Scooter Libby and a Monopoly on Justice

[Lightning Rod]

http://www.pen.k12.va.us/Div/Winchester ... nopoly.gif


Scooter Libby and a Monopoly on Justice
for release 07-04-07
Washington DC
by Lighting Rod

Let's talk about the punishment fitting the crime. Ok, Mr. President, you have chosen to pardon your buddy's buddy, Scooter Libby. Let me rephrase that. You have 'Decided' to commute Scooter's jail time. After all, you are The Decider. You gave Scooter a Get Out of Jail Free card because he fell on his sword for the sake of the regime. And also, you remind us, because the punishment didn't fit the crime.

For the past seven years, I have been a fugitive from the law. There is a Blue Warrant out on me. If a cop walked up to me and said, "Can I see some ID?," I would go directly to jail and not pass Go. Why am I a fugitive? Because the State maintains that I committed the terrible crime of not reporting a change of address to my parole office in a timely fashion. Oops, it was a Chance card.

As my punishment, I have been assigned to the status of non-citizen. I can't drive or go near an airport. I can't travel to a foreign country. I can't get a marriage license or a passport. I have been disappeared. All because of a 'crime' that is really only a paperwork snafu. Does the punishment fit the crime, Mr. President? I'm raising my hand here. If you are passing out Get Out of Jail Free cards. Yes, I'm raising my hand.

Oh, I know that I haven't been faithful to your theory of government, Mr President. I didn't fall on my sword for you like Scooter did. I've been a different type of pain in the side. But as long as you are showing mercy and adjusting the scales of justice like Solomon, would you please consider a pardon for me? I don't think the punishment in my case hardly fit the crime.

I guess it comes down to whether you live on Boardwalk or on Mediterranean Ave. if you go to jail, go directly to jail and not pass go, then you probably live on Mediterranean Ave. If all you have to do is give up the $250,000 that you made because you own the Utility Company, or your friends own it, then you likely live on Boardwalk like Scooter does. That sort of tilts the board in either the game of justice or Monopoly, doesn't it Mr. President? But you hold all the cards, both Chance and Community Chest.

A president can print Get Out of Jail Free cards as easily as he can print money. He is the Decider in Chief. He directs the railroads from the B&O to the Shortline. He can increase the Income Tax and decrease the Luxury Tax. And he can decide if you are In Jail or Just Visiting.

I'm throwing myself on your mercy, Mr. President. Let the punishment fit the crime. I'm asking you to commute my sentence. (would it help if I got a cuddly name like Scooter or Turd Blossom?)

The Poet's Eye sees that the key to Monopoly and Justice is the Chance card. There are two Chance spaces on the Monopoly board, just like there are zero's and double-zero's on a roulette wheel. It's the house edge. If you live on Mediterranean Ave. then you have to go all the way around the board in order to Collect $200 and you have to pass Go To Jail and two Chance cards and assorted rents and taxes. If you live on Boardwalk, all you have to do to collect your $200 is to roll a 1. My advice is to live on Boardwalk.


If monopolies are risky business
For lack of competition
Why is there only one
Monopolies Commission?

To live outside the law, you must be honest.
---Bob Dylan

[Jenni Mansfield Peal]

Well-spoken, LR.
The administration keeps finding new ways of acting like a dynasty. Who will protect our democracy when democracy is out of fashion in high places? Thanks for speaking out.
JMP

[jimboloco]

That fugitive poets are second class citizens in mainstream America is a shame, especially for the victimless crime of journeying to meet a soul mate. The absurdness of our present legal value system is nowhere more apparant than with the flurry of columns about Joe Wilson, discrediting his character with absurd language, thereby supporting the Presidunce in his weaseling about the law with his inside band of cronies, all of whom are filthy wealthy, and consider themselves a better class, immune to normal legal restraints. Here is a letter, another probable reject, that I sent to the local rag today.

Subject: David Brooks' column July 5th,2007
In David Brooks' column, July 5, 2007, "The curtain closes on Plamegate", I read an unabashed attempt at character assassination of Joe Wilson, the former acting ambassador to Iraq during the buildup to Desert Storm in 1990. Brooks calls him "a strutting little peacock" and "the charming P.T. Barnum of the national security set."

Joe Wilson was labeled a "true American hero" by President Bush Sr. for his actions in protecting a large number of Americans who were inside Iraq during the buildup to the first Gulf War. He had directly confronted Saddam Hussein in Baghdad after the Iraq occupation of Kuwait, as spokesman for the president.

This type of character assassination by Brooks and others is a highly subjective opinionated writing style that confuses the salient issue here. The CIA did, in fact, dispatch Ambassador Wilson to Niger, Africa, to discern independently President Bush Jr.'s false assertion that Iraq was importing uranium from there to support a bogus nuclear weapons program. That this is not of concern to Mr. Brooks and to the St. Petersburg Times, is shocking and disappointing.

[stilltrucking]

I think it is hypocrisy of the highest order for Hillary to make an issue of Bush's commutation of Libby's sentence.

But I don’t know nothing, my opinions are so uniformed cause all I know is what I read in the newspapers.



Good eye LR. Thanks



http://gritsforbreakfast.blogspot.com/2 ... -bail.html

Remember this old ditty:

It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor what gets the blame,
Its the rich that gets the pleasure,
Ain't it all a bleeding shame.

[Lightning Rod]

thank you for the article, truck
it's a subject of great interest to me
I've had about all the 'jail training' that an old dog can stand
I'm not volunteering for any more

I wrote a white-bread rap tune some years ago
and the refrain was:

"Bill of Rights
The poor get the bill
and the rich get the rights"

[stilltrucking]

An Unpardonable Act

I havent seen this noted but i think the reason for the commutation is that a pardon would mean that Libby was no longer exposed to criminal sanctions and thus had no Fifth Amendment privilege. As it stands he has a fine and probation at stake during the pendency of the appeal which inulates him ( and Bush and Cheney) from havaing to answer questions before Congress.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/3/174222/3560

[jimboloco]

So Hilarius is a hypocritter now?

We are all hypocritters, ya know, beneath the dignity of critters,
and well below the hypercritters we should proclaim ourselves to aspire to,
show me somebody who is perfect and I'll walk on water fer youse.

Hilarious is pissed because she wants to ascertain why this inane bunch in power is meddling with national trust.

Her dealings with realestate in Arkansas is another matter, altogether. I want to know why you say that Hilarious is a hypocritter, without becoming incensed they way that I did before.

[stilltrucking]

Poor Hillary

She is so much smarter now

She won't get fooled again.

Twenty two senators were smart enough not to get suckered into that war
This is a democratic war jimbo. Even Graham from florida voted against the war. What did he know that hillary did not?
the democrats controlled congress when the war resolution was passed
she claims she was fooled, not her fault, If she knew then what she knows now
she would have voted against it she says.
But she won't appologized for her vote
she points out the good things about the war
got rid of an evil dictator
democratic elections
blah blah

Too bad
Too late

He may not be perfect but Obama got more integrity in his little finger than she got in her whole body.

I don't know jack shit
just my opinion

Influenced by Molly Ivins opinion of Hillary
Molly had no use for that woman



How many pardons did Clinton sell on his last day in office?
Not her fautl

Bush's motives are political
the commutation political calculated
to cover their asses
that guy on the daily koss
makes a dam good point

Hillary hillary hillary
no thanks
she would be a president better than Bush no doubt
but who wouldn't?



So you still pissed about my comment about Reverend AL
it seems

I am forming a new organization
racists for Obama.

[stilltrucking]

Sorry for the ramble Clay
I am sorry I brought Hillary into this thread
nothing to do with it.

I am getting very tired of my opinions on things
They say opinions are like assholes
everybody has one.

I must be be all ass hole cause I have so many opinions I don't have enough bodily orifices to express them all.

[jimboloco]

oh you enlightened me all righht
all i wanted to know
you are right of course

hillarious could have said that when she becomes prez she will
liberate the non-violent prisoners across the land
what obama says
he will try to get felons repatriated
maybe a better tack hilarious could have taken
to say ok to libby's commutation
let's do the same for potheads

but hillarious is better than bushco
no doubt
nuts i voted for nader in 2000
will i ever learn
pied pipers and rebellious capers
are meant to burn in mud


well said i bring out the wrath in you
and you become poetic too
all i wanted to know
like with rev al
what you had in your deep pockets
and you pulled out some news

[stilltrucking]

I would vote for hillary if she gets the nomination. I can not think of one republican I would vote for. And I don't think I could throw my vote away on an independent candidate.

We have pretty boy perry in texas for four more years because of Kinky.

The guy from the daily koss makes a good point about the commutation. It was a shrewed decision. Libby keeps his fith amendment rights which he would not have if he was pardoned.

Interesting article about reverend Al

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democrac ... bill_c.cfm

[jimboloco]

TWO FOR THE LOW ROAD
St. Petersburg Times - St. Petersburg, Fla.
Author: PHILIP GAILEY
Date: Jul 8, 2007

The real outrage is that there are plenty of people in prison more deserving of presidential clemency than Scooter Libby or Marc Rich. In explaining his decision, Bush said he thought Libby's sentence was excessive for someone with no prior conviction and a record of public service (if that's what you call doing Dick Cheney's dirty work).

well now, after my quantum leaps a few weeks ago, I thankyou for the latest post of Rev Al, and will read and weep.

ps finally got a letterprinted in the Times last Sundogday, what I posted above, only they changed the names from Prez Bush Sr and Prez bBush Jr to Prez HW Bush and Prez George W Bush. Personally I like using Senior and Junior, but hey, the salient point got thru. "A case of character assassination," scroll to #4)

like I said before, all these so-called yellow dawg Dumbocrats will be fair game for name calling and other kinds of actions like political challenges, active criticisms, and so on. Let's just not go back to a repressive right wing state of mind, and proceed forward. I wonder if Hillarious or Obama or Governor Bill would pardon Mumia or Leneard Peltier.
Now that would be something.
Prison reform oughta be on the agenda and Obama has spoken to that issue along with repatriation for felons.

I'll be watching for more hyp hop hypocrisy from rev Al, and hope he and we is and am a work in progress as are we all, at least with room to grow, beyond the closed minded religious right, and no I don't think you are uninformed for criticising rev Al. You have already enlightened me about that.

[stilltrucking]

jim I think that what Bush did for Libby had more to do with covering his own ass than protecting Libby.

Like that guy said if they pardoned him he would lose his 5th amendment rights. If another investigation starts into the white house which it probably will he can plead the 5th.

I don't think they wanted him sitting in jail thinking about informing on his boss.

Rev AL has taken a stand on the gangsta rap sort of. I just can't forget about the mob he incited and the seven people who burned to death as a result.

[jimboloco]

I a sure that is true and again am always greatful for your insights and will be following your seeing eye.

You are right of course it was a cover up.