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Monday, July 02, 2007
No Jail for Scooter: Bush Commutes Libby's Sentence
As reported on TPMmuckraker, which also has Bush's entire statement from late this afternoon. Bottom line: Bush commuted Libby's original sentence of thirty months of prison, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine by stripping the sentence of the 2 1/2 years of jail time. Bush said "I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive." As we all know, he's The Decider, the justice system be damned. Less than three years in jail for convictions on two felonies, as sentenced by a conservative judge? Yeah, excessive.
More at Raw Story, including reactions from Reid and Conures. By commuting Libby's sentence rather than pardoning him, Libby can still take the 5th if called before Congress to testify. Slick, ain't it?
I think of all those unmonied, unwhite people sitting in federal prisons doing time under mandatory sentences for relatively minor drug infractions and the like and this development makes me sick. How about you?
July 2, 2007 at 04:27 PM in Crime | Permalink
Comments
I have to say that I expected this. Nothing is beneath these slime buckets. After the abolition of the Geneva Conventions and the elimination of Habeus Corpus, this a small thing. It still hurts and makes me very angry. I want my country back!
Terry Riley
Posted by: Terry Riley | Jul 2, 2007 4:51:52 PM
Yeah, not really a surprise but it still pisses me off. Terry's right, just another awful example of the criminals in the White House. Its hard to keep up with all the crimes.
Posted by: I Vote | Jul 2, 2007 5:14:40 PM
Not surprised in the least. I think pardons should be subject to review and rejection... It irritates me to no end when someone gets pardoned just because the president was in on the same damned scandal.
Posted by: | Jul 3, 2007 3:54:09 AM
As much as this pisses me off I want to think positive, perhaps this will be enough to finally generate enough rage to impeach. In the very least the House and Senate Judiciary Committees should launch through investigations into Cheney's involvement and Bu$h being a party to obstruction of justice.
Posted by: VP | Jul 3, 2007 7:05:20 AM
I wonder if anything will make a dent on Americans. People answer polls and say they don't support Bush but what do they do about his crimes? Nothing. Keep shopping. Keep buying bigger and bigger houses. Line up to buy the latest unnecessary gadget like the iPhone. Think if even a fraction of the energy that goes into creating and using fancy cell phones went into something we really need.
Posted by: shop til you drop | Jul 3, 2007 8:24:05 AM
Meteor Blades has a front page story on Kos this morning about impeachment. His suggestion is to target the members of the House Judiciary Committee. This comm. is the group that would launch impeachment if it is to happen.
https://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/3/23916/45625
Posted by: | Jul 3, 2007 8:31:26 AM
It seems like today's America is too timid to try to impeach a president and try him for crimes... which makes me wonder, at what point did things change so that the people fear the president so much more than the president fears the people?
Posted by: | Jul 3, 2007 9:08:38 PM
