Taijitu
Forum Meta => Archive => General Discussion Archive => Topic started by: Eientei on July 05, 2007, 02:02:13 AM
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President Bush managed to piss off even more Americans yesterday, when he commuted the thirty-month prison sentence brought upon Scooter Libby by a federal court. In case you don't remember or haven't followed the story, Scooter Libby was chief of staff to VP Cheney and was charged and convicted over the leak of the identity of a CIA agent whose husband (American ambassador Joe Wilson) had publicly criticized US involvement in Iraq. It was a political attack against Wilson likely intended as a message to other would-be objectors in Washington, and it constituted a crime.
Libby was charged, convicted and sentenced for attempting to cover up responsibility for the leak in the Vice President's office, many say to divert attention from higher-ups among Cheney's staff. However, the President has canceled his sentence - it's not a pardon, as Libby is still considered a convicted felon, but he won't serve prison time. What do you think of this move? Bush didn't overstep the law, as the US Constitution gives him both the power to commute prison sentences and to pardon crimes, but a lot of Americans, myself included, feel that he's once again betrayed our trust. This was one of the only instances in which the executive branch has been held accountable for its actions since the current President took office, and now it's been taken back.
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Count me among the pissed. And I would be equally so if it was Libby -alone- who went to jail over this. It was painfully obvious that it was no "leak". The woman was sabotaged purposely to punish her husband. It's equally obvious who the orders came from - Bush and/or Cheney or both. Libby had every reason to be so confident all through this, because Bush has said all along that if he was found guilty, he would suspend the sentence. Not only should Libby be in jail, but Bush and Cheney along with him. Does that sound harsh? Not in my opinion. That's abuse of power.
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Doesn't the Constitution actually say that Bush's actions were wrong because he commuted a sentence of someone clearly criminal?
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As I understand it, Bush's actions were legal. The President can pardon or commute whoever he wants. I don't think it will make much difference politically either. The people who are howling for Bush's head, can't howl much louder than they already are, and he doesn't have any political capital left to lose.
I don't think it's right for the President to pardon his criminal friends, but it is legal, and Bush is neither the first, nor the last that will do that. :(
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i didn't followed this, but justice is for all and since American constitution bases come from the French one, 'Equalité' is a sacred pillar, and pardons or whatever conceded by presidents or whoever is against 'Equalité' as far as i know. So whatever amendment gives the president the right to pardon whoever he wants isn't framed in morality.
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The North Pacific has this topic on their forums and I'll say the same thing I did there. This is just one more reason that Nov. 2008 can't come soon enough.
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Maybe we could quarantine Bush somewhere very remote... like a nuclear test site.
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send him to an island like the french did to one of their leaders...i don't think it was Napoleon, but Gaul? or was it Napoleon? :S
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Napoleon, Delfos. Twice sent to two different islands.
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Yep. Mediterranean exile, anyone?
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Antarctica.
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All of those locations are too close. How about the moon?
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They might try to say it's "inhumane" to put him on the moon, but Mars might have had water on it at some point so that has to be acceptable.
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Well, can we really be that cruel to the life that may have survived beneath the Mars surface?
I suggest we give him his own sputnik 2 replika and just give him a good push in a random direction, the new Laika :P Besides, he would never attempt to escape as he's surrounded by "communist hardware"
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Actually, I'm inclined to applaud Libby for his actions. After all, any harm done to the CIA is good for the rest of the world...right?
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:wb: i guess
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Actually, I'm inclined to applaud Libby for his actions. After all, any harm done to the CIA is good for the rest of the world...right?
You have to consider the fact that this action was taken by the Vice President's office as a method of embarrassing an official who was speaking out about, as he saw it, the mistaken policies of the government. It was also about attempting to shut up future vocal opposition (and they pretty much failed.) The CIA has done some shady things in the past, to say the least, but Libby and his cohorts are the kinds of people using these agencies to carry out their agendas anyway, and they probably didn't consider the sacrifice of one agent a huge problem.
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I very strongly disapproved of this presidential action; however I will note that I am satisfied it is perfectly legal. It's not an amendment either; it's part of a lengthy sentence (Article 2, Section 2, Paragraph 1)-- "and he shall have Power to Grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offenses against the United States, except in Cases of Impeachment." (Referring to the President). That paragraph appears to be the 'misc' box of Presidential Powers put in by the framers-- its preceding clause is the rather eccentric "he may require the Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Departments, upon any subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices," which seems a touch dull and passé.