Hey Freak!

Consider this...

Paris Hilton spent more time in jail than convicted felon Scooter Libby.

Paris' offense? Violation of probation stemming from a reckless driving charge. She spent 23 days in jail.

Scooter's offense? Obstruction of justice (which, by the way, is the offense that brought about Bill Clinton's impeachment) during an investigation into the outing of a covert CIA agent. That agent was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran, which means that everybody else working covertly under this operation was also outed. His jail time has been commuted, and he's now looking at a full pardon.

Paris should be steamed.

My issue here is not so much with the fact that Bush commuted the sentence (though I am certainly not pleased with that) as much as it is with the fact that the system allows him and any other president to commute a sentence or issue a pardon without any required reasoning. The list of people pardoned by presidents (of both parties) is lengthy and these people are not the wrongly accused, they are almost people with connections to the current president and/or his party. This says two things to me: (1) There is no way we should allow them to pardon (I know this case is commuting, not pardoning, but the principle is the same) whomever they want without any sort of review. That's entirely too much unchecked power for one person. (2) We should probably be worried that our leaders have so many friends and associates in prison or facing prison.

Didn't we learn anything when we had all these discussions 7 or 8 years ago under Clinton? (and before that, and before that, etc.)

It's some messed up shit, ain't it?

I don't think that a President should be able to commute anyone sentence. "Scooter" broke the fucking law, and he gets to walk away...

I'd love to write an email or letter to GW and tell him what a scumbag I think he is but I'd probably end up on some watchlist. though I probably already am on one....

Bush is a lame duck with nothing to lose. Of course he is going to pardon Mr. Libby. Bush's (or Cheney's) involvement is implied here. Scooter most probably agreed to take the fall to protect the President.

It is only one of many examples of the lawlessness of this President. He really should be impeached but its probably too late to bother now.

We can only hope that we do a better job of picking the next Pres. The horrible thing is not a lot of great choices, just like the last time.

The lesson for Paris? uh... I guess have some valuable information for which to barter with.

I'm still pissed that Cheney was never indicted in this whole mess. I think they (as in, the whole executive branch) belong in jail, and I'm fucking worried/pissed about the events of the past 6ish years. January 2009 cannot come soon enough for me, and I am honestly worried about what might transpire before the election to prevent it from taking place.

For one, Paris didn't get enough jail time. There's been people convicted of the same thing who get a lot longer than that.

As for Scooter Libby (and really, what kind of nickname is Scooter for a grown man?), he should have gone to jail, if indeed it was him that committed the crime. What's broken here is that the President (or your Governors, as I understand it) can do these sorts of things. It's wrong, it circumvents the system, and it shouldn't be so. Not without some kind of judicial review or something. Letting a person off because, although technically they committed a crime, they really shouldn't serve time for what they did is one thing. Just letting your friends and supporters skate because you feel like it is quite another. Other countries don't give their elected officials such a sweeping ability to circumvent their legal system.

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