Friends don't let friends serve time
Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, received a commutation only hours after a panel of judges ruled that he had to begin serving his 2 1/2 year sentence immediately and could not put it off during his appeal, according to The New York Times.
In a statement replete with contradiction, Bush claimed he respected the jury's verdict but thought the sentence was too harsh. And with a blatant slap in the face to the entire judicial branch of the U.S., Bush went ahead and erased Libby's impending jail sentence without pardoning him of the crime - apparently, Bush considers Libby guilty, but above the law and not worthy of punishment.
In Washington, response to the President's decision has predictably fallen down party lines. Republicans and conservatives praise Bush's decision - Kenneth L. Adelman, a former Defense Department official and personal friend of Libby, told The New York Times that Libby is a good person who doesn't deserve to go to jail.
Many Democrats and liberals denounced the decision, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., called the decision a missed chance for the White House to hold one of their own accountable for the "efforts to manipulate intelligence and silence critics of the Iraq war."
Libby and the White House haven't provided any solid evidence to prove Libby's innocence, and the courts charged him in March for lying to a grand jury and FBI agents investigating the leak of CIA employee Valerie Plame.
Libby still will face serious consequences - aside from probation and jail time, he's now a convicted felon who may never practice law again.
But Libby is 56 and has no shortage of friends in high places, and his sentence commutation only reiterates the fact that he can lie to a grand jury and still not step foot in a jail cell.
In fact, a slew of Libby's friends, supporters and former colleagues created a defense fund for him. Supporters of the fund and of the president's decision include former ambassadors and government colleagues.
Presidential candidate Fred Thompson even held a fund raiser for Libby.
Libby's freedom sends a clear message that the current executive office will ignore the law and lambaste the authority of the judicial decisions of the U.S. in order to protect its own.
Libby and the rest of the members of Bush's "good-ol'-boys club" have no incentive to tell the truth or follow the law because Bush can erase the due process of law in the end.
*****************************************everything above here was from a different web site!!! **************************************************
My views are this! Are people so consumed with saving money for there friend who apparently leaked information to some wrong humans if i am reading this correct! if so why don't they have is high placed friends do something about the level of humans who do not have the basic essentials to live a life? if only half of these humans had to give up some selfishness and maybe be a good role model/citizens we wouldn't have the problems we are faced with today!
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