A Free press is vital to democracy

Welcome to Amerika
When writer Elena Lappin flew to LA, she dreamed of a sunkissed, laid-back city. But that was before airport officials decided to detain her as a threat to security ...

The Wood campaign roll on like the political juggernaut it was destined to become as The Candidate trounces local Tory frontman in an all candidates meeting

Bell tolls for Bonzo's buddy - Mourning in Amerika

As the tributes from people like Margaret Thatcher, the Bushes (jr and sr) and Brian Mulroney come in, and conservative mouth-breathers prate about their golden era, let us really consider what Reagan did.
Where are the tributes from Nicaragua's late dictator Anastacio Somoza or the Contras or any of the other right-wing death squads Reagan propped up in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras? How about a few kind words from his old buddies Saddam Hussien, Ferdinand Marcos or the Ayatollah Khomeni? How about Osama Bin Laden? After all Reagan did for them in supplying arms and money, you'd think they would at least send flowers.
For all his preaching about shrinking government, the machinery of state grew by a third on his watch. Public debt doubled while taxes for the rich plummeted. By cutting funds to public mental health facilities and presiding over the export of manufacturing and heavy industrial jobs from the rust belt to Mexico and Asia, Reagan almost invented homelessness. He handed the Republican party over to the religious right and the conservative extremists that have managed to divide the United States to its current extent.
Before becoming president Ronnie Ray-gun had a nefarious record as Governor of California of having police break up protests, notably at UC Berkley, using clubs, rubber bullets and tear gas. As president of the screen actors guild he scurried to the front of the line to volunteer to name names in front of Joseph McCarthy's UnAmerican Activities Committee.


Amid the right-wing hagiographies appearing throughout the mass media it nice to see a few people willing to tell the ugly truth about Ronald Reagan.


KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN
GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER ...
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNGSunday, June 6, 2004
by Greg Palast
You're not going to like this. You shouldn't speak ill of the dead. But in this case, someone's got to.
Ronald Reagan was a conman. Reagan was a coward. Reagan was a killer.


Not Even a Hedgehog
The stupidity of Ronald Reagan.
By Christopher Hitchens
Posted Monday, June 7, 2004, at 10:03 AM PT

Not long ago, I was invited to be the specter at the feast during "Ronald Reagan Appreciation Week" at Wabash College in Indiana. One of my opponents was Dinesh D'Souza: He wasn't the only one who maintained that Reagan had been historically vindicated by the wreckage of the Soviet Union. Some of us on the left had also been very glad indeed to see the end of the Russian empire and the Cold War. But nothing could make me forget what the Reagan years had actually been like.


Ronald Reagan, Party Animal
The man who taught Republicans to be irresponsible.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Saturday, June 5, 2004, at 4:33 PM PT


I've registered as a Republican exactly once in my life. The year was 1980, and Ronald Reagan, who died today at the age of 93, was seeking the GOP nomination for president. Teddy Kennedy was challenging President Jimmy Carter for the Democratic nomination, and in Massachusetts, where I then lived, Kennedy was certain to win the primary. Better to cast my vote where it could do some good—in favor of John Anderson, who at that point was running as a Republican, and who seemed the only candidate capable of denying Reagan the nomination. Reagan was dangerous.

This sign should be on the door of a recording studio, not an airport bus toilet

shut door and rock on
Show room light