Posted on 06/08/2004 10:19:42 PM PDT by JohnHuang2
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:16:10 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Sarah Crone promised herself six years ago that she would attend the funeral of former President Ronald Reagan, no matter where it was or when it happened.
The 20-year-old Republican will follow through on that promise this week, when she joins her boyfriend, Marc Zumhagen, and some friends on a nine-hour car trip from Fort Wayne, Ind., to the nation's capital.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Prayer for the viewing, mourning and honoring of President Reagan
thread from early this morning.
I believe those prayers are being answered and that the crowds in DC will be much, much larger than they anticpate or can handle. That in itself sends the best message possible about our nation and its future...as long as folks hold fast to the memories of Reagan and why they feel this way, they will not go astray.
Done, my friend.
Thios story represents an answer to prayer...and I believe the experince in DC is going to be even grander in scale and impact.
We're off to Simi Valley tomorrow morning.
Bump!
This is an historical moment of great import...and it is rekindling the feelings of millions...more thanks and another win for the Gipper!
Isn't it interesting there are so many young people who revere a man who was in office before their time despite the leftist educators who refuse to teach the truth about Reagan. I am proud to count my two teenagers among them. We will all be together this week at our home watching the honors on television. There will be more tears.
I have a feeling there will be a lot more then that
Yes, very much so.
Ping
And prices have gone wayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy up. Price gouging at its finest from what little searching I have done.
BTTT
ABC Radio news is saying 220,000 people are expected in DC today. Why do I think if a million people show up you won't hear about it?
re: 'off by factor of 4-6' -- looks like some in DC are in denial:
Some hotels have had cancellations because the government will be closed Friday."If anything the holiday is going to hurt us because [people] can't come to Washington to do business," said Dixie Eng, general manager of the Best Western Capitol Skyline. "And sometimes things like this turn away tourism." [HeLLLO, Dixie, that growing sound you hear is the masses of wonderful people heading your way, willing to drive 10 - 14 + hrs! ]
Holiday Inn Capitol in Southwest has lost 10 to 15 reservations.." [out of 529!]
... THEN they say: "Difficulty in finding lodging did not appear to deter fans of Mr. Reagan who were determined to come." LOL!
Republic, remembering and honoring you for your long drives.
***Media Research Center CyberAlert***
11:25am EDT, Wednesday June 9, 2004 (Vol. Nine; No. 100)
The 1,737th CyberAlert. Tracking Liberal Media Bias Since 1996
> Rather: Bush "Now Has What He Once Said He Didn't Need," the UN
> CNN Worries If Those at Reagan Viewing "Look Like America?"
> Brokaw Relays How Reagan Ignored AIDS & "the Disenfranchised"
> Page One WPost Story Regurgitates Old Liberal Attacks on Reagan
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1) Dan Rather delivered a smart-ass take on the Bush
administration's success in getting a unanimous vote of the United
Nations Security Council on a resolution setting guidelines for
the turnover of power in Iraq and the holding of elections. Rather
opened Tuesday's CBS Evening News: "More than 14 months into the
U.S.-led campaign in Iraq, President Bush now has what he once
said he didn't need: Full support from the United Nations Security
Council."
2) Reagan mourners are not diverse enough for CNN anchor Wolf
Blitzer who wanted to know if those waiting hours to see Ronald
Reagan lying in repose at the Reagan Library "look like America,"
meaning: "Are they ethnically diverse, African-Americans,
Hispanic-Americans, or is it largely white?"
3) Hours after the Philadelphia Inquirer hit newsstands on Tuesday
with Tom Brokaw's argument that "the Reagan legacy has some
scandals," including "his failure to recognize early on the AIDS
epidemic," the NBC Nightly News featured an interview with Michael
Deaver, to whom Brokaw proposed that "retrospectives" of the
Reagan presidency assert "that he was not nearly as sensitive to
the disenfranchised in America, the poor people, especially
African-Americans."
4) "I think it's appropriate that we take this week to celebrate
the life of Ronald Reagan," former Washington Post reporter Lou
Cannon argued in a Post chat session in defending the media for
not running critical stories this week about Reagan's record. But
the Post didn't follow his advice. Wednesday's front page featured
a story which complained that "the lavish praise obscures that
much of Reagan's record through eight years in office was highly
controversial and intensified social and political divisions."
Post reporters Eric Pianin and Thomas Edsall did little more than
regurgitate left-wing spin points from the 1980s intended to
discredit Reagan, particularly on race relations, and they adopted
the ridiculous notion that federal spending on social programs was
somehow cut during the Reagan years. The Post duo cited "attacks
on the federal school lunch program and aid to the poor," how
Reagan's "toughest budget cuts" hurt "large numbers of
lower-income black families" the most. Plus, the Post highlighted
the ketchup as a vegetable tale and how "the administration showed
indifference to an emerging AIDS crisis in the early 1980s."
> 1) Dan Rather delivered a smart-ass take on the Bush
administration's success in getting a unanimous vote of the United
Nations Security Council on a resolution setting guidelines for
the turnover of power in Iraq and the holding of elections. Rather
opened Tuesday's CBS Evening News: "More than 14 months into the
U.S.-led campaign in Iraq, President Bush now has what he once
said he didn't need: Full support from the United Nations Security
Council."
Rather briefly elaborated in a set up piece from John Roberts:
"Late today the Security Council voted 15 to zero for a
resolution, drafted by the U.S. and Britain, setting a hopeful
timetable for Iraqi elections and withdrawal of coalition forces."
> 2) Reagan mourners are not diverse enough for CNN anchor
Wolf Blitzer who wanted to know if those waiting hours to see
Ronald Reagan lying in repose at the Reagan Library "look like
America," meaning: "Are they ethnically diverse, African-
Americans, Hispanic-Americans, or is it largely white?"
Just a couple of minutes past noon EDT on Tuesday, June 8, MRC
analyst Ken Shepherd noticed, Blitzer asked CNN reporter Thelma
Gutierrez, who was at the Reagan Library: "Can you tell, Thelma,
and clearly this is unscientific, but, if the crowds really look
like America? Are they ethnically diverse, African-Americans,
Hispanic-Americans, or is it largely white?"
Gutierrez avoided the racially-polarizing nature of Blitzer's
question as she responded: "That's an interesting question. As we
went into the main lobby area, we noticed that, really, there was
a cross-section, especially this morning. I noticed that there
were many Asians. There were old people, young people, veterans.
Many people, very, very choked up, very moved by what they'd just
experienced."
> 3) Hours after the Philadelphia Inquirer hit newsstands on
Tuesday with Tom Brokaw's argument that "the Reagan legacy has
some scandals," including "his failure to recognize early on the
AIDS epidemic," the NBC Nightly News featured an interview with
Michael Deaver, to whom Brokaw proposed that "retrospectives" of
the Reagan presidency assert "that he was not nearly as sensitive
to the disenfranchised in America, the poor people, especially
African-Americans."
Philadelphia Inquirer television columnist Gail Shister quoted
Brokaw as answering, when asked about the balance between somber
tributes and analyzing his record: "Reagan 'was a beloved American
leader, but at the same time our journalistic obligation is to put
his whole life and his political career in context,' Brokaw says.
'It's a very delicate balancing act. 'In a time of national
mourning, let the first day or so pass, then go back and
respectfully examine the person's record. The Reagan legacy has
some scandals -- Iran-contra, his failure to recognize early on
the AIDS epidemic. He made some controversial appointments."
Brokaw ended Tuesday's NBC Nightly News with excerpts from an
"exclusive" interview with former top Reagan aide Michael Deaver,
whom Brokaw dubbed "the wizard of finding just the right setting
for Reagan."
As the two sat across a conference table from one another,
Deaver recounted how when the Bitburg cemetery controversy
erupted, Reagan said we need reconciliation after 40 years.
Following the KAL-007 shootdown, Deaver recalled how Reagan told
his aides the U.S. was not going to do anything since the world
would make a judgment about the Soviets.
Brokaw then proposed: "In the retrospectives, Mike as you
know, there are the analyses of his policies and his own attitudes
toward other parts of society -- that he was not nearly as
sensitive to the disenfranchised in America, the poor people,
especially African-Americans. Did he ever talk to you about that?"
Deaver: "It was very frustrating. If you talk about something
that was frustrating to him, I think that was probably the most
frustrating. He thought of himself as a fair person."
Brokaw: "But do you think there was a possibility that he had
a kind of an anachronistic view of what had happened with race
relations in America, rooted in the '30s?"
Deaver: "Could be, sure. For him, you know, he said I helped
get Jackie Robinson into baseball as a sports announcer. And that
was where it was for him, pretty much. He also thought in economic
terms and thought what he was going to be doing, what he wanted to
do would eventually help everyone."
In Shister's story, CBS's Dan Rather complained about too much
coverage of Reagan. An excerpt from her June 8 article, "Network
anchors see excess in Reagan funeral coverage":
Television will go overboard on covering Ronald Reagan's funeral
events, say Dan Rather of CBS and Tom Brokaw of NBC. ABC's Peter
Jennings isn't so sure.
"They will be over-covered," Rather says. "Even though everybody
is respectful and wants to pay homage to the president, life does
go on. There is other news, like the reality of Iraq. It got very
short shrift this weekend."...
Yesterday, CBS, ABC and NBC, along with the 24-hour cable news
networks, reported live as the former president's body was moved
from a Santa Monica, Calif., funeral home to the Ronald Reagan
Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif.
Rather, 72, who covered the funerals of Lyndon B. Johnson in 1973
and John F. Kennedy in '63, points to "herd journalism" as the
driving force in the Reagan coverage.
"Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to
turn it, even slightly. Nationally, the herd has grown
tremendously."
Neither CBS nor ABC has an all-news cable cousin. Brokaw has the
luxury of two -- MSNBC and CNBC. He acknowledges that cable's
blanket coverage of events can't help but affect the Big Three.
"I think just about everything is over-covered these days," says
Brokaw, 64. "The spectrum is so crowded. With all the cable
networks, it begins to have a 'video wall' feeling to it."...
ABC's Jennings has mixed feelings about the quantity of airtime
devoted to Reagan.
"I'm more inclined to spare coverage -- come on [the air], do
something meaningful, then get away." He admits he was nervous
about going live yesterday with the Reagan motorcade.
"The last time I had to do it was with O.J. Simpson [the 1994 car
chase] and I had nothing to say after a certain period of time,"
says Jennings, 64.
Yesterday, it turned out to be the right call, he says, because
there were several poignant moments....
The tone of the networks' Reagan coverage thus far has raised some
eyebrows among media critics, who labeled it too soft on his
sometimes controversial presidency.
Rather says such analysis should be done only after Reagan is
interred. (He prefers to call Reagan's funeral "his farewell
journey.")
"When a twice-elected, two-full-term president dies, it's not the
time for a seminar on his strengths and weaknesses, in my opinion.
"To paraphase Marc Antony, I think, by and large, that the good
that men do should live after them, and the evil should be
interred with their bones."
Brokaw and Jennings don't share Rather's view. Although they both
intend to be appropriately respectful while covering the somber
events, their networks will also do analytical pieces this
week....
END of Excerpt
For Shister's article in full:
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/entertainment/8865169.htm?1c
> 4) "I think it's appropriate that we take this week to
celebrate the life of Ronald Reagan," former Washington Post
reporter and Reagan biographer Lou Cannon argued in a Washington
Post chat session Tuesday in defending the media for not running
critical stories this week about Reagan's record. But the Post
didn't follow his advice. Wednesday's front page featured a story
which complained that "the lavish praise obscures that much of
Reagan's record through eight years in office was highly
controversial and intensified social and political divisions."
For the online session with Cannon:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23140-2004Jun7.html
Post reporters Eric Pianin and Thomas Edsall did little more
than regurgitate left-wing spin points from the 1980s intended to
discredit Reagan, particularly on race relations, and they adopted
the ridiculous notion that federal spending on social programs was
somehow cut during the Reagan years.
The Post duo cited "attacks on the federal school lunch
program and aid to the poor" and highlighted how "no group may
have chafed more at Reagan's policies and views than African
Americans, who assailed the president for opposing racial quotas
and for seeking to obtain a tax credit for Bob Jones University, a
segregated southern school."
Pianin and Edsall contended that Reagan "offended blacks when
he kicked off his 1980 general election campaign by promoting
'states rights' -- once southern code for segregation -- in
Philadelphia, Miss., scene of the murder of three civil rights
workers 16 years before." The Post reporters went on to claim that
"Reagan ordered some of his toughest budget cuts in Medicaid, food
stamps, aid to families with dependent children and other 'means
tested' programs that were critical to large numbers of
lower-income black families."
Of course, no Reagan-bashing story is complete without the
ketchup and a vegetable tale: "Until a public protest forced
Reagan to back away, his Agriculture Department sought to cut the
school lunch program and redefine ketchup and relish as
vegetables."
Ignoring how income tax revenue grew faster than inflation
throughout the 1980s, they also claimed that "the combination of a
huge 'supply-side' tax cut, a historic military buildup and a
painful two-year recession produced huge budget deficits and a
near tripling of the national debt that haunted the country and
policymakers for years and drained resources from social
programs."
Oh, and "the administration showed indifference to an emerging
AIDS crisis in the early 1980s."
Newsweek Managing Editor Jon Meacham covered some of the same
ground in his retrospective of Reagan's life in the June 14
edition of the magazine:
"He mangled facts; caricatured welfare recipients; opened his
1980 presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Miss., in the county
where three civil-rights workers had been murdered for trying to
overthrow Jim Crow; presided over a dark recession in 1982-83;
seemed uncaring about the emerging HIV/AIDS crisis, and, in the
Iran-contra scandal, came perilously close to -- and may have
committed -- impeachable offenses."
Meacham's piece, however, largely stuck to Reagan's life story
and more upbeat assessments as cited the criticisms in a lead into
a look at why Reagan is nonetheless so popular. Newsweek published
the article under the heading of "American Dreamer." The subhead
description of Meacham's piece: "A captivating and elusive man,
Ronald Reagan rose from lifeguarding in Illinois to Hollywood --
and became one of our greatest Presidents. An intimate look at how
he played the role of a lifetime."
For Meacham's article in full:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5145917/site/newsweek/
An excerpt from the June 9 Washington Post front page article,
"Schisms from Administration Lingered for Years," by Eric Pianin
and Thomas B. Edsall:
As the nation mourns its 40th president, much is being made of
Ronald Reagan's role in reordering U.S.-Soviet relations and
dramatically redefining the terms of the political debate over tax
policy, defense, domestic priorities and social justice. The
outpouring of flattering eulogies and tributes since the
conservative icon died Saturday is what presidential historian
Robert Dallek described yesterday as "hagiography" of a highly
popular political leader.
But the lavish praise obscures that much of Reagan's record
through eight years in office was highly controversial and
intensified social and political divisions. Even now, nearly 16
years after he left office, some major interest groups and key
voting blocs most adversely affected by Reagan policies remain
bitter about his legacy.
The controversies and scandals included attacks on the federal
school lunch program and aid to the poor, anti-union tactics, the
illegal sale of arms to Iran and Reagan's 1985 participation in a
ceremony at a German cemetery where Nazi soldiers are buried.
No group may have chafed more at Reagan's policies and views than
African Americans, who assailed the president for opposing racial
quotas and for seeking to obtain a tax credit for Bob Jones
University, a segregated southern school.
"For many Americans, this was a time best forgotten," said Julian
Bond, chairman of the NAACP and a longtime civil rights activist.
"He was a polarizing figure in black America. He was hostile to
the generally accepted remedies for discrimination. His
appointments were of people as equally hostile. I can't think of
any Reagan policy that African Americans would embrace."
The former actor and California governor offended blacks when he
kicked off his 1980 general election campaign by promoting "states
rights" -- once southern code for segregation -- in Philadelphia,
Miss., scene of the murder of three civil rights workers 16 years
before. Early in his first term, Reagan ordered some of his
toughest budget cuts in Medicaid, food stamps, aid to families
with dependent children and other "means tested" programs that
were critical to large numbers of lower-income black families.
Until a public protest forced Reagan to back away, his Agriculture
Department sought to cut the school lunch program and redefine
ketchup and relish as vegetables.
Reagan had vowed to protect the "social safety net" of programs
for the poor, the disabled and the elderly when he unveiled his
economic recovery plan on Feb. 18, 1981. But two years later,
White House budget director David A. Stockman said in an interview
that the safety-net assurances were "just a spur-of-the-moment
thing that the press office wanted to put out."...
There were other controversies:
Reagan fired 13,000 air traffic controllers in 1981 after they
staged a work stoppage, and he appointed members of the National
Labor Relations Board who were hostile to union organizing. His
interior secretary, James G. Watt, and senior Environmental
Protection Agency officials infuriated environmentalists by
assaulting safeguards and aggressively attempting to open public
lands in the West to private developers. Reagan, during his 1980
campaign, blamed trees for emitting 93 percent of the nation's
nitrogen oxide pollution -- giving rise to jokes about "killer
trees."
The combination of a huge "supply-side" tax cut, a historic
military buildup and a painful two-year recession produced huge
budget deficits and a near tripling of the national debt that
haunted the country and policymakers for years and drained
resources from social programs. And the administration showed
indifference to an emerging AIDS crisis in the early 1980s. By the
time Reagan delivered his first speech on the epidemic in May 1988
-- about eight months before he left office -- the disease had
been diagnosed in more than 36,000 Americans, and 20,849 had died.
"Reaganomics" failed to reduce the deficit, but the combined
policies of the administration and the Federal Reserve Board
helped usher in the longest peacetime economic expansion since the
end of World War II -- a nearly eight-year boom that made many
people rich and left a pleasant "morning in America" memory in the
minds of millions of voters....
Reagan pursued one other foreign policy initiative that proved
highly damaging to U.S. interests in the post-Sept. 11, 2001, era.
Fearing that Iranian revolutionaries who had overthrown the shah
and taken U.S. diplomats hostage might overrun the Middle East and
its oil fields, the Reagan administration for five years provided
military intelligence, economic aid and covert supplies of
munitions to Iraq's armies in support of Saddam Hussein's war with
Iran. The administration ignored Iraq's use of chemical weapons
and treated Hussein's government as the lesser of two evils.
The Reagan years were marred by scandals involving Watt and White
House deputy chief of staff Michael K. Deaver. But the most
damaging was known simply as "Iran-contra."...
Watt was forced to resign from his Cabinet post after a series of
controversies, including the uproar that followed his portrayal of
five members of an advisory panel as "every kind of mix you can
have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple. And
we have talent."...
END of Excerpt
For the Washington Post's June 9 take on Reagan in full:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A26306-2004Jun8.html
# Tom Brokaw is scheduled to appear tonight, Wednesday, on
NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
-- Brent Baker
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"We're off to Simi Valley tomorrow morning."
No, kiddin'...that's great. I hope the whole family gets to go, and if you need anything on the way, let me know, if this is the route you're going. Something truly "awesome" is happening with Reagan's death. And I mean that in the spiritual sense. I feel sorry for all those people who don't get it.
I've got a liberal Christian hating cousin who I recently found so I could get some papers, pictures to him that were left with me. He threw a fit when I told him his grandmother's bible was in the stuff, he didn't want that @#!@ thing. So I told him what I thought of him, and that it's a sad thing he didn't even give damn where his roots were and I was keeping the bible. Today I remembered there is a birthday card from Pres. Reagan to my uncle in those papers...and guess what...I'm keeping that too!!! LOL!! Praise the Lord!
I had already offered my place in Alexandria for a place to sack out at. But FR placed me in "chat". Oh well.
Thanks for the ping.
BUMP Nicely said, Jeff. I am going to a Reagan memorial near Seattle on Friday but will arrive an hour early. Why? I think it will be overflowing...
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