Why You Should Oppose the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act

During this time of crisis, when our country is faced with an economic meltdown, when unemployment   nearly 10% in Ventura County, and when the nation is struggling to end two wars, fight global warming, and defuse an incendiary Middle East, our representative in Congress, Elton Gallegly, suggests we take a time out and honor Ronald Reagan.

That’s right, Gallegly and his Republican cronies want to celebrate the hundredth anniversary of Reagan’s birth next year using federal resources and under federal auspices. This is the kind of thing normally reserved for someone like, say, Abraham Lincoln, whose bicentennial we celebrated on February 12 of this year.

Now Lincoln, one of the first Republicans, accomplished a lot of things during his presidency: he crushed a rebellion that nearly destroyed the nation, he signed an Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves held in rebel territory, and, despite his suspension of habeas corpus—permitted during time of insurrection—he honorably upheld the Constitution during a time of civil war.

Reagan, in contrast, violated the Constitution with an impunity that foreshadowed George W. Bush’s  presidency. Remember the Iran-Contra affair? Students of history may recall that American hostages being held in Lebanon were freed in exchange for weapons—highly effective missiles, as it turns out. That’s right, Reagan brokered a deal whereby he sold Iran weapons in exchange for the release of the hostages. A dirty business that also happened to contravene American law.

Some of the money from the proceeds of the sale of the missiles went to fund the Nicaraguan Contras. Congress had explicitly prohibited any part of government from supporting the Contras, but this was subverted by the Reagan administration.

The American legislative branch of government and the people were in the dark about this until a Lebanese newspaper blew the story wide open, prompting Reagan to deny the charges. A week later he backtracked, admitting they were true, but stating that he didn’t know about them at the time.

The National Security Archive website describes the reaction of the American people: “Of all the revelations that emerged, the most galling for the American public was the president’s abandonment of the longstanding policy against dealing with terrorists, which Reagan repeatedly denied doing in spite of overwhelming evidence that made it appear he was simply lying to cover up the story.”

It was bad enough that a president would arm terrorists after having sworn in public never to even talk to them, but what he did with the money subverted the very Constitution he swore to protect and defend.

Reagan was lucky not to have been impeached. Many cabinet officials were charged with crimes. They all lied to protect Reagan, because impeachment was unthinkable to them. Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, also a co-consipirator, later pardoned the cabinet officials at the end of his term.

By and large the American people forgave Reagan, but Iran-Contra remained forever a black spot on his record. Bill Clinton’s peccadilloes are trifling in comparison.

Gallegly and his Republican colleagues long ago decided that Reagan was a saint. They have engaged in a systematic campaign to canonize him, naming all manner of public edifices after him, including what was formerly known as Washington National Airport, now renamed after the Gipper.

If the Republicans had their way, they would probably replace Lincoln’s chiseled face on Mount Rushmore with the aw-shucks grin our most famous actor-politician. After all, Republicans have thoroughly abandoned Lincoln’s legacy. They now see war as the first option, not the last; they no longer claim to need Constitutional authority to suspend habeas corpus; they are no longer concerned with the rights of minorities.

This partisan Republican campaign to elevate Reagan is clearly wrong. It seeks to turn a partisan hero into a nonpartisan emblem of America. We must oppose it vigorously.

On March 9, the dubious legislation Gallegly sponsored, HR131, passed the House. It was supported overwhelmingly by  Republicans. Democrats, I am ashamed to say, voiced little opposition. Reagan remains widely popular. Reagan’s legacy is now viewed by many people through the opaque lens of nostalgia. Many credit him with bringing down the Berlin wall and winning the Cold War. He does deserve a lot of credit for this.

Reagan was a good man, but not a great man. He did, after all, make many of us feel good about ourselves after the malaise of the 1970s. He was charming. But he was a strong partisan, and his presidency ushered in an era of intolerant conservatism. Here is a short list of the sins of the Reagan administration, which demonstrates that we should not, in fact, portray him as a hero or allow our children to be brainwashed by Republican propaganda about him:

• He lied to the American people about his knowledge of Iran-Contra.
• He displayed a willingness to subvert the Constitution.
• He ignored the AIDS crisis that was ravaging America.
• He cut social programs to make way for a massive military buildup.
• His budget cuts hurt the poor; his tax cuts favored the rich.
• He began the foolish process of excessively deregulating businesses, which was the root cause  our current economic woes.
• He oversaw a crumbling of the separation between church and state that prepared the way for the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.
• He promulgated the odious doctrine that government is the enemy—that it should be reduced at all costs—even at the cost of financial meltdown, as we now know.

HR131 is now in the Senate. Please write your senators to ask them to kill this bill before it sees the light of day. Write to Gallegly to voice your displeasure for his sponsorship of this bill.

If the Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act is passed into law, your children will be subjected to Republican propaganda as they are forced to learn a too-rosy version of Reagan’s story in their schools. They will certainly not learn about the Iran-Contra affair. They will instead learn that government is the problem, not the solution; that prosperity must begin at the top and might trickle down, eventually.

Do not stand for this, America. Stop the  Ronald Reagan Centennial Commission Act dead in its tracks.

We can respect Reagan for the good things he accomplished, for the dignity of his office, and for his valiant and ultimately successful fight against communism, but we should never allow Republicans to paint Reagan as an American saint. Someone so willing to trample our Constitution can never be called a hero

This Week in Conejo Valley Politics, March 29, 2009

It was wrong of you to fire Geoff Dean, said the Civil Service Commission to Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks. The sheriff fired Dean for preparing to run for Brooks’s office when Brooks retires in 2010. Dean gets back pay and is the apparent frontrunner in the race.

There is a special election on May 19. It’s about the California budget. Most people don’t like the ballot measures and will vote against them according to a recent poll. This will disappoint the governor.

Californians are not happy: 77% said the state was headed in the wrong direction, 80% disapprove of the legislature’s performance, and 57% disapprove of Governor Schwarzenegger’s performance. Perhaps this is why 81% of people support Proposition 1F, limiting legislative pay during deficits. It’s the economy, stupid.

In a completely unrelated story, Governor Schwarzenegger said he would not run for political office again, since the Constitution forbids foreign-born presidents. Republicans were relieved.

Most drugs sold in Ventura County come from Mexico, say law enforcement officials. Perhaps Rush Limbaugh should buy a sombrero and move south, closer to his suppliers.

The Ventura County Supervisors graciously voted to accept $2.7 million of Barack Obama’s stimulus money this week. It will be used to buy up houses that have been foreclosed and sitting empty. They will be sold to lower-income and middle-class people. Thanks for help Ventura County, Mr. President.

Stimulus money might save police and firefighter jobs in Ventura, but only if they are still around. The Ventura City Council voted to use reserve funds to keep the officers and firefighters employed. Mayor Christy Weir, pinching pennies, voted against it.

Evangelical apocalypse enthusiasts infiltrated the military and George W. Bush’s White House, said filmmaker Michael Wilson during a screening of his movie Silhouette City in Thousand Oaks. They don’t like gays and want to “reclaim the nation for Christ.”

This Week in Conejo Valley Politics, March 22, 2009

A Thousand Oaks group will submit a plan to the city council to revitalize Thousand Oaks Boulevard. If they can improve it to ugly from horrendously ugly, that will be a marked improvement.

A made-for-TV movie is being filmed at California Lutheran University. Officials would not comment on how bad the movie was likely to be or how seriously it would damage the university’s reputation.

Newt Gingrich screened his new propaganda film about Ronald Reagan at the former president’s library in Simi Valley. Starry-eyed Republicans glossed over Iran-Contra and massive Reagan budget deficits.

The Conejo Valley Unified School District is a model for dropout prevention, says the State Attendance Review Board. Time, then, to cut funding, says the state.

Protesters in pink waved placards in front of Thousand Oaks High School condemning the budget cuts that caused 860 educators to lose their jobs in Ventura County. Republican legislators were unmoved.

Ventura County Sheriff Bob Brooks will decide this summer whether he is retiring. He might be replaced by front-runner Geoff Dean, not the sheriff’s first choice.

The unemployment rate in Ventura County was 9.2% in February. It feels much worse. Everyone knows someone who is out of work.

This Week in Conejo Valley Politics, March 13, 2009

Police, not pork. Congressman Elton Gallegly voted against it, but Ventura County law enforcement agencies will be getting more than a million dollars from President Obama’s stimulus package.

Meanwhile, in a forceful response to the worst economic climate since the Great Depression, Rep. Gallegly sponsored a bill to create a commission to honor the 100th anniversary of the birth of Ronald Reagan.

Republican flip-flop. California State Senator Tony Strickland admitted to poor judgment in paying his wife with campaign contributions. He now wants to make the practice illegal–a misdemeanor.

Local nerds completely misunderstood the significance of the Magna Carta this weekend by dressing up like medieval knights and princesses at the Reagan Library, where the document is currently displayed.

Thousand Oaks is running out of money. Proving that that McMansions aren’t selling like they used to, the city will ask 20 employees to retire early.

San Francisco is screwed. Sea level will rise will cause about $100 billion in damage by the end of the century, according to the Pacific Institute. Most of this will be around the gay bay. Republicans will 
claim that this is the will of God.

Religion no longer dictates federally funded science. President Obama signed legislation this week allowing the use of stem-cell lines forbidden by the Bush administration.

Obama signed a $480 billion spending bill to keep the government going until September. It contained earmarks. Republicans publicly claim to oppose these, but are happy to insert their own earmarks, not vote for them, then brag about their ability to get the money. See, for example, Elton Gallegly.

George Wallace’s daughter joined an event commemorating the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, 44 years ago. The late governor, who ordered the beatings of the original marchers, would not have been happy.

Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashir, hastily prepared to be consigned to the dust bin of history this week. He kicked humanitarian groups out of the country after a warrant was issued for his arrest for war crimes.

Gallegly Caught in His Own Confused Logic

I had thought the week before last had been Elton Gallegly Appreciation Week at the Ventura County Star. There had been a editorial by him on Sunday, an article where he bragged about bringing money into the county, and a simpering piece about how much he loved his pet poodle.

I suppose enough readers had brought it to the attention of the Star that it was strange for the congressman to brag about bringing money home, then voting against the bill that was supposed to write the check, that the paper’s editors felt that they had to explain the inconsistencies.

And a good job they did of it, too. Michael Collins wrote an excellent article yesterday titled “Gallegly Votes Against Bill Containing His Funding Requests.” It was a triumph. Not only did Collins point out Gallegly’s circular logic, but he fairly pointed out that Democrats, too, share the same level of inconsistency.

Gallegly, it seems, argues that his earmarks are not pork, but that other people’s are.
That, he says, is the reason he voted against the budget bill last week. He gives as examples of wasteful spending money for the National Endowment for the Arts—that favorite target of Republican ire; a footbridge in St. Louis; a water taxi in Connecticut, and, of all things, research on the red snapper in Florida.

We all know that Republicans hate spending money on art and think that infrastructure is only appropriate for bridges in Alaska, but Gallegly’s last example, the red snapper research, is particularly telling. It reveals a hostility to science the evokes Sarah Palin’s objections to research involving the fruit fly.

You may recall that during the last presidential election, Palin cited research involving the fruit fly as wasteful government spending. She was universally pilloried in the scientific community for these comments, which revealed her immense ignorance. The fruit fly, it turns out, is absolutely vital for scientific research. The particular project she singled out would benefit American agriculture despite some of the research being conducted in that other favorite Republican target—France.

The bottom line of all this is that both sides—Republicans and Democrats—insert their own pet projects into legislation. These are called earmarks, or pork. They can be bad, wasteful spending, or good, needed spending. Regardless of their merit, this kind of spending causes the cost of things like budget bills and stimulus packages to rise.

Republicans, like Gallegly, like to claim they are against earmarks. However, as Michael Collins’s article revealed, they like to have it both ways. This is hypocrisy. It is practiced by both political parties.

It was nice to see our congressman get caught up in his own fragile logic. He seemed to grow a bit testy at the end of the article. Perhaps he should start looking for a new job.

Faits-Divers, March 6, 2009

In western Europe, fait-divers, roughly translated as “various events,” are a cultural tradition. They are short snippets of news, crime, accidents, and strange occurences that appear in newspapers. Luc Sante recently published a book titled Novels in Three Lines, which collects  faits-divers written by Felix Feneon in 1906. My enthusiasm for this book has led to the idea of creating a fait-divers for the Conejo Valley, to appear once per week. These faits-divers, although written by me, are culled from various news sources. They are devoted to events, mostly local but some national and international, that merit brief attention. I will concentrate more on news and neglected, though important, corners of the news than on the crime and weird news that already pervade the papers and the web. I hope they amuse you.
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Congressman Elton Gallegly loves animals, but not PETA. His dog, a poodle, will not eat without him.

Unemployment climbed to 9.1% in Ventura County in January. It is expected to get worse.

The supreme court of California considered whether Proposition 8 bans gay marriage in the state. It does, says Kenneth Starr, dean of Pepperdine Law School. A majority cannot tyrannize a minority, says activists.

Protesters for and against Proposition 8 demonstrated in Thousand Oaks and Ventura. Republicans asserted that God does not want gays to wed. God, oddly, was silent.

General Electric and General Motors, stanchions of American capitalism, are in trouble. Their stock prices have tumbled. The latter will seek more billions from the federal government to produce cars nobody wants.

Mohandas Gandhi’s possessions caused anger between the Indian government, the seller, and the auction house. The government, through no fault of its own, won out.

Iran is unsupportive of Mickey Rourke’s attempt to resurrect his career. It demanded an apology for The Wrestler. None was forthcoming.

Proposition 8 Is Wrong

Californians are in an uproar this week over Proposition 8, the ballot measure that passed with 52% of the popular vote in November.

Demonstrators on both sides have engaged in shouting matches. Typically, those opposing Proposition 8 are friendly to gays. Those supporting Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, are usually religious right types who are at best unsympathetic to gays.

I do not have great confidence that the California Supreme Court will overturn Proposition 8 as being unconstitutional.

Regardless of the merits of the case, however, Proposition 8 is just plain wrong. It amounts to a coalition of well-funded religious groups imposing their will on the rest of us. It is irresponsible to deny marriage to gays.

Gay marriage is also a civil rights issue. The alternative to marriage, civil unions, amounts to a separate but equal doctrine. This doctrine was dismissed years ago in Brown v. Board of Education. It should not be resurrected in California.

Even if, as I fear, the court will decide to uphold Proposition 8, the fight for civil liberties will go on. Homosexuals have made astounding gains in the past few years, and California will continue to lead the nation by eventually overturning Proposition 8 and replacing it with legislation the hold’s fast to this nation’s founding principles of life and liberty.

A Word About Anastasia Baburova

It is encouraging to know that people like Anastasia Baburova once existed.  Baburova was a 25-year-old Russian journalist who was assassinated on January 19 in the center of Moscow in broad daylight. She was shot in the head.

People are still murdered very frequently in Russia for their political beliefs. The Russian government is sometimes complicit and sometimes simply shrugs. Fascism is on the rise. Yes, fascism. Raised-hand salutes and all that. And this in a nation that heroically fought the Nazis at the cost of thousands of lives. And then, one might cynically add, subjected half of Europe to life under its iron thumb.

Baburova stood against this sort of regression and campaigned unceasingly against injustice. She was precisely the opposite of a nationalist; she was a multilingual internationalist, an intellectual, a bright light of hope in the frosty darkness of the Putin era.

We mourn her passing but feel consoled, only somewhat, that there are others like her, that there is hope.

If you want to find out more about Anastasia Baburova, read the Economist’s February 7 obituary or view a documentary about her short life at economist.com/audiovideo/europe.