Cheney reminds us why we need to impeach Bush before anyone starts indicting members of his administration.

Cheney Hails Ford's Pardon of Nixon

The nation honored Gerald R. Ford in funeral ceremonies Saturday that recalled the touchstones of his life, from combat in the Pacific to a career he cherished in Congress to a presidency he did not seek. He was remembered as the man called to heal the country from the trauma of Watergate.

Ford's decision to pardon Richard Nixon, so divisive at the time that it probably cost him the 1976 election, was dealt with squarely in his funeral services by his old chief of staff, Vice President Dick Cheney.

"It was this man, Gerald R. Ford, who led our republic safely though a crisis that could have turned to catastrophe," said Cheney, speaking in the Capitol Rotunda where Ford's body rested. "Gerald Ford was almost alone in understanding that there can be no healing without pardon."

"concrete liberty hurdles" at Madison Square Garden
August 31, 2004
photo by James Wagner

From today's New York Times:

City Fights Efforts to Release 2004 Convention Arrest Records

Faced with lawsuits from hundreds of people arrested during the 2004 Republican National Convention, the Bloomberg administration is fighting to keep secret a vast array of records, testimony and videotapes collected that week.

The city contends the materials could be embarrassing to people who were arrested, disclose police intelligence, or reveal environmental conditions that may hurt commercial development on the West Side waterfront or be useful to terrorists.

In addition, the city lawyers said that medical reports from police officers who complained of getting sick after working at a temporary holding pen were “unreliable” and “likely to contain misinformation.”

They're just throwing out excuses hoping one will stick. Given that a huge number of people were arrested just for walking down neighborhood streets at the wrong time (many of them not protesters), the city has big payouts coming. Perhaps someone can ask Bloomberg to donate some of his money instead of making the taxpayers of New York pay for his attempt to cozy up to the Republicans and their convention.