How can anyone argue that there is a justification for pardoning Scooter Libby?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1597658,00.html

Michael Kinsley fleshed out one of many arguements for pardoning Scooter Libby at time.com (link above). I have a huge problem with the idea of this even being considered.

The fact that Scooter Libby lied to the FBI is why he potentially could be going to jail. Kinsley suggests that the real issue is that the laws are unfair, because Libby had to chose to lie to the FBI as it was a better option than having to potentially face jail time for exposing a government spy.

To me this seems pretty simple. He made his choice.

How is this different from the criminal who violates his bond and gets arrested?

Scooter Libby was part of a heinous act that I personally feel was traitorous in intent. My only regret is that Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are not also looking at jail time.

Sean Hannity of Fox News ran a show that said basically, why is Scooter Libby looking at Jail time when there is a scummy democrat who has gotten away with worse?

That is horrible logic! Does that mean that we should let a pedophile go free because an alleged killer like OJ didn't do time?

The law doesn't catch everyone. When it does function properly, we shouldn't monkey with the results.

Scooter Libby may be a great individual with a pure heart. That really doesn't matter. He did a vile thing and then tried to avoid being punished for it. His efforts to avoid being punished have him facing Jail time.

This isn't a tradgedy.




I do also want to add that I do fully realize Bush will pardon Libby. The corruption of that administration makes this a forgone conclusion. They will protect their own.

I am merely angry that people would throw out that he should be pardoned. I am angry that Bush's base will get up in arms and insist Bush Pardon libby because a man they belive is moral got caught trying to lie his way out of trouble. I did not hear anywhere near this level of outrage from that chunk of the Republican base when the 2 border patrol agents were sent to Jail for doing their job.

Unlike Libby who twice was party to things that clearly were not patriotic, honest, or respectable, Compean and Ramos were attempting to capture a drug smuggler as part of their job. Then the drug smuggler cuts a deal with the US goverment and we bring charges against our agents that land them both in jail.

Pardons? You want to bring up Libby as "deserving" of a pardon 2 months after you largely ignored these guys in backing your president's decision to ignore conressional and public pressure to pardon these guys? To say that is like telling jokes at a funeral. It is offensive, unwelcome, and ill-timed.

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=52545

I consider what was done to Plame to be a traitorous act to a US citizen so loyal she was willing to spy for us. The actions of Libby, Rove, and Cheney in this and other matters are disgusting and totally lacking morality. IMO.

The strong words of Democrat Harry Reid demanding Bush not pardon Libby are sadly likely political show. Some Democrats are attemping to draw in the media and use it to further underscore the corruption of the bush regime and the republicans in general when Bush does pardon Libby. (I am not going to say "the corruption of the Republicans by association", because the majority of the Republicans in Congress bought into Bush wholeheartedly and were an active part of the whole Bush machine in the last 6 years. If you make the bed, you should lie in it.)

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/41518

I wish, as lawyer Williams Hughes writes in the article above, that the words of Harry Reid were the start of a movement to begin proceedings to impeach Dick Cheney, but the reality is the Democrats are too cautious to take action at this point. Some in the democratic camp are happy to allow the Bush regime to continue a slow bleed on the popularity of the republican party in the hopes of winning the big prize --- the presidency and strong majorities in the house and senate so they can proceed to ramrod in their initiatives like the republicans did for the last 6 years.

I wish instead of trying to take their turn and become the corrupt all-powerful party, they would instead settle for having a slight edge and instead do one of the functions of their jobs --- attacking governmental corruption.

Fox News, Harnessed Piranas, Anna Nicole, Scooter Libby, and Iraq.

I really shouldn't expect anything from Fox news, but the fact that their last name is "News" always leads me to expect more from them. And that always leaves me disappointed.

I was a reporter in college. Sure I was no award winning journalist or anything, but I researched and wrote up news stories. Reporting can be a great pasttime because you can investigate the pricks of the world and expose their assinine nature to ensure they get their just desserts.

I suspect that this is why the media has a label as being liberal and comprised mostly of liberals. There probably is a lot of truth to that. What other job allows a guy making 20K or less to have the ability to take down a corrupt, monstrous individual making billions?

To curb potential abuses, there are tons of rules to keep the media piranas in check. There are laws preventing slander and liable which may not offer as much protection for public officials, but still prevents gross abuses by the press.

So called "liberal" media sources like CNN follow these rules but still seek to deliver the news. That is why they would report on clinton's sex life every day for years. There was blood in the water.

Fox News, on the other hand, selectively reports on things that help the cause of conservitism in the US. Scooter Libby, VP Dick Cheney's former Cheif of staff, goes to trial for lying to the CIA. It has been heavily speculated that Cheney and Bush's Deputy Cheif of Staff, Karl Rove, hatched a plan to leak the identity of one of our spies, in order to get back at her husband, Joe Wilson, who after being sent on a fact finding mission by the president, came back only with facts...

(The administration theoretically needed something that fit in with their "weapons of Mass Destruction" theme they were trying to sell to the public. When Joe Wilson loudly presented his facts, it was embarrassing for the administration, so they theoretically sold out one of our spies to get back at him.)

How is that not newsworthy? It reeks of sliminess. It reaches to the top levels of our government. How is the surge in Iraq getting what seems like no more than 5 minutes or less of each hour? Fox has buried them both under "Anna Nicole death watch... week 3".

(To be fair CNN was only a little better. I won't deny that ratings play a huge role in news---especially in the world of 24 hour news TV. Sex is an easier sale than corruption or war. With Fox near totally ignoring the case in favor of Anna Nicole, CNN execs probably felt they too had to give that signifigant airtime too to retain the TV surfers. Showing pictures of the deceased Anna Nicole in eveningwear is a lot more eyecatching than Scooter Libby walking in and out of a courtroom.)

The problem with all this is that media is a police force in the US. Media exposes corruption in all areas of US life. Liberals AND Conservatives have a right to know when their representatives are being shady. When the media is working for us, we are shown these abuses and we either become enraged and force action or we let it go.

Would our fathers' and grandfathers' media have left this story alone, or would they have covered it in depth? Perhaps even to the point where America as a whole rose up and demanded the removal of Rove and Cheney?

Our media, in the era of 24 hour TV news, lead by fox news, buried the story under Anna Nicole's breasts.

If as a news service you cede your responsibility to reports stories to your audience, you are doing a great disservice to your audience and you have no right to expect them to stay. How can media be bewildered by their audience tuning out to them and looking for people who actually report the news (like John Stewart on his mock news show, The Daily Show)?

America needs harnessed Pirana, not muzzled ones.

I need to remember the word "news" in a name doesn't actually convey any news is actually affliated. "The Weekly World News", "The Weekly World News", "The Weekly World News".....

The surge makes news --- with me anyway

I was struck by something watching the news this week. I saw that the Iraqi covernment is cutting ties with some high ranking politicians who are tight with Al Sadr. This came in at the same time US troops were making good progress through Sadr city.

My first thought? What gives? Sadr City is an area firmly controlled by one of the most powerful local militias in Iraq. Could the US army take Sadr City? Sure, but if that militia didn't go along with it, it would be one of the bigger battles in Iraq.

(Please be advised, I said "take", not "hold". Our military is one of the best thought out, best trained, and best funded militaries in the world. The strength of our military is our ability to take positions, but I think the size of our military does not lend itself to holding positions in Iraq. We can take an Iraqi anthill, but the cost of holding it is an extremely difficult political sell to the American public.)

By all reports, although Sadr City is not an Al Quida hangout, it may be the biggest ant hill in Iraq. But our troops are in and the fighting is nothing like what we were told to expect by reporters in Iraq...and with Al Sadr's people are being forced out of the upper level of government --- losing their voice in political issues --- shouldn't we be seeing more resistance, not less? What gives?

My second thought...A deal has to have been cut. Al Sadr lets the US do their thing for a while in Sadr city. The militia out there cools it and hides all their weapons. The Iraq government can present the image of working to meet Bush's public expectations for the surge, and Al Sadr gets his reward on the back end.

What would Al Sadr's reward be...? Total guess. I'd say part is by letting the US go into Sadr City early and "clear it" it may be less destructive to his people than having the troops go in there at the end when patience is sure to be at a minimum. Al Sadr probably has a deal with the Iraqi government that rewards him with more political power on far end and guarantees him that they will not actively seek him out at the behest of the US. He probably also has a deal with the US government either directly or through the Iraqi government that they will not take action against him if he lets the US do their thing in Sadr City for a while.

I wonder how the relative lack of media coverage to this sits with the white house...?

Welcome to the Swizzle Stick

I am consumed by political thoughts and like to weigh in from time to time to try and get a better understanding of what is actually happening in the world of politics. I don't have all the answers, but when I do hear something that rings true, I'll post it for your consideration.

I don't beleive in shouting down other's opinions --- likewise I hope to keep others who pratice that off this blog.

Please pull up a stool, have a cocktail, and join us.

911 video reviewed

-Moved from the dead blog to this more politically relevant one.-

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=85019

I was really struck by a lot of things. The lack of impact points for the engines of the flight that hit the pentagon. The fact that the plane was not physically capable of making the flight it was supposed to have made to the pentagon. Experienced military men in the pentagon smelling a particular type of explosive not used in airplanes. The part found at the pentagon that looks a lot like part of a missile and does not resemble the part of the plane that it allegedly is supposed to be. The lack of engine pieces found at the pentagon. Left handed Osama Bin Ladin (left handedness =eviiiiillll!!!!!) signing a document with his right hand. The portion of the twin tower's enormous gold stash that was found in trucks as if it was prepared to be moved out of the twin towers. What happened to the rest of the gold? The insider trading records timestamped 9/11 recovered from the HD's found in the rubble --- supposedly the computer owners thought the computers would be destroyed. The unusual evacuation drills in the twin towers in the 3 weeks prior to 9/11. The collapse of the the third building that had IRS records. The systematic evacuation of almost all of the U.S.'s air forces on 9/11.

While some of it seems like the plot of next season's 24 (flight 92), I'll give the authors this --- every claim has at least SOME first hand source making statements backing it up or pictoral supports. While some of the information seem tenuous at best (flight 92 landing in cleveland?), even in those instances questions abound (no bodies or parts found at the crash site all? That is REALLY hard to buy).

I do feel we have been lied to about a number of things. I hope the next president looks into 9/11 properly, but I feel like this will just go down as my generation's kennedy assassination.

Funny. "What if George W. Bush had been elected president?"

-Moved from the dead blog (on which many of my posts more heavily revealed my liberal leanings) to this more politically relevant (and balanced) one.-


This just cracked me up.


What if George W. Bush had been elected president?

The conservative watchdog group CCAGW cannot support THESE Republicans' spending -- how can supposed conservatives?

-Moved from the dead blog (on which many of my posts more heavily revealed my liberal leanings) to this more politically relevant (and balanced) one.-


The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, the nation’s largest nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government. (They advertisize their organization as non-partisan, but they promote obviously conservative issues that are unconnected with eliminating government waste --- like eliminating inheritence taxes --- on their website.)

Sen. John McCain wrote in the preview to CCAGW's 2005 edition of their "Pork books" series (uncovering government waste), "In 1994 there were 1,318 pork-barrel projects; in fiscal year 2005 there are an estimated 13,000 pork-barrel projects, an increase of 886 percent [over 1994]."

Forbes covered the book in an article on their website. "Pork-barrel spending for fiscal 2005 reached a record $27.3 billion, according to CAGW, a 19% increase over last year.

...
In what areas of the government is pork growing the fastest? CAGW points to homeland security, which saw pork increase 306% this year to $1.7 billion; energy and water, which increased 163% to $1.9 billion; and labor/health and human services, which increased 80% to $1.7 billion."

In a press release by CCAGW on August 5, 2005, the CCAGW Urged the President Bush to veto the latest Republican Pork package, the Highway Bill.

The CCAGW, The Taxpayers for Common Sense Action Group, The National Taxpayers Union, The Club for Growth, The Americans for Prosperity, and FreedomWorks all agreed in their letter to President Bush that the bill should have been vetoed. The groups pointed out that there are nearly 6,500 pork-barrel projects in the bill that total more than $24 billion, or nearly 9 percent of the total spending.

“President Bush had already compromised by raising his spending limit from $256 billion to $284 billion,” CCAGW President Tom Schatz said. “Using budget gimmickry to raise the real cost to $295 billion makes a mockery of the President’s call for fiscal restraint.”

“Unbelievably, President Bush has described this transportation bill as ‘fiscally responsible,’ ” Schatz said. “A bill with such waste and budget gimmickry is not deserving of such a term and should be vetoed.”