Iowa: Pardoned Turkeys

The Chicago Tribune reports an Iowa couple will present a 45-pound turkey to be pardoned by President Bush in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday. It is also reported that the turkey is the sixth, since 1947, to come from Iowa. One wonders how Bush, who has meticulously neglected the use of the pardon power, goes through such exercises without some sort of emotional confusion. Wouldn't it be nice to see President-elect Obama end this senseless turkey-pardoning tradition and use the pardon power for more serious and urgent matters? See story here.

Iowa: A Mayor Writes the Governor

The Chicago Tribune reports Mayor Daley has written Iowa Chet Culver, requesting a pardon for a Chicago Police Officer serving a five-year prison sentence for assault. Daley says Michael Mette "did little or nothing to provoke" the fight that landed him where he is today and "the physical assault that he experienced was not pre-meditated, but merely a matter of self-defense." Daley also complains that Mette was "denied a chance for a parole hearing or even the opportunity to serve time on work release" and that this treatment is "harsh." See story here.

Iowa: Pardon for Face-Punching Cop?

WBBM 780 reports that police and prosecutors in the State of Illinois are asking Iowa Governor Chet Culver to pardon Michael Mette, a Chicago police officer who was sentenced to five years in prison after he hit an under aged drunken college student in the face. Supporters of the 31-year old Mette say the blow landed only after he had been pushed three times by the student whose BAC was three times the legal limit. A Cook County State's Attorney and Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis are among those seeking the pardon. See story here and here.