Libby's sentence on the Valerie Plame case was commuted by Bush.

[icarus]

Libby's sentence on the Valerie Plame case was commuted by Bush.

This is disgusting.

Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA operative. Her husband worked for our government (State Department, I believe) and went to Nigeria to check to see if Saddam Hussein was buying material for WMDs. He found little evidence of this fact, yet Bush lied in the State of the Union, saying Saddam Hussein was doing just that.

Valerie's husband came forward and said, no, that's not true. The CIA also fought internally and said the bulk of the evidence did not support Bush's claims.

Dick Cheney's office retaliated and leaked CIA agent Valerie Plame's undercover status to the press. There's evidence tying Libby, Karl Rove and Cheney to the leak, and I believe this was Cheney's decision (because this is his style: vengeful and dirty).

Blowing Valerie's cover could have cost her life. It did cost her job. The precedent is ugly news for the CIA because the executive branch now wields the power of life and death over their operatives if it is willing to sacrifice national security for petty vengeance.

Libby got 30 months jail time for his involvement, and it was clear he was the fall guy.

In a show of staggering disregard for our criminal justice system and personal favoritism, George Bush just wiped away all that jail time.

If our entire executive branch were blown up by terrorists tomorrow -- especially Dick Cheney -- I would not mourn. Maybe Cheney should go to Iraq for an extended vacation, with the CIA hunting for suicide bombers before his visit ... ooops, missed one.

For the first time I want Hillary Clinton as our next president.

Comments

[ncp.livejournal.com]

Bush does a favor for one of his cronies. Color me surprised. I'm just too sick and tired to be horrified any more.

[angiepen.livejournal.com]

Oh, good grief. :(

Angie

[noblerot.livejournal.com]

Why, despite my absolute lack of surprise, am I still so angry? After seven years, the idiot can still make me apoplectic like a motherfucker.

[an-kayoh.livejournal.com]

Doh. Saw this on Yahoo!, apparently Bush thought the sentence was "too harsh." Uh huh, yeah, that's really your decision. And how transparent can you get?

[wymsie.livejournal.com]

Typical behavior for a corrupt government; I'd expect nothing more or less. :(

"Others point out that a jury of citizens weighed all the evidence and listened to all the testimony and found Mr. Libby guilty of perjury and obstructing justice. They argue, correctly, that our entire system of justice relies on people telling the truth. And if a person does not tell the truth, particularly if he serves in government and holds the public trust, he must be held accountable."

Bush then stripped away the prison time.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

...

...

No words. That shitty little pissant. I keep typing and deleting. In the wider realm of the damage he and Cheney have done it's hardly more than a footnote, between Iraq, the Patriot Act (excuse me while I vomit), and stacking the deck on the Supreme Court, but it just what we should have expected.

[ncp.livejournal.com]

Iraq, the Patriot Act (excuse me while I vomit), and stacking the deck on the Supreme Court

You think those are his worst crimes? I'm more concerned with his contempt for the US Constitution and his attempt to subvert it at every possible turn.

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

No, those were just the first three that tripped off my fingers. If he doesn't go down in history as the worst president yet, then it's only because the winners write the books - and censor them.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That shitty little pissant.

I laughed all the way to the movies over this line. Yes. It's a weaselly thing to do. He doesn't even care about how it looks.

Icarus

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

Out of curiosity, what makes you think that Hilary Clinton wouldn't do the same thing if it were one of her buddies? Obviously this was a disgusting thing, and the administration was wrong, but I personally don't believe that the Bush administration or republicans in general have the market cornered when it comes to corruption. Seems to be a widespread thing in politics. Frankly I'm sick of all of it. Government in general. Every side has an opinion, but no side is ever completely right or completely innocent of wrong-doing. *shrug* Just my thoughts.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

You didn't vote for Bush, did you?

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

lol. Nope, I didn't. I didn't like any of the candidates, so I chose not to vote. It's been a while since I had enough respect for any candidate (although last election was the first one I was over 18 for--I'm talking about the coming election). It's quite frustrating because I believe everyone has a voice and should use it--and that since I didn't vote, I have less of a right to bitch about what goes on in this country than someone who voted. But there you have it. This coming election should be an interesting one. I would that I wasn't so cynical.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

wildernessguru was saying the same thing.

I told WG that if he didn't vote, I wasn't going to listen to him complain about the government. So we sat down with his absentee ballot last election and poured over the candidates.

I looked up everything I could about the candidates online, put an X through the ones who were obvious idiots or who were sponsored by organizations we knew were corrupt (you know, the forest service candidate sponsored by the logging companies). It's amazing how obvious some of these people are. That left about two-thirds of the candidates who seemed clean.

Then we put an X through those candidates whose ideas we didn't support, or who were running under lame "I'm for the widows and orphans" slogans. I figure those either didn't have a plan or were (more likely) completely corrupt.

That left a lot of good people (as far as we could tell) especially at the thankless local level.

Among those, wildernessguru voted for every black man, black woman, Latino and Asian on the ticket. I asked him about this. He said, "Things won't change otherwise."

It's much easier to get information about candidates than it used to be, and the elections are about more than the presidency. I think that his claim that "everyone's corrupt" was just him being lazy.

Icarus

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

Well, for me, I think it's that I have so many differing opinions. I'm for one thing that is clearly a liberal/left view and another that is clearly conservative/right. I agree that there is much more to the issues and the elections than the presidency candidate, but you asked me specifically if I voted for Bush, so I answered that question specifically. And I'd rather be accused of being a fence sitter or lazy than vote for a candidate who supports something I disagree with on a fundamental level. Don't assume that just because I didn't vote, it means I didn't look at all the candidates or dig deeper into the issues. I simply couldn't bring myself to vote for the lesser of two evils.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

That becomes more and more true the higher up you go.

At the local and state level I've found candidates who -- although I don't support everything they're for -- they stand for things that are important to me. Maria Cantwell is a tough bulldog who's stood her ground against pointless drilling in the ANWR. I may not agree with her position on stem cell research, but she's a candidate worth supporting. The other state senator, meh, I vote for her just to get a number because I know she votes in a block with Cantwell, but I think that one's a wimp.

Icarus

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

That is true. *nods* We recently became a city here, and I felt very comfortable voting for the city officials because I know many of them and was able to say firmly that I supported enough of what they stood for and what their plans for me area were. Same with the Senate, House, and Governor. I come from a very conservative state, and the candidates running from here were pretty firmly in one corner or the other. And it's different voting for a state rep than a country leader, at least I've found. When the issues are close to home and literally effect your daily life, for me, I found it easier to find a person who I could back. I think that the issues important to my state can be different from the ones important to another state. And you are absouletly right. It seems the higher up you go, the more complicated it gets, the more grey area there is.

[wook77.livejournal.com]

And let's not forget the lives of the operatives she worked with, all the information and intel that was still being gathered out in the field due to her work and the rest. But hey, getting sucked off in the white house and lying about it to save your marriage is a high crime and misdemeanor. Fucking the country's national security up the ass is nothing.

I'm cheering for a Hillary/Barak ticket this election and a Barak/Hillary ticket next election.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I disagree with you on everything except that Scooter was the fall guy. He didn't leak Plame's name (as it turns out, it's likely it was Richard Armitage, who's not been in the least taken to task for it.) I'm displeased that Bush didn't have the guts to pardon Scooter and fell back on this half-baked commutation, and I plan to chip in when the Scooter fund is started to help him pay the fine.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I disagree with you on everything

Don't tell me you voted for Cheney, I mean, Bush?

Personally, I think Dick Cheney should be forced to crawl naked with a bit in his mouth over broken glass while being fucked in the ass by a giant scorpion.

Icarus

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

This made me laugh... hard. Nice imagery. :D

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Ooooo, hate!sex with Dick! I'd pay money to see this, mind. Especially if Rummy was doing the scorpion bit, suited up in a furrie outfit.

I would have voted for Dubya, twice, but he was not on offer in my neck of the woods. I voted for Sarkozy, who so far doesn't disappoint.

[soul-bound-8686.livejournal.com]

Heh, I don't know which would frighten Dicky more: the giant scorpion or the possible homosexual connotations (yikes!!)...

[shezan.livejournal.com]

He's not anti-gay. He's got no problems with his lesbian daughter.

[jaig.livejournal.com]

Much as I dislike Bush, I never thought he'd so something as brazen and well, shameless as that.

[ansku]

Again with the 'thank gods I don't live in USA'... We have plenty of idiots here in Finland as well, but at least they play in relatively small sandboxes. I can't say that Halonen is a great president that will be remembered by future generations (except for being the first female president we've had), but she's nice and harmless enough. I appreciate that, especially seeing what you guys have.

[chrome-animagus.livejournal.com]

Everytime he appears in the news, it makes my guts shudder.

Bush. I can't wait until you're gone.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I saw a great bumper sticker:

January 20th, 2009
Bush's Last Day.

Yeah. No kidding.

[chrome-animagus.livejournal.com]

Am I being too cynical if I really expect when that day comes, something will happen (some crisis or breakdown in security or godforbid, another attack) and he'll try to stay in office to get the country through it?

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

Oh, I expect he might try something. But a "leader" wanting to stage a coup would be really well-advised not to deploy his military overseas for years with inadequate equipment and poorly defined goals prior to attempting a takeover.

[chrome-animagus.livejournal.com]

A "leader" also might be "well-advised" to not continue in a war that 70% of the population doesn't want him in.

Well-advised doesn't go any better with him than leader does.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I hope so. I would love to see him dragged off kicking and screaming under the arm of an oversized Secret Service man. :D

[chrome-animagus.livejournal.com]

Oh, god.

I'm glad I wasn't drinking when I read that.