Free Republic

Some humor for a change. Some may not have seen this. I hadn't. 9 minutes, but very funny. President Reagan, First Lady, and Senator Baker up front. https://www.youtube.com/embed/n6mbW-jMtrY?rel=0

Twenty-six years ago today, President Ronald Reagan gave a speech at the Brandenburg Gate near the Berlin Wall.And now the Soviets themselves may, in a limited way, be coming to understand the importance of freedom. We hear much from Moscow about a new policy of reform and openness. Some political prisoners have been released. Certain foreign news broadcasts are no longer being jammed. Some economic enterprises have been permitted to operate with greater freedom from state control. Are these the beginnings of profound changes in the Soviet state? Or are they token gestures, intended to raise false hopes in the...

June 11, 2013 at 7:30 AM (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Eleanor Parker, and Eve Arden Sergeant falls for a love-scorned actress. Comedy/1948 TCM, One For The Book

Might it be that it was Ronald Reagan and not Barack Obama who began to slow the rise of the seas? That is one conclusion that could be drawn from a new paper by Canadian physicist Qing-Bin Lu of Ontario's University of Waterloo. Instead of carbon dioxide emissions, Mr. Lu argues that ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other halocarbons caused global warming. Thanks to the Reagan administration and the 1987 Montreal Protocol, CFCs have been phased out by developed countries. After a lag, Mr. Lu argues that global temperatures peaked around 2002 and predicts they are set to gradually fall over...

The late “Godfather of Soul” James Brown (pictured) thought Ronald Reagan, who served as the this country’s 40th President from 1981 to 1989, was the nation’s smartest leader and a man of conviction. This surprising commentary was part of a vintage interview with the entertainer that was just dusted off and is airing via YouTube as part of a PBS series entitled “Blank On Blank,” reports The Inquisitr. The “Blank on Blank” series, which began in 2010, is a compilation of vintage tapes, segments on public and satellite radio, and podcasts with icons from every walk of life. The program...

Jay Leno told his studio audience the other night that President Obama should forget his plans to close the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and instead close the IRS. The applause was instantaneous and the laughs were loud and genuine. Most ordinary Americans would have whooped and hollered in favor of Leno's idea long before they learned the IRS has been caught targeting conservative political groups and wasting millions on moronic employee-training conferences. But the IRS is no joking matter. The average working American -- poor or rich or in-between -- hates and fears the IRS for good reason. Able...

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,121883,00.html

Sagebrush Rebel: Reagan’s Battle With Environmental Extremists and Why it Matters Today, (Regnery, 2013), by William Perry Pendley, describes how radical environmentalists sparked a revolution against federal land regulation led by head rebel, Ronald Reagan. Today, high fuel and energy prices, formerly caused by Carter administration policies, have returned with a new President to blame. Pendley’s book provides valuable lessons for the next Sagebrush Rebel who might try to end the environmentalist’s stranglehold on energy production and American economic potential.

Video only ... the U.S. Armed Forces and why they fight ... narrated by President Reagan.

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News's James Rosen. The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law. The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime....

Rudy Giuliani headed today’s Team McCain conference call, discussing the trip taken by Barack Obama adviser David Kurtzer to Syria in July. Giuliani, the recent selection for the GOP convention’s keynote speaker, took the opportunity to reassert himself on national security and foreign policy. Michael Goldfarb and Randy Scheuneman also took part in the call. Mayor Giuliani told the conference that the fact that the trip was not disclosed at the time shows Obama’s inexperience and irresponsibility on foreign policy. Giuliani pointed out that Obama included Assad on his list of world leaders he would meet without preconditions. He says...

On the evening of 23 March, 1983, Ronald Reagan delivered a televised address about defence and national security. "Let me share with you a vision of the future," the president began in what was a last-minute addition to the half-hour speech. In Reagan's vision, we would "embark on a program to counter the awesome Soviet missile threat with measures that are defensive." It was the first mention of Reagan's Strategic Defence Initiative (SDI), the plan to change America's nuclear posture from offensive to defensive. His goal was to render the Soviet nuclear weapons "impotent and obsolete." Reagan's admirers praised SDI...

The son of former president Ronald Reagan warns in an op-ed published Tuesday that legalizing gay marriage will lead to “polygamy, bestiality and perhaps even murder.” Michael Reagan, a political consultant, made the claims as he calls on church leaders to stand up and fight against same-sex marriage. … Legalizing same-sex marriages, he writes, “inevitably will lead to teaching our public school kids that gay marriage is a perfectly fine alternative and no different from traditional marriage.” … Reagan slams the Republican Party, saying party leaders are too preoccupied with the next presidential election to be concerned about the moral...

Tuesday, May 7, 2013 at 05:00 PM (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Priscilla Lane, Eddie Albert Three naval cadets graduate and help each other find jobs. Comedy/1940 TCM, Brother Rat And A Baby

Wednesday May 1, 2013 at 8 pm (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Priscilla Lane, Wayne Morris A military cadet and his friends try to keep his marriage a secret. Comedy/1938 TCM, Brother Rat

The unfailing reverence on the American right for Ronald Reagan is understandable. He was the only exemplar of modern conservatism to win the White House, and unlike liberal icons such as Roosevelt or Johnson or Obama, he presided over an economic boom and became beloved by voters not normally drawn to his party. No wonder that Reagan, long before his death in 2004, attained mythical status in the conservative movement and the Republican Party. But that myth has become a burden for the modern GOP. It has bound Reagan’s followers on the right to policies and positions that were time-specific....

1. An Angel From Texas Monday, April 22, 2013 at 08:00 AM (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Eddie Albert, Wayne Morris A pair of slick Broadway producers con a wealthy cowboy into backing their show. Comedy/1940 TCM, An Angel From Texas 2. That Hagen Girl Tuesday, April 23, 2013 at 12:15 PM (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Shirley Temple, Dorothy Peterson A small-town teenager thinks a lawyer is her illegitimate dad. Drama/1947 TCM, That Hagen Girl

“We came, we saw, he died.” This was the gleeful announcement of our previous Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, after hearing that Libya’s longtime strongman Colonel Muammar Gaddafi had been killed in the NATO-supported rebellion then surging throughout that country. This was a rather novel statement. Chief diplomats of leading powers seldom publicly celebrate the killing of foreign heads of state, no matter how repugnant, especially when the U.S. had been maintaining regular diplomatic relations with their government. But we need not have been too surprised by her remark. After all, altering the domestic political composition of the various Arab...

Friends and allies of Baroness Thatcher expressed ‘surprise and disappointment’ last night as it emerged President Obama is not planning to send any serving member of his administration to her funeral. Whitehall sources have revealed that the U.S. delegation at tomorrow’s service in St Paul’s Cathedral will be led by two Reagan era secretaries of state: James Baker and George Shultz. Though President Obama himself had not been expected to attend, there had been speculation that he would be represented either by Vice President Joe Biden or wife Michelle. The Queen’s decision to attend

Stacey Dash at the Reagan Library Great Pictures of Reagan & Planes in the background if Stacey would move!

There were a lot of pictures of Ronald Reagan in the newspapers this week, and it felt a little weird. It’s been almost a quarter of a century since the president left the White House and close to a decade since he died, and I have grown less accustomed to his face. It was a blast from the past. There again was the Hollywood smile, the Windsor knot, the pompadour and, in every image, his trusty comrade in ideological arms from across the ocean, Margaret Thatcher, the former British prime minister who died on Monday aged 87. On this side...

The man who shot President Ronald Reagan in 1981 has behaved well over the past year when he's been freed from a Washington mental hospital to visit his mother in Virginia, according to U.S. Secret Service reports. Agents trailed John Hinckley on more than 35 days during 2012 when he visited his mother's home in Williamsburg. Surveillance logs show he shopped at PetSmart, Target and the grocery store Harris Teeter. He also did volunteer work, visited an art museum on the campus of the College of William and Mary and made planned therapy visits. The logs were part of more...

The tributes to Margaret Thatcher in this country upon her passing were nice. But what America really needs is its own Margaret Thatcher. In Republican circles there’s great nostalgia for Ronald Reagan. Thatcher is seen as sort of Reagan’s sidekick, an ally in promoting democratic capitalism and taking a firm stance against Soviet expansionism. Not to diminish Reagan, who transformed American politics in ways that reverberate today, Thatcher actually had the tougher task. Reagan had to restore the health of the American economy, which was plagued by high inflation and sluggish growth. But he had some fiscal headroom within which...

Lee Daniels' The Butler doesn't hit theaters until October, but the drama about the long-serving head butler at the White House already is being targeted by conservatives because of Jane Fonda's role as Nancy Reagan. So far, backlash to The Weinstein Co. release is fairly muted -- bloggers have disparaged the casting, and a Facebook page is promoting a boycott -- but chatter about the liberal activist has picked up recently. "The moviemakers are free to choose, but it seems like it was their way of giving people like me the middle finger," says Larry Reyes, a Navy veteran and...

President Obama has been struggling to push his agenda through Congress and boost his popularity, but now there is another bit of bad news for him to chew on: A poll indicates that Obama would lose an election to Ronald Reagan, the champion of conservatism, if such a choice were possible today. And it would be a landslide. Fifty-eight percent of Americans would choose Reagan, according to a survey conducted by Kelton Research for the National Geographic Channel. Reagan, a Republican who won the elections of 1980 and 1984, would even capture 51 percent of voters aged 18 to 34,...

Margaret Thatcher, one of the most significant leaders of the 20th century, died yesterday at age 87. A model of convictional leadership, Margaret Thatcher became almost universally known as Britain's "Iron Lady." In May 1979, Margaret Thatcher moved into No. 10 Downing Street and changed the course of British history. Beyond this, Lady Thatcher changed the terms of debate on both sides of the Atlantic and left a legacy of leadership that should inspire generations to come. Born October 13, 1925 in the village of Grantham, Margaret Roberts was soon recognized as an unusually bright and forceful child. Her father,...

The character of Margaret Thatcher as reflected in her gracious description of Ronald Reagan in the Youtube video.

Reagan and Thatcher in 1984 (AP Photo/Pool/Bill Rountree) My sister phoned me during lunch and I told her (nicely) that I was at that moment listening to the news of the death of Baroness Thatcher on Radio 4. I followed this up by saying I would go to London for her state funeral. “You really think that highly of her, do you?” responded my sister cautiously, and then reeled off a list of Lady Thatcher’s failings when in office: selling off the council houses, the notorious quote (taken out of context, of course) about “society”, not being keen to promote...

Baroness Margaret Thatcher October 13 1925 – April 8 2013  RIP, Iron Lady “There they go again, Maggie” And tell Ronnie for us, we still miss him too. As I was just saying, “You don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone.”

Lady Thatcher gives a eulogy to the 'great liberator' Ronald Reagan. Click excerpt link for video.

Well, it’s official. The University of Chicago (where Big Guy used to lecture on his version of Constitutional Law and where Lady M used to…well, I’m not really sure what she did as Vice President for Community and External Affairs, butt I do know she didn’t need her law license to do it) has decided to demolish the childhood home of Ronald Reagan. To build a parking lot.     What do you say we give it a send off with a little travelling music? Big Yellow Taxi: Joni Mitchell   They paved paradise And put up a parking lot...

I am trying to find the quote from President Reagan on $1 million fines for knowing hiring illegals, I am having a discussion with another conservative and I can't find Reagan's quote anywhere. Anyone happen to know where I can find it? Thanks

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel called for the Defense Department to be organized more efficiently than it was under Ronald Reagan after raising the possibility of cuts in pay and benefits for military members. Hagel blamed the prospective cuts on sequestration. “[F]iscal realities demand another hard look at personnel – how many people we have both military and civilian, how many we need, what these people do, and how we compensate them for their work, service, and loyalty with pay, benefits and health care,” Hagel said at the National Defense University today. He also hinted at cutting jobs for military brass....

As Republican politicians wrestle with same-sex marriage, the daughter of a party icon — former President Ronald Reagan — said in an interview this week that she believes her father would have “been puzzled” by the political fuss and would have supported marriage for gay people. Patti Davis, a Los Angeles writer and the onetime rebellious daughter of Reagan and his second wife, Nancy, said in a telephone interview that she never discussed same-sex marriage with the former president, who died in 2004 just as it was emerging as a political issue. But Ms. Davis, now 60, offered several reasons...

On March 30, 1981, Ronald Reagan was wounded in an assassination attempt outside the Washington Hilton Hotel.

In most parts of the civilized world, today is Sabbatum Sanctum; Holy Saturday - the day before Easter Sunday. Butt as you know, around our rabbit hole we have to celebrate Easter incognito: h/t Cripes Suzette We call it “Spring Sphere Holiday” and while we go to church to celebrate during election years, in the off-years like this Big Guy usually just breaks out his private stash of jelly beans. I’m not really fond of jelly beans Bill, butt the black, red, brown, yellow, green, and any that look gay belong to me. Anyway, I know this next video would...

On March 23, 1983, President Ronald Reagan delivered a speech that horrified the liberal establishment of the time: his call for a Strategic Defense Initiative. Ronald Reagan was not your typical politician. The only president born and raised in Illinois (yes, Lincoln, Grant, and Obama moved to Illinois as adults, but only Ronald Reagan grew up there), he came to politics with a heartland sensibility: do what makes sense, do what’s right; don’t worry about what the elites from the Ivy League or Foggy Bottom insist upon. Reagan came to party activism late in life, running for public office for...

An unsparing piece keying off the same Rick Perry soundbite at CPAC that inspired this post. Perry said that it’s unfair to blame conservatism for the GOP’s losses in 2008 and 2012 because, after all, our nominees weren’t conservative. Emery’s response: Then why did Republican primary voters vote for them instead of for a solid conservative like, say, Rick Perry? Her answer? Between Reagan’s generation and the current crop of Rubio, Scott Walker, etc, there simply haven’t been many good conservative candidates. Instead, against establishment types who were national figures, the conservative movement flung preachers and pundits (Pat Robertson, Alan...

Regarding the March 14 editorial “Reopen the White House doors”: **SNIP** Within an hour, however, the czar returned from the East Wing singing a much different song. Apparently, first lady Nancy Reagan had pointed out that closing the White House reflected badly on the presidency in general and on President Ronald Reagan in particular. More important, the Reagans signaled to their staff that if they had to personally hand out flashlights and give the tours themselves, the tours would continue despite the “crisis” of sequestration.

As House Speaker for 6/8 of the Reagan years, bombastic spendaholic Tip O'Neill was one of the fiercest opponents of the Gipper's entire agenda, fighting it tooth-and-nail to the end. He even called Reagan a 'cheerleader for selfishness' and went so far as to personally attack him as 'most ignorant man that has ever inhabited the White House'. Not one to be easily outwitted -but showing considerably more class and good humor- Reagan observed parallels between the blobular O'Neill and the then-trendy Pac-Man video game, as'a round thing that gobbles up money'. Yet despite the professional animosity, Reagan often said the two were 'friends after 6pm'... and...

I forgot who it was who said “I am not concerned about the press getting on my case every time I open my mouth. That just means they are scared.” (Continued) “I would be more afraid if they ignored me because it meant that I was no longer a threat to them.” Believe it was Ronald Reagan who made that statement. Correct me if I am wrong. I just remember the quote but not ABSOLUTELY sure who made it. Thanks.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz4BvgTKQIE "A documentary about the 40th President of the United States, taking a closer look at his life from a lifeguard to a radio announcer to an actor, all the way up to becoming a Union leader and Politician. It reveals his transition from a Democrat to a strict new liberal republican, and it unearths problems of his presidency such as the Iran Contra scandal." It involves interviews from people such as his sons Ron and Michael Reagan, his advisor Stuart Spencer, his speechwriter Peter Robinson, biographer Edmund Morris, author Mark HertsGaard, journalist Frances Fitzgerald, author Thomas Frank, author Thomas...

-h/t Kirby-

Conservatives long for another Ronald Reagan. But is Reagan the right model? He was of course a tax cutter, reducing the top marginal rate from 70 to 28 percent. But his tax cuts—which vindicated supply-side economics by vastly increasing federal revenue—were bought partly through a bargain with Democrats who were eager to spend that revenue. Reagan was no budget cutter—indeed, the federal budget rose by over a third during his administration. An alternative model for conservatives is Calvin Coolidge.

Missile Defense: As Pyongyang threatens a nuclear strike, the administration says our missile defenses can handle anything they can throw against us or our allies. If so it's not because of anything the president did. 'I can tell you that the United States is fully capable of defending against any North Korean ballistic missile attack," White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Thursday after North Korea's raging runt, Kim Jong-un, said Pyongyang was scrapping the 1953 armistice deal that ended the Korean War. He threatened a "preemptive" nuclear strike against the U.S. Carney added that "our recent success in returning...

March 6, 2013 at 7:30 AM (ET) Starring Ronald Reagan, Ann Sheridan, The Dead End Kids A street gang helps the district attorney's son prove his girlfriend's brother innocent of arson. Drama/1939 Angels Wash Their Faces/TCM

There was a large number of layoffs at Human Events, as announced at an internal staff meeting this morning, FishbowlDC has learned. But it’s actually much bigger than that. The conservative publication is shutting down entirely. Eagle Publishing, which owns Human Events, released the following statement: “Washington, DC (February 27, 2013) – Eagle Publishing, Inc. announced today it has made the difficult decision to cease publishing Human Events, the conservative weekly newspaper. The issue dated February 18 is the final issue. “This was a difficult decision, and one we did not make lightly,” said publisher Joe Guerriero. “As everyone knows,...

Ronald Reagan spent the better part of a lifetime baffling the Left and often defeating them in the court of public opinion. Other Republicans have been battling the last twenty years to defund the left, particularly unions who get automatic payments through Dropbox without members having any say, or how plaintiff attorneys use their vast influence to buy Democratic officials who turn around and pass laws that line their pockets with more lawsuits. Now the Reagan name is being used to defund another source of funds for the left. Enter a man by the name of Anthony Saliba. He...

The buzz of anticipation rose as the hall filled. The reserved ringside seats were duly claimed by those of appropriate rank, usually sleek of dress and grey of head. More fans were expected — 700 or so — than there were seats to accommodate them, and ushers worked diligently, as the moment approached, to get all comers settled. Then, right on time, a small entourage arrived. Applause erupted at the sight of the old warrior framed in the doorway, his profile as instantly recognizable as any in Canada. And, as ever, the cheers lit him up. His always stiff...

Tony Kushner, the screenwriter behind the Oscar nominated movie 'Lincoln,' compared Barack Obama to the 16th president and called the defeat of Mitt Romney a "rejection" of the "Reagan era ideology" that leads to a "frightening" path of "psychotic individualism." Appearing on Thursday's edition of PBS's Charlie Rose show the openly gay playwright called Obama's evolution on same-sex marriage "Lincolnian" and roasted Ronald Reagan, Romney and the Tea Party: (VIDEO AT LINK) TONY KUSHNER: So you have people like these Tea Party people protesting government and then asked if they really want to give up their Social Security payments. And...