Reagan died on June 5. That’s NINETEEN DAYS ago. And yet many flags are still flying at half-mast (or is it half-staff?).
What the hell? Sure, many people thought he was a great president. But flags only flew at half-mast for a week after 9/11, for God’s sake.
He’s dead, not everyone was crazy about him, it was almost 3 weeks ago, let’s put the flags back up to the tops of the poles, people.
Bush decreed flags at half-staff for 30 days. I think this is customary for a president’s death.
30 days here in NC. Until July 5th IIRC.
I believe the mandated “half-staff” period declared was 30 days.
Flags are flown at half-mast for 30 days after the death of a President.
On preview, yeah, what they said…
Hell, the flag should have been at half-staff from January 20, 1981, to January 20, 1989.
It’s not that the flags are still at half mast that irritates me.
It irritates me, and always have, that 99% of the people who fly a flag fly it improperly and without dignity.
I don’t care if you’re Wal-Mart or my next door neighbor, you’re meant to take the flag down at night and put it up in the morning. You don’t have to have a bugler, but leaving the poor unfortunate thing up there 24/7 until it’s so faded you can’t SEE the stars and stripes anymore is depressing.
http://www.usflag.org/flag.etiquette.html
And I believe it’s USUALLY customary to fly the flag at half-mast from the day of the President’s death until his funeral. I guess Bush thinks it should be up there longer, and that’s his perogative, but it seems…meh.
Just FYI…Bush can only decree that flags flying on federal property fly at half staff. The flags on state property because the Govenor so decrees. Private flags? Because the owner wants to.
As long as it’s illuminated it’s fine to leave it up 24/7
Well… yeah… I mean, he couldn’t decree that everyone flies it at half-staff for a month unless he were a dictator or something. Still, I think it is a suggestion that others do so, too.
I wonder if Bush wishes he were a dictator?
Oh, golly gee, that’s a question for another thread. Never mind.
30 days? Given that (as I said) 9/11 only got a week, 30 days seems totally out of proportion.
But, at least my question has been answered…
Actually, 30 days at half-staff had nothing to do with Bush - it’s US law (not custom). See:
http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/4/7.html
Scroll down to (m) - 30 days for the death of a President or former President, 10 days for a VP, Chief Justice of SCOTUS, and some others.
Even Nixon got 30 days at half-staff, since he resigned before he could be impeached.
Well, shut my mouth. 
Impeachment wouldn’t have mattered. Clinton, who was impeached, will also get the 30 days.
(Incidentally, the title is Chief Justice of the United States, not of the Supreme Court.)
I was taught that it’s half-staff on land; half-mast on a ship. However, my dictionary (Webster’s II New College) claims they’re synonymous.
[QUOTE=Liberal]
Impeachment wouldn’t have mattered. Clinton, who was impeached, will also get the 30 days. . . QUOTE]
Right. It’s not the impeachment, it’s the conviction and subsequent removal from office, that matters.
So, if Clinton had been removed from office, would he then forfeit the 30 days?
LOL! Perhaps the best laugh I’ve ever gotten was on-line, in the People Connection chat area of AOL predecessor PC-Link late in 1989, as part of an online realtime trivia game (Type in the answer to the trivia question within 30 seconds of the question hitting your chat screen for points). The question was:
“When and on what network did Ronald Reagan star in Death Valley Days?”
The accurate answer was something like, “CBS, 1960-1964” (I didn’t look it up, and it’s been 15 years).
So immediately after a string of answers from those participating, I typed in:
“Also USA, 1981-1989” 
[QUOTE=Genghis Bob]
Ok, I should have written “Nixon resigned before he could be removed from office.” How would that have affected the flag? I’d guess that according to the law, he’d still get the full 30 days, since he was still a former President. However, section 10 of the same code says the President can change the law at will, so the current President could pretty much do anything he wants - including reducing the period for a former Pres. who was kicked out of office in disgrace.
Flags flew at half-staff from September 11 through sunset on September 22.
Bush has also in response to a joint resolution of Congress declared each September 11 since then to be “Patriot Day,” issuing proclamations directing that government flags be flown at half-staff that day and encouraging private flag owners to fly them at half-staff as well. Patriot Day 2002
Patriot Day 2003
So be patient, it’ll be up to 30 days for 9/11 in 2019.