Tuesday, March 6, 2007

Libby Trial: This Just In--A Verdict!

At 11:30, the reporters covering the obstruction of justice trial of Scooter Libby were notified that the jury had reached a verdict and that the verdict wil be read in court at noon.

More to come--obviously.

20 comments:

capt said...

Verdict is in:


Count I: GUILTY

Count II: GUILTY

Count III: NOT GUILTY

Count IV: GUILTY

Count V: GUILTY

Mookie said...

Guilty Guilty Guilty!

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory?id=2927764

BURN! *dances around effigy*

capt said...

White House official Libby guilty



[…]

After the verdict, and standing beside his client, who remains free until sentencing, Mr Wells said: "We have every confidence that ultimately Mr Libby will be vindicated.

"We believe he is totally innocent, and did not do anything wrong."

Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said he was "gratified" by the verdict, but that it was "sad" that "we had a high-level official... who obstructed justice and lied under oath".

US President George W Bush "said that he respected the jury's verdict. He said he was saddened for Scooter Libby and his family," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.

But Senate majority leader Harry Reid said: "I welcome the jury's verdict. It's about time someone in the Bush administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics."

A member of the jury, Denis Collins, said although jurors decided Libby was guilty they also had a "tremendous amount of sympathy" for him, and thought he might just be "the fall guy".

"Where's Rove?" he asked, referring to Mr Bush's top aide.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Yeah, now I would like to see if president Cheney pardons the convicted felon.



capt

Flan said...

Hmmm, I smell a resignation due to "health reasons" for Cheney. He has a good enough excuse with his thrombosus.

Robert S said...

Guilty! This calls for a song, feeding on the last thread, of course...

White Rabbit - Grace Slick

One pill makes you larger
And one pill makes you small
And the ones that mother gives you
Don't do anything at all
Go ask Alice
When she's ten feet tall

And if you go chasing rabbits
And you know you're going to fall
Tell 'em a hookah smoking caterpillar
Has given you the call
Recall Alice
When she was just small

When men on the chessboard
Get up and tell you where to go
And you've just had some kind of mushroom
And your mind is moving low
Go ask Alice
I think she'll know

When logic and proportion
Have fallen softly dead
And the White Knight is talking backwards
And the Red Queen's "off with her head!"
Remember what the dormouse said:
"Feed your head
Feed your head
Feed your head"

************************

'Treacle,' said a sleepy voice behind her. 'Collar that Dormouse,' the Queen shrieked out. 'Behead that Dormouse! Turn that Dormouse out of court!

*************************

This message brought to you by The Surrealist Committee to Re-Levitate the Pentagon 1967-2007

*************************

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" - Hunter S. Thompson

capt said...

From: The Corn Archives


117

Cheney is walking with a cane and had shortness of breath.

Sadly, that sounds like more heart problems.

I predict as the noose tightens on the neo-creep lobbyists, I bet Cheney will resign due to "heart" problems (two sizes too small).

Neo-Condi will rise to VP and the Dubya chokes on a pretzel and voila! Neocon rule through 2012 and beyond.

*perish the thought*


capt

Posted by: capt at January 9, 2006 05:04 PM

Flan said...

Capt, from your post and mine, it seems that Cheney has had one leg out the door for a while, now if we can just get the whole body out, that would be fine with me!

capt said...

Flan,

"now if we can just get the whole body out, that would be fine with me!"


No doubt, me too - one body would be a start.

I expect Darth Cheney to push for a pardon, one last throe as it were.


capt

capt said...

Libby's guilty verdict: Media myths and falsehoods to watch for



On March 6, a federal jury found former vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby guilty on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to federal investigators. In the wake of this decision, conservatives and other media figures can be expected to revive and advance numerous myths and falsehoods regarding the CIA leak case that have circulated throughout the media since Libby's indictment in October 2005.


In anticipation of this misinformation, Media Matters for America has listed those baseless and false claims likely to surface in the coming days and weeks:


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

A good list - well put together. I have already read some that match.



capt

capt said...

A Serious Conviction



Since day one of the Scooter Libby trial, conservatives have attacked the fact that the leak itself was not being prosectuted while calling the charges against Libby as petty, suggesting that Fitzgerald was, in the words of Bob Woodward, a "junkyard dog prosecutor."

45 minutes before the verdict was read today, the National Review's Byron York declared, "the problem here...is the charge... prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has asked the jury to convict Libby of a felony, one that carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, on that astonishingly flimsy allegation."

The charge? Not only was Libby charged with, and convicted of lying, he was convicted of obstructing justice. In other words, he's guilty of impeding the investigation into the leak -- of using subterfuge to prevent the leak itself from being prosecuted. That's hardly "flimsy."

Further, the one "not guilty" verdict (out of five) will only strengthen the prosecution's case during sentencing because it shows the jury didn't simply steamroll Libby or ignore the defense's case. They gave his case close consideration and determined he should go to jail.

Ultimately -- and this is what Libby's defenders least want to concede -- Libby's conviction indellibly brands the Bush White House as a criminal administration. Now on to the civil suit against Rove, Cheney, et al.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Short and to the point.



capt

capt said...

VIDEO: Fitzgerald Speaks Out On Libby Verdict



At his post-verdict press conference, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Libby had "lied and obstructed justice in a serious matter. The results are actually sad. It’s sad that we had a situation where a high-level official — a person who worked in the office of the Vice President — obstructed justice and lied under oath. We wish that had not happened."

Fitzgerald added, "it’s not the verdict that justifies the investigation, it’s the facts."

The Nation’s David Corn asked Fitzgerald to comment on his previous courtroom assertion that, "There is a cloud over the vice president…There is a cloud over the White House." Fitzgerald responded that "the fact that there was a cloud over anyone was not our doing, it was the facts of the case, [and] it was aggravated by Mr. Libby telling falsehoods."


UPDATE: White House spokeswoman Dana Perino says the White House will continue its "principled stand" of not commenting:

PERINO: I know that there’s going to be a lot of disappointment with this, but there is an ongoing criminal proceeding. Scooter Libby’s attorneys just announced that they are going to ask for a new trial, and that they are going to, failing that, they would appeal the verdict. And so our principled stand of not commenting on ongoing legal investigations is going to continue.

UPDATE II: Fmr. Ambassador Joseph Wilson on MSNBC’s Countdown and CNN’s Larry King Live tonight.


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Just the facts. (video at the link)



capt

capt said...

"If once [the people] become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves. It seems to be the law of our general nature, in spite of individual exceptions." : Thomas Jefferson to Edward Carrington, 1787

=
"...There is no nation on earth powerful enough to accomplish our overthrow. ... Our destruction, should it come at all, will be from another quarter. From the inattention of the people to the concerns of their government, from their carelessness and negligence, I must confess that I do apprehend some danger. I fear that they may place too implicit a confidence in their public servants, and fail properly to scrutinize their conduct; that in this way they may be made the dupes of designing men, and become the instruments of their own undoing." : Daniel Webster, June 1, 1837

=
"Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress." : Frederick Douglass

===

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Hajji said...

hmmm...

Nowadaze, DVT (deep vein thrombosis) is relatively easy to treat. "Clot-busting" medication (Thrombolitics) therapy is almost always successful in eliminating clots before they can dislodge and travel to the lungs.

Once in the lungs, however, such clots(Pulmonary eboli)can cause death VERY suddenly by closing the passages of blood-reoxigenation.

If Cheney claims DVT as a medical reason for resignation, it'll be pretty telling that he's just getting out of the way to await a full pardon for...whatever...

-T

David B. Benson said...

A remainder about important matters:

World to Come

Hajji said...

EMboli

Cough medicine work too good!

capt said...

Poison DUst



Poison DUst tells the story of young soldiers who thought they came home safely from the war, but didn't. Of a veteran's young daughter whose birth defect is strikingly similar to birth defects suffered by many Iraqi children. Of thousands of young vets who are suffering from the symptoms of uranium poisoning, and the thousands more who are likely to find themselves with these ailments in the years to come. Of a government unwilling to admit there might be a problem here. Filmmaker Sue Harris skillfully weaves the stories of these young veterans with scientific explanations of the nature of "DU" and its dangers, including interviews with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, New York Daily News reporter Juan Gonzalez, noted physicist Michio Kaku, Dr. Rosalie Bertell, Dr. Helen Caldicott and Major Doug Rokke- the former U.S. Army DU Project head.

Every American who cares about our troops should watch this film. Everyone who cares about the innocent civilians who live in the countries where these weapons are used should watch this film. And everyone who cares about the hatred of Americans that may result from the effects of our government's actions in using these weapons, should watch this film. Is there a cover-up?

More HERE

*****end of clip*****

A must see for everyone.



capt

Saladin said...

Now what?

capt said...

What now?

A new thread!

Saladin said...

Democrats scale back plans to challenge Bush's Iraq 'surge'

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Stymied in their efforts to block
President George W. Bush's troop escalation in
Iraq, Democrats have scaled back challenges to his "surge," instead favoring legislation limiting the number of soldiers and length of their stay.

US Representative John Murtha (news, bio, voting record), one of the leading advocates in Congress for pulling US troops from Iraq quickly, said that Democrats have concluded that ending the war is not as easy as cutting off funding.

"We don't have the votes to do it," he told US television Sunday.

"And the public, they don't want that to happen. They want the troops to be entirely funded," Murtha said, speaking on NBC television's "Meet the Press" program.

Democrat Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), who chairs the
Senate Armed Services Committee, said that he too has abandoned efforts to end the US military mission in Iraq in favor of a plan that would simply reduce its scope.

"It will be a transition to a more limited mission of supporting the Baghdad army, training and logistics of that army. And we will, of course, have a limited presence for a targeted counter-terrorism mission, as well as trying to see if we can provide some support for the borders of Iraq," Levin told CBS television.

Levin said legislation to rein in the US military presence has a reasonable prospect of being approved by Congress where Democrats enjoy just a thin majority.

"If we can focus on ... keeping American troops out of the middle of a civil war ... with the understanding that there needs to be a limited mission that remains after that, I believe we can get almost all the Democratic votes, plus we can pick up some Republican votes," he told the CBS "Face the Nation" program.
===========
But then, they already knew that didn't they? What's next in this theater of the absurd?

capt said...

SS Botany Bay.

Sleeper ship.