As a president, Reagan moved quickly to address pressing inflation and unemployment problems. In addition, he set a course to end the cold war. His strategy worked. The Berlin wall fell and the USSR went bankrupt.
During Reagan's second term, a Central American crisis surfaced. Cuba, with support of the USSR, started to train Central American rebels for the purpose of spreading Communism in Central and South America. America supported anti Communist forces in this region.
The Iran-Contra Affair was a black mark on his second term. However, one has to question the action of congress that made it illegal to support anti Communist forces in this region.
What will Ronald Reagan be remembered for? During the Reagan years, Southern California was buzzing with high paying jobs and the economy was dynamic. I am old enough to remember the demoralizing nature of Jimmy Carter's administration and the uplifting and optimistic nature of the Ronald Reagan administration.When Reagan entered office the United States inflation rate stood at 11.83% and unemployment at 7.1%. Reagan implemented policies based on supply-side economics and advocated a laissez-faire philosophy,[76] seeking to stimulate the economy with large, across-the-board tax cuts.[77][78] He aimed to reduce the growth of domestic government spending, cut back on excess regulation, and instituted a sound currency policy which would end inflation;[79] his approach was a departure from his immediate predecessors.[79]
Was Ronald Reagan a great President. I'll report, you decide.
Solar panels are located atop the roofs of
Vallejo City Hall and the JFK
Library.
Cities all across California are facing financial hardships. It appears that several factors are impacting the cities including, court damages, reduced income due to housing slump, and city wages. Poor management of government resources may also be a major factor.
Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- Vallejo, a city of 135,000 outside of San Francisco, moved closer to bankruptcy after talks with its labor unions collapsed.
If approved, Vallejo would become the biggest city and second-largest local government in the state after Orange County to file for bankruptcy. Municipalities throughout California are grappling with billions of dollars in labor and pension cost increases incurred during the late 1990s. The crisis comes as the worst housing slump in the U.S. in 26 years saps tax revenue.
Orange County in Southern California filed the biggest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history in December 1994 after former Treasurer Robert Citron's wrong-way bet on interest-rate derivatives sold by Merrill Lynch & Co. lost $1.6 billion. The county of 3 million people is the third-most populous in California after Los Angeles and San Diego. Desert Hot Springs, a town of 20,000 people north of Palm Springs, filed for bankruptcy in 2001, when it couldn't afford a legal judgment of almost $6 million.
Three years ago, the threat of bankruptcy loomed in San Diego as three mayoral candidates said a filing was one option for dealing with the city's soaring pension debts to police and other employees. Jerry Sanders, who won the election, never pursued that step. Half Moon Bay, a small town south of San Francisco, has also considered bankruptcy because of a legal judgment that was handed down in November in a dispute with a real estate developer.
Since poor management practices may be responsible for this crisis,
commonsense would dictate that someone in these organizations would be
dismissed. However, most of the time it seems that no one in
government is held accountable for poor management. I don't know if poor management is the culprit in the aforementioned cases, but something is wrong with resource allocations. Is management lacking in these cases. I'll report, you decide.
I studied abnormal psychology in graduate school, so I find the following news interesting.
WASHINGTON – Just when liberals thought it was safe to start identifying themselves as such, an acclaimed, veteran psychiatrist is making the case that the ideology motivating them is actually a mental disorder.
"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossiter, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave."
While political activists on the other side of the spectrum have made similar observations, Rossiter boasts professional credentials and a life virtually free of activism and links to "the vast right-wing conspiracy."
Rossiter says the kind of liberalism being displayed by the two major candidates for the Democratic Party presidential nomination can only be understood as a psychological disorder.
This raises a good question. Are liberals nuts. Well, I don't know if they are nuts. There seems to be a preoccupation with irrational ideas. First, the suggestion that we value and try to understand the terrorist organizations that supported the 9-11 attacks seems quite odd. Second, the idea that we should appreciate those that want to destroy Israel and the United States seems foolish. Third, it seems irrational that we might contemplate giving away free universal health care to everyone who comes to America legally or illegally, when we cannot afford to give seniors enough money to live on and military veterans adequate health care.
Are liberals nuts. I don't know. I'll report, you decide.
While working for a very large and progressive organization, studying in several undergraduate and graduate schools, and belonging to a very liberal church, I have met many Barack Obama types. In fact, I belong to the same denomination as Barack Obama (United Church of Christ).
All this being said, will Barack Obama be able to represent all Americans, regardless of race, religion, and party affiliation?
We hear the term "double standard" all the time. Let us explore this. What if McCain used some of Obama's saying, but inserted his own self-serving wording into these sayings. Try inserting White in place of Black and then read the Obama statement.
Do you think this would cause a protest or two. In fact, if McCain used the following Obama' sayings today, using the aforementioned change, he would probably have to withdraw from the race, resign from the Senate, and retire in a storm of protests. Is there a double standard? I'll report, you decide.
Obama sayings from this two books.
Obama said in 'Dreams of my Father', "The emotion between the races could never be pure..... the THE OTHER RACE (WHITE) WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT: MENACING, ALIEN AND APART"
Obama said in 'Dreams Of My Father' "THAT HATE HADN'T GONE AWAY," he wrote, BLAMING white PEOPLE,- SOME CRUEL, SOME IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."
Obama said in 'Dreams Of My Father', "There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs," he wrote. "It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, TO SHOW YOUR LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT, and name names"
Obama said in 'The Audacity Of Hope', "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
A group of Americans, retired teachers, recently went to France on a tour. Robert Whiting, an elderly gentleman of 83, arrived in Paris by plane.
At French Customs, he took a few minutes to locate his passport in his carry on. 'You have been to France before, monsieur?' the customs officer asked sarcastically.
Mr. Whiting admitted that he had been to France previously.
'Then you should know enough to have your passport ready.'
The American said, 'The last time I was here, I didn't have to show it.'
'Impossible. Americans always have to show your passports on arrival in France!'
The American senior gave the Frenchman a long hard look. Then he quietly explained. 'Well, when I came ashore at Omaha Beach on D-Day in '44 to help liberate this country, I couldn't find any Frenchmen to show it to.'
I don't know if his past comments and writings are an indication of this true feelings about America and race relations.
He has the right to change his mind. Is he still the person of his past writings and comments? I don't know. I'll report, you decide.
Quotes from Barack Hussein Obama's books:
From 'Dreams of My Father',
"I CEASED TO ADVERTISE MY MOTHER'S RACE AT THE AGE OF 12 OR 13, when I began to suspect that by doing so I was ingratiating myself to whites"
From 'Dreams of my Father', "The emotion between the races could never be pure..... the THE OTHER RACE (WHITE) WOULD ALWAYS REMAIN JUST THAT: MENACING, ALIEN AND APART"
From Dreams Of My Father, "never emulate white men and brown men whose fates didn't speak to my own. IT WAS INTO MY FATHER'S IMAGE , THE BLACK MAN, THE SON OF AFRICA, THAT I'D PACKED ALL THE ATTRIBUTES I SOUGHT IN MYSELF.
From Dreams Of My Father:
"THAT HATE HADN'T GONE AWAY," he wrote, BLAMING WHITE PEOPLE,- SOME CRUEL, SOME IGNORANT, sometimes a single face, sometimes just a faceless image of a system claiming power over our lives."
From Dreams Of My Father;
"There were enough of us on campus to constitute a tribe, and when it came to hanging out many of us chose to function like a tribe, staying close together, traveling in packs," he wrote. "It remained necessary to prove which side you were on, TO SHOW YOUR LOYALTY TO THE BLACK MASSES, TO STRIKE OUT, and name names"
From 'The Audacity Of Hope, "I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."
Gosh, I am surprised that Hillary has not slammed Obama on this past comments about America. His first book tells it all. With his stated ideas about America, he would be dismissed as a radical nut job if this past comments were publicized. It will be up to Hillary to quote his first book and his reflections about race and American values.
Obama has a radical past and hides it by talking in religious platitudes about peace, change, hope, yada yada. If not for pacifists and “useless idiots” in the American and worldwide Progressive movement, perhaps millions of lives might have been spared in the 20th century. Barack Obama would be Carter on Red Bull.
While making strategically dangerous decisions abroad, Obama would cripple this country economically with restrictive Socialist programs that have been estimated at nearly Trillion. Where would the money come from? Would a President Obama get the money from higher taxes or through dismembering the military?
If it comes down to getting the Devil we know in Hillary or the Devil we don’t with Obama, hands down, my vote is with Hillary.
