the american immigration problem

I feel that if the 12 million estimated illegal immigrants were given anything remotely similar to amnesty, it would be like telling the people who came here legally, that they were stupid for following the rules of our nation and being honest enough to follow the rules to be here.

It also opens up the flood gates to further illegal immigration by telling people that if enough illegal immigrants enter America, the fact that they didn't follow the rules will not be a factor in determining citizenship. It also lets anyone who is straddling the fence so to speak on whether to come here legally or illegally, that it would be in their best interest to be here illegally.

In the end offering anything remotely like amnesty is like placing a welcome mat at the border and saying we don't have an immigration policy. It doesn't help when there are some countries out there that have a double standard about immigration, they seem to want hard line policies of their own but lax policies for other countries.

an idea on global warming

Global warming, everyone agrees that something has to be done to reverse the effects of it on our environment. The one problem with global warming is the fact no two climatologists can agree on how dire the situation is.
Everyone who is trying to getting get the point across should be trying to show existing ways of or coming up with ways of their own to help reverse global warming. This is especially true since we have land that we currently view as unusable due to it being to arid to be used along with limitations on our clean drinkable water.
In an effort to counteract the negative aspects of global warming and resulting climate changes, maybe we should be looking at the deserts of the world differently and look to scale up efforts at the commercial desalinization of ocean water in an effort to make arid land sustainable land for crops and small communities.
The only real problem with the world's deserts is the lack of sustained water sources to them on a regular enough, basis to keep it from being usable by our current standards. If we stepped up the commercial desalinization of ocean water to the point that we could send it to the deserts to help create usable farmland and small communities around them to help support the farms, while easing some of the congestion in other areas given a genuine willingness of people to move to those areas.

why I feel President Bush should resign or be impeached

I would like to believe George W. Bush is a good person who has been perceived as someone that is misunderstood. Unfortunately, regardless of intent he has come across as someone who came into office with an agenda beyond running the country. Given statements he has made in the media I feel that his impeachment is warrented.

He showed us when asking for a declaration of war against Iraq he was shooting from the hip by asking for the declaration of war before before the information that was provided to be double checked by the agency that handed him the report.

when reading the constitution, you can see that it is broken up into numbered articles that break down the specifics of each branch of government including the break down of duties between the house of representatives and the senate.

when you come to article VI, it specifically states:

"The Senators and Representatives before mentioned and the memvers of the several State Legislatures and all executive and judicial officers both of the United States and of the several States shell be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to hold any office of public trust under the United States."

during his re-election campaign he came out and told a auditorium full of of Christian Conservatives that if he were to be re-elected and he was given the opportunity to put a new justice in the Surpreme Court, he would nominate a person who shared their specific religious values to the post.

I feel that by doing that President George W. Bush did enact a religious test to for the nomination process of the cheif justice of the Surpreme Court, which would constitute a technically impeachable offense.

The Middle East

at the moment the whole question of whether or not we should pull out of that region and in particular Iraq, is a paradox in of itself. Regardless of how we got there, we are technically an occupying force that is forcing our rule onto the people who are the innocent people in Iraq that didn't ask for their former dictator or our occupation, but at the same time we have to be there to prevent genocide based on the different sects and sub sects of the dominate religion.

Religion is a major part of their lives over there and there are outside forces in that region that would prefer to manipulate the religion so they can manipulate people like a puppet-master does with a puppet. The reclusive masterminds would have us believe it is all about religion, but in the end it really isn't about religion, it is really about the masterminds wanting to control people.

If we were to leave Iraq we would be like opening up the hen house to a pack of wolves, but at the same time if we were to stay much longer we would be unintentionally proving the terrorist organizations points, due to having the patience to wait us out.

political correctness

Regardless of whether your commentary is good, bad or anywhere in between, we are becoming a society where we have to walk on egg shells when it comes to dealing with other peoples emotions.

People are becoming thin skinned when it comes to any type of commentary even if it is directed at an individual and possibly warranted. Granted some of time the commentary will be off color and derogatory in nature but that isn't any reason to treat all commentary as such.

In the main stream media, it is evident that part of the problem is the media outlets themselves and part is certain people in positions of high visibility that push the subject onto a group of people such as race, gender, social class, sexuality and so on, even if the commentary was pertaining to a specific individual or a group of people perpetuating a stereotype.

There are also groups of people that by nature that believe we have to be protected from anything and everything that can potentially harm us either emotionally or physically sometimes to the point that they become the people doing the harm but without being able to see it.

In every society there are people who definitely are frail either emotionally or physically but there is no need to have all of society walking on egg shells with everyone in society due to a small part of society. Some of those frail people are people who need to project their frailty onto others so they feel better which is happening in some cases.

If we are more interested in protecting people from themselves we are going to be raising a generation of Americans that will be a special interest group unto itself.

A Show of Support

I may not be able to join our soldiers on the battlefield.

I may not be able to lend direct support to our soldiers over on the battlefield.

But I can show support and solidarity to our soldiers and war veterans by keeping the principles and the ideals that this country was founded on in my heart.

I can show our soldiers and our war veterans that their efforts are not in vain, by doing my best to make sure that the principles and ideals that this country was founded on are kept alive and held in high regard even amidst oppression and tyranny that some people would have us tolerate and accept as the norm.
I may not be able to lead this country effectively but I can lead by example.

I can show support to my fellow countrymen and women by doing my personal best to live up to and to teach the principles and the ideals that were set fourth by the founding fathers of this country of ours. For if we forget where we came from, we forget who we are and what our country stands for.

I will when I can stand up and show my fellow countrymen and women that the principles and ideals set fourth by the founding fathers of our country were not set fourth in vain by giving everyone the respect that they deserve.

I will also honor the decisions and choices that everyone makes and will respectful in the way I present any criticism that I may have.

memorial day

This Memorial day we are in desperate need of something that we have been seeing little of over the past few years. This nation of ours has been preoccupied by our superficial ways and a government that is in a power struggle due to a president that does not bend to the people who elected him and a congress that is unwilling or incapable of standing up for the people who in the last federal election voted in a way that mandated that the government listen.

we need a unified stance for both domestic affairs and the war with the insurgents in Iraq. neither side is willing to listen to the other nor are they willing to cooperate to help overcome their differences.

what we are doing is making our founding fathers role in their graves by letting the different parts of the government walk over each other unabated. if we keep allowing each part of the government to walk all over each other then we will end up falling apart as a nation.

The Republican party

I have a few friends that are Republicans, and have no problem with them being Republican. It is the Leadership of the political party and the politicians who are Republican I tend not to agree with. I will not put anyone down here but I would like to state my opinion on how I think they appear in the media.

The republican leadership appears to be smart people with well enough intentions but work against themselves at least in my book. Both mainstream political parties do seem somewhat out of touch with the voters but the Republicans appear to be worse off than the democrats with being in touch with the voters, this is due to what looks to be a college fraternity mentality.

I am saying that they have a fraternity mentality due to the fact that they tend to treat non-republican legislation with disdain even if it means positive change for their constituents. They also tend to hold onto a narrow view of what is best for this country and tend to blindly follow the party line when ever there is any legislation that may be considered controversial. each group regardless of political or social affiliation, tends to back their members up but the republicans at least in the public eye tends to protect its ranks even when they cannot be defended against their own action.

religion and politics

I will not fault anyone for having religion or politics as their driving force in their lives. I feel that they both have their place but should not be mingled together as deeply as some would want us to do.

Unfortunately, with the founding of the Moral Majority, by Jerry Falwell more than two decades ago we have more people trying to make Christian Doctrine into governmental law. For somethings I can understand why people would want it or feel it is needed but other things I feel it is an intrusion into the private lives of people who don't practice any of the Christian faiths or don't agree with religion being force fed to them from strangers that don't have anything to do with them personally.

Jerry Falwell had the best of intentions when trying to open peoples eyes to what you can do when it comes to government, but he should have made every effort to seperate his religous teachings from his political views due to the fact that even though we do put the two together to some degree we should never put them together on a large scale like what has happened. Religion is based on beliefs and values that are suppose to be based in the home, the respective places of worship and the respective local communities that they are in.

given that religion has tried to intrude into politics, how would a religious service take to a politician trying to turn their service into a political forum?

seems someone likes my writing

I have been posting some commentary on a blog that I have, that is part of a community of blogs for a local paper I read and it seems that they really like the commentary I have due to the fact that I have had 7 blog entries in the last month published and recently they started running a contest that if a blogger sees his or her name in the paper during the course of the week they are in the running for a thousand dollar prize if they submit had submitted an entry form.

my other blogs

http://seanspoemsandstories.blogspot.com/
my attempt at trying to write poems and stories please bear with me on it.

http://fitchburgsactonrailtransitblog.blogspot.com/
an attempt at team blogging with friend I commute with on the Fitchburg train that I haven't had any luck with as of right now

http://bostonnow.com/community/blogs/seanie/
my only blog not on blogspot. It is on wordpress only because it is directly associated with Boston Newpaper that prints blog entries from blogs associated with it. It is similar to the blog I am writing this entry on and have had 6-8 blog entries in the paper between the two blogs.

where do I fit in...

I wish I knew where I fit in when it comes to being liberal and being conservative due to the fact I am too liberal to be considered conservative but at the same time I am to conservative to be a liberal. I think I may be a moderate but you very rarely hear about moderates due to the fact the ends of the political spectrum are always at each others throats and get most if not all of the press.

I am of the mind set that we have rules for a reason, for which some of them cannot or should not be relaxed and some that can be relaxed or rewritten to accommodate times when the rules work against something that my need to be or should be done due to how restrictive the rules are.

I do feel however that in some instances where there are things people will do regardless of restrictions, the stuff should be allowed but done with oversight and regulation. By no means am I saying that we should go ahead and take away every law or restriction on things I am only saying in some cases where someone is willing to do it regardless of whether it is legal or not we should agree to make it legal but with oversight and has to be done under certain conditions.

Like I said I wish I knew where I fit in.

The needs of the many...

"The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few or the one." It may be a line from a sci-fi movie but I feel it is more than that due to how society works and needs to work.

Society is made of individuals that make up the many, but society works best when dealing with the many due to the aggregation of individual needs into different groups that have similar needs. The aggregation of many individuals into specific groups helps both society and the individual.

When dealing with the many, society needs to group the few together so they can learn to tailor any programs to address the many that also helps the individual in the process. When dealing with the few or the one, what society has learned allows the few or the to find resources better.

There are times where it has to be the reverse due to the few and the one being the ones that make up many, and there are times you cannot learn to deal with the many without learning how to deal with the individual first.

unfortunately many people especially in certain countries tend to believe that the many are there to serve them without regard to what it takes to accommodate them and their desire to keep taking without giving back in some way.

But in general that specific line has some logic to it regardless of where it came from.

"The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few or the one" -- admiral kirk and captain spock from Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan.

presidential candidate commentary

Everyone is saying that it is time for real change in our government. At the same time we have presidential candidates stating that we need to change this and fix that without coming up with ideas to do just that, that would help their chances of getting elected. Instead they have chosen the route of hypocrisy and feel their way through the questions that they field at campaign stops and at debates.

I believe that if the presidential candidates want to say that we need to change this and fix that, then they should decide what should be done specifically concerning each topic that they feel is a priority and then break it down on paper in a manner that would be easily read and understood by most if not all of the voters.

also posted to my other blog which is:
http://bostonnow.com/community/blogs/seanie/

which is part read on a regular basis by a freebie newspaper in boston that prints blog entries and blog url's to help the paper relate better to the community it serves.

The MBTA and the state

The MBTA, even with all of the negative press over how badly managed it is, it is still a better value especially now if you have to drive into Boston and more specifically Downtown Boston when dealing with fuel costs and daily parking since downtown parking is through the roof for paid parking.

The state signed off on mandated expansions for the MBTA, and forced the MBTA to absorb the costs of the expansions on top of redoing how state money is allocated for the MBTA. Those two things along with the contracts that were signed when they were on much more stable ground has put the MBTA on track with major financial problems

If we do not take measures now to remedy each of the major issues that would inevitably force the MBTA to raise fares to the point that it would cause the bulk of the daily commuters to rethink whether they can afford to use the services provided by them especially coming from cities and towns serviced by the commuter rail.

What is needed is a viable financial restructuring plan for the MBTA that would have the state take on all mandated expansions that, the state itself should have picked up from the start, that the federal government insisted on the state to do for the federal funding for the big dig.

drug research

When dealing with prescription drugs, we are at the mercy of the drug manufacturers when it comes to price. This is due to the cost of the actual research and the promotional material geared towards the doctors that would be prescribing the medication.

Drug companies, should be more open to sharing information with each other in ways that would not compromise their intellectual property but in a way that would significantly cut down the duplication of research on compounds, that can drive up the costs of the end product, even if it means some sort of library that would document the research done, procedures including a list of materials not protected by law, and both the positive and negative outcomes of the research.

When it comes to promoting to doctors, the drug companies should not be lining the pockets of doctors to get preferential treatment for the medication. it is one thing to advertise the new medication it goes against the oath that the doctors take if they are paid to push a specific drug over something that has a proven track record.

The drug companies do make samples that they give to doctors for which are given to patients and should be given to the patient to try before having them go pay for a prescription for the medication so that way it is know if there will be a reaction to the drug before the person pays for medication they may not be able to use.

politicians

There are many honest politicians out there but there is a minority of politicians that have helped to turn our government from a constituent friendly to a corporation friendly government.

When i t comes to mainstream politics the the United States, we have been conditioned to be complacent enough to permit the political structure to be dominated by a select few rather than run the whole of government. It doesn't help when some politicians prefer to do sidebar politics or to stick with affiliate party lines over what is needed for this country.

In regards to the honest politicians that are trying to actually do right by the people who elected them, they are belittled and betrayed by their fellow politicians if those politicians would do for corporations and special interests rather than the constituents that elected them.

We need to band together and toss those few out on the streets rather than keep electing them term after term and it has to start from the top down. As long as we keep electing people who have agendas other than helping the people of our country then we are perpetuating our own demise, by saying its perfectly fine to hold our citizens in contempt when they try to do whats right by the population.

bio-tech

Given the recent convention for the Bio-Tech field and the bio-lab being built on the campus of Boston Medical Center, it is easy for many to assume that all we are trying to accomplish with the Bio-Tech field is weapons grade bacteria and virus's or animal cruelty supposedly in the name of science.

By no means am I trying to say there hasn't been animal cruelty or that we are not looking for weapons grade material but they are not the only things to have come out of the Bio-Tech field. If every protester were to look at the advancements that we have made in treating medical and physical conditions both human an animals in recent years they will see they themselves have had medical procedures done to them that potentially were tested on people or animals for which they are protesting.

The Bio-Tech field is more disperse than the protesters would have us believe but if you want to boil it down to weapons grade materials, we are not the only nation to have those materials and some of them can last for years in the environment, you might want to think about it this way:

If we are capable of using bio-warfare tactics; they are capable of using bio-warfare.

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John Edwards

John Edwards, I think he is one of the best if not the best candidate for the Democratic Party's Nomination for president. He definitely had the credentials to be the president and has shown that he is willing to stand up for what he believes in.

Unfortunately, unless there are enough people willing to go against politics as usual, he will not get the nomination. This is due to his honest and caring demeanor, for which the political mainstream is not accustomed too.

John Edwards, has shown that he is a person who genuinely kind and an intent listener regardless of subject matter or opinion he holds. He has also shown great strength in light of his wife Elizabeth's on going struggle with cancer by being by her side while keeping the campaign going. He should be commended on that and her for not letting the cancer get the best of her.

global warming

The environment, we are part of it due to living in it. In recent years there has been a big squawk over global warming. Global warming, when people talk about it, so far has been mostly about trying to stop it by changing the type of fuel used to create our electricity and to run our motor vehicles.


At present, we cannot effort to just change how we fuel our energy production. We need to change our whole mindset as to why we need so much energy to consume in our daily lives. We need to learn how to link the corporate mentality and our overall disposable culture to global warming in an effort to lower our energy needs and consumption.

When it comes to the corporate mentality, it provides many incentives to get people to buy products and services by supplying unneeded trinkets as sales aids for people who influence what we buy and how often we buy. This mentality perpetuates the disposable culture mindset that we currently have.

to some degree we do need some disposable items in some areas but we have an appetite for all things disposable and the appetite is growing. we need to move away from the disposable mentality in favor of lifestyles that promote more Reusable products that can be continually reused/refurbished and more products that are easily recycled or broken down in the environment.

our appetite has been fueled by manufacturers that prefer to market disposable items as a way to keep customers coming back rather than designing products that can be serviced and possibly upgraded as a way to keep customers coming back.

we cannot effectively address global warming by just dealing with how we produce our energy, we need to address how much waste we create on a daily basis that adds to our environmental and energy crisis'.

my writing

I am always thinking and when I find myself thinking of something that bothers me that I can make an attempt to change even if it is through writing down ideas and sending them to places like companies that are trying to deal with environmental issues in a positive way or to the United States Congress concerning issues related to both domestic and international matters.

I have found that when I start thinking about something that I feel I should put down on paper, by the time I put it down on paper it is more like a second draft rather than a rough draft. I have always found that I can express myself better when I write over talking at least when I have the time to think.

I have always liked writing and have an interest in writing to better myself and to earn some extra money, but I haven't really had any direction with regards to my writing other than putting down on paper what I feel I need to talk about.

I can only hope that as you read my other posts here that you like the way I write and like my commentary.

economy commentary

When it comes to the economy, my contribution to the economy has been getting smaller and smaller and it isn't from not working a full time job either. I have the desire to by the things that I want and that would help make my life easier, but with a stagnant salary it's just not happening. It has a lot to do with the fact that living expenses are going up faster than my income.

From my point of view, the economy isn't as good as all these big name business people are saying it is. When you have friends, neighbors and co-workers that are barely scraping by or living the same lifestyle they did as far back as five years ago, it is hard to believe that the economy is doing as good as the experts say it's doing.

Yes we have been doing a good job of recovering from the attacks on 9/11 but at the same time we have had some of those jobs disappear again only to reappear in countries where the labor is many times cheaper than here to save in labor costs. The only problem with shipping those jobs over seas is that you start boosting the economy in that country and eventually the companies would have to move those jobs again to keep labor costs down.

in the end we are left with service industry jobs that don't pay the same wages as those jobs that were moved out of the country. We will eventually see those jobs come back but they will not be back for a generation or two due to the same reasons they left.

commentary and ideas concerning the mass infrastructure shortfall

When the State of Massachusetts came out and admitted that there would be a 20 billion dollar shortfall with in the next 20 years in the transportation infrastructure, I had no problem believing that of the MBTA given their financial situation of late, I knew that the highway system was in bad shape but I didn't expect it to be as bad off when it came to the money to maintain them.

The state has to stop debating how to pay for the shortfall just to maintain the states main transportation infrastructure and start looking at what is needed to meet the needs of maintaining, upgrading and expanding where and when needed so that way each thing can be addressed properly.

here are some suggestions as to help pay for the needed upkeep and expansion:

• mandate that each company looking to build near a highway or rail bed to pay or pay a percentage of the cost of the needed cost of making the highway accessible to the company. the cost should include the stretch of highway with in a certain radius in both directions of the highway.
• try to get companies to work together to build office/industrial parks to help them offset the price of the overall cost of upgrading the needed infrastructure for local streets and the highway that would feed those streets.
• see if companies would be willing to build over the highways to reduce the cost for both the company and the state when dealing with infrastructure and environmental concerns since the base infrastructure would already be there and to some degree the environmental impact is already know, while repairing/upgrading the highway so far in both directions possibly with off ramps dedicated to the company that would also be maintained by the company or office/industrial park occupants.
• for companies already abutting the highways and rail beds see if any of them are looking to expand and locations as to where they want to expand and for what reasons. if space is a problem due to the rail bed or the highway approach them to see if they would be willing to expand at their current location if they would be willing to build over and possibly on both sides to help repair or upgrade that stretch of highway to a certain point in each direction.
• where there are rail yards see if there are companies willing to deal with the trains ant their problems, and build over the rail yard with very good safety protocols.
• where there are train stations redevelop the stations so that way they are not stand alone station but rather part of an overall part of the building project so the rail system can lease out the property not designated as part of the station itself.
• when looking to expand the mass transit system, look to see which communities want the expansion to their communities. after the desire is established bring the communities on board to have them pick up part of the tab. also, do this with companies that would benefit from a building being built of required space for the companies, on top of the new stations.

The MBTA has been toying with the idea of combining the Shirley and Ayer commuter rail station for a few years now. it is to the point that it made it into the capital improvement plans for the Fitchburg line proposed through the next decade.

The proposed site for the combined station would be at the main entrance to what use to be Fort Devens which is now just Devens. The MBTA should seriously consider this due to the fact that a major pharmaceutical company just broke ground on a 750 million dollar project to build a manufacturing plant for the company that would employ 350 people to start with.

There is no way the MBTA can get all of the people who would be commuting there to take the train there on a daily basis but it does warrant the combined station to be there along with more and better service to that area. The MBTA would end up making out on the deal by getting people who are currently commuting to Devens who have to drive there due to a lack of access through public transportation but would prefer to use public transportation.

The MBTA, if combining the Shirley and Ayer Stations should think about offering bus service between the station and various points in Devens but if there is a regional bus company already in place then they should think about entering a contract that give supplemental service or dealing with a specific part of the service area.

commuter rail ideas sent into the rider oversight committe last june

The commuter rail has many advantages over driving but it isn’t as cost effective as it could be if it were not for the years of neglect in favor of expansion and if the MBTA really took the time to look at what is wrong with the Commuter rail system.

• The MBTA with regards to capital improvements for the commuter rail should look at the companies that run along the rail beds of the different lines to see if they need to expand and if the expansion could be done at the existing location with being able not to just abut the rail bed but lease the air rights over and abut on both sides of the rail bed to help them expand. Do this in an attempt to divert money from capital improvements to commuter rail expansion while looking to see if the companies that will abut the new rail bed would consider expanding over and onto both sides of the rail bed to make it more cost effective for both the MBTA and the companies looking to expand . Along with attracting businesses to locate close enough to the station being built for it to beneficial to both the companies and the MBTA in an attempt to split the cost of the expansion.
  
• The commuter rail has an aging fleet of engines and rail cars that are slowly becoming unusable due to the age and the equipment being rebuilt repeatedly to the point that some equipment cannot be rebuilt any more along with toughening environmental laws. The MBTA should think about adapting an advertising idea that they have been using on the local bus lines. Where the commuter rail can be seen from the skyscrapers and runs along the various highways and through cities and towns, with the trains being visible for a good stretch, make them mobile billboards like what the MBTA did with the buses by wrapping them in the advertisements. In this case wrap each rail car in an advertisement whether each car has its own ad or the whole train being used for a single ad. If this is actually able to make money then put that money directly into the commuter rail system to buy new equipment to replace the aging equipment.

John McCain

John McCain, he seems to be the most genuine person that the republicans have bidding for the Republican nomination. I think that regardless of his credentials or agenda, he will not receive the Republican nomination due to his age working against him.

I believe him to be a good man but he has done himself a disservice in the past, more specifically when he last made a run for the White House. The current President Bush, belittled McCain's service in Vietnam with emphasis on the time he was a prisoner of war. McCain stood back and allowed Bush to attack him personally on the issue and ended up being tossed aside because of it.

John McCain, should have stood up to President Bush and put him in his place since President Bush used his family's name to get him an obscure post in the reserves that was unlikely to be sent over to Vietnam. In the end he will probably have to answer why he didn't fight back when pushed on his record in the military.

published letter of mine from BostonNow, with an added paragraph

If Menino really wanted a new city hall for boston, he should have made an attempt to see if a new city hall would have been feasible at the present location rather than insisting on a waterfront view.

The current location has enough space to bould a new one and then some. Menino, if he talked to developers, could develop the current city hall into multiple towers with a new Boston City Hall being part of the overall builing project.

There is enough space there to build multiple towers that could be leased out to businesses while still having City Hall there.

This would also go in line with an idea I had submitted to the MBTA about redeveloping existing subway stations so that they are not stand alone stations but rather part of an overall development project where there is a building or buildings over the station. the redevelopment of Boston's City Hall Plaza would encompass the existing subway station on site.

plausible solar power source for an idea I posted here

a few days ago I posted a topic concernig water desalinization and water pipeline with a couple added things that were not in my original posting. after posting I watched a program about solar power on my local public television station, which had a different approach to solar power generation.

as it turns out it is right along the lines I was thinking when I originally wrote the article when I mentioned that it should have solar power to offset the power needs of the water desalinization. I permalinked the webpage from the website for the show in case anyone would like to read about it. I am also putting the link in the body of the post too incase you can't find the link anywhere else.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/solar/catc-nf.html