Ford Administration: Same gangster enterprise as the current Bush regime

[JackRiddler]

On the occasion of Gerald Ford's 92nd birthday, proving once again that bad people can live a very long time, let's use this thread to recall the awesome but now little-known criminal energies of the Ford Administration.

I invite those of you who are old enough or read-up to add your own recollections.

Here are mine:

First off, Ford wasn't President. That's true morally, as he was not elected. He didn't even steal an election, like Dubya's crew, and thus create the illusion of legitimacy. He was simply appointed by Nixon, whom he then pardoned in an apparent quid pro quo.

Second, like most of these president characters, he was a front for a mob, and rather transparently so. He was probably even dumber than Dubya, who at the least can simulate a few convictions (albeit not in English) or Reagan, who was a commanding presence (even when he didn't know where he was). Ford could not even stand up straight while chewing gum.

He was brought in to play reassuring doofus while the real crew behind him performed necessary damage control following the fall of Nixon and the revelations of CIA and other covert-state crimes in investigations like the Church and Pike Committees.

Nothing less was at stake than whether government of the spooks, by the corporations, for the oligarchs might perish from the earth.

So, who has a clue, any whatsoever, as to the identity of the high-ranking racketeers who ran the Ford White House?

You may recall a few of the names from some musty textbook:

Secy Defense: Donald Rumsfeld
Chief of Staff: Richard Cheney
Secy State: Henry Kissinger

Dir. Central Intelligence: George H.W. Bush
Members of his appointed "Team B": Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle.

Team B was charged with devising extreme scenarios of Soviet power (later even the mainstream CIA's estimates of Soviet power were shown to be laughably exaggerated). They terrorized the rest of the government in the advocacy of higher military spending. (Do you see any similarities to what these same guys do today?)

Vice-President: As the country's real owner, Nelson Rockefeller had himself appointed to manage the crisis. (Interesting how there were several assassination attempts on Ford by mind-controlled Manson bots.)

Rockefeller ran a cover-up Commission on CIA crimes, which after all is appropriate since he was previously RUNNING the CIA as a member the "40 Committee" (along with his sponsored intellectual, Kissinger).

Rummy (who looked just like he does today, really) and Cheney (who also looked like he does today, give or take 200 lbs.) came up with the original version of the USA PATRIOT Act.

Bush covered up at the CIA and won the loyalties of the ops who later made him Veep, President, and Chairman of the Board.

Carter came in, fired about 700 of the most unsavory covert operators. They coalesced around former DCI Bush and arranged his subsequent career. The model of "The Enterprise" was born.

THIS IS THE SAME ADMINISTRATION WE ARE LIVING UNDER TODAY.

I haven't even scratched the surface of their infamy.

Have at it, oh DUers Against Historical Amnesia.

[bryant69]

1. Yeah

But why place that on Ford instead of Nixon?

I mean it was a matter of continuance, wasn't it? I've always seen Ford as a go-along, get-along guy who got thrust into the corrupt machinery of the Nixon adminstration after Nixon and Agnew had their repsective meltdowns.

Who did Ford appoint to the Supreme Court?

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[noonwitch]

3. He put Stevens on the court, right?

A liberal.

I have to like Ford, I'm from his hometown.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

9. I'm from there too! Bought my first car from Ford's neice.

n/t

[longship]

6. I agree

Ford was a victim of the circumstances under which he gained the Presidency. He pardoned Nixon in spite of the fact that he knew it would mean that he would never be elected. He inherited the staff who were already surrounding the Nixon White House. He was a moderating influence. It was not a good time for anybody to be president and, for sure, he was not a great one. But he did keep things running, which is the best we could have expected under the conditions.

[JackRiddler]

10. Sorry, your imprecision begs questions

"But he did keep things running..."

What exactly was kept running? The apparatus that had already committed so many crimes under previous presidents? The illusion of democracy and government goodwill? The reassurance of the American people that, um, things were okay?

"...which is the best we could have expected..."

Oh really? Saving the criminal apparatus and emplanting the new junta, was the best "we" could have expected after all the revelations of the Watergate period? Good thing we didn't get anything less than the best.

"under the circumstances."

What circumstances? That certain people were nervous about the possibility for change in America? That many people preferred returning to sleep to acknowledging their country's problems?

[longship]

12. Clarification

Mea culpa.

Think in context of today's political environment. How would have Watergate ended under today's conditions.

"keep things running"
The country didn't come apart at the seams, didn't fall into civil war, etc. The Constitutional Crises ended peaceably and with no other impending critical result. That didn't have to happen that way. I'm not too sure about today's situation ending so cleanly.

"best we could have expected"
Put in context with today's scenerio that removal of Bush and Cheney would result in Dennis Hastert, I think the statement fairly well speaks for itself. It's totally irrelevant who we needed the most. We could have gotten some looney toon but that didn't happen. We got Ford.

"under the circumstance"
The circumstances of multiple Constitutional crises caused by a criminal regime in the White House, indictment of a significant proportion of the WH top level staff, the prospects of impeachment of a President, the unprecedented resignation of a serving president, and the prospects of the President serving time in prison. Yup, those circumstances.

[wli]

2. yes, it's been that long

These guys need to be prosecuted.

[JackRiddler]

4. Henry the K

The career of Henry the K surely requires no introduction. I find his most recent service appointment - two weeks as the original chair of the 9/11 Commission - to be a fine capstone, both to his own life of lies as to the idea that the government ever intended to do anything other than cover-up the fraud of 9/11.

Here's one treatment of that:

The Kissinger Bombshell
An Open Letter to 9/11 Skeptics and Doubters
Thursday, 28 November 2002, 6:36 pm

http://www.scoop.co.nz/xl?c=SWTR

And a summary of the 1973 CIA-backed coup d'etat in Chile, in which Kissinger was a key mastermind:

http://911truth.org/osamas/history.html#1973

[quispquake]

5. Also, don't forget Ford was on the Warren Commission...

Helping with one of the major cover-ups of the 20th century...

[yorgatron]

7. ford's legacy? willing stooge

history will prove me right.

[Johonny]

8. Yeah

But he was one of the few that really tried anything. He personally contacted the FBI when the other members doubted Hoover was giving them all the information he had. He actually sat in on more interviews than any other member. People then turn this around and call him a FBI stooge and a plant. Which goes to show you can't win.

[JackRiddler]

11. not impressed

These are rather minor measures. Did he accept the magic bullet? Did he let Dulles write the conclusions? Did he ever question the conclusions? Yes, yes and yes, proving himself a reliable stooge worthy of appointment to the presidency.

Are you telling me a few back-channel discussions with the FBI are extraordinary signs of courage or integrity?

WC Member Hale Boggs later questioned the WC report. And no, I can't think it's unrelated that his plane disappeared over Alaska in 1973 and has never since been found.

[GreenPartyVoter]

13. I hate that these people have been in and continue to be in power. And I

feel powerless about it. And full of rage over it.

[JackRiddler]

14. And how about the swine flu vaccination scam?

Ford rolling up his sleeve to take the shot that no one really wanted. Not one case of swine flu occurred, but hundreds died from the contaminated vaccine in 1976. Never done again since.

http://www.whale.to/vaccines/kalokerinos13.html

[JackRiddler]

15. next-day kick