Bush leaves in his wake a divided GOP, reduced to summoning up the corpse of Ronald Reagan about whom his party will tell you the same old lies, the same old GOP propaganda. This is to be expected from a party that regurgitates the same failed policies, the same old formulae. Whomever gets the GOP nod will use Reagan's name a lot. Short on results, short on heroes, short on truth, the GOP noise and propaganda machine can be counted to invoke Reagan's ghost as Giuliani summoned up the specter of 911. Give these poor schmucks a break! A glossed-over, revisionist memory of Reagan is all this miserable, morally bankrupt party has left.
The truth is Reagan failed this nation in three significant areas --the economy, the prospects for world peace, and a case of treason: Iran-Contra.
The origins of the biggest myth about Ronald Reagan are most certainly found in Reagan's words when he accepted the party's nomination in 1980.
We need rebirth of the American tradition of leadership at every level of government and in private life as well. The United States of America is unique in world history because it has a genius for leaders -- many leaders -- on many levels. But, back in 1976, Mr. Carter said, "Trust me." And a lot of people did. Now, many of those people are out of work.
A promise never kept. Here's the truth from the Bureau of Labor Statistics:
Job Growth Per Year Under Most Recent Presidents8
Johnson 3.8% Carter 3.1 Clinton 2.4 Kennedy 2.3 Nixon 2.3 Reagan 2.1 Bush 0.6
--Steve Kangas, quoting Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Employment Statistics Survey
The Reagan economy never equaled the Carter economy. The job creation rate under Reagan never equaled that of the GOPs demon du jour --Jimmy Carter. Carter is still unfairly libeled and reviled by the extremists and liars of the GOP mainstream.
In the following chart, notice that the 1979 unemployment rate was not recovered until 1988.
In fairness, it must be pointed out that many Reagan policies originated with the Carter administration; notably, Carter actually increased defense spending. If the policies worked, Reagan could take credit for them. If they didn't work, Reagan and the GOP noise machine always had Carter to blame! The GOP still bad-mouths Carter though there is not a Republican who can carry Carter's water.
When I talk of tax cuts, I am reminded that every major tax cut in this century has strengthened the economy, generated renewed productivity and ended up yielding new revenues for the government by creating new investment, new jobs and more commerce among our people.
That's a famous Reagan half-truth. Keynesian, Democratic tax cuts, indeed, stimulate economies but only under Democratic regimes --not under GOP regimes. The reason: Democratic tax cuts are egalitarian, benefiting all income groups and classes. GOP tax cuts, by contrast, are deliberately inequitable, benefiting only rich cronies, the corporate establishment, the Military/Industrial complex and other corporate supporters of the GOP establishment. GOP tax cuts are a payoff, just as were the no-bid contracts to Halliburton, Blackwater et al! I've got the stats from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Census Bureau, and the BEA to prove it.
Despite his over-blown, high sounding rhetoric, Reagan's "trickle down" tax cut of 1982 was quickly followed by a depression lasting some two years --the longest and deepest depression since Herbert Hoover's "Great Depression".
At the end of two years of hardship, Americans were no better off. The GDP growth rate of some three percent was no better at the end of two years of hardship than it had been before the Reagan crash. Nothing had been gained.
The Reagan years can be summed up briefly. He doubled the size of the Federal Bureaucracy and tripled the national deficit. The most pernicious effect of GOP economic policy is the effect of declining opportunity, a corollary of decline in wealth among all but the very rich.
It is merely rhetorical to ask: why does the GOP seem to repeat ad nauseum utterly failed strategies that have never been shown to work? Reagan's Budget Director, David Stockman called Reaganomics a 'Trojan Horse'. He understood that the purpose of the tax was not really intended to trickle down. Rather, the tax cuts always do precisely what the GOP insiders know they will do: they enrich the GOP base! Here is how someone who lived through the Reagan nightmare remembers it:
I was in the automotive field at the time, and dozens and dozens of established tool manufacturers, unionized shops, producing high quality tools, small companies with deep roots and real a commitment to the towns they were in all across the Midwest and the local communities, went out of business.
Len Hart is a Houston based film/video producer specializing in shorts and full-length documentaries. He is a former major market and network correspondent; credits include CBS, ABC-TV and UPI. He maintains the progressive blog: The Existentialist Cowboy
promoted deregulation, anti-environment, debt ridden, Iran-Contra, Freedom Fighter Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussien, union busting, and cocaine for guns exchanges in the Contra War of Nicaragua.
These are just some of his administration's high crimes, yet pale in comparison to the convicted drunk driving, cocaine using, AWOL, insider trading, Supreme Monkey Court installed "Commander in Thief", Dybua.
Who has defiled the Constitution, Treasonous actions against the U.S. government with 9/11, lies to promote wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the employing of convicted felons in his administration.
These presidents will be remembered as the "Worst" examples of presidents the U.S. has endured, yet did not convict them of their crimes.
by
Stanimal (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 15 diaries, 438 comments)
on Thursday, February 7, 2008 at 9:01:08 PM
No matter how thick the lies and libel that is said about Ronald Reagan, it all evaporates like pissed-on snow when the sun comes out and sheds light. Ronald Reagan was a great president. Naysayers can go polish Ted Rall's pencil.
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Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 420 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 12:35:12 AM
Reagan was NOT a great President and what I have posted here is the VERIFIABLE truth.
He impoverished millions with his incompetent policies, he plunged the nation into the longest depression since Herbert Hoover, he blew what history may very well record as our last chance to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Goppers supported Ronald Reagan for all the worst reasons. Reagan was a demogogue who sold arms to an enemy that had been publicly decleared to have been an enemy of the US. Now --was Reagan lying about that? If so, it was only one of many.
I am sick and tired of the GOP imposing upon the rest of the nation a pack of lies and most of them have to do with Reagan.
REAGAN WAS AMONG THE VERY WORST AND WAS UNTIL DUMBYA CAME ALONG!
The hard stats you see in this article are just the tip of the ice burg.
Oh--did I mentioned the gay child porn prostitution ring that was run right out of the White House?
GOP lies that are told about Ronald Reagan were and continue to be harmful to the nation.
by
Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 1:05:51 AM
Reagan's legacy of poverty, weakness, lies and claptrap
Perhaps I should have mentioned some of Reagan's other incompetent policies. Reagan, primarily his tax cut of 1982, began a trend that is confirmed beyond a shadow of a doubt by Census Bureau and Depart of Labor Statitistics. That is the rich got rich and the poor gover much, much poorer.
That pernicious and harmful trend, begun as a direct result of Reagan's policy of rewarding the rich, continued until well into Bill Clinton's second term when the effects of the Democratic regime began to work. But --aslas --too late. The trend in which wealth is literally TRANSFERRED to those already rich resumed with a vengence as a result of the incompetent "leadership" of Bush who is even more stupid, more incompetent, and uncaring that was Reagan.
The GOP leadership must bear much responsibility. That the party still clings to lies and propaganda slogans instead of verifiable FACTS is cause for rejecting this party in favor of competent and responsible leaders.
I tolerate all kinds of opinions --but there is no reason to tolerate demonstrable lies. Especially the swooning, sickening adoration of Reagan. He was not a "god" for God's sake! He was a bumbler who left this nation much, much worse off --poorer, more vulnerable, divided!
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 1:15:42 AM
Crap and libel? Ronald Wilson Reagan was a fraud and a criminal of the worst sort and his canonization is the epitome of everything that has since gone so badly wrong in this sordid and rotting empire of greed and death.
How old are you kid?
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Ed Encho (6 articles, 12 quicklinks, 55 diaries, 385 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 5:16:48 AM
Forget Mark Foley's electronic dalliances with underage pages and the dozens of White House visits by gay GOP prostitute, Jeff "Bulldog" Gannon - the biggest gay Republican scandal to date was the uncovering in 1989 of multiple gay prostitution services that billed tens of thousands of dollars to credit cards belonging to powerful men inside the Bush and Reagan administrations - including top staffers, military officers and lobbyists. The scandal was revealed in late June 1989, and then just as quickly was swept under the rug and has barely been mentioned since.
In a February 1989 raid on a gay escort service, the Secret Service showed up and confiscated key evidence. Law enforcement officials said that involvement of the Secret Service in a local operation was highly unusual and never happened before.
If you think this sounds outlandish, consider the original source: The story was broken on June 29, 1989, by the ultraconservative Washington Times newspaper, which is of course owned by Korean rightwing cult leader, Rev. Sun Yung Moon. The lead reporter on the story was Paul M. Rodriguez, who is known for the rightwing slant of his reporting.
I am offended that someone dares state on this forum that my article --based on verifiable and official statistics --amount to "lies" about Reagan! Listen up --I don't have enough time to chronicle the facts about Ronald Reagan and the moral depravity that descended upon this nation with the rise of the GOP!
Truth?
You want the truth?
The GOP can't handle the truth!
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 1:27:56 AM
That's a good one, Ed! Thanks...not lost on me is the fact that John Wayne died of cancer and the Marlboro man --a fashion model, not a real cowboy --promoted a habit that has claimed the lives of millions. Watch the movie "The Insider" with Russel Crowe and Al Pacino. That industry has blood on its hands. If you want to get away with cold blooded murder in America, just form a corporate and sell poisons to the gullible millions. The GOP will even make sure you get a tax break.
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 5:42:54 AM
There has not been a single Republican president elected after Dwight Eisenhower that hasn't deserved impeachment and prosecution for high crimes, misdemeanors and treason.
Nixon's exploits and advocacy of the unitary executive are legend among criminal executives, and Reagan as you so aptly described, should have been impeached.
George H.W. Bush was complicit in the Iran/Contra crimes, and apparantly expected a move to impeach him arising from the investigation that was ongoing as he took office as president. That is why he chose the reliably dimwitted Dan Quayle as his running mate, assuming correctly that no one would dare do anything that would seat Quayle in the oval office.
Then came Dubya, who makes Quayle look like a Nobel laureate and Nixon look like a prissy choirboy. Entire books have been devoted to cataloging the crimes of this treasonous arch criminal; and his Reaganesque policies have brought us to the logical conclusion of what Reagan started, that is the economic destruction of the United States of America.
There isn't a single one from this rogues' gallery that shouldn't be stewing behind bars or worse.
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John Sanchez Jr. (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 1059 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 12:51:10 PM
I forgot about Ford, which is easy enough to do, he was a cipher.
His most notable contribution to presidential history was pardoning Nixon. That was a huge mistake by any standard, and stupidly set a precedent for presidents pardoning people who have not yet been convicted.
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John Sanchez Jr. (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 1059 comments)
on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 6:44:40 AM
Great point, John! But now that you've brought the subject up, the Republican presidents who preceded Franklin Roosevelt were no great shakes either. Herbert Hoover bore the brunt of blame, but he was preceded by the likes of Calvin Coolidge, whose nose was up the rear end of big robber barons; and Warren Harding, whose death was suspicious. Like the Bushes, Harding was a TOOL of the robber baron class. The three of them ---Coolidge, Harding and Hoover must bear the responsibility for the Great Depression. Like the Reagan era, it was a time of great disparaties in both income and wealth. The money was in the hands of big business. It did NOT trickle down. In fact, the era is characterized by a shrinking of the money supply.
The coming Bush crash may differ somewhat though the trend toward great concentration of wealth, inherited from Ron Raygun, is analogous. This time around, there may be lots of money....worthless money.
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 1:36:15 PM
Once again, you have them dead to rights. It brings to mind the phrase that Bush so famously mangled, "Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
It seems that for an entire century they have been discrediting their policies repeatedly, and we just aren't getting it. Well, it looks like we're going to get it now, good and hard, to paraphrase Mencken; and we'll have to set some precedents and make some examples if we don't want another century of it.
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John Sanchez Jr. (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 1059 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 2:18:50 PM
The lies of the left about Ronald Reagan stink up the blogosphere worse than a rest room at a Greyhound bus depot. The economy? Carter gave us horrible inflation and 20% interest rates, a demoralized military, no sense of how to defeat communism, on and on and on. It took years to correct that, but Reagan did it. Cleaning up after Carter's utter incompetence was messy.
Male prostitution ring? Barney Frank was a Democrat. That's the only male whore operation that really emenated from a public official. And Frank is still in Congress, for crying out. Boy, donkey droppings have really fouled Congress.
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Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 420 comments)
on Friday, February 8, 2008 at 11:32:35 PM
The inflation that started under Ford and continued under Carter was a result of Vietnam war spending having come due. That was brought to you by Johnson and Nixon. Reagan turned it into stagflation with his economic policies.
Just remember that your hero, Ronnie, ran up bigger deficits than all of the presidents who preceded him and gave Americans, his "tax cut" notwithstanding, the biggest tax increase in history. In spite of all this, the Reagan idolaters continue to bow at his alter.
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John Sanchez Jr. (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 1059 comments)
on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 6:40:47 AM
The lies of the left about Ronald Reagan stink up the blogosphere worse than a rest room at a Greyhound bus depot.
The only thing wrong with the left is the fact they've been entirely too polite, too timid about their criticism of what until Bush the very worst President in American history. Screw polite. I cited you the facts! And, typically, you do not refute. You simply fall back on another tactic typical of losers. It is of the form: "...but Democrats are crooked too!" Is that your best shot? You confirm my contention that the GOP has outlived its usefulness: the GOP is endemically and statistically stupid, uninformed, ideological, top-down, mentally constipated, immoral, and most are bald-faced liars who have literally lined to up trade truth for any stupid ideology that will make them feel good about themselves! Be honest with this board. What stupid ideology makes you feel good about being you? Level with us!
The GOP is NOT a political party, it's crime syndicate, a criminal conspiracy! There is enough probable cause in the public record alone to indict the leadership of the GOP!
The economy? Carter gave us horrible inflation and 20% interest rates
So what? Interest rates would, of course, decrease during Reagan's two year long depression in which GDP declined at a rate of 2.2 percent. That may not sound like much to anyone but one of the millions who lost jobs and homes. Besides --it was the Federal Reserve Board that slashed interest rates and expanded the money supply, thus reducing prices. READ MY LIPS: REAGAN HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT!
Most economists know the truth of it: it was the Fed --not Reagan --who was responsible for the following but short-lived recovery.
People were at work [See the job numbers I previously posted] during the Carter years and they were productive. They were buying homes --not leaving them under the threat of imminent foreclosure. That was NOT the case under Reagan who destroyed the trade unions, exported jobs and technology, and plunged the nation into a depression of two years ---the very worst since Herbert Hoover's GREAT DEPRESSION! Before Reagan, America had a steel industry. After Reagan, it didn't. Before Reagan, America has a viable automotive industry. After Reagan, the US was buying its cars from Japan. Before Reagan, small retailers still existed. After Reagan, small stores had all but disappeared, giving way to huge corporate chains. The worts outcome over years of GOP incompetence and misrule: Wal-Mart, a LEECH that has grown unbelievably wealthy by exploiting the various deals that GOPPERS like Nixon, Bush, Reagan worked out with the "Red Chinese"! That brings up another problem: THE GOP ARE LYING HYPOCRITES! It is not surprising that the GOP legacy is WalMart --an economic Kudzu vine that chokes out every flower in the garden.
Reagan would, in fact, take credit for reforms begun under Carter. It was Carter who gave the rich a capital gains tax cut, even as he deregulated key industries like trucking and airlines. Carter also increased defense spending. I happen to think Carter ought not have done that! But, to his credit, he didn't muck it up nearly as much as did Reagan who sold his soul for the elite GOP base of robber barons and other vote buyers! The moral of the story is this: don't sell your soul to the GOP robber barons. They don't appreciate it and will support a card-carrying "seed pod" like either Reagan or Bush anyway. So --the lesson to be learned by Democrats: tell the GOP to go screw themselves silly.
This era was largely characterized by the undo influence of corporate PACs. They forced Congress to pass all kinds of pro-business/anti-individual, anti-family legislation. Supply siders believed it would put the economy on the "right road". Instead, it plunged the nation into the worst depression since WWII.
a demoralized military, no sense of how to defeat communism, on and on and on. It took years to correct that, but Reagan did it. Cleaning up after Carter's utter incompetence was messy.
Damail , quit lying about Reagan. REAGAN HAD NOTHING WHATSOEVER TO DO WITH THE FALL OF COMMUNISM. A great statesman-- Mikhail Gorbachev deserves all the credit for withdrawing nuclear weapons from Eastern Europe which he did entirely upon his own initiative. Gorbachev was the architect of Perestroika and, later, Glasnost. Reagan merely followed the leader.
You time would be better spent learning about what really happened during those years. How old are you? You must have missed them entirely!
Male prostitution ring? Barney Frank was a Democrat.
So what? The Democrats had a fag in their party! Guess what| Texas has a whorehouse in it! It's called the State Legislature and, thanks to Tom DeLay who gerrymandered the frickin' state, it is occupied by corporate and party whores, i.e., REPUBLICANS!
That's the only male whore operation that really emenated from a public official. And Frank is still in Congress, for crying out. Boy, donkey droppings have really fouled Congress.
Well, that's a lie. RR's male whore operation was back in business under George W. Bush Sr. Ever hear of Jeff Gannon? You prove my point. Having been brainwashed by a kooky cult, you will never hold the GOP to the standard you apply to Democrats. You not only lie about Reagan, you lie to yourself. You do it because it makes you feel better about yourself. I tolerated the GOP until the GOP convention in Houston in 1992. I saw an interview from the floor. A swooning GOPPER remembered R. Reagan: "He made us feel good about ourselves" Pardon me while I puke!
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 2:30:51 AM
It was Gorbachev --not Reagan --who put total nuclear disarmament on the table at Reykjavik. It as Reagan, perhaps under the influence of his base (the Military/Industrial complex), who blinked. Reagan blew it! He might have risen above the demands of this un-elected cabal, but didn't!
And the world has grown more dangerous since.
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Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Saturday, February 9, 2008 at 4:02:21 AM
I am not lying about Ronald Reagan. I am telling the truth about the legacy of a man who brought our country back from the utterly obvious malaise brought on by a now-bitter man who should have stayed on his peanut farm in Georgia.
"Reagan had nothing to do with the fall of communism..." Lie. Your buddy Gorbachev contradicts that. Yes, Gorby played a major role in this, but remember that before him, we had to deal with Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. They had to be stood up to. Reagan did that.
"The GOP is a criminal organization..." Bong-gurgling, drug-saturated anarchist lie, about as much of a mindless temper tantrum as the rest of the unverifiable crap from this thread.
The thing that stood out about Reagan and Gorbachev: Mikhail was one of several leaders who came and paid a moving tribute to President Reagan after his death. Any day of the week, I will take his tribute over the despicable, vile, hate-fillled and thoroughly evil spewings typified by Ted Rall and Greg Palast and all of the commenters from Indymedia and Democratic Blunderground. Heck, Gorbachev is probably contributing more to America than those punks ever will.
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Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 420 comments)
on Sunday, February 10, 2008 at 9:00:30 PM
I am not lying about Ronald Reagan. I am telling the truth about the legacy of a man who brought our country back from the utterly obvious malaise brought on by a now-bitter man who should have stayed on his peanut farm in Georgia.
That's just pure bullshit! Reagan cannot carry Carter's shit! You cited one lousy stat in your support and even that was irrelevant. The economy was better under Carter but, of course, the GOP will never forgive Carter for being the ONLY President to have ever brokered any peace of any sort in the Middle East. GOP positions with regard to Carter are disingenuous. Even they don't believe it! The GOP depends upon gullible folk like you swallowing their propaganda. The GOP is a kooky cult. See:
"Reagan had nothing to do with the fall of communism..." Lie. Your buddy Gorbachev contradicts that. Yes, Gorby played a major role in this, but remember that before him, we had to deal with Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. They had to be stood up to. Reagan did that.
So what? Because Gorby was preceded by the like of Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko does not disprove the role played by Gorbachev. Rather, it makes Gorby's position all the more remarkable He had a "legacy" to overcome. What was Reagan's excuse. Secondly, it does not disprove the record: it was Gorby who put total nuclear disarmament on the table. It was Reagan --owned by the GOP --who blinked!
"The GOP is a criminal organization..." Bong-gurgling, drug-saturated anarchist lie, about as much of a mindless temper tantrum as the rest of the unverifiable crap from this thread.
Have you ever read law? If not, I suggest you do so! I don't post anything that I cannot back up. Check out the US Criminal Codes having to do with "Seditious Conspiracy". Go to Findlaw or Cornell University Law School Law Library (online). I suggest you do a bit more research about things before you stick your neck out, before you PRESUME to refute.
The thing that stood out about Reagan and Gorbachev: Mikhail was one of several leaders who came and paid a moving tribute to President Reagan after his death.
So what? Both men got on well! Would you have expected Gorbachev to throw rocks?
Any day of the week, I will take his tribute over the despicable, vile, hate-filled and thoroughly evil spewings typified by Ted Rall and Greg Palast and all of the commenters from Indymedia and Democratic Blunderground. Heck, Gorbachev is probably contributing more to America than those punks ever will.
In other words, you prefer to indulge your delusions about Reagan whom goppers deified like Romans deified Augustus! You merely characterize with meaningless epithets. Calling my post "hate-filled" is hateful itself. It is a bald faced lie. I don't hate Reagan. I hate what he and his lies did to the nation. I dared to tell the truth about them. It is, rather, your post, based as it is upon half-truths, lies, ad hominem attacks and other fallacies, that is, in fact, "hate-filled". And what if I were "hate-filled" and told the truth? Lies about Reagan a hateful and pernicious. They are intended to decieve and have done so with "hateful" and harmful effects.
Face the fact that the world has caught on to the GOP modus operandi. The party is corrupt to the core and premised upon a gestalt of bald-faced lies!
Your prove absolutely nothing! You simply respond emotionally and irrationally. I cited facts ---the tip of the ice burg. I have no respect for folk who simply will persist in delusions when confronted with cold, hard facts!
by
Len Hart (124 articles, 160 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 504 comments)
on Monday, February 11, 2008 at 6:05:35 AM
