(from the wiki entry on frontpagemag)
Boy, these sure do seem like some nice folks!
Scratch is only a liar on some occasions. Most times, he's just a tendentious demagogue trolling for debating points in a shallow pond.
Here's the entire essay, parts of which I am going to italicize to make clearer Scratch's immoral and disgusting prevarication on this issue. I'm sure JAK won't have any problems jumping into bed with this trick:
People of the Year: Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean
By FrontPage Magazine
FrontPageMagazine.com | Monday, January 01, 2007
The annual FrontPage Magazine Man of the Year award seeks to honor individuals who have devoted their lives to promoting the spread of liberty and the defense of their country and its people. Moreover, FPM seeks to fete those who have suffered as a result of their actions. In recent years, this has included Col. Allen B. West, John O’Neill, and Orianna Fallaci, whose good deeds have brought them derision, harassment, or physical or verbal abuse. This year, so many people met both qualifications (see the first two “Honorable Mentions” below) that the intensity of suffering tipped the scales.
In 2006, none have suffered worse for doing good than Border Patrol agents Ignacio “Nacho” Ramos, 37, and Jose Alonso Compean, 28. In August, the pair received 11 and 12 years in prison, respectively, for trying to stop a drug smuggler from entering the country.
On February 17, 2005, Ramos and Compean were patrolling the border town of Fabens, Texas, when a Mexican illegal alien and drug smuggler, attempted to secret nearly 800 pounds of marijuana into the United States in his van. Agent Compean chased Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila by vehicle and on foot, ordering him to stop. Compean says Aldrete-Davila ignored him, pushed him down, and assaulted him, whereupon the agent called for backup, drawing seven additional units, including Ramos. When he arrived on the scene, he heard gunfire, saw Compean bleeding on the ground, and the fugitive – still refusing to stop as commanded – stealing furtive glances over his shoulder while holding something shiny he believed to be a handgun. Both state they felt threatened, and both fired rounds in the alien’s direction, Ramos striking him in the buttocks. The alien got away, but the two men had jeopardized their own well-being to keep his noxious contraband off our streets.
Returning to Mexico, Aldrete-Davila related his misfortunes to his mother, who contacted the mother-in-law of Border Patrol agent Rene Sanchez. Sanchez in turn tipped off a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, who went to Mexico to offer immunity if Osbaldo would act as a state’s witness against Ramos and Compean: the feds wanted to prosecute the agents shooting the alien narcotics supplier.
To sweeten the immunity deal, the feds paid for Osbaldo Aldrete-Davila’s medical treatment of his ailing backside – a taxpayer-funded recuperation at William Beaumont Army Medical Center in El Paso, Texas. He showed his gratitude by breaking his immunity agreement in October 2005, when officers say he attempted to smuggle 1,000 pounds of marijuana into America. The prosecution further extended its immunity to this felony and sealed the indictment from jurors. Aldrete-Davila repaid this new shower of grace by suing the federal government for $5 million, alleging the shooting violated his civil rights. However, he agreed to help in their criminal prosecution, as well, and the feds are apparently happy to collaborate with the pusher as long as he helped put effective lawmen behind bars.
What exactly is their crime? In the words of Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof, “It is a violation of Border Patrol regulations to go after someone who is fleeing.” That is, if an illegal immigrant – even a drug kingpin or terrorist – flees from a Border Patrol agent, regulations demand that he not further pursue or apprehend the fugitive. Patrol agents acknowledge this procedure is widely disregarded, for obvious reasons. Secondly, both men have said numerous agents were on hand for the shooting and had filed a report, so they did not file a report of their gunfire. Compean also picked up his shells from the scene, though Ramos did not. These actions breach Border Patrol protocol and should be subject to appropriate disciplinary action. Instead, the federal government portrayed Ramos and Compean as bloodthirsty racists and threatened them with 20+ years in prison.
Compean’s lawyer, Chris Antcliff, attempted to insert some sanity to the proceedings. He reminded the jury Osbaldo was the criminal and told the media, “This case is a little bit upside down in my mind.”
Conversely, Assistant U.S. Attorney Debra Kanof prosecuted the case with rare initiative. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security – the department that is supposed to protect American citizens from the likes of Aldrete-Davila – joined her program to demonize the agents.
The prosecution contended Compean called the alien victim a “Mexican piece of sh-t.” The DHS went further, telling concerned Congressmen in Texas on September 26 that the agents confessed they “were out to shoot Mexicans.” The department’s Office of Inspector General has provided no proof for the assertion. Nor do they seem concerned that both alleged racists, Ramos and Compean, claim to be of Mexican descent.
Further, Kanof claimed the agents themselves never said the smuggler had a gun. Prosecutors contended Aldrete-Davila “had attempted to surrender by holding his open hands in the air, at which time Agent Compean attempted to hit the man with the butt of Compean's shotgun, causing the man to run in fear of what the agents would do to him next.” Allegedly, the good-hearted smuggler was climbing out of this ditch in order to surrender to Compean. However, the prosecutors did not explain why he ran into the ditch in the first place, if surrender were his goal. They claimed “Compean swung his shotgun around in an attempt to hit Aldrete-Davila with the butt of his weapon, but lost his footing and fell face down into the dirt and brush.” Poor Osbaldo did not lay a finger on the clutz.
The prosecutorial caricature proved so transparent local media rapidly saw through it. The (Ontario, CA) Daily Bulletin provided outstanding coverage of all aspects of the trial, reporting:
[A]n Office of Inspector General memorandum obtained by the Daily Bulletin Tuesday contradicts [Prosecutor] Sutton's claim that Ramos and Compean reported Aldrete-Davila was unarmed. The memorandum of activity was written April 4, 2005, by Christopher Sanchez, the OIG investigator who questioned Compean about the Feb. 17, 2005, shooting. Sanchez was the same agent who went to Mexico to interview Aldrete-Davila, according to documents obtained by the newspaper.
The Sanchez memo notes:
Compean said that Aldrete-Davila continued to look back over his shoulder towards Compean as Aldrete-Davila ran away from him. Compean said that he began to shoot at Aldrete-Davila because of the shiny object he thought he saw in Aldrete-Davila's hand and because Aldrete-Davila continued to look back towards his direction. Compean explained that he thought the shiny object might be a gun and that Aldrete-Davila was going to shoot at him because he kept looking back at him.
Two of the smuggler’s family members lend credence to his concern, telling the newspaper Aldrete-Davila had been smuggling since age 14 and “wouldn't move drugs unless he had a gun on him.” One of them added he had lately taken to “bragging about the money he's going to get in a lawsuit every time we talk to him – but now he's nervous.”
Further, murderous retaliation was not confined to his past. The Sanchez memo continues:
Osbaldo [Aldrete-Davila] had told [Border Patrol agent] Rene Sanchez that his friends had told him they should put together a hunting party and go shoot some BP [Border Patrol] agents in revenge for them shooting Osbaldo. Osbaldo advised Rene Sanchez that he told his friends he was not interested in going after the BP agents and getting in more trouble. (Emphasis added.)
On the other hand, even the prosecution admits, “in the entire time of the defendants’ employment as Border Patrol agents, every reported shooting had been ruled justified and no agent was disciplined as a result of a shooting.”
Aside from conflicting stories of Border Patrol agents caught up in the heat of a shootout, the case comes down to the word of two exemplary officers with spotless records versus that of a drug smuggling border crasher who may or may not have opted to have his gangland friends execute innocent Border Patrol agents as long as it would not entail “getting into more trouble.” Ramos is a Navy veteran and has been nominated for Border Patrol Agent of the Year.
Nevertheless, this August a jury in Texas convicted the two of assault with serious bodily injury, assault with a deadly weapon, discharge of a firearm in relation to a crime of violence, violating the “civil rights” of an illegal alien, and obstruction of justice “for not reporting that their weapons had been fired.”
Some of the jurors broke down in tears at the reading of the guilty verdict. Three jurors – Robert Gourley, Claudia Torres, and Edine Woods – came forward days before the sentencing in October to say they had been holdouts against a guilty verdict and only voted with the majority when other jurors told them the judge would not allow a hung jury. Doing so, they noted, violated their consciences. Gourley wrote, “Had we had the option of a hung jury, I truly believe the outcome may have been different.” Two days later, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone denied the motion for a new trial.
Although many Congressmen hoped for a federal investigation, Judge Cardone – a 2003 George W. Bush appointee whose near-total focus before assuming the federal bench had been family law – had also refused to delay sentencing until after any potential review, saying it would only “postpone the inevitable.” Ultimately, no review ever came.
In October, Cardone sentenced Ramos to 11 years, and Compean to 12 years, imprisonment – 6-7 years longer than the sentence a U.S. district judge imposed that July upon another Border Patrol officer who had smuggled 100 illegal immigrants into the country.
Outraged by this decision, 48 Congressmen asked President Bush to grant a Christmas pardon to the two via letter on December 9. “We submit this letter, in the spirit of reconciliation and pardon that is such a part of this season, asking you personally to commute the sentences of U.S. Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean,” they wrote.
The effort is a bipartisan affair. One is unsurprised to learn Reps. Tom Tancredo and James Sensenbrenner have signed on. However, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA, has also called for a Congressional investigation and appealed to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. “It appears that the facts do not add up or justify the length of the sentences for these agents, let alone their conviction on multiple counts,” she said. “Border agents often have a difficult and dangerous job in guarding our nation's borders. Undue prosecution of Border Patrol agents could have a chilling effect on their ability to carry out their duties.”
Rep. Walter Jones, R-NC – a conservative who has also championed the Academic Bill of Rights – penned his own letter to the president. “This demoralizing prosecution puts the rights of illegal smugglers ahead of our homeland security and undermines the critical mission of better enforcing immigration laws,” Jones wrote.
The Bush Justice Dept. merely responded to this coalition with a note that indicated “should Messrs. Ramos and Compean wish to petition for clemency, they may contact the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Department of Justice for further information on eligibility and procedures.” No further action has been taken.
This inaction has spurred more than 156,000 people to sign a petition for the agents’ pardon at Grassfire.org. (Here is another.)
The Ramos family has seen its home slide into foreclosure trying to pay its legal bills; the costly appeals process seems prohibitive. Unless action is taken, the Ramos family could lose their breadwinner to incarceration and Jose Compean could be taken from his three-month-old child’s side as early as January 17.
The agents may not have followed protocol to the letter, and FrontPage Magazine does not condone or excuse that. However, they displayed the mettle necessary to protect their fellow countrymen from drug smugglers, terrorists, and other illegals on a daily basis – qualities of purpose, fortitude, and self-sacrifice that have themselves become alien from so those in the federal bureaucracy. How else could federal prosecutors and U.S. the Department of Homeland Security, run by a hawkish administration in the midst of a War on Terror, side with a gun-toting drug smuggler over a veteran and an officer with an impeccable record? The federal government has presumed against two of its own, lied and demonized them, as they tried to plug one porous hole in our ossified War on Drugs. Bureaucratic infractions call for bureaucratic penalties; these men have lost their money, their reputations, and (perhaps soon) their freedom trying to protect our nation. For that, they deserve our thanks.
Crawl Scratch, crawl back to your den.