the up coming primary/caucus season

The up coming Caucuses and primaries for the U.S. Presidential election will undoubtedly heat up after the Iowa caucus and the New Hampshire primary. At this point in time the candidates are still trying to woo the voters while acting as if their a shoe in to win regardless of the latest poll numbers even if they are nail biting in the shadows.

There is one thing that a couple candidates more than the others are playing to and that is the religious beliefs of the voters especially in Iowa, which is in the Bible Belt of the nation. Unfortunately no one will take them to task on the separation of church and state even though the could be taken to task and they know that no one will call them on it either.

The law clearly states in article VI of the U.S. Constitution, that no religious test can be required to attain an appointed or elected office in the federal government. The first amendment also states that the government can make no laws an establisment of religion or prohibiting the exercise there of.

Unfortunately, over time these two things even though they state in no unclear terms have been pushed aside by people who wish to push their religious beliefs onto others and state that these lines in the constitution does not constitute a separation of church and state.

chances are one of the candidates that are playing to the religious beliefs of the Iowa voters will win the caucus it is just a question of by what margin.

Benazir Bhutto

It was a sad day for Pakistan when former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto was assassinated. In my opinion her assassination shows the internal power struggle that Pakistan itself has due to Al Qaida looking to destablize the government and if I heard correctly (not sure if it is true) the Pakistani military prefering to be in power.

The problem with Benazir Bhutto's assassination is not knowing who wanted or needed her out of the political equation more?

Christmas

I grew up celebrating Christmas due to growing up Catholic. In my lifetime which has span just 36 short years I have noticed that even though it is a religious holiday, it has become commercialized to the point that in some areas it doesn't even resemble a religious holiday at all.

I believe in the religious event that Christmas symbolizes yet don't like what it has become for many who actually believe in it. What I cannot agree with is others who supposedly believe in the holiday, using the symbolism of the holiday to push materialism and vanity rather than the faith behind the holiday.

I grew up Catholic and still call myself Catholic even though I don't regularly practice my religion by going to church regularly. I do however keep as true as I can to what I was taught and feel like Christmas one of the most revered of all Christian Holidays has been turned into something that Christianity in general strives against.

The commercialism of Christmas has caused it to go from a religious holiday to a holiday of indulgence with some of it being self indulgence. Everyone who intentionally feeds into the commercialism is taking the name of the lord in vain by showing that giving materialistic gifts out of guilt is more important than living up to the faith of the holiday.

giving gifts is suppose to show that you care about others not about how much you can spend on those gifts or on a specific individual.

presidential candidates

This presidential election even though we are still in the primary season, we as a nation are in a different position than we normally are. This time around we are faced with deciding between genders and race which people have taken notice of.

regardless of qualifications, gender and race issues will arise as time goes by in this election season which will surely create tensions between various groups of people who might otherwise be on the same side in the way things get done.

the only way to get past the issues that may detract from who we feel is most qualified to be president, is to look past both the gender and race of the people who are running for president so we can actually see what they stand for and what they are hoping to accomplish as president in an attempt to find out who we think is the most qualified.

Mitt Romney's speech

Presidential candidate Mitt Romney in a way had to give a speech concerning his religion and politics due to people making necessary due to faith issues.

I do not agree with what he is doing based on his past political experience in Massachusetts but he did make at least one point that I have been trying to state in message boards and in letters to the editor of multiple newspapers which is the fact that there is a distinct separation of church and state.

that is a great point but given the circumstances surrounding his gubernatorial campaign and subsequent election as the Massachusetts governor, he has shown that even though he has now stated publicly that there is a separation of church ands state he becomes a hypocrite given what he said in his campaign and subsequent tenure in Massachusetts.

in his gubernatorial campaign he expressed that his faith would not interfere with his job as governor, yet a few months into his first year as governor he started showing that he could not leave his religion at the front door of the statehouse by stating that he would not support different laws based on his religious beliefs.

given his past record with massachusetts, I cannot believe that he will not bring his religion to the table as the president regardless of how polished his campaign speeches are.

the peace talks in annapolis maryland

Everyone knows that both the Israelis and the members of the Arab states are willing to talk peace, this has been shown that they have talked about different things until they were blue in the face on both sides but when it comes to actually living up to what they promised each other is a different story.

The problem lies with the fact that both sides have been fighting each other for many generations going back hundreds if not thousands of years over the same plot of land. this one plot of land is where three major religions were born and each religion that is still a dominate force over in that region insists that they are owed that land citing the same reasons.

The only way both sides are going to actually do what it takes to attain peace there is to acknowledge that both can co-exist there as equals since they share the same family tree, they started at the same place with the same family but the family members chose a different path in the way they practiced their religious beliefs, therefore creating multiple religions.

They need to have faith in their common beliefs even if practicing those beliefs are different before they can move forward with the peace process for the middle east.

in response to atlanta's worsening drought, a reworking of something I wrote

Water Pipeline, solar energy, water desalinization and desert farming

By no means is water desalinization a cheap way of producing clean drinkable water but it has to be seriously considered and transporting the water in the quantities needed also has to be addressed when it comes to bringing clean drinkable water to people who need it, in an attempt to get around the geographical barriers like mountain ranges such as the Rocky Mountains of North America, and the mountain range that goes down the western side of the African continent that has made much of the African continent that acts like a barrier keeping the clouds from moving into the arid areas which are growing in size at least in Africa, I hope this is a workable idea that could be used but the people that have the capability to get it done.

In areas that are desert terrain due to mountain ranges being too tall to permit rain clouds to move past them, build water pipelines that travel over and through the mountain ranges to large desalinization plants in the deserts.
Power the desalinization plants using the technology currently being used in the solar one project (thermo-trough solar arrays) or another large scale solar power array so as not to use any type of fossil fuels.
Each desalinization plant would need to be large enough to exceed the needs of the population of the desert communities that they would be serving them to account for the water loss due to the excess heat of the desert.
In an attempt to contain the water and to provide climate controlled farming for these desert communities, build greenhouses that are based on the bio-dome concept, while compensating for the excess carbon dioxide that is more than the plants can handle in the self contained environment, install a bioreactor based on the design tested by MIT for GreenFuel Technologies Inc. which uses algae to collect carbon dioxide.
When deciding what to farm in the bio-dome style greenhouses, for crops grow food that the communities traditionally eat and would be willing to eat along with breeding what they traditionally call farm animals that have the ability to roam anywhere in the facility that is used for growing plants except for where the crops for the communities are grown.
Utilizing some of the extra desalinized water and extra growing space, provide greenhouse services for the communities specializing in plants, bushes and trees indigenous to the specific region with a section geared towards the rare foliage in an attempt to keep the plant, bush or tree species going.
When designing the system as a whole, design it to permit a minimum or maximum amount of water loss and design it to be a water dispensary so that a predetermined amount of water can be distributed to other areas in the desert communities and to create and maintain periodic placements of water facilities for travelers.
Any brine that is unusable either pipe it back into the ocean if it has little to no negative impact on the regions it is being placed into even if it means dispersing it over a wide area, or allow it to dry out to provide sea salt to those who use sea salt.

Social Security and Presidential candidates

it is good that the presidential candidates are taking up the issue of Social Security since it has been a hot topic for the past couple of years. Unfortunately the proposed remedies no one wants to hears.

the first proposal is geared towards people who make more than $97,500 in annual income. The proposal is to raise the cap on taxable income for the Social Security tax for which the people who make more than that amount does not want to hear. it may not be something that will correct everything that is ailing the Social Security Administration but it does add money to it which is badly needed given that the benefits will eventually exceed the money going in.

the only other proposal on the table is to reduce benefits, which for many people already on Social Security would cause financial hardships. Given the current state of the economy, there is no viable way of reducing benefits and still having the retirees be financially capable of taking care of themselved.

The benefits need to keep up with the economy otherwise we force retirees to go back to the workforce to help suppliment their benefits which would cause even more problems one of which is the fact that retirees are penalized for making money beyond a specific dollar amount or beyond a set amount of hours worked each week. another thing is that they would be competing for jobs which would flood the job market with more potential employees which would add to the problems with job market.

The economy

Regarding the economy of the U.S., the president feels that we are in a great position, which is true in some areas but the exact opposite is true in others. The economic indicators that are traditionally used are saying that the amount of jobs in the U.S. is stable if not growing, what these indicators are not saying is a fact of live for many which is the jobs being created are needed jobs but at the same time jobs with lower wages than those that had been lost due to factors like 9/11 and outsourcing jobs to other countries.

in areas where the cost of living is high such as the Northeast and parts of California, this creates a problem for families due to the fact that these lower paying jobs may not pay enough to support ones family at the current cost of living in a specific region forcing the parents to have multiple jobs to stay afloat.

education and volunteering

given the fact that everywhere you go every company is asking for some sort of experience in order to qualify for a position, volunteering should be a prerequisite for high school students especially for the students in the major cities. Volunteering will give them some of the experience needed to enter the work force whether or not the student finishes high school. whether you call it volunteering or internships it is needed in todays society due to the fact that the students will not be able to gain the needed experience if they do not have the opportunity to attend a college or university.
If the high school students are not taught the skills in school then they have to be taught elsewhere otherwise all they will qualify for are the jobs that require no skills, pay little money in return and that shows no real promise unless you show an ability to move up to a managerial position. If we are to effectively fight poverty in this country we have to ensure that all high school age children have the needed skills to enter the work force.

an idea for school based websites

I am by no means an educator but I do know that there are some communities which have websites for the schools regardless of whether they are elemenatry, middle school/junior high or high schools. I do have one idea based on the fact that some communities have websites for their schools. My idea is based solely on the expansion of the websites for the individual schools that would hopefully promote a better interaction between the students and their parents with the individual school at all levels. For good or bad this is just an idea that I had and could be tied into programs that help put computers in the hands of students in communities that have such programs.

Here is what I mean:

• Set up websites for individual schools that don’t already have them and expand on the ones that already have them by setting up pages specifically for the individual teachers that would list by class what is currently being taught and an archive of pasted projects during that school year.
  
• Set the students up with blogs to be used specifically for school purposes ranging posts to keep track of progress with any reports and projects to being able to turn in homework when they can’t turn in the homework in person. When setting up the blogs tie them into the school website and would only be viewable to the student, their parents, the student’s current teachers and the school administration with making sure that the students are the only ones capable of making changes to the posts but allows commentary from the appropriate teachers.
  
• When setting up the website and blogs set them up so that on the blogs of the individual students, a link for each of the teacher that student has during the current school year and set up so that the student has to mark the post for a specific teacher and has an RSS feed to that teacher and identifies the student by name and specific class that he is in.
  
• Set up the website to have interactive tools including resources for the students based specifically on the curriculum and grade that would be accessible to the students, their parents and the teachers.
  
• Set the website up to automatically email the parents of the individual students regarding any issues or periodically to let the parents know what is going on in specific classes.

social networking and protection

there has been a hot debate over social networking and the protection of children that use them in particular myspace which is highly popular. everyone has been talking lets do this, lets do that with no real testimate as to how to go about protecting children from online predators who utilize the social networks that are known to have lots of children on them. here is something that I hope will be of help when dealing with protecting children from predators.

set up preference tabs for content on the social networks so that content that isn't wanted will not show up for those who don't want specific content and use the age listed as a filter for those who state that they are under the age of 18 so that way they cannot view specific content. as a way of ensuring that people are the age they say they are, find a way of using the traditional forms of identification that the local, state/province and federal governments use to identify people, i.e. student id's, driver's license's, non-driving identification cards making sure that there is a way of validating the identification numbers.

mortgages

when it comes to home mortgages, especially those already out there, if the housing market continues to decline the way it has since august then financial institutions that currently hold them will end up taking a substantial loss of revenue if they forclose and end up allowing the homes to be auctioned off if they cannot sell.

this is especially true if the prospective buyers that are now unable to get approved for a mortgage under the new business practices of the financial institutions. It is my opinion that the financial institutions that deal with home mortgages would do far better to rework the mortgages so that the current home owners so that they take in a lower profit margine but still end up getting the money that they had to pay out on the initial note during the purchase of the home.

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.

an opinion on casinos coming to massachusetts

It is my opinion that casino-resorts are a good idea if you are looking to provide jobs and attract people to the state. Since gamblers will seek ways of gambling regardless of whether they have to travel for their preferred type of gambling, it would appear to make since to keep those gamblers in state. Since Massachusetts Governor Patrick is looking to fund transportation shortfalls with the projected windfall from the casino’s I would suggest that there be more than the proposed casino’s that the governor wants and in areas that would help with bringing that infrastructure back to life.

Here are some ideas that I would like to put on the table but whether anyone will listen to them is a different story.

Instead of only having one casino-resort in Boston, have a minimum of three one of which would be where Boston’s Mayor Menino wants it which is at Suffolk Downs, one – two casino-resort’s on the Boston waterfront in South Boston in or near the Marine Industrial Park that would be right on the harbor that once built would include increased Massport cruise terminal traffic and would be forced to utilize the MBTA. There should be at least one other inBoston and it should be in an area or areas of the city that could use the upgraded infrastructure and jobs the most.
To fund the expansion of the MBTA’s commuter rail, in the areas that Governor Patrick is looking to expand too, there should be a minimum of one maybe two casino’s built in the city that is proposed to be the termination point for the line provided that the city would welcome that type of atmosphere there and the influx of jobs. Allow the casino-resorts to be built there with the stipulation that they must help with funding the expansions since they would benefit from the expansion with the possibility of the terminal being right there at the casino-resort.
When it comes to the state highways, allow casino-resorts to be built over and around the highways provided that they take over the maintenance of the highway they span to a specific point especially since they would have to find ways of getting people from the highway itself to the facility.

Where Governor Patrick wants to allow casino-resorts in the state, the state needs to look at under what conditions they should be allowed and what stipulations should be given for the introduction of casino-resorts into the state. The above ideas should be treated as a starting point in how to approach the whole subject even if these specific ideas are not used, but since the governor wants to fund the transportation infrastructure this way he must allow for people to come up with ideas to offset the costs that the state would have to pick up.

atlanta drought

The area around Atlanta Georgia is facing a drought situation to the point that with in the next year they could be facing water rationing to conserve water and encompasses the top portion of the state.

Given the drought situation, the state of Georgia should take the lead and start up a municipal water desalinization program to help compansate for the lack of rain in that part of the state.

the protests in burma

I know that the military government calls the country something different now but the official name with the United Nations is still Burma. I found that the military in Burma caused more of an outcry for its citizens by firing on the protesters whom where trying to protest peacefully, even if the soldiers that fired on the crowd felt that it was warranted due to fearing for their own safety, I don't like the fact that they fired on monks who are generally peaceful and shy away from violent confrontations.

commentary for America's healthcare for children

My commentary and ideas for children’s healthcare reform

When it comes to the nation’s healthcare system trying to provide for the poor children of this nation, there has to be some degree of socialization to standardize the care of the children. The country by nature is capitalistic which causes a disparity between social classes based on the level of income which is growing larger with time. Like any other part of our society, each social class has its own ideas of what is affordable and treat others like they can which poses a dilemma for the people who cannot live up to a higher social classes ideas of affordability on anything.

Health care especially for our nation’s children should not be subject to the social distortions of what is considered affordable and therefore has to be standardized in the care itself. What we as a society have done is put a price on a person’s overall health based on what type of medical serviced that can be rendered given the money that they can pay out for it whether it be out of pocket or through an insurance company. Even with going through an insurance company which provided health insurance the insurance company still dictates what services can be rendered based on the health insurance plan you can afford.

We need to do a few different things to bring all health care for children up to a minimum standard regardless of whether or not the child’s family can afford the care and have a safety net of some sort for those who cannot afford the medical costs.

Here is what I think should be done:

Create a minimum standard that must be adhered to by all medical personnel regardless of whether or not the patients family can afford the medical treatment or not, letting the doctors have a direct say in the minimum standards.

Research what those standards would cost families and the government for when the families cannot afford the costs, then set up the needed measures to pay for the medical costs rather than blindly funding anything that can be misconstrued into something that it is not.

Find ways of getting people to utilize preventative care when ever possible to ease the costs and waits of emergency room visits, which eat up a lot of both government and private insurance money. Do this even if it means setting up and/or expanding clinics in neighborhoods where the people can go to if it isn’t an emergency situation, where they can have a primary care doctor and possibly a triage unit to determine whether or not they should be seen in an emergency room or by their doctor there.

Rather than looking at a person’s or families income as the only deciding factor in affordability for health insurance especially for children we need to look at each region of the country and factor in the cost of living in that specific region to gain a better understanding of what is affordable rather than a blanket set of rules for the country as a whole since each region has its own unique pay scales and costs of living.

When determining what is affordable with minimum standards of medical care we have to would need to look at the price of the healthcare itself, the pay scale of the region and the cost of living for that region to see what is affordable in that area and set the requirements for government assistance accordingly.

A family in Louisiana has a far different cost of living than that of a family in New York, and just because the family In New York does make more doesn’t mean that they will be able to afford more than the one in Louisiana this is due to the fact that the costs of living are different in each region. If you look at the medical costs in each individual region the costs are reflective of the cost of living for that individual region which in turn will scale up the pay to meet the costs and therefore medical costs should not be subject to the social distortions based on income that are common through out our country.

transportation infrastructure

With regards to the transportation infrastructure, it is imperative that the federal government fund it. The very fact that it is the primary way that we move everything through the transportation infrastructure should make it on of the top priorities that our nation should have. Without the needed infrastructure we would not be able to travel effectively or move the needed goods and supplies from place to place. It should be a priority in part due to the fact that if there is ever an emergency where an area has to be evacuated the transportation infrastructure would bottleneck if it were not properly maintained by our government.
At the same time even though the government should be responsible for funding it we need to fund it ourselves at the same time in the form of the needed upgrades. Anytime we upgrade the subterranean infrastructure which would include but not be limited to the utilities that put their lines underground, these companies if unwilling to do more than a patch job for the street level work done then there should be a standardized fee that would be pooled into a fund specifically earmarked for the needed work to the transportation infrastructure so that the government doesn't have to divert money from other areas to maintain the system.
Overall it should be a shared responsibility but the primary funding if not the primary controlling party for maintaining the transportation infrastructure should be the government to standardize a maintenance program which would be responsible for the oversight of the infrastructure and to direct the needed upgrades to it.

my ideas on possible casino's in Massachusetts

Ideas for casino-resorts
(Ideas stemming from Governor Patrick’s desire to fund transportation projects)
Written by Sean Davis

It is my opinion that casino-resorts are a good idea if you are looking to provide jobs and attract people to the state. Since gamblers will seek ways of gambling regardless of whether they have to travel for their preferred type of gambling, it would appear to make since to keep those gamblers in state. Since Massachusetts Governor Patrick is looking to fund transportation shortfalls with the projected windfall from the casino’s I would suggest that there be more than the proposed casino’s that the governor wants and in areas that would help with bringing that infrastructure back to life.

Here are some ideas that I would like to put on the table but whether anyone will listen to them is a different story.

Instead of only having one casino-resort in Boston, have a minimum of three one of which would be where Boston’s Mayor Menino wants it which is at Suffolk Downs, one – two casino-resort’s on the Boston waterfront in South Boston in or near the Marine Industrial Park that would be right on the harbor that once built would include increased Massport cruise terminal traffic and would be forced to utilize the MBTA. There should be at least one other in Boston and it should be in an area or areas of the city that could use the upgraded infrastructure and jobs the most.
To fund the expansion of the MBTA’s commuter rail, in the areas that Governor Patrick is looking to expand too, there should be a minimum of one maybe two casino’s built in the city that is proposed to be the termination point for the line provided that the city would welcome that type of atmosphere there and the influx of jobs. Allow the casino-resorts to be built there with the stipulation that they must help with funding the expansions since they would benefit from the expansion with the possibility of the terminal being right there at the casino-resort.
When it comes to the state highways, allow casino-resorts to be built over and around the highways provided that they take over the maintenance of the highway they span to a specific point especially since they would have to find ways of getting people from the highway itself to the facility.

Where Governor Patrick wants to allow casino-resorts in the state, the state needs to look at under what conditions they should be allowed and what stipulations should be given for the introduction of casino-resorts into the state. The above ideas should be treated as a starting point in how to approach the whole subject even if these specific ideas are not used, but since the governor wants to fund the transportation infrastructure this way he must allow for people to come up with ideas to offset the costs that the state would have to pick up.

commentary and questions on the Iraq war

I have no disrespect intended by thinking and writing this but I feel that if President Bush really believes that the war with Iraq is justifiable in the war on terrorism, then he must show the evidence he has to showing that Iraq has been a direct part of the terror network that he claims that the country was part of. We all know that Saddam was blatantly going against the U.N. Sanctions but in the mainstream media most of the things he was doing to hurt others pertained to hurting the citizens Iraq and not the western world so in my opinion it is required that Bush what show the evidence that convinced him to invade Iraq in such haste and without an exit strategy.

To honor the people who died as a result of the 9/11 attacks and to respect the military, President Bush must share his reasoning and not just asking to stay the course with the expectation of following blindly through it all. Even if they are kept confidential some questions should be asked and given to the people who deserve the answers to them.

the questions should be these or something along the lines of these:

what are the expectations for Iraq and Iraq's people?

Why is it that the Iraqi government isn't living up to some of the benchmarks?

What is the exit strategy for our military to leave regardless of timetable and is it defined clearly enough for the Iraqi government and our allies to understand?

Is it possible that we are going about the political process all wrong in Iraq given the Middle East in general having a different concept of what government should be?

Why is it that the country is being asked to blindly follow President Bush's agenda on the war on terror?

There is a big difference between protecting our country and being told we have to give up constitutionally given rights in order to fight an invisible enemy.

memorial for the 6th anniversary of the wtc coming down

At the sixth anniversary of the attack on the World Trade Center in New York, we cannot lose sight of the pain we shared on that day, not just as a nation but the world as a whole when the towers came down. The whole world mourned that day as every country lost people who had sought a better life for themselves and for their families back home and for many people they are still in mourning due to many of their loved ones never being able to be found which doesn’t allow for closure.

We can never forget what happened that day otherwise we will forget the pain we felt and who we are as individuals and who we are as a nation. We can never lose sight of the fact that the people working in the world trade center towers died because they believed in the dream that this country offered to anyone who wanted it, for if we forget we become the very thing that we have always tried not to become.

We can not allow ourselves to forget the sacrifices that hundreds of firefighters and cops made that day in an attempt to protect both the property and the lives of countless people that day with some of them making the ultimate sacrifice trying to do what they felt was right. On that day and on the days that followed those of the firefighters and cops who were still capable of being on active duty along with many hundreds of volunteers sacrificed their time and their very lives trying to look for survivors and to give closure to those who needed it.

As my then seven year old niece asked on her birthday “why did the bad people have to kill all those people on my birthday?”

a political question

given all of the talk about family and religious values that American politicians are suppose to have, why is it that the republicans are the ones that get caught with their britches down?

just wondering due to the sexual scandals that have rocked the Republican Party the past few years even though I know it happens in both parties.

alberto gonzalez' resignation

regardless of whether or not the allegations against the outgoing attorney general are warranted, I believe he did the right thing by resigning. regardless of his capabilities after the senate started looking into the allegations, he was unable to do his job correctly due to having the senate breathing down his neck and his underlings had little to no confidence in him due to possible credibility issues.

resigning protected the sanctity of the position and will allow a new person to take the helm and hopefully get things moving in the direction needed.

I feel that he is a qualified attorney but that he let his loyalty to the president get in the way to do his job the way it should be done.

the hypocrisy of religion

How can you tell people that you haven't lost your faith in religion or a belief system?

How do you tell people that you have faith in religion but have lost faith in the people who practice the religion?

How do you show the hypocrisy that people have when it comes to living up to the doctrine while they are preaching the doctrine at the same time?

How do you not feed into the hypocrisy that now has hold of segments of religion?

Ideas for an evacuation plan

Local municipalities and the states in which they are located should be working together to make sure that they have the best possible evacuation plans possible. They should also find the best ways to maintain the evacuation plans. When possible each state in a given region should try to develop a regional evacuation plan so that each state in that region can adequately deal with an influx of evacuees from the other states in that region.

· Working with the regional states and the local communities, figure out what are the most likely scenarios that would force evacuations in those regions. Then figure out which of those scenarios would fall under which level of government and under what conditions would that power, be superseded by the state or federal government for that scenario.
· Working with the cities and towns, figure out what their capacity is for taking in people that are being evacuated and if necessary add to that capacity in order to set up a network of emergency shelters. At the same time add appropriate first responder equipment and materials to the emergency shelters where possible along with appropriate training incase that specific shelter is within range of being a first responder.
· In places where there is already existing first responder equipment, materials and trained first responders, expand on or upgrade the first responder equipment and materials to the point that they are already appropriately packed, so it’s a “grab and go” response to save on time and money. In places where there is no first responder equipment and materials, figure out where to put the first responder equipment and materials on local levels.
· Organize all first responders in a way so that there, is no jurisdictional conflicts or bureaucracy to hamper the response time needed to get into the affected area or areas while having every level of responder on the same page when it comes to communications, time tables, what to do and when to do it.
· Upgrade the needed infrastructure that would allow for easiest access in and out of the areas that have a minimum population to the point that the potential evacuees have more if not better options to evacuate the area even if it means evacuating by train or by boat to reduce the congestion on the roads.
· Have periodical drills for specific types of disasters, so that the first responders keep their skills up to date.
· Have trained first responders for each scenario that, each region has the potential of needing to deal with along with having automatic activation of first responders for all scenarios and when possible, advance activation of the first responders if the scenario is foreseeable and imminent. If advance activation can be done have predetermined Alfa and/or Beta sights that they would report to when needed.
· Train the local police and fire departments to direct the flow of evacuees to the appropriate areas. Evacuees that are driving should be directed towards the roads and highways that would take them out of the area. For the evacuees that are not driving, set up temporary bus depot’s at designated points with in the local municipalities and if there are any rail systems in place, use passenger trains to aid in the evacuation even if it means bringing passenger trains in from somewhere else.
· Set up evacuation plans specifically for the elderly, people in hospitals and people in nursing homes that are incapable of leaving on their own taking into account any special needs of the people so that they can be transported as quickly and safely as possible. In doing so, send them to places that can handle them and that have the space for the elderly and any one incapacitated coming from hospitals and nursing homes.
· Utilize the available rail systems to help evacuate the population along with needed supplies for the evacuation, to bring in the any first responders if needed and for anything that is needed that would be required to go into or come out of the area where the rail system is the easiest way of moving those things.

a case for the powers for the court system

going by the checks and balances that the constitution has in place, there is a definitive separation of powers between each branch of government that prevents each branch of dealing directly with the issues relating specifically to a given branch of government.

many see that some of the decisions that the justice system has made constitutes the courts overstepping their boundaries. If you actually look at the decisions, you will actually see that the justice system is doing its job. the courts have made decisions that essentially tell the other two branches of government that they cannot act a certain way unless it is governmental law and doesn't interfere with the protections given to us by the constitution.

If I may give a couple examples to prove my point:

Roe versus Wade concerning abortion, the U.S. Supreme in simplistic terms basically stated that until the government explicitly forbids it, it is actually legal. it is a misconception that the court actually did the job of the U.S. Congress. It is also better to keep it legal due to the fact that if women want one bad enough they will find a way of getting one even if it means a forced miscarriage.

Massachusetts the only state that has gay marriage, the state supreme court in its decision did the same thing as the U.S. Supreme Court in their decision. the court basically stated that until you do the necessary legislation on the subject you cannot treat it as if it is illegal until it is illegal. There have been attempts to legislate it and also put it on the ballot but it has not made it past a constitutional convention or sub committee due to it being such a touchy matter.

a few years ago congress passed a law requiring oversight of any activities such as wiretapping of U.S. citizens by the courts so that the rights of the citizens were not trampled by the government. The justice system per order of the president circumvented the law, which when found out about prompted the court to take action against the program forcing it to follow the rules under the law.

We need the checks and balances, and any attempt to counter that system is completely unconstitutional in nature and would never survive an attack on it. the only way the senate were to pass such a law it would be forced to take on the job of the president to enforce the law which would be another abuse of power. it would also mean that there is no more functioning constitution in this country. If the people who sit in the senate truly believe in the constitution, then they cannot legislate powers away from the other branches of government and the other two branches cannot do that to each other or to the senate either.

an opinion on mitt romney

Mitt Romney, he has shown everyone how he made his money by showing his sales prowess. First he did it with Massachusetts when he ran for governor right after his stint running the Olympics in Salt Lake City. He knew what he was doing before he even left to run the Olympics and it showed due to the fact he knew about an obscure law that permits people to live out of state for various reasons but still reside in the state legally under a domicile law, which basically says that your legal address is still an address in Massachusetts.

Now in his campaign for president, he has done something similar in nature by using his summer home in New Hampshire on the banks of Lake Winnipesauke as a way to gain an advantage in the state, by saying that he is one of them due to his home there, which is a tactic that a native of a specific locality would use to gain local support for their ventures.

Now he has moved past the trying pulling the wool over people in areas where he owns a home, he has moved into the realm of the official nominee of the political party even though the party hasn’t had its convention yet to give support to the one candidate that they feel can win. He has shown that he is cocky enough to go straight for the photo-op and point out what he calls a success for his governorship in Massachusetts, even though he had no control over some of the initiatives or forced the initiatives down the throats of the people that it effected whether they wanted it as he had written it or not.

Mitt Romney has also taken to attack ads on the democratic front runners instead of the other republicans who he is currently running against. This shows a great amount of cockiness due to the fact he is acting as if he feels he has the republican nomination in the bag and doesn’t feel that the other republicans are a real challenge to him getting into the White House.

He appears to be trying to position himself to look better to the people who don’t know his record as a politician in regards to what his platform has been in the past versus what he has done after he used that platform to get to where he wanted. He has run for office stating he held views that pertained to one side of an issue whether it be political or religious, then doing an about face after getting what he wanted. In what could be viewed as an overly simplistic interpretation of his actions, he played the groups who offered the most potential for electing a candidate to political office rather than running on his own beliefs.

From my perspective he tends to talk to people in a way that suggests that he thinks he is better than they are, especially when it comes to talking about politics. He tends to keep saying “What I have done”, “what I am doing”, and “what I intend on doing” which may not be phrased exactly like that but close enough to show some arrogance on his part. Even though he was governor of the state I live in, I never met him but from what I have seen of him on T.V. he tends to talk down to people in a manner that would suggest that he believes that he knows what is best for you which showed when he forced the laws regarding health insurance in Massachusetts.

Mitt Romney may have had the best of intentions when pushing the legislation pertaining to health insurance but in the end he didn’t really look after the people who needed it the most which were children for which there is a loop hole basically stating that everyone eighteen and over is required to have health insurance even if it is state sponsored. It also penalizes the people who legitimately cannot afford to have it due to their salary and cost of living expenses.

He had been presented with evidence in an open forum on a Boston Television station that a family even with health coverage offered by the mothers work, the family could not afford the insurance and would not be able to afford the state sponsored insurance due to the fact that the father was disabled and had a fixed income while the mother worked full time to supplement their income. The family showed how much the family made monthly, and what they paid out monthly in bills along with the remaining money after all bills were paid with no extras. He basically stated that they would qualify for the state sponsored insurance but when the premiums came out it was still more than they could afford.

firefighting, policing and communications ideas for mass transit

Firefighting, Policing and Communications ideas Mass Transit

With regards to how to deal with the issues related to communications, policing and firefighting in mass transit, the specific transit systems have to work with the police and fire departments that would be required to respond. This is so that there will be proper communications channels and proper training especially for the fire departments.

· Starting with the firefighters and their training for subway tunnel fires set up an abandoned subway tunnel that can still support train traffic or build a tunnel system that is a realistic mock up of a subway tunnel with stations for each subway line. Also set up trains that are no longer used by the mass transit system in various points in the mock up to help the training along. As part of the training they should be taught too properly maneuver the trains incase the train is hindering their ability to work the fire or dealing with the aftermath of the fire. Include every city and town in the training that has subway tunnels and subway stations in them.

· In the process of training firefighters, find out if current equipment is adequate or if new equipment needs to be designed to better fight the subway fires especially if the firefighters are being hindered in someway from properly fighting the fire.

· Set up firefighting teams that would have the appropriate equipment for subway tunnel and subway station fires, including vehicles that can fit in the tunnels and can be driven on both the streets and on railroad tracks.

· Regarding the transit police, hire more police officers to bring the transit police department up to the necessary staffing levels to appropriately police the property owned by the mass transit system. Give the police more in-depth and more prolonged training with particular emphasis on what is considered suspicious activity. Do it even if it means hiring outside people that are trained to train the private sector to watch for suspicious activity that may have not been considered by the mass transit system but would be useful in promoting better security.

· Any new communications system that is installed has to have the capability of allowing the people trained to operate the system to access the whole system and allow all of the relevant people to directly patch into the system. The communication system should also have the capability to allow people to talk to each other in the tunnels, with it being in real time, with out the need for repeaters phones being hard wired in the tunnels. Each relevant responding city, state and/or federal agency should be able to communicate using a standardized frequency or frequencies designated for emergency responders.

· Design the communication system so that it cuts down on the ability to eavesdrop on the system but allows the mass transit system, along with the local police and fire departments to utilize the system when needed with each department having the proper tools and training to tap into the system. Also design it so that way it will not be adversely affected by intense heat or fire for prolonged periods of time along with designing it so that it has an automatic back up system in place that would compensate for any problems if they should arise.

· For times where the system cannot use a land line, use the same or similar walkie-talkie technology that Nextel uses for its direct connect phones to provide some level of privacy and protection against eavesdroppers. Using the walkie-talkie technology of the Nextel network set up a completely independent communications network specifically for use by the transit workers and the emergency response agencies on all levels.

the current Iraq war

The current Iraq war on a technical basis ended when George W. Bush when he stated that the job was done when he gave that speech on an aircraft carrier with in days of us toppling the dictatorship that was there. Since then we went from being the country’s liberator to the country’s occupier and trying to force the Iraqi people to take on a form of government that they have no understanding of and have no desire of ever having in our lifetime.

We are telling the Iraqi people that they have to take on a government that has no place for their social structure in it and that favors the United States. The Iraqi people are use to having religion play a dominate role in their government and there for would have to want to remove religion from their politics in order for the government we are forcing onto them to work the way it is intended. The removal of religion from politics can and will be tricky, just look at what we are going through here in the United States when trying to keep them separated.

We are now residing over a civil war that has been boiling just below the surface for many generations, but had been kept from happening due to the heavy handedness of the leaders of Iraq. Now that their traditional type of leader is no longer there, it has be come sheer pandemonium in certain parts of the country due to different segments of the same religion vying to be the new government of Iraq by terrorizing and killing the citizens who are just trying to lead average lives and the people trying to regain and maintain a functional government.

There is no longer a reason for us to be there since it was stated that the job was done but yet there is no easy way out of Iraq because we never went in there with an exit strategy which caused us to botch the job of instituting a new government. We rushed in guns blazing without taking the time to study the intricacies of their mentality, social structure and over all way of life. We cannot just up and leave but at the same time we have to find a way to force the Iraqi people to accept responsibility for what happens in and to their country as quickly as possible without causing the country to fall to religious factions not wanting to share power.

comparing the Bush Adminstration to Orwell's "1984"

The current Bush administration reminds me of George Orwell’s book “1984” where the United States Government, is referred to as “Big Brother” which is what it is called by some in today’s society. In the book the government controls the flow of information and constantly watches over the shoulder or every citizen to purposely intimidate the people in an attempt to keep them in line with the government regardless of whether or not they are law abiding citizens.

After reading an article concerning former Surgeon General Richard Carmona, I got to thinking and realized that the Bush administration reminded me of the book “1984”. My train of thought is such that I may just be putting together things, that may not be related, but who knows if it really is that way.

Richard Carmona, had on the record stated while in the office of Surgeon General, to make a long story short had an information officer that would not let him say anything that went against President George W. Bush, and even had to mention him each time he gave a speech. Then you have Cheney, who has in a televised interview stated that regardless of his own personal views on any given subject he has to adhere to Bush’s agenda. You also have Scooter Libby, who was made a scapegoat in order to orchestrate a vendetta against a CIA operative’s husband.

We cannot forget these things either, which are the political firings of the U.S. District Attorney’s or the ouster of the former FEMA director who was made a scapegoat, only to have it come out he was actually doing his job and the Republican hierarchy including Bush acted as if there was nothing wrong for the first few days. There is also the domestic wiretapping program that was started up in done in a way to circumvent the U.S. Court System and later found to be illegal due to the fact that it circumvented the court system.

We also have the aftermath of 9/11 (which is also my niece’s birthday), we initially went after the right place then we got side tracked by President George W. Bush wanting to go after Iraq, which was a threat but just not an imminent threat like he would have us believe. In my opinion, when he landed on the deck of the aircraft carrier and stated job done, for me that was the true end of the war against Iraq and at that point we became occupiers of the country.

For all intensive purposes, George W. Bush feels he is doing what he believes is right, but his playbook is straight out of the mind of George Orwell. In my opinion, George W. Bush loves to hide behind executive privilege when he knows that the facts may incriminate him or his administration, only to saber rattle behind that legal line to stir up a hornets nest so to speak.

He appears to be stubborn to the point he has blinded himself to the consequences of his actions on other. Unlike what I have seen of his father George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush appears to be exceedingly arrogant in nature and enjoys having a condescending attitude towards people who don’t agree with his world views or his agenda.

If he keeps it up we will eventually be heading towards a totalitarian government that would have been initiated by President Bush through Martial Law, instead of the democracy that got him there in the first place.

scooter libby

This may sound very partisan in nature, but I think that what happened with I. Lewis Libby shows the very thing that has even some Republicans steering clear of President George W. Bush.

The whole thing with publicly acknowledging Valerie Plame's identity to a reporter was a farce that allowed the Bush administration to be absolved of any responsibility due to the way it was handled.

First it came out that her identity was top secret which initiated an investigation, then it came out that the President quietly let allowed the her identity to be removed from the ranks of top secret just long enough for there to be questions posed as to whether I. Lewis Libby made the statements about her identity before or after this happened.

In the end he was not convicted of the actual indiscretion, but rather he was convicted of the other charges that stemmed from the initial charge but that he should not have been convicted of since it came out that it was well with in his offices right to acknowledge her identity to the press.

Five hours after the sentence had been handed down, President Bush commuted the jail term of I. Lewis Libby and said that a full pardon may not be totally out of the question.

I am a democrat and find that I. Lewis Libby was used as a scapegoat to keep the focus off of the Bush administration and its attempt to keep people silent on subjects that are questionable in nature stemming from the current administration.

in regards to the U.S. Supreme court decision on voluntary desegregation

In response to the U.S. Supreme Courts decision to fore go voluntary desegregation in the public schools, it will be seen as a discriminatory event, even if the decision may not have been intended as such. We as a society have an obligation to educate our children as best as we can and it has been shown that there is a disparity in our education system when it comes to education among the individual races in this country, which in some areas are getting worse with each generation.

We should not be looking at race as a factor in education, rather we should be we need to be looking at what the deficiencies are in each community with emphasis on the individual deficiencies in the individual schools. We also need to be attracting good teachers that are willing to teach at schools that have such deficiencies in an effort to turn the schools around. When it comes to getting students to attend specific schools that maybe out of their neighborhoods, electives should be taught at these schools that would draw a diverse student body rather than having an elective course which appeals to a specific race, gender or religion.

When dealing with the schools that have deficiencies, we cannot just look at the school system as a stand alone problem when it comes to educating the children, we also have to look at the communities that these schools are in and find ways of getting the communities to take a proactive role in education rather than a reactive role. What is needed is to find out why individual communities are allowing the degradation of their communities and why they are helping to perpetuate the downfall of their communities.

When it comes to race,gender and religious relations in our society in general, each race has members with in their ranks that help to perpetuate the stereotypes that cause the discrimination that as a society we seek to eradicate. As long as each race, gender and religion helps to perpetuate the stereotypes which causes the discrimination onto them we will continue to see things like racial, gender and religious inequality especially in our education system, which to some degree is charged with teaching us to be better people all around. It does not help that each race, gender and religion tends to self segregate by nature, for which we have to get past to further our education system.

I have in the past sent to politicians, ideas I have had regarding education that have from what I have seen gone unanswered and would be willing to send these ideas to anyone who is willing to read them and forward them to other politicians (as long as proper credit is given) if the people thought they would help stimulate a positive response to fixing our education system.

We cannot just tell our government officials that enough is enough we have to get it through to the members of the communities that enough is enough when it comes to directing educational resources to each community. It cannot stop there either we have to do the same for other resources directed at helping communities. As a society we cannot afford to idly sit back and whine about what others have and we don’t, we have to take our futures into our own hands and not let others dictate what our place in life is, regardless of what resources are out there.

As a society we cannot move forward, until we can learn to take responsibility for where we go in life and how we get there, instead of letting society guide us to where society wants us to be. To do this we have to be proactive in getting positive things done in our communities, that benefit ourselves, our children and our communities overall without looking at race, gender or religion.

Gay rights and Gay marriage

With regards to the gay rights movement and the gay marriage debate, both sides of these issues are very passionate in their fight to win their point, sometimes getting violent in their efforts.

When it comes to the people who oppose any gay issue, they are sometimes dead set against giving any type of equal rights or equal treatment to anyone who happens to be gay, with the reasoning being completely valid in their eyes. The primary reasoning behind not wanting to give gays equal rights is the individuals religious beliefs citing that religious states that it is wrong to be in such a physical relationship.

The people who do not want to give gays any rights or treat them equally also cite that, that lifestyle is dirty and that they don’t want their children or their families exposed to that lifestyle. Beyond the fact that they cite religious beliefs and not wanting to expose their families to the gay lifestyle they can not show any legitimate reason why we as a society should treat gays like inferior beings not worthy of respect.

At the same time, on the opposite side of the issue the people who believe that gays should be treated equally, cite that gays are productive members in our society at all levels and all they want is to be treated like straight people who have worked just as hard to attain the same positions in life. When it comes to citing religious beliefs, the people wanting equal rights for gays cite that religion teaches tolerance of others regardless of what they are doing and of the fact that God has reserved judgment for himself for which we are being hypocritical on both accounts.

This has been proven true by the fact that many people are not tolerant of people who they know are gay and we take it on ourselves to judge them based solely on religious doctrine. When it comes to religious doctrine the whole issue is a paradox due to the fact that under religious doctrine we are not suppose to be in such a relationship, while at the same time we are suppose to be tolerant of others.

When it comes to society in general, gays live in and are active in the communities that they live in and in some cases are integral parts of the communities they are apart of. When we project our religious beliefs out onto the communities, we tell the gays in our communities that it is fine for them to be leaders of our companies and our nation but we do not trust you on a personal level due to your sexual orientation for gays, this is perplexing and is spiteful.

We as a society have chosen not to pay attention to some religious doctrines while insisting on holding others to other religious doctrines. As a society have become a society that believes that we can force others to do as we say and as we do as individuals and it is prevalent in the way we handle religious doctrine.

embryonic stem cell research, politics and religion

When it comes to medical research, more specifically embryonic stem cell research and presidential politics, the current president is playing to what our country calls the “Christian Conservatives” and their views on religious beliefs. The problem with that is the fact that some issues that the “Christian Conservatives” rather than looking at all beliefs they run with a specific belief on an issue that they either agree or disagree with and try to have a one sided debate with it.

The current president has made it a point to side with the “Christian Conservatives” on the embryonic stem cell research debate even though there are beliefs that to some degree contradict their stance.

Stem cells from my understanding are the cells that designate what is what in our body and we can use these stem cells to recreate pieces of that specific type of tissue. Embryonic stem cells are unspecified stem cells that haven’t been assigned a specific type of tissue to make and therefore have the ability to be told to create any type of tissue in the body. This gives us the opportunity to learn how stem cells work in general before they become specific to a type of tissue and to see what can and does go wrong in the creation of the different types of tissue so we can learn how to correct it.

The problem isn’t the research itself but rather the mentality of the people setting the public policy in government concerning medicine and research. These people who include the president try to put medicine and religion at odds with each other even though they go hand in hand due to religious doctrine. Religion states that it is our duty to heal the sick, which is were medicine comes into play.

It is understandable that many of the “Christian Conservatives” take a stance against embryonic stem cell research based on their religious beliefs. This is due to Christianity stating that life begins at conception and that we are not supposed to kill. At the same, there is a flip side to those as well. Religious doctrine not only states that we are not supposed to kill religious doctrine also states that we are supposed to learn, to heal the sick and to gain wisdom.

We cannot gain the wisdom needed that comes from learning if we place restrictions on what we learn or how we learn due to it going against one specific religious belief. By placing limits on what we learn and how we learn it when it comes to medical research we are hindering our ability to allow the medical community to do its job and in some cases we essentially are killing the people who we are in charge of healing because we are choosing to stand around and watch them die rather than learning how to heal them.

Where we are taught religion long before we are taught about government and politics we inherently put our religious beliefs into our politics. The people who were trusted to right the foundation of our country knew this and when they were writing the United States Constitution, they tried to limit the influence of both religion and government over each other. There will always be people including politicians who feel that there is no such writing in the constitution and others that feel that religion has no place in government at all.

Presidential politics is about running the country as effectively as the individual can run it given both domestic and international issues that relate to the people and the government, not using the Presidential podium as a pulpit to preach religious doctrine and limiting what we can do based on his own views on religious doctrine. The president if he uses the podium as a pulpit on the subject of embryonic stem cell research, belittles the researchers trying to do their jobs and he is forgetting that at one time many of the medical advancements we have achieved have come about even with religion being against it and how these advancements have helped us everyone including the people who didn’t believe in the advancement of medicine.

The has to be some sort of medium between secularism and religion when making decisions for the country as a whole since the country is a melting pot of cultures and religions rather than treating the country as if there is one culture and one religion.

Yes, in essence religion doesn’t permit us to kill, but at the same time if we choose not to do the Embryonic stem cell research then we are choosing to kill far more people that have illnesses we have no treatment for that may have had a cure stemming from that research.

In memorium for the 9 firefighters in South Carolina

the following prayer is a prayer firefighters say and thought it would be appropriate given the loss of the 9 firefighters in South Carolina. I would like to give credit to the author but I am unable to since I don't know the author's name.

Firefighter's Prayer

When I am called to duty, God, Wherever flames may rage,Give me the strength to save a life, Whatever be it's age.Help me embrace a little child before it is too late,Or save an older person from the horror of that fate.Enable me to be alert and hear the weakest shout,And quickly and efficiently put the fire out.I want to fill my calling, to give the best in me,To guard my friends and neighbors and protect his property.And if according to my fate I am to lose my life,Please bless with your protecting hand my children and my wife.

U.S. political system is broken

The U.S. political system is broken. What is worse is the fact that the people who we have elected are willing to take any hard stance on making real change, the very change that is needed to bring us back to the checks and balances that are fundamental to our government.

we have people and politicians who would have us believe that the U.S. courts have overstepped their legal boundaries, when making decisions like the Roe Vs. Wade ruling in the U.S. Supreme court or the gay marriage ruling in Massachusetts. That isn't really the case though, we actually had no laws on the books limiting or banning either but we went around acting as if we did, until the courts, to make a long story short basically stated that until such time that there is a law limiting or banning them, then they are technically legal.

we also have a sitting president that blatantly disregarded article 6 of the constitution so he could get re-elected and has also asked for laws that act completely outside of the United States Constitution, that diminish our constitutionally guaranteed rights and protections, siting national defense without asking the people to give up those rights and protections.

blogger reviewed my blog

blogger reviewed my blog and determined that it was not a spamming blog and the word verification restriction has been removed.

somehow my blog ended up listed as a ...

based on some criteria that is used for search engines my blog fit the criteria for a spam blog, I don't know how or why but it did. I know this due to the fact I started having to do word verification each time I posted to my blog and did some searching to find out why. Now each time I do post I have to do the word verification twice in order to post due to the server not recognizing the first verification even though I typed it in correctly.

second letter of mine published in 2004

the following letter is a letter of mine that was published in a Boston paper on October 28, 2004 the paper is Metro.

During this presidential campaign ther has been a lot of mudslinging from both candidates and their vice presidential running mates. I have done my share of and heard a lot of complaining when it comes to the presidential candidates.

I plan on taking my complaints to the election booth on Nov. 2 and voting onw whom I think should be in office. I am doing this for two reasons; first of which is that I was taught that if I choose to complain, then I have to vote to be taken seriously.

Secondly, I feel that anyone can be a Monday morning quarterback with regards to complaining but it takes people who are willing to stand up and take the heat for what they believe in and to do what they think is right.

The people who choose to take a stand and do it in politics end up taking a lot of heat from a lot of people- some of whom can do something to make a differencebut choose to complain instead.

a political letter of mine Published in 2004

The following letter is mine that was published in the Boston Edition of Metro on september 27, 2004.

During this political campaign, all we have to choose from is a person that appears to be a liar and a person that appears to flip-flop on issues. One of my co-workers told me not to listen to any politics at all. I ended up telling him if I want to vote I must listento what they are saying. I also told my co-worker that the presidential candidates don't want you to lishen to what they have to say; all they want you to hear is "vote for me."

What I don't understand is that both candidates are obsessed with the war on terror and what happened during the vietnam era. The media is feeding those obsessions and not forcing the candidates to say anything on record that would show where they stand.

All of the media outlets should stop feeding into what the presidential candidates want you to hear and take a stand. What I mean by that is, they should make a more concerted effort to show what issues the candidates stand for and then try to match the statements to how they have handled themselves on those same issues in their respective offices.
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it is now 2007, it may be early yet in the presidential campaign but the last paragraph in the above letter is as relevant as three years ago at this time.

an opinion on Iraq

Regardless of what went on concerning Iraq and the months leading up to our Invasion of Iraq, I feel that the decision to invade was forced down the Senates throat. I have thought that from the start of President Bush pushing for the war with Iraq based on CIA information that had been presented to him concerning Iraq. If the media outlets are correct and I stress if they are correct then the CIA had asked President Bush to hold off on asking for a declaration of war so that way the agency could verify the intelligence in the report that went to his desk.
Now that we have been there for four years there is no easy way out of Iraq because the innocent people trying to live their daily lives don't deserve to have their country occupied but at the same time there are people who are hiding behind the dominate religion there and they are also perverting it to get people to do their bidding that would seize control of the country.
If you notice the masterminds behind the perversions that they are perpetrating onto the religion are not the ones going off and killing themselves to prove their point they are using the people hat they had sucked into the mess to kill themselves after getting them to believe that it is the only way to attain the goals of the masterminds behind the attacks.
I do not blame the religion, I blame the individuals that are perverting the religion to fit their agenda's. We cannot resolve the issues unless we can negate the religion factor in the whole situation.

The presidential candidates on debating

Each of the presidential candidates instead of grandstanding and belittling what others have done should be focused on actually debating each other on the issues that are currently relevant to the voters that they are trying to woo. Each candidate needs to actually stick to the facts on each issue in regards to how each candidate including themselves has handled the personal and political aspects of the issue when it comes to how they intend on dealing with each specific issue.

Each candidate should also submit to a survey that is specific to each issue that they are likely to face during the campaigning and the debates and put the answers in an easy to read document format that is also easily accessible to the public. Each question should be written so that way there can not be any straight forward yes or no answers only commentary in their own words and also be designed not to allow the candidates to omit their views on each issue and how to handle the issues.

The questions should be something like these if not these specific questions:

• Explain your stance on education and explain how you intend on dealing with bringing our education system up to par with the other countries within the industrialized world?
  
• Explain your stance on “the war on terror” and how you intend on dealing with the legal aspect of it when it comes to not infringing on the legal protections in the constitution and keeping in line with international rules of engagement regarding terrorist cells?
  
• Explain your stance on abortion and how you would handle abortion rights given the fact that women will seek them out even if Roe V. Wade is over turned?
  
• Explain your stance on stem cell research, more specifically embryonic stem cell research and how you would handle federal funding for it?
  
• Explain your stance on gay rights with emphasis on gay marriage given that on a technical stand point the government doesn’t have any legislation prohibiting it and how you will handle it?
  With knowing Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and the First Amendment, explain your view on how much or how little of a role religious doctrine which includes ones personal religious beliefs, should play in American politics and why you feel that way?
  
• Explain your stance on taxes, more specifically income taxes with regard to where and when to give tax breaks along with where and when to raise taxes in the different income brackets and why you think they work best where you would like the tax breaks or increased income taxes?

MBTA's Train and Trolley systems

I grew up in Boston utilizing the MBTA's subway and bus systems on a daily basis. For as long as I could remember, the Greenline has had a seven to one ratio for trolleys going between Park Street Station and points between Lechmere Staion. That is to say even though Lechmere is the end of the line it has only one trolley going there for every seven trolley's that go part way then turn around to go through Park Street Station in the other direction. This happens even during the height of Rush hour.

The Silverline from South Station has on average a three or four to one racio for the electrified/diesel buses they consider a subway system. This is to say that for every one SL2/SL/3 (routes that go between diesel and electricity) there are three to four buses that stay electrified and do a turn around. Like with the Greenline it happens even in rush hour.

With the ratio's for each of these two lines, the last couple trolley's an buses are empty or almost completely empty due to everyone waiting for the one that goes to Lechmere (greenline) or the sl2/sl3 routes (silverline) and by that time there are a number of people who cannot get on due to there being more than the vehicle can hold.

The commuter rail, at least The Fitchburg line has at least from my understanding has had a problem being respected by the MBTA enough to respond to issues regarding that specific commuter line. The two biggest issues that I have been dealing with since I started riding it five years ago, is a lack of service going between Boston and Fitchburg on work days between the morning and evening rush hours, and the equipment being in general disrepair.

The riders have been fighting for more service between the ends of the line for longer than I have been riding the train and even though the company hired to maintain the equipment for the MBTA has started doing a better job in recent months of keeping on top of repairs, still gives the line the equipment that is in need of repairs(i.e. tagged out doors and traps or worse) while giving other lines the equipment that has been fixed. this is on what is called the North Side which is all of the commuter rail lines that go north of Boston. There are always stories of the MBTA getting new equipment for the commuter rail but virtually, all of the new train coaches are double decker coaches that cannot be used on the North Side.

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.