Are we sick of Paris Hilton yet?
Will we ever be rid of her now or is she now an American meme a powerful as Plymouth Rock?
Have we tired of her Weeping Semiotic?


The public outrage that condemned Paris back to the pokey
must not be ignored by the mass media and the political powers
stretching to try to change the American meme of “Justice Served”
against Scooter Libby by proclaiming that he is not really guilty but
rather innocent and wronged and deserves a pardon for his greater, and
more insidious crimes, against our nation.

I
call this Right Wing cawing for Scooter’s release — “The Paris Plea”
— but we, as the general moral compass of our nation, are now better
able to see through the lies and the fog of personal and political spin
machines.
O.J. helped disabuse all of us of any idea that justice is fair and
equal and right.

We, The American Public, want someone in the current administration to pay
for the lies and the war dead and we want them punished in an awful,
public, embarrassing way — and if Scooter is denied us — then we will
demand new blood and a better pound of flesh from a bigger fish to
satiate the wronged hunger of our body politic.
If not Scooter, then Cheney.
If not Cheney, then Bush.
Gonzales is already dead meat and we have already picked over his
bloodless carcass.
Scooter Libby lied to a prosecutor and he was caught and he must serve every moment
of his 30 month prison sentence.

I believe “The Paris Plea” will quickly change to “The Paris Effect”
when Bush provides Libby — Cheney’s Barking Dog — a pardon so no jail
time is ever served and justice is once again rendered seeing and
willowy and payoff-able through back room winks and unspoken, but
semiotic, political quid pro quos.
When Scooter is pardoned — will America hold Bush’s feet to the fire
as they have Sheriff Baca and his Paris prisoner?

Or will we do what we always do when it comes to the machinations of
the Republican Spin Machine and roll over on our common sense and give
up our soul all in the name of fighting terrorism and defending the
Homeland?
Why should Paris do her entire 45 day stint while Scooter gets to walk?

We know there’s a chasm of fairness in America between the rich and the
poor when it comes to the even application of the law — but is there
an even greater divide between the rich and the politically connected
rich holding state secrets?
How many Americas do we have shuffling around in the dark behind our
backs seeking power and retribution from the churning heat of our back
room boiler-rooms?

19 Comments

  1. Hi David,
    I think Scooter will be pardoned and most Americans won’t care, but not because they want a scapegoat– I don’t think most know or care who Scooter Libby is or what he did.
    If you were to take a poll and ask who is Paris Hilton v. who is Scooter Libby, can we predict who would be the most recognized? The question doesn’t even need to be brought to test.
    Losing faith,
    Donna

  3. Hi David,
    I have to put some of the blame on the media. The trial of Scooter Libby was complicated with many players. I got the impression that some of the reporters were confused because their reports were confusing.
    I think people lost interest because it took too much effort to concentrate. On the other hand, there is not a lot of substance to what’s going on with Paris Hilton.
    “Trivial” pops up again. Trivialities provide a no-think barrier to deeper issues. We follow the path of least resistance.
    Sad, but true.
    Donna

  4. Donna —
    Scooter Libby was found guilty and sentenced to 30 months. What’s confusing about that for people? Why do the details matter?

  5. Hi David,
    He’s not as cute as Paris. He was not a former pro athlete like O.J.
    He’s not fabulously wealthy. The story didn’t have a sexy subplot.
    No looks. No sports. No money. No sex. This does not an interesting story make for mainstream America.
    I’m not saying no one is interersted. I’m just speculating that not that many are, especially in comparison to stuff like what’s going on with Paris Hilton.
    I think it is very sad.
    Donna

  6. It is sad, Donna, because what Scooter did is much worse than what even Bill did to earn an impeachment vote. Yet no one seems to care. The media provide the Right Wing time and opportunity to bash Patrick Fitzgerald and then shaft the WIlsons’ side of the story. Alarming.

  7. Hi David,
    In your own words from the Paris story,
    “It is good for popcorn and candy sales.”
    “The Scooter Libby Story,” I’m afraid, would not be able to compete with Paris’ “The Hottie and the Nottie.”
    Donna

  8. If it was me, I would definitely be pushing to get people to use the name Louis.
    Louis, Louis, Louis!
    Hell, even Louie would work. Nobody should ever go to the pen with the name “Scooter”.
    “Scooter! Youse gotta purty face dere boy!”
    That could be problematic.
    On a more serious note, I don’t think Bush is automatically going to pardon. Look at the border patrol agents rotting behind bars right now, and that pardon could make Bush look good. Pardoning Scooter would anger a lot of people.
    I think the conservatives will try to reel him in. They are looking at the 2008 election and don’t need Bush further alienating not only the left, but his own party. Scooter may be a peace offering of sorts.
    Then again, I could be completely wrong. Won’t be the first time.

  10. Hey Eban!
    Right! Putting “Scooter” in jail sounds like you’re punishing an impish child and not a cogent person who lied to a prosecutor.
    I think the Right Wing need to save Scooter. All the Republican candidates are frothing for the pardon and wackos like Mary Matalin are making it the business and purpose of their day to collect money to “Save Scooter” from jail and from himself. It’s really a disgusting parade of imbeciles.

  11. Hi David,
    Where will Scooter end up?
    Some of those BOP facilities reserved for the high officials and rich Wall Street bad boys aren’t too bad. If there isn’t any barbed wire, it might end up being a like a summer camp for insider traders, other while collar criminals and pols caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Just like the guys in the regular “pen” get to learn the tricks of the trade and spend their days networking, I’m sure the same thing happens with all of those politicos and financial wizards.
    Plus, just like Dan Rostenkowski was pardoned by President Clinton in 2000, sometime in the future, Scooter will probably get a presidential pardon sometime in the future.
    I haven’t followed the intricacies of the story closely — except for what I’ve heard on the radio and the story line there is that Scooter was busted for having a faulty memory and that others — especially a State Department official — had told the media that Valarie Plame was the person who got her husband a plum assignment using her pull as a CIA employee. That’s the GOP spin.
    I haven’t been listening to the other side’s radio spin, so I won’t guess what they’ve been saying.
    For the people on the right, sounds like Scooter got a raw deal, but he’ll probably be sent to a nice country club prison and serve his time quietly so that he doesn’t hurt the party.
    The people in the middle missed the story and probably don’t care because I haven’t heard anyone talk about the story, unlike the Paris Hilton case.

  12. Paris Hilton is clearly a spoilt, messed up daughter of a stinking-rich family, I don’t think people expect anything better from her.
    She doesn’t have any accountability – neither to her own self, nor to the society.
    Libby, on the contrary, held a very significant post In US Government and knowingly violated rules…to say the least.
    The action of Paris is just a gossip-column news, but “scooter libby – damage” goes beyond that.

  13. Hi Chris!
    Scooter was prosecuted, found guilty and sentenced. This is the justice system we use to determine what is lawful and illegal. It’s hard to spin that as an “unfair system” when you have the best lawyers money can buy and you’re still going to jail for 30 months.
    I agree Scooter should pardoned only after he served his debt to society. Not before.

  14. You’re right on target about Paris, Katha.
    The damage Scooter did by knowingly lying to a prosecutor cannot be tolerated — and it was not tolerated — he was tried and found guilty. Now we’ll see if justice gets a short-circuit.

  16. Hi David,
    In the NY Times this morning, an article by Adam Liptak, “Bush Rationale on Libby Stirs Legal Debate.”
    http://tinyurl.com/3c6fqc
    The author discusses how Bush’s excessive leniency in commuting Libby’s 30-month prison sentence has opened up a can of legal worms.
    A quote from the article,
    “I anticipate that we’re going to get a new motion called ‘the Libby motion,’ ” Professor Podgor said. “It will basically say, ‘My client should have got what Libby got, and here’s why.’ ”
    Just incredible, and sickening. There appears to be no end in site to Bush’s reneging on promises, e.g., to “crackdown on leaks in my administration” and coverups and lies. Now he has really put his best foot forward in setting legal precedent.
    Donna

  17. Thanks for the fine link, Donna.
    Keith Olbermann from MSNBC has said it all:

    I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war. I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11. I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient. I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors. I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent. I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought. I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents. I accuse you of handing part of this republic over to a vice president who is without conscience and letting him run roughshod over it.
    And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that vice president, carte blanche to Mr. Libby to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to grand juries and special counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory to the obstruction of justice.

    http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2007/07/04/olbermann/

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