God bless Ronald Reagan

Yes that humble.

I tell them Adelade is like Pasadena, CA Canberra more like a planned commumity like somewhere near Colorado Springs, but always in the summer.

You dont want to be in Canberra this time of year. Its Very much like Chicago. Wet, cold and windy.

I live in Western Australia and everyone says its California with the Americans.

The union people put themselves out of work.

I don't recall him putting a lot of union people out of work. I recall the air traffic controllers throwing an illegal strike, and after being told it was illegal and to get back to work, those that didn't were fired for the ILLEGAL strike. Your buddy the "hard workin' dude" must have been one of the idiots who thought they would call his bluff -- only he wasn't bluffing. They put themselves out of work twice -- first by going on strike, second by not coming back when warned of the illegality of it.

And I speak as one who was a pilot at the time -- replacement controllers almost killed me twice, but I'm STILL glad he did it.

David Erbas-White

My tribute to Ronald Reagan and his contributions!

Thank you Mr. Reagan for being the first to introduce Trickle Down Voodoo Economics to this country!

Your first success was to give Daddy Bush a tax cut. You were responsible for lowering Daddy Bush's taxes from 45% to 12%. Directly related to your tax cuts for the wealthy and in order for you to pay for your tax cuts, all the mental hospitals were shut down. Our streets, for the first time since the depression, held millions of delusional people who decorated our street corners, park benches, storm sewers, and developed a whole new meaning for the cardboard box. They became the home for the mentally ill.

Since most of the mentally ill lacked the knowledge to obtain a permanent address, and since they couldn't consider a cardboard box as a permanent address, most of our delusional victims didn't qualify for social security. That suited you and Nancy just fine. It allowed more money in our social security fund for the wealthy. Many of the mentally ill made their home on the White House steps. They slept there at night. I must congratulate Nancy for taking her greed to heart by contacting the local police department to remove the homeless from her view because they disturbed her. The lady was all heart.

I remember distinctly how you and Nancy felt that the poor in this country were well fed, including fresh vegetables, for which you both deemed that catsup was indeed, fresh vegetables!

I resent terribly Mr. Reagan that you didn't get the chance, not once, to spend one night on a park bench or storm sewer in your serious mental condition. And as it ended, you passed in the comfort of your nice warm, clean room, attended by your caretaker, and never spent one night cold, miserable or hungry night before your passing. Life is just not fair!

I want to remind you and to congratulate you for turning, Ohio, Michigan, and Pennsylvania into a desolate ghost states by outsourcing their jobs. When all the steel companies went down, of course that also destroyed the auto industry.

I remember the day the stock market crashed and it was later referred to Black Monday. All of us who were working and raising kids at that time really appreciated your tax cut. Mine actually gave me and extra $1.78 more money on my pay check. My neighbor really appreciated it too. His job went belly up and his company went out of business. He then went on to become a school traffic cop and raised his family on peanuts.

Directly related to your tax cuts for the wealthy the hospital I worked in had to close down floors and the sick were not admitted. You cut Social Security Medicare and the sick and elderly who did make it into the hospital had a limit of three days to stay regardless of condition or procedure. When funds were cut, the emergency room was forced to turn away terminally ill patients. One friend died right outside the emergency room door due to lack of health care insurance. Another severely burned baby was wrapped with silver nitrate bandages, given a shot of Demerol and sent home to dehydrate from loosing fluid from his bursted blisters. That's when the family discovered the life saving value of Gatorade because of its high concentration of electrolytes which takes the place of IV's solution. (AND LET'S NOT FORGET THE DENIAL OF THE AIDS ISSUE - Susie)

Because of your tax cuts for the wealthy the deficit soured higher then ever in history causing interest rates to climb out of sight. (TRIPLED the deficit actually - Susie)

And oh yes, I remember your union-busting policy. I particularly remember how the air controllers went out on strike and you replaced them with inexperienced air controller and broke the union and strike. Don't you remember all the mid air in flight near misses, after you did that. You should since you, yourself had a near miss. Couldn't have happened to a better guy.

The highlight of your reign was when unemployment hit Twelve and a half percentage. Our economy was in shambles, corporate executives applied for food stamps, highly educated people became a new static referred to as unemployable due to being over qualified. That was the one that really impressed me as to how well your tax cuts had helped the rich.

Then I remember how Daddy Bush claimed to bring a kinder more gentler administration after you left because of term limits. He vowed not to raise taxes because of your tax cuts for the wealthy. But even Daddy Bush, after his statement, " Read My Lips, No New Taxes" found it impossible not to raise taxes because of your tax cuts, and he was forced to raise taxes.

I only regret that people had not remembered your reign. Had they remembered, we could have avoided repeating your mistake by allowing Bush Jr. to invade the Whitehouse and rekindle your sorry, voodoo economic program? So here we are at the turn of the century, making the same, sad, mistake all over again. Mr. Reagan you brought upon this country a bad situation. We now write you a bad Eulogy. If you don't remember history, you're bound to repeat it.

Undeservingly, RIP.

And let's not forget: Joking While Testing Microphone: "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."

- Susie

Thus releasing:

Voice of reason Dave Grayvis Beetle Boy Dunbar etc.

There is no social security fund.

Those are mere "dislocation costs".

Change to private funding, not government supported funding?

That was a good one :)

Brother, what a bunch of twisted crap. Here's what I remember as one who was in uniform from Ford through Reagan and as a professional historian who has honestly gone back and studied the man against other presidents..

1. Before Reagan, the US was a laughing stock among nations. We even berated ourselves after Vietnam, Nixon, and the miserable attempt to rescue our hostages in Iran. After Reagan, the world didn't laugh so much any more and a new level of respect was afforded the White House.
2. Before Reagan, the military was in decline. Shoot, Congress often held up our pay checks while bootstrapping some useless pork barrel legislation onto our pay legislation. After Reagan, we got paid on time every time and we got raises too. I was an E5 SSgt and toped out at 0 per month. Before RR, I topped out at 0. Just in case you don't believe this, I've still got the IRS forms.
3. Ronald Reagan and his administration brought the Cold War to a close. Period. One may argue that he just happened to be in office when the inevitable finally came to fruition but that's speculative at best. Star Wars SDI broke the back of the USSR. Their mess in Afghanistan may have started the downward spiral but the SDI hoax drove home the final nail.
4. Trickle down economics is not new nor is it particularly Reaganesque. Take a good long look at FDR's NRA. If the WPA, REA, AAA, and the rest of that alphabet soup isn't a form of trickle down economics I don't know what is. it does bring prosperity for those who have something germane to offer. It also tends to harm the folks at the bottom. I didn't care much for it and personally think there are better ways to do things. however, it certainly ended the double-digit inflation that plagued us since the end of the VN war.
5. The unions attempted an illegal strike and got burned. Defy federal authority and you do so at your own risk. The ATC folks were messing with our economy and national security. There were other legal ways of accomplishing their goals but they would have taken longer. Their own arrogance and impatience did them in. And FWIW, I am presently a union member and have been for two decades. I believe in unions, find them necessary, but also know they can become a tyrannical force in and of themselves if not checked by law. PATCO deserved what it got.
6. I believe, after years of study on the issue, that Ronald Reagan broke the law in the Iran-Contra affair. I'm certain of it. That was clearly a black mark on his administration. Was it unique to RR? No. Shoot, Lincoln Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, Johnson and a host of others also did things that were illegal. In the case of Lincoln, had he lived longer he would have been embroiled in one hell of a legal mess with either one of two cases pending dealing with an illegal declaration of martial law and the suspension of habeas corpus. An administration needs to be judged by the whole of its effectiveness not by any one single issue. Even in the case of Clinton, a man for whom I have very little regard. Still, his administration was far from the worst in our history and actually accomplished many positive things.

Finally, what one must admit if one is honest is that Ronald Reagan restored much prestige and power to our nation's image. Under his watch we were able to emerge from under the dark cloud of Vietnam and Watergate. The White House was made formal again and for a time, terrorists and rogue states took notice and feared us. I think history will ultimately view him as one of our better leaders. Unfortunately, most Americans are plagued by an incomplete and often distorted knowledge of history that's heavy on anecdotal hearsay and weak on evidential fact. It comes for the very complexity of our nation's issues and the nature of television news. Half truths and anecdotes are disseminated over and over again. Rarely is any thing researched and tested against fact. Equally bad is the way in which we tend to view incidents as isolated occurrences outside of their context as a whole. This creates a very distorted and apriori kind of folk knowledge. In simple terms what I'm saying is this. All too often we expect the worst, find examples to support our expectations and stop right there without going on to find examples that mitigate or balance the negative. And, because this info is so "juicy" we pass it along as gospel with the net result being that most Americans are terribly misinformed. It's hard work to ferret out the truth of an issue and requires special tools and learning to do it. That's why so many of us are willing to leave that task up to others and in the end, accept the condensed and highly symbolized and sloganized spin. The world just isn't black and white. All too often it is gray. Reagan is just such a case in point. Like so many of us, he was a mixture of good and bad, of arrogance and humility, of wisdom and foolhardiness...and his presidency was a reflection of this.

In the end, what counts is this: an American president is dead. Love him or hate him, he was us. I'll be flying my flag at half staff. God bless us all, a great one has left us.

Aloha, Are we talking about the same Ronald Reagen who asked the Iranian Embassy Kidnappers to hold the hostages longer in order to make himself look better when they were released? That does not sound like the mark of a great american to me. That smacks of being a politician who is willing to screw others for his own good p.r. I am sorry to hear the old guy is gone, but i wont shed a single tear for him.

Larry

Cite your source on that one Larry because I've never seen one shred of evidence to prove that things happened that way.

Great, another anonymous dirtbag troll. :P

Best preisdent we've had in the last 50 years and he replaced or repaired a great deal of what Mr. Peanut aka Jimmy Carter, tried to destroy or give away.

Randy

You know, that's absolutely true. In 48 years I've never heard any American say a single bad word about Australia.

Randy

Strange how that fact really rubs some people the wrong way and still does today.

Randy

Obviously Reece you missed the Liberal meetings where they printed it up. ; )

I do know who was in charge when they were taken and hung out to dry and then botched the rescue attempt by authorizing the barest of efforts to make the rescue happen. So bare in fact that if a single thing didn't go according to plan they would have to abort.

Randy

And it was by HIS order that the VA cut it's rolls in 1980, that I almost lost my total VA Disabilty ratings and it was the start of a 14 year battle to get it back.

I never voted for him and am Glad of it.

It was Carter. A nice guy but a lousy guy to have in a fight. He hesitated at just the wrong moment. When one strikes at a snake one must for broke. Hesitation will kill you. Of all of Ronald Reagan's faults, indecision was not one of them.

Yep. Too bad he didn't start building houses 4 years sooner. ; )

Seriously though, as lousy as I thought he was as president, he was still our president and should be respected as such. I will not be making crass comments upon his demise.

Randy

Remind you of someone on rmr?