Free Republic

Bexar Democrats' leader likens foes to insectsBy John W. Gonzalez Updated 10:39 p.m., Thursday, March 17, 2011 Calling his detractors worms, jerks, morons, idiots and liars, Bexar County Democratic Chairman Dan Ramos said Thursday that he'd resign “when hell freezes over” despite demands he quit immediately due to his harsh words about fellow Democrats. Denying allegations that he has disparaged gay party members and others, Ramos cast himself as an old friend of minorities. But he also compared gay Democrats to insects, called several local elected Democrats “yo-yos,” and found a common denominator among the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus, the...

Demands Grow For Resignation Of Bexar County Democratic ChairPublished Statements By Dan Ramos 'Stunned' Party Leaders Jessie Degollado, KSAT 12 News Reporter POSTED: Wednesday, March 16, 2011 SAN ANTONIO -- A spokeswoman for the Bexar County Democratic Party said its chairman, Dan Ramos, will be holding a news conference on Thursday morning after his published statements in the San Antonio Current and increasing demands for resignation. Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie, members of the Bexar County Democratic Party Executive Committee and the Texas Stonewall Democratic Caucus have called for Ramos to step down. In their statement, the executive committee...

Bexar County Democratic leader accused of bigotryReported by: Melissa Garcia Published: 3/15 5:48 pm SAN ANTONIO -- Bexar County Democratic Chair Dan Ramos is in hot water after comments referring to gays, blacks, whites, and Jews outraged the community. The Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Richie, asked Ramos to resign. Richie accused Ramos of bigotry and creating chaos since his election a year ago. On Friday, Ramos was quoted in the San Antonio Current. "He called Stonewall Democrats Nazi termites that have wormed their way into the party hierarchy," explained Dee Villarrubia, an openly gay Bexar County Democratic Deputy Chair...

Democratic leader ignores resignation demandBy John W. Gonzalez Published 05:15 p.m., Monday, March 14, 2011 The head of the Texas Democratic Party is demanding the resignation of Bexar County Democratic Party Chairman Dan Ramos, accusing him of bigotry and creating chaos since his election a year ago. Citing complaints from local partisans, state Chairman Boyd Richie said Ramos should step aside so the party can “move forward with new, more unifying leadership.” Richie rescinded a request to meet with Ramos, saying that would not be useful. Richie issued his statement Saturday, the day after a news blog posted comments by...

NOGALES, Ariz. - Teams of border officers combed through the Arizona desert about 10 miles north of Mexico on Thursday in search of the lone outstanding suspect in the fatal shooting of a Border Patrol agent. They were on horseback and all-terrain vehicles searching rugged, hard-to-reach spots in a mountainous area just north of Nogales in southeastern Arizona. Officers in patrol cars were searching the perimeter. The suspect could be in Mexico, or could have tried his luck in Nogales or a nearby town, but he also could be hiding behind the next bush. ...authorities have four suspects in custody...

Mexico is demanding answers from Washington over the fatal shooting of a teenager by a U.S. border patrol agent and has sent a formal complaint over the incident, Mexico's foreign minister said. At a wake on Wednesday, grieving relatives wept over the body of Sergio Hernandez, shot on the Mexican side of the border in the frontier city of Ciudad Juarez as he and other youths were running from U.S. border patrol agents.

Former Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos says new evidence has surfaced since he went to prison over the 2005 shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler and he wants a retrial. "I know I'm rolling the dice," said Ramos, adding that a new trial could result in additional charges. Ramos said his attorney would file the documents within two months. He offered no details on any new evidence, the Houston Chronicle reported Monday. Ramos and another convicted former agent, Jose Compean, were freed Feb. 17, 2008, weeks after then-President George W. Bush commuted their sentences. Ramos returned to El Paso for...

Last Christmas, Ignacio Ramos was in a cramped cell at a federal penitentiary in Arizona, listening to Christmas songs on a small radio and wondering what his wife and children were doing. A lot has changed in a year for the former Border Patrol agent, who became a cause célebre among conservative lawmakers after jurors handed him an 11-year sentence in 2006 for shooting a Mexican drug smuggler near El Paso. In January, George W. Bush commuted his sentence during his last full day in office. Ramos then moved his family from El Paso to Houston, where he began the...

Friday Night Dinner Meeting October 2, 2009 at 6:00 p.m. Featuring: Former Border Patrol Agent Ignacio Ramos with his father-in-law Joe Loya & San Diego Radio Talk Show Host Rick Amato (KCBQ 1170 AM) Location: Temeku Hills Clubhouse (www.temekuhills.com) 41687 Temeku Drive, Temecula, CA 92591 RSVP at the link provided.

Former U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton has been hired to work in a consulting and law firm formed by former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. Sutton, who resigned Sunday as chief of the San Antonio-based Western District of Texas, is one of four outgoing U.S. attorneys hired by Ashcroft. All served under the administration of former President George W. Bush. “Johnny is joining the Ashcroft law firm, as is John Ratcliffe, former U.S. attorney from Dallas,” said Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Ashcroft’s company. “They will be operating in Texas as Ashcroft Sutton Ratcliffe LLC.” Corallo said Sutton will remain in...

Outgoing U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton said Monday he still believes he made the right call in prosecuting two then-Border Patrol agents convicted of covering up their shooting of an unarmed drug smuggler in the back. In a wide-ranging interview since announcing last week that he is resigning April 19, Sutton also said he was voluntarily leaving the job he’s had for more than seven years — the top federal prosecutor of the San Antonio-based Western District of Texas. Sutton, who was nominated to the post by President George W. Bush, said he is leaving for a legal job in the...

The US Supreme Court will not hear the appeals of US Border Patrol Agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean. The refusal lets stand the opinion of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals affirming the convictions and the sentences of the agents. Although this effectively ends the agents’ hopes to have their felony convictions overturned, they are now free men thanks to a last minute commutation of their 10-year sentences by President Bush. Had it not been for Bush’s action, the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case would likely have meant the agents would have served their full sentences. Nonetheless,...

Former U.S. Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean, who were given long jail terms for shooting at a fleeing drug smuggler, today told Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck that they were sustained by prayers of the American people and their spirits were lifted by their letters. The two were interviewed on Beck's program in their first television interview allowed under the terms of their probation after President Bush commuted their sentences on his last day in office. They just were released from ankle bracelet restrictions and still face limits on with whom they can talk. One of...

Former U.S. Border Patrol agent Ignacio "Nacho" Ramos wakes up in the middle of the night expecting a guard to shine a flashlight in his face. Jose Alonso Compean, his colleague, still has nightmares that he's not really home. It has not been easy readjusting to life outside their one-man prison cells where they spent the last two years of their lives in segregation. Since the commutation of their sentences by President Bush on his last day in office, the former agents, who were charged with the non-fatal shooting of a Mexican national after he abandoned a load of marijuana...

Border Patrol agents Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean were released last month from federal prison after serving more than two years in solitary confinement for the non-fatal shooting of a Mexican drug smuggler. President Bush commuted the sentences of the two border guards Jan. 19 and his order went into effect yesterday. They had spent the last month in home confinement and are now finally free. Glenn Beck has covered this story for years and was at the forefront of the movement to get President Bush to commute their sentences. These two men are truly American heroes. Welcome back!

Jose Compean and Ignacio Ramos were scheduled for Beck's show today. I missed it at 5 p.m. EST but it is now repeating at 2 a.m. EST. Which means it should be on any minute.

Listening to Ignacio Ramos A free man!

WASHINGTON – A judge has ordered the federal government to turn over documents related to the shooting of a fleeing drug smuggler or explain why it's withholding them. The shooting led to the imprisonment and presidential commutation of two U.S. Border Patrol agents. Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group, filed Freedom of Information Act requests two years ago with the departments of State, Justice and Homeland Security for records relating to the drug smuggler, Osvaldo Aldrete Davila. The departments did not provide any records, so the group filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Washington. In response to the...

DALLAS – Attorneys say two former Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a drug smuggler and covering it up have been released from prison. Ignacio Ramos and Jose Compean each had their sentences of more than 10 years commuted earlier this year by former President George W. Bush. Their commutation becomes effective March 20, and both will serve out the remainder of their sentences in home confinement. The men were convicted in 2006 of shooting Osvaldo Aldrete Davila near El Paso and trying to conceal it. Ramos left a federal prison in Phoenix on Tuesday morning on furlough, according to...