Scooter
by Scott Hardie on July 3, 2007

Headline: Bush Commutes Libby's Prison Sentence
Yeah, there are complicated legal and political factors involved, but to the average citizen (me) it reads like "President's friend gets out of jail free." Man, I gotta track down George's MySpace and add him as a friend.
Two Replies to Scooter
Kris Weberg | July 3, 2007
You've got it exactly backwards, Aaron: no charges will be filed because Libby lied. His lies prevented the court from deciding fairly whether or not there was an underlying crime.
The average citizen will never know whether a crime was committed because I. Lewis Libby acted deliberately to conceal the truth fot he matter from the court. To assume no wrongdoing occurred because "no charges were filed" is like assuming a murder didn't occur because the killer's buddy successfully incinerated the corpse and cleaned up the crime scene. "Sure, he was standing next to a furnace, covered in soot, and he has no alibi, but there's no body, so there must not have been a murder."
In the case of something like the Plame investigation, and of white-collar crime in general, there's no physical evidence. There's just testimony. And if someone's testimony doesn't add up, charges can't be filed because the contradictions in the testimony prevent it.
Ask yourself this, Aaron: if no one did anything wrong here, why did Libby bullshit the grand jury?
Logical Operator
The creator of Funeratic, Scott Hardie, blogs about running this site, losing weight, and other passions including his wife Kelly, his friends, movies, gaming, and Florida. Read more »

Sup
Miscellaneous goings-on: - Work is a joy. I have become accustomed to operating in ongoing semi-crisis mode because something's going wrong at any given time, and I love it. I love seeing the pressures of schedule and interpersonal conflict force my staff to devise innovative new solutions. Go »
Scott's Pet Peeve #8446
Not all mobile phones mix a qwerty keypad with their main numerical keypad, but I have an old Blackberry that does. That makes me especially frustrated by companies that only provide a letter-based phone number without showing a numerical alternative (800-LIKE-THIS). I just went to cancel Nutrisystem, and of course they require you to call a counselor rather than just cancel online, and the only number they give is 888-459-THIN. Go »
Ten Things I Learned While Kelly's Parents Pat & Russ Spent a Week Visiting Us
• Florida reminds me of Dave Barry's quip that vacationing in Britain is great because you meet people from entirely different states. We stopped a woman to take our picture; she was visiting from New Jersey and her daughter beside her was from California. The only local we met warned us what bridge not to jump off for swimming because the water is shark-infested. Go »
Revisiting Survivor: Australia
Since I'm a fan of Survivor and I missed the first halves of early seasons when they aired, lately I've rented them on DVD to see what I missed. And it's given me an opportunity to reflect on how the show has changed over twelve seasons. The first two seasons had a special quality that has largely been missing every since, which is the genuineness of the cast. Go »
Blog Entry Post
Pet peeve: Why do people redundantly call it "tuna fish?" You never hear "parrot bird" or "Cocker spaniel dog." Go »
Aaron Shurtleff | July 3, 2007
Not to bring the complications in here, but I'd be more concerned if Libby were getting in trouble for something. I think until someone is charged for actually blowing Plame's cover, it's asinine to punish someone for being deceptive during the inquiry to find out if someone did something wrong. If no one blew Plame's cover (which, if charges aren't being filed, is what the average citizen who isn't anti-Bush should think, in my opinion), Libby should not be in jail, I don't think.
And a $250,000 fine for being deceptive (or forgetful, if you buy that story) isn't getting out of jail free in my book.