FREE LIBBY MANDELA PART II: SO... ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF "BRING IT ON" BUSH TELLS THE AMERICAN PUBLIC TO GO FUCK THEMSELVES

Chris Bowers may have summed it but best-- "The rich and powerful get out of jail, after being elected by promising to throw others in"-- but the reactions are flooding in. No doubt Bowers had the story from last month about the Law and Order Bush Regime in mind.

The Bush administration is trying to roll back a Supreme Court decision by pushing legislation that would require prison time for nearly all criminals.

The Justice Department is offering the plan as an opening salvo in a larger debate about whether sentences for crack cocaine are unfairly harsh and racially discriminatory.

Republicans are seizing the administration's crackdown, packaged in legislation to combat violent crime, as a campaign issue for 2008.

I switched on CNN and the normal talking heads must be on vacation for Independence Day or Bring It On Day. The GOP sent someone down to take over for the afternoon so nothing worth listening to was going on there. Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald issued a statement worth looking at though:

"We fully recognize that the Constitution provides that commutation decisions are a  matter of presidential prerogative and we do not comment on the exercise of that prerogative. 

We comment only on the statement in which the President termed the sentence imposed by the judge as "excessive." The sentence in this case was imposed pursuant to the laws governing sentencings which occur every day throughout this country. In this case, an experienced federal judge considered extensive argument from the parties and then imposed a sentence consistent with the applicable laws. It is fundamental to the rule of law that all citizens stand before the bar of justice as equals. That principle guided the judge during both the trial and the sentencing.

Although the President's decision eliminates Mr. Libby's sentence of imprisonment, Mr. Libby remains convicted by a jury of serious felonies, and we will continue to seek to preserve those convictions through the appeals process."

Bob Geiger has reactions from all the Democratic presidential candidates. Not much of a response from Freddy Thompson, lobbyist extraordinaire and one of the men who pulled the strings from backstage to make sure Libby Mandela was freed. He just regrets it was just a commute and not a full pardon (yet). "While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the president’s decision. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life."

Steve Porter, who ran against Phil English in Pennsylvania last year had a far more interesting and relevant comment.

It is not just that Bush commuted Libby’s jail time. It is that the Democrats who now control Congress have allowed him to make a mockery of justice and of our Constitution.

President Bush has spit on our laws from the day he took office. The 2000 election, the lies to get us into Iraq, the torture of prisoners, the illegal domestic surveillance… It has gone on and on. I am not surprised that he has continued his public scorn for our laws. It is what he and his neocon puppeteers are in power to do...
 
What dumbfounds me is that my own party, now finally in control of both houses of Congress, has not lifted a finger to stop what is obviously to me and to the vast majority of the American people (if we are to believe the polls) the wholesale abandonment of law and justice.
 
One must throw the question up to the faces of the Democratic leadership: what were the 2006 elections about? Were they not a public mandate to end the war, to begin a new era of honest government, to restore public trust, to make our people feel once more that America is the land of justice for all-- not just for the rich and well-connected?
 
The shame of the Libby commutation is not Bush’s alone. It also belongs to Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Reid, and the members of the Democratic Party who have allowed it to be transformed from loyal opposition to muted co-conspirator.

John Amato's got a video up from CBS of Jonathan Turley explaining how this was all about Cheney, from outing Valerie Plame to getting Libby out of prison. So why wasn't Cheney ever indicted as a co-conspirator? Even the stuttering, imbecelic Republican hack they had up could barely defend Libby; all he could do was report Republican talking points fed to and vomited back from Hate Talk Radio.


UPDATE: JOE, JOE, JOE

Ambassador Wilson joined Olbermann to talk about the travesty of justice from the Court of the Lamest Duck Ever-- and he pulled no punches. Amato caught the whole thing over at Crooks & Liars. How do you think Joe used the phrase "corrupt to the core?"

You want to understand this whole mess? Watch Joe this morning on CNN: