Honoring Ronald Reagan by renaming stuff

In August of 1981, then-President Ronald Reagan fired 11,345 striking air traffic controllers. In 1998, Washington National Airport was renamed Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Because irony is awesome.

But the hagiographical actions of "Reagan Republians" didn't end there. And they continue to push to rename things in the honor of "The Great Communicator".

They've already named an airport, an aircraft carrier, a courthouse, a medical center, at least two post offices, several schools and more than two dozen roads for him. A McDonald's in Alabama where he once ate even boasts a bust of him.

Yet that's not enough for the most devout supporters of Ronald Reagan. A year from this coming Saturday would have been the former president's 100th birthday. To honor him, his admirers are fanning out around the nation hoping to win another one for the Gipper. And another. And another.

Their goal: Get at least one significant landmark in every state named for the nation's 40th president, who left office in 1989 and died in 2004. They are far from achieving that aim. There are believed to be 103 dedications in 27 states and the District of Columbia. So, they're using the anniversary of his birth, Feb. 6, 1911, as a launching pad for renewed efforts in Nevada, Wisconsin, Oklahoma and elsewhere.

That article got me thinking so I decided to put together some options for those who want to rename things in Ronald Reagan's honor.

We all know about Ronald Reagan's military career, right?

Reagan once said that he had served in the Air Force, "by way of the horse cavalry." It was true. Reagan had joined the military to ride horses and had transferred to a branch that flew airplanes....

...But in an induction physical, doctors told the future president his eyesight was not good enough for him to remain in the service as an officer.

Lest you feel that the above comes from some left-wing site...it is actually from reagan.navy.mil.

Reagan wasn't cleared to go overseas and spent his entire career with the military on U.S. soil. His first assignment was San Francisco Port of Embarkation at Fort Mason, California. Next he went to the 1st Motion Picture Unit (officially, the "18th AAF Base Unit") in Culver City, California. By the end of the war, Reagan had starred in around 400 training films.

But that didn't stop him from fibbing about his military exploits. Reagan never allowed reality to infringe on a good story.

There was no internationally recognized border in Reagan's mind between fantasy and fact, the dividing line having been abolished in the early 1940s when his studio's PR department turned him into a war hero, courtesy of his labors in "Fort Wacky" in Culver City, where they made training films....

...Forty years after Fort Wacky, as Commander in Chief, R.R. told Yitzhak Shamir, then prime minister of Israel, that he had helped to liberate Auschwitz, had returned to Hollywood with film footage of the ghastly scenes he had witnessed, and if in later years anyone controverted the reality of the Holocaust over the Reagan dinner table, he would roll the footage till the doubts were stilled.

So fuck it. Let's name a Holocaust memorial after Reagan. Sure...he didn't actually do anything, but he thought he did. And that's all that counts, right?

We already named an aircraft carrier after him (the USS Ronald Reagan) and he never served on one of those when he was in the service, so I don't think a Holocaust memorial would be much more of a stretch.

I've got another idea.

In March 1966, then-candidate for California governor Ronald Reagan stated the following:

I think, too, that we've got to recognize that where the preservation of a natural resource like the redwoods is concerned, that there is a common sense limit. I mean, if you've looked at a hundred thousand acres or so of trees - you know, a tree is a tree, how many more do you need to look at?

Indeed. How many more do you need to look at? I say...probably not many.

So how about if we clear cut most of a national forest but leave a single solitary tree and call it the Ronald Reagan National Forest.

But to really get the Reagan name spread around, we should probably think about something that almost every American has right in his or her kitchen: food.

Early in Reagan's first term, a proposal was made that would have reclassified ketchup to a vegetable. Why? To allow public schools to cut out a serving of cooked or fresh vegetable from child-nutrition requirements. This ostensibly would have saved $1 billion annually....and completely screwed the health of low income students.

So how about if we rename ketchup as a "Reagan Tomato"? I would be proud to slather Reagan Tomato all over my next burger. And you should be proud to do so too. It would make your burger more patriotic. Or something.

If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them.

More Republican hypocrisy

During his campaign for the Presidency of the United States, Obama took a break and traveled to his home state of Hawaii.

And the talking heads were up in arms.

Writing for The New Republic, Michael Crowley stated:

I know he grew up [in Hawaii] and all. But if Obama’s being smeared as a highfalutin celebrity who is somehow “other” and distant from the American heartland, is Hawaii really the ideal vacation destination? It sounds trivial but such things can resonate...

Cokie Roberts said:

...going off this week I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place. He should be at Myrtle Beach and if he's going to take a vacation at this time.

So going to Hawaii comes off as elitist and distant.

Duly noted.

Unless, of course, you are a Republican. Because that is where the Republican National Committee decided to hold its winter meeting.

As the president gave his first State of the Union address Wednesday against the backdrop of the nation’s wheezing economy, the opposition party marked the event by convening a conference here — on an “island paradise.”

“Imagine lush tropical gardens, waterfalls, exotic wildlife and priceless artwork,” boasts the website of the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa. “This one-of-a-kind Honolulu Hawaii hotel resort is the only true resort property in Waikiki.”...

...Yet at a moment when millions are out of work and millions more struggling to get by, the party’s governing board will plot its comeback on the island of Oahu, sipping drinks poolside, catching rays on the beach that abuts the villa and raising questions about whether they’re as politically tone-deaf as they accuse the president of being.

But this is different. Not only are the Republicans not Obama, but they are working on stuff.

GOP Chairman Michael Steele says so.

"Relax," Steele said while sporting a Hawaiian shirt and a flower lei. "We're working hard here, trust me. This is not a vacation."

Oh. That's different then.

Howard Zinn, 1922-2010

Yesterday, Howard Zinn suffered a heart attack and died at age 87.

Zinn, a longtime professor at Boston University, was known for his left-wing politics. Born in New York, Zinn served in the Army Air Forces during World War II, where he became a second lieutenant. He attended New York University on the GI bill after the war, enrolling as a 27-year-old freshman; he did his postgraduate work at Columbia. As a young professor, he became a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War.

He published books on the Vietnam War, as well as other books on history and American society. But it was his 1980 book "A People's History of the United States" and its follow-up, "Voices of a People's History of the United States," that made him required reading. Literally -- "A People's History of the United States" presented American history from alternative perspectives, including native peoples, slaves, disenfranchised workers, farmers and women.

Zinn was a multi-award winning author having won the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Lannan Literary Award for nonfiction and the Upton Sinclair Award.

He worked with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and in 1964 authored a book about the organization entitled SNCC: The New Abolitionists. As a teacher at Spellman College for seven years, Zinn mentored many students, one of which was Alice Walker, the Pulitzer Prize winning author of The Color Purple.

The aforementioned People's History of the United States was a milestone book. The history of the United States written from a different perspective.

Howard Zinn: It really started way back... I wrote A People's History with the idea of bypassing and ignoring the usual from-the-top-down treatment of American history. I wanted not to see American history from the viewpoint of people in authority -- presidents and congressmen, generals and so on. I wanted to see American history from the standpoint of people who had been ommitted from textbooks.

I wrote the book in the late 1970s, and it came out of the movmenets of the 60s and 70s and my participation in those movements. I had spent years in the South involved in the civil rights movement and I was very conscious when I was there -- I was teaching at a black college in Atlanta, Spellman College, and I was going around with SNICK (The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). And as I was going around participating in various things, whether in Atlanta, or demonstrations in Albany, Georgia, or Selma, Alabama, or various towns in Mississippi, I was very much aware that all sorts of very fascinating things were going on. Fascinating figures were on the scene. And none of this was going to be reported in the mainstream media, because the mainstream media is only interested in big events and big people -- even with movements they conventrate on the big events and big people.

His autobiography written in 1994 is entitled You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times.

Zinn was a great thinker, activist, and author. He stayed attuned to politics and culture even in his later years. Upon Obama's election, Zinn had this to say:

...With his foreign policy, unfortunately, he shows no signs of departing from the traditional militarism of the Democratic and Republican parties. The idea of sending more troops to Afghanistan is disastrous, really absurd. I mean, almost as soon as he came into office he sent missiles into Pakistan. Civilians were killed. The whole tone of foreign policy, adding more soldiers, leaving 50,000 in Iraq even after withdrawing them in 16 months, all of this is very bad. And, therefore, he's going to need a great big push -- protest, really. He's going to need demonstrations and protest and letters and petitions. He's going to have to face the kind of agitation that Roosevelt faced when he came into office.

With the passing of Howard Zinn, we have unfortunately lost one more agitator.

R.I.P.

Texas rewrites history

Currently, the Texas Board of Education is attempting to rewrite the state's social studies curriculum.

The reason that this is important for people even outside of Texas is the fact that Texas is one of the nation’s largest purchaser of textbooks. It isn't cost effective for publishers to produce various versions of their texts. As such, Texas has the power to set the education curriculum for many other states.

And how does Texas want to rewrite it?

Texas public school students should learn about Newt Gingrich and other conservative politicians but not liberals, according to the first draft of proposed standards for the state's high school history books.

The Texas Board of Education will decide the future curriculum. The board is comprised of 15 members, 10 of which are Republicans.

Republican Don McLeroy has been spearheading the work to drive out any liberal education and replace it with his views.

The first draft recommends students studying U.S. history since Reconstruction be able to identify "significant conservative advocacy organizations and individuals, such as Newt Gingrich, Phyllis Schlafly and the Moral Majority."

I'm sure you are familiar with Newt Gingrich.

Schlafly was a major opponent to the Equal Rights Amendment. She founded the "Stop the ERA" movement with the STOP standing for "Stop Taking our Privileges". Schlafly argued that should the amendment pass, women would actually lose valuable rights. Which is more than a little ridiculous.

The text of the ERA amendment is thus:

Section 1. Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.

Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

Equality of rights shall not be denied. How terrifying! Thank God Schlafly stepped in and prevented such a horrible thing from coming to pass!

The Moral Majority was created by Jerry Falwell. Remember him? The sweet Christian man who stated "so-called gay folks would just as soon kill you as look at you." and upon the ruling of Brown vs. Board of Education stated:

If Chief Justice Warren and his associates had known God's word and had desired to do the Lord's will, I am quite confident that the 1954 decision would never have been made," Falwell boomed from above his congregation in Lynchburg. "The facilities should be separate. When God has drawn a line of distinction, we should not attempt to cross that line."

But yeah, sure, let's make sure we add them to the history course and teach children about how great they were. They have done so much for America.

Make no mistake, this is a movement to indoctrinate children with Conservative only beliefs and values.

As an editorial for the Waco Tribune-Herald notes:

For instance, the state board last week by a 7-6 vote tentatively approved requiring that students study conservative political groups of the 1980s and 1990s — yet with no similar requirement that liberal groups from the same period be studied. That means students must learn about such critical figures as Eagle Forum founder Phyllis Schlafly. Right...

...Plus there was a spirited argument among board members over whether hip-hop should be replaced by an emphasis on country and western music...

As we all know, country and western music has had a much larger impact on popular culture than that flash in the pan hip-hop thing. Right?

It gets worse though.

The Republican majority voted against requiring Texas textbooks and teachers to cover the Democratic late senator Edward Kennedy, the first Hispanic Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, and leading Hispanic civil rights groups such as LULAC and MALDEF....

...“McLeroy was successful with another of his noteworthy amendments: to include documents that supported Cold War-era Sen. Joseph McCarthy and his contention that the U.S. government was infiltrated with Communists in the 1950s.”...

...“Republican board member Cynthia Dunbar unsuccessfully tried to strike the names of Scopes monkey trial attorney Clarence Darrow and Pan-Africanist Marcus Garvey from the standards. Asked by another member about her opposition to Garvey, Dunbar explained, according to the Texas Tribune: “My concern is that he was born in Jamaica and was deported.”...

Why would we need to cover Ted Kennedy? I mean, he was only the fourth-longest-serving senator in U.S. history. His older brothers were President John F. Kennedy and Senator Robert F. Kennedy (of course, who knows how long either of those guys will be in Texas' curriculum). He was awarded honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II, the Order of the Aztec Eagle from Mexico, the US Presidential Medal of Freedom, the Order of the Merit of Chile among others. He played a major role in passing many laws over his 46 years in the U.S. Senate. But he was a liberal...so screw him.

And we are gonna be whitewashing McCarthy in Texas. You know...that guy that was Red hunting, destroying lives and making wild accusations to the point where the Senate even censured him. Yeah....let's teach students how good he was for America.

Many Conservatives have been attempting to rehabilitate McCarthy for years now, Ann Coulter being one of the notable ones. See the thing is, America is a free country. In a free country, you can be a Communist. We don't believe in thought police in this country. Everyone is allowed to have whatever political leanings and opinions he or she wants.

Except in Texas, apparently.

Thoughts for Sunday

Tea Party Nation hates liberals

Since the tea baggers began...um....tea bagging, supporters have often claimed that they aren't affiliated with the GOP, nor are they necessarily conservatives. Merely common folks who are fed up with government spending.

Tea baggers don't hate liberals, see? Just government spending.

Except...bullshit.

The lie has been revealed by Talking Points Memo:

Now note, the TPN website claims outlines what they stand for:

Tea Party Nation (or TPN) is a user-driven group of like-minded people who desire our God given Individual Freedoms which were written out by the Founding Fathers. We believe in Limited Government, Free Speech, the 2nd Amendment, our Military, Secure Borders and our Country!

Individual freedoms. Free speech.

Let's look at what they said in that earlier email, shall we?

....TPN doesn't tolerate liberals....
....You can and will be banned for being a liberal....
....If you wish to debate the virtues of liberalism (as though there were such a thing), there are many other sites on the web who will tolerate you. TPN is not one of those sites....

So...individual freedom and free speech...unless you are a damn liberal. If you are, then fuck you.

But did Rachel Maddow even attempt to join their forum?

Um....nope.

"I used to be an activist, too, so I understand the strategy of using the name of a well-known person to try to get publicity," Maddow told TPMDC in an email.

"Of course, this idea of me trying to join their listserv is completely made up, but still -- I'm flattered the Tea Party folks think I'm well known enough to help their cause," Maddow wrote. "I wish them all best luck with their conference."

Ah. Tea baggers. Tea bagging for America. And freedom.

Unless you are a liberal.

Salvation Army uses charitable assets oddly

This past holiday season, some of you may have read about how the Salvation Army initially didn't want to give Christmas gifts to kids of people who couldn't prove their immigration status.

Back in 2004, the Salvation Army threatened to close soup kitchens to avoid paying benefits to same-sex partners.

The Salvation Army is threatening to close soup kitchens for tens of thousands of New York's homeless and walk away from other projects if the city enacts legislation requiring firms that do business with New York to offer health benefits to the partners of gay staffers.

Now, it has come to light that officers in the Salvation Army are enjoying a very cushy lifestyle.

The Salvation Army, a religious organization best known for helping the homeless and addicted, does not lavish great wealth upon its officers. But as part of its compensation package, it does provide them with housing.

A story by the Worcester (Mass.) Telegram & Gazette done in conjunction with Boston University's New England Center for Investigative Reporting showed the practice can create some serious image problems at a time when charities are battling over a shrunken pool of donations.

First, we'll start with Divisional Commander Major William Bode. He and his wife Major Joan Bode (Salvation Army officers share the same ranks as their wives, who also serve the organization) live in a $900,000 home in Needham, Mass. Nice.

This charitable organization is shelling out $900,000 for an employee to live in a palatial house. But William Bode isn't the only one taking advantage of the Salvation Army's kindness.

Then there's Major Michael Copeland, who, by his own account, repeatedly pushed property limits set for him in the Worcester area until settling on a four bedroom, two and a half bath home in suburban Holden, Mass., for $350,000 (pictured above). When the basement and garage are added in (per the organization's policy), the home's 3,800 square feet exceeds the 3,000 square foot cap permitted by the Salvation Army's own rules.

Not only did the good major push his organization to move the bar higher because he didn't want the property that was available for less, but in the process he delivered a host of insults to the people who live in the community that actually houses his facilities -- Worcester. And, he made it clear that he wanted to put some space between him and the people he is "serving."

"You work with people who are very troubled for many hours a week. You need a place where you can kind of get away from things, recoup. So when you come back you're renewed and refreshed," Major Copeland told the Telegram & Gazette. "Because of some of the people we deal with, often we're not sure of their backgrounds. We certainly don't want to be so accessible that somebody shows up on our front door in the middle of the night."

Then, Copeland told the newspaper that the city's schools were not suitable for the families of Salvation Army officers...

Good enough to take your money. Too good to go to the same schools as you. Gotta love the Salvation Army.