Save our country.

Congressman Tom Allen and his staff and volunteers are holding a free beans and franks dinner in Brewer on Thursday, October 2nd at the ISAAC E. CLEWLEY POST VFW HALL (235 Center Street - near the Brewer Middle School) from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM!

Let's give the next U.S. Senator from Maine a warm and enthusiastic welcome to the great city of Brewer!

Everyone is welcome!

Looking good for November...

As a follower of Christ, as is presumably the person who gassed your children, I am deeply ashamed. Christ told us that the most important commandment was that you should love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. The person who attacked you failed miserably at both.

May the God of Abraham be with you in your time of trouble, and may he move your attacker's heart to repentance.

What motivated me to write this letter?

Terrorism.

"She told me that the gas was sprayed into the room where the babies and children were being kept while their mothers prayed together their Ramadan prayers. Panicked mothers ran for their babies, crying for their children so they could flee from the gas that was burning their eyes and throats and lungs. She grabbed her youngest in her arms and grabbed the hand of her other daughter, moving with the others to exit the building and the irritating substance there.

"The paramedic said the young one was in shock, and gave her oxygen to help her breathe. The child couldn't stop sobbing.

"This didn't happen in some far away place -- but right here in Dayton, and to my friends. Many of the Iraqi refugees were praying together at the Mosque Friday evening. People that I know and love."

If you're so moved, you can send your own message of support to The Islamic Society of Greater Dayton at isgd@hotmail.com.

May God be with you, and with your neighbors.

Just for fun, I pulled their results into Excel and put a 10-poll trendline on them, to smooth out the variations a bit.

If anyone else has good ideas on how to view this data, let me know.

After all, if you actually read the referendum, instead of the summary, you see that it's giving a 10-year monopoly to this particular gaming company. I noticed that language myself when I was asked to sign it, so I passed.

Let's take a moment to remember what the election in November is about.

The President:

• shall be commander in chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several states, when called into the actual service of the United States;
• may require the opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices,
• shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment.
• shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to make treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur;
• shall nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by law: but
  • the Congress may by law vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments.
• shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of their next session.

The Congress shall have power:

• to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
• To borrow money on the credit of the United States;
• To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several states, and with the Indian tribes;
• To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States;
• To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the standard of weights and measures;
• To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current coin of the United States;
• To establish post offices and post roads;
• To promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries;
• To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court;
• To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and offenses against the law of nations;
• To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules concerning captures on land and water;
• To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use shall be for a longer term than two years;
• To provide and maintain a navy;
• To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces;
• To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions;
• To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States, reserving to the states respectively, the appointment of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
• To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular states, and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legislature of the state in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings;--And
• To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof.

And, when reading the above, always remember:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

and:

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

"You're the Republican candidate for president...

...and you want to fix the country's problems even though you don't know much about the economy, you don't know how to use the internet, you don't know how many houses you own or what kind of car you drive, you admit you don't think clearly when you're tired, you make frequent gaffes on foreign policy, you think offshore drilling is a short-term solution to high gas prices, you support torture and keeping the Guantanamo prison open, you make rash decisions and statements from which you have to quickly backtrack, you have an explosive temper on a hair trigger, your idea of health care reform is 'wear more sunscreen,' you're for stem cell research except when it's done on stem cells because you consider them all American citizens, and you voted to support the policies of the worst president ever 100 percent of the time this year?"

"Trust me, my friends. I was a POW."