Conservatives v. Brown

Slate offers an interesting interpretation of last week’s school desegretation case that criticizes the conservative majority for distorting history, but also shows how the seeds of their arguments come directly from Brown v. Board of Education.

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If you can’t do the time,call the president

So a conviction and three appeals later and Scooter Libby is heading to jail.

Check that. Scooter Libby learns that there is no substitute for friends in high places — or, in his case, friends in the highest places.

President Bush said today that he had used his power of clemency to commute the 30-month sentence for I. Lewis Libby Jr., the former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, who was convicted of perjury in March and was due to begin serving his time within weeks.

The action, announced just hours after a federal appeals court denied Mr. Libby’s request to allow him to remain free while his case is on appeal, spares Mr. Libby his prison term, but it does not excuse him from stiff fines or probation.

In a statement issued early this evening announcing his decision, Mr. Bush said he had listened to both critics and defenders of Mr. Libby, who was convicted of four felony counts for lying during a C.I.A. leak investigation.

“I respect the jury’s verdict,” Mr. Bush said. “But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend 30 months in prison.”

So, to recap. Lie to a grand jury and get a fine. Nice.

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Very cool news for the SB library

The George and Helen Segal Foundation has agreed to permanently place a piece of George Segal’s artwork in the South Brunswick Library. The piece (pictured from the foundation’s Web site), “Couple Against a Grey Brick Wall,” was completed in 1986 and used two local residents as models.
Segal, who died in 2000, was an influential and important artist — and a longtime South Brunswick resident — whose work includes “Depression Bread Line,” a sculpture for the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial; “Kent State — Abraham and Isaac,” a sculpture on the campus of Princeton University in memory of the 1970 Kent State shootings; and “The Commuters, Next Departure” at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in New York City.

Bravo.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
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