What you WON'T hear on the "Ronald Reagan" Show This Week

[mumon]

Other folks have covered, I think, El Salvador and Nicaragua pretty well. I haven't seen "Ketchup is a vegatable" yet, nor have I see "my taxes went up" under Regan yet, but this thread is devoted to all the smarmy stuff we remember from the Regan years, but won't hear on TV.

Ronald Reagan's role in firing a UC Berkeley president who just wasn't fascist enough for his liking, and Reagan's role as "Butcher of Berkeley": http://www.sfgate.com/campus/

http://www.sfgate.com/campus/

From http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/06/09/MNCF3.DTL:

Appearing at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club in January 1965, Reagan said he approved of the arrests of the Free Speech Movement protesters.

"I'm sorry they did away with paddles in fraternities," he quipped.

From 1968, anti-Vietnam war protests increased at UC Berkeley ...

...and in May 1969, violence erupted over the university's plan to build dormitories on a vacant lot near the Berkeley campus known as People's Park.

Reagan placed the entire city under martial law and dispatched tear gas-spraying helicopters and riot police who shot and killed one man and wounded others. Several officers also were injured. Hundreds of people were arrested.




Ronald Reagan, rapist:

http://slate.msn.com/id/1000336/

In Kitty Kelley's 1991 book Nancy Reagan: The Unauthorized Biography, actress Selene Walters claims that Ronald Reagan forced her to have sex with him in the early '50s. According to the book, Reagan, then president of the Screen Actors Guild, met Walters in a Hollywood nightclub. He asked for her address, and she gave it to him. Later at 3 a.m., he arrived unexpectedly at Walters' door and forced himself on her, Kelley alleges.

The press ridiculed this and other passages from Nancy Reagan : the night the Reagans smoked pot with Jack Benny and George Burns; Kelley's implication that Frank Sinatra boffed Nancy Reagan. But Kelley's sourcing of the alleged Reagan rape is not much worse than the sourcing of the alleged Clinton rape.

What's more, People magazine got Walters to repeat the story almost verbatim. Walters denied one key element of Kelley's version to People--that Reagan forced his way into her apartment--but reaffirmed the rest. It sounds remarkably like Juanita Broaddrick's story:

"I opened the door," Walters told the magazine. "Then it was the battle of the couch. I was fighting him. I didn't want him to make love to me. He's a very big man, and he just had his way. Date rape? No, God, no, that's phrase. I didn't have a chance to have a date with him."



Any other good tidbits, folks?

[mopaul]

1. i forgive him his daterape, after all, he was a greeeeaaaat man

and a greeeeeaaaaaat communicator and a greeeeeaaaaaat statesman.

thanks for the reminder of his greeeeaaaaaat integrity Kanzeon

[quaker bill]

2. How about this

Choosing to arm, train and then abandon the guys who became Al-Queda?

Or assuring WMD technology was transferred to Saddam (via Rumsfeld) and funding the construction of CW and BW facilities in Iraq with "Agricultural Assistance" grants?

How about his cooperation with the "House Un-American Activities Committee" in the 50's?

[Seabiscuit]

3. Wasn't Ronny Rayguns the twerp

who vowed to turn Hanoi into a "parking lot"?

[Seabiscuit]

4. Oh, yeah...

and who can forget he claimed that trees were the worst source of air pollution?

[Liberal Christian]

9. That was James Watt

His Secretary of the Interior.

[kcwayne]

7. That would be Nixon

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

5. I think the A-Stan thing was really a Carter move

I think Reagan inherited that. It was Carter, following advice from Brzezinski, who started arming the Mooj to fight that proxy war against the USSR.

But I could be wrong.

[papau]

10. True - indeed Carter WON THE COLD WAR via budget and Afghanistan

The CIA report in 1979 (which I hope Kerry will release as Pres) said that the USSR had passed the point of no return with a Defense budget that was 35 to 40% of GDP (The US's runs 4 to 6% of GDP). The recommendation was to keep them spending via the arming of the folks in Afghanistan, plus the release of the 1980 Carter 5 year budget for the Defense Department. The latter item is public and the Washington Post at the time wondered where Carter would get the $70 to 90 billion per year needed, given that there was a small deficit already.

Compare the Carter 1980 budget for Defense and Ronnie's next 5 years and you do not see much difference - except for Star Wars.

The cold war win is one of the two great lies about Ronnie. The other is the effect of the tax cuts. Reagan/Bush came in with the unemployment rate at 7.2%, and 12 years later they left with it at 7.2%. The immediate effect of the tax cuts was the 16 month - worst recession since the depression - caused by those interest rates anticipating future deficits and being just a little higher than they would otherwise be, causing, as with the Bush tax cuts, a rise in the hurdle rate needed for businesses to approve new investment.

The screw the poor - lower 20% hurt worse after Reagan, the hurt the kids as with cut backs to school lunches and National Park and Water and Air and other environmental spending, the screw the mentally ill (as in Cal as Gov, Ronnie as Pres ended Federally funding for mentally ill in the Aug 1981 Budget package he had pass - saying - as he did in Cal, that new facilities and funding would be found - and as in Cal where he never submitted a budget that built enough of the smaller facilities to house those released from warehouse prisons, as Pres he never went back and did anything to "block grant" money to help the mentally ill - indeed he just cut those monies.

The attack on those getting disability, the attack on Unions - seems to be all forgiven as we recall his gift to make a good speech, to pretend sincerity, and to leave the room with no one angry with him.

[mumon]

11. I forgot that one...kick!

Between that and Iran-Contra, and death squads, and coke for contras, and al Qaeda, Reagan's administration remains the most destructive to our nation's history, with the possible exception of the current unelected junta.

[Waverley_Hills_Hiker]

6. Challenging Gerald Ford from the right in the GOP primaries

People forget just how right wing Reagan was.

[Servo300]

13. He was probably at least partly responsible...

for Carter beating Ford.

[displacedtexan]

8. Reagan/Clinton Indictments & Convictions

I'm sure we won't hear these stats!


Reagan administration era convictions in the Iran-contra scandal:14 (two overturned on appeal)

Reagan official convicted for illegal lobbying: 1 (Lyn Nofziger, White House political director)
Reagan officials convicted in Housing and Urban Development scandal: 16

Total Reagan era convictions: 31

Bush I pardons of those indicted and/or convicted of Iran-contra crimes: 7 (5 convicted, one about to receive sentence, Caspar Weinberger about to stand trial)

Bush II official appointed to National Security Council who plead guilty to Iran-contra crime and was pardoned by Bush I: 1 (Elliot Abrams)

Clinton admin officials indicted and/or convicted of Whitewater crimes: 0
Clinton admin officials indicted and/or convicted of Travel Office crimes: 0
Clinton admin officials indicted and/or convicted of FBI file abuse crimes: 0
Clinton admin officials indicted and/of convicted of Lewinsky matter crimes: 0

[underpants]

12. Thanks I have been looking all over for that

I had the first part but couldn't find the second part. Wasn't there something like 187 indictments handed down of Reagan era officials and appointees?

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/timeline/index_5.html

1987

February 2: Reagan testifies to the Tower Board for a second time. His testimony is inconsistent and confused. The Board pointed out Reagan hadn’t known about August shipment of anti-tank missiles, but Reagan had said he DID know. When asked for an explanation, Reagan picked up a briefing memo he had been provided and read aloud: "If the question comes up at the Tower Board meeting, you might want to say that you were surprised."

February 20: A Reagan memo to the Tower Board reads: "I don’t remember, period." "I’m trying to recall events that happened eighteen months ago, I’m afraid that I let myself be influenced by others’ recollections, not my own.... The only honest answer is to state that try as I might, 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.’"

February 26: The Tower Commission report is delivered to Reagan. The report could not link Reagan to diversion of funds from Iran to the Contras. But it concluded that Reagan, confused and unaware, allowed himself to be misled by dishonest staff members who organized the trade of arms to Iran for hostages held in Lebanon and pursued a secret war against the Nicaraguan government. The report charges that Reagan had failed to "insist upon accountability & performance review, " allowing the National Security Council process to collapse. Reagan’s approval rating is down to 42%.

March 4: On national television, Reagan acknowledges mistakes on Iran-Contra. "A few months ago I told the American people I did not trade arms for hostages. My heart and my best intentions tell me that’s true, but the facts and evidence tell me it is not. As the Tower Board reported, what began as a strategic opening to Iran deteriorated, in its implementation, into trading arms for hostages. This runs counter to my own beliefs, to administration policy, and to the original strategy we had in mind. There are reasons why it happened, but no excuses. It was a mistake." Reagan’s approval rating rebounds to 51%.

http://www.bushtimes.com/cgi-bin/iowa/news/record.html?record=1278

Reagan administration era convictions in the Iran-contra scandal:
14 (two overturned on appeal) Reagan official convicted for illegal lobbying: 1 (Lyn Nofziger, White House political director) Reagan officials convicted in Housing and Urban Development scandal: 16
Total Reagan era convictions: 31
Bush I pardons of those indicted and/or convicted of Iran-contra crimes: 7 (5 convicted, one about to receive sentence, Caspar Weinberger about o stand trial)
Bush II official appointed to National Security Council who plead guilty to ran-contra crime and was pardoned by Bush I: 1 (Elliot Abrams)