The past



I was gently admonished earlier for dancing on Reagan's grave. Bitter? Moi? Maybe But let's look back at the reality.



David Corn, 2 March 1998:

66 things to remember when flying into Reagan National Airport



The firing of the air traffic controllers, winnable nuclear war,

recallable nuclear missiles, trees that cause pollution, Elliott

Abrams lying to Congress, ketchup as a vegetable, colluding with

Guatemalan thugs, pardons for F.B.I. lawbreakers, voodoo economics,

budget deficits, toasts to Ferdinand Marcos, public housing cutbacks,

redbaiting the nuclear freeze movement, James Watt.



Getting cozy with Argentine fascist generals, tax credits for

segregated schools, disinformation campaigns, "homeless by choice,"

Manuel Noriega, falling wages, the HUD scandal, air raids on

Libya, "constructive engagement" with apartheid South Africa, United

States Information Agency blacklists of liberal speakers, attacks on

OSHA and workplace safety, the invasion of Grenada, assassination

manuals, Nancy's astrologer.



Drug tests, lie detector tests, Fawn Hall, female appointees (8

percent), mining harbors, the S&L scandal, 239 dead U.S. troops in

Beirut, Al Haig "in control," silence on AIDS, food-stamp reductions,

Debategate, White House shredding, Jonas Savimbi, tax cuts for the

rich, "mistakes were made."



Michael Deaver's conviction for influence peddling, Lyn Nofziger's

conviction for influence peddling, Caspar Weinberger's five-count

indictment, Ed Meese ("You don't have many suspects who are innocent

of a crime"), Donald Regan (women don't "understand throw-weights"),

education cuts, massacres in El Salvador.



"We begin bombing in five minutes," $640 Pentagon toilet seats,

African-American judicial appointees (1.9 percent), Reader's Digest,

C.I.A.-sponsored car-bombing in Lebanon (more than eighty civilians

killed), 200 officials accused of wrongdoing, William Casey,

Iran/contra. "Facts are stupid things," three-by-five cards, the MX

missile, Bitburg, S.D.I., Robert Bork, naps, Teflon.