Politics
- Paul Ryan: The Generals Are Lying About Their Support For Obamas Pentagon Budget | ThinkProgress.
- Rep. Ryan: “I Misspoke” When I Said The Generals Were Lying | ThinkProgress
- Dempsey Hits Ryan For Calling Military Brass ‘Liars’: ‘I Stand By My Testimony’ In Support Of Obama DOD Budget | ThinkProgress
- Medvedev: GOP Should ‘Check Their Clocks From Time To Time,’ It’s ‘Not The Mid-1970s’ | ThinkProgress
- Here we go again with the talking heads over at….
- R i g h t a r d i a: AMOG: Reasons Ronald Reagan was a bad president
8. Not That Great of a Family Man
7. Removed Solar Panels form the White House6. Reaganomics
Conservatives boast about the success of Reagan’s economic policies, commonly refereed to as Reaganomics. Unfortunately, his policies simply put us in the hole. When Reagan took office in 1980 the government spent $591 billion. By 1986 government spending rose to 68% to $990 billion. Reagan even ran up the deficit from about $40-$50 billion to $200 billion. By the time he left office the national debt was up around $3.5 trillion. Besides the increase in the national debt, Reaganomics established a trend that would continue to inflate the national debt . . .5. Closed Mental Hospitals. . .When he became president he cut federal spending for mental hospitals and put that burden on the states, which he did by rescinding President Carter’s Mental Health Systems Act of 1980 . . .4. Supported Apartheid South Africa
While pretty much everyone in the world thought that apartheid in South Africa was a pretty bad deal, Reagan supported it. During his presidency some 3,000 people were killed, and another 20,000 arrested in South Africa’s struggle to end apartheid. When Congress finally decided that economic sanctions on South Africa in 1986 would help end that injustice Reagan vetoed it.3. Silence on AIDS
The first cases of AIDS began in 1981. Year after year the number of cases climbed. In 1983 there were over a thousand reported cases. A year later it was over 4,000, with 1,807 deaths. . By the time Reagan finally mentioned that such a disease existed in 1987, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed and 20,849 had died. . .2. The Iran-Contra Affair
This has become one of the worst scandals in American history. The Iran-Contra Affair was simply selling weapons to a known enemy, Iran, in exchange for hostages. The money that was obtained was then used to fund the Contra, which were a right-wing guerrilla organization in Nicaragua. This transaction was not only illegal, it was also contrary to the United States official policies on dealing with terrorist groups.1. Butcher of Central America
Reagan launched a secret war on Central America while president because he believed that several of these countries had ties to the USSR. . . .Reagan’s actions lead to 300,000 deaths in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala during his two terms. The UN even called the CIA’s actions in Guatemala as “perpetrators of genocide”. After Reagan’s death in 2004, Father Miguel D’Escoto from Nicaragua had a lot to say about the Republican savior:I pray that god in his infinite mercy and goodness forgive him for having been the butcher of my people, for having been responsible for the deaths of some 50,000 Nicaraguans.”Ronald Reagan started a GOP trend that continues today: cut taxes for the affluent and start big expensive wars or contingencies. St. Reagan fractured the middle class and started the decline of this country and created an affluent plutocracy in the US.
Today the US has the fifth most unequal income distribution in the world thanks to St. Reagan and other GOP presidents.
The Major worked in military airlift during Apartheid in South Africa. He confirmed the Us was airlifting supplies weekly to the South African government.Indeed, he was a successful president who was re-elected. Many Democrats bought into his supply side tax cuts Trojan. We agree with AMOG. Reagan was a bad president with a flawed vision for America.
Where are those Reagan Democrats the GOP covets? Most grew up and others have died. Of interest, seniors were the only group that John McCain won when he ran against Obama. - When did moderate become a political dirty word? – CNN.com
- Where is Jesus in politics? – Catholic America – The Washington Post (the emphasis is mine)
…I’m troubled that public opinion so easily characterizes religion as only right-wing Republican politics. (Catholics like Rick Santorum probably falls into this category, so my critique is ecumenical.) The question of health care insurance is an example of how persons professing to be the most religious among us can nonetheless violate basic teachings of Jesus. We Christians are called to care for material needs of our neighbors (Mt. 25) without imposing evangelization as a condition. In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk:10:25-37), Our Lord criticized the temple priest and the Levite who passed by an injured man. Jesus praised instead the non-believer’s material help to his neighbor, while condemning the religious leaders’ escapism in the name of religious purity. Direct action for mercy is valued over abstract passion for piety. Logically then, it goes against Christian discipleship of Christ to repeal the Affordable Care Act without offering a substitute that will provide for 40 million uninsured, most of them children. Talk of “government take over” or “use of abortifacients” does not relieve the Christian’s need to be keeper of our brothers and sisters. Yet, we are treated these days to the irony of religion being invoked as reason to avoid Christian responsibility for health care.
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Climate & Climate Politics
- Global Warming Denialism ‘Just Foolishness,’ Scientist Peter Raven Says – ABC News
U.S. prestige falling as world has ‘pretty well given up’ on any American leadership facing climate change.
Nature’s Edge Notebook #23
Observation, Analysis, Reflection, New Questions
One of the world’s most widely known and respected senior scientists tells ABC News that current denial about the basic daunting realities of manmade global warming is “just foolishness.”
He also reports that the rest of the world has now “pretty well given up” on its hope for U.S. leadership in dealing with global climate change.
- Global Warming Denial Group Loses Support From GM | citydesk
The Heartland Institute, a conservative think tank that promotes denial of climate change, lost funding from General Motors last week. The Los Angeles Times reports that a leak of confidential funding documents showed that the General Motors Foundation provided funds to the institute during the last two years.
“GM operates its business as if climate change is real,” said GM spokesman Greg Martin.
The move received immediate praise from environmental groups.
“We applaud GM’s decision and the message it sends—that it is no longer acceptable for corporations to promote the denial of climate change,” said Daniel Souweine, campaign director for Forecast the Facts, a group that urges meteorologists to talk more openly about climate change. “Support for an organization like Heartland is not in line with GM’s values.”
Ford and Chrysler told the Huffington Post last week that they had stopped funding Heartland over the past decade.
- Michael Mann ‘Disappointed’ In Obama’s Global Warming Record