This is a reminder to not forget about memorial day... Don't forget that there are many who cannot be home to enjoy the long weekend off, or the great sales when you are at the mall. Many Americans are simply struggling to survive and improve the lives of others in areas where they do not have many friends but they will survive because of the thoughts and best wishes from their family and friends.
To our forces in Iraq, Afghanistan, South Korea and anywhere else on the globe, a grateful nation says thanks and hopes that you will all return home safely soon. To those families of soldiers that have made their greatest sacrifice, we say " thank you" to you, your children and all those that come after because they have allowed us continue on today. To those veterans of previous generations, previous wars and other military actions we ask that you please share your stories with us. Let us share in your experiences so we are able to teach our children what it means to be patriotic, take pride in your country and understand that when duty calls our country has always responded with vigor and purpose.
If there is one thing we cannot loose, it is the shared experience of hardship during times of war and what that means to this nation. As long as their is injustice at home and abroad, the citizen soldier of the United States will be there to answer the call. To not instill this sense of spirit in our youngest generations will only lead us into a future where people no longer understand why it is sometimes necessary to risk everything to ensure that what we have remains secure and avaible to all future generations.
Thank you for all that you have done, thank you for all that you will do and do not dispair, for your country remembers all that you stand for.
So the official election results have been available for several days now:
http://www.washco-md.net/election/2008Gen.htm
And to no surprise the McCain / Palin ticket won the majority in the county. What amazes me though is the fact that so many people in this area thought they would actually benefit from John McCain. I read the following in an article in the Herald Mail a few days ago:
David Peters, 27, of Hagerstown, disagreed. He said a majority of Washington County residents voted for McCain because the Arizona senator had more experience.
“(McCain) knows more about politics,” Peters said. “Obama didn’t know a lot. All he wanted to do was raise taxes. I wouldn’t have liked that. Now, it’s going to happen.”
I would love to know if David actually is making more than $250,000 per year. My money is on he is not making even a third of that. The simple fact is that Western Maryland average incomes have never benefited from republican policy. The vast majority of people out here are not executives but working class folks that need all the breaks they can get. When the median household income hovers around $35,000 per year, I find it hard to believe why someone would support a candidate whose tax plan pretty much only reduced capital gains taxes on people who make a lot of money with investments.
The fact is that most people did not choose McCain because they thought he "is the better man" as the article suggests. People in Washington county chose McCain and Palin because they hold much more conservative religious beliefs and he has Military service on his record. While there is nothing wrong with either, it is hard to say if they make him a better man than Barack Obama for leading a country. The presidency is about making policy, not determining Military strategy and tactics on the ground, nor is the presidency about setting the religious standards in this country.
When it comes down to who is the better person for the presidency, the better person is the one who can energize people, talk eloquently, rally the support of foreign nations and present a much more inviting face to the rest of the world. Not to mention make intelligent policy decisions without relying on only one strength to guide them such as military experience. It's time for America to realize that in order to be effective, we must utilize diplomacy but maintain the threat of military force, utilizing it only sparingly as needed. As Teddy Roosevelt said, "speak softly and carry a big stick."
Better to have people fear what you could do, then show what you can. I think Barack will understand this along with the rest of his military and policy team. I think this is something that someone not so ingrained in the military culture of the country can truly understand and utilize to great effect.
So do we have the best person from the candidates possible entering the White House? Yes, I think we do. Is he young and somewhat untested on the world stage? Absolutely. Is this such a bad thing? No it is not. Barack has a lot to prove and a lot to live up to, but bringing a non-insider attitude to the White House is a plus. He also has the presence of mind to surround himself with some of the greatest political and military thinkers of this era which will provide him with advice for the situations he has never faced in his own life. This will be a collaboration, a truly team effort and one that should make us all proud since pooling the strengths of individuals is what makes America so strong. I believe we will be proven to be strong once again in the coming four years as well.
So I got interested when I read this post about people's first PCs so I decided that I would post my list of PCs over the years since I am a techie and I love this stuff!
This was the first PC I really ever did anything useful on. The Toshiba T1000 had a whopping 512 Kb of internal memory, a built in 2400 baud modem, a external 720 Kb 5.25" external drive and a 720 Kb 3.5" drive! This was the PC I first messed around with BASIC and DOS and also was the first online experience I ever had. In those days text based CompuServe was the bomb and playing text based online RPGs was a great way to entertain yourself!.
From this point, there was no turning back, I was destined to be a techie and below is the list of PCs that I have had since then:
- IBM compatible 286 (math rabbit was sweet!)
- IBM compatible 386 DX (my first taste of sim city and Windows 3.1)
- Canon Innova Pentium 75 (the first PC I had to run Win95. Plug and Play baby!)
- Home built AMD K6-2
- Home built PIII Celeron 300mhz
- Home built 3 Ghz P4 HT
- IBM Thinkpad PIII 1ghz
- Home built AMD X2 3000+
- Gateway Server (Dual PIII 1ghz, U160 SCSI)
- HP dv1000 Centrino laptop (2ghz)
- HP/Compaq 1ghz Athlon laptop
- Dell Lattitude D800 series (2.2 ghz Core 2 Duo)
- Dell XPS m1330 (2.2 Ghz Core 2 Duo)
- HP Core 2 Quad 2.4 ghz PC (current)
So there you have it, those are all of the PCs that I have primarily used growing up until the present. I encourage everyone to post their experiences as well since it is always interesting to see how technology has shaped other peoples' lives.
"For all the women who wanted women's rights in the '60s: Now you have a chance at having a female president with many years of experience, and you're messing it up. You're voting for the wrong candidate. You're a lot of talk. If you're into women's rights, vote for Clinton." - Hagerstown
The Herald-Mail
And if you mean by "women's rights" you mean a woman who stays with a cheating husband to further her own political career then I guess you are right. Hillary Clinton is not a women's rights advocate, or if she is then it is only because she is a woman. She is the most conservative democrat in the race currently and last time I checked the 60's bra burners were not overly conservative. The only thing you'd be messing up by not voting for Hillary Clinton is the chances for her ruining the country.
It was, in this reporter's opinion, the most interesting moment in today's Clinton campaign phoner with reporters. Responding to the release of HRC's new TX TV ad, which asserts in no subtle terms that only she has the experience to deal with a major world crisis, and, relatedly, to keep your children safe, Slate's John Dickerson asked the obvious question:
"What foreign policy moment would you point to in Hillary's career where she's been tested by crisis?" he said.
Silence on the call. You could've knit a sweater in the time it took the usually verbose team of Mark Penn, Howard Wolfson and Lee Feinstein, Clinton's national security director, to find a cogent answer. And what they came up with was weak -- that she's been endorsed by many high ranking members of the uniformed military.
Take a listen ...
Hotline On Call: Pregnant Pause
Was there ever any doubt that Hillary Clinton didn't actually have any foreign policy experience or any crisis experience? Just because she worked for a giant corporate law firm and then sat in the White House for 8 years being the cold witch that everyone know she is at the time does not mean you have any real experience. Her actions after her husband left the White House have only emphasized her cold, calculating attitude of doing anything that will get her ahead whether or not it is morally or ethically right. This kind of experience should make you worry that she will do the same thing if she were to be elected, once there she will just continue to do the same old thing.
There is no experience here, there is none to be found. The fact is that she does not really have any more experience of her own than Barack Obama. The only experience she has is sitting and watching her Husband get impeached in front of the entire world and then staying with him so her own political ambitions could be realized. This is exactly the kind of experience that we should be running away from as fast as we can, after all, would you want someone answering the phone in the middle of the night cutting a deal that only advances their own personal agenda?
This was the first PC I really ever did anything useful on. The Toshiba T1000 had a whopping 512 Kb of internal memory, a built in 2400 baud modem, a external 720 Kb 5.25" external drive and a 720 Kb 3.5" drive! This was the PC I first messed around with BASIC and DOS and also was the first online experience I ever had. In those days text based CompuServe was the bomb and playing text based online RPGs was a great way to entertain yourself!.