Quotes...

Here are the Reagan quotes that I'd mentioned. The originals can be found at http://www.gossiplist.com/blog/bmachine2/index.php?id=801243f

In comparison to these, even Dubya might seem to be on the ball...


Timeless quotes from former President Ronald Reagan
"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
"I have flown twice over Mt St Helens out on our west
coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the
figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little
mountain has probably released more sulphur dioxide
into the atmosphere of the world than has been
released in the last ten years of automobile driving
or things of that kind that people are so concerned
about."
—Reagan, '80. At its peak, Mt. St. Helens released
1/40th as much sulfur dioxide as cars do every day.
"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant
can be stored under a desk."
—Reagan, '80. (In fact, a single nuclear power plant
can produce up to 22,000 cubic feet of of radioactive
waste per year.)
"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



ian.