Does it strike anyone as odd that 11 of the 14 pardons that Bush has announced recently are in the South? The pardon recipients come from:
Fort Worth, Texas
Falls Church, Va.
Rossville, Ga
Travelers Rest, S.C..
Jacksonville, Fla..
Midland, Texas
Sulphur, Okla.
Grant, Ala.,
Los Angeles, Ca.
Conroe, Texas
White Hall, Ark.
Charleston, Mo
Rapid City, S.D.
Mahomet, Ill
Admittedly, I haven't looked at his other pardons. Perhaps he pardoned a wave of Midwestern criminals earlier in the year.
Theories?
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He comes from the south, perhaps he knows of them in the past, perhaps he can use them in some way in the future?
Maybe he only has southern friends. Or perhaps his only southern friends are criminals. But my vote goes with the conspiracy theory that all these southerners he pardoned are seperatists. Once they're back in power then the south will leave the union again and Bush will be named the new confederate president. :-)
Why does it matter what part of the country they are from?
Ten of those pardoned come from Red States.
Three of those pardoned hail from Texas.
Not that Mr. Bush ever would show any bias.
hmmm. i didn't notice the zipcodes...but i did notice that almost all the pardons were either for white collar crimes [usually against the government]or cocaine.... empathy?
Ken Silverstein at Harpers sees a pattern, too
President George W. Bush he has been generous in coming to the aid of one particular constituency group: S&L executives and others who swindled thrifts in the mid-1980’s.
A few of these guys, coincidentally no doubt, hale from Texas.
So far Bush pardons have gone to:
John G. Smith, “a former officer of Vernon Savings and Loan, a Dallas thrift that collapsed in 1987 after making millions of dollars in bad loans.”
Kenneth Foner, who had been convicted of “conspiracy to impede the functions of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.” and committing “embezzlement as a bank officer.”
David McCall Jr., “a former Plano, Texas, mayor who was pardoned on his deathbed [in 2004] for his role in a savings and loan fraud case.”
Mark Hale of Henderson, Texas, an S&L executive who had been sentenced to three years in jail for fraud of at least $5 million.
William Hoyle McCright Jr. of Midland, Texas, who was sentenced in 1986 to two years imprisonment and a $10,000 fine for making “false entries, books, reports or statements of bank.” McCright, who just got his pardon yesterday, was a minor donor ($300) to John McCain’s presidential campaign.
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