GERALD FORD: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.

MAX FRANKEL, New York Times: I’m sorry; could I just follow… Did I understand you to say, Sir, that the Russians are not using Eastern Europe as their own sphere of influence and occupying most of the countries there and making sure, with their troops, that it’s a communist zone, whereas on our side of the line, the Italians and the French are still flirting with the possibility of communism?

GERALD FORD: I don’t believe, Mr. Frankel, that the Yugoslavians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that the Romanians hp pavilion zt1200 battery,hp pavilion zt1100 battery consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union….

An Election Without Meaning

By Peter Phillips
March 20, 2008

Will November 2008 bring a meaningful change to America? Will getting rid of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney without impeachment or indictment really make a difference? Will a 600 billion dollar war/defense budget be cut in half and used for desperately needed domestic spending? Will the ninety-three billion dollars profits in the private health insurance companies­­—those parasitic intermediates between you and your doctor—be used instead for full health care coverage for all? Will Habeas Corpus and Posse Comitatus be restored to the people? Will torture stop? Will all students in public universities be able to enroll for free? Will the US national security agencies stop mass spying on our personal communications? Will the neo-conservative agenda of total military domination of the world be reversed?

The answer to these questions in the context of the current billion dollar presidential campaign is an absolute no. Instead we have a campaign of personalities and platitudes. There is a race candidate, a gender candidate and a tortured veteran candidate, each talking about change in America, national security, freedom, and the American way. The candidates are running with support of political parties so deeply embedded with the military industrial complex, the health insurance companies, Wall Street, and corporate media that it is undeterminable where the board rooms separate from the state rooms.

The 2008 presidential race is a media entertainment spectacle with props, gossip, accusations, and public relations. It is impression management from a candidates’ perspective. How can we fool the most people into believing that we stand for something? It is billions of dollars of gravy for the media folks and continued profit maximunization for the war machine, Wall Street, and insurance companies no matter who is determined the winner in November.

We must face the fact that the US government’s primary mission is to protect the wealthy and insure capital expansion worldwide. The US military—spending more than the rest of the militaries of the world combined—is the muscle behind this protect-capital-at-all-costs agenda, and will be used against the American people if deemed necessary to support the mission.

Homeland Security, the North American Command, mass arrest practices with the FALCON raids, new detentions centers, and broadened “terrorism” laws to included interference with business profits are all now in place to insure domestic tranquility through extra judicial means if needed.

The two party corporate political system is having a HOMELAND presidential campaign—Hillary, Obama, McCain, Election, Lacking, Actual, National, Debate. It is time for real change, but it will only come with a social movement of reform in the tradition of the progressive, labor, civil rights, anti-war movements of the last century. We need to use all of our activist, legal, and political resources to reverse these threats to freedom. Naomi Wolf says it is not too late to prevent totalitarianism, but we have to act fast.

Peter Phillips is a Professor of Sociology at Sonoma State University and director of Project Censored. Access to verifying facts and analysis for the issues mentioned above is available at http://www.projectcensored.org.

GERALD FORD: There is no Soviet domination of Eastern Europe, and there never will be under a Ford administration.

GERALD FORD: I don’t believe, Mr. Frankel, that the Yugoslavians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that the Romanians consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union. I don’t believe that the Poles consider themselves dominated by the Soviet Union….

Ford was quite correct on the first two. The Yugoslav government, under Tito, was completely independent of Moscow, and Romania, under Ceaucescu, maintained his own hardline Communist stance, independent of Moscow. When you add in the fact that Albania (also in Eastern Europe) was a solid ally of China in the Moscow-Beijing split, that makes a fairly solid chunk of Eastern Europe that wasn’t under Soviet domination. We all know that, under pressure (especially in the heat of a debate), human beings tend to make foolish goofs, especially if there’s a possibility of confusing facts. Is there any evidence that PROVES Ford intended to say “Poland” and not “Albania”? Ford was asked a question, that wasn’t “scripted”, and he answered in a manner not unlike a “Jeopardy” contestant. (And how many of those have we seen screw up a really easy “question”?)
At least, Ford wasn’t quoted in Polish as “desiring carnal knowledge of Poland” (as poor Jimmy Carter was a few years later due to a translator’s goof).

Hillary at White House on ‘Stained Blue Dress’ Day
Schedules Reviewed by ABC Show Hillary May Have Been in the White House When the Fateful Act Was Committed
By BRIAN ROSS and the ABC NEWS INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
March 19, 2008

It’s no use talking to DreamCrusher about that because to him, that’s what the media should be doing, smearing Democrats and liberals and giving Republicans a free pass like they do.

Come back again when you’re semi-literate…if you live that long.

NBC un-plugs Kucinich from Presidential debate
Jan., 2008

DETROIT, MI – Less than 44 hours after NBC sent a congratulatory note and an invitation to Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to participate in the Jan. 15 Democratic Presidential debate in Las Vegas, the network notified the campaign this morning it was changing its announced criteria, rescinding its invitation, and excluding Kucinich from the debate.

NBC Political Director Chuck Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that, although Kucinich had met the qualification criteria publicly announced on December 28, the network was “re-doing” the criteria, excluding Kucinich, and planning to invite only Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former senator John Edwards.

The criteria announced last month included a fourth-place or better showing in a national poll. The USA/Gallup poll earlier this month showed Kucinich in fourth place among the Democratic contenders.

…Todd notified the Kucinich campaign this morning that the network had decided to change the criteria and limit participation in the debate to only three candidates.

http://www.dennis4president.com/go/newsroom/nbc-un%11plugs-kucinich-from-presidential-debate/

figure it out.

He does appear to be their darling, and seem willing to garage sale this old unusable piece of DC furniture to Ameicans for what ever price they can get out of him.

Is it that the media thinks that the Republican candidate represents their tax policies and such?

Or could it be the media feels it is their responsibility to even the playing field for the republicans in the election against the American backlash for the past 8 years?

McCain does symbolize Bush with every day passing. Corporate interests are felt to be at stake here. I figure the corporate media are the fawning reporters paid to write just the right stories and neglect the ones that are harmful to John. They do it for a paycheck and to hell with democracy.!