W Commutes Libby's Sentence

[bannerman]

Bush commutes sentence for Libby

President Bush commuted the sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Monday, sparing him from a 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case.
the HOWLING surge is about to begin (http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usbush0703,0,3656692,print.story?coll=ny-top-headlines)

[MrSanity]

Can't wait for Ted Kennedy's reaction.

[Timberwolf]

About farkin' time!!!

[DesertFox]

Bush was waiting to see if something else might get Libby off. Not an unreasonable thing, IMO.

[ConspiracyBuff]

CNN already all over it.

[Nutrider99]

If it's perfectly acceptable for the former president and first lady to commit perjury while under investigation for felonies they committed, why would it not be acceptable for Libby to commit perjury in a case that the prosecutor knew from the beginning was a bogus partisan witch hunt?

[DesertFox]

You won't get an argument from me. Bill Clinton was a liberal. That's the dif.

[Sarah]

So when is he going to commute the sentences of those poor border patrol agents?

[DesertFox]

I dunno, but I don't think they got a commute coming. I think they seriously broke the law and deserve what happened to them.

I'm one of the few here who thinks that.

[Sarah]

I dunno, but I don't think they got a commute coming. I think they seriously broke the law and deserve what happened to them.

I'm one of the few here who thinks that.

I weep for thee.. :cryrub:

[DesertFox]

Investor's Business Daily

Late Monday came the welcome news that President Bush has commuted the 30-month prison sentence of former vice presidential aide Scooter Libby. It was the least he could do.

We've suggested before that it would be a good idea to give Libby a full pardon. After all, he was found guilty only after what was clearly a politically motivated trial during which he was charged with covering up a non-crime.

Libby's life and career have been exemplary. Yet, for misremembering some comments he made to journalists, he got 30 months in prison — a grave miscarriage of justice if ever there was one.

We've often wondered why this farce, pursued with Ahab-like zeal by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, was even allowed to continue.

Libby's own defense team put it best in describing the trial as "unwarranted, unjust and motivated by politics." Even liberal Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen called the prosecution of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff a "runaway train."

Fair-minded Americans look at the case and see there wasn't one to be made. So why was he pursued?


More (http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=268268769518960)

[DoctorDoom]

It was a RAT witch hunt from the getgo. The traitors have wanted administration heads since the 2001 Inauguration. They didn't have the balls to go for #1 and #2 directly, so they decided to go after everyone around Bush and Cheney.

The whole lot of the RATs should be convicted of seeking to undermine the USA in wartime and should be air-dropped (parachutes optional) into the middle of the Mohave.

The White House had kept quiet, perhaps fearing a fight with the Democrats that control both Congress and much of the political agenda of what remains of President Bush's second term.http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/BallBasket.jpg

Buy a clue, King George: even if you fellate those treasonous sons of bitches on prime time, they'll still hate you and want to destroy you. If you don't fight them, they'll just get worse, and you will succeed only in turning off what few Conservatives and Republicans still think there's hope.

George, try for a moment to grasp the glaringly obvious: RATs are obsessed with turning America into a tyrannical, energy-starved, terrorism-beset, balkanized, third-world shithole. If you don't fight the bastards at every turn, you can kiss your legacy goodbye.

Grow some Texas-sized balls, George, and spend your last two years making life hell for those traitors. "Let's Roll!" Remember that? We're waiting.

[Timberwolf]

I dunno, but I don't think they got a commute coming. I think they seriously broke the law and deserve what happened to them.

I'm one of the few here who thinks that.
Yeah, but I'm not gonna bust yer ballz over it...I don't understand, nor do I agree with, your position, but it's YOUR position. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

'nuf sed...

[Tazeeyore]

Fox, I know you think that they committed a crime but what they did was far less destructive than what the drug dealing thug mexican and his enablers at the DA's office did to the morale and overall perception of border agents. I, with 20 years in law enforcement, think that they should have killed the scumbag and the DA should have supported them. The next scumbag drug dealer would think twice about crossing the border to peddal his junk. Now they know how to scam the system and will do so freely and often.

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

Guess I'm going to be a lone wolf...er...homeschooler, LOL. I think it was more like a bone thrown to a HUGELY upset constituency over Shamnesty. Wag the dog, baby, wag the dog.

[DesertFox]

Fox, I know you think that they committed a crimeNo, Taz, I KNOW they committed a crime. More than "a crime." They committed two or three crimes, all of them major crimes and all involving betrayal of the public trust. How their crimes stack up against others in terms of damage is irrelevant.

I'm astonished that you of all people pooh-pooh their crimes. They literally took the law into their own hands, misusing their authority to apply deadly force and then doing their utmost to cover up.

That doesn't exculpate the scum they were after. He's not the subject of this conversation; the putative law officers are.

You who think those two got a raw deal: Be clear about what you're condoning. You're taking the position that the ends justify the means. We have been screaming about liberals taking that position since this board got started six years ago. You're taking the position that those BP agents' actions would stop illegals and druggers, so it's okay. That's precisely the sort of thinking we've been at liberals' throats about, and rightly so.

[bannerman]

Can't wait for Ted Kennedy's reaction.

http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/19070/2005798342211022712_rs.jpg

[bannerman]

So when is he going to commute the sentences of those poor border patrol agents?

sadly to say I think George has a huge PSYCHOLOGIOCAL blind spot on all things "mexican".

Alas, the Border Patrol Agents are clearly not on his radar

[bannerman]

Guess I'm going to be a lone wolf...er...homeschooler, LOL. I think it was more like a bone thrown to a HUGELY upset constituency over Shamnesty. Wag the dog, baby, wag the dog.

I hate to say this but you may just be right.

nothing will ever again surprise me about this particular President

[DesertFox]

"EARBED"?!? :question:

[bannerman]

The Great One speaks on the Non Crime

http://jebstersr.freepgs.com/MLFAudio/TGOaboutLibby070207.wma

[Sarah]

At least Bush didn't sell this pardon like Clinton sold some of his.

[Sarah]

No, Taz, I KNOW they committed a crime. More than "a crime." They committed two or three crimes, all of them major crimes and all involving betrayal of the public trust. How their crimes stack up against others in terms of damage is irrelevant.

I'm astonished that you of all people pooh-pooh their crimes. They literally took the law into their own hands, misusing their authority to apply deadly force and then doing their utmost to cover up.

That doesn't exculpate the scum they were after. He's not the subject of this conversation; the putative law officers are.
Oh please! They blasted a cross border drug runner in the butt and got stomped on for it.
The fact the guy they shot has been caught running drugs after that incident was not allowed in the trial. That sutton slug tracked this drug runner down and offered him immunity just to nail two border agents that should have shot him in the head instead of the butt.
If these border agents tried to cover up what they did then it was for fear of being screwed for doing what they should be allowed to do in the first place. So at most they deserve a slap on the wrist, not prison.

[DesertFox]

My prollem with the commutation is that Bush -- again -- tried to split the difference and thus made no one happy. Democrats scream just as loudly about this commutation as they would have about a pardon, even though a pardon was in order because this was a phony political witch from the git-go and everybody, even liberals, know it.

Bush has his head so far up his ass he thinks his tonsils are bowels.

[DesertFox]

Oh please! They blasted a cross border drug runner in the butt and got stomped on for it.The guy was unarmed. The ROE forbade shooting at unarmed people. They broke the law.
The fact the guy they shot has been caught running drugs after that incident was not allowed in the trial. And that has what to do with what the BP's did? That sutton slug tracked this drug runner down and offered him immunity just to nail two border agents that should have shot him in the head instead of the butt.:rolleyes:
If these border agents tried to cover up what they did then it was for fear of being screwed for doing what they should be allowed to do in the first place. Allowed to just shoot people they decide need to be shot, eh? That's your idea of what a law officer should be doing? So at most they deserve a slap on the wrist, not prison.Not at all. They got what they had coming.

My position will only change if someone can show me where it's legal -- ever -- for a cop to shoot an unarmed person, even if he IS fleeing. So far you haven't justified your position in any way; you have merely stated your opinions.

[Sarah]

The guy was a drug runner, how did they know for sure he was unarmed? Considering how often the border patrol gets shot at by smugglers, including the mexican military, then why take the chance?

[DeclinetoState]

The guy was unarmed. The ROE forbade shooting at unarmed people. They broke the law.

While I tend to agree with DF on this, I also think the law under which they were prosecuted was poorly written.

As for "Scooter," well, with a name like that, prison might be a tad more difficult than it has been for other people.

[BEST45CAL]

...yeah, whatever. We saw this coming. Just didn't expect it so soon.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

Sarah:
The guy was a drug runner, how did they know for sure he was unarmed? Considering how often the border patrol gets shot at by smugglers, including the mexican military, then why take the chance?

:unsmile: Not just shot at, but have you seen the sizes of some of the rocks that Border Patrol agents have thrown at them?

[omegatrump]

So when is he going to commute the sentences of those poor border patrol agents?

King George has a very warped sence of justice. I think his commuting the sentence of Libby is ok, after all, he was a victim of liberal prosecution. That's not why Bush commuted Libby. The Border Patrol Agents were interfering with somebody importants drug smuggler. Every body knows that a true conservative is apposed to the drugging of our youth. So, yes, liberal prosecution.

Obviously the prosecutor, Johnnny Sutton, is in the pocket of somebody pretty important. Drug dealers in high places? Nothing he has done in the BP cases resembles justice. Liberal is as Liberal does.

I always believed that it was drug money that put Bill Clinton in the White House. (Mina Arkansas) I have a strong hunch that King George may have his fingers in it as well.

[omegatrump]

Oh please! They blasted a cross border drug runner in the butt and got stomped on for it.
The fact the guy they shot has been caught running drugs after that incident was not allowed in the trial. That sutton slug tracked this drug runner down and offered him immunity just to nail two border agents that should have shot him in the head instead of the butt.
If these border agents tried to cover up what they did then it was for fear of being screwed for doing what they should be allowed to do in the first place. So at most they deserve a slap on the wrist, not prison.


Absolutely right.

We live in a time when men "call good evil, and evil good".

I just watched a documentary on a cop who shot a US Airman 3 times as he was on his knees. He was an Iraqi war vet. Unarmed. The cop was black. The dead Irai vet was Hispanic. The cop told him to get up, he said ok I'm getting up. As he started to get up the cop shot him three times. The jury found the cop not guilty??????? It was all on video. Peoples reasoning process can be fairly scewed.

[Naturalized-Texan]

Commuting Libby's sentence is good, but President Bush should have issued him a FULL pardon. After all, the Libby prosecution was strictly political since he committed no crime. Since Fitzgerald knew before he even tried for an indictment of Libby that the source for Plame's identity was Richard Armitage, Fitzgerald should have dropped the investigation of Libby before it even began.

[DoctorDoom]

The guy was unarmed.Brer DF, I love ya like a brother, but when your job requires intimate daily contact with the lowest, most violent, most cold-blooded of Mexican criminals, monsters who would kill you just because, the one thing you NEVER assume is that they are unarmed.

When a drug smuggler, while fleeing, turns and raises his arm in a manner that says, "I keel you, gringo!" no BP agent with an IQ higher than his shoe size is going to wonder if he is really armed.

The Mexican military is losing members who are deserting to join the drug cartels because it's safer than fighting them. They are that powerful, that violent and that ruthless. They're not human. They're monsters.

And in the US, the best amigo of the Mexicriminals, our Border Patrol agents are shackled by f**king bureaucratic bullshit that in effect paints big reg targets on them.

To hell with rules and regulations and "First, try being nice!" crap. Drug smugglers are barbarians. They should be shot dead the instant they hit US soil, period. Those idiotic laws and regs are putting our guys in harm's way against savages whose only law is guns.

It's a literal war zone. America is being invaded. And we're imprisoning our guys for acting logically and in self-preservation. When civility mandates insanity, it ceases to be tolerable.

Sutton should be debarrred. He's on a witch hunt.

[Rhino]

White House: Libby Pardon Not Off the Table
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

WASHINGTON — President Bush's decision to commute the sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby doesn't mean he is not open to hearing an appeal for a pardon, White House press secretary Tony Snow said Tuesday.

"The reason I will say I'm not going to close the door on a pardon is simply this: that Scooter Libby may petition for one. But the president has done what he thinks is appropriate to resolve this case," Snow said, adding that a request isn't on the table.

"There is always a possibility or there's an avenue open for anybody to petition for consideration of a pardon. As far as we know, that's not been done, and we don't know if it's contemplated by Scooter Libby or his defense team," Snow said.

The president consulted with senior officials of his administration before deciding to commute Libby's sentence, Snow said. He could not say whether Vice President Dick Cheney was involved in those deliberations.

"I don't have direct knowledge, but on the other hand, the president did consult with senior officials and I'm sure that everybody had an opportunity to share their views , Snow told reporters in his daily briefing....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287903,00.html

[Rhino]

Political Leaders Express Outrage, Support for 'Scooter' Libby's Commuted Sentence
Tuesday, July 03, 2007

WASHINGTON — Presidential candidates and likely-to-be presidential candidates from both sides of the political aisle reacted quickly to President Bush's commutation of I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's prison sentence Monday.

Libby had been sentenced to 2 1/2 year in jail, two years probation and a $250,000 fine. Libby, who is appealing the perjury and obstruction of justice conviction in the case of the leak of a CIA employee's identity, was denied the opportunity to remain free while the case is pending. With the president's commutation, he will not have to go to prison, though the other penalties remain intact.

Among the first to offer support was former Tennessee senator and possible White House hopeful Fred Thompson, who served on the advisory board of the legal defense fund for Libby, and urged Bush to pardon him.

"I am very happy for Scooter Libby," Thompson said. "I know that this is a great relief to him, his wife and children. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life."

GOP presidential candidate and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said: "After evaluating the facts, the president came to a reasonable decision and I believe the decision was correct."

Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama offered a different take.

"This decision to commute the sentence of a man who compromised our national security cements the legacy of an administration characterized by a politics of cynicism and division, one that has consistently placed itself and its ideology above the law," Obama said. "This is exactly the kind of politics we must change so we can begin restoring the American people's faith in a government that puts the country's progress ahead of the bitter partisanship of recent years."

Presidential candidate and New York Sen. Hillary Clinton described actions that led to Libby's conviction as part of a larger effort by the White House to silence critics of the war in Iraq....http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,287790,00.html

[Timberwolf]

Brer DF, I love ya like a brother, but when your job requires intimate daily contact with the lowest, most violent, most cold-blooded of Mexican criminals, monsters who would kill you just because, the one thing you NEVER assume is that they are unarmed.

When a drug smuggler, while fleeing, turns and raises his arm in a manner that says, "I keel you, gringo!" no BP agent with an IQ higher than his shoe size is going to wonder if he is really armed.

The Mexican military is losing members who are deserting to join the drug cartels because it's safer than fighting them. They are that powerful, that violent and that ruthless. They're not human. They're monsters.

And in the US, the best amigo of the Mexicriminals, our Border Patrol agents are shackled by f**king bureaucratic bullshit that in effect paints big reg targets on them.
Makes me wonder if Sutton is on the take from the drug cartels.

To hell with rules and regulations and "First, try being nice!" crap. Drug smugglers are barbarians. They should be shot dead the instant they hit US soil, period. Those idiotic laws and regs are putting our guys in harm's way against savages whose only law is guns.

It's a literal war zone. America is being invaded. And we're imprisoning our guys for acting logically and in self-preservation. When civility mandates insanity, it ceases to be tolerable.
Absofrigginlutely. ANYONE crossing into this country anywhere but an official border crossing should be met with deadly force.

Sutton should be debarrred. He's on a witch hunt.He ought to be brought up on charges of hindering the ongoing War on Drugs.

[MrSanity]

http://aycu31.webshots.com/image/19070/2005798342211022712_rs.jpg

Perhaps she'll pardon his next murder.

[Kathy30]

The Border Patrol agents were NOT convicted of shooting at an unarmed fleeing suspect. They were convicted of not filing the proper report abd picking up the shells.

BP regulations say that field agents give oral reports to their supervisor, who if, in his discretion, deems it necessary files the report. The agents were railroaded. It's a message, like the conviction of Hernandez was a message. Enforce the law at your PERIL.