Day: July 4, 2007

Bush Filed a Motion Last Year to Uphold the 33-Month Sentence of Victor Rita, a 24-Year Marine Corps Vet Convicted on Same Crimes as Libby

Jon Ponder

Last month, the Supreme Court agreed with the Bush Justice Dept., ruling against Rita’s appeal for a reduced sentence based his exemplary military service.

Sen. Joe Biden:

Tony Snow said that President Bush decided to commute Scooter Libby’s two and a half year-prison sentence for perjury and obstruction of justice, because it was “excessive.”

Yet last year the Bush Administration filed a “friend-of-the-court brief” with the Supreme Court, in an attempt to uphold a lower court’s ruling that a 33-month prison sentence for Victor Rita, who was convicted of the same exact charges, perjury and obstruction of justice, was “reasonable.”

Pres. Bush cited Libby’s “years of exceptional public service” in commuting his prison sentence. But Libby is the classic Bushie chickenhawk — a neocon bureaucrat with no service record whose fingerprints are all over the worst military planning in American history.

Conversely, Victor Rita is the real deal:

Victor Rita is a very sympathetic defendant: he served 24 years in the Marine Corps, had tours of duty in Vietnam and the first Gulf war, and has received over 35 military metals and awards. Also, he is an elderly gentleman who suffers serious health problems.

The Supreme Court ruled on the case last month:

The Supreme Court ruled yesterday that criminal sentences within guidelines set by a federal commission are generally entitled to be upheld on appeal, a decision that limits legal options for defendants who feel that they have been punished too harshly.

By a vote of 8 to 1, the court held that, even though it recently ruled that the sentencing ranges set by the U.S. Sentencing Commission are no longer mandatory, judges who follow them may be presumed to have acted reasonably…

The case that the court decided yesterday, Rita v. United States, No. 06-5754, was meant to help define “advisory.”

Victor Rita, convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice, asked for a lighter sentence based in part on his past military service. But the judge gave him 33 months, as suggested by the guidelines. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, based in Richmond, upheld the sentence, saying that penalties within the guidelines are “presumptively reasonable.”

It is customary in the pardoning process for the president to contact the Justice Dept. for input. But the White House is adamant that Bush did not speak to anyone at Justice about the Libby pardon. If he had run it past them, it’s possible he could have avoided what appears to be a spectacular blunder.

Bush Turns Americans Against Flying the Flag

Trish

There’s a way to see how America feels about itself without opinion polls: Count how many flags fly on the 4th of July.

“When people are feeling better about the country they buy more flags. It was like this during the Nixon years.”

After decades in the flag business, Randolph Smith, president of Chicago-based Advertising Flag Co. Inc., said he has seen interest in the flag ebb and flow, according to the general sentiment people have about the country’s direction.

Immediately following the 9-11 attacks, for example, U.S. flag sales accounted for 25 percent of his business. Today, it’s about 16 to 18 percent and has been declining since 2003, he said.

“When people are feeling better about the country they buy more flags,” Smith said. “It was like this during the Nixon years. It wasn’t our bread and butter then either.”

Kimberly Sklarz, corporate secretary for Bartlett, Ill.-based FlagsUSA, said the run-up to the July 4 holiday, normally a busy time, has been particularly slow this year. The company’s U.S. flag sales were down 49 percent in June over the same period last year.

“It is a very sad time right now. We are just kind of baffled by how things are going and all because of the war,” Sklarz said. “We expected it to make some kind of effect on the company, but it is getting pretty bad.”

A quick check of my own home shows…no flag. On the 4th of July, 2002, one was out there. But too many speeches by Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney about the United States and Iraq and democracy and terror and liberty and secret prisons and going it alone and the way forward and surges and sacrifice that costs them nothing but costs others everything and support for people who betray America have left me feeling like most former flag-fliers: over it.

Mitt’s Heartfelt Convictions Do Another Flip-Flop; Now He Supports Pardons

Trish

If, like most Democrats, you weren’t born with the defective gene that causes the brain to short-circuit and allows the mouth to lie and spew hypocrisy even while the vocal tones and facial expression exhibit assertions of extreme sanctimony, you might not appreciate Mitt Romney’s interpretation of the Bush/Libby commutation.

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney…yesterday called President Bush’s commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s prison sentence “reasonable.”

Romney often proudly points out that he was the first governor in modern Massachusetts history to deny every request for a pardon or commutation during his four years in office.

Defending Bush, Romney, a Republican, said at a campaign stop that “the president looked very carefully at the setting” before deciding to commute the 2 1/2-year sentence given the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney in the CIA leak case…

As governor, Romney twice rejected a pardon for Anthony Circosta, who at 13 was convicted of assault for shooting a boy in the arm with a BB gun — a shot that didn’t break the skin. Circosta worked his way through college, joined the Army National Guard, and led a platoon of 20 soldiers in Iraq’s deadly Sunni triangle.

In 2005, as he was serving in Iraq, he sought a pardon so he could to fulfill his dream of becoming a police officer.

In his bid for the Republican presidential nomination, Romney often proudly points out that he was the first governor in modern Massachusetts history to deny every request for a pardon or commutation during his four years in office.

Let’s Have a Look at Scooter Libby’s ‘Exceptional Public Service’

Jon Ponder

When Pres. George Bush commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence on Monday, he cited Libby’s “years of exceptional public service.” A casual observer might be surprised to learn Libby has been an “exceptional” public servant, since what is generally known about him is that he was a necon bureaucrat whose claim to fame prior to his crimes was his role in assisting Pres. Bush and Vice Pres. Dick Cheney in taking the country to war under false pretexts.

Having been found guilty of lying to a federal grand jury and FBI investigators and obstructing an investigation into an alleged White House conspiracy to reveal the identity of a covert CIA specialist in WMD, Libby has secured his place in history as the first sitting White House official to be indicted since the administration of U.S. Grant, a Republican, in the 1870s. He is also the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter, also a Republican, in the Iran-Contra affair in 1990.

Libby met Paul Wolfowitz at Yale. Wolfowitz became his mentor, and the two have worked together off and on over the years. Ironically, their separate roles in the Bush administration have led both men to fall from grace on parallel tracks. While Libby was under investigation, Wolfowitz resigned from the Pentagon, reportedly because of his role in botching the war. Around the time of Libby’s trial, Wolfowitz was forced out of the World Bank amid corruption charges.

At the White House, as the vice president’s chief of staff, Libby was Cheney’s closest confidante. Libby rode to work with Cheney every morning and was by his side throughout the day. He once told CNN’s Larry King, “I’m a great fan of the vice president. I think he’s one of the smartest, most honorable people I’ve ever met.”

Here are a few highlights from Scooter Libby’s bio:
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