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My Rant

By
Real Estate Agent with RE/MAX Big Bear Village

As I see it, one of the big problems the Republican party is facing is the fact that the party has been hijacked by The Religious Right. Instead of a platform of small government and financial responsibility, the right focuses on issues those of us without a religious bent, can't really get behind. I , personally, don't think our government should stick their noses into our personal lives. I don't want to be bombarded by anti-gay propaganda and cries over stem cell research. I don't want to be preached at about family values by hypocrites whose values are no better than anybody Else's.

I don't want to be forced to live under a regime who takes away my rights to privacy and personal choice. I don't want to be governed by religious laws. I want to know that my leader will make choices based on common sense and what is best for the population. Not prophecy or dogma. I don't want to fight any " Holy Wars " or engage in disputes based on 2,000 year old ideas. The best thing for people of faith is too have the government leave them alone to worship as they please.

This really leaves people like me in a serious bind. I don't want to be governed by far left Liberals either. I don't like the idea of taxing the rich into oblivion to prop up the non productive among us. I don't mind giving a hand up, but at some point you have got to start doing something for yourself. Corporate welfare is even worse. Both the left and the right are saving these cretins who robbed us blind. We give them billions of dollars with no restrictions as to how they spend it. It was their criminal spending habits that got us where we are today.

I have no choice but to vote for third party candidates who have no chance of winning. At least it sends a message. How about a party that stands for fiscal responsibility and small government without the " Big Brother " mentality. Keep out of folks private lives as much as possible. A party that is smart enough to realize that overtaxing the money makers in our country is not the best way to do things. A party that will reform the IRS and do away with The Federal Reserve System. A fair tax for everybody. A party that will go the extra mile to strengthen state's rights and allow them more freedom to create their own laws and govern themselves. A party that will realize The War On Drugs has turned into a War On The Poor and will embrace treatment as opposed to imprisonment as the answers to the problem.

Until voters start thinking outside of the box, we are going to be stuck with the same old, same old. They will keep on doing what they have been doing for the last 100 years. The wealthy corporations and special interest groups will keep buying politicians that forward their agenda no matter if it is good for the country or not. They will tell the same lies over and over again. The Democrats will pretend that they are champions of the poor and downtrodden. The Republicans will pretend like they are the party of small government, fiscal responsibility and family values. We have nearly four years to think about it. Use it well.

Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

A"Freaking"MEN.  No pun intended, of course;)

May 19, 2009 05:22 AM
Hugh Krone
Weichert Referral Associates - Hamburg, NJ
Realtor, Sussex County NJ

Israel,

I am going to try to explain why I think we need morals to be part of the national discussion.

1) Look at the divorce rate in the country. Why work at your problems just start again, Don't worry we will share the kids

2)Unwed pregnancies~No problem the government will give us help

3) Drugs~We may as well legalize them because noone cares anyway, except to keep and overextended prison system full

4) Why should anyone be surprised that half the country doesn't care if we torture(which I don't think water bording is) when half the country doesn't have a problem with infanticide(abortion)

5)Freedom of speech has come to mean that Everyone has the rigfht to use profanity as part of their daily language.

6)Lying is looked at like just another part of doing business

7) Government has become a blame game instead of an honorable profession

8) hetero sexuals have screwed up marriage so bad that it is not uncommon to hear"Why not let gays marry why shouldn't they be as miserable as I am?"

Now this is not to say that I haven't been guilty of many of these things and for a large part of my life could have been classified as a "Bleeding heart Liberal" but it seems to me that as our morals have declined so has our character. I believe if we could instill character and integrity in individuals we could still save our country. I would not want ANY religion running our country that would be a mistake, but I also think it is a mistake to try to squash  religions as I feel is happening now.

IF A MAN OR WOMAN STANDS FOR NOTHING WHAT MAKES YOU THINK THEY WILL STAND FOR YOU?

May 19, 2009 12:16 PM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

Jason-Great minds think alike:)

Hugh- Thank you for your well thought out reply. I see a very big difference between common sense laws that benefit the population and religious based mandates that are predicated upon religion rather than common sense. By pushing religion to the forefront of their platform, the Republicans are alienating many potential voters. I don't want a President who doesn't give a fig about the environment because The Rapture is coming and it won't matter.

May 21, 2009 06:19 AM
Gene Wunderlich
1st Action Real Estate - Murrieta, CA
Realtor & Legislative Liaison

I find myself agreeing with you more and more Israel  - and it's a little scary. The Republican shift to the right and the Democrat shift to the left leaves a lot of us stuck without a party to call home. The only hope is that 1) they will realize the error of their ways and change (yeah, that could happen) or 2) we develop a viable 3rd party system and/or a candidate who can truly unite across the disparity and appeal to that growing middle ground.

I think Hugh makes some good points but you can't legislate ethics or morality. We have laws in place to address some of these issues, we just need the balls to enforce them.

May 21, 2009 06:42 AM
Tchaka Owen
Galleria International Realty - Hollywood, FL

Israel - As I read your first two paragraphs I couldn't help but think of fundamentalist Islam.  But I know you were talking about our religious right.  Hmmm.......

May 21, 2009 11:19 AM
Mary Thomas BH,MB,HB, PV, Estates LA+
Remax Estates Properties - Los Angeles, CA
Mary C. Thomas Your Agent around the Globe

Isreal, I was just thinking today that the people are so fed up with both parties, I heard there is a new party going to start the Freedom party and they will get my vote too..We have all had enough!

Religion or no Religion..Great comment Hugh and very good food for thought!

May 21, 2009 04:55 PM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

Gene- It's not really that strange that we find common ground. Neither of us feels well represented by either political party. Most folks are in the middle and the differences in fundamental beliefs are subtle.

Tchaka- There are many similarities, though the denials to this fact will be vehement. In any country there will be a segment of the population who will not be satisfied by good government. They will only be happy when their certain belief system is forced upon everyone else because, naturally, they have the only correct beliefs.

Mary- Any legitimate third party will, at the least, force the other two to reevaluate the way they do business.

May 22, 2009 03:56 AM
Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

Israel - Forgive me in advance, as I rarely do this.  You can feel free to delete because I'm not a huge fan of cutting and pasting articles in the comments section as is done very often in Political Groups.  None the less, I found the following article interesting... if true...

By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to Western Subscribers

 
 Can it be true???

 
Release Madoff or Risk War, Israel Warns USA
 3/18/09    -   By: Sorcha Faal


Russian Intelligence reports are stating today that Israelâ€TMs incoming right-wing Nationalist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ‘orderedâ€TM President Obama to release disgraced Wall Street investor Bernard Madoff or ‘risk full and total regional war along with airstrikes on Iran and Syria.

Not being reported in the United States media about its worst ever case of financial fraud invol More..ving former Mossad agent Bernard Madoff is that the billions in funds collected from the wealthiest American-Israelis were used to finance Israelâ€TMs Global intelligence network reported to have been responsible for numerous attacks against its perceived enemies, including the catastrophic attacks upon America on September 11, 2001.

According to these reports, Madoff was the chief financier for a vast Israeli spy and sabotage network set up by former Israeli Security Agency (Shin Bet) director Jacob Perry (Yaakov Peri) who ‘transformedâ€TM himself into one of Americaâ€TMs most powerful businessman and led what FSB sources call the “Murderous/Fatal Gang of 7” which references the leaders of this American-Israeli cabal who besides Madoff and Perry include:

Henry Taub, Hungarian born American-Israeli who created the giant United States payroll company ADP which continues to funnel to Israeli intelligence services financial records for nearly every US citizen.

Maurice Greenberg, American-Israeli who was the former chairman and CEO of American International Group (AIG), the Worldâ€TMs 18th largest public company and its largest insurance and financial services corporation which has (so far) funneled over $180 billion in US taxpayer money directly to Israel.

Larry Silverstein, the American-Israeli billionaire who secured a lease for the World Trade Center buildings in New York on July 24, 2001, insured them for $3.55 billion spread among 24 different insurance companies, and after their destruction 2 months later on 9/11 collected $4.55 billion for Israel.

Mort Zuckerman, Canadian born American-Israeli billionaire who through his vast publishing empire has direct control over 70 percent of the news reported in the United States.

Edouard de Rothschild, French born American-Israeli member of the all powerful European Rothschild Banking Empire and director of the Rothschild & Cie Banque reported by the FSB to hold nearly 80% of the wealth stolen by Israel from the United States Government and its citizens.

These reports further state that Madoff was ‘convictedâ€TM in a ‘one of a kindâ€TM designed trial in which his guilty plea kept all evidence against Israelâ€TMs betrayal of the United States from being entered into official American records as it was deemed by the Obama administration as ‘too incendiaryâ€TM for the American people to know about and would, most certainly, unleash an Israeli backlash many Russian Military Analysts state would leave ‘many US cities in ruinâ€TM.

Bringing Israelâ€TMs threat directly to President Obama, these reports continue, was Israeli Defenses Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant-General Gabi Ashkenazi, who threatened the Americans that “an Israeli military strike was a “serious” option”, and which would ignite a Total Global War in which the very survival of the United States would be in the balance.

President Obama, however, appears ‘more than willingâ€TM to confront the Israelis, especially after being informed of the full extent of Israelâ€TMs involvement in the 9/11 attacks and the other attacks planned by the Israeli assassination and sabotage teams sent into the United States posing as Israeli ‘art studentsâ€TM, and of which the Washington Post News Service reported on in the immediate aftermath of the attacks before going permanently silent:

“In addition to the 1000-plus Middle Easterners of the Muslim persuasion swept up in Ashcroftâ€TMs post-9/11 dragnet, it seems, some 60 Israelis were in custody. And these were no ordinary tourists: INS officials testified in immigration court hearings that this group was “of special interest to the government” - the same argument used to justify the detention of Arabs in connection with the investigation into 9/11.”

It is interesting to note too that during the past week, top American investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported that former US Vice President, Richard (Dick) Cheney, headed a CIA assassination ring that these FSB reports state was specifically created to hunt down and kill ‘all Israeli agentsâ€TM found in the United States itself, or abroad.

These reports also state that President Obama in fighting back against the Israelis is fast finding that his first battles are those involving Israelâ€TMs stranglehold on his own government and Congressional leaders, and who just two weeks ago threw out the White Houseâ€TMs effort to name all lobbyists and their moneyed connection to US political, economic and military power centers.

President Obama suffered a further defeat with the withdrawal of Charles Freeman, whom he had picked to head the National Intelligence Council, but who in withdrawing slammed the Israel “lobby” strangling the United States by stating:

“The libels on me and their easily traceable email trails show conclusively that there is a powerful lobby determined to prevent any view other than its own from being aired, still less to factor in American understanding of trends and events in the Middle East. The tactics of the Israel Lobby plumb the depths of dishonor and indecency and include character assassination, selective misquotation, the willful distortion of the record, the fabrication of falsehoods, and an utter disregard for the truth. The aim of this Lobby is control of the policy process through the exercise of a veto over the appointment of people who dispute the wisdom of its views, the substitution of political correctness for analysis, and the exclusion of any and all options for decision by Americans and our government other than those that it favors.”

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/release-madoff-or-risk-war-israel-warns-us/
May 22, 2009 03:59 AM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

Jason- I am having a hard time swallowing this. Bernie Madoff swindled everybody to finance a global Jewish spy ring and if we don't release him Israel is going to start World war III?

May 22, 2009 04:06 AM
Jason Sardi
Auto & Home & Life Insurance throughout North Carolina - Charlotte, NC
Your Agent for Life

Guess what side of the fence that came from?

I have a very hard time believing that as well.

May 22, 2009 06:09 AM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

HaHaHa. I'm glad you aren't buying it. I was thinking " Jason sure is a nice guy for being a nutjob."

May 22, 2009 06:15 AM
Rob Arnold
Sand Dollar Realty Group, Inc. - Altamonte Springs, FL
Metro Orlando Full Service - Investor Friendly & F

The sad thing is that the Republican party is just the Democrat party in disguise except for (1) a few of these religious moral issues which many people don't support, and (2) instead of tax and spend Republicans believe in borrow and spend. 

The Republican party has completely lost its way and until it again becomes a fiscally conservative, lower tax, smaller government party, us true conservatives will be utterly disgusted and unsupportive of them.

May 22, 2009 08:27 AM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

I wish I could be a Republican. I really do. I am all about working hard and the government leaving you alone. I hate the Liberal creed of having the government solve all your problems for you.

May 22, 2009 10:42 AM
Israel Barden
RE/MAX Big Bear Village - Big Bear Lake, CA

This is exactly what I am talking about:

The Bible bill?

Politico

Victoria McGrane Victoria Mcgrane - Fri May 22, 5:40 am ET

When the clock strikes midnight on Dec. 31, 2009, Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.) hopes you'll be ringing in "the Year of the Bible."

It's probably just wishful thinking.

Broun's simple congressional resolution aimed at honoring the Good Book has produced a push-back of biblical proportion in the blogosphere, with critics dismissing it as either unconstitutional or a waste of time. Jews in Congress and atheist activists are dismissing the resolution, while none of the many Democrats in Congress who are Christian have bothered to sign on as co-sponsors.

According to GovTrak.us, the resolution is among the most-blogged-about pieces of legislation, with most posts less than complimentary in nature.

"Does that mean 2009 is not the year of the Bible?" mocked Rep. Barney Frank ­(D-Mass.), who is Jewish. "What is 2012 the year of? The Quran?"

"That's an endorsement of religion by the federal government, and we shouldn't be doing that," said Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), even though he has introduced his own legislation dealing with religion.

"Republican lawmakers with apparently too much time on their hands and no solutions to offer the country are pushing a resolution that will not address the nation's problems or advance prosperity or even untangle their previous governing mistakes," blogged the Progressive Puppy.

Broun rejects the critiques leveled at this effort.

"This doesn't have anything to do with Christianity," he said in an interview with POLITICO. Rather, he says, it seeks to recognize that the Bible played an integral role in the building of the United States, including providing the basis for our freedom of religion that allows Muslims, Hindus and even atheists to vocalize their own beliefs.



And even as Nadler criticized Broun, he has done his own share of mixing religion and legislation.

Last year, he introduced a bill that would overturn a federal appeals court ruling - an "idiot" decision, he says - that a condominium board in Chicago had the right to ban Jews from installing mezuzahs, which consist of a piece of parchment inscribed with a specific religious text put inside a case and hung on a door frame.

Condo boards shouldn't be able to interfere in an individual's right to practice his or her religion, Nadler said.

But he himself declined to install a mezuzah on his congressional office door when asked by a rabbi, even though he does so at home.

"That's my religious symbol, and the office does not belong to me; it belongs to the people of the congressional district, and no one should feel uncomfortable walking into the office if it's not their religion," Nadler said, describing his feelings on religion and Congress.

"Same thing with the Bible. ... It's not everybody's religion. And the federal government should not be imposing religious viewpoints."

Atheists, who might feel themselves a particular target with the declaration of a biblical year, aren't even worried about Broun's effort.

"Right now, we're seeing atheism on such a rise," said David Silverman, vice president and national spokesman of American Atheists, a group dedicated to fighting for the civil rights of atheists.

"We are seeing Christianity on such a dramatic decline that we're not particularly worried about it. We're thinking that this kind of old-style George W. Bush Republicanism is about to go away," Silverman said, referring to the latest Pew Forum survey of American religious life, which showed nonreligious Americans as the fastest-growing group.

And it may be the best-selling book of all time, as Broun's resolution points out, but the Bible isn't such a popular legislative topic.

A search of Thomas, the online congressional database, for "Bible" yields just one other bill: a resolution to have the "Lincoln-Obama Bible" on permanent display in the Capitol Visitor Center.

The resolution specifically asks the president "to issue a proclamation calling upon citizens of all faiths to rediscover and apply the priceless, timeless message of the Holy Scripture which has profoundly influenced and shaped the United States and its great democratic form of government."

As for the economy, health care, global warming and all the other issues on Congress' plate?

"While we must focus on fiscal policies that provide relief to families during these tough economic times, an endeavor I have been working tirelessly towards in this Congress, we must also not forget to protect and celebrate our fundamental freedoms that the Bible has influenced," Broun said.

Broun has gathered 15 co-sponsors, all Republicans, but says he's looking for more and hopes Democrats will sign on, as well.

"This is not a partisan issue," he said. "I want it to be bipartisan."

Whether he's successful or not - the same measure didn't go anywhere last year - at least Broun and his fellow supporters can take heart in one fact: They already had a "year of the Bible."

Ronald Reagan designated 1983 as one, with Congress' blessing.

May 23, 2009 03:08 AM