obviously a dead president is more important

[frankly_fedup2]

then any of our troops who have given their lives fighting for people who do not even want a Democracy.

At least Reagan is shown being moved.

Our troops do not even get a tribute on the 6 O'Clock news when their bodies return home.

Typical as to it depends on how important you are to the elite. If you are not one of them . . . screw you and yours.

[Pale_Rider]

1. And add on to this, Reagan got better ...

... health care than the ones that he cut spending for.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

2. My husband said the same thing last night as he was watching the

Reagasm on television.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

7. Reagasm! PERFECT!

Never heard it... where'd it come from?

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

8. I found that "pearl of wisdom" on another DU thread yesterday.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

11. Here's the first reference on DU

playahata1 Sun Jun-06-04 12:34 AM http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1730015#1730067

[Commendatori]

3. C'mon, the presidency is a bit different

I'm not Reagan's biggest fan either, but to expect a state funeral for every soldier...

I'd be with you if this sort of big deal was made for a member of Congress, but I understand it when a president is involved - even if it's a Repug.

[Kid_A]

4. Exactly.

Just because he was a horrible president doesn't mean he doesn't deserve the deluxe treatment for the funeral. The Office of the Presidency is higher than any one man, Reagan and Bush included. On the day when GW Bush dies, he too will be given the same treatment, and it will be deserved. The passing of a President, no matter how disastrous or incompetent, will always be worthy of extensive coverage and an elaborate funeral.

[Bridget Burke]

5. The news has become a bit embarrassing for Republicans.....

The corporate types who run the news media are glad for a "tasteful" reason to ignore the inconvenient things happening in the world today.

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

6. It's not that I expect a state funeral for every soldier,

it's the rank hypocrisy of the networks and the rest of the media.

I realize that Ronald Reagan was President of the US and he is entitled to a state funeral if his family wants one. I have no problem with that.

But the media in this country goes along with this idea of not showing coffins coming back to the US of young men and women who have been killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, but it's perfectly allright for the American public to see the coffin of a man who never served in any branch of the Armed Forces?

To me this a case of total hypocrisy.

[frankly_fedup2]

10. I'm not saying a state funeral for every service person who

lost their lives. However, by showing their bodies being returned home every night (like has always been the custom until Bush), the nation was told this person's name, his military service, and where he was from in the United States. I believe this was immensely important to the families of the fallen. And by doing this, this person has been, in a sense, memorialized forever to the nation they have served. Don't you agree?

Now why can we not do AT LEAST that much for our service people?

[Commendatori]

12. I'm not for television tributes like that, it's just a

personal taste. Burial with full honors in Arlington is the current standard of recognition, and I think it's enough.

I remember asking a colonel a while back why this (what you suggest) wasn't done, and I was told that the number of military families who suffer loss of a loved one who would want the television tribute is a shade under 65%. Close to four in ten don't want it. I understand your sentiment, but don't think we need to set up another new bureaucracy in the Pentagon just to decide whose name goes on TV and whose doesn't.

When individual deaths are reported, a lot of people cry "ghouls," too.

[dbt]

9. I want a state funeral for EVERY soldier who dies in this war!

Damn right! And I want the flag at half-staff for thirty days, and I want a National Day of Mourning for each of them.

The least among these dead gave more than Reagan did. Or bu$h, or Carter or Nixxon or even Bill Clinton.

:freak:
dbt

[robertpaulsen]

13. More important than the top 2 guys at the CIA resigning...

at a time when our outgoing CPA leader Bremer is referred to as a dictator by Brahimi. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.