Musings, Commentaries, Photos and Reviews

Some would point to either candidate as being frightening and scary. I think the chance of a tainted election is much more distressing. I do have trust in the choice of the entire electorate and if that is in question, it really is a horror show. Thankfully in New Hampshire we use optical scanners which in my opinion are reliable and trustworthy. Gael provided a link about computer voting problems, which I would testify as a computer guy are inherently fraught with problems. The link is "Can you Count on Voting Machines" I support using open source software if the decision is made to use computer touch screen voting and I have added a blog entry here. Even my Conservative co-author supports this strategy. Enjoy your Halloween candy, watch some scary political ads and vote on tuesday

Since many of the comments have been directed at the idea of re-distribution of wealth via the tax policy of Obama. I have provided links to the various websites of the candidates on the right side of this blog. The question of socialism should probably include the staggering $700 billion bail out and the additional $140 billion added by Congress for all kinds of fun projects. Whew.... that's a lot of debt to eat.... I'll remove the calculator links after the election. After that it'll be too late

I'm trying to figure whether Obama is Hitler or Stalin. Maybe he is " Mabus " the 3rd Anti-Christ? Stalin was a socialist, Hitler had the National Socialist Party... it gets so confusing. Or perhaps he is terrorist, an A rab/Muslim (not that there is anything wrong with that), the "Manchurian Candidate", "The-One", a "Celebrity" or ... Maybe the best candidate for President! I admit I may be wrong, but I'm willing to take a chance, roll the dice, ignore Nostradamus and Steve Schmidt and his team. I admit I need some enlightenment so I'm trying to get a handle on the charges against this man. I'm trying to understand the "socialist" label. I'm providing a link to his tax plan from his web site. In full disclosure, I'll admit that his plan will benefit me financially. Link: Obama's Tax Plan Pehaps the readers of the blog will explain how a progressive tax policy is socialism. I'm sure I'll get some spi

I have been sent another email with a scary slideshow about what will happen under an Obama presidency (establishment of a Socialist State). This was followed by an email from with a link to a "news" organization that alleged that Saddam Hussein help buy Obama's home. What utter garbage. These are truly desparate times and I guess some people need to blame "that one" Rather than clogging the email stream by replying, I thought I would provide a link to at least one of the sites. In the interest of balance I tried to find a bit about the group that produced the presentation. I discovered that they have a whole selection of scary movies and articles about Islamic terrorist and Mexicans. I'm suspicious of any presentation that I can't fact check but realized that it is almost Halloween, so as a public service I'm offering a link to some truly scary stuff. Is it accurate? NO! Is it scary, with scary music? YES! You have been warned!!! Link: USA WakeUp Mo

Forget the issues, the TV spots, the pundits. Who has run the more competent campaign? Who has played to the lowest common denominator? As I wrote previously I liked the McCain of 2000. Where did he go anyway? I suspect that he may have become a victim of body snatching pods (imagine Rove and the spirit of Lee Atwater). This election counts, please vote. And now for some propaganda:

I'm a great believer in the phrase "Think Globally, Act Locally". We are facing all types of challenges as a nation.   I've been growing a garden for 0ver 35 years, mostly as a means of getting fresh vegetables and learning about plants. Many of my friends and family grow a garden. In World War II these were called "Victory Gardens" and the impetus came from no less than the first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who established a garden at the white house. In 1943 Americans planted over 20 million Victory Gardens and the harvest accounted ofr nearly a third of the vergetables consumed in that year. I dedicated a bit of the front lawn to tomatoes these last 2 years and realized after a disappointing crop that I need to initiate some crop rotation. I will be ADDING more garden space and REMOVING more useless lawn. I was heartened to read a great open letter by Michael Pollard describing what the next president can and should do to remake the way we grow and eat our fo

On a recent morning walk, my friend John Poltrack suggested that maybe I would have been a better icon to represent the proverbial small business man than the now world famous Joe the Plumber . John the Software Engineer owns his own business, employs people, and pays a good chunk of his business income in taxes. I think I pay too much in taxes, but of course everybody thinks that. I made the mistake one time of sitting down and calculating how much of Big Time Software’s income actually goes out in taxes of way form or another and the answer is a very discouraging 50%. That qualifies as too much in my opinion…and I still consider myself a patriot despite what Joe Biden might think. My business makes more money than Senator Obama seems to think I deserve to keep, so I can look forward to being in his crosshairs to pay even more should he be elected President. I certainly don’t want to attract the scrutiny of the crack investigative media teams that have unearthed every skeleton in p

After 8 years of stellar incompetence, isn't it time for a change? I was very pleased to see that Colin Powell endorsed Barack Obama for president. His words are quite moving as he describes his reasoning for this decision. Hopefully this will have some sway with retired military, older voters and other folks that may actually believe "hate radio" and robo-calls. As I described in earlier posts, I liked the McCain 2000 brand when he was running against "W". It is truly sad that he has adopted their tactics and message. Here is a link to the endorsement video:

I contacted Rep. Lew Evangelidis to ask permission to publish his editorial. I agree with his sentiments: Subject: Editorial on Federal Bailout Bill Dear  Citizen , Like so many of you, I am very frustrated and upset with the current affairs with our Federal Government and the $700 M   bailout bill.  I have always felt as though special interest money has led to a disservice of the American People.  I think this a critical time in American History when people are upset and paying attention. I have submitted the attached editorial to many papers across Massachusetts .  If you agree with my sentiments I would ask you to forward it to your e-mail list so we can continue the dialogue of how to make our Government more representative of the people. As always, I hope that you are enjoying the beautiful fall weather here in New England . Sincerely, Lew Evangelidis  Date: October 8, 2008  Where is our Abraham Lincoln when we really need one? The culpability of Wall S

I made the assumption that because of John McCain's extraordinary POW experience that he had nailed (and deserved) the Veteran and National defense vote. I guess I was wrong. Apparently he missed a crucial vote on the new GI bill, stopping a second rate GI bill, and enhanced Veteran's benefits. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave him a "D" for this record. Obama did much better with an "B" and Kucinich garnered an "A". I really like Kucinich and I feel it was unfortunate that he was ridiculed during the primary season. It was a strange experience, but I was listening to John McCain in Peterborough and missed seeing Dennis who was signing books in a nearby bookstore. I regret that lapse. I feel this is relevant information, because Cindy McCain is now making allegations that Obama does not "Support the troops" because he voted against a funding bill that did not have a "time line". Cindy seems to have a lapse o

My cousin SarahD a petition request to the family. To me it seems like a case of a lack of flexibility in matters that have a direct effect on human health and safety. The issue at hand is the banning of Metered-Dose Inhalers (MDIs) that contain ozone depleting propellants. More infomation may be found at this FDA link: http://www.fda.gov/cder/mdi/ Here is the text of Sarah's message: "Now the gov't and drug co's have added another layer of fun to it!! Katie and I both have asthma, and barb mentioned that Jim P does too. I'm interested to find out anyone else's experience with this. Let me preface by saying that I love the environment and do not want there to be a whole in the ozone layer. HOWEVER, i am very bothered by this.... Ok, so up until recently albuterol inhalers have been made with CFC as the propellant that pushes the medicine out and into your lungs when you push down on the canister (makes the "puff" if you will). The CFC kind of

Computer scientist Ka-Ping Yee makes a compelling case for using open-source software for computer voting machines. He created the prototype voting machine software he calls Pvote . The idea is that if software can be seen by everyone, flaws and security holes can be brought to light. Watch the short video on the Science Friday website http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10157

Today I managed to receive not one but two blatantly racist emails about Obama. I find this repulsive. I won't honor these with a link or reference. Granted they did not come directly from his campaign but the recent "rallies" with his pit bull VP choice aren't helping. When you see people in the crowd shouting "terrorist" and "Kill him" you just have to say, where is the McCain of 2000? Where are you John? Let's see Barack HUSSEIN Obama hangs out with a terrorist when he was 8. Omigod can we trust him? What absolute crap. Where is John circa 2000? Of course this has to be the strategy of a person who needs to change the subject as the economy implodes. The republicans love to channel Ronald Reagan who felt that "government was the problem". Just let everything work itself out. What a great idea. Deregulation.. that's the ticket. I get a real kick about the complaints about the "Tax and Spend" liberals. Ahem, the money