I feel the same way and it would seem that NOTHING is happening in Iraq or the rest of the world today as far as the networks are concerned. The following is another outlook that might be worth considering also. KILLER, COWARD, CONMAN - GOOD RIDDANCE, RONNIE REAGAN MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNG Sunday, June 6, 2004 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. CONTINUED ON THE GREG PALAST website.... http://www.gregpalast.com/
Ronald Reagan has finally died at age 93. Predictably, politicians from both major parties have issued gushing tributes to this venal and vicious man, who was happy to slash workers' wages, see families thrown onto the street, support sadistic death squads and bomb other countries, if this was in the interests of the American ruling class. by: Phil Gasper on: 6th Jun, 04 Meanwhile, if recent history is any guide, the mainstream media will steer well clear of providing an accurate portrayal of Reagan, the man and the president. Last year, in a stunning act of cowardice, CBS canceled its much-publicized "docudrama" about Ron and Nancy, The Reagans, caving in to a campaign by the Republican National Committee, right-wing radio hosts, Fox News and conservative Internet sites. The movie was instead shown later to a much smaller audience on the Showtime cable network. Conservatives attacked the film for portraying Reagan as homophobic, and Nancy as a domineering wife and mother who pulled the strings behind the scenes while abusing her children. They were apparently even more incensed that James Brolin, husband of liberal icon Barbra Streisand, played the part of Reagan. While The Reagans was undoubtedly a monumental example of third-rate TV schlock, examples cited by conservatives of substantial inaccuracies didn't hold up. One complaint was that the movie showed Reagan ignoring the AIDS crisis because of its association with gay sex, and telling his wife, "They that live in sin shall die in sin." But in real life, Reagan refused to mention AIDS publicly for six years, under-funded federal programs dealing with the disease and, according to his authorized biography, said, "Maybe the Lord brought down this plague," because "illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments." C. Everett Koop, Reagan's surgeon general, later revealed, "because transmission of AIDS was understood primarily in the homosexual population and in those who abused intravenous drugs, the advisors to the president took the stand, they are only getting what they justly deserve." In the movie, Nancy slaps her 5-year-old daughter, Patti. In real life, Patti wrote, "I first remember my mother hitting me when I was eight. It escalated as I got older and became a weekly, sometimes daily, event."...... to read the rest http://www.globalecho.org/view_article.php?aid=514
Man, you people are full of fuckin' venom. And you claim to be the peace-lovers? Guess what. Your message -- whatever it is -- is LOST when you come across as a vindictive, spiteful, contemptuous grave-dancer. It's pretty fuckin' sick for you to glory in the death of someone like you do. I'm not saying I'm a fan of Reagan, just that you look like an ass reveling in his death. I suppose you think Bill Clinton has never been a scumbag piece of shit lying thieving politician crook. I'll bet you think membership in the Democratic party is some sort of shield of honor, too. -Jeffrey
Nah, i think CLinton is a sleaze, and I think Reagan was senile and heartless (and put up a good front). I am a peace-lover, and I don't hold the democratic party as a sheild of honor. Stop sterotyping and generalizing and you may learn something here. Regardless, your post is irrelevant to this thread.
though they may be vicious in what they post, i think that the thought here is reagan is being "cannonized" by tributes and everyone seems to have conveniently forgotten how many things he did that were reprehensible. i thought it was a lot more VILE when yesterday some commentator said that his passing would be like the passing of JFK. he was 93 and died of old age NOT assasinated in his youth and torn away from a country in the middle of his presidency and 2 young children. and as far as being the great communicator...it's called speech writers and acting 101. all politicians lie etc. but i was sick of this president getting away with all sorts of bullshit and no one ever calling him on it. and now he is being catapulted into the ranks of the GREATEST presidents just cause he had a snappy answer for everything and knew how to come across on TV. maybe you were too young at the time to remember a lot of that but it's not something lots of us have forgotten easily. am i reveling in his death? absolutely not..... glad that he was no longer president YES. as someone quite a bit older , i have to say that my first reaction was "i hope that i live that long!" (though god knows not with that disease...i'd only wish that on someone truly evil) it just bugs me that everyone will forget the horrible things he did or should i say didn't do (aids) and no one remebers things like social services were cut while his friends made ZILLIONS from his decisions and even when caught never gave back a dime to the people who suffered from it. unfortunately through his own STUPIDITY bill clinton will always be remembered for THAT INCIDENT and not for the good things he did. my thought on all of that was that clinton only did to monica what the republicans had been doing to the rest of us for years. i do feel the most for nancy and the family. i never liked her and her condescending attitude towards people not of her social class but they did have an amazing love story and it's hard to find that kind of love in this day and age. deezee
