(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Bush commutes Libby prison sentence

I'd comment, but what is there to say? The guy's been convicted in a court of law, but instead of using the appeals process like any other citizens, he has friends in high places overrule the court.

I think it's long past time that the president's power to grant reprieves and pardons was amended out of the Constitution. It is so regularly used for corrupt and partisan reasons, and so rarely used for humane or merciful ones, that I question its purpose.

But this latest move is so typical of an administration that has ignored, sidestepped, and blatantly violated the law in pursuit of power that it hardly surprises me. These are a gang of criminals who have no respect for the law or the Constitution. That this president and vice president have remained in office, unimpeached, is a shame and an embarrassment to the entire nation.

Comments

[kathygnome.livejournal.com]

The regime with the cooperation of their MSM pets has brilliantly played the entire outting thing, concentrating on nitpicky charge of perjury rather than the larger issue: that outting Plame was a punishment for a professional doing his job and attempting to provide an accurate account rather than a falsified one that supported the regime's ends.

It really was an act of terrorism against all public employees. Your loyalty is to the party and fuhrer and not to the public or the constitution and if you don't remember that your career and possibly your life will be endangered.

Unfortunately to preserve their electability the democrats refuse to impeach, missing the point that their lack of electability has more to do with their lack of any apparent leadership or moral compass than it does with being "too liberal."

The only comfort I can take in this

[john-arundel.livejournal.com]

is that Bush continues to cost the Republicans and will - I hope to God - cost them the whitehouse and a majority in either house for some time to come. Bush is bad, the VP much worse - but the greatest villian in Rove, imo. The only one of these 3 not elected by the (tiny) majority of Americans that put them into office - his 'win at all costs' approach destroyed the ability of far better men than his current boss to effectively run (McCain for instance) and taken the Republicans and - Im afraid - the institution of the executive branch - down a road of evil 1st's that we will never recover from.

Re: The only comfort I can take in this

[winterbadger]

I keep hoping that if I knew more 19th century American history I could say "Oh, these guys are bad, but my goodness, they're not a patch on Old So And So in 18xxx, who had people's head's chopped off for disagreeing with his nomination for Postmaster General." *sigh* I think I may be hoping in vain.

[redactrice.livejournal.com]

I agree: what is there to say? To my mind, the commutation of Libby's sentence removed any last shred of a claim to moral authority that the Administration had. I hope a significant majority of Americans will see it that way.

Really, how can an Administration opearate on the world stage when it has utterly no moral authority left? All it can do is go through the motions, with everyone knowing that it's just a charade.

This obsession with loyalty as the ultimate virtue is so illiberal and blinkered. Corporate and political history are rife with examples that show that when leaders value loyalty over healthy debate and differences of opinion, they lose sight of what's actually happening, and they and their organizations eventually come to ruin.

Don't you suppose that a person or group trying to run something as big and complex as a country would pay some heed to the basic tenets of management theory? The mind boggles.

[wolfette]

he knows how to make friends among the ordinary people, doesn't he?

[winterbadger]

What has infuriated me from the get-go is that he and his cronies don't give a damn about most of the people who support them. They want money and power, and they will screw anyone to get them. But they have a PR machine that makes *them* out to be the moral saviours of the nation, and anyone who opposes them is made to look like a criminal, a liar, a cheat, a pervert...

Over 60% of Republicans still support the president, according to a recent poll. Who ARE these people, and how can they still think he is a worthy leader?

America disgusts me sometimes.