cannabisnews.com: Drug Czar Says Prevention Reflects Reagan Policy





Drug Czar Says Prevention Reflects Reagan Policy
Posted by CN Staff on June 07, 2004 at 15:07:34 PT
By Ryan Lenz
Source: Associated Press 
Portland, Maine — The United States sees daily benefits to drug prevention policies former President Ronald Reagan implemented two decades ago in response to drug abuse among teenagers, the nation´s drug czar said Monday.During the Reagan administration, drug abuse in the United States fell drastically from all-time highs, said John Walters, director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. People also began to recognize the inherent problem of drug use among a growing cross-section of the American public, he said.
"Not only President Reagan, but his wife, took on this issue when people didn´t want to take it on," said Walters, who led development of anti-drug programs in the 1980s for the U.S. Department of Education. "He understood that we had to lead. And the country´s better off for it."During Reagan´s administration, first lady Nancy Reagan led a national campaign called "Just Say No" that took her to schools across the nation to bring public awareness to what was considered a sweeping problem in the nation.It was one of the beginning moments in the federal government´s efforts to quell rising numbers of drug users. Her efforts put the problem on the national stage, Walters said.The Office of National Drug Control Policy was established by the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 as Reagan finished his second term in the White House.Walters´ speech before the National Association of State Alcohol and Drug Abuse Directors focused mostly on the importance of expanding drug treatment to help the growing numbers of drug abusers addicted to prescription drugs.The irony is that while Reagan understood government´s limited ability to solve social problems, the drug policy of his administration led to the escalation of the war on drugs, said Bill Piper, director of national affairs for the Drug Policy Alliance, which allocates the reformation of drug laws."Reagan was very much focused on expanding democracy and freedom around the world and saving taxpayer money," Piper said. "But when it came to the war on drugs _ this is where he strayed from that commitment."Walters was scheduled to appear in New Hampshire and Boston to discuss such issues as medicinal marijuana and the Bush administration´s drug treatment voucher program called Access to Recovery. Under the program, states can apply for part of $100 million to help state agencies treat drug users currently without care.Walters said Reagan´s legacy in the war on drugs still affects drug enforcement and treatment policy the office advocates today."It was a kind of courage and a kind of clarity that has built the foundation for the other things that we do today," he said.Complete Title: ´Drug Czar´ Says Prevention Efforts Reflect Reagan Drug Policies Source: Associated Press Author: Ryan LenzPublished: Monday, June 7, 2004 Copyright: 2004 The Associated Press Related Articles:John P. Walters 'Takes Five'http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18947.shtmlAnti-Drug Ads Should Focus on Thrill-Seeking Teenshttp://cannabisnews.com/news/thread18910.shtml
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Comment #22 posted by Shishaldin on June 08, 2004 at 13:49:28 PT
Stay focused on the problem part 2
Following global_warming's excellent article...
I caught this foul piece of propaganda the other night on FOX (surprise!). My stomach turned and my wife was incensed (but not surprised). My favorite parts were when the female guards whined, "They're just MONSTERS!" Go get a desk job...From http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/05/1681928.php "DAMAGE CONTROL" By Anarchist/Anti-Fascist Political Prisoner Matthew "Rampage" Lamont A new summertime movie is being released. It's not Lord of the Rings 5, or Terminator 4. It's called "Hard Time" by the California Correctional Peace Officer Association. With the Governor taking the axe to the California prison budget, which has gone nearly $500 million over its budget, the CCPOA is on the offensive.
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Comment #21 posted by E_Johnson on June 08, 2004 at 12:26:07 PT
global_warming a quote from Akhmatova
The Russian poet Anna Akhmatova said of the year 1956, when Khrushchev had the GULags emptied of the surviving victims of the Stalinist era: The half of Russia sent to the camps came home to face the half of Russia that sent them there.I think Americans are finally waking up to the GULag returnees in their own homes.
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Comment #20 posted by dididadadidit on June 08, 2004 at 07:43:12 PT
More 666 Observation
As Sam Adams noted the 666 of Ronald Wilson Reagan, so too have I noted the 666 of George Walker BushJr and designed a bumper sticker along the lines of George Walker BushJr on the first line with SICKX SICKX SICKX just below the names for the second line.In case we fail to get the sucker out this fall, I have another that says in big letters, I LOVE BIG BROTHER, with little letters saying, My just in case, save my ass, bumper sticker.Cheers? 
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Comment #19 posted by RasAric on June 08, 2004 at 05:44:06 PT
Big Dawg
On a personal note, it was during the Raygun years in which I began smoking herb!!! Woo-Hoo!!!
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Comment #18 posted by RasAric on June 08, 2004 at 05:42:10 PT
This is typical 
"Not only President Reagan, but his wife, took on this issue when people didn´t want to take it on."In other words: The Reagan administration, similar to Nixon not listening to his advisors,is going directly against the will of the people. Well, at least thery're admitting it now.I was told the Venus transit which is ocurring could make honest people out of complete liars. Is this an example?
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Comment #17 posted by BigDawg on June 08, 2004 at 05:26:26 PT
SHOW ME the STATS!
"During the Reagan administration, drug abuse in the United States fell drastically from all-time highs, said John Walters."^^^I would really like to see the statistics behind such a bold claim. Didn't we have the crack "epidemic" on his watch? Odd, I don't remember there ever being a "drastic" reduction of drug use in America.
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Comment #16 posted by global_warming on June 08, 2004 at 03:34:22 PT
Stay Focused On The Problem
Experts say U.S. Prisoners are subjected to Iraqi-style Abuse
by Hazel Trice Edney
Washington Correspondent
Originally posted 6/7/2004WASHINGTON (NNPA) - As Americans continue to recoil at the sight of photographs and videotapes showing handcuffed prisoners piled naked on top of one another, being bitten by dogs, being sexually exploited and subjected to other forms of debasing abuse at the Abu-Ghraib prison in Iraq, human rights advocates say similar constitutional violations occur on a regular basis in United States prisons.“In recent years, U. S. prison inmates have been beaten with fists and batons, stomped on, kicked, shot, stunned with electronic devices, doused with chemical sprays, choked, and slammed face first onto concrete floors by the officers whose job it is to guard them. Inmates have ended up with broken jaws, smashed ribs, perforated eardrums, missing teeth, burn scars, not to mention psychological scars and emotional pain. Some have died,” states a report, published last month by Human Rights Watch, titled, “Prisoner Abuse: How Different are U. S. Prisons?”The report, written by Jamie Fellner, director of the Human Rights Watch U. S. Program, observes: “Correctional officers will bribe, coerce, or violently force inmates into granting sexual favors, including oral sex or intercourse. Prison staff have laughed at and ignored the pleas of male prisoners seeking protection from rape by other inmates.”It continues: “A culture of brutality has developed in which correctional officers know they can get away with excessive, unnecessary, or even purely malicious violence…Perhaps if photos or videotapes of abuse in U. S. prisons were to circulate publicly, Americans would be galvanized to protest such treatment as they have the treatment of Iraqi prisoners. Absent such graphic and unavoidable evidence, it is all too likely that abuse will continue to be a part of many prison sentences.”Children are not immune, the report concludes. “They too are kicked, beaten, punched, choked, and sexually preyed upon by adult staff.”
President Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Senate Arms Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) and many others have deplored the abuses in Iraq.''The actions of these few people do not reflect the hearts of the American people,'' Bush told Al-Hurra, a U.S.-sponsored Arab-oriented television station. “People in Iraq must understand that I view those practices as abhorrent.”But Human Rights advocates say Bush doesn’t have to leave the U. S. to find examples of similar abuses.''What we see is rape by prison guards, sexual assaults by prison guards. We have clients who have gone through extreme emotional trauma and physical pain because of the abuses they’ve endured here in the United States,'' says Kara Gotsch, public policy coordinator for the national prison project of the American Civil Liberties Union. “When the president and officials in Congress say they are shocked and embarrassed by what’s going on in Iraq at the hands of our U. S. military, I have to point the finger and say, ‘Why aren’t you expressing the same outrage and shame at the same conditions going on in your home states?’”The U.S. has the largest per capita prison and jail population in the Western industrialized world, with approximately 2 million inmates.Shifts in law enforcement and sentencing practices during the ''war on drugs'' over the past two decades have caused a dramatic growth in inmates convicted of low level, non-violent drug offenses, reports the Sentencing Project, a Washington, D. C-based prison research and policy development organization. Sixty-percent of federal prisoners are incarcerated on drug charges. A fifth of all state prisoners are in for drugs and most state prisoners have no prior criminal record, according to the Sentencing Project.Over the past two decades, the number of women in prison has increased at nearly double the rate for men, making them the fastest growing segment of the prison population in local jails and state and federal prisons. Approximately 93,000 women are behind bars.Although African-American women over the age of 10 are approximately 12 percent of the U.S. population, they represent nearly half of the women incarcerated, according to the Justice Department.Abuse of prisoners, both men and women, is especially difficult to stop when prison authorities refuse to acknowledge the problem, says Fellner.“In Florida, a man died with boot marks on his back, not to mention all the many broken bones in his body,” recalls Fellner in an interview. “The staff said, ‘Oh, he flung himself on the floor,’ or ‘we just used regular force.’ They used many stories. They were criminally prosecuted because the man died. But there was no conviction. The internal management backed up its staff.”These incidents happen more often than people like to admit.''Sadly, there is no real surprise in the horrific photos from Iraq,” says NAACP Chairman Julian Bond. “Americans of color are all too familiar with incidents of prisoner abuse stretching from the distant past to the present day. It begins when the person held prisoner is considered less ‘human’ than the prison guard; it happened in Iraq and it happens all too often here.''To reduce some of the abuse that is commonplace, President Bush signed the ''Prison Rape Elimination Act'' last September, promising the “analysis of the incidence and effects of prison rape in Federal, State and local institutions, and for information, resources, recommendations and funding to protect individuals from prison rape.”Punitive violence is another issue raised by the Human Rights Watch report.In a 1992 Supreme Court case, Hudson v. McMillan, an inmate was hog tied to the floor of a Louisiana prison and severely beaten by three prison guards. The court held 7 to 2 that the beating amounted to a violation of the 8th Amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Justices Clarence Thomas and Anthony Scalia dissented.In his minority opinion, Thomas argued that the beating by three prison guards was not cruel and unusual punishment although the beating left Hudson with loosened teeth, facial bruises, and a cracked dental plate. ''A use of force that causes only insignificant harm to a prisoner may be immoral, it may be torturous, it may be criminal ... but it is not 'cruel and unusual punishment,''' Thomas wrote.An Amnesty International report, published last year, “The Pain Merchants,” outlined other examples of what it called official misconduct.
In one example, the report said: “In August 2000, a lawsuit on behalf of District of Columbia prisoners housed at Sussex 11 State Prison in Virginia alleged they were routinely stripped to their underwear and strapped to a steel bed by the wrists and ankles, with an additional strap across their chests. The prisoners alleged they were held immobilized for 48 hours or more, and that because breaks to use the toilet were grossly inadequate, they were forced to lie in their own waste.”Some experts fear that abuse of prisoners in U.S. correctional facilities is widespread.“The cases and newspaper reports and instances that are documented by Human Rights Watch and others of abuse in U. S. prisons is just the tip of an iceberg,” says Fellner. “What we don’t know is how big the ice burg actually is.”
Experts say U.S. Prisoners are subjected to Iraqi-style Abuse
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Comment #15 posted by mayan on June 08, 2004 at 02:39:33 PT
Raygun
Under Reagan the drug war was placed on steroids and the single greatest failure of a policy in recent history was perpetuated. Let's name the whole damned country after him. The "United States of Reagan". No thanks! Only the good die young.66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald Reagan:
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=18874
 
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Comment #14 posted by b4daylight on June 08, 2004 at 02:12:42 PT
The War/
 The only prevention. Is to make it legal.
Prevent Billions of dollars going somewhere.
Prevent overcrowded jails.
Prevent gangs who sell it.
Prevent undue justice.
Prevent Murder.
Prevent criminals.
Prevent political coruption.
Prevent Hemp from a crop cheaper than china.
It never ends what they think prevention can do! 
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Comment #13 posted by Virgil on June 07, 2004 at 21:27:11 PT
Sam, I disagree
Bu$h is a troubled man. He will not be re-elected even though the intellectual left will not support Kerry. The Republicans see the damage that Dickehead has done to the party and wil turn to Kerry to save the two party system. From henceforth a president will need to speak in complete sentences, even if he represents the 5000.As much as a myth that Kerry represents change to a common good instead of a evaporation up, Bush is truly a "miserable failure." I now join the Republicans that will call for the impeaching of the "Great Shithead."
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Comment #12 posted by Virgil on June 07, 2004 at 21:27:09 PT
Sam, I disagree
Bu$h is a troubled man. He will not be re-elected even though the intellectual left will not support Kerry. The Republicans see the damage that Dickehead has done to the party and wil turn to Kerry to save the two party system. From henceforth a president will need to speak in complete sentences, even if he represents the 5000.As much as a myth that Kerry represents change to a common good instead of a evaporation up, Bush is truly a "miserable failure." I now join the Republicans that will call for the impeaching of the "Great Shithead."
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Comment #11 posted by Sam Adams on June 07, 2004 at 21:03:50 PT
Rastas
The Rastafarians were convinced that Reagan was the Devil. Each of his names has 6 letters - 666 - the number of the beast! Who can blame them, he pretty much just decided to arbitrarily screw Jamaica over because there were a bunch of black people smoking herb there. He tanked their economy, permanently.For those of us that grew up in the 70s, Reagan was like this strange vision from the 50s - a blast from the past for the older generation. Just look at the way his hair was.Reagan stood up for what he believed in, I'll give that to him. It's just that most of his beliefs were just plain evil! There's just so much irony nowadays it's almost painful. They crucified Jimmy Carter in the 1980 election because of the hostage taking in Iran and our failure to successfully rescue them. Bush presided over 9/11, much more horrible, and he's probably going to be re-elected.Reagan got credit for success of the whole supply-side economic model, but in reality he just got to preside over the 1st half of the high-tech boom. It carried the US for the 80's and 90's, but I believe we're headed straight back to the "malaise" of the 70s. There is no more high-tech boom coming for us.Oh yeah - Clinton finally got rid of the "welfare queens" that Reagan ranted about - and guess what Ronnie - the federal government is bigger than ever! Your Republican friends broke the bank for their prosecutor friends, prison guard friends, police friends, drug company friends, oil friends, military friends, etc, etc, etc.global-warming, what an eloquent summary of Walters and his "dark mission". You're so right - It's rare in the US for one so evil to flaunt it so proudly.
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Comment #10 posted by E_Johnson on June 07, 2004 at 20:03:22 PT
Lay off Nancy's astrologer please :-)
The War on Astrology is one of the most useless campaigns that the modern world has seen. On a positive note, astrology is a pagan art, and so Nancy was a thorn in the side of the Christian Right in her own small way.
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Comment #9 posted by BGreen on June 07, 2004 at 18:18:15 PT
66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald Reagan
66 (Unflattering) Things About Ronald ReaganEditor's Note: This list of "66 Things to Think about When Flying in to Reagan National Airport" appeared in the Nation on March 2, 1998 after the renaming of Washington National Airport after Ronald Reagan. As Corn says, "the piece remains relevant today – particularly as a cheat sheet for those who dare to point out the Reagan presidency was not all that glorious and was more nightmare in America than morning in America." By David Corn" The Nation" -- June 6, 2004 -- 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. "The bombing begins 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. David Corn, Washington editor of the Nation, is author of 'The Lies of George W. Bush: Mastering the Politics of Deception.'Copyright: The Nation
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Comment #8 posted by E_Johnson on June 07, 2004 at 18:17:07 PT
BUT on the other hand BGreen
How did Greg Palast feel about all of the billboards erected by the Cuban KGB all over Nicaragua telling Nicaraguans it was their duty to snitch out fellow citizens who disagreed with the Revolution?That was evil. They weren't goin to be nice to people who disagreed with them. They were probably going to imprison them or even kill them.Daniel Ortega finally had the integrity to kick the Cubans out of his country after that, and then there was finally a chance of peace.And for that last move he deserves a lot of respect. It takes enormous courage to stand up to a murdering dictator like Fidel Castro and his army of informants.There are journalists currently serving 10 and 20 year terms in Castro's prisons who can testify to that some day, if they ever get out alive that is.
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Comment #7 posted by Petard on June 07, 2004 at 17:52:10 PT
Tower Commission
It would be to "Which Way Today" Kerry's advantage to take on the (Drug) War Against Free People during this time of "National Mourning" and the resignation of Tenet by reminding people that he was a part of the exposure of Iran Contra and that this should be a part of the reformulation of the CIA as well.Perhaps Ollie North should be on tour with Johnny Pee during this commemmoration of Raygun's "focused on expanding democracy and freedom around the world and saving taxpayer money," ... "this is where he strayed from that commitment." And they can speak together about this straying from democracy and freedom in the incarceration and abuse of peoples worldwide and not just here in der fatherland.
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Comment #6 posted by BGreen on June 07, 2004 at 17:42:14 PT
Greg Palast Shares My Opinion On Reagan
KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN. 
GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER ...
MORE PROOF ONLY THE GOOD DIE YOUNGSunday, June 6, 2004by Greg PalastYou'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. In 1987, I found myself stuck in a crappy little town in Nicaragua named Chaguitillo. The people were kind enough, though hungry, except for one surly young man. His wife had just died of tuberculosis. People don't die of TB if they get some antibiotics. But Ronald Reagan, big hearted guy that he was, had put a lock-down embargo on medicine to Nicaragua because he didn't like the government that the people there had elected.Ronnie grinned and cracked jokes while the young woman's lungs filled up and she stopped breathing. Reagan flashed that B-movie grin while they buried the mother of three.And when Hezbollah terrorists struck and murdered hundreds of American marines in their sleep in Lebanon, the TV warrior ran away like a whipped dog … then turned around and invaded Grenada. That little Club Med war was a murderous PR stunt so Ronnie could hold parades for gunning down Cubans building an airport.I remember Nancy, a skull and crossbones prancing around in designer dresses, some of the "gifts" that flowed to the Reagans -- from hats to million-dollar homes -- from cronies well compensated with government loot. It used to be called bribery.And all the while, Grandpa grinned, the grandfather who bleated on about "family values" but didn't bother to see his own grandchildren.The New York Times today, in its canned obit, wrote that Reagan projected, "faith in small town America" and "old-time values." "Values" my ass. It was union busting and a declaration of war on the poor and anyone who couldn't buy designer dresses. It was the New Meanness, bringing starvation back to America so that every millionaire could get another million."Small town" values? From the movie star of the Pacific Palisades, the Malibu mogul? I want to throw up.And all the while, in the White House basement, as his brain boiled away, his last conscious act was to condone a coup d'etat against our elected Congress. Reagan's Defense Secretary Casper the Ghost Weinberger with the crazed Colonel, Ollie North, plotted to give guns to the Monster of the Mideast, Ayatolla Khomeini. Reagan's boys called Jimmy Carter a weanie and a wuss although Carter wouldn't give an inch to the Ayatolla. Reagan, with that film-fantasy tough-guy con in front of cameras, went begging like a coward cockroach to Khomeini pleading on bended knee for the release of our hostages.Ollie North flew into Iran with a birthday cake for the maniac mullah -- no kidding --in the shape of a key. The key to Ronnie's heart.Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage- takers to buy guns for the "contras" - the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters.I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, "The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disperse" … and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper. In Chaguitillo, all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway? Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets. In the deserted darkness of Chaguitillo, a TV blared. Weirdly, it was that third-rate gangster movie, "Brother Rat." Starring Ronald Reagan. Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead. Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance.Greg Palast is author of the New York Times bestseller, The Best Democracy Money Can Buy. www.GregPalast.com
KILLER, COWARD, CON-MAN. GOOD RIDDANCE, GIPPER ...
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Comment #5 posted by E_Johnson on June 07, 2004 at 17:34:16 PT
How can this man keep a straight face?
Reagan believed in limited government, which is why he advocated that business and the government conspire together to force the population into urine testing.
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Comment #4 posted by Ganda on June 07, 2004 at 17:10:57 PT
Maggie Thatcher and Ronny Reagan
leathal combination!
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Comment #3 posted by OverwhelmSam on June 07, 2004 at 16:38:14 PT
Wasn't Regan the President...
... who sold cocaine in Nicaragua to buy arms for the Iranian army? And then he couldn't recall doing it?Great example Walters.
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Comment #2 posted by global_warming on June 07, 2004 at 16:36:27 PT
Never Miss A Chance
I hope they don't start showing those old Bonzo movies of Reagans, one term was enough for me, once I saw what he was about, too much for my sense of of where this country was going, the start of the erosion of workers rights, and yes of course, the "just say no" campaign, oh Nancy, you have been had by these folks, if you could see the damage you have stood behind and wrought...my prayers for your troubled soul, and now this disgraceful John Walters, has the gall to show his face, and to opine on the state of the drug war, pitiful and wretched soul, how he can use this oppurtunity to further his dark mission. 
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Comment #1 posted by mamawillie on June 07, 2004 at 16:20:30 PT
Cheap
Johnny Pee is just a cheap chump.How ironic (yawn) is his mention of President Reagan. Johnny Pee is trying to ride the coattails of the nostalgic rememberances of the Reagan years.Desperation.
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