Politics
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.
Topics: Politics
Bush Filed Motion in 2006 to Uphold 30 Month Sentence of Victor Rita, a Marine Vet Convicted on Same Crimes as Libby…
Last year, Bush filed a "friend of court" brief to uphold Victor Rita’s 30 month sentence for perjury and obstruction — roughly the same sentence as Libby’s for the same crimes. Bush called Rita’s sentence "reasonable" but said …
He must have felt it in his gut, or maybe the Lord told him to do it, or maybe he’s just covering his ass. The last one I can understand, although anyone of them is unacceptable for a United States president.
A mass outcry should happen. Either free Rita or jail Libby or impeach Bush-Cheney.
Is anyone really all that surprised…
We should let Victor out of prison, and let him kick Libby’s ass. Then, we should put Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld IN prison for war crimes, treason, and murder.
Not Bushes Bud? You’re mud.
Not a neocon? You’re gone.
Don’t give big to the RNC? You’re in the penitentary.
The rules are clear, so what’s all the fuss about?
Bush + Cheney deliberately authorized Rove and Libby to out covert, undercover CIA Valerie Plame. The outing of Plame was an act of treason or as Daddy Bush said, the act of “the most insidious of traitors.”
Nothing less than a full and fair trial for all four men before 12 impartial jurors who reside in Washington, DC (where the crime took place) on the charge of treason against the United States of America is sufficient in my opinion.
Impeachment is a good 1st step but in no way should it be the end game.
When your public approval rating is as low as Bush’s; and when you are preaching to the choir, that portion of the populace which still thinks you are doing a good job, you don’t have to be consistent. You don’t even have to make sense.
[...] Bush is a useless hypocrite Pensito Review » Bush Filed a Motion Last Year to Uphold the 30-Month Sentence of Victor Rita, a 24-Year Marine Corps Vet Convicted on Same Crimes as Libby Quote: [...]
It would actually be funny that they keep stepping in their own previous ‘droppings’ if it weren’t so sad that these folks are supposed to be in charge of our very country.
everyone just shut the f*\k up. you all voted Bush in for a second term. Shame on you.
Yes Andreas. Everyone should just shut up because they all really voted for Bush. Because voter turnout was 100% and every single vote was for Bush. Right?
As Felix said, it would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
[...] 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 [...]
Never thought I’d see the sad day when I would think that a temporary military coup, with the JCS arresting Bush and Cheney for treason and declaring new elections, would be a good idea, but we are at that point. What is the sense in waiting and letting these dirtbags continue to destroy America for another year and a half? There’s nothing graven in stone that says thenext election MUST be in 2008. DUMP THESE BUMS NOW!!!
[...] Re: Bush Commutes Libby Sentence 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 Quote: [...]
First Bush was “selected” not elected….Second the first and second bush elections were by any standard “fixed”.
Bush did not win any election…and we are now living in a fascist dictatorship.
You have NO right to privacy(illegal wiretaps)
You have no right to a speedy trial or to face your accusers(suspension of habeas corpus under Patriot act)
You have no right to peacefully gather or to petition the govt(again Patriot act)
i could go on for days with this but i think you all know where this is going.
Do not be surprised if there is another terror attack near the election ….don’t be surprised when Bush declares a state off emergency and takes the right to hold elections from us next.
Wake up folks the World trade Center “attack” were the Bush’s Reichstag.(After Adolf Hitler had been appointed Reichskanzler(head of German Gov’t) on 30 January 1933, the building was set on fire on 27 February 1933, under circumstances still not entirely clear (see Reichstag fire). This proved to be a valuable excuse for the Nazis to suspend most human rights provided for by the 1919 constitution in the Reichstag Fire Decree.) (taken from wikipedia).
Anyone that cant see this happening deserves what is happening.
And jsut so we are all clear….FEMA has set up INTERNMENT camps inside our own country for the sole reason to imprison AMERICANS if and when needed.(There over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.
The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a mass exodus of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA. Rex 84 allowed many military bases to be closed down and to be turned into prisons.
Operation Cable Splicer and Garden Plot are the two sub programs which will be implemented once the Rex 84 program is initiated for its proper purpose. Garden Plot is the program to control the population. Cable Splicer is the program for an orderly takeover of the state and local governments by the federal government. FEMA is the executive arm of the coming police state and thus will head up all operations. The Presidential Executive Orders already listed on the Federal Register also are part of the legal framework for this operation. ) (taken from http://WWW.abovetopsecret.com.
One Nation, under surveillance, with liberty and justice for all of Bush’s friends.
what happened to our great country of 231 years? the bush dictatorship.
Bush doesn’t make a motion, he issues a fiat. It is done.
[...] The Pensito Review has posted another example of Bush’s untenable position that Libby deserved commutation of his sentence. [...]
Libby = hero, but 24-year vet is not..?…
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…
One rule for the elite, another harsher rule for the common folk, yet another infringement on our rights by the gov’t. Add it to the ever-growing list of violations:
They violate the 1st Amendment by opening mail, caging demonstrators and banning books like “America Deceived” from Amazon.
They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov’t.
Support Dr. Ron Paul and end this madness.
Last link (unless Google Books caves to the gov’t and drops the title):
America Deceived (book)
Andreas – we DID NOT vote for him in either the first or second term. BOTH elections were fraudulant with the Supreme Court choosing him the first time around and vulgar and obvious voting irregularities the second time around. All of them shoot be shot on sight, no questions answered. We already know what they’ve done and how they did it.
[...] Just in case you think that maybe, just maybe, the sentance that “Scooter” received was excessive, check this out. Victor Rita, an ex-Marine, was sentanced to 33 months in jail for obstruction of justice, the exact same charge that “Scooter” received. In addition, George W. Bush himself filed a motion stating that the sentance that Victor Rita received was “reasonable.” [...]
usa sucks
Lies, lies and more lies. This is a perfect example of the double-standards employed by the current administration. We should all be OUTRAGED!!!
Someone should be impeached.
A “chickenhawk” is something entirely different from what Libby is (unless you are suggesting that he’s a child molestor as well). Also, Libby was not pardoned, at least not yet.
Vita was buying machine gun “kits” that could be assembled into actual machine guns. After the Feds asked him about it, he sent the “kits” back and gave the Feds different “kits” that one could not assemble into full machine guns. Then he lied under oath about it. This comes after his 1986 conviction for perjury, for which he received probation.
Not all decorated veterans and former law enforcement officers are angels. Not all Bush Administration officials are devils. You’ll usually find those in the details. And you’ll find the details in the Court’s opinion.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-5754.ZC1.html
Tony “Devil in the Details”.
The crime that led to the conviction is not the issue. The issue is the double standard.
The reason for commuting Libby’s sentence was because it was “unduly harsh”. The hypocrisy that exudes from the Bush administration is overpowering in its stench of corruption. A decorated war veteran who gave 24 years of his life to this country has to pony up another three years AT BUSH’S INSISTENCE while “Scooter”, whose obstruction of justice caused incalculable damage to our country, walks a free man.
What this means ultimately is there is no more justice in this land. It means that if you’re one of the Bush insiders, you can pretty much feel free to do whatever you like without worry that you might be punished for it.
It stinks, Bush stinks, the whole system stinks and anybody who would defend it stinks as well.
Is there no end to the Bush madness?
SOMEONE NEEDS TO TAKE THESE TWO TERRORISTS (BUSH AND DICK) OUT…COME ON YOU PANSY ASS FUCKING LAME MUTHERFUCKERS OF DEMOCRATES IN CONGRESS AND THE HOUSE IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH…THAT IS WHAT GOD IS TELLING ME…
to Tony “devil in the details”–
Tony, you do the same infuriating thing that all other neocons do, which is to change the premise so that the real issue is confused. Let’s assume this did have to do with the underlying crime rather than Bush’s hypocritical double standard response to the sentence. Wouldn’t you think that lying about machine guns is child’s play when compared to outing a CIA agent? The latter is treasonous, which used to be punishable by death in this country.
Craig D:
Perjury is perjury, I agree. And the Sentencing Guideines indicate a minimum sentence of 33 months for Rita (my apologies, not Vita, details, details…) and 30 months for Libby. That’s what a judge calculated, what a jury thought was deserved, what Congress legislated and what the Sentencing Commission thought was appropriate. Sounds like those sentences were popular.
Executive clemency is the exact opposite of “popular.” It gets heinous killers off the electric chair. It lets fleeing felons living the good life in Zurich come home without consequence. It give the well-connected a “get out of jail free” card.
Libby’s is still pursuing an appeal, one that will cost millions of dollars of other people’s money. Money donated for that express purpose. Bush may yet grant him a full pardon – another extraordinarily unpopular move. But as the clemency power illustrates, the Electoral College system suggests, and the presidency of Abraham Lincoln proves, presidents do NOT have to be popular.
and my original URL went to Scalia’s concurrence, this is the URL to the Rita opinion (more details).
http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/06-5754.ZO.html
Dear Presidnut Bush:
As Commander-in Chief of our armed services, don’t you have the power to commute the excessive and harsh sentences of our troops presently doing hard time in Iraq?
Please correct this grave mis-carriage of justice. They have suffered enough.
Thank you.
Chris:
“…same infuriating thing that all other neocons do, which is to change the premise so that the real issue is confused.”
If you’re referring to the “double standard” comments that appear in this thread, my comments on Rita pointed out that this was not an apples-to-apples comparison in the first place. If one wishes to make the argument that “all things being equal, White House connections will get you a pardon and being a regular Joe means an amicus brief opposing a reduced sentence,” all other things had better, in fact, be equal.
Apples: Mr. Rita had a previous conviction for perjury. And while the conviction was too old to be considered as an *aggravating* factor in his sentencing, its existence would be a good reason for a judge to *refuse to mitigate* his sentence.
Oranges: Mr. Libby has no prior convictions and, until this investigation, an unblemished record.
Further, in regard to the commmutation in general, I agree, the underlying crime is irrelevant. The criminal is irrelevant. The connections (or even lack of connections) possessed by the criminal are irrelevant.
The president has the unrestrained Constitutional authority to grant any degree of clemency to anyone. There is no qualification, no review, no check or balance.
The president wields supreme executive power, and as such, the framers thuoght it appropriate to give the office the authority to *decline* to exercise that executive power over a particular convicted person.
If you are unhappy with Bush’s judgment, don’t re-elect him. File a lawsuit against him. Make a criminal complaint. You’ll find that Congress, the Courts and the Constitution prevent you from doing any of the three (He can’t run again, he’s immune, and he’s done nothing illegal). You may organize a campaign to amend the Constitution. The last one took over 200 years to pass.
This president has never cared about what’s popular, only what is legal. And by “legal” I mean “what is not expressly forbidden is implicitly allowed.” So until someone can point to some law that “expressly forbids” what Bush does, he’s well within his rights to continue doing it.
Give me break, Libby should never have been charged in the first place.. sheez.. But it’s nice reading all your comments that make no sense.
>>Bush’s hypocritical double standard response to the sentence.
Curious if you were as outspoken about all of Clinton’s hypocrisies !!
>>Wouldn’t you think that lying about machine guns is child’s play when compared to outing a CIA agent?
Not when it was common knowledge that she worked for the CIA and was no longer “secret agent” .. ie could not now be outed.
A chickenhawk is a powerful politician who avoided military service himself and yet who blithely sends others off to fight and die. George Bush and Dick Cheney are prime examples. Bush spent his time in the military so coked up he couldn’t take the required drug tests and reportedly wrecked a fighter jet by steering it off a tarmac. Dick Cheney received five deferments during the Vietnam War based on the excuse that he was too busy to serve his country.
Scooter Libby was of draftable age during Vietnam and either got a deferment or a low number in the lottery. In any case, he didn’t serve and is thus a chickenhawk.
As to the other child molesting thing — why do conservatives always have their minds in the gutter?
Hersey, I can’t understand how you can say that Libby should not have been charged. Isn’t perjury a crime?
If not, why are other people in jail for it? If so, and Libby committed perjury, then how can you say he should not have been charged?
Melissa,
Hersey says these things because he’s drunken deeply of the right wing kool-aid & can’t help himself.
You can tell because he spouts all sorts of silly things that it’s common knowledge among those educated in current events aren’t true, but since they’re on the list of talking points he’s assimilated, he parrots them in forums such as this thinking he’s made a point. Accordingly we’re favored with nuggets of wisdom such as – it was common knowledge that Valery Plame was a CIA agent therefore Scooter Libby lying to a grand jury wasn’t perjury because he shouldn’t even have been asked the questions he lied about. Note the especially twisted & obtuse wing-nuttery logic? Somehow the ruining of a persons CIA career & the endangerment of nobody knows how many in-the-field covert agents & the loss of valuable weapons of mass destruction intelligence (paid for by tax dollars before flushing down the toilet) all for petty partisan punishment was not important enough to even investigate, therefore Scooter Libby was justified in saying whatever he wanted to under oath, truth be damned.
But what clinches it is his playground mentality tit-for-tat comparisons of Clinton that the real hard core kool-aid addicts like to trundle out, as if they never had an adult teach them the age old adage, ‘two wrongs don’t make a right’.
I’m afraid you’ll never get a meaningful response out of Hersey.
Really think your vote counts? How many times has Ron Paul been obviously censored? If you actually listen or watch mainstream media…CNN, Fox, ABC, NBC,,blah blah, you are a sheeple. Ask Rupert Murdoch. anywayyyy… check out the new easy ways to manipulate the Diebold voting machines… just google it.. they will “pick” the next dictator.. either complain or do something but not just sit and gawk.
[...] 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 _____________________________________ BRING THE TROOPS HOME! What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy? -Mohandas Karamchand "Mahatma" Gandhi [...]
sorry here is the link on the voting machines…Watch your back..
YouTube
Aaahhh, another beautiful day in the
“USSA.”
Wonder what laws President Cheney and his sidekick, the Smirking Idiot Chimp, will violate today?
“And jsut so we are all clear….FEMA has set up INTERNMENT camps inside our own country for the sole reason to imprison AMERICANS if and when needed.(There over 600 prison camps in the United States, all fully operational and ready to receive prisoners. They are all staffed and even surrounded by full-time guards, but they are all empty. These camps are to be operated by FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) should Martial Law need to be implemented in the United States.”
good lord that is one of the stupidest things i have ever read. comments like that just make us look like loons
fuck bush
[...] A breakdown of the possibly ramifications of Bush’s Libby pardon from Daily Kos. Apparently, this thing might set some kind of precedent. Oh, and could this related story possibly be true? [...]
[...] item! apparently 30 months for perjury is only excessive if you’re not a 24-year vietnam /gulf war veteran who has received over 35 military medals and awards… if you are, on the other hand, pres w. will tell the court to let you go hang… [...]
Speaking of the news media and disservice they do to Americans, lets take a closer look at the Libby and Riva comparison being called the same: from the Supreme Court opinion:
Rita was convicted in May 1986, and sentenced to five years’ probation for making false statements in connection with the purchase of firearms. Because this conviction took place more than 10 years before the present offense, it did not count against Rita [for purposes of the Sentencing Guidelines]. And because Rita had no other relevant convictions, the Guidelines considered him as having no criminal history points.
So in fact, Rita had been convicted for perjury for the second time in a gun-related investigation. Like Mr. Libby, Mr. Rita had no criminal history for purposes of the federal sentencing guidelines.Mr. Rita was convicted on two occasions of perjury in gun related investigations; in the second investigation, indictments for the underlying crime were returned. Not a compelling comparison to the Libby case.
When the decider (GWB) comuted Libby’s jail time, to A find. This changed the rule of law on sentencing people who lie under oath.Now anyone can lie and expect the same sentence as Libby got. It’s only right. Also the decider has not explained about Libby’s probation time? were still waiting on that one?
[...] Read more… Previous Posts [...]
This is soo funny…America is like those third world country where you can buy votes and favors. America is going into a shit hole and no one cares.
[...] read more | digg story [...]