Republican Dick Cheney's aid Lewis Libby defines Republican Justice: Justice "for them" and not for others. Republican Lewis Libby deliberately interfered with the investigation into a very serious crime, indeed a "high crime" and possibly treason, of revealing an AMERICAN UNDERCOVER AGENT. Republican President Bush's disposal of justice to protect the henchman of his political ally Dick Cheney is indefensible: http://havenworks.com/people/a-z/c/cheney-dick

Leaving the fines and appeals of those fines intact protects Bush/Cheney from Libby being forced to testify further on how this nation was lied into the Iraq war debacle.A full pardon would have allowed this nation to finally find the truth.Bush will grant a full pardon to Libby on Dec/08 or more likely Jan.20th,2009. Yet another chickensh*t move by a chickensh*t alcholic President.

You HAD to know the Commutation was coming, the minute the Court refused to allow him to remain free while appealing his sentence. For Bush to commute his sentence is a disgrace, a slat in the face to the American people and conitnues to show just how "above the law" Bush, Cheney, Gonzo & Rove believe they are. I think it is time, way past time to show them just how wrong they are in that assumption. Let the impeachment proceedings begin. Where can I sign?

Wow! It's too bad President Bush didn't show that type of empathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and the Wilson family. It just goes to show that there are two types of rules depending on what side of the tracks you come from (poor and black vs. white and rich). What does "rule of law" mean? Boy... the Republicans sure use to throw that term around a lot!

It's interesting that the only person who has served jail time regarding the whole sordid Valerie Plame affair is reporter Judith Miller. . .who did not even out Plame. Talk about miscarriages of justice.

The law is for little people.

The coverup continues.

It was only necessary to commute the sentence now. The pardon will come after the November 2008 elections, before Bush leaves office.

It wasn't the nudity that Ashcroft was trying to hide when he had Lady Justice covered up... he didn't want the world to see her scarring and bruising from being raped by this administration over and over again.

This is video of our June 29 news conference with leaders of the auto and petroleum industries.

Red Cavaney, President, American Petroleum Institute; Mike Stanton, President, Association of International Automobile Manufacturers

http://www.energypolicytv.com/usea.html

Click on "Oil, Transportation Industries React To Current Legislation."

"Privately, some GOP staff suggested that the Ramos-Compean issue, if cast alongside Libby's sentencing as an example of judicial overreach, could galvanize a conservative base that has grown somnolent from a divisive immigration fight last month. It would help, they said, if Bush also mounted a public battle in support of some of his stalled judicial nominees in the Senate."

One could only imagine what a scoundel this guy is. To take Libby's pardon and use it to kill immigrants.
What a true pig!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19569704/
perhaps after reading the above article, this great guy could explain how spewing hate helps anyone!

All for votes. I am beginning to believe New Zealnad is looking pretty good. It may be under water in a very few short years but for now it sounds like paradise!

"Privately, some GOP staff suggested that the Ramos-Compean issue, if cast alongside Libby's sentencing as an example of judicial overreach, could galvanize a conservative base that has grown somnolent from a divisive immigration fight last month. It would help, they said, if Bush also mounted a public battle in support of some of his stalled judicial nominees in the Senate."

One could only imagine what a scoundel this guy is. To take Libby's pardon and use it to kill immigrants.
What a true pig!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19569704/
perhaps after reading the above article, this great guy could explain how spewing hate helps anyone!

All for votes. I am beginning to believe New Zealnad is looking pretty good. It may be under water in a very few short years but for now it sounds like paradise!

The President said he would hold accountable anyone involved in the Valerie Plame leak case. By his action today, the President shows his word is not to be believed. He has abandoned all sense of fairness when it comes to justice, he has failed to uphold the rule of law, and he has failed to hold his Administration accountable.

Who knew that mocking the Constitution could be nearly as funny as shooting a hunting buddy in the face? Among other comic dividends, Duck Hunter Dick's legal theory that the vice president is not part of the executive branch yielded a priceless weeklong series on "The Daily Show" and an online "Doonesbury Poll," conducted at Slate, to name Mr. Cheney's indeterminate branch of government.

The ridicule was so widespread that finally even this White House had to blink. By midweek, it had abandoned that particularly ludicrous argument, if not its spurious larger claim that Leaky Dick gets a free pass to ignore rules regulating federal officials' handling of government secrets.

That retreat might allow us to mark the end of this installment of the Arbusto-Halliburton Follies but for one nagging problem: Not for the first time in the history of this administration -- or the hundredth -- has the real story been lost amid the Washington kerfuffle. Once the laughter subsides and you look deeper into the narrative leading up to the punch line, you can unearth a buried White House plot that is more damning than the official scandal. This plot once again snakes back to the sinister origins of the Iraq war, to the Valerie Wilson leak case and to the press failures that enabled the administration to abuse truth and the law for too long.

One journalist who hasn't failed is Mark Silva of The Chicago Tribune. He first reported more than a year ago, in May 2006, the essentials of the "news" at the heart of the recent Cocky Dick ruckus. Mr. Silva found that the vice president was not filing required reports on his office's use of classified documents because he asserted that his role in the legislative branch, as president of the Senate, gave him an exemption.

This scoop went unnoticed by nearly everybody. It would still be forgotten today had not Henry Waxman, the dogged House inquisitor, called out Duck Hunter Dick 10 days ago, detailing still more egregious examples of the vice president's flouting of the law, including his effort to shut down an oversight agency in charge of policing him. The congressman's brief set off the firestorm that launched a thousand late-night gags.

That's all to the public good, but hiding in plain sight was the little-noted content of the Bush executive order that Oil Slick Dick is accused of violating. On close examination, this obscure 2003 document, thrust into the light only because the vice president so blatantly defied it, turns out to be yet another piece of self-incriminating evidence illuminating the White House's guilt in ginning up its false case for war.

The tale of the document begins in August 2001, when the Bush administration initiated a review of the previous executive order on classified materials signed by Bill Clinton in 1995. The Clinton order had been acclaimed in its day as a victory for transparency because it mandated the automatic declassification of most government files after 25 years.

It was predictable that the obsessively secretive Bush mafia would undermine the Clinton order. What was once a measure to make government more open would be redrawn to do the opposite. And sure enough, when the White House finally released its revised version, the scant news coverage focused on how the new rules postponed the Clinton deadline for automatic declassification and tightened secrecy so much that previously declassified documents could be reclassified.

But few noticed another change inserted five times in the revised text: every provision that gave powers to the president over classified documents was amended to give the identical powers to the vice president. This unprecedented increase in vice-presidential clout, though spelled out in black and white, went virtually unremarked in contemporary news accounts.

Given all the other unprecedented prerogatives that President George Junior has handed his vice president, this one might seem to be just more of the same. But both the timing of the executive order and the subsequent use Dick would make of it reveal its special importance in the games that the White House played with prewar intelligence.

The obvious juncture for The Decider to bestow these new powers on his vice president, you might expect, would have been soon after 9/11, especially since the review process on the Clinton order started a month earlier and could be expedited, as so much other governmental machinery was, to meet the urgent national-security crisis. Yet the new executive order languished for another 18 months, only to be published and signed with no fanfare on March 25, 2003, a week after the invasion of Iraq began.

Why then? It was throughout March, both on the eve of the war and right after "Shock and Awe," that the White House's most urgent case for Iraq's imminent threat began to unravel. That case had been built around the scariest of Saddam's supposed W.M.D., the nuclear weapons that could engulf America in mushroom clouds, and the White House had pushed it relentlessly, despite a lack of evidence. On "Meet the Press" on March 16, Tricky Dick pressed that doomsday button one more time: "We believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." But even as the vice president spoke, such claims were at last being strenuously challenged in public.

Nine days earlier Mohamed ElBaradei of the International Atomic Energy Agency had announced that documents supposedly attesting to Saddam's attempt to secure uranium in Niger were "not authentic." A then-obscure retired diplomat, Joseph Wilson, piped in on CNN, calling the case "outrageous."

Soon both Senator Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Congressman Waxman wrote letters (to the F.B.I. and the president, respectively) questioning whether we were going to war because of what Mr. Waxman labeled "a hoax." And this wasn't the only administration use of intelligence that was under increasing scrutiny. The newly formed Pet Goat Commission set its first open hearings for March 31 and requested some half-million documents, including those pertaining to what the White House covered up about Al Qaeda's threat during the summer of 2001.

The new executive order that Mr. Bush signed on March 25 was ingenious. By giving Leaky Dick the same classification powers he had, Mr. Bush gave his vice president a free hand to wield a clandestine weapon: he could use leaks to punish administration critics.

That weapon would be employed less than four months later. Under Arbusto George Bush's direction, Hunter Dick deputized Scooter Libby to leak highly selective and misleading portions of a 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq to pet reporters as he tried to discredit Mr. Wilson. By then, Mr. Wilson had emerged as the most vocal former government official accusing the White House of not telling the truth before the war.

Because of the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation, we would learn three years later about the offensive conducted by Mr. Libby on behalf of Leaky Dick and Mr. Bush. That revelation prompted the vice president to acknowledge his enhanced powers in an unguarded moment in a February 2006 interview with Brit Hume of Fox News. Asked by Mr. Hume with some incredulity if "a vice president has the authority to declassify information," Tricky Dick replied, "There is an executive order to that effect." He was referring to the order of March 2003.

Even now, few have made the connection between this month's flaccid Slick Dick flap and the larger scandal. That larger scandal is to be found in what the vice president did legally under the executive order early on rather than in his more recent rejection of its oversight rules.

Timing really is everything. By March 2003, this White House knew its hype of Saddam's nonexistent nuclear arsenal was in grave danger of being exposed. The order allowed Mr. Bush, The Arbusto Bandido, to keep his own fingerprints off the nitty-gritty of any jihad against whistle-blowers by giving Oil Slick Dick the authority to pick his own shots and handle the specifics. The president could have plausible deniability and was free to deliver non-denial denials like "If there is a leak out of my administration, I want to know who it is." Leaky Dick in turn could delegate the actual dirty work to Mr. Libby, who obstructed justice to help throw a smoke screen over the vice president's own role in the effort to destroy Mr. Wilson.

Last week The Washington Post ran a first-rate investigative series on the entire Duck Hunter Dick vice presidency. Readers posting comments were largely enthusiastic, but a few griped. "Six and a half years too late," said one. "Four years late and billions of dollars short," said another. Such complaints reflect the bitter legacy of much of the Washington press's failure to penetrate the hyping of prewar intelligence and, later, the import of the Fitzgerald investigation.

We're still playing catch-up. In a week in which the C.I.A. belatedly released severely censored secrets about agency scandals dating back a half-century, you have to wonder what else was done behind the shield of an executive order signed just after the Ides of March four years ago. Another half-century could pass before Americans learn the full story of the secrets buried by Oil Slick Dick and his crime boss to cover up their deceitful path to executing the abuses of the secret War on Christmas against Americans on American soil.

Today, Mr. Tony Snow sat at the White House answering questions to the press about President Bush just commuted the prison sentence of Scooter Libby. What are we doing? The questions asked were, does the President not hold the Crime of perjury with high dealings especially since he has leaked the name (s) of a CIA operative? Mr. Tony Snow's reply was he didn't leak the CIA name; than associated press stated "than it's obstruction of justice because if Scooter Libby didn't leak the name (s) then don't you think the White House owes the American People an apology? Mr. Tony Snow with a smirk looks and he replied, "I will apologize." His flippant response just boils my blood and it's all because he is a Public Figure...it just seems as through these heathens are pulling out every single "introduction to political science books". This is just disgraceful because not only did the President not give any information to the Judiciary about this issue. Then Tony Snow added the "Mr. Libby has lost $250,000 toward a fine plus he has two years probation sentence, he has lost complete means of his lifestyle. I'm done...a political figure gets himself in trouble and he losses his lifestyle, guess what....millions of people daily make bad career moves and they loss their lifestyles also. What makes his lifestyle so much of high priority then the regular American people? Our president if a soft kneed chump who wants to play cowboy in the white house putting not only our families and friends at risk but continuously signing bills to stop extra pay to them and the Veterans. He has not done anything to help the troops and will continue to be that bastard not to help any of the troops.

The Democrats really ought to say thank you to the President for commuting Libby's sentence. Just look at how George has now committed himself to undermining any claims to honesty or decent government any Republican may make in the Summer of 08. Either all those top Republicans who haven't a comment on the Presidents actions also hadn't a clue as to Cheney's absolute control over the White House or George's utter lack of moral judgement or ethical character, (since it was quite obvious that at the point Libby was to have to report to jail George would make sure it didn't happen) or they just can't see how they can take a principled stance for the rule of law and then look "The Base" in the eye during the campaign.

Given that even Republicans must have been able to predict that, Republicans must have at least given thought to how they would answer the expected question. Not one was able to find the character or courage to denounce the commutation, and rightly ought to be accused of political corruption because they stayed silent.

The great part in all of this is that numerous loyal "Bushies" are facing criminal investigations, and when any of them are convicted, they will expect, and "The Base" will support them in their expectations, that they too will not face jail. George will be unable to resist, John Boehner and all his minions will be unable to object, and Republicans will further tar themselves, one and all, with charges of outright corruption.

When the Battle Cry of every non TOP candidate is, "X is just another corrupt Republican" and the apologetic press is unable to deflect that accusation.

If the rest of us raise that cry loudly enough can we defeat the entire Republican Party, Man. Woman and Boy?

I hope so.

Corrupt and rogue WH. Impeach NOW

In the balanced world of Paul Kane, the GOP "rejoices," the Democrats are predictably "apoplectic" (having severe neurological impairment, and/or uncontrollably angry); John Boehner of the GOP has "understandable" delay in responding, while Dem Schumer is (potentially) using this to hit up donors for money; the few GOP comments are displayed at the top, a few of the many Dem comments are at the bottom (except for Schumer's money-grubbing and Durbin's gratuitous comparison to Paris Hilton). The irony is that this is one of those few cases where there should be non-partisanship--on the day before independence day, for the President to use his powers to keep himself above the law, is a disgrace, as the posters by and larger are saying. That the Washington Post apparently does not feel its right of free speech conveys sny responsibilties beyond hiding behind phony (and unbalanced) partisanship speaks volumes about its complicity in the treason at the root of the Plame case.

It was predictable that the first things out
of the mouths of Republicans would be "What
about Clinton?". That is irrelevant. A cover-up continues and that is the real
crime and that crime can only be punished
through impeachment.
Dennis Shields

anyone who isn`t outraged at celebrity justice for a few, the priveledged few, is not loyal to this country. We are a nation of laws, yes or no?

Beeing not an American meanwhile I pity the American people. Outside US they try to be patriotic and bravely defend the policy of their government.
They cannot impeach theit president, because his follower would be worse.
God bless America !

Happy Independence Day!!! God Bless America. IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY NOW.

Fire them all...

Criminals, every last one of them!

AAAAAAAAAACK!

When has a man's name ever fitted him more? I refer, of course, to Dick.

Bush and Cheney should be impeached, and the crime charged should be high treason.

I would like to thank Mr. Libby for showing the American people the true Bush and Chaney. First he deliberately lied to the Grand Jury, then he offered hardly no defense at trial, and finally after being convicted and sentenced, he dared Bush to allow him to spend one day in jail. And you think a wimp like that can win a war against people willing to die for what they believe in?

Connect the dots. The threat of nuclear attack by Iraq was one of the central themes of the White House propaganda to justify the war.

Remember Condi's talk of mushroom clouds? Cheney's repeated claims that Saddam had nuclear weapons. George Tenant slapping down the use of the forged Niger yellow cake information only to see it resurrected in the State of the Union Address. The Downing Street Memo stating the White House was "fixing the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction".

Connect Ambassador Wilson's accusation the administration "lied" about Niger being a source of Saddam's nuclear material and the outing to Wilson's wife, a covert CIA expert on foreign sales of weapons of mass destruction. Connect Libby's lawyer stating in court that the vice president had ordered the the outing of Wilson's wife and would be called as a witness in the case with the surprise that Cheney was not called as a witness. Now connect dropping Cheney as a witness and Libby's jail time being communted by the president.

The White House was agressive on getting the content of the forged Niger yellow cake letter out to the public and are just as agressive in protecting the identity of those who authorized the forgery. This is not rocket science. The White House ordered the Niger yellow cake forgery and is desparate to keep it's role secret because it is clearly an impeachable offense that even the neocons would understand.