Sadly, No!

Our arch enemy Pete of The Dark Window has the latest on WorldNetDaily’s plans to honor President Reagan:

I’ve been wondering how best to honor Ronald Reagan and so was very happy to come across this well-thought out plan proposed over at World Net Daily.

GRANTS PASS, Ore. ? Residents of Simi Valley, Calif., have the Reagan Library, and denizens of Washington, D.C., will be able to attend the various observances this week honoring Ronald Reagan. But what can the rest of America’s citizens do to personally honor him, other than watch the events unfold on their television sets?

Sometimes the simplest ideas are the best.

And even if they’re not the best, well, they’re still the simplest.

Aren’t you the least bit curious to find out what the plan is?

Over at the Liberal Media Conspiracy, renato gives us an update on the attempts to stick Reagan on just about every paper bill and coin the U.S. government prints:

Oy. If they succeed in getting his image on paper money, I’m going to go out and purchase an ink stamp and stamp every one of those fuckers that passes through my hands. It’ll be a cartoon balloon that will say, “I gave arms to Iran!” or “I helped massacre thousands of Central Americans!” or “Your grandchildren will be paying off my deficits!!!”

So this seems like a good time to plug a Sadly, No! classic: our December post on the proposed Ronald Reagan Dime Act.

Atrios links to this snow-moon post that debunks some National Review supplied bunk:

According to Deroy Murdock writing in The National Review:

“President Reagan’s February 6, 1986 State of the Union address included this specific passage where he says the word ‘AIDS’ five times:” […]

A transcript, as delivered by Reagan, is here:

Reagan never mentions AIDS in the 1986 SOTU address, delivered on February 4, 1986.

Is that the only fact-like item included in the article? Sadly, No! Murdock also has this whopper:

“As I recall, from 1984 onward ? and bear in mind that the AIDS virus was not identified until 1982 ? every Reagan budget contained a large sum of money specifically earmarked for AIDS,” says Peter Robinson, a former Reagan speechwriter and author of How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life.

Oh Pete, whatever shall we do with you? AIDS spending per year, starting with FY1982 (PDF file):

FY1982: $8 million.
FY1983: $44 million.
FY1984: $103 million
FY1985: $205 million
FY1986: $508 million
FY1987: $922 million
FY1988: $1,615 million
FY1989: $2,322 million

Some (yes, we’re looking at you Andrew Sullivan!) would give Reagan credit for spending $5.7 billion on AIDS during his presidency. What Andrew won’t say (or acknowledge) is that barely half (56%) of this was discretionary spending, the bulk of the remainder the result of entitlements (primarily Medicare & Medicaid.) In 1984, Robinson’s “large sum of money specifically earmarked for AIDS” was a whopping $60 million. Discretionary spending on AIDS did not exceed $1 billion until FY1989 (at $1.3 billion.)

Better bring a calculator and set a few hours aside… Germany’s elections are governed by complex rules, and the multitude of parties and proportional representation makes for much fun filled time. We’ve copied below the ballot for the upcoming state elections in Baden-Wuerttemberg. [see correction below] There are 12 parties, and each has up to 60 candidates on its list. You have a total of 60 “votes” which you are free to distribute as you wish. Each candidate may receive up to three “votes.”

If you can’t be bothered to worry too much, you may bring in your preferred list on election day, in which case every candidate on your list gets one vote. Or, you can give some votes to your favorite list, and round it up with a few votes for other lists by copying the names and numbers of those candidates onto your preferred list.

One result is that election advertising is done not only by the parties, but also by specific candidates “Vote for me, I’m number 47 on the SPD list!”

Should this seem like too much trouble, you may be better off registering for an absentee ballot for the upcoming Canadian elections. The absentee ballot is there is, well, much simpler.

Added: A German reader points out that the elections are city/council, and not state, elections. (We lazily noted that the elections are held across the federal state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, and ran with that. Jetzt koennen unsere deutsche Freunde sich ueber uns lustig machen. 🙁 )

Or something like that anyway. From Seinfeld episode 135, The Foundation:

George: What were you saying to the Rosses over there, anyway?

Jerry: Oh, I don’t know. I told them her death takes place in the shadow of new life. She’s not really dead if we find a way to remember her.
George: What is that?
Jerry: Star Trek II.
George: Wrath of Khan!
Jerry: Right. Kramer and I saw it last night. Spock dies, they wrap him up in a towel, and they shoot him out the bowel of the ship in that big sunglasses case.
George: That was a hell of a thing when Spock died…
Jerry: Yeah…

Rush Limbaugh, June 7, 2004:

Ronald Reagan lives on in my heart, as he will live on in all of your hearts as well. I never met him, but it wasn’t necessary to have met him in order to love him, which I do.

Last week, we quoted a Tim Lambert post on the Alexis de Tocqueville Institute’s “research.” Tim has an update that nicely sums up AdTI:

Yes, ADTI are anti-Linux, pro-tobacco and anti-global warming shills.

There’s plenty more, so read the update and follow the links…

According to Lee Edwards of the Heritage Foundation:

On the two epic events of the last 50 years ? the waging of the Cold War and the growth of the welfare state ? Ronald Reagan was indisputably correct. Communism was evil and had to be defeated, not merely contained. And the welfare state had grown dangerously large and had to be rolled back, not simply managed efficiently. [Emphasis added]

According to Robert Rector of… The Heritage Foundation:

There are repeated claims that Ronald Reagan “slashed” welfare spending. But in reality, Rector claims, welfare spending grew during the 1980s, after adjusting for inflation. In 1993, per capita welfare spending in constant dollars was 43 percent higher than when President Reagan took office in 1980. [Emphasis added]

The Ronald Reagan Memorial Foundation quotes Ronnie:

Whatever else history may say about me when I?m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears; to your confidence rather than your doubts.

Some of us remember different things:

REMEMBER THE BEAR in the woods? It was featured in the most devastating of President Reagan’s TV ads in the 1984 presidential race. An angry, menacing bear was shown prowling through a forest. “There’s a bear in the woods,” the narrator said. “For some people the bear is easy to see. Others don’t see it at all. Some people say the bear is tame. Others say it’s vicious and dangerous. Since no one can really be sure who’s right, isn’t it smart to be as strong as the bear–if there is a bear?” Then a man with a gun appears and the bear takes a step back. The final words on the screen: “President Reagan, prepared for peace.”

On a related note: one of our favorite Sadly, No! posts.

WorldNetDaily’s Hans Zeiger’s new column is available. According to his editors:

Exclusive: Hans Zeiger says Gipper never ignored reality

In other news:

The charge has been made that the United States has shipped weapons to Iran as ransom payment for the release of American hostages in Lebanon, that the United States undercut its allies and secretly violated American policy against trafficking with terrorists…. Those charges are utterly false…. We did not–repeat, did not–trade weapons or anything else for hostages, nor will we.
–President Reagan, television address, November 13, 1986

Four months later…

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 the evidence tell me it is not.
–Reagan in a television address is forced to acknowledge “the facts and the evidence” uncovered the Tower Commission, March 4, 1987

The Rant’s Frank Salvato is his generation’s William Safire:

Al Qaeda knows that the best and most sensational way to bring about their fanatical revolution is to strike out like a poison-toting viper at the shining light of freedom and democracy that is the United States.

Oh Frank, we bet you’re about to give us a free boatload of common sense, aren’t you?

This being said, the sad truth is this, if George W. Bush is defeated in November al Qaeda will claim his defeat as a victory. This victory would only serve to further empower al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations around the world. This isn?t a scare tactic but a boatload of common sense as mandated by the not too distant past; mandated by the escalation of terrorism after the defeat of Spain?s former Prime Minister and partner in the War on Terror Jos? Mar?a Aznar.

You just know Frank had a hard time facing that all too sad truth — but what can you do? Not only is voting for Kerry the same as voting for Osama, but it’s just God’s way of punishing Kerry because he said bad things about US soldiers in Vietnam:

Besides, perhaps this is karmic payback for the ?over the top? language Kerry used in disgracing the US soldiers still fighting in Vietnam when he was testifying before Congress. Stranger things in Heaven and earth?

So there you go!