Free Republic

While the most transparent administration in history continues to stonewall Congress on its legal theories for supporting a would-be dictator in Honduras, dismissing a civil-rights case against nightstick-wielding Black Panthers, and flouting the plain language of the Constitution on the D.C. Voting Rights Bill, it’s time once again to check in on the president’s equally laughable commitment to disinfect the Justice Department, removing all traces of political taint. When it was Scooter Libby in the crosshairs, Democrats were awfully sanctimonious about the grave felony of lying to the FBI. (snip)Meet Stephanie Villafuerte. She is a former prosecutor from Denver, where...

Clair McCaskill thinks she's a neurologist. These people hold elected office and actually think they are entitled to tell folks what they need better than the scientists that treat them! http://www.foxnews.com/search-results/m/26494935/suffering-scooters.htm#q=McCaskill+Scooters So if you are a person with MS, Parkinsons, ALS and Huntingdon's disease, lets land our sorry butts in Clair's office and tell her what we think of her medical knowledge.

Eileen Bishop said she was "half asleep" when the scooter charged off An 87-year-old Cornish woman was rescued by police five miles from home when her mobility scooter sped off out of control. Eileen Bishop, from Perranporth, and her husband Anthony were on their way to church when, he said, she "disappeared off the radar". Officers later found her heading along the A3075 towards Newquay. A police community support officer (PCSO) rode the scooter back and said it appeared to be working correctly. 'Full tilt' Mr Bishop said the incident began when he and his wife set off for St...

There seems to be a trend among manufacturers to design motorcycles for people who don't really like them. It's no surprise, then, that Honda, the world's largest manufacturer of two-wheelers, wants in on this nontraditional crowd. This is, after all, the "you meet the nicest people" company that virtually invented the concept of motorcycling as a mass-market pastime. Now it wants to broaden those horizons further, and it sees a niche smack dab between the loafer-wearing scooter crowd and those preening, leather-shod bikers. Its solution is the DN-01 ($17,499). While it looks like a motorcycle (well, sort of ), it...

AP Piaggio MP3 Hybrid The Chevy Volt just had a little of its thunder stolen. Paolo Timoni, President and CEO of Piaggio Group Americas — maker of the Piaggio and Vespa brands of motor scooters — confirmed to FOXNews.com that the company is planning to sell a plug-in hybrid version of one of its vehicles in the United States starting in early 2010. If the gas-electric scooter makes it into showrooms on schedule, it will be the first plug-in hybrid vehicle to go on sale in the U.S., beating the Volt to market by several months, at least.

WASHINGTON - In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge. Sources close to Cheney told the Daily News the former vice president repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Libby, arguing his ex-chief of staff and longtime alter ego deserved a full exoneration - even though Bush had already kept Libby out of jail by commuting his 30-month prison sentence. "He tried to make it happen right up until the very end," one Cheney...

Ex-VP Dick Cheney outraged President Bush didn't grant 'Scooter' Libby full pardon BY THOMAS M. DEFRANK DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF Updated Tuesday, February 17th 2009, 8:36 AM WASHINGTON - In the waning days of the Bush administration, Vice President Dick Cheney launched a last-ditch campaign to persuade his boss to pardon Lewis (Scooter) Libby - and was furious when President George W. Bush wouldn't budge. Sources close to Cheney told the Daily News the former vice president repeatedly pressed Bush to pardon Libby, arguing his ex-chief of staff and longtime alter ego deserved a full exoneration - even though...

As the curtain closes on the presidency of George W. Bush, the one loose end dangling is the pardon of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. In 2007 Mr. Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, was convicted for perjury and obstruction of justice. Let us be clear about the Bush legacy. After September 11, not a year into Mr. Bush's term, his became a war presidency. George Bush's place in history will turn on what becomes of Iraq and al Qaeda. If Iraq fails, history will mark down the Bush presidency. If by fits and starts Iraq grows into the...

Chris Bishop has bittersweet memories of the Harley-Davidson 100th Anniversary Celebration. The 46-year-old advertising professional remembers cruising to a street party in 2003 on his 1984 Honda Aero and squeezing the scooter into a row of parking spaces overflowing with muscular Softails and Fat Boys. "I went down to Water Street and parked it down there, and everybody was smiling, and everyone wanted to hop on the back," Bishop said. "It's motorbike culture. You could be cooler if you had (a Harley), but you're still cool." So much for the sweet. Now for the bitter. "I don't think I'd do...

Which gets better gas mileage, a Hummer or a scooter? No contest. But which is more polluting? It may not be what you think. "It's true. The cleanest scooter is still dirtier than a car," said John Swanton, air pollution specialist with the California Air Resources Board.

Anybody want to talk about scooters and mini bikes? Face it, with these gas prices the idea makes sense. I have one that gets 80 MPG and tops out at 45 MPH. It cost less than $1500 and, in the State of Georgia, for less than 50cc, there is no registration, no advalorum tax and no special operator's license. Plus the insurance costs about $120 a year and there are special parking places available. I know these aren't Harley's, alright? But they sure are fun and CHEAP!!

The Prime Minister of Niger reported to the U.S. State Department in early 2002 that Iraq tried to buy uranium "yellow cake" (ore) -- a June 2003 Memo reveals. A declassified court exhibit introduced in the 2007 trial of Scooter Libbey proved that Saddam Hussein tried to get uranium ore from Niger -- covertly and under the table. This is clear evidence that Saddam Hussein was actively developing nuclear weapons. Iraq already had stockpiles of uranium "yellow cake" that it was not using -- but that uranium was being watched by UN inspectors. Iraq could have no reason for wanting...

Former Cheney Aide Libby Disbarred Bush Commuted Libby's Prison Sentence Last Year POSTED: 10:41 am EDT March 20, 2008 UPDATED: 10:55 am EDT March 20, 2008 A Washington, D.C., radio station reports that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, has been disbarred. A three-judge panel on the D.C. Court of Appeals stripped Libby of his ability to practice law after he was found guilty last year of obstructing the investigation in the CIA leak investigation, WTOP radio reported.

Columnist Robert Novak said Saturday Ambassador Joe Wilson did not forcefully object to the naming of his CIA operative wife, Valerie Plame Wilson, when Novak spoke to him prior to the publication of a column that sparked a federal investigation and sent White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby to jail. “He was not terribly exercised about it,” Novak said. Instead, Wilson focused on not being portrayed as simply an opponent of the Iraq war. Wilson also stressed that his wife went by his last name, Wilson, rather than Plame, Novak said. Novak forcefully defended his handling of the column...

About 25 or 30 years ago I stopped in at the legendary NYC pizza joint, Pizza City, on my way to visit Mom and Dad. Inside, I discovered lights, a camera crew and Yankee great Phil Rizzuto filming a TV commercial. Phil was about 60 at the time and still looked as if he could step out onto the field and play shortstop. When he got to the punch line he went into a pantomime baseball swing and then flashed that great Rizzuto smile straight into the camera. As he took his phantom swing I noticed his biceps and forearms,...

Dishwasher and part-time landscaper Juan Sanchez called a press conference to officially confirm two years ago, he entered the US illegally.

The further redacted affidavits filed in the Miller case are now available online. Two interesting facts have struck Just One Minute commenters as we skim through this newly available material. First, Fitzgerald granted Ari Fleischer immunity without requiring him to provide waivers, so that Fitzgerald could not confirm Ari's story with reporters. This seems remarkable, and when you add to it that Fitzgerald claimed in court that he granted immunity to Fleischer without having any idea what he'd testify to, it is astonishing. It may explain why he believed for so long that Libby had been the source to Walter...

The New York Times waited just hours after President Bush commuted the sentence of Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby Jr., before issuing an editorial condemning the president's decision. -SNIP-The Times editorial made much of the supposed hypocrisy of the tough-on-crime right in supporting the decision to commute the sentence. It ran out its editorial under the headline "soft on crime," though it has been soft on crime for years, save for when Republicans are in the dock. Its support for throwing a public official in jail for 30 months for the crime of trying to...

Washington - The chief Democrat probing President George W Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of a former White House aide said on Sunday there is "the suspicion" the aide might have fingered others in the Bush administration if he served time. House Judiciary Committee chair John Conyers spoke of "the general impression" that Bush last week commuted I Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 2½-year sentence in the CIA leak case to keep Libby quiet... Bush contended Libby's sentence was too harsh. Libby was convicted of lying and obstructing justice in an investigation into the leak of a CIA officer's identity.

Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, an opponent of pardons while he was governor of Massachusetts, defended President Bush’s decision to commute the prison sentence of former Cheney Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby “Wasn’t it Bill Clinton who was handing out pardons like lollipops at the end of his administration,” Romney said, “and isn’t there some recognition that you might look a little silly if you didn’t have anything to say when he was handing out pardon after pardon after pardon for political purposes only?”

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House on Thursday made fun of former President Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for criticizing President Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of former aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. "I don't know what Arkansan is for chutzpah, but this is a gigantic case of it," presidential spokesman Tony Snow said. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has scheduled hearings on Bush's commutation of Libby's 2 1/2-year sentence. "Well, fine, knock himself out," Snow said of Conyers. "I mean, perfectly happy. And while he's at it, why doesn't he look at January 20th, 2001?"...

Des Moines, Iowa - Former President Bill Clinton says President Bush's decision to spare ex-White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby from prison differed from his own administration's pardon controversy. "You've got to understand, this is consistent with their philosophy," Clinton said during an interview on Des Moines news-talk station WHO. Bush administration officials, he said, "believe that they should be able to do what they want to do, and that the law is a minor obstacle." "It's wrong to out that C.I.A. agent and wrong to try to cover it up," Mr. Clinton added. "And no one was ever fired...

Watch this video. He is so angry. I laughed through the whole thing. I thought his head was going to explode.

CONGRATULATIONS AMERICA, YOU DID IT! BUT WE'RE JUST GETTING WARMED UP! Welcome all to the new STEVE MALZBERG SHOW on WOR 710 AM in NY! Congratulations to WOR and New York for nabbing the great Steve Malzberg! Join Steve and his freeper fans at the link below. Steve will be in every Monday through Friday, live from 9PM to 11 PM, and its about time! Listen to Steve now on 710 AM WOR NY You can also listen to missed shows on WOR’s on demand feature! And even if you listened to a show, no reason not to listen...

Conspiracy theorists, listen up! On Monday’s “Rush Limbaugh Show,” the conservative talk show host implored President Bush to pardon Scooter Libby. “Everything in this case is just senseless,” Limbaugh said. “There was never any crime. We knew who made the original leak about what’s-her-name. It’s unbelievable.” Then Limbaugh rendered his verdict: “It’s time for this pardon. It just really is. ... I don’t see how it could lower his standing in the polls.” Mere hours later, Bush commutes Scooter Libby’s sentence. Was he tuned into Rush’s EIB Network up in Kennebunkport? You be the judge.

CNN: Conservatives Will Be 'Angry' Over Commutation, GOP Double Standard re: Clinton Posted by Brent Baker on July 2, 2007 - 21:44. With “Angry Reaction” on screen, CNN's Suzanne Malveaux opened the 7pm EDT hour of The Situation Room by asking if on the Libby commutation: “Are conservatives as angry as Democrats?” Toward the end of the hour, Malveaux, filling in for Wolf Blitzer, cued up ex-Clinton operative Paul Begala: “President Clinton was impeached for lying before a grand jury. What do you think? What do you make of this? Does this smack of a double standard?” Malveaux announced at...

Most in USA Disagree with Bush Decision to Commute Libby Prison Sentence: 21% of Americans familiar with the legal case involving former White House aide Scooter Libby agree with President Bush's decision to commute Libby's prison sentence, according to a SurveyUSA nationwide poll conducted immediately after the decision was announced. 1,500 Americans were surveyed. Of them, 825 were familiar with the Libby case. Only those familiar were asked to react to the President's action. 17% say Bush should have pardoned Libby completely. 60% say Bush should have left the judge's prison sentence in place. 32% of Republicans agree with the...

The Steve Malzberg Show Live Thread We've won the battle, folks and now its time to plan the WAR! Welcome all to the new STEVE MALZBERG SHOW on WOR 710 AM in NY! Congratulations to WOR and New York for nabbing the great Steve Malzberg! Join Steve and his freeper fans at the link below. Steve will be in every Monday through Friday, live from 9PM to 11 PM, and its about time! Listen to Steve now on 710 AM WOR NY You can also listen to missed shows on WOR’s on demand feature! And even if you listened to...

WASHINGTON - President Bush spared former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby from a 2 1/2-year prison term on Monday, issuing an order that commutes his sentence. This is a breaking news update. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby cannot delay his 2 1/2-year prison term in the CIA leak case, a federal appeals panel unanimously ruled Monday. The decision is a major setback for Libby, who is running out of legal options and who probably will have to surrender to prison in...

Former Time poobah Norman Pearlstine's new book about his role in the Valerie Plame scandal is titled Off the Record, but don't be misled: he devotes most of his time to naming names, mouthing off about his enemies, and firing back at those who criticized his cooperation with federal prosecutors. In a rare moment of introspection about Time reporter Matt Cooper, Pearlstine concedes, "None of his editors, including this one, provided adequate guidance." But mostly, Pearlstine sticks to a valuable lesson clearly learned during his time in the corporate corner office: Blame your underlings. Pearlstine faults Cooper and his fellow...

Donald Rumsfeld, Henry Kissinger, Paul Wolfowitz, and John Bolton top the list of individuals who wrote a federal judge on behalf of former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who was sentenced today to 30 months in prison for lying to investigators and a federal grand jury examining the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. On the following 30 pages you'll find an assortment of letters from former colleagues and friends of Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff. The letters, which do not include a missive from Cheney himself, were filed this morning in U.S. District...

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's defense attorneys have filed a formal motion asking the court to allow him to delay the start of his prison term, pending the appeal of his March conviction. A federal jury found Libby guilty March 6 on charges that he lied to the FBI and a grand jury, and obstructed justice in the investigation into the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame, a former covert CIA operative. Tuesday's 122-page filing mirrors the main arguments that the defense team addressed before federal Judge Reggie Walton last week, questions concerning special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's authority to bring...

This e-mail from a Marine officer-turned-Arkansas farmer who fought — and was wounded twice — in the Battle of Hue (in which then-2nd Lieutenant Peter Pace also fought), one of the bloodiest battles of the Vietnam War: ... "I think Harry Reid is a wimp, who acts like a sissy, and could not lead a platoon of Marines to the head (latrine)."

The outcome of the next court hearing in the CIA leak case will be a moment of truth for the Bush White House. The judge who sentenced Lewis Scooter Libby to 30 months in prison for perjury and obstructing the investigation has set a Thursday hearing to determine when Libby will start his term. Federal Judge Reggie Walton, known as a tough by-the-book jurist, has indicated he sees no reason to delay Libby's trip to prison. Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald strongly opposes any delay. Libby's lawyers contend he should remain free because his conviction could be overturned. Unless Judge Walton...

What happens when a dozen prominent law professors from across the legal spectrum - from Robert Bork to Alan Dershowitz - petition the judge in the Libby case to give credence to the concept that Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald's constitutional authority in prosecuting the case is in question? U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton will have to address the issue next week when he has been asked by Libby's attorneys to consider releasing their client on bond pending appeal of his conviction for perjury and obstruction of an FBI investigation of the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's name to reporters....

Reported on Fox.

Tomorrow, June 5, after some four years of an unenviable ordeal, I. Lewis Libby, a brilliant man, a dedicated public servant and the father of two young children, will stand in the dock before U.S. District Court judge Reggie Walton to be sentenced for what a jury found constituted perjury, obstruction and false statements to government investigators and a grand jury. -SNIP- The only thing this filing shows to a certainty is that Fitzgerald demonstrates here, as he does in the Conrad Black case in Chicago, a too-eager jumping into cases without adequate research, a snipping the edges off the...

I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is due to be sentenced next week, and--just in time--Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has decided this was a leak case after all. Last week he filed a brief with the court arguing that Mr. Libby should receive a prison sentence in line with crimes that neither he nor anyone else was ever accused of committing. If the court accepts Mr. Fitzgerald's logic, the sentence meted out in this fantastic case would at least double, to a minimum of 30 months. So it goes in a case brought by an unaccountable prosecutor now requesting an unreasonable penalty...

WASHINGTON - Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has shown no remorse for corrupting the legal system and deserves to spend 2 1/2 to 3 years in prison for obstructing the CIA leak investigation, Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney and an assistant to President Bush, is the highest-ranking White House official convicted since the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago. In court documents, Fitzgerald rejected criticism from Libby's supporters who said the leak investigation had spun out of control. Fitzgerald denied the prosecution was politically motivated and...

There's lazy, and then there's Las Vegas lazy. In increasing numbers, Las Vegas tourists exhausted by the four miles of gluttony laid out before them are getting around on electric "mobility scooters." Don't think trendy Vespa motorbikes. Think updated wheelchair. Forking over about $40 a day and their pride, perfectly healthy tourists are cruising around Las Vegas casinos in transportation intended for the infirm. You don't have to take a step. You don't even have to put your drink down. "It was all the walking," 27-year-old Simon Lezama said on his red Merits Pioneer 3. Lezama, a trim and fit-looking...

The closest he came to being animated during our discussion came as he discussed the chain of events that led to the prosecution of Libby. His comments are worth quoting at length: ~~~~~~ "I know what he's undergoing now. I know what it costs him. I know what's happening to him and his family, I've seen it before. And he's suffering from the fact that he is in Washington, D.C., as an employee of the Bush administration and especially as someone who is working for Dick Cheney. It was obvious to me that no crime had been committed, that Valerie...

Former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby said Friday he no longer plans to ask for a new trial in the CIA leak case but still expects to appeal his conviction. Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was convicted last month of lying and obstructing an investigation into the 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. Requests for new trials are seldom granted. In documents filed in federal court Friday, Libby's lawyers said they will mount their arguments before an appeals court rather than asking for a new trial as they had planned....

Joseph Wilson and his wife, outed CIA spy Valerie Plame, are finally getting a chance to unwind. They arrived at their new 4,600-square-foot adobe home in Santa Fe three weeks ago and they’ve traded in their Jaguar for a pickup truck. Their seven-year-old twins already have found new friends and spotted three snakes. There’s a book deal in the works, a movie on the horizon, and a pending federal lawsuit that names Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove and others. In an interview with The Associated Press, Wilson says it’ll take a couple of years to sort through the remains...

Washington - Democrats across the country were outraged after Vice President Dick Cheney's former Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, was convicted for committing whatever crime Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald had charged him of committing, Underneath Politics has learned. "It makes me sick," said long time Democratic voter Betty Granath. "To think he did what it is that he did is beyond comprehension. How could he betray the trust of the American people like that? I haven't been this outraged since that Florida lady (Katherine Harris) did whatever it is that she did to help George W. Bush illegally win...

http://www.chicagotribune.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept Gonzales aide rated Fitzgerald mediocre Prosecutor's ranking same as 2 others who were fired Advertisement By Dan Eggen and John Solomon, The Washington Post; Post staff writer Michael Abramowitz contributed to this report March 20, 2007 WASHINGTON -- U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald of Chicago was ranked among prosecutors who had "not distinguished themselves" on a Justice Department chart sent to the White House in March 2005, when he was leading a CIA leak investigation that resulted in the perjury conviction of a former vice presidential aide, administration officials said Monday. The ranking placed Fitzgerald below "strong U.S. Attorneys...

Disinformation: After Scooter Libby's questionable perjury conviction, the special prosecutor announced the end of his probe. But if avenging falsehood under oath grabs him, Valerie Plame herself should have been next. Lewis Libby just wasn't born with the right color hair. Apparently, you have to be a blonde bombshell to get away with having a faulty memory while under oath. Valerie Plame, the "secret agent" who does glamorous magazine cover shoots, gave testimony last week to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that so contradicted the bipartisan report of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee analyzing prewar intelligence regarding Iraq,...

Appears to me this lady was hired based on looks and not intelligence.

William Jefferson Giuliani? Rudy Giuliani doesn't think Lewis Libby should be pardoned, at least not yet. "The pardon power is a very, very important power that the president has, and it has to be exercised very judiciously and very carefully. You certainly shouldn't speculate about it while a criminal case is still ongoing. It seems to me you let it go through the process." More from the New York Sun here:(http://www.nysun.com/article/50319) There is nothing in the Constitution that requires a president to wait until after all judicial avenues and remedies have been exhausted before issuing a pardon. Caspar Weinberger, among...

Sure, "Scooter" Libby might go to jail. His career is in tatters, his life a shambles. Even Denis Collins, the omnipresent juror-journalist, says he and his peers feel sympathy for Libby, the "fall guy" in this whole spectacle. But really, who is the real victim? Joe and Valerie, of course. "The golden couple targeted by White House machine," as described by one British paper, have had to put up with so much. There's no need to dwell on the hardships faced by former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV: that arduous junket to Niger helped along by his wife, Valerie Plame;...