Michael Kinsley portrays Ronald Reagan as a failed leader. Though every presidency has its challenges and shortcomings, Reagan left behind an impressive legacy of achievements: recovery from the economic malaise of the late 1970s, dramatic expansion of freedom in Eastern Europe, and a restoration of American confidence on the world stage.

Kinsley denies that Reagan ever championed large defense cuts, having apparently forgotten the historic nuclear arms reduction treaty negotiated with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Kinsley also states that bipartisanship and compromise were not Reagan themes, even though Reagan's most significant legislative accomplishments in the areas of income tax cuts, budget deficit reduction and immigration reform were achieved with the cooperation of then-House Speaker Tip O'Neill and a Democrat-controlled Congress.

About the only thing Kinsley got right was noting that President Obama is no Ronald Reagan.

All these modern-day Republicans who worship at his altar would find him completely unacceptable today because he raised taxes after his disastrous 1981 cuts that heavily favored the wealthy (sound familiar?); enlarged the federal government; tried to eliminate nuclear weapons (look at the Republicans' criticism of Obama's New START treaty); supported amnesty for illegal immigrants; and signed an abortion bill as governor of California.

More than 100,000 struggling homeowners could get help from a $2-billion program that California is launching, including about 25,000 borrowers who owe more than their properties are worth and could see their mortgages shrink.

The Keep Your Home California program, which uses federal funds reserved for the 2008 rescue of the financial system, has the potential to make a sizable dent in California's foreclosure crisis and help the general housing market. State officials hope to fend off foreclosure for about 95,000 borrowers and provide moving assistance to about 6,500 people who do lose their homes.

Out of the five major mortgage servicers — Bank of America Corp., Wells Fargo & Co., JPMorgan Chase & Co., Ally Financial and Citigroup Inc. - only Ally has formally signed on to a key part of the plan: reducing mortgage principal on homes that are "underwater," or worth less than the size of the mortgage. A Bank of America spokesman said the bank intends to participate but hasn't yet reached a formal agreement with the California Housing Finance Agency, which designed the program.

By keeping some cheap foreclosed properties from reaching the market, the program could give a boost to home values in general.

The biggest of the plan's four parts allocates $875 million as temporary financial help to people who have seen their paychecks cut or have lost their jobs, providing as much as $3,000 a month for six months to cover home payments and associated costs. The second-largest chunk of money, $790 million, is slated for a principal reduction program that would write down the value of an estimated 25,135 underwater mortgages.

Another piece would use $129 million to provide as much as $15,000 apiece to help homeowners get current on their mortgages, and another would take $32 million to provide moving assistance for people who can't afford to remain in their homes.

The principal-reduction component would pay lenders $1 for every dollar of mortgage debt forgiven.

Forrest, a Tennessee native, is revered by some as a military genius and reviled by others for leading the 1864 massacre of black Union troops at Fort Pillow, Tenn. Forrest was a Klan grand wizard in Tennessee after the war.

Sons of Confederate Veterans member Greg Stewart said he believes Forrest distanced himself from the Klan later in life. It's a point many historians agree upon, though some believe it was too little, too late, because the Klan had already turned violent before Forrest left.

"If Christian redemption means anything - and we all want redemption, I think - he redeemed himself in his own time, in his own actions, in his own words," Stewart said. "We should respect that."

The West Hollywood City Council has voted to ban smoking in the city’s outdoor restaurants and other public dining areas.

The council voted 3-2 Monday night in favor of the ordinance, the city clerk’s office said Tuesday. The item will be added to the council’s consent calendar Feb. 22 for a second and final vote.

Traffic within a 2 block radius should also be banned as car exhaust is way worse than nicotine as second had inhalent.

Why can't businessowners dictate the rules of the places they own? If they run an establishment that allows smoking, let them compete with those who won't allow it.

Better outlaw the places that charbroil their meats (e.g., fajitas, burgers, etc.) too - that smoke is really carcinogenic!

A computer modernization project for the state's court system has soared in cost from $260 million to as much as $1.9 billion [that’s $1,900,000,000!!!] and is now so far over budget and behind schedule that it should be put on hold and reconsidered, a new state audit has found.

The project, the California Court Case Management System, is supposed to modernize and link court computers in California's 58 counties. But it has been beset with problems almost since it was started in 2001, spurring legislators to ask for the audit. The system was supposed to be finished in 2009 but now may not be ready until 2016, and even then it could be incomplete, according to the scathing 143-page audit by state Auditor Elaine Howle.

The expensive project began as a more modest effort involving a handful of courts. It is now supposed to allow all courts to instantly update information on cases so the information is available throughout the state. If it works, the system will give residents the ability to file documents electronically without visiting a courthouse.

It isn't just that someone who objects to homosexual behavior will be forced to endorse it. We will all, whether we have a moral objection to homosexual behavior or not, be forced to treat brideless and groomless pairings and marriage identically. State marriage licenses are issued on our behalf. The marriage neutering advocates don't want us to even have a word that notes there is a difference. It would be official government policy that there is not.

The President shall respond to new diseases spread by behavior typical of junkies and homosexual males by taking money by force from everyone and spending it on treating and preventing the spread of the disease, all other issues, including diseases killing more people, be damned.

It is your duty to yourselves, your family, your country, and our God that you stop buggering different people and stop sharing needles. If you're a man and refuse to stop engaging in homosexual behavior, then stick to true monogamy. Not that “monogamy” where you can still have sex with other people as long as your partner is there, or your partner is out of town, or you are out of town, or you're in a club, or in a restroom. If you're a junkie and refuse to stop shooting up, then use clean needles.

Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye said Wednesday that the California Supreme Court may decide "as soon as next week" whether to weigh in on the federal Proposition 8 appeal and expressed hope that a Southern California Latino would be chosen to succeed departing Justice Carlos R. Moreno.

The new chief justice has declined to reveal her views about [neutering] marriage. As an appeals court judge in Sacramento, she performed a wedding for a same-sex couple "as a favor to someone else who had a family emergency," she said. Same-sex marriage was legal for six months in 2008. "I didn't have any qualms about it," she said.

I think they should find an African-Arab mix, transgender, blind, mentally challenged, gay, Green Party, Norteno gang member, hemerrhoid suffering, bald, obese, recovering alcoholic from a remote, rural Northeast California logging community as the next justice. If he/she/it knows anything about law, that would be a plus, too.

How dare you, Mcihaelthepainter, leaving out the homeless, I am offended!

Moreno was the only justice not to recognize that it's the Constitution of California, not his personal preferences, that control what justices can do. The other four judges who had voted to overturn the original initiative banning gay marriage all accepted that.

If the State Supreme Court doesn't recognize that for the the initiative process, which is designed to go over the heads of elected politicians, to be meaningful, it can't have those same politicians trump those initiatives by simply refusing to provide for their defense against the inevitable lawsuits, then they will have effectively rendered the initiative powers of the citizens of this state moot.

According to the 2009 Tax Tables, Mary Kidwell should have paid between $11,631 and $15,699; depending on how she filed rather than the $5,000 she claims to have paid [“Paying taxes is a good U.S. investment,” Jan 31]. Regarding the list of benefits she says she received for her investment, only military protection falls under the Constitutional responsibility of the Federal Government (see The 10th Amendment).

Perhaps if she continues to underpay on her taxes, she can get a job as treasury secretary just like Timothy Geithner.

I guess that Mary has forgotten that we are also required to pay state income taxes, property taxes, local and state sales taxes, gasoline taxes, utilities taxes, social security taxes, and Medicare taxes. There are also taxes disguised as “fees” and the cruelest tax of all, inflation, which continually eats away at the savings of every American whether they are eating, sleeping, vacationing or working. It is ultimately caused by government and government alone. Mary should also consider one other aspect of taxation. Every time she hires a plumber, electrician, painter or carpet layer she is paying them so that they can pay their tax obligations which are normally rolled up into a single statement and rarely broken down so that the customer can get an idea of how much less their bill would be if all of the above taxes were reduced or eliminated.

Mary Kidwell’s confusion as to which demographic supports the Tea Party movement is bad enough, but her lack of knowledge about how much she and the rest of the population are taxed is truly mind numbing. Talk about a mindset that is “scary and inexplicable.”

So Mary Kidwell of La Habra pays $5,000 in taxes on $77,000 in income and feels she is paying her fair share. How quaint. I have been blessed in many ways and make considerably north of $77,000 while paying 39 percent tax to the federal government, 11 percent to the state and numerous additional property, sales, utility taxes and other hidden “fees” along the way.

I’d like to hear Mary rationalize how her 6.5 percent tax rate is fair compared to my more than 50 percent tax rate. Fair taxation would be if I paid twice as much as Mary while making twice as much as Mary, not paying nearly nine times as much. So stop with the “tax cuts for the rich” garbage Mary.