Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby

[solarbird]

DC is the Court at Versailles:

"Under Bush, some people are imprisoned forever without due process of law while others who receive due process of law and are found guilty are set free. Do I have that right?" - a commenter on TPM.

Yes, you have that right. And these discrepancies often happen in a monarchy where the elite is above the law and decide, based on their own interests, who is and is not subject to the criminal justice system. Paris Hilton did more time than Scooter Libby.

--Andrew Sullivan

And the DC press corps is as useless and enabling as the fawning nobles seeking Kingly favour in pre-revolutionary France:

And over the last six years, that "principle" has been extended to its most extreme though logical conclusions. This administration expressly adopted theories -- right out in the open -- which, as it its central premise, states that the President is greater than the law, that his "obligation" to protect the nation means that nothing and nobody can limit what he does, including -- especially -- the laws enacted by our Congress, no matter how radical and extreme that conduct is.

In response to this most audacious declaration of Presidential Omnipotence, our Sober Guardians of Political Wisdom shrugged. Those who objected too strenuously, who used terms such as "criminal" and "lawlessness" or who raised the specter of impeachment -- the tool created by the Founders to redress executive lawbreaking -- were branded as radicals or impetuous, unserious partisan hysterics. The only crime recognized by official Washington is using impetuous or excessively irreverent language to object to the lawbreaking and radicalism of the Leader, or acting too aggressively to investigate it. That is the only crime that triggers their outrage.

--Glenn Greenwald

I don't even care about the pardon itself. (And before anybody says it: no, it wasn't illegal. Wrong, but not illegal. I particularly like how commuting the sentence rather than issuing a complete pardon allows Mr. Libby to know he's not going to jail, yet preserves his ability to protect the administration himself by taking the 5th. Plus, by specifically not ruling out a later pardon, Mr. Bush is telling Mr. Libby to relax; it doesn't matter what the courts do.) I care about the raw accumulation of lawless power. I care about the ending of habeas corpus - the ability to seize anyone, at any time, and hold them forever. I care about the overtly illegal domestic spying and the overt overruling of Congressional law, on a massive scale, by the Executive branch. I care about the raw use of raw torture. I care about the invention of new branches of government responsible to no one at all. And I care very, very much that somehow, all the defenders of this insanity, so many of the people who screamed RULE OF LAW! RULE OF LAW! about former President Clinton, are apparently somehow convinced that this is just fine now, because it's done by one of theirs. And I am made breathless by the sheer stupidity of the apparent idea that none of their political opponents will use this lawless, unchecked power in ways they don't like, ever.

I mean, I just want to slap these people. Do they think President Hillary Clinton would undo this damage? How about President Rudy Guliani? President Fred Thompson? Anyone? If you're reading this and you do, you are out of your fucking mind. Impeachment is only the beginning of the solution, not the end of it. The Democrats are thus far showing (yet again) that they are certainly not up to it; so at least two new parties are apparently needed. The Press Corps are degenerate in their worthlessness, so new media are, apparently, also needed, and bloggers - though useful - are not enough. And, as much as anything, it must be realised that the DC establishment - the Beltway Class - has made itself irrelevant except as a cheerleader for power for its own sake, and as a defender of its own, separate, political class interests. Their commentaries are worthless, and those elected to power must be told what these voices are and that they should be ignored.

[White House Press Spokesman Tony] Snow was asked by a reporter if anyone in the administration would ever apologize for what prompted the entire investigation - public disclosure that Valerie Plame, the wife of sharp anti-war critic Joseph Wilson, was an undercover CIA officer.

"Yeah, it's improper to be leaking those names," Snow said. Pressed on whether someone in the administration owed the American public an apology, Snow said, "I'll apologize. Done."

-- reported by The Guardian

Mmmm, naked contempt.

ETA: Click through to the comments; risu makes an interesting point that I think is valid about the political situation this commutation reveals.

Comments

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Good grief. I get some wackjob trying to claim wildfires are because environmentalists won't let the timber industry cut down enough trees, and responds to me mentioning multi-thousand acre, home destroying wildfires that occur amidst barren scrub around here by telling me that these, too, are caused by the failure to cut a sufficient number of trees, and now this.

(1) Plame was not listed as a CIA agent in who's who; I doubt even Novak would tell that obnoxiously stupid and obvious of a lie. If you mean that she was that she was known to be married to her husband? Err, so? There no law or even any reason that CIA agents can't have prominent family members.
(2) Yes, she was covert, and the CIA said so. Your info is wrong, assuming you aren't just spouting shit for the hell of it. They also said she had been working under a cover job that hid what she was really doing--why do you think the CIA freaked out about this? They are (or were) for the most part conservative-leaning (sometimes very, very conservative leaning)(at least before the Bush administration).
(3) I try not to be too impolite in other people's journals, so I must refrain from replying to this.
(4) Wilson was hailed as a hero by Bush Sr. during and after the first Iraq war. He was an assistant ambassador then and while nearly everyone else left as soon as war started stirring, he volunteered to stay around and help get people (Americans, so you might actually care about them) out of the country. That war may also have been an evil, counterproductive thing involving much deceit, but during it Wilson risked his ass to save people. During the second one, he risked (and lost) his career trying to stop us from going to war. You not only have your facts so wrong I'm wondering if you kept your head in Sean Hannity's ass so long you asphyxiated and are having near-death hallucinations, you are slandering someone who seems like a genuinely good and courageous person on behalf of a bunch of chicken hawks who don't have the guts to put themselves in the line of fire but don't mind getting other people shot, or taking shots at other people who did do heroic things (if Wilson isn't good enough for you, how 'bout Cleland, or Kerry? Gore volunteered for Vietnam. So did your fave whipping boy Oliver Stone. Clinton didn't go, but he opposed it. Your happy little Bush people were all for it but managed to duck getting shot at. You sure you want to run interference for these guys, or believe a word they say?)
(5) Unlike you, I admit when I don't know the facts. Given the rest of your efforts, I'm guessing this is wrong in one or more places, but honestly, I dunno. If so, tho, openly taking part in politics when you're not supposed to vs. outing a covert agent? Bush Sr. again, said this was one of the worst crimes possible for anyone to commit. I suspect this is because it could get lots of people connected to that agent killed. Doesn't quite seem equivalent even if you're right on this one.
(6) We already covered this. Armitage confessing doesn't invalidate that various reporters named other people, and that other reporters refused to state who told them, and for all we know there Cheney was calling people himself and just hasn't got caught yet. That last is unlikely, but to assert that one person's confession on this means he was the only person involved is just sad.
(7) Good god, goddes, and wood nymphs! Your factual understanding of the case aside, this further info probably means nothing to you, but the Republican prosecutor appted by Bush, the Republican trial judge appted by Bush, and even the Republican judge who let out Oliver North all disagreed w/you, and refused to let him out on bail because he had no grounds for appeal.

post ran too long, one more bit

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

Clinton's perjury was about as willful as it gets. Please don't try to claim otherwise.
Clinton lied. I never tried to claim otherwise. If you thought so, I'm starting to get how you misunderstood the case so badly. The judge in the Paula Jones case ruled the Lewinsky matter wasn't material to the former case, what w/her openly pursuing him and all those recorded phone calls indicating that there was no harrassment there which could indicate a pattern of behavior that would affect the Jones situation. The Libbey lies were relevant to his case. That's the difference I was referring to.

[banner.livejournal.com]

Wow, a lot of rambling there, and not much sticking to the point. That you are totally unfamiliar with the facts of the case is self evident. You keep bringing up things that have no relevance to the matter at hand and seem to think they do.

When you can make a coherent argument, we'll discuss this further if you wish. But if you're just going to ramble on and toss out strawmen, well to be honest, you're not worth the time.

[mojave-wolf.livejournal.com]

you're just going to ramble on and toss out strawmen

You've been watching Fox News too much; it's permanently etched its image in your thought patterns.