First, the following excerpt (hat tip to Riehl World View) is the predicate to an unsolicited opinion, ‘another country heard from’ so to speak, that I want you to see:
September 10, 2009
Political commentator, author and writer for The Atlantic magazine Andrew M. Sullivan won’t have to face charges stemming from a recent pot bust at the Cape Cod National Seashore — but a federal judge isn’t happy about it. U. S. Magistrate Judge Robert B. Collings says in his decision that the case is an example of how sometimes “small cases raise issues of fundamental importance in our system of justice.†While marijuana possession may have been decriminalized, Sullivan, who owns a home in Provincetown, made the mistake of being caught by a park ranger with a controlled substance on National Park Service lands, a federal misdemeanor.
The ranger issued Sullivan a citation, which required him either to appear in U.S. District Court or, in essence, pay a $125 fine. But the U.S. Attorney’s Office sought to dismiss the case. Both the federal prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney said it would have resulted in an “adverse effect†on an unspecified “immigration status†that Sullivan, a British citizen, is applying for.
At the hearing, Collings observed that Sullivan would still have to state on his application that he had been charged with a crime, and he asked both the prosecutor and Sullivan’s attorney, Robert Delahunt Jr. (cousin of U. S. Rep. William D. Delahunt), for more information about why paying the $125 would have “any additional adverse effect.â€
When no attorney could fully answer the question beyond citing advice from immigration lawyers, Collings requested that Delahunt submit a brief on the issue. But before Delahunt could reply, Assistant U. S. Attorney James F. Lang jumped in and said that Collings had no power to inquire why the U.S. Attorney had decided to have the charge dismissed.
Collings says he expressed his concern that “a dismissal would result in persons in similar situations being treated unequally before the law. … persons charged with the same offense on the Cape Cod National Seashore were routinely given violation notices, and if they did not agree to [pay the fine] were prosecuted by the United States Attorney … there was no apparent reason for treating Mr. Sullivan differently from other persons charged with the same offense.†In fact, noted Collings, there were several other defendants appearing in court the same day who were charged with the same offense. … PLEASE READ THE REST
This smacks of unequal treatment under the law and has the smell about it of outside influence being placed upon the U.S. Attorney. Attorney General Eric “rule of law” Holder should direct that the Department of Justice’s Office of Professional Responsibility look into the matter; he will not but he should.
All that said and only adding that the post’s title on the image at the following link was obliterated by me, who asked an alleged pothead from another country for this opinion?
Hannity looks nicer in person
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I don’t know how to-well I thought this rated a comment, but I don’t want to get vulgar. Didn’t know Sullivan was a foreigner, but it figures…how’s that? Deport the —–!
Interesting because Sullivan is considered one of those pseudo libertarian conservatives, a gay catholic that wrote many books and articles and claims that the republican party has abandoned conservative issues (like we didn’t know); they drag him out on liberal talk shows as a conservative who understood that the war in Iraq was wrong. He stood by Bush and Cheney in 2000 but voted for Kerry in 2004 and is pro gay marriage. He is against progressive taxation, state run healthcare and is supposedly for the war on terror. He blasts many conservatives, especially neocons, and for all this I have long considered him fringe and not worth listening to or worth reading. He supports Schwarzenegger and voted for RuPaul in 2008. Obviously he supports the personal use of some drugs. Need I say any more? I have never heard anyone else speak like him and consider themselves a conservative which he swears that he is. More appropriately he is a liberal who marginally supports some conservative principles. However, if he calls himself a liberal instead of a conservative, I suspect he would not be an invited guest on liberal talk shows.
Someone illegally influenced an AUSA or U.S. Attorney into dismissing Andrew Sullivan’s violation or the latter would have faced deportation. Even Federal Judge Collings smelled a rat in the matter, no pun intended (the first three letters of the obscured title of Andrew Sullivan’s subsequent post spell ‘rat.’ The rest of the title rhythms with ‘sucked’).
Well you know how they treat statutes up in MA. Leaving an accident scene also has a mandatory jail time but 40 yrs. ago someone did just that and that statute was overlooked.
Overlooked was the lack of human compassion by Teddy for Mary Jo, as was justice for her negligent homicide, forty years ago. Teddy received a slap on the wrist for leaving the scene of a crime he himself committed. Mary Jo was treated like a dented stop sign.
Imagine if any of the aforementioned had been committed by a regular person? Then just imagine if it was committed by a conservative? Finally imagine if it was committed by George Bush?
From the pundits perspective Mary Joe would have voluntarily given her live for any Kennedy cause.