President Bush has commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence. It's the sort of tale you'd expect in C17th France, not modern America: a friend of the King President committed a serious crime which would ordinarily see him behind bars for a few years, and the King President forgave him and set him free. But then, as I keep having to remind myself, the US is not a democracy, but a monarchy in drag.
Libby retains his conviction, and will still have to serve probation and pay a US$250,000 fine, but he'll escape jail. It must be great to have friends in high places.
