Another great Actor kicks the bucket ... [Archive]

Major von Tempsky

06-06-2004, 12:10 PM

I'd like to pay a tribute to Ronald Reagan. He is the man we have to thank for bringing about the collapse of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe including the Soviet Union.
By directly challenging the Soviet Union with Star Wars technology and a Defence spending race it could not win, by borrowing zillions to that effect, competing with the Soviet Union showed up the inefficiency and clear inferiority of its economic system vis a vis the US and economic collapse followed by political liberalisation set in. Goodbye Berlin Wall, thank you Ron.
He was a kindred spirit to Margaret Thatcher. I had my doubts when he was elected that monetary policy could conquer inflation but it did and set the stage for the Fed Reserve and making Central Banks independent and careful everywhere incl RBNZ and RBA and the EU Central Bank.

mikescott

06-06-2004, 12:55 PM

Reagan: Simplicity was his strength

By Paul Reynolds
BBC News Online world affairs correspondent

Communism would have collapsed even without Ronald Reagan but he will be remembered because he put into words what very few dared to say - that something was rotten in the system.

"Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall," he cried in Berlin on 12 June 1987.

It sounded to some at the time like just another Hollywood line.

But it came to pass just over two years later, on 9 November 1989, when the wall was opened and the people of Berlin began to dismantle it.

Mr Gorbachev had previously made clear to the East German leadership that their days were over.

His opponents saw Ronald Reagan's simple and direct language as a weakness and a reflection of an unsophisticated mind. They scoffed at him as the actor who was playing the politician.

But his simplicity turned out to be his strength.

He looked communism in the eye and it blinked.

One problem was that he saw communism everywhere.

History will probably record Ronald Reagan as a fortunate president, lucky to be on watch when the Soviet Union began to crumble

Shortly after he came to power, he and his Secretary of State Al Haig decided that the front line ran through Central America, in particular the small country of El Salvador then in the middle of a revolution.

It was really a sideshow, and the Berlin Wall would have fallen anyway, but at the time, President Reagan gave the impression that the fate of the western world depended on what happened among the mountains of this until-then forgotten land.

More relevant was his willingness to spend huge sums on armaments and dare the Soviet Union to try to match him. It could not. But in trying to keep , it lost the race.

With Ronald Reagan what you saw was pretty well what you got.

I interviewed him in 1979, just after he began running for the presidency against Jimmy Carter. I met him on his campaign plane somewhere over Florida.

He behaved to this obscure foreign radio reporter exactly as he did to the big network anchors.

In fact he recalled for me his own radio days when he commentated on baseball games, which he could not see, off a ticker tape.

Once the tape broke and all he could do was to make up a number of plays in which the game carries on without anyone being out until the line was restored.

It taxed his imagination, he remarked with a smile.

The late seventies was a bleak time in America.

People thought the country was sliding downhill and that the Japanese were gong to take over American and world industry. It was pre-Bill Gates.

There was even a country song with the words: "God Bless America again. You see all the trouble that she's in."

And yet here came this confident ex-governor of California, talking about how wonderful America was.

Jimmy Carter, agonising over the hostages being held in Iran, really stood no chance.

The biggest applause Reagan got at his rallies came from the following simple three lines:

"A recession is when your neighbour loses his job. A depression is when you lose your job. And recovery will come when Jimmy Carter loses his."

He would tell it in speech after speech, sometimes half a dozen times in a day. It never failed.

History will probably record Ronald Reagan as a fortunate president, lucky to be on watch when the Soviet Union began to crumble.

It will argue over how far he and his soulmate Margaret Thatcher contributed to that collapse.

But it will not argue over their supreme confidence that they were right.

mikescott

06-06-2004, 01:01 PM

Tributes flow

Former US president Ronald Reagan left behind a nation restored and a world he helped save, the US President George W. Bush said today after learning the former president had died.

"A great American life has come to an end," Mr Bush said in Paris following talks with French President, Jacques Chirac.

He said he had spoken to Mr Reagan's widow, Nancy, "and I offered her and the Reagan family our prayers and condolences".

Bush spoke to reporters in an appearance arranged quickly after the president learned of the death in California of Mr Reagan.

"He leaves behind a nation he restored, and a world he helped save," Bush said.

"And under his leadership the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny."

Britain's Queen Elizabeth II and former prime minister, Baroness Margaret Thatcher, tonight led the tributes to the late Ronald Reagan.

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

Former British PM, Baroness Thatcher, hailed Mr Reagan as "a truly great American hero".

She told reporters: "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 [such] odds and with such humour and humanity made Ronald Reagan a truly great American hero."

British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, "heard with sadness" of the former president's death, Downing Street said.

"He has written to both President Bush and Nancy Reagan to offer his sympathies and condolences. "President Reagan will be remembered as a good friend of Britain.

"At home his vision and leadership restored national self-confidence and brought some significant changes to US politics while abroad the negotiation of arms control agreements in his second term and his statesman-like pursuit of more stable relations with the Soviet Union helped bring about the end of the Cold War.

Acting Australian Prime Minister, John Anderson, said Ronald Reagan would be remembered for his role in overcoming communism in Eastern Europe.

Mr Reagan, along with former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, had ended the scourge of communism in Eastern Europe, Mr Anderson said.

"I think that great achievement is something he will be remembered for, should be remembered for," Mr Anderson said.

"He did away with the scourge of communism as it threatened, and we forget how much it threatened people, for many of those decades."

French President, Jacques Chirac, described Ronald Reagan as a great statesman.

"[Chirac] pays homage to the memory of a great statesman who will leave a deep mark in history because of the strength of his convictions and his commitment to democracy," Chirac's Elysee Palace said in a statement.

It said Chirac had been "saddened and moved" by Reagan's death.

The conservative French president voiced his "sympathy towards the American people for their loss", the statement said.

US Democratic presidential candidate, John Kerry, paid a warm tribute to Ronald Reagan, calling him "the voice of America, in good time and in grief".

"Ronald Reagan's love of country was infectious," Kerry said in a statement.

"Even when he was breaking Democrats' hearts, he did so with a smile and in the spirit of honest and open debate.

DamnYankee

06-06-2004, 04:23 PM

here's to another Rich, conservative B-actor cashing in his chips! Long live the WAR ON DRUGS Ronnie!...oh wait, I mean the WAR ON TERROR! Two wars....that clearly don't have a winner.
This American is having a great day....started my morning off right!
:D:D:D

mikescott

06-06-2004, 04:53 PM

How is such comment be of any worth from this Michael Laws be proven liar and big user of eye liner showing him be very vain. And Aspex posting his comments be shwoing a lot about what kind of person Aspex be following. Is sad.

PLYNCH

06-06-2004, 06:20 PM

R.I.P. RR.:(

mikescott

06-06-2004, 08:04 PM

Truly this be mark of a great man :

"But even before the onset of Alzheimers disease, disclosed by Reagan in 1994, he seemed to shun the limelight.

Unlike Jimmy Carter, immersing himself in countless good works around the world, or Richard Nixon, endlessly seeking rehabilitation, or indeed Lady Thatcher herself, harrying her successor from pillar to post, Ronald Reagan simply walked away from the highest office in the land.

Occasionally, as on his 80th birthday or at the 1992 Republican convention, he basked in the glory of his conservative admirers and spoke again of "that shining city on a hill".

But mostly he and his faithful Nancy rode their horses and chopped their wood on the ranch, just as they did in the movies after the good guys had laid the bad guys to rest."

Obituary: Ronald Reagan 1911-2004
By Jurek Martin
Published: June 5 2004 23:38 | Last Updated: June 5 2004 23:38

For Ronald Reagan, 40th president of the United States, who died on Saturday at the age of 93, America was always, like Jerusalem, "that shining city on a hill."

It was a vision born in the worst of times - the great depression of the 1920s and 1930s that so ravaged his midwestern birthplace - and realised a half century later, in 1980, when he became, at 69, the oldest man ever elected president.

His two terms in the White House defined America in the 1980s, as Margaret Thatcher's did Britain, and, indeed, as had Franklin Delano Roosevelt back in the depression, albeit with policies so opposite to all Mr Reagan's known convictions.

The legacy of the conservative "feel good" years over which he presided remains controversial. The conservative revolution that he promised remains largely unfulfilled and the Republican Party he commanded so effortlessly for so long a patchwork quilt of competition. His successor, George Bush, was unable to carry on his work in the way that Lyndon Johnson, domestically, codified the very incomplete efforts of John Kennedy. Democratic president, Bill Clinton, was elected in 1992 in good measure by campaigning against the perceived excesses and neglect of the Reagan years.

But there is no dispute that, at home and abroad, Ronald Reagan restored confidence in the office of the presidency, so battered in the previous 20 years by assassination, an unpopular war, resignations, disgrace and under-achievement. Even President Clinton, in so many respects his antithesis as a politician, made no bones about his admiration for the ways in which Reagan used what Theodore Roosevelt called the "bully pulpit" of the presidency to carry his country along.

His perennial optimism, geniality and skills as a communicator obscured in the public eye his own personal shortcomings (inattention to detail often bordering on outright ignorance) and the scandals and errors in judgment by those who worked for him, most obviously the notorious Iran-Contra affair. Not for nothing was he known as the "Teflon" president, to whom no dirt could stick.

As Garry Wills, his best and by no means uncritical biographer, once wrote of Reagan's remarkable bond with his countrymen: "he is just as simple and just as mysterious as our collective dreams and memories."

Equally, overseas, under the overall rubric of the motto "peace through strength" and with references beyond number to the need for the US to "stand tall" in the world, his constancy against what he so memorably called the "evil empire" undoubtedly contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and thus the end of the Cold War. If the final dénouement happened after he had departed from the scene, it was in full retreat by 1988, with the beginning of the end of the expansionism of the Soviet Union and its surrogates in Angola, Afghanistan, Cambodia and central America already apparent. In the Middle East, too, Moscow was proving more cooperative.

In office, he could point to the 1987 agreement scrapping the deployment of intermediate nuclear weapons as probably the most significant arms control agre

mikescott

07-06-2004, 08:31 AM

No more from Mr Michael Laws he be liar, Aspex?

If Reagan be able to be achieving all he be done working 1 hour a day, what a man! Jimmy Carter he be President and be working 18 hours a day, and he President be a total failure! Robert Muldoon he be President of NZ man who was knowing details of everything but he be leaving NZ in a mess.

Great leaders they be providing inspiration and visions for all to follow :

"Standing at Pointe Du Hoc in Normandy 20 years ago, Mr Reagan summed up the lesson of two world wars as the futility of a policy of isolationism by the US: "It is better to be here ready to protect the peace, than to take blind shelter across the sea, rushing to respond only after freedom is lost."

More of a force than his critics would admit
By Doyle McManus in Washington
June 7, 2004

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When Ronald Reagan entered the White House in 1981, America faced two foreign-policy challenges: the generation-long Cold War with the Soviet Union, and a new threat from militant Islamic movements, which had seized power in Iran and sought to end US influence in the Middle East.

To the surprise of his critics, Mr Reagan made progress towards ending the Cold War; the Berlin Wall, the symbol of Europe's division between communism and democracy, came down less than a year after he left office.

But in the struggle against Islamic militants who staged terrorist attacks against Americans, Mr Reagan's accomplishments were more ambiguous.

He sent bombers to attack Libya after concluding that its leader, Muammar Gaddafi, had ordered a terrorist attack against US troops in Germany. But another military intervention, in Lebanon, ended in ignominy after a suicide bomber killed 241 US servicemen in Beirut.

Mr Reagan's presidency reached its low point when he approved an abortive attempt to ransom US hostages through secret weapons sales to Iran - a scheme that led to the "Iran-Contra" scandal over the arms deals and secret payments to Nicaraguan rebels.

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But increasingly Mr Reagan will be remembered less for his failings in what became a "war on terrorism", and more for his success in bringing the Cold War to an end.

Mr Reagan did not "win" the Cold War single-handed; he was one of nine presidents who led the US in the east-west conflict from 1947 to 1989. But he did play a key role in ending the Cold War, and by the time of his death 15 years after he left the Oval Office, even some of his most dogged critics were willing to grant him credit. "Reagan's contribution to ending the Cold War was comparable to [president Richard] Nixon's contribution to opening up China," said Walter LaFeber, a historian at Cornell University who has long been critical of Mr Reagan. "Politically, to have somebody of Reagan's ideology do this was very important. It would have been very difficult for [a Democrat]."

Even Arthur Schlesinger, the Democratic Party's unofficial historian-laureate, acknowledges that Mr Reagan deserves "considerable credit" for the end of the Cold War, although he still thinks the man's domestic policies were "a disaster".

"There really has been a discernible change," said John Lewis Gaddis of Yale University. "Historians are taking Reagan much more seriously ... there are very few who would still say what most were saying when he left office, which is that he was a cipher when it came to foreign policy. He was much more of a force than people gave him credit for at the time."

For years, Reagan-watchers described him as a passive leader, a man who had strong convictions but paid little attention to the details of his own policies.

But that simplistic portrait was complicated in 2001 when Kiron Skinner, a young historian at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, published the texts of hundreds of radio talks Mr Reagan wrote in the late 1970s.

The radio scripts "surprised a lot of people", Professor Gaddis said. "Whatever you think of the level of sophistication of the ideas, it's a remarkable

mikescott

07-06-2004, 09:01 AM

Still no more from Mr Michael Laws, Aspex? Now you be writing yourself and be coming up with nonsense? Or be liar like Laws?

Maybe you be trying working 1 hour a day too and be useful?

---------------------------------------------------------------------

We didn't know it at the time, but the Reagan presidency would provide the bridge that America crossed from the Vietnam era to the victory in the Cold War. Reagan played an enormous role in that victory. It was not luck. He believed the Soviet Union was both dangerous and vulnerable, and he was willing to begin another arms race, a race he believed the US would win decisively.

Eight years of pressure from a resurgent America (and even more resurgent Pentagon) and deep structural decay inside the Soviet system saw the implosion of the Soviet Union.

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belgarion

07-06-2004, 11:15 AM

Minder,

The suggestion that Raygun was responsible for the end of the cold war due to the huge spending on the US military-industrial complex is a utter bulderash of the highest order. It is little more than 'revisionist history' plugged by the media who love to wallow on right-wing propoganda.

The dumb american public lap up this absurdity as the military-industrial complex continues to rob the poor dumb american taxpayer blind.

Ask any historian, better still ask any eastern european politition about how much the Raygun spend up figured in the collapsed of the soviet union. They will almost all say the same thing ... 'very little' to 'not at all'. The soviet union was way on the way to implosion way before Raygun took office. I hasten to add that like america today, the soviet union was also a miltary-industrial complex. I would add further, and I am far from alone in this point of view, that america looks very similar to the soviet union of the early 70s ...

Suggesting that Raygun brought about the end of the cold war is about as dumb as saying that america halted the flow of comuunisism through its efforts in Vietnam. Sheesh!

Minder, I suggest you start reading some history (written by non-americans!) and doing some critical analysis of real-world events rather than spouting forth such utter garbage.

boring

07-06-2004, 11:37 AM

Belgarion, there were many factors that contributed to the fall of the old Soviet regime ... undeniably Ronny Raygun's policies certainly contributed.

You're well-published Anti-American stance no longer affords you any balance to your arguments, failing to acknowledge America's contributions to any of the world's geo-political advances ... this is a shame.

belgarion

07-06-2004, 12:38 PM

".... failing to acknowledge America's contributions to any of the world's geo-political advances ... this is a shame. "

:D ... Yes indeed, a shame.

Truly boring, do you know the number of countries that america has invaded, toppled, infiltrated, placed trade ambargoes on, crippling and impoverishing them in the process, all in the name of 'freedom' and 'democracy' since WW2 that actually now have 'democracies' and a thriving population? Let me enlighten you .... None! Thats right zero, nada, nought! Let us hope that the Iraq fiasco has so dented american credibility that the loving hand of american foreign policy will not again be felt by other soverign nations.

Yes indeed, this is a shame! What is more shameful is that idiots like you are allowed to vote! Sheesh, what a cretinous ill-informed dog turd you are!

Also, I am not, nor have I ever been, anti-american. I am anti their foriegn policy and very anti-bush administration. I am anti their education system that turns outs idiots who have a much grasp of world affairs as neanderthals like you. I am anti the disenfranchisement of 15% of the population so that a whole 15% have no voice in what is supposedly a 'demcrocy'. I am anti a system of govt that allows the will of the people to be superceded by the will of 5 supreme court judges. I am anti a big bother acts like the Patriot Act that remove substantial freedoms from individuals and their rights to privacy. I am anti their media which is controlled by an ever decreasing number of individuals and is so truly biased that watching it for prolonged periods is bad for peoples mental health. I am anti a system where 16,000 plus innocent people are murdered based on lies and yet not a single person is being held accountable for the outrage. Need I go on?

Me anti american? Nope. I think most americans are sweet people. In much the same same way a child is sweet but occaision prone to naughty-ness.

By the way, the logic of your fine post should be pointed out to those who might have missed it ... Boring is trying to suggest that only the views 'pro-americans' should be considered when america's actions are being considered ... 'fair and balanced'? Somehow I doubt the ensuring debate would be .... :D

My view on Raygun? Another average president. Certainly nothing to get hot and sweaty about.

boring

07-06-2004, 02:56 PM

Belgarion, you said:

"Yes indeed, this is a shame! What is more shameful is that idiots like you are allowed to vote! Sheesh, what a cretinous ill-informed dog turd you are!"

Why take such an insulting posture ? I did not insult you personally in my last post. I don't believe that I'm an idiot or a Neanderthal, and just because at times I disagree with your viewpoints, doesn't mean I have a lower IQ or can't think for myself.

I'm merely making the point that I believe that America has contributed to the world landscape over the last few decades that affords us some of the freedoms we enjoy today. I'm not saying they are perfect or that Ronnie Raygun's policies were spot on, bloody far from it. I'm merely acknowleding that "Ronnie Raygun" (I use that as a somewhat "term of endearment") did make a contribution to the downfall of the Soviet regime, probably alongside a whole bunch of other macro factors, and coupled with Gorby, help forge a more peaceful relationship between the 2 superpowers.

Apologise if I've mislabelled you as anti-American, but your previous posts consistantly label all Americans as being "dumb", so it's probably quite easy to get the wrong end of the stick on that one. Glad you said "I think most americans are sweet people". Remember, there are a good proportion of Americans who don't approve of the current Administration.

I'm not saying that only the 'pro-americans' view should be considered at all. You said that, I never said that, never will. Some of the most useful posts in ST are ones that may be contrary to your own personal views, because they challenge your assumptions and make you think. What I do believe is that in forming an effective argument, acknowledge both sides of the argument. Very few things in this world are black and white, mostly different shades of grey.

As to Ronnie Raygun's presidency, he may or may not have been an average president, I don't really know because when he was in power I was only in my late teens. But I for one acknowledge, respect and give thanks to his contribution, no matter how small it was ...

thereslifeafter87

07-06-2004, 04:15 PM

quote:Originally posted by belgarion

".... failing to acknowledge America's contributions to any of the world's geo-political advances ... this is a shame. "

Yes indeed, this is a shame! What is more shameful is that idiots like you are allowed to vote! Sheesh, what a cretinous ill-informed dog turd you are!

Also, I am not, nor have I ever been, anti-american.

Belg,

Attack the argument not the person.

Also, I would have said you were anti-american as well.

I also find it interesting that you attack the Supreme Court as an unelected oligarchy that doesn't reflect the will of the people, but then go on to attack the US legislature for passing laws that infringe on personal freedoms but (arguably) reflect the will of the people.

Surely the Supreme Court's role is one of balance? Its very existence is founded on the need to uphold constitutional rights. I would say it does a pretty good job of this - like when it struck down the cyberspace legislation that sought to curb free speech on the internet...

I would be interested to hear you explain your point a little more rationally and somewhat less emotively.

mikescott

07-06-2004, 05:59 PM

Belgarion = diseased pimple on the backside of Saddam Hussein.

What more need be said?

mikescott

07-06-2004, 06:56 PM

For many Americans, Ronald Reagan was immortalised not long after he became president, when a crazed would-be assassin fired a bullet one inch from his heart. As Mr Reagan was rushed into the operating theatre at George Washington University Hospital, he muttered to the surgeons through blood-caked lips, "Please tell me you're all Republicans" along with a string of other jokes. Here, thought many, was a leader who could not be cowed.

The Hollywood actor turned politician would not only recover but find new strength. Mr Reagan, who died yesterday morning (Sydney time) after suffering for a decade from Alzheimer's disease, was almost 70 when he took office, but he vigorously pursued a radical economic agenda and a renewed ideological battle against the Soviet Union, the superpower he called "the evil empire".

His death at 93, making him the longest-lived of all US presidents, brought tributes from former and current world leaders on all sides of politics.

President George Bush said: "He leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save. During the years of President Reagan, America laid to rest an era of division and self doubt."

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The Prime Minister, John Howard, described Mr Reagan as "the greatest of post-World War II American presidents".

Former president Bill Clinton said Mr Reagan "personified the indomitable optimism of the American people", while his great friend and ally, the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, said he would be missed "by millions of men and women who live in freedom today because of the policies he pursued".

Mr Reagan's aura of invulnerability after the assassination attempt persuaded Congress to support his ambitious ideals. These included large tax cuts skewed to the wealthy, slashing welfare programs and deregulating the economy, policies that would be embraced by governments around the world.

Reaganomics won admiration especially from Thatcher, but also burdened America with the largest budget deficit in history as he insisted on massively increasing defence spending to stare down the Soviets.

Mr Reagan ignored critics of his policies by reducing complex debates to one-liners that could be stamped on a campaign button. Black mothers from single-parent families were "welfare queens in designer jeans" squandering government money; Middle East terrorists and Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini were "misfits" and "Loony Tunes"; and the answer to the nation's cocaine epidemic was "Just Say No".

But Mr Reagan triumphed over his political adversaries because he made Americans feel good about themselves. He won office in 1980 when the US was paralysed by the Iran hostage crisis, crippling inflation and double-digit unemployment. Even so, running against Jimmy Carter, one of the most unpopular presidents in history, he was voted in by only 27 per cent of Americans.

Always optimistic, Mr Reagan offered the country certainty and strength. This, he believed, was only possible by ignoring moral ambiguities. He wound back abortion rights, civil rights, affirmative action and the influence of the United Nations.

His belligerent ambassador to the UN, Jeane Kirkpatrick, cut off aid for the UN's population fund because it offended the Right to Life movement and cast the single vote against a World Health Organisation code on infant formula that had upset the global food companies.

Liberals were forced into retreat as Mr Reagan's popularity grew. His political dominance reopened debates on welfare dependency, drug use, crime and human rights in eastern Europe. But his enthusiasm for freedom and prosperity did not extend to the developing world, where his Cold War policies led the US to support brutal generals backed by death squads in El Salvador and Contra leaders in Nicaragua who dealt in cocaine.

The image of Mr Reagan's strong leadership was manufactured in part by a slick public relations operation. A key player was Mike Deaver, an adviser from Mr Reagan's time as governor of California. He told him to ignore the pri

mikescott

07-06-2004, 08:23 PM

Those who be of free mind and good wishes,they be finding this good reading.

This be sentence showing how much greatness he be doing for America and the world :

Reagan's tax cuts reduced the top rate on income from 70 percent in 1980 to 28 percent in 1988.

History be showing that NZ be having 66% top tax rate under Muldoon in 1980 too. Influence from Reagan be bringing this down to 33% when Labor it be taking power.

Reagan Will Receive Full State Funeral Honors in Washington
June 7 -- Former President Ronald Reagan's casket will be carried by caisson in a procession to the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday as part of the first presidential state funeral in Washington in 30 years.

Reagan, who championed a smaller government at home and the end of communism abroad, died on Saturday in California at the age of 93. He battled Alzheimer's disease for the past 10 years.

President George W. Bush will leave a summit meeting of the Group of Eight on Sea Island, Georgia, to speak at a funeral service Friday at the Washington National Cathedral. Representatives of Reagan's family and the Secret Service said they also are making security arrangements for any other leaders of the G-8 who plan to attend.

Members of the public will be able to view Reagan's casket at the Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and at the U.S. Capitol, where his body will lie in state Wednesday night through Thursday, Reagan family Chief of Staff Joanne Drake said. They also will be able to line the motorcade route when his body is returned for burial in California on Friday.

``President Reagan was a man of the people, and it was really important to him that people have an opportunity to pay respects,'' Drake said at a televised news conference outside the Reagan Library.

Reagan's will be the first presidential state funeral in Washington since Lyndon Baines Johnson died in 1973. The funeral of former President Richard Nixon, the first president to resign from office, was held at the Nixon Library in Yorba Linda, California, in 1994.

Security Concerns

The expected presence of world leaders and other dignitaries at the funeral prompted the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to declare it a Special Security Event, with the Secret Service in charge of coordinating security with other federal and state law enforcement agencies.

Details of the funeral, which will be conducted by the Military District of Washington, have been planned since Reagan took office in 1981 and refined since he left the White House, Drake said. It will begin with a private ceremony this morning for Reagan's family at the presidential library.

Reagan's casket will be on view to the public at the library from noon today through tomorrow night before it is flown to Washington for the state funeral.

Procession

The remains are scheduled to arrive at Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington at 5 p.m. on Wednesday. In a tradition dating to the mid-1800s, the funeral cortege will make a trip of about a mile-and-a-half from the Ellipse outside the White House to the U.S. Capitol. Reagan's casket will be carried on a caisson followed by a military drummer.

Under the Capitol dome, Reagan will lie in state for members of the public to pay respects until midnight Thursday.

After Friday's service at the National Cathedral, Reagan's body will be returned to California for a sunset burial on the grounds of the Reagan library.

Bush issued an executive order for all federal offices except those necessary for national security and public safety to be closed Friday in Reagan's honor, the White House said.

Reagan died Saturday of pneumonia, a complication of Alzheimer's, with his wife, Nancy, and children Patti Davis and Ronald Prescott Reagan at his side, Drake said.

``While it is an extremely sad time for Mrs. Reagan, there is definitely a sense of relief that he is no longer suffering and has gone to a better place,'' Drake said.

``It's been a really hard 10 years for her,''

David Renwick

08-06-2004, 12:48 AM

Cantab

If anyone has a mind to conjour up the image of a "cretinous ill-informed dog turd" I'm sure it won't be boring by nature or appearance. Imagine that!! Given that a turd is an inanimate objet etc etc.
Entertainment :D it surely is.

Belg - any other pearls?

mikescott

08-06-2004, 07:28 AM

Not bad this be honour for this Great President who be working only 1 hour a day according to those who be like Jimmy Carter and Rob Muldoon who be working lots of times to be understanding everything but achieved nothing. ;)

U.S. Stock Markets to Close for Reagan's Funeral
June 7 -- U.S. stock markets will close Friday to mark the funeral of President Ronald Reagan, according to the New York Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Exchanges historically have closed for presidential burials. Reagan in 1985 became the only U.S. president to visit the NYSE while in office. He told traders that restraining government spending and simplifying taxes would help ``turn the bull loose.''

The visit ``endeared him in the mind of Wall Street,'' said James Maguire Sr., a managing director at LaBranche & Co., the biggest market-maker on the NYSE. ``His interest in Wall Street was well received and will be long remembered.''

Reagan's presidency marked one of the longest-running bull markets in history, interrupted by a crash in 1987. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index returned 14 percent a year during his eight years in office. Since 1926, the benchmark has returned 10.4 percent annually, according to Ibbotson Associates, a Chicago research firm.

The Big Board, the world's largest stock exchange, observed two minutes of silence today when trading opened at 9:30 a.m. New York time in memory of the late president. Reagan, the 40th U.S. president, died Saturday at his California home at the age of 93.

The exchange, in a statement yesterday, praised Reagan as ``a great champion of free people and free markets.''

Laying Groundwork

The stock market, as measured by the S&P 500, rose every year of Reagan's presidency except the first, 1981, when it declined 9.7 percent.

Stocks even gained in 1987 after the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 23 percent on Oct. 19, 1987. The S&P 500 rose 2 percent that year, while the Dow gained 2.3 percent.

Reagan admirers say his push for less regulation and lower taxes laid the groundwork not only for the market's gains in the 1980s, but also the surge in technology shares in the 1990s.

``There's no doubt that Reagan allowed American industry to function better, more efficiently, without unnecessary restraint from government,'' said Gene Pisasale, senior investment officer at Wilmington Trust Corp. in Wilmington, Delaware.

Market gains in the post-Reagan years were even bigger than during his term. The S&P 500 surged 19 percent annually in the 10 years after he left office.

The record U.S. budget deficits of the 1980s didn't dent Reagan's legacy of pushing for smaller government and lower taxes, said Pisasale. Inflation and interest rates fell, and the dollar stayed strong, even as deficits mounted, said the money manager, who said he may travel Thursday to Washington to pay his respects when Reagan lies in state in the Capitol.

Historical Precedent

The NYSE closes for national holidays and presidential funerals. The Big Board closed on April 27, 1994, for the funeral of Richard Nixon, on Jan. 25, 1973, for the burial of Lyndon Johnson and on Dec. 28, 1972, for Harry Truman's funeral.

Reagan's New York trip on March 28, 1985, included a speech at St. John's University in Queens, which drew protesters who opposed his plan to cut financial aid to college students by $2.3 billion, according to a report in the New York Times.

He found a more welcoming crowd at the Big Board. Traders cheered ``Ronnie, Ronnie, Ronnie'' as Reagan rang the opening bell. He later met in the exchange's boardroom with 200 Wall Street executives.

Reagan returned to the New York exchange in 1992, after he had left office, accompanied by Mikhail Gorbachev, the former president of the Soviet Union.

Maguire, 73, who knew Reagan personally and helped the former California governor raise money for his 1980 presidential campaign, said Reagan's reputation is intact at the corner of Wall and Broad streets. He was ``the most effective U.S. president of the 20th century,

belgarion

08-06-2004, 01:06 PM

quote:Originally posted by whatsup

Belg--- ( lefty ,/liberal ) where art thou , I know that youve read this heading re Reagan several of times(daily) even you with your Leftist /liberal/ Lyer point of view/outlook you should have found something constructive to say from your hourly trawl on the internet looking for some left/liberal/antiUS BS to post on your Iraq web page , yes even you could find something good/honest to post about Reagan, come on how about an attempt to be honest just onbce on this special/serious occassion!!!!

Since you ask ...

Reagan is the source of a number of trends in American politics. Through the late 1970s, wages and working conditions were improving for ordinary Americans. From the day Reagan fired the air traffic controllers through eight years of his tax cutting and military spending, it became clear that a divide would be opened up between the rich and the rest of us, that public education and care for our young, old, and ill would be slashed in the name of militarism, and that – in short and anachronistically – Reagan would be the most radical approach toward a George W. Bush presidency prior to George W. Bush.

Reagan is also the source of many of the relationships in Iran and Iraq that have troubled the United States since. Kevin Phillips' recent book "American Dynasty" does a good job of summarizing the strong evidence that Bill Casey and George H.W. Bush made a deal with the Iranians not to release the hostages until after the 1980 U.S. presidential election. This would mean that Reagan's election was illegal, that the trading during the Iran-Contra scandal had a precedent, that Reagan and G.H.W. Bush's buildup of Saddam Hussein's military was motivated in part by a desire to counter weaponry and money that the United States had given Iran in exchange for Reagan's election, that our media has completely fallen down on the job, and that we're all a bunch of suckers. That just can't be right. Please forget I mentioned it.

Reagan Redux (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18875)

But I really suggest you read some of the 'independant' (rather than fawning) biographies. Those who have read them would know that Reagan, like Bush 43, was very much a pawn of the existing republican establishment. Those who know how US politics works shuddered when Bush 43 took the thrown and broke down in tears after the Axis-of-Evil speach. From that moment on it was clear the military industrial complex had taken control of both economic and foriegn policy.

belgarion

08-06-2004, 01:18 PM

More? Not a problem :D

Randolph T. Holhut: 'Ronald Reagan's squalid legacy'
The conservatives weep and wail over the death of Ronald Reagan and lionize him as a courageous visionary who's in the same league with Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt - the president who "won" the Cold War and restored this nation's "greatness" on the international stage.

Before they succeed in totally rewriting the history books, we must not forget the real Reagan record - a record of immorality and corruption that far surpasses anything Bill Clinton has ever done.

Randolph T. Holhut: 'Ronald Reagan's squalid legacy' (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=16494&mode=nested&order=0) (the poster's comments at the bottom make good reading too)

More still? Okay, since you asked so nicely. ;)

Rating Reagan: A Bogus Legacy

The U.S. news media’s reaction to Ronald Reagan’s death is putting on display what has happened to American public debate in the years since Reagan’s political rise in the late 1970s: a near-total collapse of serious analytical thinking at the national level.

Across the U.S. television dial and in major American newspapers, the commentary is fawning almost in a Pravda-like way, far beyond the normal reticence against speaking ill of the dead. Left-of-center commentators compete with conservatives to hail Reagan’s supposedly genial style and his alleged role in “winning the Cold War.” The Washington Post’s front-page headline – “Ronald Reagan Dies” – was in giant type more fitting the Moon Landing.

Rating Reagan: A Bogus Legacy (http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/060704.html)

RIP Raygun: Your place as the greatest puppet president in history has been usurped by a far greater fool. Alas, your legacy will be overshadowd by the exploits of a sad, incompetent little man from texas.

mikescott

08-06-2004, 01:51 PM

:D

That be the best you can come out with, you midget?

As he be saying - 'He who can, do. He who can't, preach.'

Leadership lessons from president Reagan
By Frank Lavin

I HAD the opportunity to work for Mr Ronald Reagan for most of the eight years he was president. I recall those times with fondness. Mr Reagan was masterful; he combined a clear sense of purpose with natural stagecraft and the charming occasional idiosyncrasy.

Mr Reagan had a vision of where he wanted to take America, and the skills to achieve his goals.
To many of his detractors, Mr Reagan's politics was reactionary and he was just a simpleton. I saw a different man, one with his share of human failings, but one who had a vision of where he wanted to take America and who had a set of leadership skills that allowed him, in large part, to achieve his goals.

Here are a few of the lessons I took with me:

Don't be afraid of friction

IF ELECTED leaders view their job as simply finding the centre of gravity on every issue, they might retain their popularity - but all they will have done is encapsulate public opinion, not lead it. If political leaders want to shape a new consensus, they have to risk alienating those who support the current status quo. Mr Reagan knew that his job was not to make everybody like him, but to help move America in the right direction.

Focus on a few key goals

FOR Mr Reagan, his goals were to confront Soviet expansionism, reduce the tax burden and place limits on the size of government. He proved to be highly successful on the first two goals, and abstractly successful on the latter.

Containment had been the centre- piece of United States-Soviet policy since former American diplomat George Kennan articulated it in 1947 - Mr Reagan said we were going to transcend communism and consign it to the 'ash-heap of history'.

Although taxes had been cut before, Mr Reagan carried out the largest tax reduction in the history of the world - and spurred the greatest economic expansion in the history of the world.

I give a mixed grade for Mr Reagan's third goal, limiting the size of government. The federal government expanded substantially during his presidency, even if we allow for the military growth. But let's not confuse an inability to implement goals with the desirability of the goals. Mr Reagan did change the debate about the nature of government and the open-ended expansion of the welfare state. Hence 'abstractly successful'.

Don't confuse expertise with leadership. You can hire experts

I REMEMBER a discussion before one of the summits with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Mr Reagan candidly confessed that he could never remember whether Mr Gorbachev's title was General Secretary or Secretary-General. Secretary of State George Shultz reminded him that it was General Secretary. I thought to myself that this was a revealing minor episode. Here the president was freely confessing his ignorance on a point that would have appalled any number of Soviet experts in Washington. Indeed, if the press had known of this ignorance it might have freely ridiculed him.

Yet Mr Reagan knew, in a deep and populist sense of the word, that this point was irrelevant. It did not matter, except for the courtesy of protocol, what Mr Gorbachev's title was. What mattered were the policies: He wanted to give Mr Gorbachev no alternative except to transform the Soviet Union and end the Cold War.

By the way, when Mr Reagan mentioned that he could never keep the titles straight, Mr Shultz told him: 'It's easy, Mr President, for General Secretary just think G.S. Like George Shultz.'

Be upbeat

PEOPLE want to believe in their leadership, believe in their country, and believe in themselves. A president has to paint a picture of a better country and come up with the programme to help get us there.

Presidents with more stormy personalities, such as Richard Nixon and Lyndon Johnson, severely undercut their ability to lead. People have to be able to connect with their leader

belgarion

08-06-2004, 02:34 PM

And just who is Frank Lavin, minder?

SINGAPORE
Frank Lavin
$4,500 to the GOP*

Frank Lavin, President Bush’s pick to be ambassador to Singapore, isn’t a big campaign contributor. During the 1999-2000 election cycle, Lavin and his wife, Ann, contributed just $3,500 to candidates and parties, all to Republicans. Of that total, $2,000 went to Bush.

But that hardly represented the extent of Lavin’s financial impact on the former Texas governor’s presidential campaign. Lavin, who has worked for the Singapore operations of both Bank of America and Citibank, also was recognized as a Bush Pioneer, which meant he raised at least $100,000 in contributions from individuals for the campaign. He also contributed $1,000 toward Bush’s legal fees related to the ballot recount in Florida.

Currently, Lavin, who also served in the Department of Commerce under Bush’s father, is the co-owner of a professional lacrosse team set to debut in Baltimore later this summer.

*Figures represent contributions from the individual and his/her immediate family in 1999-2000. Total includes donations made to Republican candidates and party committees, as well as the Bush-Cheney recount fund, transition foundation, and inauguration committee
Frank Lavin (http://www.opensecrets.org/bush/ambassadors/lavin.asp)

... Simply another cog in the corrupt american political machine that is the Republican party ... 'fair and balanced'? Somehow I think not! [}:)]

mikescott

08-06-2004, 02:47 PM

Read on, Midget and weep ....

The man who won the Cold War...
Ronald Reagan, who is hailed as the Great Communicator, is best remembered for ushering in a new era in US-Soviet ties

WASHINGTON - A movie actor who became one of the most popular presidents of the 20th century, Mr Ronald Wilson Reagan redefined the nation's political agenda and dramatically reshaped US-Soviet relations while serving as president from 1981 to 1989.

The actor in Ronald Reagen was often to the fore and critics panned his B-movie reputation but there is no doubting the 40th US president's achievements. -- AFP
Often called the Great Communicator, the Republican president was an icon to American conservatives and many agree that no one since Franklin D. Roosevelt reshaped American politics or restored the primacy of the presidency more than him.

He hastened the realignment of the South from solidly Democratic to being the cornerstone of Republican strength. And he crystallised an anti-government populism that has lastingly constrained Washington's role in society.

Following a series of presidents who failed in one way or another - Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter - Mr Reagan demonstrated that the Oval Office was a platform from which a talented leader could change the country and the world.

After more than a decade of traumas at home and abroad - from Vietnam and Watergate to gas shortages and inflation - he showed that a president could achieve many of his goals, maintain public support and prosper politically.

But Mr Reagan left his Grand Old Party of Republicans with liabilities as well as assets.

REAGAN'S ACHIEVEMENTS

• Transformed a divided Republican party.

• Introduced free trade zones and a missile defence system.

• Boosted economy with 'Reaganomics' and restored spirits after the Vietnam, Watergate and Iran crises.

His unwillingness or inability to cut overall government spending while massively reducing taxes triggered huge federal deficits that tarnished the party's reputation for fiscal responsibility .

But what history will remember about Mr Reagan - and should - is that he won the Cold War. Although he was an outspoken anti-communist who described the Soviet Union as an 'evil empire', he forged a constructive relationship with reform-minded Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who ascended to power in Russia midway through the Reagan presidency.

At a 1987 summit in Washington, the two signed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, the first pact to reduce US and Soviet nuclear ****nals. A year later, after another summit, Mr Reagan went on to proclaim a 'new era' in US-Soviet relations.

These achievements were forged after the relationship reached a low point on Sept 1, 1983 when a Soviet fighter plane shot down a Korean Air Lines passenger jet that had strayed into Russian airspace, killing all 269 people aboard, including 61 US citizens.

Military forces on both sides were placed on high alert.

Administration critics contended that Mr Reagan had contributed to the crisis with anti-Soviet rhetoric and by conducting a massive US arms buildup that he had promised during his campaign of 1980.

He predicted the demise of the Soviet Union and, in a historic speech on June 12, 1987 in front of the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall, he urged: 'Mr Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall.'

Just 10 months after Mr Reagan left office, the German people dismantled the notorious wall that had marked the division of their country.

At Christmas 1991, Mr Gorbachev stepped down and the Soviet Union and the Cold War passed into history.

Mr Reagan was nearly 78 when he completed his second term and maintained high public ratings during most of his presidency after the 1981-82 recession.

Often he poked fun at his age, his work habits and his supposed simple-mindedness.

He once said that he knew that hard work never killed anyone, adding: 'But I figure, why take the chance?'

Placebo

08-06-2004, 03:25 PM

How come #1

How come whenever a US administration gets something right, the President has ``great speech writers'' or ``wise advisors'' or is just plain "lucky"; yet when a US administration ballses up big-time, the President cops all the flak, luck isn't a factor, it's all a conspiracy, the speechwriters always tell the truth etc etc.

Credit where credit's due. Reagan presided over a momentous time in geopolitics. The steps his administration took altered the course of history. Sure there were mistakes (who's perfect?); but in foreign and monetary policy in particular (economically he presided over one of the greatest booms in US history), there were significant advances. Exactly how much his personal contribution was, we can't say for sure. But as leader at that juncture, he deserves at least some of the credit.

Funny that even the Brits have positive things to say. When the Argies invaded the Falklands, the US didn't want to know. This caused much transAtlantic handwringing. Even so, Thatcher now recalls Reagan as a close friend and great ally of Britain.

How come #2

How come whenever there's any sort of intelligent thread here that involves US politics, it gets hijacked by some obnoxious ill-informed pseudo-intellectual moron who's more concerned with playing the man than the ball?

Just a thought...

08-06-2004, 04:01 PM

Placebo Ronald Reagan Presided over some of the bigest balls ups in modern history. If he was marked out 100 he would be lucky to get 20% an abject failure. the only thing that interests americans is their own wants & needs.

Futurz

08-06-2004, 04:19 PM

The following link has some of Reagan's most classic quotes. My favourite is definately the one about bombing of the Soviets to commence in 5 minutes :)

http://politicalhumor.about.com/cs/quotethis/a/reaganquotes.htm

mikescott

08-06-2004, 05:26 PM

I be loving the midgets trying to stare down the Gipper fom below. What a pathetic sight!

Reagan, father of modern globalisation
By Pranay Gupte

NEW DELHI - Mr Ronald Reagan was not universally beloved in the 135 countries of the developing world, nor was he especially well understood. His presidency was often perceived as a swaggering statement about American military and political pre-eminence in a world in which the erstwhile Soviet Union was already imploding.

And yet, far more than any post-war American president, Mr Reagan influenced emerging countries, their markets and their governance. In many ways, he can rightly be called the father of contemporary globalisation.

His consistent prescriptions of free markets, leaner bureaucracies, more transparency in government, fewer price subsidies and open elections, are today considered de rigueur in poor countries.

Mr Reagan believed, correctly, that the post-colonial rulers of a lot of those nations had made a monumental mistake by subscribing to socialism and state-commanded economic development. He often ascribed those policies to the 'evil' influence of the Soviet Union, which wasn't always true because local leaders sought to fashion their own unique systems of governance. Unfortunately, those systems resulted in failed states, growing poverty and economic underdevelopment.

Mr Reagan urged those countries to open their systems to more foreign investment, and to more financial scrutiny by monitors such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. While he had reservations about global institutions on the ground that they spawned permanent bureaucracies, Mr Reagan also held that well-managed institutions such as the IMF could serve as effective watchdogs of economies that had leaders addicted to profligacy and corruption.

That's why he was generally unpopular in the Third World during his time. Mr Reagan was regarded as a man who brandished a big stick and was unhesitant about citing the perceived shortcomings of governments that didn't sign on to his formula for economic and social development.

That his formula was often not culturally or politically applicable in the Third World did not occur to Mr Reagan - or if it did, he showed a blithe disregard for such realities. In his universe, there was only his way of development and governance, and it applied universally.

Ironically, what his Third World adversaries did not adopt by way of Reaganite political and economic prescriptions during his presidency, many - if not most - are now doing, nearly a generation after he left office.

Any Third World leader - other than in unreconstructed communist states like Cuba and North Korea - calling for a return to socialism, however benign, would invite ridicule and opprobrium. Any developing-country leader insisting on a revival of state-commanded economies would quickly find foreign investors shunning his country with ruthless alacrity.

'Twenty years ago, nobody in the world marketplace was talking of globalisation,' said Mr Prem Shankar Jha, a leading economist based in New Delhi. 'But Ronald Reagan sensed that technology was making global markets come closer. He sensed that transportation costs were collapsing and that international trade would become more cost-effective. He began demolishing the artificial national barriers to trade and the flow of capital. Under him, capitalism began to go international.'

What's entered in the world lexicon today as 'globalisation' was indeed that: the freer flow of capital and trade across borders, and more liberal economic regimes.

What's also accepted far more today than during Mr Reagan's time is the need for transparency in governments that are freely elected. The collapse of the Soviet Union ensured that the 'American Way' of open governance would find resonance throughout the Third World.

But developing countries didn't just naturally transform themselves into democracies. They were pushed in that direction by donor countries which

mikescott

08-06-2004, 08:54 PM

Well said, Gipper and Rest In Peace knowing that the Free World will Always be in your Debt.

"The West will not contain communism; it will transcend communism. We will not bother to denounce it; we'll dismiss it as a sad, bizarre chapter in human history whose last pages are even now being written."

•— Notre Dame University, May 17,1981

"The march of freedom and democracy will leave Marxism-Leninism on the ash heap of history, as it has left other tyrannies which stifle the freedom and muzzle the self-expression of the people."

•— Speech to Britain's Parliament, 1982

"In an ironic sense, Karl Marx was right. We are witnessing today a great revolutionary crisis — a crisis where the demands of the economic order are colliding directly with those of the political order. But the crisis is happening not in the free, non-Marxist West, but in the home of Marxism-Leninism, the Soviet Union."

— June 1982

"While (Soviet rulers) preach the supremacy of the state, declare its omnipotence over individual man and predict its eventual domination over all the peoples of the Earth, they are the focus of evil in the modern world. I urge you to beware the temptation to ignore the facts of history and the aggressive impulses of any evil empire, to simply call the arms race a giant misunderstanding and thereby remove yourself from the struggle between right and wrong, good and evil."

— Speech to theNational Association of Evangelicals, March 8, 1983

belgarion

09-06-2004, 01:25 AM

Just about my last word on a far from riveting subject ... :D

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.

KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN
GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER ...
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG (http://gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=336&row=0)

Reagan was dangerous. He wanted to eliminate vast portions of the government indiscriminately, and he wanted to commit the military to ill-considered interventions abroad.

I couldn't have been more wrong. As an antigovernment crusader and as a warmonger, Reagan turned out to be all bark and no bite. In his first inaugural address, Reagan said: ....
Ronald Reagan, Party Animal
The man who taught Republicans to be irresponsible. (http://slate.msn.com/id/2101829/)

There is no point, simply no point, in turning Ronald Reagan into some mythic master now that he's gone. I travelled campaign trails with him and laughed at his jokes. He pressed flesh and political buttons better than most. He was Hollywood on a smalltown visit. Maybe, post-Carter, the US psyche did need bathing in such balm for a while. But the reputation which flows from there is hokum squared.

Towering he wasn't (http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1232922,00.html)

belgarion

09-06-2004, 01:25 PM

Been waiting to see what the esteemed Mr Krugman has to say ...

Paul Krugman: 'The Great Taxer' (http://www.smirkingchimp.com/article.php?sid=16496&mode=nested&order=0)

Worth the wait I thought ... :D:D:D

I refer imbecilic, maniacal neo-nazi ravings from dimwit ignoramuses like minder who like to parrot the right-wing, neo-nazi propaganda with regards Raygun to the esteemed Mr Krugman.

mikescott

09-06-2004, 03:09 PM

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

"Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"

;)

mikescott

09-06-2004, 03:39 PM

Weep, you midgets and stare up towards a great man. :D

The Reagan legacy
June 7, 2004

Ronald Reagan surprised many in the popularity of his leadership.

That a B-grade Hollywood actor and former sports broadcaster could become the leader of the free world seemed to be taking the American dream too far even for some American dreamers.

But Ronald Reagan, the 40th president of the United States who has died at the age of 93, was in many ways a remarkable leader.

He was certainly a skilled communicator and a much cleverer politician than his more trenchant critics allowed. By the time he reached the White House at 69, Mr Reagan had, of course, already been a two-term governor of California. His tenure there was marked by a pragmatic approach in the face of a Democrat-controlled legislature.

Reagan as ideologue did not really blossom until he arrived in Washington. He saw his presidency from the outset as a mission to re-establish US supremacy and, more pointedly, pride after the Vietnam War and the dispiriting presidency of Jimmy Carter.

In accepting the Republican nomination in 1980, he called on Americans to recapture their destiny. He was elected by an overwhelming majority in 1980 and again in 1984, and his terms were marked by a growing certainty in the American ascendancy, even though the economic and foreign policy directions of his administration were in some ways flawed.

Mr Reagan's adoption of supply-side economics - soon dubbed Reaganomics - was based on the idea that tax cuts would stimulate economic growth, especially tax cuts for top income earners. That way, the poorer sections of American society would benefit from growth.

Mr Reagan was able to sell both tax cuts and a multibillion-dollar increase in military spending to the US Congress. It was a plan that eventually led to recession in the late 1980s, a recession that had an impact on all the major world economies. In a sense, the first President Bush paid for what many have described as the voodoo economics of the Reagan era, being defeated after just one term as president.

On foreign policy, Mr Reagan can take some credit for the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Soviet empire, for it was his spending on the US military which the Soviet Union tried to match but which eventually bankrupted it. And it was Mr Reagan who delivered significant arms control agreements with the crumbling Soviet empire.

President Reagan also backed the mujahideen in Afghanistan and, more shamefully, the contras in Nicaragua, with the Iran-Contra affair representing a low point in his presidency. Just how much the Reagan-inspired US battle to defeat the communist superstate had to do with the USSR's collapse and the end of the Cold War remains debatable.

Long-serving Democrat Tip O'Neill dismissed Ronald Reagan as an actor reading lines. This was an overly harsh assessment. Mr Reagan was an astute and successful politician, certainly more so than some presidents before and since, and it is too early to know whether history will judge him among the most successful of US leaders.

09-06-2004, 05:40 PM

History IMO has already judged him as B grade actor trying to act the role of president and not even making a D grade effort

mikescott

09-06-2004, 05:45 PM

Says Enigma, an absolute nobody. :D

mikescott

09-06-2004, 07:20 PM

The Reagan Legacy: It Was About More than his Optimism

If only President Reagan were here to take in some of the commentary we’ve been hearing and reading about his life, his presidency, and his effect on politics. Even his former critics have rushed to the airwaves and op-ed pages to remember this great and good man. Sen. Ted Kennedy described Reagan’s optimism "infectious," and the New York Times wrote that "he managed to project the optimism of Franklin D. Roosevelt."

Of course Reagan was an optimist. The important question is why.

Twenty years ago President Reagan's critics saw his optimism as the by-product of a naïve, unsophisticated worldview. They believed that his sunny demeanor was no more than an irrational denial of reality, which was caused by his dogmatic and outdated beliefs. Reagan was caricatured as the "amiable dunce," an avuncular soul who quit work each day at 5 pm and took naps in the afternoon. Only an unsophisticated rube totally disengaged from the complexities of the world at home and abroad could have such a positive outlook.

Twenty years ago, Reagan's optimism was not viewed by the elites as a mark of his character but as evidence of his general lack of understanding. The reason he could smile after walking away from the Reykavik summit (where he rejected a deal on arms control) was because he just couldn't comprehend the need for America to compromise with the Communists. The reason he could say "stay the course" with his tax cuts during the 1982 recession was because he could not fathom the fact that lower taxes were inherently unfair to poor people. The reason that he went to the Berlin Wall and said "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" is because he was ill-suited to master the nuances of international diplomacy.

Critics never understood the broad-based popularity of Reagan's conservatism because they never really understood why this guy was always smiling. Reagan was optimistic because he was he confident. He was confident because he knew what he believed was true. Good and evil exist. The individual trumps the collective. Our rights are God-given, not government given. And an America committed to these truths would overcome any obstacle.

He was convinced that truth had a power beyond any individual and that it would ultimately prevail. More importantly he was deeply convinced that liberty could never make peace with tyranny. We could never compromise with evil but we must call it what it is and fight against it until it is vanquished. Reagan's optimism was founded on truth, on character, and ultimately on his great wisdom.

To his core, he was convinced that regardless of our political difference on this or that issue, the American people would always be committed to these truths and be willing to sacrifice for them. Reagan could be both self-deprecating and confident because his confidence was founded not on primarily a belief in himself, but on a belief in others. This is why Reagan was rarely bothered by the cynics who enjoyed promoting the "Bedtime for Bonzo" caricature. (On the rare occasion on which the New York Times would write something positive about him, he liked to say, "I wonder what has gotten into them!")

The Reagan Revolution was a revolution of ideas based on basic truths about the human yearning for freedom, the power of the free market, and the dignity of all mankind. His political opponents routinely explain his success by attributing it to his masterful communication skills. "I wasn't a great communicator," Reagan insisted, years later, "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."

Indeed, his connection was with the "heart of a great nation," our people. This was the foundation of what the Washington Post yesterday referred to as "his buoyant optimism." That is why I came to Washington in 1987 to work as