Gerry and Doc talk about election day among the po' fokes

I think McCain won the debate last night!

Above is our latest video where Doc and I are talking about the election what else. The following is about my assessment of the debate last night in relation to an issue I consider very important even if it has been reduced to a non issue many election years. This was copied from my G4Life blog on http://www.azcentral.com and I also wrote a letter to the Arizona Republic which they notified me they have received and may publish. In the meantime they requested I blog about it.

Yesterday I was reading a book about Obama just out called "The Faith of Barack Obama" by Stephen Mansfield which helped me to understand why Obama could call himself a Christian and attend Trinity Church for years and still say he was pro choice. It seems that Reverend Wright also believes in pro choice according to this source! Now that is amazing to me. How a pastor could square a belief in Jesus with legalized abortion, I am not sure.
So last night the monitor finally got to Roe vs Wade and asked both candidates to discuss where they stood. I think this is how McCain clearly won the debate to me. He did not equivocate. He said he would include in the qualifications for a Supreme Court Justice his attitude toward the constitution, because he stated very firmly he did not believe Roe vs Wade was a good decision. I don't think it was a good decision either, because it went where the Supreme Court had never gone before to interfere with the states' previous jurisdiction over abortion rights. If the interference of the Supreme Court was going to legalize abortion across the land, then perhaps that was the best reason for keeping abortion under the states' jurisdiction. The states were going to be closer to the will of the people. What the Supreme Court decision did do besides raise abortion numbers astronomically was cause a very troubling split between the two parties, based on legalized abortion. This you do not want because it puts high pressure on groups traditionally democrat to become pro choice with even the Trinity Church Pastor, Reverend Wright, succumbing. This kind of reminds me of the days of slavery when under obvious pressure from powerful slave owners so many Church Leaders found justification for it and thus made it even more difficult to persuade slave owners good religious people did not enslave other people!
I do not think Obama has been strong enough to give up his aspirations to be president to see his church and his party as wrong on this issue, every bit as wrong as those church leaders and politicians were who embraced slavery. Now we see legalized abortion as too entrenched into our way of life to give it up. Wasn't slavery so well established it took a tragic civil war to end it, and ultimately the assassination of President Lincoln?
You don't help people kill people. That's basically wrong and all the rhetoric in the world will not change it. But people who are inclined to do it and those who are inclined to defend it will make it extremely difficult to change the law. I hate to see a young attractive candidate like Obama succumb to ambition, because his endorsement of pro choice is his Achilles heel. He is his party's hope just as the corrupt Bill Clinton was his party's hope when he ran. It was hoped that people would find his charm and his talents enough to elect him, and those people who did vote for him were clearly going to have to go soft on pro choice, as I did because I voted for him. This time I can't do that, no matter how attractive the candidate may be. I find it ironic to see attractive very successful liberals in the public eye hopping around on this issue, once again threatening to sweep the abortion issue under the carpet, turn it into essentially a non issue. It is always going to be a non issue for those who endorse pro choice, because it takes so much conviction to make it an important issue. It is a tragedy that it is a non issue for so many people. That makes so many people culpable for continuing the practice that is taking over a million lives a year of the unborn.
We will have to be accountable for this somewhere. We can always put off judgment day, and the longer we put it off the more lives will be lost. I have now made up my mind to vote for McCain, tattered warrior that he is, since he offers the most hope to end the slaughter of the innocents.

Great Day with Raymond at the Farmer's Market...

Here we are at the Farmer's Market across the street where we drank coffee and visited. After an hour there he asked me if I wanted to drive out to my daughter Ronda's house for lunch. I was happy to say yes, so we got to visit with Chad, Ronda, and my grandchildren, Jamal and Ethan, who are always happy to see their Uncle Raymond.

Jamal is enrolled in ASU already in the business college for next year. He starts tennis at the beginning of the year at his high school in Happy Valley. I hope we can all take in some of his matches.

Raymond was having a meeting last night with the cast of Caffeine to talk about filming a second season of this Internet mini-series. They are going to film very short commercials this time to sell to interested parties. Raymond is going to take a load of his belongings back to Utah in a few days, but depending on the weather, may return soon. This is when the snowbirds fly in from the cold places. Boulder is cooling off fast.

I have been so up in the air and upset over 'the worst week on Wall Street' for many a year I have not been able to visit journals a whole lot yet. I talked to my sister Linda who says she does not know what move to make, leave her house to foreclosure, leave town, move to SF, so she is in a quandry as I am sure a lot of others are who are having trouble paying their mortgage. She says there are no jobs to be had for a woman 68 years old at this time in Phoenix. She was one who took equity out of her house in a 'restructured' deal which actually upped her mortage beyond her means to pay. She said those who convinced her to do it made money, but now she is finding it hard to leave her house. She is getting to an age where she might have had to leave it anyway. And she probably won't be able to afford a car either, which is always an adjustment. I stopped being able to afford car insurance without a job. But I have very good bus service where I live so now I don't miss the car at all. I was always worried about it and I like company and someone else to do the driving. In fact, we are getting fast transit just outside my door in a couple of months.

The election has also had me in a tizzy. I am glad that McCain cooled some of his rhetoric. I think he got alarmed about setting off a firestorm of racist reactions as well he should worry. I am glad that he had enough character to assure his supporters they did not need to fear having Obama in the white house should he win. I think his negative campaign implying Obama ties to terrorists, etc, backfired on him. So I am keeping close track of what is going on there. I hate negative campaigning. It is so hard to listen to. So I will be glad when the election is over. How about you?