A Trip Down Memory Lane - For Those Gipper Fans

For those Republic party candidates and Barak Obama, who are falling all over themselves to grab the mantel of Ronald Reagan , here’s a reminder of just what went through the Gipper’s little brain:

The Genius of Ronald Reagan: Direct Quotes from the Gipper Himself

"Trees cause more pollution than automobiles do." -- Ronald Reagan, 1981

"A tree is a tree. How many more do you have to look at?" -- Ronald Reagan, 1966, opposing expansion of Redwood National Park as governor of California

"Abortion is advocated only by persons who have themselves been born. "

"I have flown twice over Mt St. Helens out on our west coast. I'm not a scientist and I don't know the figures, but I have a suspicion that that one little mountain has probably released more sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere of the world than has been released in the last ten years of automobile driving or things of that kind that people are so concerned about." -- Ronald Reagan, 1980. (Actually, Mount St. Helens, at its peak activity, emitted about 2,000 tons of sulfur dioxide per day, compared with 81,000 tons per day by cars.)

"Facts are stupid things." -- Ronald Reagan, 1988, a misquote of John Adams, "Facts are stubborn things."

"We think there is a parallel between federal involvement in education and the decline in profit over recent years." -- Ronald Reagan, 1983. (It's always good to run the Department of Education to make money.)

"Fascism was really the basis for the New Deal." Ronald Reagan, 1976, on his failed campaign for the Republican nomination. (Moron.)

"The best minds are not in government." -- Ronald Reagan. (Not in his government anyway.)

 "You can't help those who simply will not be helped. One problem that we've had, even in the best of times, is people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless who are homeless, you might say, by choice." -- President Reagan, 1/31/84, on Good Morning America, defending his administration against charges of callousness.

On 8/24/85 President Reagan tells an interviewer that the "reformist administration" of South African president P.W. Botha has made significant progress on the racial front. "They have eliminated the segregation that we once had in our own country," says the President, "the type of thing where hotels and restaurants and places of entertainment and so forth were segregated - that has all been eliminated." (In response to questions a few days later as to whether President Reagan actually thought racial segregation has been eliminated in South Africa, Larry Speakes said "Not totally, no.")

"The American Petroleum Institute filed suit against the EPA [and] charged that the agency was suppressing a scientific study for fear it might be misinterpreted... The suppressed study reveals that 80 percent of air pollution comes not from chimneys and auto exhaust pipes, but from plants and trees." Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan, in 1979. (There is no scientific data to support this assertion.)

"You know, if I listened to him long enough, I would be convinced that we're in an economic downturn, and that people are homeless, and people are going without food and medical attention, and that we've got to do something about the unemployed." -- President Reagan, 6/8/88, accusing Michael Dukakis of misleading campaign rhetoric.

 

Canada Groups US With Syria And Others That Torture

Foreign Affairs suspects U.S. tortures prisoners

Published: Thursday, January 17, 2008

OTTAWA - A Foreign Affairs document has identified the United States and Israel as countries it suspects of practicing torture.

The document also defines such U.S. interrogation techniques as blindfolding and forced nudity as torture.

The emergence of the document - a Power Point presentation meant to instruct Canadian diplomats on how to recognize torture cases abroad - is bound to strain relations with the two countries that Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper has sought to strengthen during his two years in power.

If there was any doubt left that rest of the free world has lost all respect for the United States, this should close the case.

Osama and the terrorist have won, they have turned us into shadow of our former selves. We have lost the high moral ground we had before 9/11 and have squandered the opportunity to truly change the world we were presented following 9/11.

Our Police State: Deadly Force For Being "Uncooperative" - Tasered

Father wants answers in son's death following Taser jolt

Authorities are investigating the death of a 29-year-old Fridley man shot with a Taser by state troopers, who said he had become "uncooperative'' after a rush-hour crash Tuesday evening.

The victim was identified by his father as Mark C. Backlund. Gordon Backlund said his son was on his way to pick up his parents at the airport after they had taken a short trip to Florida.

According to the State Patrol, he was involved in a rush-hour crash on Interstate Hwy. 694 near Silver Lake Road in New Brighton. The State Patrol said troopers shot him with the Taser because he was uncooperative. He was breathing but unconscious when paramedics arrived, according to Allina Medical Transportation spokesman Tim Burke but was pronounced dead at Unity Hospital in Fridley

 

Romney Melts Down When "Bullshit" Is Called

Handled that well now didn’t he?

Have We Really Forgotten How Evil Reagan Really Was?

This is unbelievable, has the revisionist history gotten so bad that democratic presidential candidates are comparing themselves to Ronald Reagan?

I Am Speechless!

Think Progress

Today, Rep. Eric Cantor (VA), the chief deputy Republican whip in the House, unveiled his proposal to stimulate the economy. His legislation - the so-called Middle Class Job Protection Act - does nothing for the middle class. Instead, it reduces the corporate tax rate by 25 percent.

At a press conference today unveiling the stimulus proposal, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) justified the conservative plan to give tax breaks to corporations - instead of working Americans - by arguing that people actually like working long hours:

“I am so proud to be from the state of Minnesota. We’re the workingest state in the country, and the reason why we are, we have more people that are working longer hours, we have people that are working two jobs.”

Bachmann’s version of the American Dream is apparently working two full-time jobs and struggling to get by.

I am absolutely taken aback, what on earth is going through this woman’s small little demented mind. If the 6^th district of Minnesota reelects this sick woman they deserve what they get. I see another visit to the "worst person in the world" list.

****Update - Michele was only able to pull a bronze from Olberman

America's Mayor - Winning The Race For Obscurity

Talking Points Memo Reports:

With so much going on tonight, I'd overlooked another key battle tonight that TPM Reader DK has just brought up.

With 99% of the precincts in, in a rare cross-party primary match up, we can now report that Rudy Giuliani will beat Dennis Kucinich's vote total this evening.

Kucinich currently has the votes of 21,715 Michiganders while Rudy is pulling in 24,708, thus topping Kucinich by just shy of three thousand votes.

I thought all the Democrats but Hillary pulled their names off the ballot, if that’s the case Rudy beat Kucinich by less the three thousand votes and Kucinich’s votes were all write in votes, ouch!

 

Brilliant strategy there Rudy, at this point Rudy will be lucky to win two states on Super Tuesday.

The Huckster - Theocracy Or Bust

This is beyond the pale. The man wants to scrap 200+ years of constitutional democracy for a theocracy that meets his vision of what scriptures says. This is one scary individual. Huckabee's colors were on display this morning.

The GOP - A Party In Disarray

Yesterday morning on Fixed News Sunday, panelist Mara Liasson stated, and even William "The Bloody" had to agree - if the most likely scenario occurs and the race for the GOP presidential nomination comes down to John McCain and Mike Huckabee, it will send the base off the deep end..

Liasson: “…Because then you would have the two brokest, funniest, iconoclastic Republicans left standing and the Republican party I think, the establishment, and the coalition would have to go into therapy and figure out which one it could handle more.”

Today the Washington Post explains just how many of folks in the Bush Coalition St John has pissed off.

Over most of his time in the Senate, McCain, now in his fourth term, has compiled a reliably conservative record, winning him supporters among social and economic conservatives. But in his White House bid in 2000 and the few years afterward, McCain managed to anger just about everyone in the GOP establishment that developed around Bush.

His battle to overhaul the way political campaigns are paid for and fought infuriated an array of interest groups that believed he was trying to muzzle them, especially with a provision that outlawed "issue" advertisements in the last days of campaign seasons.

His February 2000 speech calling Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" and comparing them to Louis Farrakhan and Al Sharpton earned the enmity of some religious conservatives.

His votes in 2001 against Bush's first major tax cut, then in 2003 against Bush's second, made economic conservatives leery.

His work on behalf of mandating background checks on gun buyers at gun shows -- both in Senate legislation and for referendums in Oregon and Colorado -- won him enemies in the gun rights community.

His advocacy of legislation to combat climate change angered some business groups that not only argue against such mandates but also maintain there is no global warming.

And most recently, his support of legislation that would grant most illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship has earned him enmity from some of the staunchest conservatives in the country.

"I can tell you every single immigration activist and organization is terrified by the New Hampshire results," said Roy Beck, executive director of the self-described "immigration reduction" group NumbersUSA. "My day starts in the morning with a call from a talk radio station, and that's how the day ends. We're getting our message across, and I am taking McCain to task. It's no holds barred."

Perhaps most devastatingly, McCain's Abramoff investigation ensnared influential Republicans, uncovering e-mails that put Reed and Norquist under a harsh light.

"Call Ralph re Grover doing pass through," Abramoff wrote in an e-mail reminder to himself in 1999, a year in which Norquist moved more than $1 million in Abramoff client money to Reed and Christian anti-gambling groups.

And Conservative Icon George Will Basically writes off the party

But although only one-third of 1 percent of the national electorate -- those who have participated in the Iowa, Wyoming and New Hampshire nominating events -- have spoken, the Democrats have even more reason than they did three weeks ago to look forward to a rollicking November. Realistic Republicans are looking for shelter.

Nov. 4 could be their most disagreeable day since Nov. 3, 1964. Actually, this November could be even worse, because in 1964 Barry Goldwater's loss of 44 states served a purpose, the ideological reorientation and revitalization of the party. Which Republican candidate this year could produce a similarly constructive loss?......

Iowa and New Hampshire were two of the three states (New Mexico was the third) that changed partisan alignment between 2000 and 2004 -- Iowa turning red, New Hampshire blue. This month, Democratic participation was twice the Republican participation in Iowa and almost 22 percent higher in New Hampshire. George W. Bush won Iowa by just 0.67 percent of the vote. Whomever the Republicans nominate should assume that he must replace Iowa's seven electoral votes if he is to reach Bush's 2004 total of 286…….

Republicans try to take comfort from the fact that 61 Democratic members of Congress represent districts that President Bush carried in 2004. But 37 of those won with at least 55 percent of the vote. Furthermore, 14 Republican representatives won in 2006 by a single percentage point or less……

But even if Democrats nominate Clinton, Republicans must remember that Bush's 2.4-point margin of victory in 2004 was unimpressive: In the 12 previous reelections of presidents, the average margin of victory was 12.9 points. Bush's 50.7 percent of the vote in 2004 was the third-smallest for a reelected president (Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton won 49.2 percent in 1916 and 1996, respectively). Kerry's 48.3 percent was the largest ever against a president being reelected. (In the 12 previous reelections, no losing candidate received more than 46.1 percent; nine of the losers received less than 45 percent.)…….

Republicans should try to choose the next president. They cannot avoid choosing how their party will define itself, even if by a loss beneath a worthy banner.

The Republic Party is in for a rough ride this year