Michael Reagan is the latest racist rightwing hatemonger to speak in Livingston County

Cleary University’s Economic Club Speakers Luncheon Series has brought in some of the most vile, racist rightwing tools to speak, and they did not disappoint with hatemonger Michael Reagan set to speak next month for a cool 20 grand plus expenses.

The stated mission of the series is to “enrich the Livingston County community by hosting speakers who can share a broad spectrum of social, political, intellectual and cultural experiences,” but the bigots they have brought in do nothing but bring the political discussion to the gutter. They are also almost all right-wingers. We have seen the likes of Ann Coulter, Steve Emerson and Dick Morris. Non-right-wingers have been few and far between.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards, will be a speaker on Oct. 7, but her appearance was timed more to embarrass her husband after the news of his infidelity broke.

Like Emerson - who is a self-proclaimed “terrorism expert” simply for narrating a Richard Mellon Scaife-funded documentary called “Jihad in America” - Reagan is making a name for himself and getting rich for his racist, anti-Arab views, and he is following the Coulter business model of the more outrageous things you say the more you are in demand in right wing circles and the more money you make.

We can expect that lack of diversity and divisiveness to continue at Cleary. The speakers the steering committee is seeking to appear in 2011 include former Republican Arkansas Governor and Faux “news“ host Mike Huckabee; conservative hatemonger and Ann Coulter wannabe Michelle Malkin and former Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn. The balance? U.S. Winter Olympians Apolo Ohno, Julia Mancuso and Hannah Kearney. Please.

Reagan has called one of Michigan’s most successful cites, Dearborn, “Dearbornistan.” The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus took the easy way out and called Reagan “a recognized conservative firebrand” instead of the bigot that he is.

Reagan told the paper that “ the highly Muslim-populated city of Dearborn is home to many people connected to the terrorist organization Hamas, as well as actual terrorists.” He went on to say that he has no proof, but that’s his story, and he’s sticking to it.

What is even funnier - but not as funny as Reagan’s take on Gov. Jennifer Granholm - is the comments of Cleary University President Tom Sullivan, who has to be the most misinformed person in the county. He claims, “he's never heard Reagan speak.” His comments were similar to what he said when the controversy over Coulter broke when he blamed bloggers for the community being upset and a board member resiging over the decision to pay her $30,000 to spread hate.

Sullivan said “he's not "particularly bothered" by Reagan's comments because the speaker series strives to attract diverse voices that engage thought on social, political and economic issues.” Aghain, what diversity?

Reagan’s take on the Michigan economy shows he is as misinformed as Sullivan. Reagan said the “country's economic downfall started in Michigan, and that the other 49 states followed suit and "became Michigan."
"You people elected the wrong governor. It's like, 'Why don't we get the captain of the Titanic to come back and sail ships across the ocean?' " Reagan said.

So, it was the Governor who stopped buying U.S. autos and sent two of the Big 3 into bankruptcy, and it was the Governor who caused the subprime mortgage crisis that almost killed the U.S. economic system and caused the worst recession since the Great Depression? Give me a break.

Not only is Reagan a bigot, he’s an idiot.

Reagan, 65, is the adopted son of conservative hero Ronald Reagan and his first wife, actress Jane Wyman. Reagan claims “his anti-tax message is rooted in his childhood, when his father told him he couldn't get a raise in his allowance until the former president got a cut in taxes.”

Wow. What a skin flint. That was when saint Ronnie was a liberal Democrat and the head of a labor union, and it was also the year he divorced his wife.

The GOP continues to be as predictable as snow in January

Republicans are getting pretty predictable these days, and a couple of hot news stories prove that: the news that U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter has come out of the cold and joined the Democratic Party and the Swine Flu epidemic.

Shortly after the long-time Pennsylvania Senator made the painful, personal decision to leave a party he had spent a lifetime supporting, the attacks from the Republicans began in earnest. Instead of placing the blame where it belongs - for their lack of relevance - they attacked Specter.

Gee, who could have predicted that?

RNC Chair Michael Steele issues a statement to party faithful shortly after the news saying, Specter “…committed a purely political and self-serving act today. He simply believes he has a better chance of saving his political hide and his job as a Democrat.”

The latter part of that statement is true, he does have a better chance of getting elected as a Democrat, but Steele fails to explain why that is. That is the same reason many former loyal Republicans voted for Democrats last November: the hard right turn of the GOP. The fact is party left them, they didn’t leave the party.

Steele gets even further unhinged saying, “Arlen Specter handed Barack Obama and his band of radical leftists nearly absolute power in the United States Senate.” “Radical leftists?” Is he serious?

I have heard some people say – taking a Faux News line – that Democrats shouldn’t be so gleeful because if you look at Specter’s voting record, he is really a Republicans, but he will be just wearing Democrat's clothing.

You might want to tell Steele that because he claims Specter has a “left-wing voting record.” I wish I had a dollar every time Steele used the word “leftist” in his rant. The good news is Democrats have a big tent, and when Sen. Al Franken is finally seated we will have a filibuster proof majority.

Rightwing hatemongers like Ann Coulter-wannabe Michelle Malkin are blaming illegal immigrants for the Swine Flu pandemic, much like the plague was blamed on the Jews. “I've blogged for years about the spread of contagious diseases from around the world into the U.S. as a result of uncontrolled immigration,” Malkin wrote. She ignores, of course, that the biggest group carrying the virus to the U.S. has been a group of prep school students in New York after vesting Mexico.

I wish the weather was this easy to predict.

Coulter-wannabe pushes anti-Muslim agenda

Hatemonger and bigot Ann Coulter is leading by example, and she has proved to mindless drones everywhere that the most outrageous things you say the more money you make and the more famous you become.

That has spawned people like Coulter wannabe Michelle Malkin, and she has learned the lesson well. I’m sure anyone who has ever had the misfortune of watching her on the faux “news” channel or read her column in the conservative Detroit News has come in contact with her brand of hatemongering.

Her latest column in the increasingly right-wing Detroit News takes some pot shots at the Muskegon Intermediate School District and says we should really hate Muslims more here in the U.S. The Muskegon incident in question took place in 2004, and the school district conducted a lock-down drill that are common and mandated by state law using a scenario that said an "attack by a fictitious radical group called Wackos Against Schools and Education who believe everyone should be homeschooled” was in progress.

To their credit, the Superintendent and the Muskegon County Emergency Services director apologized, but that is not enough for Malkin. In Malkin’s quest to be like her big sister, Ann, Malkin also points out New Jersey's Burlington Township High School also used a similar scenario last month.

Malkin claims we should really be using a scenario that has bomb-vest-donning jihadists shouting "Allahu Akbar." Red bandana-wearing martyrs with visions of 72 virgins dancing in their evil heads. America-hating plotters enraged by the existence of Israel or driven to establish a worldwide caliphate. Want she really wants to do is rewrite history like she tried to do with her book that claims the internment of Japanese Americans in WW II was justified, just like her hero Coulter wants to rewrite history that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was a misunderstood hero.

Can you point out one school shooting or attack on a school in the U.S. that was carried out by Muslim terrorists? I could be wrong, but I believe the answer is none.

All of the attacks in schools were carried out by kids who were picked on, felt like outcasts and were bullied. Now, I don’t believe any home-schooled kids ever carried out any school shootings, but I’m sure some felt like and have been treated like the kids who actually did the shootings. The scenario Malkin is rallying against is more likely to occur than a Muslim terrorist attack. With all that evidence for why kids commit the shootings it also makes you wonder why the Michigan House Republicans recently opposed anti-bullying legislation. I’m against any kid being bullied for their faith or their sexual orientation.

Malkin attempts to say it’s wrong to use scenarios where right-wing views are the culprit, but the largest terrorist attack in the U.S. prior to 9/11 was conducted by a person in Oklahoma City who had rightwing views.

I think a scenario is a scenario, and they should be varied. But they should also be plausible. A lone or a few disenfranchised kids are more likely to do the shooting than a Muslim terrorist. Why even use a scenario? Who cares why a person is in a school with a gun firing on students.

Just a quick look at the actual cases proves that the scenario Malkin is up in arms against is more plausible than Islamic terrorists.

Richland High School in Tennessee, 1995. One student and a teacher were killed, and another teacher was seriously wounded by a shot to the head by a 17 year-old student.
Frontier Junior High in Washington, 1996. A 14-year-old student killed a teacher and two students.
Pearl High School Mississippi, 1997. A 16-year-old student kills two students and wounded seven others.
Unfortunately, the list goes on, and includes Heath High School in Kentucky; Jonesboro, Arkansas; Columbine High School; Santana High School in Santee, CA.; Red Lake High School, Minnesota; and Platte Canyon High School Colorado.

See any Islamic terrorist shootings in that list?