CITIZEN ALERT v1.236
PARDON PRIMER
There's gonna be a lot of heat from the Grand Old Party of Excuses as they try to deflect criticism away from President Bush and try a brand new tact of saying "BUT LOOK WHAT CLINTON DID!" Oh wait, that's not brand new, they do that every five minutes.
LEWIS LIBBY - Convicted of 4 felonies. 2 perjury, 1 making false statements, and 1 obstruction of justice. Obstruction is HUGE in the legal system. And to repeat - CONVICTED.
GEORGE W. BUSH - Says he will not get involved or even comment on a case while it is on going, until this week when he stepped in before Libby had even made his appeal and he commutated his sentence, meaning he doesn't have to go to jail, but he still has to pay a fine of $250,000. Luckily his REPUB friends have raised like $5 million dollars for him. Tough life.
BILL CLINTON - Impeached on perjury and obstruction of justice. I would wager 99% of Americans don't even really know what the word impeach means. It means to ACCUSE a public official of misconduct or to BRING CHARGES. It doesn't mean you're guilty, like a conviction does. How impeachment works is that the House of Representatives brings charges or makes the accusations or as they say IMPEACHES the President, then it goes to the SENATE where they hold the trial. In Clinton's case, he was acquitted by the Senate. That means found NOT GUILTY as in the opposite of CONVICTED. So, when you hear someone say, "Well, Clinton was IMPEACHED!" They are basically saying "Well Clinton was accused of stuff". If they say he was "Successfully impeached", just tell them they are idiots.
Now, what did Clinton get in trouble for? In a completely separate matter regarding the Paula Jones case he was cited with contempt of court for failing to testify truthfully. He later worked out an agreement to cut the whole thing short basically plea bargaining and he accepted his law license being suspended and he resigned from the bar. Done.
Keep in mind the country was BEHIND Clinton during all this. Bush's approval ratings are like in the high 20s or low 30s now. During Clinton's impeachment, he was around 66%. You could add up Cheney AND Bush's approval ratings and they wouldn't get to 66. Clinton even left office with a 60% approval.
MARC RICH - A guy indicted on tax evasion who fled to Switzerland before his court appearance. Clinton pardoned this guy because THESE GUYS a Harvard Law prof and Georgetown Law prof showed that his company did not evade taxes. Unlike Bush, Clinton sought bi-partisan consultation before the pardon from three Republican lawyers, one being Marc Rich's own lawyer one: LEWIS LIBBY. Yep! Kinda hilarious huh?
ROGER CLINTON - Clinton's half brother who Clinton pardoned of drug possession charges. The difference between this and Libby? Roger had already served his prison time a decade earlier. THAT'S really how a pardon is supposed to work.
147 PARDONS - Clinton pardoned about 450 people during his presidency, 147 on his last day. If you want to read about the people and why he did then READ THIS. It explains a lot of it. Reagan pardoned about 400. Carter like 500 I think and Nixon over 900. George W. doesn't give them out too much at all; he's at like 76. I guess he just saves them for his buddies.
PATRICK FITZGERALD - The lawyer investigating who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. He knew it led back to the Vice President but because Lewis Libby lied and "couldn't remember" this and that, he was unable to get to the Vice President, but since he caught Libby lying while covering for his boss, he charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice.
LEWIS LIBBY - Convicted of 4 felonies. 2 perjury, 1 making false statements, and 1 obstruction of justice. Obstruction is HUGE in the legal system. And to repeat - CONVICTED.
GEORGE W. BUSH - Says he will not get involved or even comment on a case while it is on going, until this week when he stepped in before Libby had even made his appeal and he commutated his sentence, meaning he doesn't have to go to jail, but he still has to pay a fine of $250,000. Luckily his REPUB friends have raised like $5 million dollars for him. Tough life.
BILL CLINTON - Impeached on perjury and obstruction of justice. I would wager 99% of Americans don't even really know what the word impeach means. It means to ACCUSE a public official of misconduct or to BRING CHARGES. It doesn't mean you're guilty, like a conviction does. How impeachment works is that the House of Representatives brings charges or makes the accusations or as they say IMPEACHES the President, then it goes to the SENATE where they hold the trial. In Clinton's case, he was acquitted by the Senate. That means found NOT GUILTY as in the opposite of CONVICTED. So, when you hear someone say, "Well, Clinton was IMPEACHED!" They are basically saying "Well Clinton was accused of stuff". If they say he was "Successfully impeached", just tell them they are idiots.
Now, what did Clinton get in trouble for? In a completely separate matter regarding the Paula Jones case he was cited with contempt of court for failing to testify truthfully. He later worked out an agreement to cut the whole thing short basically plea bargaining and he accepted his law license being suspended and he resigned from the bar. Done.
Keep in mind the country was BEHIND Clinton during all this. Bush's approval ratings are like in the high 20s or low 30s now. During Clinton's impeachment, he was around 66%. You could add up Cheney AND Bush's approval ratings and they wouldn't get to 66. Clinton even left office with a 60% approval.
MARC RICH - A guy indicted on tax evasion who fled to Switzerland before his court appearance. Clinton pardoned this guy because THESE GUYS a Harvard Law prof and Georgetown Law prof showed that his company did not evade taxes. Unlike Bush, Clinton sought bi-partisan consultation before the pardon from three Republican lawyers, one being Marc Rich's own lawyer one: LEWIS LIBBY. Yep! Kinda hilarious huh?
ROGER CLINTON - Clinton's half brother who Clinton pardoned of drug possession charges. The difference between this and Libby? Roger had already served his prison time a decade earlier. THAT'S really how a pardon is supposed to work.
147 PARDONS - Clinton pardoned about 450 people during his presidency, 147 on his last day. If you want to read about the people and why he did then READ THIS. It explains a lot of it. Reagan pardoned about 400. Carter like 500 I think and Nixon over 900. George W. doesn't give them out too much at all; he's at like 76. I guess he just saves them for his buddies.
PATRICK FITZGERALD - The lawyer investigating who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. He knew it led back to the Vice President but because Lewis Libby lied and "couldn't remember" this and that, he was unable to get to the Vice President, but since he caught Libby lying while covering for his boss, he charged him with perjury and obstruction of justice.
Labels: Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, Lewis Libby, Marc Rich, pardon, Patrick Fitzgerald, primer, Roger Clinton
posted by Bobot Adrenaline at 12:38 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home