Oh Libby

[sacrosanct24]

Scooter, Scooter, Scooter.

I don't know what is more suprising, that people are frothing at the mouth pissed off at the President for it, or that people are suprised it happened and frothing at the mouth pissed off.

Want some fun and educational reading?

Clinton Pardons
Clinton Commutations
Slick Last Second Pardons 
Show me some numbers!

So...  cry me a

Comments

[martinhesselius]

*Nod*
You know my reasons for being pissed.
Clinton's end-of-term pardons and commutations ain't related -
Dubya's war on our own American intelligence gathering services is.
(But then my dad was a Navy linguist, and my first tour was with an Corps-level MI brigade.)

[sacrosanct24]

I actually think that the President was correct when he said Libby got a harsh deal. I went and re-read some of the saga and found (of all people) a Time article (inserted above) that gives a pretty fair take on it.

[martinhesselius]

*Nod*
I will agree that commuting the sentence instead of a pardon was a good thing.

But Libby did do something egregious in my book -
He blocked the leak investigation into the VP's office.

[sacrosanct24]

I am a big fan of people actually being shot if they endanger our intelligence agents.

I have no special feelings about the leak investigations. I simply don't know enough about it.

[harolds_life]

Pardons, commuting of sentances.. my problem with all of this is that it tends to benifit those with money and those that are poor do not get the same deal.

I read what you read and more, and from all that i can gather, his sentance was not harsh, it was in line with sentencing guidelines. He was convited by a Jury - so you tell me, why is it that we keep giving out unequal justice to those that have money and those that don't - If you look at what he was convicted over, his sentance wasn't harsh, in fact, i think it was easy. I think in the end, this just hurt Bush more and by contrast his party more then most will think. But we will have to wait two years to see the true fall out of all of this.

[harolds_life]

BTW - One article is not enough to convince me he was shafted. Time is owned by those that tend to side with Bushs party.

I suggest you read articles on both sides see where both sides are coming from, and then you can find the middle.

[sacrosanct24]

Are you high? Time is owned by Time-Warner. The same people who own CNN (Clinton News Network). To say that Time Warner tends to side with Bush is almost like saying Fox News is a liberal outlet.

[harolds_life]

well what can i say - don't trust news places anymore, they are biased based upon the owner.

[diabhol]

The Libby thing is just a symptom of a larger issue.

At this point, our president would have to actually commit rape (on a person, as opposed to the constitution) to be worse example of a human being than he already is.

[scaryblackdeath]

Agreed.
Like a motherfucker.

[sacrosanct24]

I can handle this better.

Saying GW is a cocksucker is much more acceptable to me than hearing how fucked up the commutation is.

[scaryblackdeath]

So I went through those lists, and a couple things come to mind:

1. The fact that Clinton did a lot of shitty things in no way excuses the shitty things Bush does. Similarly, the shitty things that Reagan did in no way excuse the shitty things Clinton did, and so forth.

2. I see nowhere in any of those sentences anything like what Scooter Libby did--not in context. Now, I didn't read every one of them line-by-line, but I did word search through 'em for "classified," "secret," "national security," "covert," and "treason," and came up blank.

With the exception of the "last second pardon" for the former CIA guy who apparently fucked up on what was on his computer (and I'll admit I don't know the story there; maybe it WAS potentially catastrophic), NONE of these pardons or commutations involve something like what Libby did.

Jail time would've certainly been appropriate for this asshole. Sadly, it'd be even MORE appropriate for his former boss and the asshole who just commuted his sentence.

[sacrosanct24]

I am totally down with GW being an asshole and hated on. I do not think the President actually doing what he, and every president except for a couple others, is expected to do

[scaryblackdeath]

Oi. This is pretty bad. Wikipedia on the FALN guys:

On August 11, 1999, Bill Clinton commuted the sentences of 16 members of FALN that set off bombs several times in New York City and Chicago, convicted for conspiracies to commit robbery, bomb-making, and sedition, as well as for firearms and explosives violations.[3] None of the 16 were convicted of bombings or any crime which injured another person, and all of the 16 had served 19 years or longer in prison, which was a longer sentence than such crimes typically received, according to the White House.[4] Clinton offered clemency, on condition that the prisoners renounce violence, at the appeal of 10 Nobel Peace Prize laureates, President Jimmy Carter, the cardinal of New York, and the archbishop of Puerto Rico. The commutation was opposed by U.S. Attorney's Office, the FBI, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons and criticised by many including former victims of FALN terrorist activities, the Fraternal Order of Police,[5] members of Congress, and Hillary Clinton in her campaign for

[sacrosanct24]

I totally went nuts on the odometer rollback thing. I was pretty amazed at it.

I looked at all the Arkansas pardons and figured President Clinton had hit a "fuck it" button.