Hugger-in-Chief: In embracing an Ebola victim, Barack Obama succeeded where Ronald Reagan failed.

Barack Obama displayed inspiring leadership on Friday. He also promoted public health, fought bigotry, and helped calm raging paranoia. His heroic act? He hugged somebody.

Nina Pham, the first person to be infected with Ebola within the United States, had just been declared disease-free and discharged from the National Institutes of Health. Obama is a rational, science-friendly guy, so he knew she wasn’t any danger to him. It didn’t take courage to hug her.

And yet, another modern president failed a similar test. Facing the greatest public health crisis of his administration, Ronald Reagan was not heroic. He was a dithering coward.

The hateful, homophobic, racist response to the AIDS crisis is one of the most shameful episodes in recent American history. Within a few years after the first AIDS cases were reported in 1981, scientists knew the disease was transmitted primarily by sex, blood transfusions, and shared needles.

That knowledge didn’t stop the prejudice and fear mongering. HIV-positive people were fired from their jobs, forbidden from entering the country, kicked out of the military. Jerry Falwell claimed AIDS was “God’s punishment not just for homosexuals” but for a “society that tolerates homosexuals.” William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in a widely syndicated column that people diagnosed with AIDS should have that fact tattooed on their buttocks. Schools refused to enroll children with HIV. When a judge ordered a Florida school to admit young brothers Ricky, Randy, and Robert Ray, their neighbors burned their house down.

Author says South should form new nation without gays and Hispanics called ‘Reagan’

A conservative columnist and former aide to President Ronald Reagan called on southern states to secede and form an ultraconservative new nation named after his old boss.

Douglas MacKinnon, a former speechwriter for Presidents Reagan and George H.W. Bush, appeared Tuesday on The Janet Mefford Show to promote his new book, “The Secessionist States of America: The Blueprint for Creating a Traditional Values Country … Now,” reported Right Wing Watch.

He told the religious conservative host that southern states – starting with Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina – should leave the United States so they can implement a right-wing Christian system of government.

MacKinnon envisions other states joining, but he hopes to leave out Texas because “there have been a number of incursions into Texas and other places from some of the folks in Mexico.”

“A growing number of our leaders seem determined to erase our borders,” he wrote in a recent syndicated column promoting his book, “do away with the rule-of-law, expand the nanny state into a theology, bankrupt or punish American companies in the name of fighting climate change, do away with the 2nd Amendment, censor or demonize the history of western civilization and replace it with multiculturalism, give every kid a trophy and turn them into wimps, continue to support the completely unfunded public-employee pensions which are destroying the financial solvency of cities, counties, and states across our nation, add billions every day to our $17 trillion in debt, destroy our health-care system to substitute socialized medicine, vilify fossil fuels, and attack all faith in God with a particular and unhinged bias against the Christian faith.”

He argued on the radio program that the South had “seceded legally” and “peacefully” in the months prior to the Civil War.

“President Lincoln waged an illegal war that was, in fact, not declared against the South after the South basically did what we’re talking about in this book now in terms of peacefully, legally and constitutionally leaving the union,” MacKinnon said.

However, MacKinnon brushed aside Mefford’s concerns that secession would trigger another Civil War, saying only that “it wouldn’t remotely come to that” because news coverage is faster and more thorough in modern times.

He said the new country should be called Reagan, at least until voters there could decide on a permanent name.

MacKinnon did not specifically address during the radio program whether slavery would be legal in the new secessionist government, nor did he describe the status of black people living in Reagan.

But he made clear that LGBT people would be second-class citizens – or worse – saying that advances in their rights as citizens was a major factor in his call to break up the United States.

“If you do believe in traditional values, if you are a Christian, if you are evangelical, if you do believe in the golden rule, then you’re seeing all of this unravel before our eyes daily,” he complained.

MacKinnon said he devised his plan with the help of a military veteran friend, along with a group that included “a constitutional law expert, two former military officers, two former diplomats, a minister, another special operator, and experts on banking, energy, farming, and infrastructure.”

“I simply want those who believe the downward spiral of our country is irreversible, to know that an option to preserve their values does exist,” MacKinnon wrote in a column. “That some folks with a great deal of real-world experience felt it was their responsibility to at least explore the possibility of secession.”

That Time The Reagan White House Press Briefing Erupted With Laughter Over AIDS 13 Times

Hysteria over the Ebola virus is reminiscent of what happened to Ryan White, the child who was stricken with AIDS. The lack of correct information which circulated in the media resulted in a bullet being fired through his family’s living room. The Whites were essentially run out of town.

In Jon Cohen’s 2001 book, Shots in the Dark: The Wayward Search for an AIDS Vaccine, the author detailed the Reagan administration’s early indifference to the growing epidemic. White House acting press secretary Larry Speakes, and some of the reporters at press briefings, found the crisis to be quite the joking matter, Buzzfeed reported last year.

While Republicans are footing the blame of Ebola squarely on President Obama’s shoulders, let’s look how their hero Ronald Reagan handled the growing AIDS epidemic.

Reaganbola via Buzzfeed:

White House Press Briefing — Oct. 15, 1982

Q: Larry, does the President have any reaction to the announcement—the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta, that AIDS is now an epidemic and have over 600 cases?

MR. SPEAKES: What’s AIDS?

Q: Over a third of them have died. It’s known as “gay plague.” (Laughter.) No, it is. I mean it’s a pretty serious thing that one in every three people that get this have died. And I wondered if the President is aware of it?

MR. SPEAKES: I don’t have it. Do you? (Laughter.)

Q: No, I don’t.

MR. SPEAKES: You didn’t answer my question.

Q: Well, I just wondered, does the President—

MR. SPEAKES: How do you know? (Laughter.)

Hate Group Leader Janet Porter Launches Anti-Gay Facebook Alternative Called ReaganBook, Much Hilarity Ensues

Kyle Mantyla writes at Right Wing Watch:

Last weekend, the Ohio Liberty Coalition hosted a "Reload 4 Liberty" event at which Janet Porter spoke about her never-ending push to get her anti-choice "Heartbeat Bill" legislation passed in Ohio. But apparently that is not all that Porter is up to these days, as she also revealed to the audience that she'll soon be unveiling something called ReaganBook, which aims to become "the Facebook for patriots." Because Facebook is run by the sorts of people who march in gay pride parades and supposedly censors messages from anti-gay activists like Peter LaBarbera, Porter explained that she decided to launch ReaganBook as a conservative alternative. "We're tearing down walls, get it?" she said. "We're tearing down walls of tyranny, or censorship." 

At this writing ReaganBook has 303 members, including Bathtime For Bonzo, Chazwomp Hogswallow, Cirrhosis Trash, Corn Holey O, Duke Nukem, Dig Bick, and...well, you can see what's going on. Snork! (And fly, monkeys, fly!)

FLASHBACK: That Time Ronald Reagan Dedicated the Space Shuttle to the Taliban

As the GOP races to see which one of them can demonize President Obama the most over the prisoner exchange which freed Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl last week, they might want to take a look back to the 1980′s and their patron Saint Ronald of San Clemente.

For those who may have forgotten, Ronald Reagan was a big fan of the Taliban or, as they were then known, the Mujaheddin (freedom fighters). At the time, they were fighting the Russians (then part of the Soviet Union), who had occupied their country, much as they now are fighting another occupying army — ours. America and the USSR were still locked in the grip of the Cold War, and any enemies of theirs were friends of ours. Reagan was so enamored of the Taliban that he dedicated the space shuttle Columbia to them in 1982.

“Just as the Columbia, we think, represents man’s finest aspirations in the field of science and technology,” the then President said, “so too does the struggle of the Afghan people represent man’s highest aspirations for freedom. I am dedicating on behalf of the American people the March 22 launch of the Columbia to the people of Afghanistan.”

Reagan met with the leaders of the group which would eventually become the Taliban and al Quaeda in the Oval Office and even compared them favorably to the Founding Fathers of the United States.

Throughout the 80s, during Reagan’s administration (and with his unconditional blessings) the CIA funneled billions of dollars to the Mujaheddin in arms, training, and other assistance to aid them in their fight against the Russians. The policies of the Reagan administration, in dealing with those who they called freedom fighters at the time, created the Taliban as well as al Quaeda, and led directly to the 9/11 attacks. Those attacks in turn led to the current war in Afghanistan and the war in Iraq although that nation was in no way connected to 9/11 or al Qaeda.

Next stop, Planet Reagan

Not long after Ronald Reagan completed his two terms in the White House, conservative activists launched something called the “Reagan Legacy Project.” The fear was that history would be unkind to the Republican icon – when an administration sells weapons to an enemy to finance an illegal war in central America, then covers it up, then lies about its misdeeds, it leaves a mark – so the right needed to give the president a public-relations boost.

It’s worked out quite well. At Republicans’ urging, Reagan’s name is everywhere – schools, bridges, courthouses, highways, airports, children, etc. – and the former president’s reputation is better now than when he was actually in office. Last year, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) even tried to rename nearly all of the water surrounding the United States after Reagan.

And the p.r. campaign isn’t done yet.

Lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Committee Wednesday advanced a bill that would name a Nevada mountain peak after the late President Ronald Reagan.

Rep. Joe Heck (R-Nev.) proposed the legislation that would name part of Frenchman Mountain, located east of Las Vegas, “Mount Reagan.”

Committee members approved the measure by voice vote Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.

Of course, the measure was only approved after committee Democrats openly mocked the GOP’s preoccupation with the man the RNC once literally referred to as “Ronaldus Magnus.” In fact, one unnamed Democratic lawmaker “suggested the entire planet be named after the 40th president.”

Perhaps Dems shouldn’t give Republicans any ideas.

It’s worth noting that the United States already has a Mount Reagan – it’s in New Hampshire – but for GOP lawmakers, that’s apparently not quite good enough.

At this point, House passage appears likely, though Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told the AP he has higher priorities for his home state.

But as we’ve discussed before, what I find especially curious about all of this is that today’s Republican Party, radicalized to an extent unseen in the United States in recent history, has absolutely no use for the Reagan legacy. None.

As we talked about in 2012, Reagan raised the debt ceiling 18 times, and he supported the precursor to the Buffett Rule. In his first term, Reagan raised taxes when unemployment was nearing 11% – imagine trying this today – and proceeded to raise taxes seven out of the eight years he was in office. It’s a fact the right finds terribly inconvenient, but “no peacetime president has raised taxes so much on so many people” as Reagan.

Reagan gave amnesty to undocumented immigrants, expanded the size of the federal government, tripled the debt, backed bailouts of domestic industries, and called for a world without nuclear weapons. Reagan also routinely compromised with Democrats, met with our most hated enemy without preconditions, and was willing to criticize Israel.

And then there’s his gubernatorial record: in California, Reagan increased spending, raised taxes, helped create the nation’s first state-based emissions standards, signed an abortion-rights bill, and expanded the nation’s largest state-based Medicaid program.

Maybe today’s GOP policymakers should focus less on naming stuff after Reagan and focus more on governing like him?

Bill Maher Compares ‘Smart, Sexy War Hero’ JFK To Reagan

On the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Bill Maher Friday night paid tribute to the nation’s 35th President in “New Rules” by comparing him to Ronald Reagan. It was an endearing tribute that, as is the “Real Time” host’s way, mocked the conservative Republican.

“We have Kennedy, you have Reagan. We have marijuana, you have Metamucil. We want gays in the military, you want them in the airport restroom,” Maher quipped.

Asking, “can we on this day at least agree that Kennedy was cooler?,” Maher noted, “our liberal icon was a smart sexy war hero who said he wanted to go to the Moon. Yours was an old fuddy-duddy who tried to rock denim.”

“Our guy was Don Draper. Yours was Rooster Cogburn. And don’t tell me Reagan had Hollywood glamour. He wasn’t a star, and in 1980 he was 30 years past his prime, which was never much.”

Maher then went on a long trip down the memory lane of Reagan’s time in office, focusing on just how ugly fashion then was.

“But one reason we looked uglier in the ’80s is cuz we were uglier. It was when the Baby Boomers, the generation that was supposed to be different, just gave up and sold out completely. Kennedy’s time was the time of, ‘Ask not what your country can do for you.’ Reagan’s was the time of, ‘Greed is good.’

“JFK was far from perfect, but he was a true wit and a sex machine, and he knew how to wear a pair of shades. Reagan was an amiable square in a cowboy hat who had sex with a woman he called ‘Mommy.’

“Kennedy was James Bond. Reagan was Matlock. Love him or hate him, we win. Republicans can call Reagan ‘their Kennedy’ all they want, but it’s like calling Miller High Life ‘the champagne of beers.’ It’s why calling some ‘your Kennedy’ will never really cut it, because our Kennedy… is Kennedy.”

Watch, enjoy, and may JFK rest in peace.

How Three Decades of Reaganomics Destroyed the American Economy

The current economy is not moving along fast enough for most Americans and both political parties are pointing their finger and playing the blame game. Mitt Romney and other prominent Republicans continue to blame President Obama and what they call his, "failed policies," while the president and Democrats remind everyone of the financial situation that the Bush administration handed the president when he came into office. To truly understand the economic problems of the country, you have to go back over 30 years.
When Reagan came into office in 1980, the top tax rate was 70 percent. After his first term, the top tax rate had been cut to 50 percent and by the time he left office in January of 1989, the top tax rate was down to only 28 percent. Revenue into the federal government was cut so significantly, basic programs could no longer be funded. Even with less money for the country to spend, Reagan decided to increase military spending. In projected 2005 dollars, defense spending hit $456.5 billion by 1987, compared to only $325.1 billion in 1980, the year Reagan was elected. When Ronald Reagan was elected in 1980, the United States was hoping for real change. Carrying 44 out of 50 states, Ronald Reagan defeated incumbent president, Democrat Jimmy Carter, in a landslide. In addition to Reagan moving into the White House, Republicans gained control of the United States Senate for the first time in 28 years, signaling the start of the "Reagan Revolution." During his first inaugural address in 1981, Reagan said those famous words that would lay the foundation for future conservative arguments: "government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem."
While Reagan cut taxes drastically on the top income earners, the wealth didn't "trickle down" like Republicans had promised. In 1981, Ronald Reagan signed into law the Economic Recovery Act which was said to reduce revenues by $749 billion over the next five years. After Reagan signed the massive tax cut, unemployment began to increase. In 1982, Reagan needed to gain additional revenue and signed the largest tax increase in American history, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982. As 1982 came to the close, November and December shared an unemployment rate of 10.8 percent, the highest unemployment since 1948.

Ronny Raygun blasts again.