I'm so disillusioned

[Yonivore]

Pelosi want's her adult kids to fly on taxpayer's dime

Murtha earmarks National Security

Obey threatens to cut off his nose to spite his face if Republicans don't let him hide earmarks in post-committee legislation

Yeah, Pelosi's draining the swamp and filling it back up with sewage.

[boutons_]

"It's Iraq war, stupid"

The entire system sucks, but exclusively the Repugs started and botched the Iraqi war.

[Yonivore]

Then there's Democrat Jim McDermott and his special legislation to save a murderer:

H.R. 2181

A Resolution en led, "For the relief of Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed"

Are you aware this Democratic Congressman is attempting to pass legislation that would prevent the deportation of a convicted murderer wanted in his home country for engaging in terrorist activity and participating in an assassination plot that left a prime minister and dozens of his family members dead.

Who is Mohuiddin A.K.M. Ahmed?

He's a Bangladeshi military officer convicted of murdering the Bangladeshi prime minister and two dozen members of his family--including a 10-year-old boy and pregnant women--in 1975. The coup leaders declared Bangladesh an "Islamic Republic." Some two decades later, democracy was restored in the country and the assassins were tried. Ahmed escaped to the U.S. in 1996 and has lived here illegally for 11 years.

The LA Times reported in March:

A Venice man whom friends and family are trying to save from execution in Bangladesh is a "cold-blooded killer" who murdered a 10-year-old boy during a military coup in 1975, a relative of the slain child said Friday.

Mohiuddin A.K.M. Ahmed, 60, was tried in absentia in 1996, convicted of murder and sentenced to hang for his role in the assassination of President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman of Bangladesh and seven family members. U.S. courts ordered Ahmed deported to face his penalty.

Ahmed, then an army major, says he manned a roadblock a mile from the president's home, but thought the leader would be arrested peacefully. "Myself and others believed that the orders we received were lawful," Ahmed said in a written statement. "At no time was I, or my troops, involved in any violence."

But Sajeeb Wazed, the slain leader's grandson, said Ahmed was one of the "actual shooters" who murdered the family in their Dhaka home.

"This wasn't just a political assassination, this was a gruesome, gruesome murder," Wazed, 35, said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C.

Wazed said that staff members present during the rampage said that Ahmed was among a group of soldiers who shot the family's security guards and barged into the home, now a museum whose walls remain marked with bloodstains and bullet holes.

The soldiers shot his grandfather on the stairway and pulled family members from their beds and fired at them, Wazed said. Among the dead, who were later buried in unmarked graves, were his pregnant aunt, grandmother and three uncles, including Russell, a 10-year-old boy, he said.

Wazed said staff members who were there told him that when Russell began crying and begging for his life, one of the officers took him downstairs to hide. But after another officer commented, "He's going to be like a snake that grows up and kills us," Ahmed and another officer went down and shot the child, Wazed said.

"Not only did Mohiuddin participate, he killed a child in cold blood," Wazed said.

Ahmed has been able to stay in this country through endless appeals. The feds began deportation proceedings against him nine years ago. He applied for asylum and lost in 2002. He then went to the left-wing 9th Circuit Court of Appeals--and even they rejected his bid (ruling here.)

Writing in the Bangladesh Daily Star, blogger Mashuqur Rahman noted:

The private bill introduced by congressman McDermott, known as H.R. 2181, aims to help Mohiuddin in a number of ways. First, it aims to stay the deportation order against him indefinitely. Second, it aims to release him from custody and bars the DHS from deporting him to Bangladesh, or to any country that has an extradition treaty with Bangladesh.

Third, it aims to grant a green card to Mohiuddin, which would allow him to get preferential treatment before all other green card applicants from Bangladesh. It also aims to grant him the card by reducing the number of green cards available to other Bangladeshis by one. Finally, it states that Mohiuddin will be allowed to seek asylum in any foreign country of his choosing.

Congressman McDermott's bill also makes some extraordinary "findings." The bill claims that Mohiuddin is an "innocent Bangladeshi citizen." It also claims that the Bangladesh court "erroneously convicted Mr. Ahmed of murder and sentenced him to death." It further claims that the trial and conviction are "sufficiently suspect as to warrant the immediate intervention" by the US government to prevent his deportation.

However, the claims in the bill directly contradict the ruling of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. In its decision denying Mohiuddin's pe ion the court wrote: "Ahmed failed to prove by a preponderance of the evidence that his in absentia murder trial and conviction in Bangladesh was fundamentally unfair and, thus, deprived him of due process of law. Therefore, the IJ properly relied on the conviction." Mohiuddin failed to convince the US court that his trial was unfair.

The court did not find that Mohiuddin was "erroneously convicted," or that the trial was "sufficiently suspect." It felt that it was proper to rely on the conviction in the Bangladeshi court.

Therefore, the congressman's claim that Mohiuddin is an "innocent Bangladeshi citizen" is not supported by the facts, and is also not something that Mohiuddin was able to convince any court of.

Furthermore, the US State Department has stated that Mohiuddin"s trial -- a high profile trial observed by the world community and human rights organizations -- followed due process.

The bill also claims that Mohiuddin was merely manning a roadblock on August 15, 1975, and that he "had no knowledge of, nor did he support, the violent coup that erupted that night."

Again, this claim in the bill directly contradicts the 9th Circuit's ruling. In the ruling the court wrote: "Ahmed is ineligible for asylum and withholding of removal for two reasons:

• Because he engaged in terrorist activity,

• Because he assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of others on account of their political opinion. Even his own account of his actions established that he assisted or otherwise participated in the persecution of persons on account of their political opinion."

Thanks to one of the Left's political heroes, Jim McDermott, and his abuse of the private relief bill process, Ahmed's deportation -- which was scheduled for last weekend -- was stymied. On top of that, Mohiuddin has filed another court case with the District Court in Central California asking for a stay of deportation citing McDermott's Congressional action.

Federal immigration authorities want this convicted murderer/terrorist deported. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against him. But thanks to one Democratic congressman, the authority and prerogative of the U.S. to throw out undesirable criminal aliens have been flagrantly undermined.

The Swamp is getting murkier and murkier...

[ChumpDumper]

Who?

[PixelPusher]

It's nice to have Republican's concerned about pork and corruption again after all these years. Maybe if a Dem wins the WH in '08, we can get you guys to rethink all those greatly expanded Executive powers, too.

[Wild Cobra]

It's nice to have Republican's concerned about pork and corruption again after all these years. Maybe if a Dem wins the WH in '08, we can get you guys to rethink all those greatly expanded Executive powers, too.

Many of us conservatives contacted the RNC and republicans in our districts telling them we desa0pproved of the pork. Pork and their immigration policies are likely why they cost control. They are starting to listen to us. They were swamped with calls and letters for the new Amnesty legislation, and are now running scared.

Expanded executive powers? I don't see it that way with what the cons ution places on our presidents shoulders.

[DarkReign]

Expanded executive powers? I don't see it that way with what the cons ution places on our presidents shoulders.

Seriously? Thats rich...

I think what you really meant to say was "Those new executive powers were meant for Republican presidents, not Democrats."

The problem is one will never reign for long, and the President's power is ever expanding. At some point, someone is going to go too far. Some would argue that time has already come and gone.

[xrayzebra]

It's nice to have Republican's concerned about pork and corruption again after all these years. Maybe if a Dem wins the WH in '08, we can get you guys to rethink all those greatly expanded Executive powers, too.

And what "expanded" executive powers would that be?