2012

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THE BEGINNING OF THE END

by Jay Valles
11/07/12

At 10:18 pm CST, social media locally explodes negatively with a barrage of expletives as CNN calls the race for President Obama. Unfortunately it would take Romney almost 2 hours to concede. In Ohio, the Columbus Dispatch prepares the morning headlines, which reads, “The Best Is Yet To Come”.

Even though in my opinion, the Republican Party has little in it’s platform that attracts the middle class, the national vote was basically split, highlighting a divisiveness that appears to exist in our country. Does this fall more along racial lines? Or, do issues like gay marriage, abortion, and immigration split us down the middle?

Of course Texas gives it’s electoral votes to Romney, but is the rein of Republicans in Texas coming to an end? Is the Tea Party’s time limited? It’s hard to deny the increasing impact of minorities in every election for the past 10 years. In 2010, the census showed that minorities made up 51% of the Texas population. This trend is starting to be reflected in almost every state of the union. When Texas becomes one of those battleground states, Republicans will really begin to have a hard time winning the White House.

As one of the pundits on CNN said, “The future of the Republican Party hinges on how they deal with the changing demographics.”

County Commissioner, Precinct 1 - Asa “Cookie” Stone (R) defeats Thomas R. Mangrem (D)
County Commissioner, Precinct 3 - Ruben Ortega (D) defeats Ben Ramirez (R)
County Commissioner, Precinct 4 - Mike Pallanez (D) defeats Carl Lewis (R)
U.S. Rep District 23 - Pete Gallego (D) defeats Francisco Canseco (R)
U.S. Senate - Ted Cruz (R) defeats Paul Sadler (D)
U.S. Rep District 11 - Mike Conaway (R) defeats Jim Riley (D)
U.S. Rep District 19 - Randy Neugebauer (R) defeats Chip Peterson (L)

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THE DECLINE OF YOUTH SPORTS

by Jay Valles
10/23/12

Some of it begins at the Peewee sports level. Dads, and yes, even Moms, yelling, “get down there and hit somebody”. It seems coaches, who are just regular parents and mostly just trying to help out in the community, unfortunately only help to promote the perversion. The problem could be they lack the proper skills to teach our youth the fundamentals of the game and how to simply have fun; How to properly tackle without getting hurt and without hurting opposing players. Even more, sportsmanship seems to get thrown out with the baby and the bathwater.

Now these youth reach the 7th and 8th grades and I begin to hope that maybe now someone will begin to teach them the fundamentals of the game, but it doesn’t seem to materialize. What you see is more of the same, but it’s even worse now because now your child weighs 100-150 lbs. Now those head-to-head blows begin to cause concussions. A concussion in 7th or 8th grade can be nothing less than a perversion of the game. Why are these kids going after each other as if they were professionals getting paid to do so? Are we as parents just as much to blame? Regardless, we have to step up and take responsibility for the health and safety of our own children.

In the 8th grade home football game on 10/18/12 at Buck Stadium, a parent of a player on the visiting team had to quieted by the ref for yelling and applauding the injury of one the home team players. In the same game, a player of the opposing team was ejected from the game over a cheap shot. On that very play, my son was being brought down by a head-to-head hit, when another player hit him in the head from behind. As he was lying there, a third player (the ejected one) punched him in the head. This hit combination caused my son a serious concussion. We didn’t know it at the time, but after the game, we were called down onto the field to come see my son. He was very dizzy. He told me his head was hurting and spinning. He could barely stand on his own, his pupils were dilated and he couldn’t see clearly. He had to be driven off the field and helped to dress. We then took him to the emergency room where after a CAT scan the doctor confirmed a concussion.

Unfortunately, coaches, even our own, seem to be promoting that type of hitting, and really, the 7th and 8th grade coaches are only doing what the high school athletic director, their boss, has outlined for them. It appears fundamentals go out the window over a program that instead tries to prepare them for the high school program. But in my opinion, our 7th and 8th grade football teams have no business running shotgun offenses exclusively. Quarterbacks in these grades should not be trying to learn designed plays that have them throwing on the run.

My youngest 10-year-old son has played peewee football for several years, but this year he had second thoughts and decided not to play. His reason, he was tired of getting hit and didn’t often get a chance to play positions he wanted. Yes, dedication and hard work are part of any sports program, but at this level, that should never be placed above simply having fun. And yes, not everyone can be a quarterback or running back, but again, at this level, everyone should get a chance to try as often as possible. A peewee football coach’s program should never be solely and firstly about winning.

It’s not only in football, but our local Little League baseball program is no different. Even by their own admission, our Little League directors feel the program should be about “prepping” the players for upper level programs. Instead of teaching the fundamentals of the game, or a love for the game, they drain all the fun out of the game. What happens when you apply this “prepping” attitude? You begin to coach and appease the better players and you begin to disregard less skilled players. Even to the point of changing the rules outlined by the Little League handbook. Kids, as young as 9 years old, are getting rotator cuff injuries that basically ruin their arms for life (yes, here in Alpine). One year, my son took a pitch to the head that resulted in a concussion. In other places, kids have even lost their lives in a Little League game. There can be no worse perversion of the game and of the ideals Little League is supposed to stand for. Is it more important for a pitcher to learn to throw as hard and fast as possible, or should they be coached to learn control and accuracy?

Even Little Dribblers basketball is not immune. Because of the way the program is operated, there are teams that go an entire season without winning a single game, or teams that lose games 50 to 0 or 60 to 4. What’s more, you get parents totally disgusted and even fighting with each other in the stands. It becomes totally disheartening. How is all this teaching fundamentals or a love for the game? I grew up playing all these sports and I couldn’t wait to see and support my children playing these sports. Now I find myself in a predicament I never could have imagined. Should I ask my kids to reconsider signing up for these sports?

Only 3% of high school basketball players make the transition to the NCAA. An even less .03% (that’s 3/100ths of 1 percent) of high school basketball players make it to the NBA. There are approximately 135,000 high school seniors playing baseball, but only about 8200 NCAA freshman positions available. Only .45% (less than ½ of 1 percent) of high school baseball players make it to the Major Leagues. About 3% of high school football players will play at the colligate level, and, a mere .08% of high school football players make it to the NFL. In a small town school like Alpine, you can expect the percentages to be even lower.

Don’t we just want our children to have a better education and better opportunities than we had? Today, our children have the highest chance for a higher education than ever before. Studies vary and place numbers between 65-80% of high school seniors that go on to attend college. In 2011, the Department of Labor Statistics placed the number at 68.3 percent. Other studies show that almost 100% of seniors that prepare for a higher education go on to do so.

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My Favorite Apps - Android

by Jay Valles
9/20/12

I'm not much of gamer so my favorite apps are mostly utility type apps.

Key Ring
Wow! What a great app. I've got my Sam's card, medical insurance cards, my Autozone rewards card, along with several others (even my library card) on this app.
Wheres My Droid
Locate your phone when lost. Use the Pro version to remotely lock and erase your phone. Look for the companion app to keep tabs on your children's location.
CBS 7 Radar
A very good weather radar app, no matter where you are.
Tango
Totally cool! Make and recieve video calls.
Camscanner
Use your phone's camera as a document scanner. Creates a PDF file you can then share by email, message or many other methods.
Offical Dallas Cowboys App
Schedule, stats, news and video.
Honey Player
Stream the music on your phone to Airplay type recievers. It's not free but the steaming feature is pretty cool.
Gas Buddy
Great when you're on the road.
CBS News
The National News
CNN
More news.
Sky Map, SkEye, PlanetariaX
All great for night sky viewing.
Real Blackjack
Practice for that upcoming Vegas trip.
TV Guide
It's convenient.
CBS 7 Odessa/Midland News
Local News and Video.

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Other Interesting Apps - Android

by Jay Valles
9/20/12

GPS Tracking Pro
A very good family tracker. Can be a bit scary. It can show you locations of area child predators. Will show picture, address, and what the registered sex offender was charged with.
Smart Tools
Measures length and angle, distance, sound and vibration. Also has a compass, flashlight, and a metal detector. Some tools are practical, some not so practical but cool nonetheless.
Cocktail Flow, Mixology
Great drink recipes.
Trapster
Shows speed traps and cameras as reported by app users.
Gmote
Use your phone to remotely control music playback of songs stored and played on your computer.
Easy Voice Recorder
Turn your phone into a digital voice recorder.
Barcode Scanner
There are many barcode scanner apps. This is one of the better rated apps.
Business Calendar Free
A few more options than the default calendar.
Find My Car
Store your car's location and view on a map. Can be used to store other frequent locations.

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The Pentagon Papers

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Total Bills Passed - Click here.
Texas Legislature Online - Click here

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Open Letter to Soon to be Former Rep. Francisco Conseco
Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah
11/08/12

Dear Soon to be Former Rep. Francisco Conseco:

Don't let the door hit you on the way out!

We told you at numerous Town Hall Meetings in Alpine (and likely all across your District) how out of touch you were with the frequently polled desires of the American people. However, you kept right on with your Rightwing political and philosophical idiot-ology and Power Point presentations; fact-checked more often be false or misleading at best. Among the numerous issues of importance that you stood on the wrong side of history include:

Although you have a background in finance, we were told that "revenue" (taxes) had nothing to do with solving some of the federal budget problems and all we needed to do was cut taxes and eliminate regulations. You never used the term "supply side", discredited by President Reagan's first Director of the Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman -- but that's the snake oil of the past 32 years you continued to advance. Your stance on abortion and the reproductive rights treated women as if they were nothing but breeding vessels regardless of how conception took place. Rape was to be re-defined according to your and Sen. Akins misbegotten views. You ignored the fact there were real life consequences of being forced to carry to term an unwanted child -- including the emotional and physical health of the women and made it abundantly clear they were to have NO voice about how their body was to be treated.

Opposing any meaningful regulation, such as restoring New Deal legislation to help prevent circumstances leading to the 2008 economic crash occurring again or seeking to gut the EPA into irrelevance, not seeming to be concerned that fresh water remain fresh and clean air to leave smoke stacks of your associates power plants in East Texas clean enough to inhale. To you, common sense legislation was an affront to personal liberty; including restoring fairness to the tax code so that Warren Buffet's now famous secretary didn't pay more in taxes than those benefiting by the Bush era tax policies. The financial deregulation mantra resulted in a massive shift of wealth [read: "heist"] from the middle-class returning America to the Gilded Age of the late 19th/early 20th century.

Congratulations, but the fingerprints of your brand of conservatism are all over that debacle. Thus, under modern forensics (if it is a science you accept?), since you don't seem to about global warming having a human fingerprint. You and your Rightwing GOPers didn't seem to have a qualm about compelling a woman to listen to a fetal heartbeat. If that wasn't possible, to impose upon them a transvaginal sonography!

That was a very strange set of principles to favor concerning individual liberty. You interpretation of conservatism places economic over all other human and social considerations as if "market forces" were enshrined in the Sermon-on-the-Mount, Declaration of Independence and Constitution of the United States. Then there was the recent campaign mailer criticizing your opponent, Texas State Rep. Pete Gallego, in a religious attack not befitting an election in the 17th through 19th centuries, much less modern America. William Randolph Hearst would be embarrassed if it was still1898 and he was inflaming passions to bring the nation to war, but it isn't.

The mailer only confirmed what was known by a majority of your constituents attending those Town Hall Meetings or reading your weekly version of Pravda. You were shamelessly Machiavellian; intellectually and politically dishonest. Now the chickens have come home to roost. Thus, you're a one-termer, not likely to be remembered but as someone whose idiot-ology needs to be guarded against and that every election counts, even in the off-year races.

About that door -- maybe it ought to hit you on the way out! Anything that knocks some sense into you before returning to Washington as a lame duck and making things worse than you did. Please do not act as if that so-called pseudo-mandate of 2010 ever meant you had the right to recreate a society in the image of Ayn Rand. The American people and voters of the Texas 23rd District spoke much more recently and told you and yours just how wrong you have been.

Rev. Barry Abraham Zavah
PS And don't give us the Rightwing hand-wringing they’d have won the Presidential election "if they'd only been more conservative". Get it -- your brand of conservatism was wrong and the American people had it with your divisive sound-bytes presented as gospel.

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FRANKIE AND ME

by Jay Valles
revised 11/02/12

It's chili-cookoff weekend again and although it's been quite a few years since I've been, it always brings back bitter-sweet memories of my friend Frankie and our adventures down south.

The trip from Alpine to the river was one Frankie and I knew well. In high school, we went as many weekends as possible. One year, it wasn’t during a cook-off or anything like that, maybe ’83 or ’84, we picked up this scruffy looking guy. On other trips we’d seen him several times before walking up and down the highway. I’m pretty sure we’d seen him at many different points, from right outside Alpine, all the way to Study Butte. It was obvious he was walking in to Alpine to the grocery store, but we never saw him carrying any gear on his way to town. We’d seen him before walking south carrying a couple of paper bags from Safeway. He always kept close to the fence line. We'd never seen him walking close to the highway.

We’d pulled over a few times before and he’d always waved us off, we never saw him asking for a ride. This time, Frankie and I were in my black truck, I pulled over only a few miles south of Alpine. As we stopped, Frankie says, “Would you like a lift?” I remember him looking down at the ground and reluctantly saying, “Okay”. After moving some firewood out of the way and loading the dogs in the cab, he climbed in the bed. Every time we saw him, he’d look plenty scruffy and his clothes were always dirty. We might have been 16 or 17 but we felt safe, along with the dogs, Frankie usually carried a big knife, and we both carried 30-30s.

We started south, thinking he was going all the way, to at least Study Butte I figured. As we came close to the Terlingua Ranch entrance, the guy tapped on the glass, I slid the window open and he said, “Right here”. “Just right here at the entrance?” I asked. I think he nodded yes. We pulled in and stopped. I told him we wouldn’t mind taking him in. He really didn’t want us to. I was particularly insistent. I’m sure Frankie and I were already buzzed. He finally and reluctantly agreed and we drove in. Boy, did we regret that.

It must have been to the farthest eastern edge of the ranch. We never saw this guy with any gear, or even a jacket. It was about a 65-70 mile trip from Alpine to this guy’s house, easily twenty plus miles off Highway 118. It was a maze of dirt roads back then. Walking, it must have been at least a 3 day round trip. Certainly that day we picked him up, he wouldn’t have made it home that night.

Anyway, it took forever to get to this little adobe house. I could see a rifle leaning by the window and what looked a bed to one side. By then, the sun was hanging low and Frankie and I had sobered up. We were pissed because we knew it was going to get dark on us on the way to the river. He said thanks as he got his stuff, both of us hurrying him in our minds. We then pulled out of there like a bat out of hell. I had 33-inch tires on my little ’76 Chevy stepside short bed, just perfect for speeding down west Texas dirt roads that go on for miles.

Of course, it would be about 13 years later that each of us thought we had learned the identity of that guy. On April 13, 1996, authorities arrest, then 53-year old, Theodore (Ted) J. Kaczynski and charged him with being the Unabomber. Yep, it was him. That’s the guy we’d seen before and picked up that day. It would later be leaked that David, Ted’s brother, had tipped off the FBI.

In my search for information on the lives of Ted and David Kaczynski, I’ve not been able to find any documentation that would put Ted in the Brewster County area at any time. Ted’s brother David did own property in Terlingua Ranch from 1984, and it was a property in a far corner. This places David in the area from 1984. Subsequently, everything indicates that since 1971, Ted was living a similar life in Lincoln, Montana and the two only wrote to each other. Supposedly only seeing each other once in 1990.

The bother’s lives were similar in that both lived off the grid, learned survival skills, and embraced nature, but while older brother Ted was writing his manifesto, killing 3 and maiming 23 others with his mailed bombs (1978-1995), David was writing western novels and short stories (1984-1990), no politics and no anger the article says. All the articles I came across, reported that Ted was intensely shy, and one even states that David was never a recluse.

Neighbors say David had long hair and a scruffy beard but was basically clean and social and often invited to dinner. They also say that he rode a bike when he came into town. The same article also says that before 1988, David would sometimes be seen unclean. Even being asked to leave, not being served at a store in Study Butte. Could this have been a misidentification?

It’s reported David did plenty of hiking around the area and into Mexico, but it’s also said he always carried a backpack in which he carried some provisions, but mostly to carry his writings. He apparently was always writing. Again, all articles say he was social and again that Ted was intensely shy. David reunited with an old girlfriend named Linda Patrik. Since then, cutting his hair and shaving his beard and returning to society, moving from the area in 1989 to the state of New York, marrying Linda, and finding employment as a social worker. In 1998, David and Linda applied for, and accepted, the FBI’s $1 million reward for the Unabomber. It’s written that after attorney’s fees and expenses, the money was donated to his brother’s victims.

The Unabomber’s (which stands for University and Airline bomber) explosive tirade lasted from 1978 to 1995. There were bombings every year, sometimes multiple times within a year, from 1978 to 1982. There was no activity in ’83 or ’84. Bombing resumed again in May of 1985. That intensely shy guy sure seemed like the guy that shunned us on several occasions and which we finally picked up that fateful day. I remember clearly the picture of him on the news when he was arrested. I would swear that scruffy, skinny guy was him.

I have some questions. If it wasn’t Ted, but David we picked up, why didn’t he direct us to his home? We left our passenger at a small clean looking one-room adobe house, not a dug out hole or pink plywood shack. If it were David we picked up, why would he not sit in front with us? I’m sure we asked him. I’m sure we tried to make all kinds of conversation, but this guy would barely look up at us. So, it wasn’t Ted or seemingly David. Was there a third guy roaming the area and looked the same?

If Ted happened to be in the area during that time, is it possible David knows more about his brother’s doings than he’s expressed? Is Ted simply protecting his little brother? It certainly would explain sightings of David in an unkempt manner, and it would certainly explain the guy we picked up. In the end, Ted knew it was his brother that turned him in and he’s never accepted a visit from David. Additionally, because David returned to society, Ted considered David to have committed the worst possible crime, ideological treason.

I dedicate this article to my friend of over 30 years, Frank David “Frankie” Cobos. Frankie died on October 23rd, 2004 while riding his Harley in Big Bend National Park, of which he never got his fill. He was 38. He was down there in preparation of that year’s chili cook-off. He definitely did it his way.

1942 – May 22, Born Theodore John “Ted” Kaczynski – 1
1952 – Scored 170 on IQ exam at 10 years old - 4
1958 – Enrolled in Harvard at age 16 – 1
1962 – Graduated from Harvard with Mathematics degree - 4
1967 – Got Phd. at university in Ann Arbor, Michigan
1967 - became an assistant professor of mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley – 1
1969 – June or July, moved into his parents' small residence in Lombard, Illinois - 1
1971 – Ted moved to Lincoln Montana and built cabin – 1
1978 - worked briefly with father and brother at a foam-rubber factory where he was fired by his brother, David, for harassing a female supervisor he had previously dated. - 1
1978 – May, sent first bomb, pipe bomb with handcrafted wooden caps, common matchsticks were used to ignite bomb. - 1
1979 – sent bomb to American Airlines - 1
1979 – FBI creates task force, ATF, Postal Service – 1
1980 – Terlingua ranch resident says David backpacked the area since 1980
1983 – FBI taskforce places $1 million reward for Unabomber - 1
1983 – he writes of the catalyist, That summer there were too many people around my cabin so I decided I needed some peace. I went back to the plateau and when I got there I found they had put a road right through the middle of it - 1
1987 – Parents Wanda and Theodore visit David at Terlingua Ranch, home was still hole in the ground - 6
1988 – Started correspondence with Juan Sanchez Arreola of Ojinaga, Mexico - 6
1990 – Father dies, David returns to Chicago, brothers see each other - 6
1995 – April 24, sent a letter to The New York Times and promised "to desist from terrorism" if theTimes or The Washington Post published his manifesto. In his Industrial Society and Its Future (also called the "Unabomber Manifesto"), - 1

Year	Date	Location	Victims	Injuries
1978	May 25–26	Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois	Terry Marker, campus police officer	minor
1979	May 9	Northwestern University	John Harris, graduate student	slight
	November 15	Chicago, Illinois	12 American Airlines passengers	smoke inhalation
1980	June 10	Chicago	Percy Wood, United Airlines President	cuts and burns
1981	October 8	University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah	none—bomb defused
1982	May 5	Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee	Janet Smith, university secretary	severe injury to hands requiring extensive rehabilitative treatment
	July 2	University of California, Berkeley, California	Diogenes Angelakos, professor	right hand and face; near complete recovery
1985	May 15	University of California, Berkeley	John Hauser, graduate student	partial loss of vision in left eye, loss of four fingers on right hand, severed artery in arm requiring life saving surgery.
	June 13	Auburn, Washington	none—bomb defused
	November 15	Ann Arbor, Michigan	James V. McConnell and Nicklaus Suino	McConnell: hearing loss; Suino: shrapnel wounds
	December 11	Sacramento, California	Hugh Scrutton, computer rental store owner	first fatality
1987	February 20	Salt Lake City, Utah	Gary Wright, computer store owner	Severe nerve damage to left arm, reconstructive surgery required.
1993	June 22	Tiburon, California	Charles Epstein, University of California geneticist	destroyed both eardrums, lost parts of three fingers
	June 24	Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut	David Gelernter, computer science professor	right hand and right eye
1994	December 10	North Caldwell, New Jersey	Thomas J. Mosser, advertising executive	second fatality
1995	April 24	Sacramento, California	Gilbert P. Murray, timber industry lobbyist	third fatality

Sources:

1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ted_Kaczynski

2 - http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/terrorists/kaczynski/1.html

3 - http://www.primitivism.com/kaczynski.htm

4 - http://www.freeinfosociety.com/article.php?id=232

5 - http://articles.baltimoresun.com/keyword/unabomber/recent/5

6 - http://www.thefreelibrary.com/LIVES+OF+KACZYNSKI+BROTHERS+WERE+ONCE+REMARKABLY+SIMILAR.-a083946325

7 - http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1996-04-10/features/1996101113_1_david-kaczynski-brother-unabomber

8 - http://nymoral.blogspot.com/2008/09/theodore-kaczynski-unabomber-part-one.html

9 - http://www.wolfmanproductions.com/kaczynski.html

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Letter to the Editor from Pete Smyke,
10/16/12

Dear Editor,

In a wretched display of what passes for political discourse for some people these days, a t-shirt recently on display outside the Alpine Republican Party headquarters portrayed a caricature of our President clutching a golf club and stomping on the U.S. Constitution and the American flag.

Of course when your national party's record includes starting two unpaid wars, a huge tax cut for the richest Americans, turning our country into a surveillance state, favoring Wall Street bankers over Main Street taxpayers, starting "the Great Recession", causing the first ever downgrade in our nation's credit rating, and making opposition and gridlock in congress a priority even for measures that rescue economically battered American families, distracting voters by making fun of your opponent is probably an appealing strategy.

Like a corporation selling a defective product, this party relies on voter suppression and a high dollar advertising campaign to persuade voters that our country is "on the wrong track", but insist that has nothing to do with the above-mentioned laundry list of failures.

This means that our local Republican Party can't be honest about how a Romney/Ryan presidency would affect our regional economy. Food Stamps, VA benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, college loans, and federal assistance to cities, counties, states and universities are all slated for cuts under Paul Ryan's budget blueprint. These programs support our neighbors throughout the Big Bend, but also have a direct multiplier effect when spent in our local communities. Cutting these options of last resort during difficult economic times makes even less sense than the notion that it is somehow virtuous to repeal the law that finally gives all Americans undeniable, cost-effective health care coverage. (Based on Romney's plan in Massachusetts, which he bragged about as governor but now seems to hate!)

Anytime a politician asks for your vote but avoids talking about specific plans, you can count on being double crossed once they're in office. So far Romney has been a “liberal republican” governor, a "conservative" primary candidate, and became a "moderate" for the first debate. He refuses to give details of his major initiatives (or his taxes), but it's clear that the hard-right wing of the party is in charge, as when they had Romney's staff "walk back" recent non-committal abortion comments. As for Paul Ryan, if Romney had a heart attack on Inauguration Day, does anyone really think that Ryan is at all ready to be President?

The dirty little secret that the Republican Party is hiding from voters is that they need this term in office to finish rigging our system of laws and regulations in favor of the ultra rich and the party's corporate and hard-right sponsors. As past is prologue, expect to see familiar faces from the Bush administration under Romney, working to regulate women's bodies but not Wall Street, packing the Supreme Court with more ultra-conservative, activist judges, sabotaging any premise that supports consumer protection or a healthy environment, including doubling down on fossil fuels, and once again denying objective science in favor of religious influence and corporate profits. Also expect repeal of laws that mandate a fair and safe workplace, and the shredding of the social contract that our parents and grandparents built for us over the last century.

The choice in this election will resonate for generations to come. On the one hand we can continue to be led by the same self-interested, brain-dead white men who can't see past their profit margins, and who always leave a trail of broken lives in their wake. On the other hand, we can reclaim our nation's future by voting for an inclusive administration that sees America as a poly-ethnic mix of strivers, who create a more resilient nation by working hard to build good lives and strong families.

A generation of very talented, racially colorblind, tech-savvy young folks is coming up in our country right now. If educated well and turned loose, they will solve many of the problems that are holding us back as a nation and unlock our country's potential in this new century.

We owe it to them and their kids and grandkids to reject the false promises of a Republican Party overtaken by corporate money and divisive, intolerant ideology, and whose policy priorities damage countless innocent lives. This is the most important election of our lifetimes. There are no excuses for not voting.

Sincerely,
Pete Smyke

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