Second Primary Results

All across Pamlico County, alarms went off at what military veterans refer to as "Oh Dark Hundred," meaning very early in the morning. No sign of dawn.

Election officials: Chief Judges, Judges, Director of Elections, Board of Elections and other officials washed their faces, dressed, ate a quick bite and found their way to their respective assignments at Pamlico County's ten voting precincts.

They turned on the voting machines, posted the required signs, made final arrangements of chairs, tables and other equipment, and at 0630 Monday, July 17, 2012,  one of the judges opened the front door and announced: "the polls are now open."

At Oriental precinct, the announcement was heard by two voters already waiting outside to cast their ballots. At other precincts, the announcement was heard only by a passing mockingbird or cardinal.

The occasion: phase two of the party nomination primary election of May 8. In a handful of races, no candidate received 40% of the votes cast. In those cases, a second or runoff primary must be held.

The runoff has now been held and all nominees for the November general election have now been chosen. Here are the results.

Three percent of Pamlico County's registered voters cast ballots.

Second Primary

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, is the second or runoff primary.

Polls open at 06:30 and close at 7:30 PM.

Don't forget to vote.

Booker Wright: Greenwood, Mississippi 1965

Meet Booker Wright. He was filmed for a documentary in 1965 by a white movie maker trying to present Mississippi's story from the point of view of Mississippi's whites. The movie maker thought to interview a waiter at a popular white restaurant in Greenwood, Mississippi. The waiter's name was Booker Wright and the movie maker got more than he bargained for. Here is the clip of what Booker Wright said.

The interview of Booker Wright was shown on NBCTV in May of 1966. Mr. Wright was beaten, lost his job and lost his business. But he apparently never regretted what he said.

I know Mississippi. I was three when I first visited the state in August, 1940. I started to school in the first grade in Greenwood, Mississippi in 1943. The summer before first grade, I had a vivid lesson in the fact that black people didn't like how they were treated by white people.

To white people who grew up in the state, though, this was unwelcome news. So unwelcome, they refused to believe it.

A decade before the film was made, fifteen year old Emmett Till was lynched in Money, Mississippi, not far from Greenwood. I was a student at the University of Mississippi at the time.

Many fine people have grown up in Mississippi. Most of them left it.

I don't know anyone who lived in Mississippi in the 1930's. 40's, 50's and 60's who wasn't bent.

Some have overcome the experience.

Tax Or Fee?

The Strip | By Brian McFadden

July 15, 2012

Getting A Bit Warm Lately?

For those who believe global warming is a hoax invented by Al Gore, it might be worth looking at data collected and published by NOAA.


Then there are those who believe it will cost too much to try to do anything about it. On the other hand, here is some current information about how much it costs to do nothing (from Econbrowser):

"Well, not to panic. We can easily adjust to the temperature changes. Just change what we're planting and where. And crank up the air conditioning. Or will it be so easy? From WSJ:

A year after historic flooding brought the Mississippi River up to record levels, the severe drought hitting the central U.S. has caused water levels along parts of the waterway to plummet, disrupting barge traffic from Cairo, Ill., to Natchez, Miss.
...
Barge operators have sharply reduced their loads to get through tightening river passages. They say major rain is needed soon or they would have to reduce commerce even more, causing shipment delays and driving up transportation costs. With forecasts showing little prospect of significant rain, hydrologists see no relief in sight for the giant inland waterway that also includes the Ohio River.
...
Some river ports have been forced to close temporarily or shut down parts of their operations because of the low water levels. At the port of Rosedale in the Mississippi Delta, port director Robert Maxwell Jr. said water levels are about 50 feet below what they were last year, when flooding shut down the port. If the water falls any lower, there was a "high likelihood" he would have to close, he said. One of the port's public loading docks is inoperable, with equipment normally in the water now hanging the air. The Army Corps of Engineers is supposed to come this week to dredge, where heavy equipment is used to dig out sediment from waterways to make them passable for shipping.
"This is absolutely not normal," Mr. Maxwell said.

Crops are also being hit hard [1].
Here is a meta-analysis of the scientific consensus on the reasons why global climate change is happening."

By the way, what will the costs be in our neck of the woods if the sea level rises one meter (39 inches) by the end of the century? Might be time to start planning how to deal with it.

Seventy Years Ago: Pearl Harbor

My earlier posts haven't analyzed what has been frequently characterized as the "failure" of military commanders at Pearl Harbor and the failure of naval and army intelligence.

Over many years of reading the literature, I long ago concluded that the main failures were in military headquarters in Washington. Those failures were suppressed by powerful defenders within the services. To get a more complete picture, I recommend the book And I Was There by RADM Edwin Thomas Layton, completed shortly before his death. 

Layton names names.

Another source I have just found is a brief summary of US Navy and Army intelligence efforts between the wars. It is on the internet, and no doubt will prove ephemeral. I provide a link, because the author's judgements are very similar to my own. Here is the heart of his conclusions:

"It is important to emphasize the lack of any formal distribution procedures to inform responsible fleet commanders of the intelligence information being gleaned from decrypts of Japanese communications.  In the Navy, this was complicated by the self appointed intelligence expert of then Captain Richmond K. Turner known as “Terrible Turner”, the new head of the Navy’s War Plans department of CNO.  The weakness of Admiral Stark as CNO let Turner completely usurp the functions of ONI and DNC to fulfill their responsibilities to properly warn fleet commanders of the impending Japanese actions based on the Purple diplomatic decrypts and other indicators.  More serious war warning messages and a more accurate picture of the current situation as indicated by Japanese decrypts that were advocated by Captain Laurence Stafford as OP-20-G, Admiral Noyes DNC, and the acting Director of Intelligence (DNI), Captain Kirk, were forestalled or greatly watered down by Turner.  One excuse Turner tried to give for such perfunctory warnings was that Pearl Harbor had all the Japanese diplomatic decrypts, which was false.  Earlier, Captain Turner was convinced Japan would only attack Russia and just before Pearl Harbor he convinced Stark that Japan was not ready to attack the U.S. only the British.  The new DNI Theodore S. Wilkinson refused to challenge Turner’s rebuff of a further specific war warning drafted by Captain Arthur H. McCollum on 5 December.  Again on 6 December, Stafford tried again but was dismissed by Noyes so as not to antagonize Turner.  On the Army side, General George G. Marshall and intermediaries vetoed similar requests made by Colonels Rufus S. Bratton and Otis K. Sadtler.  Later, Marshall denied receiving the related decrypts.  As Washington politics go, both Stafford, Bratton and Sadtler were relegated to rather minor posts and discredited, while Noyes and Turner were given prime advancement billets and promotions.  Although General Marshall was held to have been derelict in his duties by the first Army board of inquiry on the Pearl Harbor attack, the subsequent congressional investigation only found Admiral Kimmel and General Short at fault for the Pearl Harbor disaster.  Marshall had the backing of both Secretary of War Stimson and President Roosevelt.  Stimson instigated a fierce campaign to reverse Marshall’s prior dereliction finding.  During the latter hearings, none of Turner’s subordinates would break ranks and reveal Turner’s derelictions due to his great wartime achievements and rank as Vice Admiral.  Only subsequent revelations have verified Turner’s and Marshall’s responsibility for impeding more appropriate and timely warnings urged by intelligence professionals based on Purple decrypts."

So my nominee for the leader most responsible for the surprise at Pearl Harbor is: (drum roll) - Terrible Turner.

Read And I Was There to learn how and when E.T. Layton expressed his displeasure with Turner.

This Land Is Whose Land? Guilford County Register Of Deeds

There is a really interesting video of recent foreclosure issues in Greensboro, NC. Well worth watching:


 

 at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vpkAdRw7u8&feature=related

Arms Export Control Act

Interesting and somewhat disturbing article in today's New York Times reporting alleged refusal of Apple store employees to sell iPads and iPhones to Iranian Americans because of concern that such sales are the same as selling to Iran. Apparently Apple employees have been spurred by US government efforts to increase enforcement of the US embargo against Iran.

Apart from the injustice of abusing Americans who just want to make a purchase, the allegations remind me of some of the dumbest decisions made during the Cold War.

The two examples that come to mind are the decision to prohibit export of the Intel 80286 or any computer products made using the chip. The 80286 at that time (early 1980's) is what powered the central processing unit (CPU) of the IBM AT-class computers and their clones.

We also prohibited export of Xerox and other photocopiers.

I thought these particular uses of the Arms Export Control Act were foolish in the extreme. What made more sense to me was to flood the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe with as many 80286 computers and copy machines as we could smuggle in.

These very subversive machines in the hands of freethinkers would have allowed engineers, economists and other researchers to crunch their own data. Hierarchical organizations have a hard time dealing with independent sources of analysis.

And copy machines? Oh, my!

Russian and East European intellectuals and dissidents had to exchange prohibited books by laboriously typing them on mechanical typewriters with many layers of carbon paper. This was known as "samizdat" from the Russian for "self-publishing.)
Copy machines could have speeded up distribution of subversive works by daring men and women.

Eventually, someone in Washington apparently saw the light. When Lech Walensa led the Solidarnost uprising in Poland, organizations willing to upset the status quo received substantial material help against communist regimes in Eastern Europe. It was said that US labor unions contributed computers (including AT-class), copy machines, satellite TV receivers, digital still and movie cameras and other embargoed electronics to Solidarnost in large quantities. This wouldn't have happened without US Government help.

The floodgates were opened. And not long afterward, the wall came down.

Modern telephone communications, internet, twitter, facebook, etc. were essential tools for the Iranian "Green Revolution" of two years ago. The pro democracy movement didn't succeed, but sometimes such efforts need time to take firm root.

And they need tools. IPhones and iPads among them.

I hope our government is flexible enough to see this.