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Former President Gerald Ford Dead at 93
Rancid Altoid was one of a large number of readers to tell us that "Former U.S. President Gerald Ford, who was swept into office after the Watergate scandal and later pardoned Richard Nixon, died at age 93, his widow said on Tuesday."
Fuck classy. I want my due process back.
It set an example for others to follow...
Lie, cheat, steal and kill is OK, your next buddy will give you a medal and a pat on the backl.
The US system is sick.
1st world economy with a 3rd world society.
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
Considering what a joke the NFL was in the 30's, that's not as big a surprise move as you might think.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Sorry guys, modding as a troll is pretty mean thing to do.
I lived through it. I saw it. I saw how we had an unelected executive branch for the first time in U.S. history. I saw this unelected president pardon a criminal and eliminate our countries access to justice.
The Imperial Nixon presidency is not over, look at the histories of the current vice president, rumsfeld, wolfowitz, et. al.
This is NOT a democrat vs republican issue,this is about the systematic disregard and destruction of U.S. constitution, and Ford is/was part of that group.
I only wish he lived a miserable life in prison for his actions.
We still don't have a motive for the crime -- Nixon was leading in the polls at the time of the break-in. Some suggest the motive might have been to steal the evidence that Nixon and George H.W. Bush were involved in the JFK assassination.
Which I believe is only one more "mysterious brain injury" away from being a Republican congress...
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You are an idiot and have no concept of how the presidential voting system works in the USA. Go back to middle-school government class and, this time, stop texting to your friends, read your text book, and listen to your teacher.
I did go to school in the U.S. and they never taught me that the presidency is something that you win in court.
"A lot of people, especially younger ones, weren't aware that Ford was the only US president who was never elected to office"
You must be forgetting the current President.
Jimmy Carter ACTUALLY DID act in the best interest of our country, and currently attempt to help humanity in many ways. Something George Bush has never done in his 6 years as preseident.
I am open source, and Linux baby!
Nixon's pardon lead directly to George H.W. Bush as head of the CIA, laying the groundwork for the Iran-Contra war, Reagan's gross budget cuts leading to the second highest deficit in US history and a complete break with the social compact making the US a 1st world nation with a 3rd world population.
Close to 1/4 of the population of the US has no medical coverage. Chances are better than 50% that of those US Citizens who have medical coverage that a major illness or accident will still force them bankrupt due to "uncovered costs."
The bankruptcy code has been changed to grossly favor creditors and a bankrupt individual will spend up to 5 years in a court-supervised plan to pay back creditors.
The Courts and laws of this nation have created a corporation-friendly / federalized system that grossly limits what we can do. The "class action fairness act" made it impossible for a national class action to rest where a person suffers a "small loss" - such as the telephone E-911 fee where MILLIONS of individuals lost about $112.00/yr to their telephone company. We recovered that one - but the laws now permit companies to steal hundreds of millions of dollars a nickel at a time and have almost no real concern for legal liability.
Big Military Contractors, Big Oil and Big Pharma are the top industrial moneymakers in the US (with financial "services" following close). By far the Military Contractors take more away from our economy than they inject and, at root, they will be our downfall.
The level of political sophistication of the general public has to be at the lowest level in our national history. There are no "civics" courses in high school and most citizens couldn't tell you what the tripartite government branches are, who is next in succession after the VP, the names of the Supreme Court Justices (and, who appointed them and how old they are - a hint - all of the younger ones are very, very far to the right).
We refight battles won in the Courts over and over again. The Scopes trial should have ended any of the Intelligent Design BS and that case was tried in 1925! ( see, http://tinyurl.com/u9d2q/ ) Two weeks ago the Supreme Court revisited affirmative action AGAIN. Twelve (12%) percent of the US population are direct descendants of slaves and, on the whole, Blacks die younger, have an 80% chance of spending time in prison, are paid less - usually much less - for the same work - and politicians still play the "race card" and IT STILL WORKS.
We are buried in two intractable wars with no real end in sight. We spend more on the military that all of the rest or the world does, combined. We are the world's largest weapons manufacturer and we sold the weapons to Iraq that are killing our troops today.
(**I'm so damn fed up with the press using the term "IED" - those "IEDs" are nothing but regular HE howitzer shells delivered to their targets without using the howitzer - we knew where ever single one was stored before we invaded - but we didn't do a damn thing to destroy the weapons caches and now we pay the price for the foolish decisions of the arrogant Bushies**)
Triangulation, single-issue voters and jingoism win elections at at time when vote-stealing is at at an all time high to boot. At least four governors have plead guilty to misdemeanors (that should have been charged as felonies and cost them their elected office); the 109th Congress will go down in history as one of the most corrupt since the Teapot Dome Scandal (and that was another Oil Industry scandal - 1922) under President Warren G. Harding.
The overall savings rate of US Citizens is NEGATIVE and we are ripe for a major economic downturn - possibly as bad as 1929 - perhaps worse. Take a look at the Katrina survivors and guess what plans are in place in the event of a major stock downturn: nothing.
The environment, the economy, our international standing, public health, political health and judicial health have all taken the back seat to the interests of the top 5% of the US population.
Thank you Mr. President Ford - the only unelected Executive in US history - you made all of this possible. Take your bow.