Friday Stuff

I don’t know how many other people besides your humble narrator were aware of this, but last Wednesday would have been the 102nd birthday of The Sainted Ronnie R.

How many other people, I mean, besides PA’s Governor Tom (“Space Cadet”) Corbett, who was one of 40 Repug governors signing a declaration here proclaiming February 6th as “Ronald Reagan Day.”

Which made me recall this speech that Number 40 once gave in PA, in which he said the following…

Our tax cuts in 1981 lifted our economy out of—you've heard the word back then-"malaise" and into an almost 2 1/2 years of growth. If those tax cuts could take a sick economy suffering from runaway inflation, skyrocketing interest rates, declining investments, sinking morale, and slumping initiative and turn it into the strongest, most dynamic and innovative economy in the world, think what America's tax plan can do today. We can build success on top of success. We can ignite the second stage of our booster rockets and blast this economy to new heights of achievement. We can do it, and we will do it.

Utterly (and typically) ridiculous hyperbole aside (also on display from Reagan here), the following should be recalled about President Jimmy Carter’s “malaise” speech from here (basically, after he gave it, his approval rating rose 11 points – and of course, he never even actually said the word “malaise” in the speech).

Also, Reagan typically talked about how supposedly great his tax cuts were. Well, he gave the speech from which I provided the excerpt in May 1985. And as noted here, by then, he had raised taxes in 1982, 1983 and 1984, and would do so again in 1986 and 1987.

So that makes him at the very least “The Great Obfuscator” based on the excerpt (you could also argue that that makes him a goddamned liar, but I’ll leave that judgment to history).

Anyway, here is my point (at last)…as bad as Reagan was, he looks like FDR in comparison to the yokels in his party now, including Rand Paul in the U.S. Senate, who apparently has no trouble with our economy defaulting based on this.

Well, Reagan, for his myriad faults, actually had some words of wisdom on that subject…



…and I pointed out yesterday that Karl Rove is pitching a fit over the prospect of Steve King running for the Iowa U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Dem Tom Harkin.

Well, while you’re trying to wrap your head around that as they say, try this on for size: Al Franken versus Moon Unit Bachmann in Minnesota (here).

OHPLEASELETITBESOOHPLEASELETITBESOOHPLEASELETITBESOOHPLEASELETITBESO (and I still can't believe, after all these years, that Chrissie Hynde gave that great song to Flush Limbore)…



Update 2/9/13: In a way, this is actually positive - let her be a constant reminder that the U.S. House Repugs and their "leadership" learned absolutely nothing from the 2012 elections.

…and here is a deadly serious message that needs no embellishment from yours truly…



…and I was trying to find a video that mentioned Reagan, so I settled for this (don’t blink or you’ll miss it – a tune that has launched a thousand Google searches I’m sure…masterful and clever from the “Top Gun” era, and with a message).