Wingnuts Prefer a Raygun Over a Grant

From dictionary.com
ray gun: a gun that can fire bursts of usually destructive or lethal rays
grant: to bestow or confer, esp. by a formal act
That explains it!

Just when you think you've heard it all. Republican Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) wants Congress to tell the U.S Treasury to replace former President Ulysses S. Grant with Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill. McHenry announced his bill Tuesday. Surprise -- he has 13 Republican co-sponsors! Does anyone besides me think there's a little political gamesmanship when a southern Republican wants to remove Grant from the $50? For anyone who was out of class while the Civil War was being taught, Grant was a Union general during the War who led the North to victory and later became the nation's 18th president. McHenry said Reagan transformed the nation's political and economic thinking and argued that "every generation needs its own heroes." The transformation?! Oh, he did that all right! Let's see, he sold arms to Iran to fund the Contras in Nicaragua (which had been specifically outlawed by an act of Congress) in a little thing called Iran-Contra that history wants to forget. He kept American hostages in Iran from being released until he was sworn in. He gave everyone a tax cut in year one, but raised them every single year after that on the middle class. He cut the income tax rates of the top personal tax bracket from 70% to 28% in 7 years while social security and medicare taxes increased. He began taxing unemployment benefits retroactively. Then he deregulated everything he could and pissed on the middle class with his "trickle down" economics experiment that continues to haunt us. He once said,"Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem"...while tripling the size of government! He was against healthcare for veterans provided by the same government that asked to sacrifice their life. He gave us the largest spending increases from any previous administration. He was the originator of "death panels' wanting to eliminate Medicare for our seniors and asking them to go buy private insurance instead (sound familiar?). He gave us a large household tax increase by adding a huge surcharge on gasoline. He increased Cold War related defense spending that caused large budget deficits, the U.S. trade deficit expansion, and contributed to the Savings and Loan crisis. Oh, did I mention he funded and helped Saddam during his chemical warfare against Iran? ...

Given all the neoconservative “outrage” over the financial misdeeds arising from the UN’s socialist oil-for-food program during the 1990s, when the UN embargo was killing untold numbers of Iraqi kids, a non-partisan thinker would believe that there would be an equal amount of outrage over a much more disgraceful scandal — the U.S. delivery of weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein during the Reagan administration in the 1980s. As everyone should know, it was those WMDs that Bush, Cheney and the rest of the war profiteers ultimately used to terrify the American people into supporting the invasion and war of aggression against Iraq, a war that has killed or maimed thousands of innocent people — people who had absolutely nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks in the United States. As we know, WMD's in Iraq were never found.

Yes, every generation does need heroes, but I'd like to think we can do better than a "B" movie actor turned imperial ruler who charmed his way into America's heart only because of the failed presidency of not-ready-for-primetime Jimmy Carter. I for one believe Jimmy Carter was the last truly honorable man who was our president, although I'm still hopeful that Barack Obama will wake up and live up to the man I believe he really is.

One last thing about Jimmy Carter, he was actually right, but nobody listened. If you've got a couple minutes, watch this youtube video. He called it (our current plight) 33 years ago!

Pres. Jimmy Carter Declares End on Foreign Oil Dependence


For more facts about Reagan's true legacy, I highly recommend, Tear Down This Myth: How The Reagan Legacy Has Distorted Our Policies and Haunts Our Future by Will Bunch. Looks like the newest edition has a slight name change.