June 11, 2004

Nation Bids Final Farewell to Reagan

The nation today bids a final farewell to Ronald Reagan following a week of tribute to the 40th president, a day after President Bush paid his respects at the Capitol Rotunda in Washington. 

Bush, who today will deliver the first eulogy at Reagan's funeral at his library in Simi Valley, Calif., joined tens of thousands of mourners who flocked to the Capitol to bid a final farewell to the "Great Communicator."  

Arm in arm with First Lady Laura Bush, the president walked across the hushed rotunda to Reagan's casket, bowed his head in prayer and touched the flag draping the coffin. The Bushes then quickly exited.

Supreme Court justices, tourists, Boy Scouts and world leaders were also among those who gazed upon Reagan's casket in silent contemplation under the Capitol Dome.

Across from the White House, Nancy Reagan received a stream of visitors drawn from a list of the powerful, past and present, as Reagan's friends and colleagues flocked to his widow's side.

Bush had returned from a Georgia summit with world leaders. Earlier Thursday, he praised the late president as a "great man, a historic leader and a national treasure." He would not say if he supported efforts to put Reagan's image on currency, saying that after the funeral "I will reflect on further ways to honor a great president."

Reagan's Soviet rival-turned-friend, Mikhail Gorbachev , visited, too, and wrote in the condolence book in Russian, "I convey my deep feelings of condolence to dear Nancy and the whole family." Former Secretary of State George Shultz and former chief of staff Howard Baker were among the onetime Reagan aides who came to Blair House.

Gorbachev then visited Reagan's casket in the Rotunda, reaching out and briefly laying his palm on it.

"To Ronnie," former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, the first to see Mrs. Reagan, wrote in the Blair House condolence book. "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." Reagan and Thatcher shared a worldview, conservative politics and enduring mutual affection.

Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who shared an Irish ancestry with Reagan, also visited the former first lady, with his wife, Mila. "For Ron with affection, admiration and respect," the Mulroneys wrote. "The Gipper always came through!"

The former British and Canadian leaders were joining President Bush and his father Friday in eulogizing Reagan at Washington National Cathedral to close the curtain on the capital's elaborate state funeral — Washington's last goodbye before Reagan's sunset burial on the grounds of his presidential library outside Los Angeles.

Former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, who also met with Mrs. Reagan, said he recalled the president once showing him where he planned to be laid to rest. "He told me that would be the spot he would be buried and right next to him would be buried Mrs. Reagan," he said. Nakasone asked Mrs. Reagan if that was still the plan.

"She said the plan was still on and she would go next to him when she passes," Nakasone said.

Reagan began talking about his funeral in 1981, the year he became president, family representatives said.

He asked George H.W. Bush, when he was vice president, to speak at his funeral, and years ago asked Justice Sandra Day O'Connor — the first woman on the Supreme Court[...and whom President Reagan nominated to the SCOTUS!--Jen] — to read at his service, specifying she read from a John Winthrop sermon that inspired his description of America as "the shining city upon a hill."

Several years ago he asked former Sen. John C. Danforth, R-Mo.,
[President Bush has just named Sen. Danforth to be our next U.N. representative, too, so he must be a very good man.--Jen]
to officiate, the family said, following a suggestion from the Rev. Billy Graham that someone else be approached in the event Graham could not do it. Both Reagans wanted opera music at the funeral.

And so the service will unfold: Danforth officiating, O'Connor reading, the elder Bush as a eulogist and Irish tenor Ronan Tynan performing "Ave Maria."

The Capitol sergeant at arms office, which oversees security in the building, estimated 30,000 people had viewed the casket in the first 10 hours of Reagan's lying in state. His casket was continuously on view until Friday morning.

Boy scouts in khaki shorts and neckerchiefs, office workers with ID tags around their necks, senators and tourists with their children in tow, an American Indian in feathered headdress, all came to pay their respects.

Iraq's new president, Ghazi al-Yawer, fresh from the summit with world leaders in Sea Island, Ga., visited the Capitol Rotunda, too, placing a hand to his chest in front of the casket before moving on.
[How marvelous! President Bush is following in Reagan's footsteps by liberating more millions of oppressed people from tyranny!]

Art Kreatschman, 52, of New Windsor, Md., stood in line for three hours before his few seconds in the Rotunda. "I did OK until I got inside and then it was very moving," he said. "I teared up little."
[...]
"He did so many great things for our country and I remember a happy and optimistic time for America," Barbara Coward, 37, of Timonium, Md., scribbled in the book. "He made me proud to be an American."

Amen, Barbara!
But what made me almost as proud to be an American in the past few days has been the respect, manners and conduct of my fellow Americans who came to pay their respects to President Reagan by the thousands!
I've kept the TV on C-SPAN on for the last three days, watching the crowds pass by the bier and the honor guards change throughout the hours and somehow, I've had the feeling that I was with them, too, and was paying my respects to the President with them.
So many of us in this country have been united in our sorrow, our love, our gratitude and our thanksgiving for his life in marking President Reagan's service and his earthly passing and I hope we keep that feeling of love of country and love of Liberty, as President Reagan so embodied in his life and work, because this is his enduring legacy.
It only shows that even in his death, Reagan continues to bless us as only a true servant of God can.
May Light Perpetual shine upon him as he has let the Light of Liberty shine for millions here on the earth!

The Washington Times: AP
I have loved Ray Charles for a long time!
I will miss him, but just imagine him playing his heavenly piano and singing and NOW HE CAN SEE!
Ray, your rendition of "America the Beautiful" will live forever, as will "Georgia on my mind."
Rest in peace, my friend.

June 09, 2004

Filomena Lopez, the mother of a former Nicaraguan contra fighter, walks past a sign the reads 'Ronald Reagan, the Nicaraguan Resistence Movement thanks you and will always remember you' outside of Catedral Metropolitana in Managua, Nicaragua, Tuesday, June 8, 2004. A mass was held at the church in honor of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Nicaragua is still free and a democracy!

There's the gorgeous new nuclear-powered carrier the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan, shown here on manoeuvres off the coast of Brazil!
The carrier is in Brazil to carry out military training exercises with naval forces from Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
It's only right that a President who built back, supported and nurtured our armed forces and national defense as Commander-in-Chief have a state-of-the-art carrier bearing his name.
I remember President Bush escorting Mrs. Reagan to the carrier's dedication early in 2001 in what now seems like another world, as it was only months before 9/11.

Here's the Jelly Belly Company's lovely tribute to their favorite and most famous customer, made entirely of their delicious jelly beans!
(I must confess: the President got me started on Jelly Bellies when he came to the Oval Office and even though it's tricky with my dental work, I crave their watermelon ones.)

Saudi poll: Wide support for bin Laden

Almost half of all Saudis said in a poll conducted last year that they have a favorable view of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric, but fewer than 5 percent thought it was a good idea for bin Laden to rule the Arabian Peninsula.

The poll involved interviews with more than 15,000 Saudis and was overseen by Nawaf Obaid, a Saudi national security consultant.

It was conducted between August and November 2003, after simultaneous suicide attacks in May 2003 when 36 people were killed in Riyadh.

Obaid said he only recently decided to reveal the poll results because he felt the public needed to know about them.

"I was surprised [at the results], especially after the bombings," Obaid told CNN. The question put to Saudi citizens was "What is your opinion of Osama bin Laden's sermons and rhetoric?"

Let's hope that 5% aren't the Soddies (Al Queda members) who have the weapons!
This poll will probably surprise noone (except the pollster) but it's horrible to see it confirmed!
Back at the Royal Family's ranch, I'm convinced that they upped OPEC oil production and thus lowered the price of gas in the wake of their recent AQ attacks and their sudden realization that they may need American goodwill someday real soon to save their skins!

Forty-one percent said they favored strong and close relations with America, while only 39 percent said they had a favorable opinion of the Saudi armed forces, both results that Obaid also termed "surprising."

"They don't trust their army," said Obaid, who noted that the security forces fared far better.

He noted that less than a third of Saudis polled had a positive opinion of militant clerics, although government-appointed religious figures did better.
[I need for someone who's a Saudi expert to tell me what the difference is between a "government-appointed" Waahab religious figure is and a "militant cleric" because it was my understanding that they're the same thing.--Jen]

The poll showed strong support for political reforms and allowing women to play a greater role in society.
[Excellent!
The Bush Doctrine of spreading "contagious" democracy in the Middle East is catching on!--Jen]

Almost two-thirds said they favored allowing women to drive, something they are currently banned from doing.

While support for political reforms, particularly elections, was high, few Saudis viewed liberal reformers with much favor.

Hmmm. Who knows what to make of these findings, except for the obvious questions about OBL?
They'd need to define "liberal" and "reforms" at least to satisfy me.
And Soddy girlfriends, if you think that being able to drive is liberation, you still have a long way to go, baby! but driving is freedom and may be a good start.

The Sauds aren't worried about AlQ and terror attacks on them, because it's only Westerners right now who are being attacked in the "Magic Kindom," innocent men like BBC journalists who were shot the other day--Simon Combers was killed and Frank Gardner was critically injured and is still in hospital-- and an American expat worker who was shot to death today just doing their thing in Riyahd.

June 08, 2004

Crowds Wait Hours to View Reagan Casket

Waiting good-naturedly for as much as half a day in traffic jams and a parking lot, tens of thousands of people filed past Ronald Reagan's flag-draped casket in an outpouring that forced organizers to extend the viewing period Tuesday by four hours.

An estimated 79,000 mourners had passed by the coffin in 28 hours after viewing began at noon Monday, library officials said. The nation's 40th president died Saturday at age 93.

Nancy Reagan, resting and preparing for funeral events in Washington, D.C., watched the scene on television at her Bel Air home in Los Angeles, said Joanne Drake, chief of staff of Reagan's office.

"'It is unbelievable what I am seeing on TV,'" Drake quoted the former first lady as saying. "'The outpouring of love for my husband is incredible.'"

The flow of mourners was interrupted briefly when Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry arrived
[cut in line ("Dont you know who I am?") and pretended that he didn't loathe everything President Reagan stood for and voted against in the Senate! What a disgrace.--Jen].
Standing before the casket, he made the sign of the cross, placed his hand over his heart, then left.
[Why God didn't strike sKerry dead then and there is anyone's guess, although He probably didn't want to spoil RR's lovely memorial.--J.T.]

Traffic jams and the wait for shuttle buses encouraged camaraderie among the throngs, who passed the time sharing memories of Reagan and making new friends.
[Don't you know that President Reagan was looking down from Heaven and smiling at this?]

"It was really something. There was a kindred spirit out there as we waited," said Linda Peterson, 49, of Temecula, who left home with her son, Lee, 23, on Monday night.
[...]

Humbert Cabrera, 38, of San Diego, said while waiting in line: "He should be on Mount Rushmore. He was one of us. He lifted us all."

I didn't blog any yesterday because I spent most of the day (and the night) watching these mourners on the live feed at the Reagan Library on C-SPAN.
I was so moved and amazed that people of all ages and from all walks of life, more than quite a few of whom were in tears and all of whom were quiet and respectful, came to pay their respects to their President and their Governor and to mark and mourn his passing from earthly life, as well as to celebrate and remember his astonishing life.
It struck me how peaceful and orderly they were, even in our current world of violence, terrorism and war.
President Reagan would love it, as those who come to pay their respects to his memory this week are living proof of his faith in the goodness, greatness and decency of the American people.
Ronaldus Magnus did"lift us all" and it's comforting and wonderful to see with this response to honor his memory that this is a marvelous part of his legacy-- the gift he's left behind for all of us to be able and willing to lift one another!
*Update: The total who'd come to pay their final respects to President Reagan was changed to 105,00 by Wednesday night.

(Every time I see this image, I burst out crying--their great love for each other as husband and wife was a beautiful thing to see and I can relate to her loss of his company and love.
May the Lord comfort Mrs. Reagan and the Reagan family in their sorrow.)

One last look

[...]
The former First Lady believes her long-suffering husband recognized her when he stared into her eyes for an instant before taking his last breath, his daughter Patti Davis writes.

"It was the greatest gift he could have given me," the former First Lady told her family.

Sobbing, shaking and knowing death was imminent, she held her husband's hand about 1 p.m. Saturday as he inhaled deeply and opened his eyes for the first time in five days.
[...]
At the last moment when his breathing told us this was it, he opened his eyes and looked straight at my mother. Eyes that had not opened for days did, and they weren't chalky or vague," Davis recalls. "They were clear and blue and full of life. If a death can be lovely, his was."

Davis and her brother Ron were standing next to their father's bed when the astonishing interchange between their parents took place.

"In his last moment he taught me that there is nothing stronger than love between two people, two souls," Davis writes. "It was the last thing he could do to show my mother how entwined their souls are and it was everything."
[...]
"His last earthy look was at his wife, his next look was at the face of God," Michael Reagan told People.
What a beautiful affirmation and confirmation of the Reagans' enduring, deep love and that death is only a transition to a better, "shining city" of God of a place.

08:55 PM Permalink

June 07, 2004

Bush tells the French: "America would do it again, for our friends."

President Bush and French President Jacques Chirac participate in a wreath laying ceremony at the Normandy American Cemetery in Colleville-sur-Mer, France, on Sunday
The look on President Bush's face says it all, doesn't it?
Poor President Bush. Looks like he has gas from Jacques's dinner!

Bush Honors D-Day Veterans in Normandy by Dana Milbank (Bush-hater extraordinaire!)

President Bush Sunday marked the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy with a conciliatory pledge to Europeans who have questioned the American commitment to the transatlantic alliance forged in World War II: "America would do it again, for our friends."
[OK, and Dana Milbanks is off and running!
He's got the Axis of Weasel questioning our commitment, not vice versa! Unreal!--Jen]

The president appeared here at the American cemetery for what will be the last major commemoration of D-Day with veterans of Operation Overlord, who are reaching the end of their lives. Bush spoke of the hundreds of octogenarian veterans seated on the cliff here over Omaha Beach, between the rows of crosses and stars marking the graves of their comrades who never came home.

"Generations to come will know what happened here, but these men heard the guns," Bush said. "Visitors will always pay respects at this cemetery, but these veterans come looking for a name, and remembering faces and voices from a lifetime ago."

Bush blended his remembrance with a brief tribute to former President Ronald Reagan, who died Saturday at age 93. "Twenty summers ago, another American president came here to Normandy to pay tribute to the men of D-Day," Bush said. "He was a courageous man, himself, and a gallant leader in the cause of freedom, and today we honor the memory of Ronald Reagan."

Reagan's 1984 Pointe du Hoc speech marking the 40th anniversary of D-Day was memorable . "These are the boys of Pointe du Hoc," Reagan said then. "These are the men who took the cliffs. These are the champions who helped free a continent. These are the heroes who helped end a war."

Bush's speech, though filled with tenderness for the veterans and their long-lost comrades, made no attempt at soaring. His delivery was subdued, so soft that some in the audience had difficulty hearing him despite the amplifiers. As he did in his speech on the same spot on Memorial Day two years ago, Bush told a series of war stories, many with themes of religion and bravery.
[Who knows what mood President Bush was in?
He and Laura had to get through a "private dinner" with Jacques and his wife, she of the lacquered hair, the night before and Lord knows how awful that was!
All I know it that it must have taken all the effort Bush had not to retch in the presence of Jacque ChIraq's swarminess!
An heroic effort, if you ask me.--Jen]

He recalled Franklin Roosevelt's D-Day prayer in 1944, the "crucifixion" of dead paratroopers on telephone poles, and the bibles found in the wreckage on the shore. He spoke of dying soldiers who called out "mother, help me," and said of the dead: "We pray in the peace of this cemetery that they have reached the far shore of God's mercy."

Bush also spoke of the waning days of the surviving veterans. "Now has come a time of reflection, with thoughts of another horizon, and the hope of reunion with the boys you knew," he told the old soldiers, many of them tearful and surrounded by family. "I want each of you to understand you will be honored ever and always by the country you served and by the nations you freed."

French President Jacques Chirac joined Bush for a wreath laying ceremony at the American cemetery and then preceded Bush at the microphone. "France will never forget," he said, recalling France's "debt to America, its everlasting friend." Chirac declared that "America is our eternal ally" and said of those buried here: "They are now our sons, too."
[I've never heard so much bloviating inanity in my life! Jock's a real tool!--J.T.]

Chirac waded delicately
[B.S.! Sheer Milbank spin!--Jen]
into the recent standoff between his government and the Bush administration over the Iraq war. Invoking the importance of the United Nations, which France has used to thwart U.S. plans for Iraq, the French leader said: "Our two peoples have stood shoulder to shoulder in the brotherhood of blood spilled, in defense of a certain ideal of mankind, of a certain vision of the world: the vision that lies at the heart of the United Nations Charter."

What wholesale merde!
Jacques laid it on thick in the most pompous, holier-than-thou, arrogant manner possible and it was clear that everything he said was all lies and exaggerations.
All I could think was, "Why did he have to come?"

In an apparent reference to what the French and other Europeans have called Bush's "unilateralism," Chirac said this generation has a duty to build a society with "the hallmark of respect and dialogue, of tolerance and solidarity that was the quintessence of the struggle we are commemorating today."

As if WWII were ended by anything less than military might and soldiers meeting soldiers in mortal combat! Tolerance--yeah, right! Tell that to the French Jews that were still being sent off to the Nazi camps 2 months after D-Day! And "solidarity? There was that dissonance between the Free French, the Resistance and Vichy France. Respect? As in respect for borders and sovreignity? Ask Hitler! Finally, dialogue? The only thing the U.N. has that the League of Nations doesn't is that it has the backing of the U.S. and to my mind, we are the lesser for it on the world scene. Altogether, Jacques's little speech was a nightmare! Not content with haranguing Bush twice--once "privately at dinner and again publicly at Colleville-sur-mer, ChIraq did it again later in the day, with his buddy Gerhard Schroeder looking on. Quel trou de bal!

Bush, who was lectured on Saturday night by Chirac on the folly of linking World War II to the Iraq war, [The nerve of that Frog! Let's hope that President Bush didn't cave to him completely and was just being polite. How awful!--Jen] avoided such comparisons today, instead celebrating the friendship with France. "Our great alliance of freedom is strong, and it is still needed today," Bush said. Telling the story of a Collesville woman who married an American G.I. who fought on Omaha Beach, Bush produced chuckles by declaring it "another fine moment in Franco-American relations."

This was a wonderful Reaganesque moment!
The audience laughed, as did I at home.
Good one, President Bush!
All in all, the ceremony was very nice (after Jacques tried to dress down our President) and I think the vets were touched again.
But I hope that Bush doesn't have to touch French soil again if he doesn't want to.
When he said, "America would do it again, for our friends," it almost went without saying,"...with France's problems, let's hope we don't have to!"
Let's look on the bright side, however; maybe Bush was telling old Jacques in his subtle way that since the French aren't our friends and haven't been for a long time, we won't be coming to their aid. Works for me!
Why spill more American blood for these ungrateful weasels?
And it hit me like a ton of bricks, that the French hadn't done very much to fight the Nazis off in the first place and weren't that pleased (and still aren't) to have been liberated.
Looking at those Normandie beaches, I was reminded of that other beach operation on the French coast--Dunkirk at the beginning of the war.
There, the British were forced to employ a flotilla of civilian boats to rescue 300,000 of their soldiers who were left high and dry when France capitulated and joined the Reich.

01:43 AM Permalink