We gotta fight the powers that be

originally posted May 3, 2007



i’m really sorry for the political post, ignore it if you must, but i couldn’t let this one go- the presidential power of the veto.

only used 2 times in the current administration, the lowest of any president in our lifetime- but used against 2 topics that could really change this nation- bush used the power of the veto to prevent stem cell research and to prevent troop withdrawal and controlled spending.

debatable topics yes- but why the veto? once a bill passes the house and the senate, the president can return the bill to congress within 10 days with objections- but he chose to veto both bills. end of discussion. at this point the house and senate must have a 2/3 majority in order to overcome the presedential veto- which is next to impossible right now due to the near even split of dems/repubs in the house and senate. bush never had to use his veto before when his party was in complete control (hence the low veto record). in past administrations it was possible to overcome a veto due to the dem/repub distribution. sure dicussions over troop withdrawal and funding are currently ongoing, but in the current environment this will be a game of who will back down first.

i know what you are thinking- so what? this is an important topic for me for numerous reasons, but the most selfish being that my life’s work relies on government grants. there is a rapid decline in academic sciences in the US as the republicans wage their war against science- hundreds of billions of dollars are being cut from the national institutes of health which must close it’s doors to important research sectors due to lack of funding. just this past year they closed their doors to lens research in the national eye institute- which means that there will never be an understanding or cure for cataracts and other lens related disorders. you may not care right now, but 1 in 50 people develop cataracts and it is a major complication in asthmatics, diabetes, and many drugs used to treat other disorders- one day when you’re blind you’ll remember this post.

why do i stay in government funded academic science? because it is creative, thought provoking and artistic in every way. The US is loosing its good creative scientists to the pharmaceutical industry (or they leave science all together and go into banking or law or whatnot) daily as government spending on the military increases and science decreases. there’s nothing wrong with working for a pharma but the true understanding of disease and disease prevention comes from academia- the creative drive behind new discoveries does not occur in the private pharma sector, it occurs in the public academic sector. as we continue to loose good creative scientists to industry & other fields (because they need to pay the bills and feed a family), we will end up loosing scientists all together and those that exist will work in money driven (not disease driven) industries developing more drugs with more complications and lawsuits in the future without the understanding needed to develop the drug properly & prevent side effects and complications. it’s the difference between understanding the compound versus the system (how can you fix an unknown problem with your car if you only know how to change the oil- sure it takes time and money to learn about the whole car and how it works and fix the problem and it seems much simpler to just buy a new car and start again, but what if that car breaks too? obviously there is something wrong with the design and only true understanding of the whole design will allow you to fix and prevent future problems- silly analogy, i know) the best teams are when pharma and academics work together.

Ok, so back to the point. Bush has been able to wield his power and get his way numerous times. In this game of chicken, who will back down first during negotiations? I am worried that bush will win and congress will back down and give him lots of money to spend on the military because they don’t want to be seen as un-patriotic for not supporting the military and being the cause of military deaths because money wasn’t there to support the troops. Funny enough the real patriotic thing to do would be to bring them back home to their country and families (which bush won’t do) and to give them proper healthcare and benefits (which bush cut). If congress backs down first, bush will be able to spend more on this war and cut $$ from science and education.

Please please reach out to your congressman and support them- with words of encouragement- telling them to not back down and do what is right. don’t let bush just use his veto to end the fight.

Ok I’m done ranting and rambling. For now.

Our freedom of speech is freedom or death

We got to fight the powers that be

Lemme hear you say

Fight the power