Are we starting to wake up?

It seems that a blow was struck against the anti-freedom movement that has been sweeping the nation this last year. For more than a year the Washington establishment has made a steady movement towards the left and "progressive" socialist ideals, and for the most part, we've been letting them. It has begun to come to an end. The citizens of the historically liberal state of Massachusetts have spoken, and hopefully our elected officials will respond in kind. Many politicians have already spoken, however, and some leopards apparently don't change their spots. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill) has already stated that a way to avoid the 60 votes needed to pass a new bill can be avoided by merely accepting the Senate bill as-is. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer suggested they'd be willing to consider that instead of having no bill at all. Didn't they just finish months of saying they disapproved of each others versions of the health care bill and wouldn't dare pass them without some concessions? And I though there wasn't a lack of morals and principles in Washington.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern, Obama's friend and the most popular visitor to the White House, said the Brown's win showed that the people were unhappy with the lack of "bold action" in Washington. Really? Massachusetts voted a Republican in because they were upset that there wasn't enough action going on in Washington? You mean the thousands of pages of unread bills passed under the dark of night wasn't enough action? Or pushing legislation after legislation that the general population has spoken out against wasn't bold enough? The hundreds of thousands of bipartisan Tea Party members apparently didn't phase many Democrats, but I hope the election of Brown will scare them into following the will of the people rather than make them work faster to destroy our country before their ousted on their behinds.

Score one for the people. It's we take our country back from the elitist politicians that think they know better than us. It's about time for that change many of us thought we were getting more than a year ago.

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Remember this day...

Remember this day, all of you who love freedom, as the day freedom was slowly stolen from the citizens of these United States. Today the Senate has voted 60-39 to approve debate over their version of the health care bill. A 2000-page bill was sent through to debate, without any senator even reading its entirety, and the Democrats seem like they have forgotten whom it is they serve. It was claimed to be an effort to limit the enormous profits of the evil insurance companies, yet instead of just targeting those businesses, the bill will implement every single business in the US, adding numerous taxes that will destroy many small businesses ability to make a profit at all. Following this course, it will soon be illegal to not own any medical insurance, notwithstanding your personal will on the matter. As the Almighty Government has spoken, so shall it be!

Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) even had the gall to compare this vote to historic events, saying, "Imagine if, instead of debating whether to abolish slavery, instead of debating whether giving women and minorities the right to vote, those who disagreed had muted discussion and killed any vote." What a ridiculous and unfounded argument! Should we remind him that it was conservatives pushing for the abolishment of slavery and liberals who disagreed? I would almost think that these people actually believed their positions if they weren't so ludicrous.

Let me be the first to say that we NEED health care reform in our country, as I've previously stated. But reform for the sake of reform isn't ever good, and this bill is definitely not good. Instead of fixing the things that don't work, Congress and the President are trying to take over everything, and we know their track record in large-scale programs, i.e. Medicare, Medicaid, the post office, Social Security, the recent financial mess...need I go on?

I don't believe debate on this subject is a bad thing, in fact, it is necessary. Debate on this bill, however, is wrong for two reasons. The first is that this bill was written without a conservative voice, which represents 39% of the Senate and at least half of the country. Any one of us would be hard-pressed to agree to discuss the approval of something we had no part in creating in the first place. The second reason is that this now opens the possibility of a "Nuclear option," which is a way to end a filibuster by a simple majority (51 votes) instead of the typical three-fifths majority (60 votes). The end of the filibuster would then bring an immediate vote on the bill, which would be easily approved by the simple majority.

They might claim that this is a positive step for health care reform, but it is clearly political posturing. Numerous Democrats have said they voted yes for debate because they received some special funding for their district. If they truly wanted to fix health care, then they should just fix the broken parts, rather than a 200-page complete overhaul of the entire system. If this bill passes Congress, then the government will control 1/6 of our nation's economy, not to mention what they already control in the financial institutions they already took control of recently. Didn't I already mention the numerous "successful" government programs?

I'm not sure how much more of this our nation can handle. We are a resilient people, but our society relies very much on a stable government, and stable it is not. There has never been so much public disapproval and lack of confidence before, and it only seems to get worse. I'm not sure if those in Congress think they're already on their way out, so they're trying to pass as much as possible before then, or if they think they are truly above the power of the people. I always thought it was of the people, by the people, for the people, not above the people, despite the people, forget the people. I think I'm about ready for some real change.

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Is this some of that change we're supposed to believe in?

So, it has finally happened. The leadership of our great nation has officially begun the process to fundamentally transform (Obama's words, not mine) our country, from what we Americans see it and believe it to be to the distorted image of "spread-the-wealth" economics and limited individual freedom or choice. The House narrowly passed their version of Obamacare 220-215, garnering just enough votes to squeak it by. The vote was carried by 219 Democrats, and one Republican who was more worried about losing his seat in a Democrat-laden district than vote his principles (although if he's a Republican who was elected in that area, he may have voted with his principles!). Against the bill were the remaining 176 Republicans and 39 Democrats from conservative areas. It's still incredible that any one of them was able to comprehend the 1,990-page, $1.2 trillion legislation, as Obama promised would happen before any bill was passed in Congress.

This is also reminiscent of Pelosi's outrage over the inability to read bills way back in 2005.



It's disappointing that politicians are so...political, and that both sides are mostly invested in themselves and their parties and how much power they can grab and hold on to for as long as possible. Rather than create legislation to provide access to health care for those who don't have it, this bill is attempting to change the way everyone receives care, no matter what they say it's supposed to do. Let's be honest. While our country provides the best care to it's citizens, it is far too expensive and inefficient for the future of our nation. There are much better, more economical, and much more desirable ways of providing care to the uninsured than by overhauling the entire system.

Whether they admit it or not, the potential negatives of this bill far surpass the potential positives. While it can cover many uninsured, a significant portion of the uninsured choose to be uninsured, desiring to place their money in other areas more important to them than health care, bu this will give them no choice to say no to health care, and despite what is said, the health care is not free. We'll all pay for it through our taxes. This bill will, however, will increase taxes, reduce Medicare payments, and increase our nation debt by almost $1 trillion.

The liberals mistakenly proclaim that conservatives voting against this bill are against health care reform, which couldn't be farther from the truth. I think conservatives, even more than liberals, want health care reform due to the terrible costs associated with inefficiency and providing care to uninsured. It's unfair to say that conservatives are unfeeling, horrible people, who want Americans to die (as stated on the House floor by Democrat Rep. Alan Grayson from Florida) because they won't support this bill.



We need a change. The choice isn't pass this bill vs. keep our same broken system, as the Democrats are saying. They seem to think that any step is a good step. We must change our system to preserve the future of our nation, but taking a step just for the sake of taking a step isn't the right thing, especially when that step is over the edge of a cliff. It would be better to keep our current broken system than break it even worse with this bill, possible damaging any hope of actually fixing health care in the future. I just their are enough Senators with the strength to resist following the power of the Democrats and actually obey the will of the people they represent.

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Lessons from television

Current television, while entertaining, seems to pretty closely follow the trends of liberal and progressive politics. Take, for instance, the idea of "Green Week' that runs on most networks, where for an entire week networks make-believe that they're actually making a difference by not using a certain amount of electricity in an effort to "save the planet." Never mind that this idea was first instituted by the NBC network, who are owned by GE (General Electric, which creates much of the new "green" products and services now currently available, conveniently providing them a huge profit!), but that's an entire story by itself.

While I don't know if it was created by conservatives or liberals, I was watching an old favorite mini-series of mine from 20 years back called V being played on SciFi (or SyFy as it's known currently). I hate to miss a chance to catch the Beastmaster (Marc Singer) in a flick, and V certainly fits the bill. As I enjoyed the shows with my wife, I began to realize how oddly familiar the scenario seemed to be, as if something of the same nature was happening in the world, i.e. a benevolent helper flying in unexpectedly to save a hurting world, slowly taking control of various aspects of the government under the guise of "helping" us out. The Visitors are able to quash the resistance's efforts to show legitimate footage of their true plans since they were already given control of all forms of audio and video media. The Visitors downplayed all ideas the resistance put forth, making fun of them and explaining away their proof as lies, misconceptions, and Hollywood special effects. Does this sound familiar?

The Visitors even led the world governments to question respected leaders in science and slowly remove them from the public as they secretly sucked all of our resources into their giant ships to leave us destitute and dying. Everyone who questioned the Visitors was plucked out of society as conspirators, stashing them away as food or reprogramming them to become willing participants. I'm sure there was much to learn from the show, but my brain was stuck on this idea. In no way do I believe that our current government is killing off their detractors, or even stashing them away for food, but beyond that, I'm not so sure.

My fear is that there won't be enough people to realize the problems before it's too late. In V the resistance was able to raise enough awareness before they became a completely fascist world government (there are even a few scenes of a concentration camp survivor comparing the circumstances to his experiences in the camps), and the V was changed from Visitors to Victory. The enemy who desired complete control over the populace was defeated through concerted effort and exposing the truth, though, unfortunately for us, it's easier to expose the evil truth when the enemy looks like lizards under their fake human skin.

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Reposts from The Grapes of Rath

The following post will be short teasers of my previous posts with a political theme from The Grapes of Rath along with the links to the entire text.


Friday, January 30, 2009
So I'm a big fan of Glenn Beck. Not only do we share the same faith, but he is an honest guy who treats everyone with integrity and respect, but he doesn't give a pass to people of his own political views either.

Read more at...Success and Failure: which teaches us more?


Sunday, February 01, 2009
With three kids ages 6 (almost 7), 4, and 2 (almost 3), we have quite a task every time we go to any store, as I'm sure many of you can relate to. My wife does the actual shopping, and I usually do the other work of stopping my kids from grabbing everything in sight and trying to explain that we can't buy something if we don't have the money. My son's answer to that is usually, "Then why don't we just go to the bank and take some out?"

Read more at...And the spending just keeps on coming...


Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Welcome, komrades, to the beginning of the new USA, the Union of Socialist America. Now, I hate to have to move my precious daughters down in the blog to do another article, but I felt this topic was of absolute importance.

Read more at...On the road to socialism


Friday, February 06, 2009
I wanted to post the comments made about my article, "On the road to socialism," because the comments that Anonymous made were interesting, and with them I can clarify my position and explain a little more. I also wanted to prove to everyone that people do actually read my blog and care about what I say!

Read more at...Response to "On the road to socialism"


Saturday, February 14, 2009
Many months ago we were given promises of change coming to Washington, and most of the country fell in love with the idea. Even some conservative friends of mine, dismayed by the thought of McCain as our party's choice, were temporarily swayed by "Slick" Barry's silver tongue.

Read more at...Change we can believe in?


Monday, February 23, 2009
Early this morning Mr. Obama held a conference to get to the bottom of the out-of-control government spending and told members of Congress, and the American people, that something has to change. Really? Isn't this some kind of revelation that should have been reached before a 1 trillion plus bill was shoved through Congress and just signed by the president?

Read more at...It's about time for level financial heads


Wednesday, April 08, 2009
I've neglected to write anything political for some time, but after listening to some of the things that have been happening recently, I decided I had to write...for posterity's sake. To start, I was driving around this morning to drop Joram off at school and then to Kiran's eye appointment, and I listened as of the Congressional Black Caucus spoke of their recent visit with former Cuban president and Communist dictator Fidel Castro, and I almost had to pull over the car because I was so dumbfounded. They "heaped praise" on the dictator, calling him "warm and receptive" during their visit.

Read more at...Does anyone but me see where this is going?


Wednesday, April 15, 2009
So it's Tax Day all across our great nation, and people are flooding the streets in celebration of our patriotic duty to give money to the federal government to support those wonderful programs that make our nation function as a whole, like reseeding the grass on the National Mall in Washington, DC, or building a lobster museum in Maine, or even keeping failing companies in existence that continue to bring our economy downwards. I'm so thankful that we have the government to choose to put money into those areas that no rational American citizen would even think of doing.

Read more at...Happy Tax Day!


Wednesday, August 05, 2009
Hallelujah! Our economy is saved. We are on the road to recovery according to our illustrious and all-powerful president. The story released today by completely unbiased (cough, cough) msnbc.com quotes the president that our nation is well on its way to economic recovery. The president says, "that the economy had stabilized and was beginning a slow recovery, telling NBC News in an exclusive interview that it was now his job to 'make sure that ordinary people have some relief.'"

Read more at...It's a bird! It's a plane! No...it's Super-Obama to the rescue!


Tuesday, October 27, 2009
I was up late watching Glenn Beck, and I watched a clip that I had seen before more than a year ago, but seeing it again just made my blood boil. In it, Obama is speaking to a group, of course without a teleprompter, and says one of the dumbest things I think I have ever heard from a politician.

Read more at...Punished with a...what?


Now that we're all caught up, stay tuned to hear more about our nation's direction.

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First post on the new blog

I have contemplated having a second blog for some time now. When I started The Grapes of Rath to talk about my family, I had thoughts of doing a second blog just for politics, because yes, I do care that much. I know many are content just to be upset about our political climate today, but, not being a politician, or known in political circles, this is the best, most effective way for me to effect some kind of change (and not Obama's kind of change, mind you). If I can help one individual learn more about what's going on and help him or her be more involved and knowledgeable about our nation's direction, than this blog's purpose is fulfilled.

Please understand that though I have a certain opinion, most of it is based in fact (I am, after all, a scientist), and while I can understand the positions and beliefs coming from the liberal side of politics, I tend to have both a logical AND and a personal reason for not agreeing with them. I don't claim to be an expert in any subject, but I do tend to do lots of research on any subject, so if anything I write is incorrect please let me know what it is and what source you found the information is.

I'll repost everything from my other blog that relates to politics, and I will then have regular posts concerning current issues in America. And away we go...

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