President Ronald Reagan, dead at age 93

[lucky wilbury]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

Hollywood sources tell LA Weekly columnist Nikki Finke that former President Ronald Reagan's medical condition has suddenly worsened. "He really took a downslide today," the insider told Finke Friday evening. "Doctors are at the house. Things aren't good." At the start of the day, several news organizations chased down a rumor that the ex-president had died, but it wasn't true... Family members gathered at the Reagan's Bel Air home late Friday... Developing...

[FORD]

Translation: Bush's numbers are slipping so low, they're desperate enough to capitalize on the deitization of poor old St Ronnie. Mark my words, Reagan will be dead before the Republican convention and those shameless bastards will milk it for all they can, with Reagan made over to look like Christ Himself :rolleyes:

[lucky wilbury]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040605/D830ULNO0.html



Reagan's Health Said to Have Deteriorated

Jun 5, 11:46 AM (ET)

By TOM RAUM

PARIS (AP) - Former President Ronald Reagan's health has deteriorated, the White House has been told. The White House was informed that the 93-year-old former president's health had changed significantly in the past several days, a person familiar with Reagan's condition said Saturday.

Reagan has been out of the public eye since disclosing a decade ago that he had Alzheimer's disease. He has lived longer than any other U.S. president.

Rumors about Reagan's health arose Friday and his office in California said it had received more than 300 calls over the past two days.

"He's 93 years old. He's had Alzheimer's disease for 10 years. There are plenty of rumors. When there is something significant to report I will do so," the Reagan family's chief of staff, Joanne Drake, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

White House officials also checked on Reagan's health Friday. The White House was told his health has deteriorated and "the time is getting close," according to the person familiar with Reagan's health, who did not want to be identified out of sensitivity to the family. "It could be weeks. It could be months."

Reagan's condition has changed significantly for the worse in the past several days, this person said.

News about Reagan's health came as President Bush arrived in the French capital, the second stop on his trip to Europe.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, at a fund-raiser last month for human embryonic research, described the toll that Alzheimer's has taken on her husband.

"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him," she said. "Because of this I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain. I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this."

Nancy Reagan and others believe the use of stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Such research is generally opposed by political conservatives and many anti-abortion groups because it involves the destruction of days-old human embryos. President Bush signed an executive order in 2001 limiting research to existing embryonic stem cell lines.

Reagan celebrated his birthday Feb. 6 in seclusion at his Los Angeles home. The nation's 40th chief executive, who broke his hip in a fall at his home in 2001, has rarely been seen in public since his poignant letter announcing he had the memory-sapping disease.

In that note on Nov. 5, 1994, Reagan said, "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."

[lucky wilbury]

http://www.drudgereport.com/

Reagan aide said that the former President has taken a turn for the worse. They don't think the end is imminent (not tomorrow). Staffers are being told to go about their business, to go on vacation if scheduled, DRUDGE has learned...

After Reagan dies, streets near the house in Belair will be closed. There will be NO annoucement of death from the house. Someone will call the news wires and announce where there will be an on-camera statement... Networks are preparing obits... MORE...

[FORD]

At least I hope it doesn't happen tomorrow.

The WWII vets are dying fast, and they deserve their last "real" anniversary of D-Day, and it shouldn't be tainted by a clown who spent the duration of the war making movies.

[Dr. Love]

FORD, you're talkin' about someone dying. Have some of that liberal compassion, man.

[FORD]

Originally posted by Dr. Love
FORD, you're talkin' about someone dying. Have some of that liberal compassion, man.

I have compassion for the man dying. It just pisses me off knowing how the BCE and Republicans will milk this.

I guarantee you the "BUSH/CHENEY '04 :Win one for the Gipper" bumper stickers are being printed as we speak, and they'll be on gas guzzling Hummers before the corpse is cold.

[DaveIsKing]

Originally posted by FORD
Translation: Bush's numbers are slipping so low, they're desperate enough to capitalize on the deitization of poor old St Ronnie. Mark my words, Reagan will be dead before the Republican convention and those shameless bastards will milk it for all they can, with Reagan made over to look like Christ Himself :rolleyes:

Reagan WASN'T Christ?? Damn, and all these years...

[lucky wilbury]

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040605/D8311PKO0.html

Reagan's Children Gather at His Bedside

Jun 5, 3:19 PM (ET)

By ROBERT JABLON


LOS ANGELES (AP) - Ronald Reagan's children gathered at his bedside Saturday as word reached the White House that the health of the 93-year-old former president had seriously deteriorated.

White House officials who checked on the former president's health Friday were told "the time is getting close," a person familiar with Reagan's health, who did not want to be identified, told The Associated Press. "It could be weeks. It could be months."

The Reagan family's chief of staff, Joanne Drake, said his children from his marriage to Nancy, Patti Davis and Ron, were at the Reagan home in the Bel-Air area of Los Angeles.

"This is it," Nancy Reagan told CBS News correspondent Mike Wallace.

"I said is it conceivable that it could happen this weekend? She said, yes, yes," Wallace told CBS radio.

Reagan, who has lived longer than any other U.S. president, has been out of the public eye since disclosing a decade ago that he had Alzheimer's disease.

"He's 93 years old. He's had Alzheimer's disease for 10 years. There are plenty of rumors. When there is something significant to report I will do so," Drake said.

Drake said she could not comment on the CBS report. She also declined to give details on the former president's condition.

Three dozen reporters and television cameras clustered across the street from the Reagan's mansion but there was nothing to be seen beyond the gate and the long driveway that led to the hidden home.

There were no police or Secret Service escorts visible in the tree-lined street.

Rumors about Reagan's health arose Friday and his office in California said it had received more than 300 calls over the past two days.

"I hope he lives many, many more years. He's an idol of mine," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said as he toured a broken levee west of Stockton Saturday.

Mitch Daniels, who was political director for the Reagan White House in the mid-1980s, issued a statement from his home in Indianapolis upon hearing the latest news on the former president.

"Even though the day must ultimately come, it will be hard to say goodbye. Few Americans have done more for their country than Ronald Reagan," Daniels said.


News about Reagan's health came as President Bush arrived in Paris, the second stop on his trip to Europe.

Former first lady Nancy Reagan, at a fund-raiser last month for human embryonic research, described the toll that Alzheimer's has taken on her husband.

"Ronnie's long journey has finally taken him to a distant place where I can no longer reach him," she said. "Because of this I'm determined to do whatever I can to save other families from this pain. I just don't see how we can turn our backs on this."

Nancy Reagan and others believe the use of stem cells from embryos could lead to cures for such illnesses as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.

Such research is generally opposed by political conservatives and many anti-abortion groups because it involves the destruction of days-old human embryos. President Bush signed an executive order in 2001 limiting research to existing embryonic stem cell lines.

Reagan celebrated his birthday Feb. 6 in seclusion at his Los Angeles home. The nation's 40th chief executive, who broke his hip in a fall at his home in 2001, has rarely been seen in public since his poignant letter announcing he had the memory-sapping disease.

In the note on Nov. 5, 1994, Reagan said, "I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead."

He also has a deceased daughter, Maureen, from his first wife, Jane Wyman, and an adopted son, Michael.

---

[Viking]

FORD, to say that a sniveling, diseased cocksucker like you needs a bullet between the eyes, would be a waste of a good bullet. :fu:

My prayers go out to one of the greatest presidents this country has ever known. :killer:

[VanJay011379]

He's just died according to the AP.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

[FORD]

He's dead.

http://abcnews.go.com/

May Nancy, Patti and Ronnie Jr mourn in peace without the media and the Repukes harrassing them.

[ZOSO]

Yup, it's confirmed. I knew it was bound to happen for so long, but regardless it's still shocking. My thoughts go out to Nancy and the rest of his family. What a terrible way to die, even worse considering how great of a leader he used to be imo.:(

[Viking]

A little piece of America went with him......:( :( :( :( :(

[POJO_Risin]

I don't know that shocking fits...

but it's always sad to see a person died who holds so much history...as any American President does...

so we're down to FORD, CARTER, Bush, Clinton and RE-Bush...

[Full Bug]

Its sad to see how he went with his mind gone in the end.....
Love him or hate him , he was a big influence in world events.....

[POJO_Risin]

Well...I wasn't big on his politics...but the guy was an eternal optimist...and knew how to be president...

I'll have a beer for him...ultimately...even though I think he killed the economy long term...he made perhaps the world a safer place...

[POJO_Risin]

Is it true that 93 is the oldest any president ever lived?

that can't be right...it was just said on the news though...

anyone know this?

[tobinentinc]

Ronald Reagan is the greatest present in recent history. This man should be remembered and celebrated. He had a great life and a great presidency. When he does die, we should have a moment of silence for his man.

[Pink Spider]

Took long enough.

[POJO_Risin]

Originally posted by tobinentinc
Ronald Reagan is the greatest present in recent history. This man should be remembered and celebrated. He had a great life and a great presidency. When he does die, we should have a moment of silence for his man.

He is dead...

[Viking]

I just went out to my porch and lowered my flag to half-staff..... :(

[FORD]

Originally posted by tobinentinc
Ronald Reagan is the greatest present in recent history. This man should be remembered and celebrated. He had a great life and a great presidency. When he does die, we should have a moment of silence for his man.

Seriously kid. The guy's dead and I don't want this thread turning into a shitfest. But you need to learn something about history, rather than just repeating the soundbites you heard on FAUX News. You know nothing of the Reagan presidency.

[ELVIS]

Originally posted by FORD
I don't want this thread turning into a shitfest.

Then turn your computer off...

[lucky wilbury]

you want to debate about the reagan presidentcy ford? you got it

[VanJay011379]

Originally posted by FORD
a clown who spent the duration of the war making movies.


Originally posted by FORD
The guy's dead and I don't want this thread turning into a shitfest.

[lucky wilbury]

the guy was 30 when the war broke out. he did his part before and during the war:


http://www.townhall.com/hall_of_fame/reagan/bio.html

1937-Reagan enlisted in the Army Reserve as a Private but was soon promoted to 2nd lieutenant in the Officers Reserve Corps of the Cavalry.

1942-The Army Air Force called Reagan to active duty and assigned Lt. Reagan to the 1st Motion Picture Unit in Culver City, California, where he made over 400 training films.

July 22, 1943-The Army honorably discharged Capt. Reagan.

[lucky wilbury]

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3025400


Queen and Thatcher Lead Tributes to Ex-President Reagan

By James Lyons and Matt Adams, PA News


The Queen and Baroness Thatcher tonight led the tributes to former US President Ronald Reagan, who has died at the age of 93.

Mr Reagan died with his wife Nancy and their children at his side at the family’s home in California tonight.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “The Queen is saddened by the news.”

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher hailed Mr Reagan as “a truly great American hero”.

She told PA News: “President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends.

“He will be missed not only by those who new him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.

“Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired.

“To have achieved so much against so odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero.”

Conservative leader Michael Howard told PA News: “This is an enormously sad day.

“President Reagan was one of the towering figures of our time, the man who with Margaret Thatcher won the Cold War for the West.

“It is so sadly ironic that he should have died as we prepare to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the day when the Allies began the liberation of Europe.

“We in Britain, as in so many other places around the world, owe him an ever-lasting debt. May he rest in peace.”

[lucky wilbury]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,63813,00.html

Reagan In His Own Words

Saturday, June 05, 2004

Nicknamed "the Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan was both one of the best political orators of the 20th Century and a self-deprecating wit. Following is a collection of some classic Reaganisms.

• "I did turn 75 today -- but remember, that's only 24 Celsius."

• "It's true hard work never killed anybody, but I figure, why take the chance?"

• "A friend of mine was asked to a costume ball a short time ago. He slapped some egg on his face and went as a liberal economist."

• To wife Nancy after John Hinckley, Jr.'s 1981 assassination attempt: "Honey, I forgot to duck."

• During a 1984 debate with Walter Mondale: "I'm not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent's youth and inexperience."

• "You can tell a lot about a fellow's character by his way of eating jellybeans."

• "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."

• In testing the microphone for his weekly radio address, Reagan declared, ''My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today I've just signed legislation which outlaws Russia forever. The bombing begins in five minutes.''

• "Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

• "Mr. President," TV reporter Sam Donaldson yelled out at Reagan after a 1982 press conference, "In talking about the continuing recession tonight, you have blamed the mistakes of the past and you've blamed Congress. Does any of the blame belong to you?" Reagan responded, "Yes, because for many years I was a Democrat."

• "Now, so there will be no misunderstanding, it's not my intention to do away with government. It is rather to make it work -- work with us, not over us; to stand by our side, not ride on our back. Government can and must provide opportunity, not smother it; foster productivity, not stifle it."

• "Well, this administration's objective will be a healthy, vigorous, growing economy that provides equal opportunity for all Americans, with no barriers born of bigotry or discrimination."

• "Above all we must realize that no arsenal or no weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women."

• "I hope you're all Republicans," he told doctors who were about to operate on his bullet wounds.

• "Did we forget that government is the people's business, and every man, woman and child becomes a shareholder with the first penny of taxes paid?"

• "We do not have a trillion dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough. We have a trillion dollar debt because we spend too much."

• "But with these considerations firmly in mind, I call upon the scientific community in our country, those who gave us nuclear weapons, to turn their great talents now to the cause of mankind and world peace, to give us the means of rendering these nuclear weapons impotent and obsolete."

• "Abortion is advocated only by persons who themselves have been born."

• "Politics is a very rewarding profession. If you succeed there are many rewards, if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book."

• "America is too great for small dreams."

• "We will always remember. We will always be proud. We will always be prepared, so we can always be free."

• "Government growing beyond our consent had become a lumbering giant, slamming shut the gates of opportunity, threatening to crush the very roots of our freedom."

[Dr. Love]

Originally posted by Pink Spider
Took long enough.


what?

[lucky wilbury]

i saw that and chose to ignore it

[lucky wilbury]

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2004/reagan/stories/speech.archive/farewell.html

Farewell Address
White House, Washington
January 11, 1989

Nine days before departing Washington at the end of his two terms, President Reagan said farewell to the nation. To those he called the "men and women of the Reagan revolution," he said "We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference."

My fellow Americans: this is the 34th time I'll speak to you from the Oval Office and the last. We've been together eight years now, and soon it'll be time for me to go. But before I do, I wanted to share some thoughts, some of which I've been saving for a long time. It's been the honor of my life to be your president. So many of you have written the past few weeks to say thanks, but I could say as much to you. Nancy and I are grateful for the opportunity you gave us to serve.

One of the things about the presidency is that you're always somewhat apart. You spend a lot of time going by too fast in a car someone else is driving, and seeing the people through tinted glass - the parents holding up a child, and the wave you saw too late and couldn't return. And so many times I wanted to stop and reach out from behind the glass, and connect. Well, maybe I can do a little of that tonight.

People ask how I feel about leaving. And, the fact is, "parting is such sweet sorrow." The sweet part is California, and the ranch and freedom. The sorrow - the good-byes, of course, and leaving this beautiful place. You know, down the hall and up the stairs from this office is the part of the White House where the president and his family live. There are a few favorite windows I have up there that I like to stand and look out of early in the morning. The view is over the grounds here to the Washington Monument, and then the Mall and the Jefferson Memorial. But on mornings when the humidity is low, you can see past the Jefferson to the river, the Potomac, and the Virginia shore. Someone said that's the view Lincoln had when he saw the smoke rising from the Battle of Bull Run. Well, I see more prosaic things: the grass on the banks, the morning traffic as people make their way to work, now and then a sailboat on the river.

I've been thinking a bit at that window. I've been reflecting on what the past eight years have meant and mean. And the image that comes to mind like a refrain is a nautical one - a small story about a big ship, and a refugee and a sailor. It was back in the early eighties, at the height of the boat people. And the sailor was hard at work on the carrier Midway, which was patrolling the South China Sea. The sailor, like most American servicemen, was young, smart, and fiercely observant. The crew spied on the horizon a leaky little boat. And crammed inside were refugees from Indochina hoping to get to America. The Midway sent a small launch to bring them to the ship and safety. As the refugees made their way through the choppy seas, one spied the sailor on deck, and stood up, and called out to him. He yelled, "Hello, American sailor. Hello, freedom man." A small moment with a big meaning, a moment the sailor, who wrote it in a letter, couldn't get out of his mind. And when I saw it, neither could I. Because that's what it has to - it was to be an American in the 1980s. We stood, again, for freedom. I know we always have, but in the past few years the world again, and in a way, we ourselves - rediscovered it.

It's been quite a journey this decade, and we held together through some stormy seas. And at the end, together, we're reaching our destination. The fact is, from Grenada to the Washington and Moscow summits, from the recession of '81 to '82, to the expansion that began in late '82 and continues to this day, we've made a difference. The way I see it, there were two great triumphs, two things that I'm proudest of. One is the economic recovery, in which the people of America created--and filled--19 million new jobs. The other is the recovery of our morale. America is respected again in the world and looked to for leadership.

Something that happened to me a few years ago reflects some of this. It was back in 1981, and I was attending my first big economic summit, which was held that year in Canada. The meeting place rotates among the member countries. The opening meeting was a formal dinner of the heads of goverment of the seven industrialized nations. Now, I sat there like the new kid in school and listened, and it was all Francois this and Helmut that. They dropped titles and spoke to one another on a first-name basis. Well, at one point I sort of leaned in and said, 'My name's Ron.' Well, in that same year, we began the actions we felt would ignite an economic comeback--cut taxes and regulation, started to cut spending. And soon the recovery began.

Two years later, another economic summit with pretty much the same cast. At the big opening meeting we all got together, and all of a sudden, just for a moment, I saw that everyone was just sitting there looking at me. And then one of them broke the silence. 'Tell us about the American miracle,' he said.

Well, back in 1980, when I was running for President, it was all so different. Some pundits said our programs would result in catastrophe. Our views on foreign affairs would cause war. Our plans for the economy would cause inflation to soar and bring about economic collapse. I even remember one highly respected economist saying, back in 1982, that `The engines of economic growth have shut down here, and they're likely to stay that way for years to come.' Well, he and the other opinion leaders were wrong. The fact is what they call `radical' was really `right.' What they called `dangerous' was just `desperately needed.'

And in all of that time I won a nickname, `The Great Communicator.' But I never though it was my style or the words I used that made a difference: it was the content. I wasn't a great communicator, but I communicated great things, and they didn't spring full bloom from my brow, they came from the heart of a great nation--from our experience, our wisdom, and our belief in the principles that have guided us for two centuries. They called it the Reagan revolution. Well, I'll accept that, but for me it always seemed more like the great rediscovery, a rediscovery of our values and our common sense.

Common sense told us that when you put a big tax on something, the people will produce less of it. So, we cut the people's tax rates, and the people produced more than ever before. The economy bloomed like a plant that had been cut back and could now grow quicker and stronger. Our economic program brought about the longest peacetime expansion in our history: real family income up, the poverty rate down, entrepreneurship booming, and an explosion in research and new technology. We're exporting more than ever because American industry because more competitive and at the same time, we summoned the national will to knock down protectionist walls abroad instead of erecting them at home.

Common sense also told us that to preserve the peace, we'd have to become strong again after years of weakness and confusion. So, we rebuilt our defenses, and this New Year we toasted the new peacefulness around the globe. Not only have the superpowers actually begun to reduce their stockpiles of nuclear weapons--and hope for even more progress is bright--but the regional conflicts that rack the globe are also beginning to cease. The Persian Gulf is no longer a war zone. The Soviets are leaving Afghanistan. The Vietnamese are preparing to pull out of Cambodia, and an American-mediated accord will soon send 50,000 Cuban troops home from Angola.

The lesson of all this was, of course, that because we're a great nation, our challenges seem complex. It will always be this way. But as long as we remember our first principles and believe in ourselves, the future will always be ours. And something else we learned: Once you begin a great movement, there's no telling where it will end. We meant to change a nation, and instead, we changed a world.

Countries across the globe are turning to free markets and free speech and turning away from the ideologies of the past. For them, the great rediscovery of the 1980's has been that, lo and behold, the moral way of government is the practical way of government: Democracy, the profoundly good, is also the profoundly productive.

When you've got to the point when you can celebrate the anniversaries of your 39th birthday you can sit back sometimes, review your life, and see it flowing before you. For me there was a fork in the river, and it was right in the middle of my life. I never meant to go into politics. It wasn't my intention when I was young. But I was raised to believe you had to pay your way for the blessings bestowed on you. I was happy with my career in the entertainment world, but I ultimately went into politics because I wanted to protect something precious.

Ours was the first revolution in the history of mankind that truly reversed the course of government, and with three little words: `We the People.' `We the People' tell the government what to do; it doesn't tell us. `We the People' are the driver; the government is the car. And we decide where it should go, and by what route, and how fast. Almost all the world's constitutions are documents in which governments tell the people what their privileges are. Our Constitution is a document in which `We the People' tell the government what it is allowed to do. `We the People' are free. This belief has been the underlying basis for everything I've tried to do these past 8 years.

But back in the 1960's, when I began, it seemed to me that we'd begun reversing the order of things--that through more and more rules and regulations and confiscatory taxes, the government was taking more of our money, more of our options, and more of our freedom. I went into politics in part to put up my hand and say, `Stop.' I was a citizen politician, and it seemed the right thing for a citizen to do.

I think we have stopped a lot of what needed stopping. And I hope we have once again reminded people that man is not free unless government is limited. There's a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.

Nothing is less free than pure communism--and yet we have, the past few years, forged a satisfying new closeness with the Soviet Union. I've been asked if this isn't a gamble, and my answer is no because we're basing our actions not on words but deeds. The detente of the 1970's was based not on actions but promises. They'd promise to treat their own people and the people of the world better. But the gulag was still the < i>gulag, and the state was still expansionist, and they still waged proxy wars in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

Well, this time, so far, it's different. President Gorbachev has brought about some internal democratic reforms and begun the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has also freed prisoners whose names I've given him every time we've met.

But life has a way of reminding you of big things through small incidents. Once, during the heady days of the Moscow summit, Nancy and I decided to break off from the entourage one afternoon to visit the shops on Arbat Street--that's a little street just off Moscow's main shopping area. Even though our visit was a surprise, every Russian there immediately recognized us and called out our names and reached for our hands. We were just about swept away by the warmth. You could almost feel the possibilities in all that joy. But within seconds, a KGB detail pushed their way toward us and began pushing and shoving the people in the crowd. It was an interesting moment. It reminded me that while the man on the street in the Soviet Union yearns for peace, the government is Communist. And those who run it are Communists, and that means we and they view such issues as freedom and human rights very differently.

We must keep up our guard, but we must also continue to work together to lessen and eliminate tension and mistrust. My view is that President Gorbachev is different from previous Soviet leaders. I think he knows some of the things wrong with his society and is trying to fix them. We wish him well. And we'll continue to work to make sure that the Soviet Union that eventually emerges from this process is a less threatening one. What it all boils down to is this: I want the new closeness to continue. And it will, as long as we make it clear that we will continue to act in a certain way as long as they continue to act in a helpful manner. If and when they don't, at first pull your punches. If they persist, pull the plug. It's still trust by verify. It's still play, but cut the cards. It's still watch closely. And don't be afraid to see what you see.

I've been asked if I have any regrets. Well, I do.The deficit is one. I've been talking a great deal about that lately, but tonight isn't for arguments, and I'm going to hold my tongue. But an observation: I've had my share of victories in the Congress, but what few people noticed is that I never won anything you didn't win for me. They never saw my troops, they never saw Reagan's regiments, the American people. You won every battle with every call you made and letter you wrote demanding action. Well, action is still needed. If we're to finish the job. Reagan's regiments will have to become the Bush brigades. Soon he'll be the chief, and he'll need you every bit as much as I did.

Finally, there is a great tradition of warnings in Presidential farewells, and I've got one that's been on my mind for some time. But oddly enough it starts with one of the things I'm proudest of in the past 8 years: the resurgence of national pride that I called the new patriotism. This national feeling is good, but it won't count for much, and it won't last unless it's grounded in thoughtfulness and knowledge.

An informed patriotism is what we want. And are we doing a good enough job teaching our children what America is and what she represents in the long history of the world? Those of us who are over 35 or so years of age grew up in a different America. We were taught, very directly, what it means to be an American. And we absorbed, almost in the air, a love of country and an appreciation of its institutions. If you didn't get these things from your family you got them from the neighborhood, from the father down the street who fought in Korea or the family who lost someone at Anzio. Or you could get a sense of patriotism from school. And if all else failed you could get a sense of patriotism from the popular culture. The movies celebrated democratic values and implicitly reinforced the idea that America was special. TV was like that, too, through the mid-sixties.

But now, we're about to enter the nineties, and some things have changed. Younger parents aren't sure that an unambivalent appreciation of America is the right thing to teach modern children. And as for those who create the popular culture, well-grounded patriotism is no longer the style. Our spirit is back, but we haven't reinstitutionalized it. We've got to do a better job of getting across that America is freedom--freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of enterprise. And freedom is special and rare. It's fragile; it needs production [protection].

So, we've got to teach history based not on what's in fashion but what's important--why the Pilgrims came here, who Jimmy Doolittle was, and what those 30 seconds over Tokyo meant. You know, 4 years ago on the 40th anniversary of D-day, I read a letter from a young woman writing to her late father, who'd fought on Omaha Beach. Her name was Lisa Zanatta Henn, and she said, `we will always remember, we will never forget what the boys of Normandy did.' Well, let's help her keep her word. If we forget what we did, we won't know who we are. I'm warning of an eradication of the American memory that could result, ultimately, in an erosion of the American spirit. Let's start with some basics: more attention to American history and a greater emphasis on civic ritual.

And let me offer lesson number one about America: All great change in America begins at the dinner table. So, tomorrow night in the kitchen I hope the talking begins. And children, if your parents haven't been teaching you what it means to be an American, let 'em know and nail 'em on it. That would be a very American thing to do.

And that's about all I have to say tonight, except for one thing. The past few days when I've been at that window upstairs, I've thought a bit of the `shining city upon a hill.' The phrase comes from John Winthrop, who wrote it to describe the America he imagined. What he imagined was important because he was an early Pilgrim, an early freedom man. He journeyed here on what today we'd call a little wooden boat; and like the other Pilgrims, he was looking for a home that would be free. I've spoken of the shining city all my political life, but I don't know if I ever quite communicated what I saw when I said it. But in my mind it was a tall, proud city built on rocks stronger than oceans, windswept, God-blessed, and teeming with people of all kinds living in harmony and peace; a city with free ports that hummed with commerce and creativity. And if there had to be city walls, the walls had doors and the doors were open to anyone with the will and the heart to get here. That's how I saw it, and see it still.

And how stands the city on this winter night? More prosperous, more secure, and happier than it was 8 years ago. But more than that: After 200 years, two centuries, she still stands strong and true on the granite ridge, and her glow has held steady no matter what storm. And she's still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home.

We've done our part. And as I walk off into the city streets, a final word to the men and women of the Reagan revolution, the men and women across America who for 8 years did the work that brought America back. My friends: We did it. We weren't just marking time. We made a difference. We made the city stronger, we made the city freer, and we left her in good hands. All in all, not bad, not bad at all.

And so, goodbye, God bless you, and God bless the United States of America.

[Viking]

God bless, Mr. President.

[Viking]

And Godspeed.

[FORD]

He had great speechwriters, and the ability to deliver them, I gotta give him credit for that much. A definite contrast to the Idiot occupying the White House at the moment.

[freak]

Originally posted by FORD
You know nothing of the Reagan presidency.

Nor do you obviously.
Shame.

[Viking]

He represented America at it's best.

[freak]

Originally posted by Viking
He represented America at it's best.

Very true.

The contrast between the Carter and Reagan years defies imagination.

If the option were available, I'd have gladly voted for a third term.

[BigBadBrian]

Originally posted by Pink Spider
Took long enough.


YOU
FUCKING
CUNT!!!!

[Pink Spider]

:D

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by Viking
I just went out to my porch and lowered my flag to half-staff..... :(

You have a flag?

Honest question - what's that all about?

It's a peculiarly US thing. I remember the first time I was in Conneticuit being really surprised that every house had one outside.

[Seshmeister]

Originally posted by lucky wilbury

Queen and Thatcher Lead Tributes to Ex-President Reagan

By James Lyons and Matt Adams, PA News

The Queen and Baroness Thatcher tonight led the tributes to former US President Ronald Reagan, who has died at the age of 93.

Mr Reagan died with his wife Nancy and their children at his side at the family’s home in California tonight.

A Buckingham Palace spokeswoman said: “The Queen is saddened by the news.”

Former Prime Minister Baroness Thatcher hailed Mr Reagan as “a truly great American hero”.

She told PA News: “President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends.

“He will be missed not only by those who new him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply, but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.

“Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired.

“To have achieved so much against so odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero.”

Conservative leader Michael Howard told PA News: “This is an enormously sad day.

“President Reagan was one of the towering figures of our time, the man who with Margaret Thatcher won the Cold War for the West.

“It is so sadly ironic that he should have died as we prepare to commemorate the 60th anniversary of D-Day, the day when the Allies began the liberation of Europe.

“We in Britain, as in so many other places around the world, owe him an ever-lasting debt. May he rest in peace.”

I think it's really cool the way you check 'The Scotsman' for news.

To be honest though Thatcher is the only politican I actually wish was dead.

No doubt there will be a hard fought thread among the UK posters sometime in the near future.

Cheers!

:gulp:

[FORD]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
You have a flag?

Honest question - what's that all about?

It's a peculiarly US thing. I remember the first time I was in Conneticuit being really surprised that every house had one outside.

It's part of the whole bastardization of "patriotism".

Most people probably fly their flags on secular national holidays like Veteran's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, and so forth. And there was the immediate aftermath of 9-11-01.

The only thing I find wrong with the practice is those who show no proper respect for the flag. From what I was taught in the Cub Scouts, you don't leave a flag outside 24/7. Raise it up in the morning, take it down at sundown. And you don't leave it out in extreme weather where it could be damaged. I laugh at the "more American than you" types driving around in their SUV with a batterred ripped up antenna flag (Made in China, no less) having the nerve to bitch about MY patriotism.

[ELVIS]

Your patriotism is twisted...

[tobinentinc]

Originally posted by POJO_Risin
He is dead...

I know, I just realized that after it was too late to correct it. Sorry for the mix up. Anyway Reagan Kicked ass.

[lucky wilbury]

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/w-eur/2004/jun/05/060505988.html


Eastern Europe Grateful for Reagan's Work
By WILLIAM J. KOLE
ASSOCIATED PRESS

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -

Leaders, former dissidents and ordinary citizens across eastern Europe expressed gratitude to Ronald Reagan for helping to end decades of "evil empire" communism and Cold War-era oppression.

Most of the region threw off communist rule in 1989, the year Reagan retired from a presidency marked by determination to loosen the grip of the Soviet Union through diplomacy and unrelenting appeals to the masses via Radio Free Europe.

As the world paused to remember the sacrifices of Allied troops 60 years ago on D-Day, leaders such as former Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban reflected on Reagan's influence in bringing democracy to those starved for it behind the Iron Curtain.

"Hungary and Europe do not forget Ronald Reagan's help and his support for the former communist countries," Orban, 41, told The Associated Press on Saturday.

In 1983, Reagan stunned the world by denouncing the Kremlin as an "evil empire" whose nuclear arsenal threatened the globe.

In 1987, in a speech at the Berlin Wall, he challenged Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev: "If you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization ... tear down this wall."

Throughout, the Reagan administration devoted manpower and cash to quietly expanding its contacts in East bloc countries such as Poland and Czechoslovakia.

"He is the one who allowed the breakup of the Soviet Union. May God rest his soul," said Bogdan Chireac, a foreign affairs analyst for the Romanian newspaper Adevarul.

Reagan appointed a deputy secretary of state to shuttle in and out of the region, and encouraged others to do the same. He poured millions of dollars into programming by Voice of America and Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, using the airwaves to encourage fledgling pro-democracy movements like Poland's Solidarity.

"During his administration, U.S. citizens at all levels and of all walks of life - politicians, senators, journalists, academics - systematically and repeatedly were visiting Czechoslovakia and other communist countries, meeting the dissidents and the opposition," former Czech dissident Jiri Dienstbier told AP.

"Their open support was very important for our safety and for our position in society," he said.

As his presidency wound down, Reagan lashed out at communism in eastern Europe as "an artificial economic and political system, long imposed on these people against their will."

Within a year, the Berlin Wall had fallen.

"Mr. Reagan, along with Pope John Paul II, was one of the architects who dismantled communism in eastern Europe and stopped the expansion of the Soviet Union," said Ivo Samson, an analyst with the Slovak Foreign Policy Association.

"The fact that today Bulgaria is a member of NATO could happen only after the efforts of this great American president. His name will forever remain in history," said Petko Bocharov, a prominent Bulgarian journalist.

There were some bumps on the road to freedom.

In 1984, while testing a microphone, Reagan cracked a joke that didn't set well with the Soviets at the height of the nuclear arms race. "My fellow Americans, I'm pleased to tell you today that I've signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes," Reagan quipped.

His administration was criticized by human rights activists for waiting until early 1989, the year the brutal Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu was toppled and executed, to withdraw that country's "most favored nation" trade status.

But his speeches, which so often sought to encourage the oppressed while taking aim at their oppressors, stirred a generation.

"For us, Reagan was important because we knew he was really anti-communist, emotionally anti-communist," said Zdenek Kosina, 65, a Czech computer specialist.

"For us, he was a symbol of the United States' genuine determination to bring communism to an end."

Laurentiu Ivan, 35, a customs officer in the Romanian capital, struggled to describe Reagan's legacy and then said: "It is due to him that we are free."

[lucky wilbury]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBQE51H4VD.html

Mourning in America, and Across the World: The Great Communicator Remembered

By Ted Anthony The Associated Press
Published: Jun 5, 2004

From all corners of the planet, the eulogies streamed in - a torrent of words for the president known as the Great Communicator, the man who aimed his message at regular people and whose enemies and friends agreed changed the world.

"Ronald Reagan needs no one to sing his praises," Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said. But they did anyway. The 40th president's death evoked a world of remembrances Saturday from friends, Republican political soulmates and opponents who squared off against him.

"A man who changed history," said U.S. Sen. Bob Graham, D-Fla., whose party spent 12 years trying to reclaim the White House after Reagan captured it in 1980. "He won the Cold War without firing a shot," former Republican National Committee chairman Jim Gilmore said.

The mourning in America was swift. Flags sank to half-staff. Ballparks went mute for the former Chicago Cubs announcer, and the Belmont Stakes held a moment of silence. In Dixon, Ill., Reagan's childhood home, Ken and Marilyn Knotts laid two roses under his statue.

In Paris, President Bush called it "a sad hour in the life of America." In England, Queen Elizabeth II mourned "a truly great American hero."

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Reagan's friend and conservative counterpart across the Atlantic in the 1980s, invoked the "millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued."

And from presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry: "Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate."

For Reagan, the praise capped a career built on imagemaking and public relations. The former actor and his cadre of consultants defined the political landscape of the 1980s, carefully calibrating the populist message he offered to the world - more adeptly, perhaps, than any American president before him.

From coast to coast Saturday, Americans of all political persuasions invoked the pithy statements offered by the man whose crack staff helped make the term "sound bite" a household word. Among them: "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall."

"No president in American history understood the timber of the American character better than Ronald Reagan," said Rep. Jim Leach, R-Iowa. Drew Lewis, Reagan's transportation secretary from 1981 to 1983, went further: "He was not the laid-back kind of lackadaisical person that he presented himself to be. That was a facade."

Among regular Americans - the noncelebrities at whom Reagan aimed his messages of homespun hope - a warmth was evident. Mark Spencer, a security guard in Santa Monica, Calif., considered Reagan a national grandfather. Navy veteran Bill Keys of Richfield, Ohio, said Reagan presided over a foreign-policy era in which America "could talk to people, which is not happening today."

"He was an actor and he used it well," said Giuseppe Rizza, 53, arriving in Washington at Ronald Reagan National Airport.

"Whether you agreed or disagreed with Ronald Reagan, you can't deny that he was honest, fought hard for what he believed in, and had the courage of his convictions," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

An anti-war rally in Los Angeles, however, offered a different point of view.

"He was the first time I voted Democratic. I couldn't believe they were going to run an actor for president," said Anna May Nelson, 67, of Burbank, Calif. "He could tell you a lie to your face and make you think everything was all right."

The world, too, offered farewells - from German President Johannes Rau to French leader Jacques Chirac to Australian transportation minister John Anderson.

"They wrote Truman off as a little haberdasher from Missouri and they wrote Reagan off as a B-grade actor, but in reality both have done a huge amount to lock in the freedoms that so many countless tens of millions of people, including ourselves, take for granted around the world," Anderson said.

In the nations of the former Soviet bloc, subjects of the communist sphere of influence that Reagan famously called the "Evil Empire," sentiment ran high.

"He is the one who allowed the breakup of the Soviet Union," said Bogdan Chireac, a foreign affairs analyst for the Romanian newspaper Adevarul. "May God rest his soul."

The overwhelming praise from public figures Saturday illustrated Reagan's ultimate political success - his elevation to national icon well before his death. Saturday's remarks were but a coda for the man remembered by New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for his "cowboy grace and strength."

New York Gov. George Pataki, a Republican, offered a remembrance reminiscent of Reagan himself: "The sun has set on the remarkable life of the great man who reminded us it is always morning in America."

[Flash Bastard]

Originally posted by FORD
I have compassion for the man dying. It just pisses me off knowing how the BCE and Republicans will milk this.

I guarantee you the "BUSH/CHENEY '04 :Win one for the Gipper" bumper stickers are being printed as we speak, and they'll be on gas guzzling Hummers before the corpse is cold.

Ford, you're a real piece of shit. I'm glad I don't hang out online much anymore to read the utter stupidity you spout forth from your keyboard on a regular basis.

In conclusion, I suggest you go fuck yourself you fat useless fuck.

:)

[Steve Savicki]

http://www.livejournal.com/users/steve_savicki/18688.html

[John Ashcroft]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
You have a flag?

Honest question - what's that all about?

It's a peculiarly US thing. I remember the first time I was in Conneticuit being really surprised that every house had one outside.

It's a peculiar little thing that citizens (that don't live under a monarchy) do... ;)

And Ford, put the hate away for a day brother. You don't have to say anything nice about President Reagan, but don't feel like you have to spit on his grave either.

Lot's of people think Reagan was a great President, myself included. This is irrefutable. It doesn't make your weiner any smaller, so don't feel threatened by it.

God bless Ronald Reagan, his friends and family, and America.

[clod speeney]

ford--when you croak you will be remembered as a clown who moderated a forum on a David Lee Roth website but aware of by only a few(NO OFFENSE SARGE and others). That's tough to compare to what the 40th President did for 8 long and prosporous years...

Ronald Reagan will be remembered for many noble and inspiring deeds. Do some research as to what they are. I know it slowly kills you to do so but that's why I suggest it.

So continue to dress yourself in shame.

Even in death, The Gipper is still impacting the world and throwing punches on you libs and you aren't blocking any of 'em!

Something else to ponder...

Did you ever notice that Van Halen was at the top of their game when Reagan was President?

Don't you lousy liberals like to rationalize like that? "The economy is bad now because Bush is in office." (lie)

[DaveIsKing]

Originally posted by Pink Spider
Took long enough.

It takes a HELL of a lot to offend DaveIsKing, but you have managed. You fucking sick liberals are so goddamned hypocritical it makes me want to throw up.

You are a seriously sick bitch. :mad:

If you can't pay the dead some goddamn respect you fucking cunt, don't say anything.

[Michael Jackson]

I wrote a song called "The Man in the Mirror" about President Reagan you might all remember it.

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

mike, u should have been dead a long time ago, why dont u go suck on sammy's crystal pepsi and burn ur hair off!

[FORD]

I would like the mind numbed Busheep in this thread to point out what I said against REAGAN.

Not a word, not a fucking word against him. Only against hypocrites LIKE YOURSELVES who will use the deification of the man to the political advantage of that cowardly unelected piece of shit who has so damaged this country, that it actually makes me NOSTALGIC FOR REAGAN!

Hell, at least Ronnie admitted some of his mistakes

[MERRYKISSMASS2U]

what did i say?

[Pink Spider]

Originally posted by DaveIsKing
It takes a HELL of a lot to offend DaveIsKing, but you have managed. You fucking sick liberals are so goddamned hypocritical it makes me want to throw up.

You are a seriously sick bitch. :mad:

If you can't pay the dead some goddamn respect you fucking cunt, don't say anything.

LOL

What's so hypocritical? I'm not taking anything back.

Why should an evil guy like Reagan automatically deserve any respect just because he's dead? Great religious taboo you're observing there for a supposed "atheist".

Repubs like Reagan didn't care about how many people died in Grenada, Libya, Lebanon, El Salvador, Bolivia and Nicaragua among others.

Good riddance,

[pete]

Originally posted by Pink Spider

Why should an evil guy like Reagan automatically deserve any respect just because he's dead? Great religious taboo you're observing there for a supposed "atheist".



She does her homework. She's researched DaveIsKing. LOL

[freak]

Originally posted by Pink Spider

Repubs like Reagan didn't care about how many people died in Grenada, Libya, Lebanon, El Salvador, Bolivia and Nicaragua among others.

And I guess the collateral damage suffered when Clinton lobbed cruise missiles at Iraq to take media attention away from the jizz stained dress really worried liberals... *snort*

You people are so goddamned amusing!

[FORD]

.... or at least he tried to be

The Sunday Times (London) 26 September 1999

REAGAN TOO MUCH A 'FEATHER BRAIN' FOR COMMUNISTS

It is too late for the politburo to gloat, but Ronald Reagan,
slayer of the "evil empire," tried to join the Communist party as a young man and was rejected for being too dim.

The revelation is made in the authorized biography done by friends who knew the former president when he was an actor.

One of them, Howard Fast, the writer, said Saturday that
Reagan "was passionate" about enlisting with the American Communist party in 1938.

"They thought he was a feather brain and turned him down," Fast told The Sunday Times.

Reagan always portrayed himself as a former left-leaning Democrat who moved to the political right after seeing the communists in action in Hollywood. It now emerges that some of
his closest friends were communists. "He felt if it was right for them, it was right for him," said Fast.

In 1938, the 27-year-old actor announced he wanted to sign up. The party conducted an investigation, said Fast, and "word came
back he was a flake ... who couldn't be trusted with a political opinion for more than 20 minutes."

Fast said the party sent Reagan a delegation who "convinced him he could do more for the various causes that the party represented in Hollywood as an outsider, as a friend of the party, than as a member. "It took hours to talk him out of it."

The former president's flirtation with Marxism was an unlikely prelude to a political career that was largely spent battling the threat of Soviet communism.

At the time, the United States was still in the grip of economic depression and many Hollywood actors were starved of work. According to Edmund Morris, the biographer, Reagan applied to become a member of the Californian branch of the American CP but was rejected by leading figures in the party.

As the anti-communist witch-hunt intensified, he was president of the Hollywood Screen Actors' Guild and supplied the FBI with at least six names of communist sympathizers.

Among its other revelations, the biography discloses that
Reagan had little respect for George Bush, his vice-president for eight years, and viewed him as a "downstairs person" who lacked political courage.

The revelation of his disdain for Bush, the loyal deputy who became his successor, throws new light on the tensions within the White House as the vice-president struggled to get his own presidential campaign off the ground.

According to Morris, who devoted 14 years' work to the book, Reagan formed a dim view of Bush while they were both candidates for the Republicans' presidential nomination in 1980 -- a contest
that Reagan won.

After agreeing to a one-to-one debate with Bush in New Hampshire, the scene of the crucial first primary election, Reagan
invited other candidates to join in. Instead of objecting, Bush allowed his rival to change the rules and dominate the event.

"Reagan was a man who admired strength," said Morris. "I think he perceived Bush, when Bush wimped out, as a man who gave into pressure. I sensed very strongly that Reagan thought Bush was not all man."

Dutch: A Memoir of Ronald Reagan, the 864-page book to be published by Random House, was commissioned in the 1980s when Reagan was president. Morris was given unprecedented access to
White House meetings and had monthly conversations with his subject.

[FORD]

Originally posted by freak
And I guess the collateral damage suffered when Clinton lobbed cruise missiles at Iraq to take media attention away from the jizz stained dress really worried liberals... *snort*

You people are so goddamned amusing!

Actually, dumbass, those cruise missiles were lobbed at Afghanistan. Specifically at an "Al Qaeda" training camp, where Osama Bin Laden had been sighted only hours earlier. Which is a Hell of a lot closer than Junior ever got to killing the bastard.

[Dave's PA Rental]

Let me just say, on behalf of myself and the other 3 or 4 rational Democrats on the planet...

A moment of silence to respect the passing of the 40th President of The United States of America...















Thank you.

[freak]

Originally posted by FORD
Actually, dumbass, those cruise missiles were lobbed at Afghanistan. Specifically at an "Al Qaeda" training camp, where Osama Bin Laden had been sighted only hours earlier. Which is a Hell of a lot closer than Junior ever got to killing the bastard.

Let's take a look at their respective track records...

Clinton:
* Lob a few missiles.
* Testify in front of a grand jury.
* Give a "sincere" apology to the American people and thus give himself the most laughable legacy of any president in history.

Meanwhile, Osama sends towel-heads over here to learn to fly jumbo jets into skyscrapers.

Bush:
* Full-scale invasion of Iraq.
* Topple a terrorist-supporting government .
* Serve notice to the rest of the world that they are next should they support any future attacks against us.

Osama Bin Laden is either in hiding or dead. Likely hiding.

[Roth & Roll]

In my opinion Ronald Reagan was by far the best American President of the past 40 years. His handling of Libya after the Lockerby bombing was brilliant. He didn't do what Bush Sr. or Jr. would have done and bombed innocent civilians; no, he went straight after Khadafy's own family and made him feel the pain and agony the families of the victims of Lockerby felt. His methods were effective as a war was averted AND we never heard a peep from Libya again.

Reagan wasn't blood thirsty but wasn't afraid of. or intimidated by anyone either. Reagan is largely responsible for ending the Cold War which was surely heading for eventual catastrophe at the pace which nuclear weapons were being stockpiled by both the US and the USSR.

He breathed life into an economy which was sluggish to put it mildly after 4 years of the Carter administration.

Reagan's methods were not always popular but his 8 years of leadership made America a better place to live. What else could one ask of a President?

[Rubnose]

Originally posted by Daves PA rental
Let me just say, on behalf of myself and the other 3 or 4 rational Democrats on the planet...

A moment of silence to respect the passing of the 40th President of The United States of America...

What's a rational democrat? Never heard of that before.

But if you want to pretend that you had respect for this President then by all means patronize us with a moment of silence.

I guess your intentions are good. I love you too man!!!

Love and peace,

Rubby















Thank you.

[tobinentinc]

Sure say what you want about Reagan, but tell me you weren't enjoying the booming economy, collapse of the soviet union, tearing down of the berlin wall ect ect. If you hated all that, then by all means move!

[Pink Spider]

Originally posted by freak
And I guess the collateral damage suffered when Clinton lobbed cruise missiles at Iraq to take media attention away from the jizz stained dress really worried liberals... *snort*

You people are so goddamned amusing!

Liberal this, liberal that, blame Clinton and change the subject.

Too predictable.

I don't like Clinton either. I can think for myself unlike either of the Democrat and Republican suckups. But, seriously back on topic.

Here's the only decent non ass kissing article I've seen on Reagan all day.

KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN
GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER ...
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG

Sunday, June 6, 2004
E-Mail Article
Printer Friendly Version


by Greg Palast


You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.

Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.

In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis.

People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.

Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.

And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog … then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.

I remember Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses, some of the "gifts" that flowed to the Reagans -- from hats to million-dollar homes -- from cronies well compensated with government loot. It used to be called bribery.

And all the while, Grandpa grinned, the grandfather who bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.

The New York Times today, in its canned obit, wrote that Reagan projected, "faith in small town America" and "old-time values." "Values" my ass. It was union busting and a declaration of war on the poor and anyone who couldn't buy designer dresses. It was the New Meanness, bringing starvation back to America so that every millionaire could get another million.

"Small town" values? From the movie star of the Pacific Palisades, the Malibu mogul? I want to throw up.

And all the while, in the White House basement, as his brain boiled away, his last conscious act was to condone a coup d'etat against our elected Congress. Reagan's Defense Secretary Casper the Ghost Weinberger with the crazed Colonel, Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini.

Reagan's boys called Jimmy Carter a weanie and a wuss although Carter wouldn't give an inch to the Ayatolla. Reagan, with that film-fantasy tough-guy con in front of cameras, went begging like a coward cockroach to Khomeini pleading on bended knee for the release of our hostages.

Ollie North flew into Iran with a birthday cake for the maniac mullah -- no kidding --in the shape of a key. The key to Ronnie's heart.

Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the "contras" - the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters.

I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, "The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disperse" … and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper.

In Chaguitillo, all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway?

Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets.

In the deserted darkness of Chaguitillo, a TV blared. Weirdly, it was that third-rate gangster movie, "Brother Rat." Starring Ronald Reagan.

Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead.

Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance.

Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com

[lucky wilbury]

take your bullshit to the other thread. in fact would one of the mods take these shitty posts out of the thread and put them in the other?

[lucky wilbury]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBU5NG76VD.html


Reagan Remembered Worldwide for His Role in Ending Cold War Division

By Jason Keyser Associated Press Writer
Published: Jun 7, 2004

LONDON (AP) - Ronald Reagan was remembered in former Soviet republics and other ex-East Bloc nations as the American president who stared down Moscow and won. In the Middle East and Latin America, the memories were not as fond.

Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in reforming his nation and easing world tension, called Reagan a "true leader, a man of his word and an optimist."

Within two years after Gorbachev's ascent to power in 1985, the two leaders signed a treaty eliminating the entire class of medium-range nuclear-tipped missiles.

"I don't know whether we would have been able to agree and to insist on the implementation of our agreements with a different person at the helm of American government," Gorbachev said in op-ed piece in Monday's New York Times.

"True, Reagan was a man of the right. But, while adhering to his convictions, with which one could agree or disagree, he was not dogmatic; he was looking for negotiations and cooperation."

Others recalled Reagan's tough rhetoric and how he launched a withering arms race with his "Star Wars" missile defense program.

"Reagan bolstered the U.S. military might to ruin the Soviet economy, and he achieved his goal," said Gennady Gerasimov, who was the top spokesman for the Soviet Foreign Ministry during the 1980s.

Former West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl said he would never forget standing next to Reagan when he challenged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall. Reagan made the challenge in a speech at the concrete and barbed-wire barrier in June 1987.

"Ronald Reagan was a man who achieved great things for his country," Kohl said. "He was a stroke of luck for the world, especially for Europe."

Lech Walesa, the former Solidarity leader and Poland's post-communist president, recalled Reagan as a "modest" person whose opposition to communism was firmly rooted in a deeper hatred for inequity.

"When he saw injustice, he wanted to do away with it," Walesa told The Associated Press. "He saw communism, and he wanted to put an end to it."

Pope John Paul II learned of Reagan's death with "sadness" during a trip to Switzerland and immediately prayed for the "eternal rest of his soul," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said. The pope, a native of Poland, also recalled Reagan's contribution to "historical events that changed the lives of millions of people, mainly Europeans."

But Arab nations recalled the Reagan days as a dark period. The Reagan years marked the beginning of what Lebanon's culture minister, Ghazi Aridi, called a "bad era" of American Mideast policy that he said continues to this day.

Political analyst and former Syrian ambassador to the United Nations Haitham al-Kilani agreed.

"Reagan's role was bad for the Arab-Israeli conflict and was specifically against Syria. He was the victim of the Israeli right wing that was, and still is, dominating the White House," al-Kilani said.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said he was sorry that Reagan died without standing trial for 1986 airstrikes he ordered that killed Gadhafi's adopted daughter and 36 other people.

Reagan ordered the April 15, 1986, air raid in response to a disco bombing in Berlin allegedly ordered by Gadhafi that killed two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman and injured 229 people.

"I express my deep regret because Reagan died before facing justice for his ugly crime that he committed in 1986 against the Libyan children," Libya's official JANA news agency quoted Gadhafi as saying Sunday.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office expressed sorrow over Reagan's death, calling him "a friend of the state of Israel."

In Central America, admirers praised Reagan for stopping the advance of communism but detractors said he pushed the region deeper into conflict.

In Nicaragua, Adolfo Calero, who opposed the leftist Sandinista government in the 1980s, said Reagan would be remembered as "a man of decisiveness and conviction, extremely pious and respectful."

But a Sandinista-allied official said Reagan will not be missed. "The country of Nicaragua surely will not ask for three days of mourning," said Tomas Borge, vice secretary of the Sandinista National Liberation Front.

El Salvador also fell within the Cold War ideological battleground for a Reagan administration determined to fend off leftist and communist-inspired insurgencies close to home.

"Reagan identified with our country, with its democracy and helped during the difficult moments," Salvadoran President Tony Saca said.

Politics aside, many world leaders past and present recalled Reagan's famous sense of humor.

"I attended five (Group of Seven) summits with him, and he would use his skillful humor and leadership to steer them to success," said Yasuhiro Nakasone, who served as Japan's prime minister from 1982 to 1987.

Former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher - Reagan's ideological soulmate and close friend - called Reagan "a truly great American hero."

[lucky wilbury]

anyone going to any of this?


http://www.drudgereport.com/flash1.htm

OUTLINE OF FUNERAL EVENTS IN HONOR OF RONALD WILSON REAGAN

Sunday, June 6, 2004

No public events

Monday, June 7, 2004

10:00 am PDT Mrs. Reagan and Family depart Gates Kingsley Gates Mortuary en route Ronald Reagan Presidential Library
11:00 am PDT Mrs. Reagan and Family arrive Reagan Library for private ceremony
12:00 noon PDT Lying in Repose begins in Main Lobby of Library for public to pay respects and continues through the night

Tuesday, June 8, 2004

All day Lying in Repose in Main Lobby of Reagan Library
6:00 pm PDT Lying in Repose concludes
Wednesday, June 9, 2004

8:00 am PDT Mrs. Reagan and Family arrive Reagan Library
8:15 am PDT Departure Ceremony
8:30 am PDT Motorcade departs Reagan Library
9:00 am PDT Departure Ceremony at Naval Base Ventura County/Pt. Mugu
9:30 am PDT Aircraft departs Naval Base Ventura County/Pt. Mugu
5:00 pm EDT Aircraft arrives Andrews AFB
6:00 pm EDT Formal Funeral Procession to U.S. Capitol
7:00 pm EDT State Funeral Ceremony in Rotunda of U.S. Capitol
8:30 pm EDT Lying in State begins in Rotunda of U.S. Capitol for public to pay respects and continues through the night

Thursday, June 10, 2004

24 hours Lying in State in Rotunda of U.S. Capitol for public to pay respects Friday, June 11, 2004
10:30 am EDT Departure Ceremony at U.S. Capitol
10:45 am EDT Motorcade departs U.S. Capitol
11:15 am EDT Motorcade arrives Washington National Cathedral
11:30 am EDT National Funeral Service at Washington National Cathedral
1:15 pm EDT Departure Ceremony at National Cathedral
1:45 pm EDT Motorcade departs National Cathedral
2:15 pm EDT Departure Ceremony at Andrews Air Force Base
2:45 pm EDT Aircraft departs Andrews Air Force Base
4:45 pm PDT Aircraft arrives Naval Base Ventura County/Pt. Mugu
5:15 pm PDT Motorcade departs Naval Base Ventura County/Pt. Mugu
6:00 pm PDT Motorcade arrives Reagan Library
6:15 pm PDT Private Interment Service at Reagan Library
7:30 pm PDT Interment Service Concludes

[lucky wilbury]

Originally posted by Seshmeister
I think it's really cool the way you check 'The Scotsman' for news.

it's just one of the many papers i check online.



Originally posted by Seshmeister
To be honest though Thatcher is the only politican I actually wish was dead.

No doubt there will be a hard fought thread among the UK posters sometime in the near future.

Cheers!

:gulp:

i guess you won't be happy to read this then although you might be happy that she'll be out of the country for awhile. whats up with the hate for Thacher by the way? just wondering.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;sessionid=H5KMNBJ1R4CGVQFIQMGCM5WAVCBQU JVC?xml=/news/2004/06/07/wreag07.xml&sSheet=/portal/2004/06/07/ixporta

Thatcher's taped eulogy at Reagan funeral
By Alec Russell in Washington and Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent
(Filed: 07/06/2004)


Lady Thatcher will deliver a eulogy at Ronald Reagan's funeral, it emerged yesterday, as America mourned the death of one of the most influential and colourful presidents of the 20th century.

Long before he died on Saturday night after a decade-long battle against Alzheimer, Mr Reagan asked his old friend and ideological ally if she would pay tribute at the service.

Her 10-minute address will be one of the highlights of the state funeral on Friday in the National Cathedral in Washington.

It is expected to be the most emotional state occasion in Washington since the funeral of John F Kennedy in 1963 and is being compared in political significance with the funeral in 1944 of Franklin D Roosevelt, the last president to have engineered a similar revolution in US politics.

Lady Thatcher, who has had to give up formal public speaking on the advice of her doctors, recorded her remarks before Mr Reagan's death. Her speech will be broadcast during the service, which she will attend. It is believed to be the first time a non-American has been invited to deliver a eulogy at a US president's funeral.

Flags flew at half-mast across America and shrines of flowers formed outside the many public buildings bearing the Reagan name to honour the former president, who died, aged 93, at his Los Angeles home with his wife, Nancy, at his side.

Today his coffin starts a five-day journey, allowing Americans the opportunity to mourn in person the passing of the "Great Communicator".

His body will travel to the Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley, California, where it will lie in state for two days. It will then be flown to Washington to lie in state in the Capitol on Wednesday night and Thursday.

The funeral takes place on Friday, when hundreds of thousands of people are expected to throng the capital. The body will be carried on a gun carriage from the Capitol to the White House. From there a hearse will carry it to the cathedral.

There will then be a private sunset burial on Friday in his beloved California where he began his journey from Hollywood to the White House.

President George W Bush led America in tributes, hailing Mr Reagan at the D-Day 60th anniversary commemorations as a "gallant leader in the cause of freedom".

His life spanned all the great events of the 20th century and his death caused a wave of nostalgia for a leader whose easy-going charm did so much to soften the hostility that his politics sometimes provoked.

Present and former world leaders, including Mikhail Gorbachev and the Pope, saluted Mr Reagan, in particular for helping to end the Cold War and for his fight against Alzheimer's.

Lady Thatcher said: "President Reagan was one of my closest political and dearest personal friends. He will be missed not only by those who knew him and not only by the nation that he served so proudly and loved so deeply but also by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued.

"Ronald Reagan had a higher claim than any other leader to have won the Cold War for liberty and he did it without a shot being fired."

Tony Blair said: "President Reagan will be remembered as a good friend of Britain."

[Pink Spider]

Originally posted by lucky wilbury
take your bullshit to the other thread. in fact would one of the mods take these shitty posts out of the thread and put them in the other?

You people are too uptight and full of it

Why should they be moved? They're on topic compared to the rest of the Reagan propagandic tripe in this post.

If one of the mods wants to go NAZI and move them then by all means go right ahead.

[DaveIsKing]

Originally posted by Pink Spider
You people are too uptight and full of it

Why should they be moved? They're on topic compared to the rest of the Reagan propagandic tripe in this post.

If one of the mods wants to go NAZI and move them then by all means go right ahead.

No, Pink Dipshit. If one of the Mods goes NAZI, let them. Let's have TOLERANCE of ALL opinions. You sick libbies are such fucking hypocrites. It's YOUR opinion or NO opinion. Yet you all scream for
"tolerance", "diversity" and such fucking horseshit. If REAL tolerance and REAL diversity were unleashed in America-- it would be your WORST FUCKING NIGHTMARE. Because then you would see the TRUE colors of people.

But, you don't want "tolerance". You want to force your warped-ass views down people's fucking throats.

Liberals and the Religious Right need to band together and form a union called the "LYING HYPOCRITES ASSOCIATION".

You need to be the President of it. :D

Ronald Reagan done more for this country than you! Who the fuck are YOU??

Some whiny little Communist-sympathizer who has nothing better to do than insult one of the largest cultural icons of the 20th Century. In 50 years, Ronald Reagan will still be remembered. 50 years after you die...it'll be as if you never even existed.

Have a nice life.

DaveIsKing is through with you. :rolleyes:

[diamondD]

It's one thing to get in a thread about maybe Jeffrey Dahmer and call him a murderer and to say good riddance. To get in a thread about a dead US President that won 49 states and was loved by millions and start spreading your extreme views just for the sake of spewing them, knowing what the majority of people think about it, just shows you are one dumb bitch.

[DaveIsKing]

Originally posted by diamondD
It's one thing to get in a thread about maybe Jeffrey Dahmer and call him a murderer and to say good riddance. To get in a thread about a dead US President that won 49 states and was loved by millions and start spreading your extreme views just for the sake of spewing them, knowing what the majority of people think about it, just shows you are one dumb bitch.


She just does it to "shock". She knows only three people in America agree with her bullshit and people like her (Histrionics) only want attention. I am through with her ranting.

Quote DaveIsKing- "I WILL NEVER RESPOND TO ANOTHER COMMENT BY PINK SPIDER (Communist undertones here!)"

That's all people like that want- Attention. Well, not from DaveIsKing. No more.

The End of you. :o

[Pink Spider]

.

[Pink Spider]

You guys are boring shitheads.

DaveIsKing, you're a hypocrite. Talk about wanting attention. At least I don't start theads praising myself. Again, you're a boring shithead. No one cares.

So, please don't reply. I have better things to do than to scroll past your drivel.

[Warham]

God Bless, President Reagan. Loved ya.

:(

[FORD]

Just for the record, mods don't have the ability to move posts from one thread to another on this board.

[DaveIsKing]

R.I.P. , Gipper

[lucky wilbury]

Originally posted by FORD
Actually, dumbass, those cruise missiles were lobbed at Afghanistan. Specifically at an "Al Qaeda" training camp, where Osama Bin Laden had been sighted only hours earlier. Which is a Hell of a lot closer than Junior ever got to killing the bastard.

he wasen't even close. even the french admited recently that the us missed capturing obl by few mins in the past months

[lucky wilbury]

who loves reagan? america loves reagan

[Warham]

I don't much, but I know one thing. Reagan's star, even though he's dead, burns brighter than Clinton's ever will.

[FORD]

Originally posted by Warham
I don't much, but I know one thing. Reagan's star, even though he's dead, burns brighter than Clinton's ever will.

As long as a right wing dominated corporate media casts Reagan as Messiah, and Clinton as the Antichrist, you're probably right.

The irony here is that Reagan would probably hate the deification of himself.

[pete]

In reference to his respect for the dead.


Originally posted by Pink Spider
LOL

Great religious taboo you're observing there for a supposed "atheist".






Originally posted by Pink Spider


DaveIsKing, you're a hypocrite. Talk about wanting attention. At least I don't start theads praising myself. Again, you're a boring shithead. No one cares.

So, please don't reply. I have better things to do than to scroll past your drivel.

Politics aside, can you say owned?

roflmao

This is the guy who called morality a learned thing.

Damn she's good.

[John Ashcroft]

Hey, at least Bill Clinton gave new significance to the Oval Office...

Great legacy!

[madraoul]

Originally posted by John Ashcroft
Hey, at least Bill Clinton gave new significance to the Oval Office...

Great legacy!

Yeah, peace and prosperity were getting old anyway. Kinda funny though. You neo-cons think you can steal an election and control all media in the country and automatically all of America agrees with you. It's sorry you don't know how wrong you are. Besides, I thought this was a Reagan thread.

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by madraoul
You neo-cons think you can steal an election and control all media in the country

you keep saying that. Dude, there's me and one other running around in here who actually work in the field and we're telling you that thought of yours is bullshit. Keep thinking that thought.

[madraoul]

Originally posted by Ally_Kat
you keep saying that. Dude, there's me and one other running around in here who actually work in the field and we're telling you that thought of yours is bullshit. Keep thinking that thought.

Yes, thought is a good thing. Try it sometime.

[Fabulous Shadow]

I didn't totally agree with his politics but he was a decent man and a honorable human being. RIP XO

[BigBadBrian]

Another face needs to be added to Mt Rushmore. Actually, to save money, they can just go ahead and put Reagan's head in Roosevelt's spot. Just kind of do a make-over. :gulp:

[FORD]

No way in Hell that Reagan or either Bush will ever be allowed on Mt Rushmore.

And if by some fascist manipulation it happens, then it won't be there very long....

http://progress.democraticunderground.com/images/nuke.gif

[FORD]

http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2004/06/08/2091-8-6-04_FAREWELLGIPPER.jpg

[Fabulous Shadow]

Originally posted by Pink Spider
You guys are boring shitheads.

DaveIsKing, you're a hypocrite. Talk about wanting attention. At least I don't start theads praising myself. Again, you're a boring shithead. No one cares.

So, please don't reply. I have better things to do than to scroll past your drivel.

DaveIsKing Is KING! SMOOTCH!

[pete]

Originally posted by FORD
http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2004/06/08/2091-8-6-04_FAREWELLGIPPER.jpg

LOL

[John Ashcroft]

Originally posted by madraoul
Yeah, peace and prosperity were getting old anyway. Kinda funny though. You neo-cons think you can steal an election and control all media in the country and automatically all of America agrees with you. It's sorry you don't know how wrong you are. Besides, I thought this was a Reagan thread.

OK, which part of this bullshit shall I tackle first???

Well, Ally punkd your ill-informed ass on the stealing of the election part, so I'll start with "peace and prosperity"...

I'll let you come to the realization of just how full of shit you are all by your little self by posing a simple question for you. Ready?

Question: How many wars and/or military operations did Bill Clinton engage America in? (Hint: The number's more than Dubya's)

Also, the economy has shown more growth in the last year than in the past 20. There have been numerous threads started here on this subject, check up. Oh, and 20 years covers the Clinton Presidency... So it appears almost un-matched prosperity is at our hands under the current administration.

Now, about the Neo-Con blah, blah, America agrees with you, blah, blah, blah... bullshit. I'll ask another couple questions. Ready?

Question(s): How many seats in Congress has your party lost since 1994? How many Governorships? How many state Houses? Didn't the Dems control both houses and a majority of Governorships for a very long time prior to '94? What happened? Could it be that the American public does agree with the Conservative ideology?

Oh, and what the hell. I've gotta ask... Which recount did Algore win again?

Damn you libs make it too easy.

[Ally_Kat]

Tens of Thousands View Reagan's Casket


WASHINGTON - The capital honored Ronald Reagan on Thursday with a procession by tens of thousands past his casket, quiet prelude to a majestic funeral shaped by his own hand. Visitors from the Reagan-era ranks of power and friendship flocked to his widow's side.

Boy Scouts and Supreme Court justices, tourists and world leaders were among those who gazed upon his casket in hushed contemplation under the Capitol Dome.


Across from the White House, Nancy Reagan received a stream of visitors drawn from a list of the powerful, then and now.


"To Ronnie," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, first to see Mrs. Reagan, wrote in the Blair House condolence book. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Reagan and Thatcher shared a world view, conservative politics and enduring mutual affection.


Joanne Drake, chief of staff of the Reagan office, described the late president's final moments before his death Saturday, as told to her by his wife.


"She told me that as he neared death and it became evident it was close, he opened his eyes and he gazed at her," Drake said. "His eyes were as blue as ever and he closed them and died. She told me it was the greatest gift ever."


Drake said Mrs. Reagan was "doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances" and was greatly comforted by the outpouring of support.


Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who shared an Irish ancestry with Reagan, also visited the former first lady, with his wife, Mila. "For Ron with affection, admiration and respect," the Mulroneys wrote. "The Gipper always came through!"


The former British and Canadian leaders were joining President Bush and his father Friday in eulogizing Reagan at Washington National Cathedral to close the curtain on the capital's elaborate state funeral — Washington's last goodbye before Reagan's sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library outside Los Angeles.


Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who also met with Mrs. Reagan, said he recalled the president once showing him where he planned to be laid to rest. "He told me that would be the spot he would be buried and right next to him would be buried Mrs. Reagan," he said. Nakasone asked Mrs. Reagan if that was still the plan.


"She said the plan was still on and she would go next to him when she passes," Nakasone said.


Bush, returning from a Georgia summit with world leaders, also was coming to see Mrs. Reagan. He praised the late president Thursday as a "great man, a historic leader and a national treasure." He would not say if he supported efforts to put Reagan's image on currency, saying that after the funeral "I will reflect on further ways to honor a great president."


Reagan's Soviet rival-turned-friend, Mikhail Gorbachev, visited, too, and wrote in the condolence book in Russian, "I convey my deep feelings of condolence to dear Nancy and the whole family." Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former chief of staff Howard Baker were among the onetime Reagan aides who came to Blair House.


Gorbachev then visited Reagan's casket in the Rotunda, reaching out and briefly laying his palm on it.


Reagan began talking about his funeral in 1981, the year he became president, family representatives said.


He asked George H.W. Bush, when he was vice president, to speak at his funeral, and years ago asked Justice Sandra Day O'Connor — the first woman on the Supreme Court — to read at his service, specifying she read from a John Winthrop sermon that inspired his description of America as "the shining city upon a hill."


Several years ago he asked former Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo., to officiate, the family said, following a suggestion from the Rev. Billy Graham that someone else be approached in the event Graham could not do it. Both Reagans wanted opera music at the funeral.


And so the service will unfold: Danforth officiating, O'Connor reading, the elder Bush as a eulogist and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performing "Ave Maria."

The Capitol sergeant at arms office, which oversees security in the building, estimated 30,000 people had viewed the casket in the first 10 hours of Reagan's lying in state. His casket was continuously on view until Friday morning.

Boy scouts in khaki shorts and neckerchiefs, office workers with ID tags around their necks, senators and tourists with their children in tow, an American Indian in feathered headdress, all came to pay their respects.

Iraq's new president, Ghazi al-Yawer, fresh from the summit with world leaders in Sea Island, Ga., visited the Capitol Rotunda, too, placing a hand to his chest in front of the casket before moving on.

Art Kreatschman, 52, of New Windsor, Md., stood in line for three hours before his few seconds in the Rotunda. "I did OK until I got inside and then it was very moving," he said. "I teared up little."

Several thousand people stood in a line that snaked along the western end of Capitol Hill and around the Capitol reflecting pool, many writing in a condolence book. Large fans helped cool those waiting in the steamy heat, and bottled water was available. Inside the cool of the building were long, separate lines for congressional staff.

"He did so many great things for our country and I remember a happy and optimistic time for America," Barbara Coward, 37, of Timonium, Md., scribbled in the book. "He made me proud to be an American."

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by Ally_Kat

And so the service will unfold: Danforth officiating, O'Connor reading, the elder Bush as a eulogist and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performing "Ave Maria."



A Catholic Hymn? :confused: What faith was Ronnie? I thought JFK was our only Catholic Pres?

[FORD]

Originally posted by Ally_Kat
A Catholic Hymn? :confused: What faith was Ronnie? I thought JFK was our only Catholic Pres?

I don't think Reagan was a practicing Catholic, but if he was of Irish ancestry, he probably had some familiarity with the faith.

[Ally_Kat]

But every other faith I've come in contact with looks down on the whole holding Mary up thing. So if he's not Catholic, it seems odd that he would choose the Hail Mary in Latin as a hymn for his funeral.

[worldbefree]

Good bye and good riddens is all I have to say.

I wonder if they will put Ronnies drool cup in the Smithsonian.

[Ally_Kat]

Originally posted by worldbefree
Good bye and good riddens is all I have to say.

I wonder if they will put Ronnies drool cup in the Smithsonian.

I hope they have half the nice things they've said about this man that they can say about you at your wake.

I bet you've never had to watch a family member slowly suffer.

:rolleyes: