Responding to news that Rep. John Conyers has scheduled a hearing on President Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's prison sentence, Tony Snow asked: "And while he's at it, why doesn't he look at January 20th, 2001?," referring to President Clinton's pardon of Marc Rich. But why, Mr. Snow, should Congress take a second look at the Rich pardon? Do you not recall that the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the Rich pardon less than a month after it occurred?

If the Rich pardon was worthy of a hearing, what's the objection to giving the Libby commutation similar scrutiny?

Update (7/6/07) (TalkLeft): Lots more on this here and at Think Progress here. Also check out Dan Froomkin today, The Clinton-Did-It Flimflam.

Scooter Libby gets off scot-free for lying and obstructing justice. What happens to those convicted of marijuana offenses? They face life-long consequences.

Marijuana Policy Project reports that The Center for Cognitive Liberty and Ethics has issued the first study of its kind on consequences of a pot conviction. It's available here.

Some of the findings:

• Sanctions triggered by a marijuana conviction can include loss of access to food stamps, public housing, and student financial aid, as well as driver's license suspensions, loss of or ineligibility for professional licenses, other barriers to employment or promotion, and bars to adoption, voting, and jury service.

• Sanctions triggered by felony marijuana convictions can be more severe than those for a violent crime — and a felony can be as little as growing one marijuana plant or possessing over 20 grams of marijuana.

The report even lists the sanctions by severity and state. Where's the best place for a convicted pot offender to live?

Scooter Libby paid his $250,000.00 fine today. A "source close to Libby" says he paid it with his personal funds, not with money from his legal fund.

He had no choice but to pay the fine now. On June 22, Judge Reggie Walton had ordered him to pay it immediately. (See page 7 of the Judgment in a Criminal Case. (pdf))

Update: Here's a new Dan Froomkin column. I think he's been providing the most thorough MSM coverage on the commutation.

And Tony Snow has an op-ed on Libby and Bush in USA Today. He still doesn't get it. No one is complaining that Bush grants too many pardons. He's far too stingy with them. The problem is when he does make a clemency decision, it's for one of his cronies.

By the way, getting Bush clemency figures since 2001 is no simple task. They are carefully guarded and don't appear on any government website. The folks at the Rehabilitated Project say they have them and have posted them here.

Georgia has scheduled the execution of Troy Anthony Davis for July 17. He may be innocent.

Davis' supporters believe he is innocent and the human rights organization Amnesty International believe Davis could be innocent because there was no physical evidence in the Davis case, and no murder weapon found.

Out of the nine prosecution witnesses who testified against Davis, seven have now recanted most of their testimony that was used to convict Davis for murder. Jurors stated that they were not aware that most of the witnesses were pressured and coerced by police into signing the affidavits that were used against Davis. One witness reported that he had not even read what he signed. The National Coalition to Abolish The Death Penalty is also supporting Davis.

Amnesty International released a press release on the Davis case, and Judge Rosemary Barkett of the 11th Circuit Federal Appeals Court said "If these people say, 'I was coerced by the police,' how could he [Judge Nangle] reject without a hearing?"

Much more information is available here.

Contrary to what some in the Left blogs seem to think, the Constitution provides and contemplates methods for the Legislative Branch to check an out of control Executive short of impeachment and removal. And that is a good thing. For in the history of the Republic, only one President would likely have been removed from office, Richard M. Nixon, had he not resigned (it is why he resigned actually.)

President George W. Bush is no exception. He will never be removed from office. Therefore, progressives who actually care about checking this out of control Executive would be doing a much greater service for the Nation if they would urge the Congress to exercise those powers the Constitution provides it to check the power of the Executive. To instead urge futile efforts to remove the President from office may make those who urge it feel good, but it does not urge a course of action that will actually do any good for the Nation. More.

As Judge Walton decides whether his order placing Scooter Libby on supervised release can stand in face of the commutation, I thought a primer on supervised release and on the specific conditions Judge Walton imposed on Libby (court order here, pdf) might be useful.

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]

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A warning for doctors:

“Be afraid.”

No matter what you have learned in medical school, if you are prescribing opioids in doses that seems high to narcotics agents and prosecutors, you are at risk of a trial. And once you enter the courtroom, anything can happen.

Federal prosecutors who aren't licensed to practice medicine are increasingly substituting their own judgment for that of doctors who, in the opinion of the Justice Department, are prescribing too many pain pills to their patients. John Tierney explains why physicians who take an aggressive approach to pain management should not

... feel safe until doctors’ prescribing practices are judged by state medical boards, as they were until the D.E.A. and federal prosecutors started using criminal courts to regulate medicine. The members of those state medical boards don’t always make the right judgment, but at least they know that there is more to their job than counting pills.

Here's Rudy Giuliani in 2001 on the pardon of Marc Rich:

MAYOR RUDOLPH GIULIANI, New York: Well, I'm shocked that the President of the United States would pardon him. After all, he never paid a price. He got on an airplane, took all his records, and ran off to Zug, Switzerland, where he's remained a fugitive, and has made untold efforts to try to get the charges reduced, including many, many overtures and entreaties based on the use of influence.

Here's Giuliani now on the commutation of Scooter Libby:

"After evaluating the facts, the president came to a reasonable decision, and I believe the decision was correct," Giuliani said in a written statement Monday evening.

Did he forget that Scooter Libby hasn't paid a price yet? At least Marc Rich proceeded within the system and "made untold efforts to try to get the charges reduced." He even had Scooter Libby representing him in those endeavors.

It should be noted that Giuliani indicted Rich in 1983. Benji Sarlin at TPM's Election Central has more.

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So, Fred Thompson may have been a mole for the Nixon Whitehouse.

Howie Klein at Down With Tryanny has the details.

The Sundance Channel is airing Gimme Shelter tonight. In the clip above, Jagger is dressed up as Uncle Sam.

In December of 1969, four months after Woodstock, the Rolling Stones and Jefferson Airplane gave a free concert in Northern California, east of Oakland at Altamont Speedway. About 300,000 people came, and the organizers put Hell's Angels in charge of security around the stage. Armed with pool cues and knifes, Angels spent the concert beating up spectators, killing at least one. The film intercuts performances, violence, Grace Slick and Mick Jagger's attempts to cool things down, close-ups of young listeners (dancing, drugged, or suffering Angel shock), and a look at the Stones later as they watch concert footage and reflect on what happened.

War, Children, is just a shot away.

Al Gore III, the son of Al and Tipper Gore, was busted in L.A. today for driving 100 miles per hour and drug possession.

He was taken into custody at 2:15 a.m. following a traffic stop:

A subsequent search yielded a small amount of marijuana, along with prescription drugs including Valium, Xanax, Vicodin and Adderall, said sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino. There were no prescriptions found, he said.

Gore was arrested on suspicion of drug possession and booked into the Inmate Reception Center in Santa Ana, about 34 miles south of Los Angeles, on $20,000 bail, he said.

Gore is not a first-time arrestee:

He was arrested in 2003 for marijuana possession and in 2002 for suspected drunken-driving.

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There's a lot of buzz about Judge Walton's order (pdf) asking for briefs on whether Scooter Libby can be placed on supervised release since supervised release follows the service of a prison sentence and Libby didn't serve a prison sentence. [See,Scotus Blog, Sentencing Law and Policy, Big Tent Democrat and don't miss Christy at Firedoglake]

Howard Kieffer, who runs the excellent BOP Watch List-Serv, to which scores of criminal defense lawyers subscribe, has the response printed below.

Shorter version: The day Libby was booked is counted as a day in custody. He served (got credit) for his one day in prison and therefore can be put on two years of supervised release.

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