Vacation

Next week I'll be taking a vacation from work for the first time in a year. Changing jobs a couple times during the past year has kept me from being able to take any amount of time off of work so this is a much needed break. My family and I will be taking a short trip to New Jersey to visit some relatives and then I'll be spending the rest of the week doing work around the house including recording some new songs and working on some websites. So I won't be at my job but I'll be doing work at home.

I think I'm going to take the week off from articles on here as well. After many political articles in a row I'm feeling a bit drained from all of it. Monday's article Electing a King, pretty much sums up the best explanation I can figure for what America is possibly about to do. The implications of not only the outcome of the presidential race but also senate races will have far reaching effects for many years to come and right now I just don't have the energy to keep writing about it. So I will return with new articles November 3rd, right before the election. And if I am as productive as I hope to be with my time off then hopefully I will be able to share some of what I do next week with all of you.

Catching Up With the Internet

I've spent the last four years on dialup internet. During that time I wasted countless hours waiting for pages to load and didn't go to many websites because I didn't have the time to wait. I also killed many website ideas I had during that time because managing them would have been impossible on dialup. As of a month and a half ago though I have finally rejoined the rest of the high speed world and am on a level playing field with my internet connection.

I came to a scary realization a couple week ago though. While I spent the last several years maintaining simplified websites to accommodate my connection, the rest of the internet was becoming bigger and better and I simply ignored what I couldn't do on my connection. Now though I realize that while I was stuck, the rest of the internet has passed me by. My web design and graphic design skills are severely out of date and if I want to be able to compete in the online world I need a major upgrade to my knowledge. I may have grown up with computers but kids today have grown up with internet capable computers and their skill level is accordingly greater in the online arena.

If you find that your skill set is also obsolete here are some subject areas I would recommend studying: css, xml, php, asp, javascript, internet marketing, and very importantly graphic design. The first several things I listed are the meat of what makes a site do what it does but the internet is increasingly a visually dazzling place and most sites don't need a really meaty backend to be able to perform their intended function. So if nothing else, try to look good. Good graphic design is often aided greatly by good graphic design software and that unfortunately isn't cheap. All of the graphics on all of my websites were made using Paint Shop Pro. Years ago I would have likened Paint Shop Pro to being really similar to but not quite as good as Photoshop, while keeping the price tag much cheaper than Photoshop. Unfortunately though in recent years the makers of Paint Shop Pro have really not kept pace with the tools that are now available in Photoshop.

There are a number of really great free tutorials scattered throughout the internet that could teach me any of the programming languages I listed. And that is where I plan to start when I am able to make the time. I haven't yet figured out how to resolve the graphic design problem but I'll work on it. We live in an online world and it changes with such frequency that it is far to easy to be left behind.

Electing a King

You know I was thinking about this whole situation with Obama's fast rise on the national scene. Many of the people who support him, do so with a fervor that is frightening and when they hear the facts about who he is and what he stands for they just shut it out not wanting to hear anything negative about this hero that they've lifted up. There are so many really scary things people are doing in the name of Obama, not the least of which is a bunch of teenagers dressed in camouflage doing a chant to Obama. All of these things reminded me of a story from the Bible, when the nation of Israel decided that they no longer needed or wanted the leadership of God in their nation. Instead they clamored for a king like all of their neighboring nations. They wanted to give power over their lives to someone on Earth instead of God. And so they lifted up Saul. He was tall, good looking, and a good speaker. At first everything was fine but then quickly turned sour. He killed people who disagreed with him. He grew jealous of anyone who got attention from the people and tried to kill them as well and in the process King Saul self-destructed and ended up tearing apart the country. The point is that Israel got exactly what they wanted. They got a king, who did what kings do and acted only in his best interests and not the interests of the people he was supposed to be leading.

Many people in America right now are clamoring for a king. I hope for the sake of the future of this nation, that we do not elect a king on November 4th. Of course though the story didn't end with King Saul for Israel. After his reign finally ended God gave Israel it's most famous king, King David. He guided the people back to a place of worship and close relationship with God. He made his own mistakes and his reign had it's own troubles. Even good kings have problems of course.

The point to all of this is that the United States of America was founded on the idea that no one person here on Earth should have the authority that the king of England did at the time. We find ourselves at a place in our nation's history where government involvement and control over our daily lives and over commerce has grown to a level never before seen since our founding. Barack Obama promises nothing but more government spending and more government involvement in our lives. John McCain wants to curb government spending and get government out of our way. That's what he says anyway, what he would do as president may be something different but with Obama we know for sure that he wants the federal government to have more power. We cannot forget the mistakes of the past. We cannot just blindly accept policies that grant more power to the president.

Senator Government, Obama's New Nickname

I didn't have a chance to watch the second debate live so I had recorded it. I ended up only watching ten minutes of that debate before turning it off. I later deleted the recording, I just didn't want to hear the same garbage again. So when Wednesday night's debate began I didn't have much intention of watching it but I got sucked in unfortunately.

As of right now when I'm writing this I haven't seen any polls on who did better in the debate but I can guess what they will all say. The polls from liberal news organizations who have a liberal leaning audience are going to show that Obama won. But I felt that McCain won by a slim margin, and only slim because I realize that those who support Obama probably heard singing angels every time he spoke and felt that he did well.

I noticed a couple of interesting things in this debate in the character of each of the candidates. Let's look at Obama first.

I think he must be using a professional speech coach because he didn't do nearly as much of his usual stuttering that generally precedes anything but a scripted response. When McCain brought up his connections with Ayers and ACORN, Obama was completely dishonest about the nature and depth of those relationships and the nature of ACORN as an organization. Obama once again mentioned Joe Biden's ties to Scranton, Pennsylvania. This is simply an insult to the people of Pennsylvania. You hear more from the Obama campaign about Biden and Pennsylvania than you do about Biden and Delaware. Let's be clear, most people in Pennsylvania had probably never even heard of Joe Biden until he became the VP candidate. So to expect us to just vote for Obama-Biden because of some ancient ties that Biden has with Pennsylvania is insulting.

For McCain's part he did finally bring up Barack's character in front of a national audience but he didn't really go for it with full force and part of that was probably because of time constraints involved with each of the questions. McCain did very well at nailing Obama on a lot of issues but unfortunately for him he has the worst poker face in the world. Every time he nailed Obama on an issue, as soon as he was done speaking he looked very smug and self-satisfied Obama is a lot better at hiding his contempt for John McCain. To his credit I don't think I heard him use the word 'maverick' through the whole debate. If I hear McCain or Palin say the word 'maverick' one more time I think I might puke.

McCain did have a couple of great lines during the debate though. The first one was when he finally called Obama out on trying to make people think he is just like Bush. This probably isn't an exact quote but he said "If you wanted to run against President Bush you should have run for president four years ago." The other great statement from McCain was completely accidental but it was perfect. He misspoke and accidentally called Obama Senator Government. If you really listened to Obama's responses Wednesday night, his answer to almost every question included more government spending and more government involvement in our lives. Senator Government is the perfect name for him. All that he thinks of is more more more government.

Another great name that radio host Michael Savage came up with for Barack Obama was BO. Since it is somehow so offensive to mention his middle name as Hussein and in the tradition of referring to a president by their initials it would have to be BO instead of BHO. So if America is crazy enough to elect Barack Hussein Obama, when he turns out to stink as a president, everyone who had any sense about this guy will say "Well what did you expect? You elected a guy named BO."

Anyway, we've got three more weeks of all of this garbage to go. And then we're gonna get four years of whatever we deserve.

Examining Obama's Finances

I really thought I was done with the political topics for awhile but there are just too many oddities in regards to Barack Obama and money that need to be seriously examined by the American people before they vote on November 4th. I don't know that I can tie all of these things together into one coherent article so I'll just list them and briefly discuss each one.

His Spending Plan - Obama has plans for nearly one trillion dollars in new spending if he gets elected. Where is this money coming from? Washington just rushed through a $700 billion bailout bill that had $150 billion in extra unrelated spending tacked onto it. We also just borrowed $500 billion from China. Obama wants to spend an extra trillion? That's just frightening.

Freddie Mac - Barack Obama blames the current administration for the current economic woes. That statement is completely flawed and ignores certain facts about the Carter administration and the Clinton administration. In just three short years in the senate Obama received the second most campaign financing from Freddie Mac compared to any other senator.

ACORN - Barack Obama worked closely with ACORN in the nineties and they in turn helped him to get elected to the senate. He served as one of their lawyers in a lawsuit against Citibank, in which ACORN was trying to force them to make housing loans to poor people who couldn't afford a home. Anyone still believe his lies about the housing issues being Bush's fault? Earlier this year Obama gave ACORN $800,000. ACORN is now under investigation in ten states for voter fraud.

Campaign Spending - Shortly after Sarah Palin's addition to the Republican ticket Obama boasted that his campaign spends more in a month than the entire yearly budget of the town Palin was mayor of. First his statement was completely dismissive of the fact that she has been a governor for the past couple years. Secondly, it again shows a complete lack of understanding of what fiscal responsibility is. America doesn't need a president that boasts about how much money they spend, we need a president who will cut spending.

His campaign spending raises another question as well: If he's spending $40 million a month on his campaign, where is all of that money coming from? Obama has spent the last several months trying to pit the poor people against the rich. He's been trying to play the part of Robin Hood promising to raise taxes for the rich and give it to the poor. Many poor people of course are out there saying "yeah, stick it to those stinkin' rich guys why should they have it all?" Let's just forget about the fact that many rich people are rich because they worked hard to beecome rich. So Obama is going for mass appeal here but there is still the question of where $40 million a month is coming from. It's certainly not coming from the poor people that he is trying to get to hate the rich people. They don't have that kind of money. Nope, the money is coming from rich people contributing to his campaign. So why are they giving so much money to him if he hates them so much(he is also quite wealthy of course). It's because they know that he is full of crap. He doesn't hate rich people, he loves them. He loves his elite friendships. Obama cares nothing for the poor people of this country, heck his half brother lives in a shack on $12 a year. This is a guy who says that he is his brothers keeper. He's simply trying buy the election and when it's all over if he does win those poor people won't be any better off for the rich people paying higher taxes.

Economic Immunity

With all of the panic driven market changes of late and the government takeover of much of the financial sector many people are worrying about their financial futures. Analysts are having to change their predictions about the future of the economy on an almost daily basis and usually not in a positive way. There are two ways for certain to come away from this economic meltdown unscathed. There are plenty of other possibilities as well but these two are certain. One is that you could be the CEO of one of these corporations that you ran into the ground and made off with millions from. In that case you are probably in pretty good shape yet. The other certain way to ride out the economic storm unscathed is to be self-sufficient

My regular readers have seen me write about self-sufficiency in the past and it dawned on me the other day that if someone was self-sufficient then all of this stuff that is going on would barely even register in their lives. Take for example the Amish, they are certainly not 100% self-sufficient but they are probably about as close as anyone in America. You know, except for some crazy cults living in the mountains somewhere I suppose. I searched the internet for articles discussing the economic downturn and it's affect on Amish communities. You know what I couldn't find a single article. The reason that they are unaffected is because they don't have mortgages, they don't have money in the stock market, and they don't have much use for oil. They grow their own food and make their own clothes. So there are lessons we can learn from the Amish.

As I've discussed in the past, I am very inconsistent in my approach to self-sufficiency. The other day I had to come to terms with the reality that my house is not located somewhere where micro-hydroelectric was an option. Wind probably wouldn't be very effective for me. And a solar system is well outside of my price range. But I also realized that I spend much more on food in a year than I do on electricity, we won't even discuss how much I spend on heating oil in a year. Though we do grow a very small percentage of our food, if we were to increase that amount a good deal then we would gain a certain level of immunity to world economic issues.

Food prices skyrocketing? Not a problem. Another tainted vegetable scare? That's okay. Can't afford the gas to drive to the grocery store? Hey no big deal, there's food right outside the door. I have no delusions of ever being 100% self-sufficient but I can build myself a layer of protection from the world's economic woes by taking steps in that direction. And you can too, maybe you don't have the room to grow much food (although converting your yard into a garden would be a much better use of space) but perhaps you could generate your own electricity and know that even if you lose your job in all this mess, at least the lights will stay on.

Sound Investments

A lot of people have been losing great sums of money on the stock market lately and I don't think that things will stabilize for quite some time yet. Me personally, I have nothing invested in the stock market and I'm quite glad of that at the moment. That being said, I am not offering financial advice on investments to anyone reading this but I will say what I would invest in were it me. Right now I wouldn't put anything into the stock market, not until things settle down a little bit. But if I was intent on investing something into the market there are some areas I would look at.

First I would stay far away from any corporations that derive most of their income from hardgoods and/or services. When things get really bad in the economy people are going to spend less money on gadgets and material things and will be less apt to pay someone for technical or financial services.

What I would look at are corporations that deal largely with consumables. People don't need a new computer but they do need to eat. Food manufacturers, grocery chains, and pet store chains are what I would look at. I'm not saying I expect these corporations to show big gains but I expect them to be more stable than much of the rest of the market.

Energy is another area to look at. A barrel of oil is way down in price and could continue to drop. Nothing has really changed in the stability of the energy market though which means we could be just one natural disaster, one crazy dictator, or one terrorist attack away from higher oil prices again. It's a bleak way to look at things but for the long term I believe energy is still a decent place to invest.

Again, these are just my thoughts on where I might put my money if I was so inclined. Right now though I'm not investing in anything. Things need to stabilize a bit first for me.

Breaking the Two Party System

The youngest generation of eligible voters probably barely remembers Ross Perot, that funny looking billionaire that spent a fortune trying to win the presidency as an independent candidate. Perot did as well as anyone other than a Republican or Democrat has done during my lifetime. Similarly many Americans probably don't realize that there are a large number of political parties in our country. That is a failing of modern media formats. We only see what the media wants us to see unless we really dig for it. But if you don't know what you are digging for then how do you know where to dig?

Each presidential election cycle all of the minor parties hold their own nominating conventions far away from all of the lights and noise and splendor of the Democrats and the Republicans. And each presidential election cycle these minor party candidates will only garner a few thousand votes. So why do they try? Why do they even bother with the pretense of running for president when they know they have no chance? Ross Perot had the best shot and that was only because he invested millions of his own money in the cause. None of the current crop of candidates is doing any such thing. So why do they run? The answer is probably not the answer that you might think from a candidate who doesn't have a chance: It's power, they all want power.

I am certain that the candidates from the Constitution party, the Libertarian party, the Green party, and whatever other parties are out there are running for office because they believe that their ideas are better and that they can do things better than either of the two parties in power. But putting resources into a presidential election that you are sure to lose shows a real lack of vision. These candidates from the various parties are not taking the long view of things, even through inevitable failure they press on to try and make themselves known.

Allow me to explain how a third party would be able to reach the presidency. First, you can't start at the top. No one knows you or your party and the media will shut you out. So just forget about the presidency for awhile, forget about a lot of national level elections. If you want the country's political climate to change and the policies to reflect your views you must take the long view. You must start at the bottom with local races all across the country. Firmly entrenched at the local level you then move onto state postings, once you have a strong foothold there then you move to national level races. Finally after a 30-40 year journey then you put up a candidate from your party that has become known nationally because even though you are likely still in the minority you are a big enough party to not just be ignored.

I take issue with the presidential candidates from these minor parties. In spite of knowing that their efforts will fail, they press on. When instead they could be devoting time and resources into building a localized movement that would eventually move to the national stage. Because if they truly believed in their cause and the ideas that they are espousing then that is what they would be doing. Instead they are propping themselves up and wasting their party's limited resources doing it.

I know that a lot of people feel in this election that they once again are choosing between the lesser of two evils. Thank the media for propping these two gentlemen up during the primary season. I would strongly discourage you from voting for a third party for the presidential election and instead vote for who you see as the lesser of two evils after doing plenty of research and finding out who these guys actually are. But in the smaller races I think you should definitely vote for third party candidates if they in fact reflect your world view. Change never starts at the top, it always starts at the bottom and works it's way up. Politicians are in office to serve us, not the other way around. And I don't mean that they should be serving us cash on a silver platter. Remember that cash was once yours anyway, they just took it from you through taxes, said they needed it for something and then it turns out that that something was to just buy your vote with your own money. Back to the topic at hand though...start the movement from the bottom and the top will change eventually but don't throw away your vote for president by voting for a third party this cycle.

Uninformed Voters

Sometime last week we received some John McCain and Barack Obama dog chew toys at work. This sparked a bit of political discussion and for the first time I came face to face with something I have known exists but had never experienced in someone I know: Voter ignorance. This one woman that I work with whom I would generally regard as pretty intelligent and is a double major in college put voter ignorance on display in grand fashion.

I asked her if she had a dog which one would she want her dog to be chewing on, the McCain doll or the Obama doll. She responded that it would be McCain because "I hate McCain." I asked her why that is and she said it's because "he's so old and just like Bush." She also added that she is going to vote for Obama because she is a Democrat.

Obviously Obama and his allies are making their message heard about McCain's age and the lie about him being just like Bush. I was a bit saddened by her response. For someone who is seemingly intelligent in other areas of life to make such ignorant statements shows us the state of the American public. People are making voting decisions not based on facts but on vague feelings propagated by the media.

Look if someone wants to vote for Obama then fine. If someone wants to vote for McCain then fine. But please, please America do so from a place of knowledge and not ignorance. Learn who these guys really are. Research what it is they have done with their lives and how they got where they are today. Look at their records and not just the twisted half-truths that both of them spew from the debate platform. Don't just take their word for it. Do go beyond the speeches and the press releases and the mainstream media. Read articles that support them and the ones that oppose them. Check the facts. In last Thursday's Vice Presidential Debate Joe Biden said something very interesting. He said that he never questions the motives of his fellow Senators. I'm sure Senator Biden would love for none of us to question the his or Obama's motives on a number of things but that is exactly what we must do. We must know the truth about who these people are and not just the doctored truths of multi-million dollar campaigns.

I also need to address this nonsense of voting Democrat or Republican because "that's what I am." The only people who can truly call themselves Democrats or Republicans are those that are officially a member of that party and do or have served in a public office as a member of one of those parties. The rest of America are just individuals who get to vote one way or the other. Our votes should not be based on what our parents voted. We should not simply vote for one party because that's what we've always done. There is corruption in both parties and it runs deep.

When determining how to cast your vote, ignore which party the person represents for a moment and truly think about which person in the election is going to make the right choices for America. Which one has the strength of character to take us in a direction that will allow us to prosper. Ask yourself which one best reflects the values that this country was founded upon. Ask yourself if our nation will be better off for having this person serve in office.

Half of Americans already don't vote, we cannot afford to have the ones that are voting doing so from a place of ignorance of the facts. If it means you vote for a party that you never have before then so be it. Please educate yourselves. Listen to talk radio, watch cable news stations, and utilize the internet. Then go and educate your friends.

They're Not Bailing Out America, They're Selling Out America

Earlier this week the Senate passed version two of a fundamentally flawed bill that will do extensive damage to the principles of our nation's financial system. Today the House of Representatives will vote on this bill and it is expected to pass this time around. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is opposed by 70-90% of Americans. The bailout bill has passed the Senate for a second time and now it appears that it will pass through the House the second time around. So if an overwhelming majority of Americans are against this bailout for corporations then why are the people who are supposed to be representing us passing this bill? The really terrible thing is that the second time around the bill is actually far worse than the first time.

I spent a good amount of time earlier today reading through as much of the 451 page document as I could stomach. Almost none of us want Wallstreet bailed out and that is bad enough but here are the things in the bill that you might not be aware of: It provides tax breaks for the steel industry, it provides money for the wool industry, it provides money for coal research, it gives $129 million to the Rum industry!, it provides a tax break for a company that makes wooden arrows for children!, it gives $18 million to the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Fund, and so on. There are also provisions for tax credits for people who buy household appliances that are energy efficient and were manufactured this year or the next two years.

As you read through that list there were probably a couple things that didn't seem so bad and there were probably several things that made your blood boil. A tax break for a company that makes wooden arrows for children??? Someone needs to find out which senator put that in the bill and if they are from a state that allows senators to be recalled then the people of that state need to rise up and use their power to recall that senator. The same could go for any of those other earmarks. The point is that whether you find any of the things that were added to the bill to be good or not doesn't matter. None of these things should have been included in the bill. Our politicians have been busy telling us over the past couple weeks that this is going to be as bad as the Great Depression. First of all I don't believe them. Because if it was really that bad then why did it take an extra 150 billion dollars in earmark spending to be put on the bill before enough of them would vote for it? If this was really about what was good for the country then why couldn't they just vote on the bill on it's own merit? The truth is that they don't care about what happens to the country. They only care about advancing their own careers. They care about the special interest groups that fund their campaigns. They certainly do not care about their constituents.

You need to look at who voted for this and who didn't. Both major party presidential candidates voted for this bill. Shame on them. And as I'm writing this I put the vice presidential debate on mute because I just couldn't bear to listen to the lies and half truths anymore. I live in Pennsylvania and unfortunately both of our Senators voted yes on this bill. Republican Arlen Specter and Democrat Bob Casey Jr. Today I wrote both of them an email which I've copied here so you can read. Perhaps you would like to use it to send to your own senators.

Dear Senator [Insert Name Here],

During this time of economic upheaval in our nation it saddens me greatly to see you vote yes on the bailout bill. This is a bill that 70-90% of Americans are against and certainly that would apply in Pennsylvania as well. The thing is though Senator, that Americans are against the core of what the bill stands for, that alone was enough to have the American people set against it. Now though you and your fellow Senators have packed it full of tax breaks for special interests and added more costs to an already costly bill. Provisions for Wool? Really? How about Rum? Here's a good one: a tax break for a company that makes wooden arrows for children! The list goes on and on. I read through the 451 page bill and frankly, I was sick to my stomach as I did so, knowing that both Senators from Pennsylvania had signed on to this atrocity of legislation.

You and your friends in Washington have shown once again that you do not have America's best interests at heart. Rest assured that when you are up for re-election, I will be voting against you.

Sincerely,
[Your Name Here]

I honestly don't expect to get a response from either of these gentlemen but if I do I'll be sure to post it on here.

Whether the bill passes or fails in the House of Representatives you need to look at who your representatives are and remember their names. Remember this day of infamy, this day when our politicians have continued their ways of greed and corruption to sell out America. When these men and women are up for re-election, vote them out. Also remember though the ones who voted against it. Whether or not it passes you should write to them and thank them for the stand they have made against this unconstitutional bill.

The President, both major party presidential candidates, and far too many senators and representatives support this garbage piece of legislation. A couple years ago here in Pennsylvania the state legislature held a vote late at night to give themselves a pay raise. When the people found out about it they were angry and they got organized with their anger. We voted almost every one of them out of office that was up for re-election. You corrupt politicians in Washington had better look out because the people are angry and we will not forget what you have done here. You will be voted out of office.