Thousands of Americans Died While Reagan Ignored the Outbreak of a Deadly Virus

Elizabeth Taylor persuades President Ronald Reagan to finally acknowledge the HIV problem and for the first time he uses the term "AIDS" in a public speech. “There’s no reason for those who carry the AIDS virus to wear a scarlet ‘A,’” he said, as ACT UP protesters yelled outside. Americans who have died from AIDS surpass 40,000.
Elizabeth Taylor persuades President Ronald Reagan to finally acknowledge the HIV problem and for the first time he uses the term “AIDS” in a public speech. “There’s no reason for those who carry the AIDS virus to wear a scarlet ‘A,’” he said, as ACT UP protesters yelled outside — Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation

Republicans have taken great glee in turning the Ebola outbreak in the United States — six cases have been treated here so far, one patient has died — into an election issue this year. Blaming Pres. Obama for the outbreak fits neatly in their strategy of nationalizing the midterms by making the election about him, rather than about their party’s own lousy record in Congress.

The fact is, the Obama administration has acted rapidly and with keen efficiency in its handling of the Ebola outbreak when compared with the record of the handling of a similar outbreak in the early 1980s by the administration of GOP patron saint, Ronald Reagan.

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Clinton’s Remarks on Job Creation Raise Eyebrows on Wall Street

“Don’t let anybody tell you that it’s corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly. One of the things my husband says when people say, ‘What did you bring to Washington?’ He says, ‘I brought arithmetic.’

— Hillary Clinton at a rally Friday in Boston for Massachusetts Democratic gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley.

Gohmert Against Gays in Military Because of Massages

I’ve had people say, ‘Hey, you know, there’s nothing wrong with gays in the military. Look at the Greeks.’ Well, you know, they did have people come along who they loved that was the same sex and would give them massages before they went into battle. But you know what, it’s a different kind of fighting, it’s a different kind of war and if you’re sitting around getting massages all day ready to go into the big, planned battle, then you’re not going to last very long.

— Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), saying during a radio interview that gays shouldn’t be allowed in the military because their “getting massages all day” would be a threat to national security.

In Hearing, GOP Chairman Issa Misnames African Country, Repeatedly Mispronounces ‘Ebola’

Congress is out of session, of course, but yesterday House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa hastily called his committee into session in order to fan public hysteria about Ebola after a physician in New York was found to have contracted the disease while tending patients in Africa. In his opening statement, however, Issa mistakenly referred to the African nation of Guinea as Guiana, a country in South America, and then repeatedly mispronounced “Ebola” so that it rhymed with “e coli.”

Here’s a rough transcript of the highlights of Issa’s statement:

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