1984 Anyone? Government Control of All Free Speech.

This is sure to become a major headline if it isn’t already. I just found, and have been skimming over a bill introduced in the senate (S. 773) called The Cybersecurity Act of 2009. From what I’ve been able to tell from the short time I’ve spent just skimming over it, this bill effectively gives the president both the power to control private sources of information on the internet in an emergency, and the power to declare what constitutes a cyber emergency.




Since the Department of Homeland Security has already declared “right-wing” speech as a threat to national security, one can imagine what can be considered a cyber emergency. I expect them to go after this very blog once given the chance. I’ll definitely be keeping you all updated on this bill as I read more closely into it as I have kept you as up to date as possible on the health care bill. This is truly despicable, but not all that unexpected after the health care bill; they were defeated by free speech on that front, so why not go for broke? This particularly hits home for me because my home town senator Evan Bayh is a cosponsor of this bill.



We, the people have demonstrated that we are too well informed for them to push through legislation in the dead of night, now they are going after our means of acquiring such information. Our “representatives” in the government have really gone too far this time. It is up to us to decide what information to believe, not to the government to declare an emergency of ‘misinformation’ and decide what they think is ok for us to know. If this is the sort of legislation we can expect from them, then they have obviously become too cozy in their positions of power. It’s time to remove them starting in 2010.

What Happened To The Idea Of The Great Melting Pot?

Whatever happened to this coveted liberal ideal that America was to be the great melting pot nation where anyone from anywhere could come, live, practice their belief, and no matter what, find a place where they could fit in and be happy. It seems now that liberals only wish to force on everyone that which they believe is right and just.

Case and point: The United States was set up with individual state governments for the sole purpose of diversity among the states. It would be the ideal liberal atmosphere, where people of a certain belief could congregate in one state where the local governments law are to that individuals liking, and at the same time, another individual with polar opposite beliefs can live in another state where the laws are to that persons liking. This was the purpose for the tenth amendment, to ensure that everyone from all corners of the earth could come here and find a governing atmosphere that they like.

Ok, now time for the point. I have just described to you what would seem to be the perfect liberal world. Everyone can believe what they want, and live their life how they choose, no matter what they believe. Now, however, liberals seem to be more and more in favor of sweeping federal legislation which forces their particular beliefs on everyone. A great example of this would be the health care debate. There are a few states out there that already have state run health insurance (forgive me, but I cannot name them all off the top of my head, so sorry if I leave one out.). If an individual believes that state run health care is all that and a bag of chips, they have the god given right to move to Oregon or Massachusetts. I notice people citing the human rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness as their argument for health insurance entitlement. But notice one thing; it is the pursuit of happiness (i.e. seeking out a state that suits your style of governance) not the forcing of an individual idea of happiness on all the people by the federal government (i.e. passing federal legislation that will force a particular style of governance on all the people in the country).

Under this analysis, it would seem that liberal is a term that no longer applies to those of the left, which is why people are hearing more and more terms like “statist” and “national socialist.” Because if liberals truly do wish to accommodate those with every belief from every corner of the world, they would allow individual states their own style of governance. However, this would mean that people would exist someone that do not believe as they do, and to them, it seems, this is unacceptable.

Ted Kennedy Dead.

I woke up this morning, as I’m sure many of you did, to find on my computer screen a news flash of Kennedy’s death. A death is never cause to celebrate, no matter who has died. Whether it be a late term abortion doctor, or an ultra-leftist senator, or even if it had been the president. I, as well as many others, disagreed with his policies and his stances on many issues, and believe his career in the senate should have ended after the death of Mary Jo Kopechne, but even still I would have much rather have seen him voted out of office or arrested and move on in continuing to live a fruitful life.

Leave it to Pelosi, however, to use the senator’s death to help push a political agenda. I expected nothing less than this despicable act from the speaker. What should have been a time of mourning and reflection on the accomplishments of Senator Ted Kennedy has now been turned into a guilt trip for opponents of health care. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear something along the lines of “A vote against health care reform is a vote against the life of Ted Kennedy.” When in reality Kennedy has nothing to do with the HR 3200 bill, he’s not even a co-sponsor. Pelosi has sunk to a new low in my mind, and the president would be unwise to join her in this campaign. Ted Kennedy’s life should be honored and his accomplishments remembered, not used as a martyr to ram through legislation that more than half of the people in the country want nothing to do with.

If you are a liberal and expecting to see conservatives hooting and hollering over the death of Ted Kennedy, then I suggest you look into your own party. From the sound of things, it seems like they have just been wishing upon a star for this to happen. Conservatives value life, and mourn when it is lost. For liberals in congress, however, it is just another talking point.

CIA Investigations!?

It seems only natural now that the Obama administration would turn the debate away from health care reform (a topic in which he is quickly losing support) back to CIA investigations and the famed “Torture Memos.” He must not have discussed this move with Nancy Pelosi first.

I’ll just have to tally that up as yet another promise Obama is going back on. Amazing how many people he is willing to throw under the bus when his approval ratings go down. Now they are back to going after our own Intelligence Agency, under whom I’d like to point out, we haven’t been attacked since the beginning of the war in Iraq. We are looking mighty tough to Al Qaeda right now, aren’t we? First our soldiers are required to read off Miranda Rights to prisoners of war. Now we are moving on to prosecuting our domestic efforts to prevent future attacks. It almost seems as though our president wants to turn our military into our international police, where they are never allowed to actually protect the citizens, but rather to enforce international law (as determined by the UN mind you) after the fact. Well, gee, if he’s going to do that, at least let us keep our assault weapons so we citizens can defend ourselves. Taking these measures is truly detrimental to our security. If we keep allowing ourselves to become more like the rest of the world, then we doom ourselves to their fate. Let’s take for example the fact that under Bush, while the rest of the world was taking attack after attack from terrorists, our country remained safe after 9/11.
As we’ve seen with much of recent legislation, we can’t even trust our own government to look out for our best interests. What makes us think that we can trust our lives to the rules of other governments to keep us safe? These are prisoners of war we are talking about, people who would set off a nuke in an American city and laugh about it if they had the chance, and if we have to rough them up a little to find out what they know about future attacks, then I am perfectly fine with that. If there was ever a time to interject feeling into a debate, it’s now.

It Can't Happen Here. Can It?

Over the weekend, I have continued my conquest throughout the web to make my point known about the health care reform bill proposed by the house, HR 3200. Presenting the evidence, and the relevant sections of the bill, but everywhere I go, I get the same feeling from the people I debate that are for reform. The feeling I get is that people deny what’s in the bill, or try to pretend that the sections don’t allow for such abuse from the government, because they are so attached to the hope that something like this couldn’t possibly happen here in the United States. There is a blind belief in this country that surely no one would wish to transform the greatest country on the face of the planet into just another lavish, oppressive dictatorship that would go down in history as just another failed country victim to a power hungry leader. And so many people refuse to accept this especially with Obama as that power hungry leader. So many people still see Obama as the charismatic, intelligent, ‘hope and change’ candidate that inspired them to hope for a better future. No one can deny that the man can campaign like it’s no one’s business. People don’t want to believe that their messianic leader would be tempted by the promise of unlimited power and control of every aspect of the lives of every American citizen. This is the stuff of history book, and world wars, it can’t happen here, it can’t happen to us. It’s not just oppressive government that people have this feeling about. Even things as common as horrific car accidents are things about which people have the “it couldn’t happen to me” feeling all the time. So it’s not so farfetched that people could feel this way about something that is supposed to be as far away and removed from our everyday lives as federal government. This isn’t a new thing. Throughout history, people of many countries have felt the same way. The people of Cuba, Venezuela, 1930s Germany, and the Soviet Union all thought that it couldn’t happen to them. They all had revolutionary new, charismatic leaders break through the political placenta and take charge, and radically change the lives of their countrymen and some changed the lives of people all around the world.

It can happen here, and it will if we continue to refuse to look to the past and learn from the mistakes made by other nations, and other peoples trust in their increasing government. One universal lesson that was known even 250 years ago is that the people will always know what is best for them. We cannot rely on members of our government to decide what we need and what we don’t. Because when we allow that, it is a short step from them deciding what we need, to them deciding what it is they are comfortable with us having, and at that point, we will be totally at the mercy of those with the authority to decide, without fear of retribution or rebellion, who lives, and who dies.

End of American Exceptionalism. Lower Your Expectations

Since the beginning of the campaign, we have been told about hope and change. We were going to begin the remaking of America. Yes we can. But since the election, it seems that we have been told repeatedly to lower our expectations for this new remaking of America, that our recovery is going to be a jobless one (I’m still trying to work out how that is possible). We’re being told that we are all going to have to cut back and make sacrifices, all of course while watching our leaders invest in five to eight more private jets, and take vacations every couple of months with our money; But why? Why are we being told to expect less from the fruits of our own labor? I thought we were electing the smartest people this country has ever seen. I thought they were going to save us from this big bad recession. I thought the stocks shot up the day he was elected. So why now are we being told every day that the economy keeps going down the drain? And all I hear from our leaders is essentially “too bad, you’re just going to have to deal with it.” How long are we really going to just bend over and take it? I for one have had enough.

The "myths" of health care reform

I’m going to make something very clear here in the beginning. Facts that I cite here in this blog are from the house health care bill, HR 3200 “America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009.” Obama, Frank, and Pelosi can say all they want, but I will only be citing the bill itself. Now, I’ve been digging into the internet gathering up a list of those pesky, dangerous, ultra-right wing rumors and myths that everyone is talking about, I’ll be going point by point, after each “myth” I will list the sections of the bill that point out the facts for the particular “myth.” I’m not going to post the full text of the sections on here, because they are quite long. However, on the Library of Congress website, there is a service called THOMAS, where you can look up the full text of the legislation and read it, just in case you thought I was making this up. Ok, let’s begin.

1) Americans will lose their private insurance, or be funneled into the public option.

Under Sec. 102 (a)(1) LIMITATION ON NEW ENROLLMENT
Sec. 102 (a)(2) LIMITATION ON CHANGES IN TERMS OR CONDITIONS
So, insurance companies cannot accept new enrollments or change the terms or conditions of their current plans.

2) Health care reform will limit patient’s choices.

Sec. 123 HEALTH BENEFITS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Sec. 141 HEALTH CHOICES ADMINISTRATION; HEALTH CHOICES COMMISSIONER

There will be a committee designated largely by the president in charge of deciding your benefits, and an administration, largely appointed by the president, will decide what standards constitutes coverage. That applies to private companies as well.

3) Health care reform will grant the federal government access to people’s bank accounts.

Sec. 163 ADMINISTRATIVE SIMPLIFICATION
Subsection 1173A GOALS STANDARDIZED ELECTRONIC ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS
(a)(2) GOALS FOR FINANCIAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE TRANSACTIONS

The federal government will establish access to people’s bank accounts for electronic transactions and to determine the financial stability of patients.

4) Death panels.

Sec. 1233 ADVANCED CARE PLANNING CONSULTATION

As illustrated throughout this section. Every five years you SHALL (not, you MAY be visited. You SHALL…) be visited by advanced care consultants, to consider options such as living wills, health care proxy, hospice care, assisted suicide, and ‘your life, your choice’ handbooks. Now, if you’re going to this section looking for the specific phrase “death panel” is going to be disappointed. The term “death panel” is a metaphor for government guidance into death.
I’ve outlined the major “myths out there, if you have one that I forgot to mention or want to challenge me on, leave a comment, and I’ll get back to you on it. Enjoy.