defendant

This is change we can really believe in:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on "FOX News Sunday."

"I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it," the California Democrat said. "And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past."

This isn’t about a vendetta against the last eight years of hell – it’s asking for accountability. I want a courts decision on this. Not only do I and many other demand it, but so do countless laws and the constitution. Currently we are going by the word of some lawyers hired by the defendant. If that was the pivotal decider in our system of justice then we could close all prisons now.

That is the latest piece by Froomkin in today's WaPo talking about the Libby trial:

There is a cloud over the vice president . . . And that cloud remains because this defendant obstructed justice," Fitzgerald said.

"There is a cloud over the White House. Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?" Fitzgerald asked the jury.

Libby, Fitzgerald continued, "stole the truth from the justice system."

This is a must read article that does a good job at summing the climax the month long trial. Marcy has done a great job at putting together a chronological list of Cheney's involvement and even said Fitzgerald is free to use it if he needs it to indict Cheney.

While the case of Scooter Libby is coming to a close, I got a feeling the entire Plame investigation is still far from over. The wingnuts have tried to say that the investigation ended when Fitzgerald announced his indictments against Libby, but Fitzgerald made it clear that this case was not closed and things could still come out, even in the trial.

Fitzgerald his the nail on the head by saying "Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?". Yes they do, but even more so, the families of the 3,100 plus soldiers that have died in Iraq deserve the truth. This case is about one of the key arguments for the Iraq war, an argument which has since been debunked. Perhaps it is time for the Democrats in Congress to put Cheney and Bush under oath and have them testify.

While I do not believe these few soldiers represent the greater United States military, I fear that Iraqi's will not want to distinguish them from their peers as easily:

U.S. soldiers stepped outside the law when they murdered three Iraqi detainees "in cold blood," a prosecutor told a U.S. military hearing on Friday.

"U.S. soldiers must follow the laws of war. That's what makes us better than the terrorists, what sets us apart from the thugs and the hitmen," said Captain Joseph Mackey, closing arguments for the prosecution of the four U.S. servicemen.

"These soldiers did just the opposite. They cut them loose and murdered them in cold blood," he said.

The hearing into the deaths on May 9 during a raid on a suspected insurgent camp on an island in the marshy fringe of Thar Thar Lake, southwest of Tikrit, will determine whether the four soldiers should be court-martialled for the killings.

If found guilty of premeditated murder, they could face the death penalty.

Another defendant in this case should be the United States government, and in particular their "stop loss" program. You can't help but wonder if this crime would have never happened if certain key issues were different.

The first issue that could lead a soldier to act like this is the stop loss program. Just last week we heard of another 3,000 soldiers who were on their way home. Those orders were changed and they are now stuck in Iraq for at least another six months. Combine that, along with the recent NYT's article about soldiers feeling like their only mission is to drive around Baghdad and not get blown up, then you are left with soldiers going to extremes.

I am glad we are helping people become free in this world. Bush really is doing great:

A man could be sentenced to death after being charged with converting from Islam to Christianity, a crime under Afghanistan's shariah laws, a judge said yesterday. The trial is thought to be the first of its kind in Afghanistan and highlights a struggle between religious conservatives and reformists over what shape Islam will take four years after the fall of the Taliban.

Abdul Rahman, 41, was arrested last month after his family accused him of becoming a Christian, Judge Ansarullah Mawlavezada told Associated Press. The accused was charged with rejecting Islam.

During the one-day hearing on Thursday, the defendant allegedly confessed to converting to Christianity 16 years ago while working as a medical aid worker for an international Christian group helping Afghan refugees in the Pakistani city of Peshawar, Judge Mawlavezada said.

That's right folks. This democracy we have spread has made it so governments are free to kill people for changing religions. I wonder what God has to say to Bush about this one?

 UPDATE:

Armando at Daily Kos has much more on this important news story.

After fighting with a right wing defendant on
Bill Maher's forum, who insisted only
13% of Americans were blaming George Bush for the bad response last week in the
Gulf Coast, I dissected his data and produced an enormous lie being reported by
the right wing spin machine NewsMax.

First
NewsMax reported this on Wednesday in an article titled "New Poll: Americans
Not Blaming Bush for Katrina Problems"

Only 13 percent of those polled believe President Bush is "most
responsible” for the problems in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, a
new poll discloses.

And 35 percent said Bush has done a "great” or "good” job responding
to the hurricane and flooding, according to the CNN/USA Today/Gallup
poll.

Ok, sounds truthful enough until you read the actual
CNN article that
reveals the poll numbers. I will quote only the pertinent paragraph here.

Opinions varied widely, however, on the response of federal, state and
local officials regarding Katrina. Forty-two percent of respondents
characterized President Bush's response to the disaster as "bad" or
"terrible," while 35 percent said it was "good" or "great."