Letters to the Editor
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"...yes but I wrote a letter."
I sent the following e-mail to both my senators and my representative:
So much for the United States being a country of laws and not men. Why don't we simply amend the Federal Code for sentencing guidelines to make an exception for high ranking Republican cronies?
All three of my representatives are Republicans.
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Bush is a traitor
It's time to impeach.
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What the &*&*???
I am planning to write all my Congressmen and women NOW. I just can not get over how, I a Lower Middle Class American, expected to follow all the rules of law and if I do not I have CONSEQUENCES......
While these &*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&*&** do not.
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Media silence is deafening
Mainstream media still remains in the hip pocket of the republican right. What has been so disheartening in over a decade is the steady decline of accountability of too many wrong doings by the heterosexual, white, GOP political operatives. Bush, Cheney, Powell and their henchmen lied, cheated and manipulated this country into an aggressive, illegal war. The Democrats will not impeach the usurper and his regent Cheney. The Justice department lied, cheated and manipulated the dismissal of competent attorneys with the blame clearly at the door of the Oval office. The Democrats will not impeach the interloper who deems himself too high above the law. Bush pardons a convicted liar Scooter Libby and the Democrats will still not impeach the snake who continues to spit in their faces. And the mainstream media is too beholden to the republican right to not practice true journalism and high standards to reporting, because their pockets are lined with unmerited dollars. Is it any wonder that the bragging rights of US high morality are being laughed at by a bewildered world outside its borders. Make no mistake. The decline of the US empire is nigh at hand.
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Bush only commuted the sentence
...he didn't pardon him and Libby still has to pay a $250,000 fine and have a felony conviction on his record.
This isn't going to help Bush with his base. Bush still comes off as a heatless prick. And it won't help him with anyone else either.
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Part 1
"Bush only commuted the sentence"... yes for now as that is all he needed to do. When he leaves office I have little doubt that Bush will grant a full pardon to Libby. Perhaps he will pardon all the crooks and liars in his administration, including himself. Because he can.
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So will Dubya commute Victor Rita's sentence too?
The recent "Rita v. U.S." decision, delivered by the U.S. Supreme Court in mid-June, reportedly dealt with a case strikingly similar to Libby's -- and their 6 to 3 decision firmly upheld an even HARSHER sentence for Victor Rita, a federal employee who'd been convicted of perjury and making false statements.
So, in the pursuit of some higher justice that only Dubya seems able to perceive, will Mr. Rita ALSO be the recipient of a sentence commutation? If not, WHY not?
Inquiring minds want to know, Mr. President!
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What perfect timing
Half the press is on vacation, the government is running on half staff, it's the week of American flags and patriotic extravaganzas. By next Monday, this will be old news.
Congratulations Karl! You really do deserve your nickname because you can make flowers grow out of shit.
Congratulations Dick! Scooter won't flip on you and you won't have to kill him.
Congratulations George, you spoiled brat! To turn your own question around: Do you hate the world, or just America?
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One Small Point
Yes, it's not surprising, and yes, like everything this President does, it's an outrage.
But I write to take strong exception to your characterization of one of my favorite parables as "a juvenile dirty joke about dogs." While the question, "Why does a dog lick his balls," may on it's surface appear to be a juvenile dirty joke, it is at it's heart a wise parable that explains a great deal about the universe, particularly when you're dealing with actors who have no sense of moral right or wrong. My only concern with using in in this context is that it may defame dogs.
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Libby's just fine, thank you
There are millions of dollars in Libby's defense fund--and if appeals don't overturn conviction, well, Bush can always pardon him. In any case, I doubt if Libby will be homeless or penniless ever.
Everyone knows, in any case, that if Libby had really faced any jail time, he would have been sprung for a life-threatening case of claustrophobia and ADD.
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He's going to pardon him
Best analysis I've read is this: He wanted to commute now -- very unusual until you've done some time -- to keep him out of jail so there would be no temptation to roll over on Cheney, and also to keep him from testifying in Congress. (He'd plead the Fifth, because anything he said, etc.) Then, when Bush is leaving office -- God speed that day -- he will pardon Libby, removing the taint for good.
Oh, and the money that Fred Thompson et al will keep him from paying any fines, too. I wonder if Carville has contributed anything towards the "Get Out of Jail Free" fund.
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bush admission by default
GUILTY !
The cabal reveals itself. cheney, rove, and liberated libby arecontrolling henchmen in the bush files.
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Pardon Me?
So, let me get this straight - it's OK to aide and abet those who would expose a CIA agent. It's OK to use the intelligence apparatus of the government to spy on and commit felonies against opposition parties (see Watergate). And it's OK to use the NSC to subvert the Constitution (see Iran-Contra).
BUT DON'T YOU DARE LIE ABOUT A BLOW JOB????
This has got to be the WTF moment of the decade.
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Hypocrisy, 'loyality', promoting disloyality, saving one's own ass.
Yes, putting our energy into stopping Bush doing what he's still capable of doing, sending more folks into Iraq to die, is a great idea, and well put. But how? Stumping for more (progressive) Democrats to win congressional elections? (Great idea.) Or demonstrating at the White House? (Hasn't worked in the past; the man doesn't care.) Or what?
I like Paul Begala's post on Huffingtonpost.com in which he sarcastically promotes Bush's 'toughness', as in not commuting the sentences of people like a great-grandmother who killed her husband after a lifetime of abuse, etc.
And others' who compare Bush's commutation of Libby with his statements affirming courts and juries' rights to make their own decisions and have them stand, as well as the considerable (endless, infinite) numbers of people who are serving sentences (including those at Guantanamo Bay) completely at odds with their crimes and in dissonance with others of different statuses and perceived levels of OK-ness (such as illegal immigrants, who are being held in camps or deported away from their families, who are being torn from their nursing babies and other children, or such as blacks who are given far worse sentences for certain drugs though whites who are caught with less amounts -- but differing chemical composition -- are allowed to get out far sooner, etc. etc. etc.) are still in jail or killed by the system. And a man who betrayed laws and ethics which, not only have gotten hundreds of thousands of people killed but put others at risk, is allowed to get off by Bush. The awful clanging of the cognitive dissonance is hard to bear.
Many people seem to suggest that 'loyalty' is a positive trait in Libby, and that this quality is worth commutation for acts which are illegal because loyality, well, is so admirable. Well, don't dictators value loyality above all else, as well? Is loyality another word for obedience? Isn't this what an authoritarian state requires, admires and rewards? Isn't this what is happening here? If I hear another word about Libby's 'loyalty'.......!
Yesterday, before all this occurred, I heard three of the people who were instrumental in getting out the Pentagon Papers strongly suggest that their only regrets were that they were sorry they had waited, until another 30,000 (as I remember) soldiers had been killed in Vietnam. They said that there are many, many individuals who are right now aware of documents which could put a stop to this whole war. They would be at risk of arrest, of being put in jail, maybe, certainly of losing their careers, but they would be saving thousands of other people by their brave actions -- and many people would stand up for them, rally to their cause, contribute to their legal fees (that latter, mine). These heroes would be people who are not LOYAL to their superiors, they would be people who are, finally, human beings; who are breaking out of their hypnosis that you have to be 'loyal' to their 'team' or their boss, and being loyal to their selves. [I heard these men on Democracynow.org -- see their Monday transcript.)
Finally, it seems to me, and I haven't heard any commentator dare to mention it, that Bush must be commuting Libby's sentence because not to do so risks Libby talking about who, among his superiors (Cheney, certainly, but also Bush?), told him to do what he did, and whom he was protecting. Bush is simply, then, saving his ass.