Libby gets independence....

[The D]

Good job Bush. Anytime your or Dick's cronies gets in trouble for being a republican nazi or breaking the law horribly and being evil, you can just pardon him! Once again proving to the world that you think you're above the law.

[Rama]

Ford pardoned Nixon. Not like this the first, or the last, time something like this  will happen.

[Bernie AKA]

Fun fact!   

Didya know that one of our deputy national security advisors is none other than Elliott Abrams who pleaded guilty to unlawfully withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra scandal?  He was one of 6 Iran-contra defendants pardoned by Bush Senior.

Somehow, I don't think ol' Scoot will be too damaged by the conviction.  Nor by the $250,000 fine, which probably equals about $10 to any of our wallets.

[The D]

Ford pardoned Nixon. Not like this the first, or the last, time something like this  will happen.

Was Nixon in Ford's party?

[Bernie AKA]

Yep.  The only Republican other than Teddy Roosevelt I have any liking for.   Nixon's VP Spiro Agnew resigned after he was charged with tax evasion and Ford was appointed and confirmed by Congress, becoming Pres. after Nixon resigned.  I liked Ford - very decent guy who had few political enemies, if any, didn't wear his faith on his sleeve, wanted a federal amendment outlawing anti-gay job discrimination, and belived government should stay out of people's private lives. 

[Rama]

Or...as most people know him. That guy Chevy Chase made fun of by constantly falling down on SNL.

[The D]

Ford's grave, his presidental library and museum are both in Michigan. He grew up in Grand Rapids and played for the University of Michigan football team, which he was the star player of and led them to many victories.

He was truely the greatest Michigan man ever.

[Rama]

Better then....ummmmmm......Yeah I guess he was.

[The D]

Well there was always Henry Ford... but I don't know if he grew up here.

[Rama]

He did. Near present day Dearborn

[Rodent of Unusual Size]

Good for Lewis.  The Plame thing was a steaming pile of bullshit to start with.  He should have received a full pardon.

And if you think Bush is the only one to do favors for convicted cronies, you're nuts.  The People's Hero Bill Clinton was probably the most notorious of all time for that.

[Bernie AKA]

Like Armitage was going to be in the hot seat.  Unfortunately, taking the fall for one's superiors is practically a corporate/political tradition.  That being said, I'm not wild about any sort of Presidential pardon - I think one man saying that twelve good people are idiots rather dry rots some of our basic juducial system timbers.

ANyway, on to the next scandals!  Today, we have ex-surgeon general Richard Carmona revealing only being allowed to repeat White House-approved ideology in public appearances and family-values-platform Louisiana Sen. David Vitter's phone number being found on the DC Madam's call list.   

[B E C K]

He was upholding family values by trying to talk her into a life of Jesus.

[The D]

Mind you guys, the whole Libby thing bugs me not because of whether or not Libby was guilty or if he deserved a sentence or not. What bugs me is that all Bush has to do if one of his cronies gets in trouble is pardon them. So basically they can get away with anything illegal because if they get in trouble, "THE DECIDER" will come and reprise his role as the Almighty Ruler of Earth and get them off the hook.


I remembered this topic when I was reading these articles online. It seems Henry Ford wasn't such a great man either, since he seemed to like to hire thugs to run his business with threats of violence. He often made Union organizers disappear, and dealt with Union protests with violence and bullets.

Ford Hunger March (March 7 1932)

The night of the Rouge River battle several Unemployment Councils organized a march to protest the plant lay-offs. They marched down several city blocks and were met at the bridge by Detroit Police and the Ford Service Department. The peaceful protestors were met by tear-gas canisters and sprayed with high pressure ice cold water. A few desperate and angry marchers through rocks at the police to fight back and suddenly the gates were opened up and the Police and the Ford Service Department armed with sub-machine guns began firing hundreds of rounds into the crown. In the ensuing panic five men were killed by the gunfire and 60 more wounded.

Battle of the Overpass

The Battle of the Overpass was an incident on 26 May 1937, in which labor organizers clashed with Ford Motor Company security...

At approximately 2 p.m., several of the leading UAW union organizers, including Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen, were asked by a Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, to pose for a picture on the overpass, with the Ford sign in the background. While they were posing, men from Ford's Service Department, an internal security force under the direction of Harry Bennett, came from behind and began to beat them.

Frankensteen had his jacket pulled over his head and was kicked and punched. Reuther described some of the treatment he received: "Seven times they raised me off the concrete and slammed me down on it. They pinned my arms . . . and I was punched and kicked and dragged by my feet to the stairway, thrown down the first flight of steps, picked up, slammed down on the platform and kicked down the second flight. On the ground they beat and kicked me some more. . . " One union organizer Richard Merriweather suffered a broken back as the result of the beating he received.

The group then beat some of the beret-wearing women arriving to pass out leaflets, along with some reporters and photographers, while Dearborn police at the scene largely ignored the violence.

Battle of the Overpass 2

He also ruled by fear: Harry Bennett, his right hand man, hired spies and thugs (many were ex-cons), 2,000 of them, to man his "Service Department." He ran the Rouge Plant like a Central European police state. Anti-union groups were encouraged, workers were urged to spy on each other and feared losing their jobs if they participated in any union discussions.

The Detroit News photographer, James E. (Scotty) Kilpatrick, thought the backdrop of the Ford sign would make a great picture, and obligingly, the union men walked up the two flights of iron stairs to the overpass.

Facing the photographers, Reuther and his partners had their backs to the thugs that were approaching them. The newsmen's warnings were too late. They were attacked brutally: punched and kicked repeatedly. Frankensteen recounted how two men held his legs apart while another kicked him repeatedly in the groin. One man placed his heel in his abdomen, grinding it, then put his full weight on it. Reuther was punched in the face, abdomen and back and kicked down the stairs. Kanter was pushed off the bridge and fell 30 feet.

Bennett's crew went after the reporters and photographers next, ripping out notebook pages, and destroying photographic plates. The News' Kilpatrick hid his plates in the back seat and gave up useless ones that were sitting on his front seat. The newspaper plastered the photos over the front page and, through the wire services, spread them across the world.

[B E C K]

You would've done the same thing if you knew everyone was gonna start buying Japanese in teh fyooture.

[The D]

You mean Henry Ford could see into the future?!



What really amuses me is those people who think by buying from the big 3, they're buying american made cars. Import cars may be designed overseas, but most are actually built in the US, because it's cheaper than shipping overseas.

And not all Big 3 cars are built in the US. I saw a tag for a escalade that said it was assembled in Mexico. Ole!

[Rama]

You mean Henry Ford could see into the future?!

If he could have, he might not have sympathized with the Nazis.

[Bernie AKA]

On American cars, the 1st digit of the VIN (which stands for Vehicle Identification Number - drives me nuts when someone says "VIN number) stands for the manufacturing country - 1 for the US, 2 for Canada and 3 for Mexico.  Where was YOUR "American" car born, citizens??!! 

[B E C K]

What really amuses me is those people who think by buying from the big 3, they're buying american made cars. Import cars may be designed overseas, but most are actually built in the US, because it's cheaper than shipping overseas.

Yeah, they've been making a big shit about our new Toyota plant here.  "Jobs!!!11`woej3p;fgrl;"  Yeah, assembling shit.  I had this lady in my Japanese class a few years back who said she was taking it because she was gonna work for Toyota.  WTF?