WHAT ABOUT TRUST?

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Do You Have Trust In...

The Poll Workers and The DOJ, and Are They Ready?

Posted by Wiley, 11/05/2012

Over the years there have been a variety of concerns about the voting system  in  the United States, from equipment (old, outdated in many cases, etc.) to operational requirements (staffing, production capabilities, etc.) to validation   (accuracy).  However with all the concerns and problems in the past (including Bush v. Gore and all the "hanging chads" questions), the voting process itself  has enjoyed a level of respect, integrity, AND TRUST...UNTIL NOW!  SUDDENLY, REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED STATES ARE ENACTING PHOTO ID LAWS TO "STOP VOTER FRAUD" WHEN THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO EVIDENCE OF  ANY SUBSTANTIVE LEVEL OF SUCH ACTIVITIES.  THIS APPEARS TO BE AIMED AT SUPPRESSING SOME VOTERS DESIRE TO VOTE FOR THE PRESIDENT (PRIMARILY MINORITIES) WHILE SUPPORTING THOSE PEOPLE WHO DISLIKE THE PRESIDENT  AND THEREFORE, IN THEIR MINDS, MAY BELIEVE HIM TO BE CAPABLE OF SUCH ACTS.   ONE BIG PROBLEM: HE IS ENCOURAGING EVERY VOTER TO VOTE.         

      

A new wrinkle with voter suppression potential has been introduced in Ohio:  "Four days before Election Day, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted emphasized to boards of elections a step that voters who use provisional ballots on Tuesday will have to take. Voters will be obligated to write on the provisional ballot form what type of ID they show at the polls and not rely on poll workers to do it for them, according to the directive issued late Friday afternoon."

 A federal court has been asked to throw out the measure.  Usually, provisional ballots are cast  on Election Day because a person reports to a polling place where he or she is not assigned to vote.

THE POLITICS OF A WIDE DIVIDE

In these remaining days before the year 2012 national elections, the United States sits as a house so divided the tenants are in need of a "time-out" room!    In this divided house there exists a body called Congress, a place where laws are enacted,and budgets are passed,and (once upon a time) differences of opinion were respected. In Wiley's nearly four score years, he has never seen a political divide so wide in the United States. Bills are passed in one body of the Congress (the House) that are killed in the Senate with the reverse happening to Senate bills in the House, The divide is primarily due to ideological differences. This divide is so wide it may take years to close (or what may seem like forever). The House is particularly worrisome because while its Republicans and Democrats speak on many things, today they barely agree on anything.

One of the vivid images of this time that captures the essence of the growing divide in the Country is provided through a video from a Town Hall Meeting in 2009. It shows a woman waving her arms and angrily shouting "I want my Country back!"(religiondispatchess.org. sept. 30,2009) It is unknown if anyone asked her: Who took your Country lady? How did they do it? To date, no direct answers to the questions, but the Democrats and the Black President and the Pollsters are probably the prime suspects.

old trust

<center>HOME, AEROSPACE, BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, POLITICS, CULTURE, FICTION</center> 

Do You Have Trust In...

The Poll Workers and The DOJ, and Are They Ready?

Posted by Wiley, 11/05/2012

Over the years there have been a variety of concerns about the voting system  in  the United States, from equipment (old, outdated in many cases, etc.) to operational requirements (staffing, production capabilities, etc.) to validation   (accuracy).  However with all the concerns and problems in the past (including Bush v. Gore and all the "hanging chads" questions), the voting process itself  has enjoyed a level of respect, integrity, AND TRUST...UNTIL NOW!  SUDDENLY, REPUBLICAN CONTROLLED STATES ARE ENACTING PHOTO ID LAWS TO "STOP VOTER FRAUD" WHEN THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO EVIDENCE OF  ANY SUBSTANTIVE LEVEL OF SUCH ACTIVITIES.  THIS APPEARS TO BE AIMED AT SUPPRESSING SOME VOTERS DESIRE TO VOTE FOR THE PRESIDENT (PRIMARILY MINORITIES) WHILE SUPPORTING THOSE PEOPLE WHO DISLIKE THE PRESIDENT  AND THEREFORE, IN THEIR MINDS, MAY BELIEVE HIM TO BE CAPABLE OF SUCH ACTS.   ONE BIG PROBLEM: HE IS ENCOURAGING EVERY VOTER TO VOTE.         

      

A new wrinkle with voter suppression potential has been introduced in Ohio:  "Four days before Election Day, Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted emphasized to boards of elections a step that voters who use provisional ballots on Tuesday will have to take. Voters will be obligated to write on the provisional ballot form what type of ID they show at the polls and not rely on poll workers to do it for them, according to the directive issued late Friday afternoon."

 A federal court has been asked to throw out the measure.  Usually, provisional ballots are cast  on Election Day because a person reports to a polling place where he or she is not assigned to vote.

JOB CREATION (memo)

Sunshine and Shadows… In a Changing World! 

JOB CREATION 

Wiley’s Place sits on a small knoll just as you enter a small southern town. When Wiley walks around his place, he notes the mixture of sunshine  and shadows cast from the morning light.  Unlike the night,  the shadows will soon fade away in the sunshine's light. Wiley mentally compares the shadows to the broken fragments of enlightenment being provided to the public by the news media. The broken fragments do not provide sufficient light on a given subject to remove the shadows. To Wiley, they are symbolic of the broken political system of today where disagreements are highlighted repeatedly by the 24/7 cable news media. In fact, the intensity of the political rhetoric on television has led Wiley to the conclusion that a new “shadow” has arisen: the transformation of cable television news to “Talk” Cable Television News (TCTN). Rather than simply “spreading the news”, the current TCTN mission (and it seems they’ve decided to take it) is to minimize regular news in favor of panel groups providing political opinions with a few facts sandwiched into the discussions. Facts appear to scare the hell out of the TCTN as they try to eclipse “Talk” Radio in bombast and narrow views in regard to the Government. There seems to be little effort to challenge opinions based on an incorrect premise or simply bad information. Take for example the view heard repeatedly on TCTN:

 “Government can’t create jobs”!

There are critical counter arguments against such absolute nonsense! It begins with Government cash (not an IOU) provided through the Request For Proposal (RFP) process. The RFP solicits bids from private companies to perform work under a Government contract for a specified dollar amount. This process generally ends with private sector businesses winning contracts that fund their hiring of personnel and acquisition of materials and equipment needed to complete a variety of Government programs and projects. In an article in the Washington Post by Ed O’Keefe, dated Wednesday, February 3, 2011, it is stated that, “Federal Agencies spent $535 billion in fiscal 2010 on government contracts”. Wiley believes job creation is an ASSET TO NATIONAL SECURITY AT THIS CRITICAL TIME OF ADVENTURESOME GLOBAL FINANCIAL TRADING!

The TCTN has treated job creation primarily as a “private sector” function (drinking the kool-aid). They have virtually ignored the Government’s role in the development of programs such as the Global Positioning System (GPS), a constellation of orbiting satellites that provides navigation data to military and civilian users all over the world. The system is operated and controlled by the United States Air Force. In a 2010 NDP publication on GPS use in the United States, author Nam D. Pham, PhD, writes “Today, there are more than 3.3 million jobs that rely on GPS technology”.

Another significant Government developed technology project that was turned over by the U. S. Military to private industry for commercial development was Arpanet, the system that served as the base model for the INTERNET.  A July 1, 2009 SmartPlanet Study, by Joe McKendrick, found that the “Internet has created more than three million jobs".
                                                                                                                   
Given the job creation records of the GPS and the Internet (as noted above), and the growth in new applications that use GPS and Internet technology, a clear case can be made that the initial development and operational start-up costs (e.g., launching 24 GPS satellites into space) incurred by the Government have been  justified.  Private sector companies worked on the projects through Government contracts.    Government, the private sector, and the economy benefitted from the projects.  Similar results could be possible from innovative engineering and science applications developed to support (for example) a new power grid, and the current NASA Earth Observing System (EOS) project (see NASA.gov).

However, there is doubt in Wiley's mind when he says, "In this polarized left versus right political environment, working together on any expensive project may be difficult and particularly so if the TCTN treats any disagreements as if they were the "Friday Night Fights!"   This would cast a dark shadow as to whether the TCTN will work to help reduce the fight card or expand it. (Wiley believes the answer depends on what gets the higher rating.)