Ronald Regan RIP

Originally posted by The Corinthian
On a possibly related note I have noticed Irish flags at half mast at state buildings today. Please tell me that this is not because we are looking to become the next Puero Rico.

I didn't notice that, but there is a U.S company with its base near me, which flies the Irish,E.U and U.S flag and the latter has been at half mast since his death was announced.

On a personal note, and leaving aside the politics for a moment, my heart did go out to Nancy Reagan from the footage of the funeral.
She seemed very heart broken and reminded me a lot of my own mum , when my Dad died

Magnolia_Fan

Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest presidents in the History of The United States Of America and definately the best of my generation, if people knock him then there is no pleasing them and they will never like any American President. "Leader of The Free World"

gaelic cowboy

Just have to say could someone not have posted two threads one for condolences like the rip thread and a second where people who for one reason or another didn't like him could post this is quite disapointing it like signing an insult in bereaved families book of condolence's shame on you all:(

Hobbes

Originally posted by Magnolia_Fan
Ronald Reagan was one of the greatest presidents in the History of The United States Of America and definately the best of my generation, if people knock him then there is no pleasing them and they will never like any American President. "Leader of The Free World"

Yea great president. :rolleyes:

http://www.thenation.com/edcut/index.mhtml?bid=7&pid=1051

These are just the ones I remember. Amazing how history gets rewritten.

- The firing of the air traffic controllers
- colluding with Guatemalan thugs,
- pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics,
- budget deficits,
- toasts to Ferdinand Marcos,
- public housing cutbacks,
- Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals,
- tax credits for segregated schools,
- disinformation campaigns,
- Manuel Noriega,
- "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa,
- United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers,
- attacks on OSHA and workplace safety,
- the invasion of Grenada,
- assassination manuals
- mining harbors,
- the S&L scandal,
- 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut,
- silence on AIDS,
- food-stamp reductions, Debategate,
- White House shredding,
- tax cuts for the rich, "mistakes were made."
- education cuts,
- massacres in El Salvador.
- $640 Pentagon toilet seats
- C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed),
- 200 officials accused of wrongdoing,
- Iran/contra.


The page lists more. He was far from a good president.

He (through his advisors) also told Argentina that they could most likely keep the falklands and not to worry about anything only a day or so before Maggie said she was sending in the troops.

And if you want black humour, try looking for connections to Bush in a lot of that scandal. You may be surprised.

therecklessone

Originally posted by gaelic cowboy
Just have to say could someone not have posted two threads one for condolences like the rip thread and a second where people who for one reason or another didn't like him could post this is quite disapointing it like signing an insult in bereaved families book of condolence's shame on you all:(

A little bit of perspective sunshine if you please. This is a forum for discussion, if you don't want debate don't come on boards.ie.

The thread has contained as many people praising Reagan for his "achievements" as it has people criticising his record. Character judgement rarely goes unanswered on this forum.

And your comparison to insults in a book of condolences is off the wall. Will Ronnie's family be logging on to boards to check what the people of Ireland think? Eh, no...

Magnolia_Fan

These are just the ones I remember. Amazing how history gets rewritten.

- The firing of the air traffic controllers
- colluding with Guatemalan thugs,
- pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics,
- budget deficits,
- toasts to Ferdinand Marcos,
- public housing cutbacks,
- Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals,
- tax credits for segregated schools,
- disinformation campaigns,
- Manuel Noriega,
- "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa,
- United States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers,
- attacks on OSHA and workplace safety,
- the invasion of Grenada,
- assassination manuals
- mining harbors,
- the S&L scandal,
- 239 dead U.S. troops in Beirut,
- silence on AIDS,
- food-stamp reductions, Debategate,
- White House shredding,
- tax cuts for the rich, "mistakes were made."
- education cuts,
- massacres in El Salvador.
- $640 Pentagon toilet seats
- C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians killed),
- 200 officials accused of wrongdoing,
- Iran/contra.


GREAT PRESIDENT

shotamoose

Originally posted by Magnolia_Fan
GREAT PRESIDENT

Interesting logic.

Here's my entry to the book of condolences: a collection of stupid Reagan quotes.

"Facts are stupid things.."
—Reagan, '88
"...a faceless mass, waiting for handouts."
—Reagan, '65, describing Medicaid recipients.
"Because Vietnam was not a declared war, the veterans are not even eligible for the G. I. Bill of Rights with respect to education or anything."
—Reagan, '80
"Taxes should hurt. I just mailed my own tax return last night and I am prepared to say `ouch!' as loud as anyone."
—Reagan, '70, after approving California's largest tax increase in history. Reporters soon pointed out that Reagan didn't pay a cent on state taxes that year. For all his talk about shrinking government, California's state budget more than doubled under his governorship, from $4.6 billion to $10.2 billion.
"I know all the bad things that happened in that war. I was in uniform for four years myself."
—Reagan, '85, justifying laying a wreath at a Nazi cemetary in Bitburg. Reagan spent WWII in Hollywood, making films.
"They haven't been there. I have."
—Reagan, '85, justifying his policies on Nicaragua. Ronald Reagan had never visited Nicaragua.
"They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country..."
—Reagan, '85, praising the government of P.W. Botha in South Africa, during the height of Apartheid.
"I cannot recall anything whatsoever about whether I approved an Israeli sale in advance or whether I approved replenishment of Israeli stocks around August of 1985. My answer therefore and the simple truth is, 'I don't remember, period'"
—Reagan, Feb. '87
"Mr. President, why don't we openly support those 7,000 guerillas that are in rebellion rather than giving aid through covert activity?"
"Well, because we want to keep on obeying the laws of our country, which we are now obeying."
"Doesn't the United States want that government replaced?"
"No, because that would be a violation of the law."
—Reagan, ''87. At the time of the press conference, the U.S. was giving the indiscriminately murderous Contra guerillas covert aid, in direct violation of the law. Reagan's lie was so obvious that members of the press corps laughed loudly and openly at his statements.
"A few months ago, I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions still tell me that's true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not."
—Reagan, Mar. '87
"If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised."
—Reagan, '87, accidentally reading the notes for his stage directions aloud which told him to act surprised should the issue of arms-for-hostages come up.
"They are the moral equivalent of America's founding fathers."
—Reagan, '85, referring to the brutal Contra rebels in Nicaragua, who indiscriminately attacked civilians.
"...an example to the world of the ideals we hold most dear, the ideals of freedom and independence."
—Reagan, '85, praising the Afghan Mujahaddin. These "freedom fighters" included prominent leaders of Al Qaeda, such as Osama Bin Laden, as well as many of the leaders for the Taliban.
"Hollywood has no blacklist."
—Reagan, '60. FBI records have since shown that this was a lie, and that Reagan personally informed on several actors, later shown to be innocent, destroying their careers in the process.
"I would have voted against the Civil Rights Act of 1964."
—Reagan, '66
"If there has to be a bloodbath, then let's get it over with."
—Reagan, '69, prior to having national guard soldiers break up a peaceful protest on the UC Berkeley campus. The protesters were teargassed and fired upon with buckshot, killing one protester and wounding at least 128 others.
"... a tragic illness."
—Reagan, '67, desribing homosexuality. When two of his aides were found to be gay that year, he asked for their resignations.
"Maybe the Lord brought down this plague [because] illicit sex is against the Ten Commandments."
—Reagan, '89. Reagan didn't even mention AIDS until 1987, by which time it had spread into the heterosexual population and over 25,000 Americans had died.
"What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice"
—Reagan, '84.
"For the first time ever, everything is in place for the battle of Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. It can't be too long now. Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God's people. That must mean that they will be destroyed by nuclear weapons."
—Reagan, '71
"It's silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking strips on it, and be home by Christmas"
—Reagan, '65
"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do."
—Reagan '81
"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?"
—Reagan '66, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park
"There is today in the United States as much forest as there was when Washington was at Valley Forge."
—Reagan, '83. The US Forest Service estimated only about 30 percent of forest lands of 1775 still existed 208 years later.
"80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees."
—Reagan, '79

Magnolia_Fan

A GREAT PRESIDENT

gaelic cowboy

Originally posted by therecklessone
A little bit of perspective sunshine if you please. This is a forum for discussion, if you don't want debate don't come on boards.ie.

The thread has contained as many people praising Reagan for his "achievements" as it has people criticising his record. Character judgement rarely goes unanswered on this forum.

And your comparison to insults in a book of condolences is off the wall. Will Ronnie's family be logging on to boards to check what the people of Ireland think? Eh, no...

Did you actually read my post I said my feeling this thread should have been more of a rip thread whereas another thread should have been opened up to discuss his leagacy good bad or indifferant sunshine.

therecklessone

Originally posted by gaelic cowboy
Did you actually read my post I said my feeling this thread should have been more of a rip thread whereas another thread should have been opened up to discuss his leagacy good bad or indifferant sunshine.

I did yeah. You also said...

Originally posted by gaelic cowboy
this is quite disapointing it like signing an insult in bereaved families book of condolence's shame on you all

And this is still a forum for discussion, not a book of condolences. I'm sure if you want to express your condolences there is a more appropriate outlet for that. Have you tried a call to the US embassy?

ssh

I shudder to think what might have happened had a man of such low intellectual ability received the republican nomination in 1968. I'd imagine the US would still be trying to clean up Vietnam, so deep they'd have ended up in it.