Hurried back to Oriental because of the threatened hurricane - Irene.
Would like to sing "Irene, goodnight" but it looks like it may be "Irene, hello."
Thursday, August 25, 2011
Retreads
I've been on the road the last few days. Quick trip to Mississippi and back.
I always learn something on a road trip. This time, I learned that trucks (eighteen wheelers) leave shredded tires all along our interstates. Frequently the tire debris is surrounded by skid marks. Near accidents and possible real accidents.
I have also driven a lot in Europe on Autobahns, Autoroutes and Autostradas. Don't remember seeing shredded truck tires there. Maybe they don't allow retreads in Europe. Maybe we shouldn't do so here.
I always learn something on a road trip. This time, I learned that trucks (eighteen wheelers) leave shredded tires all along our interstates. Frequently the tire debris is surrounded by skid marks. Near accidents and possible real accidents.
I have also driven a lot in Europe on Autobahns, Autoroutes and Autostradas. Don't remember seeing shredded truck tires there. Maybe they don't allow retreads in Europe. Maybe we shouldn't do so here.
Saturday, August 20, 2011
We Don't Need a Praetorian Guard
The Wall Street Journal quotes presidential candidate Rick Perry as explaining that his run for the presidency is motivated by the desire to make sure service members have a commander in chief they can respect. When queried, Perry explained:
"If you polled the military, the active duty and veterans, and said ‘would you rather have a president of the United States that never served a day in the military or someone who is a veteran?’ They’ve going to say, I would venture, that they would like to have a veteran.”
"The president had the opportunity to serve his country. I’m sure at some time he made the decision that isn’t what he wanted to do."
Perry's remark is not unlike a remark made by the late Senator Jesse Helms that if President Clinton visited the troops in North Carolina, he'd better bring a body guard with him.
Both of these remarks are at odds with the strong tradition in this country that members of the military have no special role in partisan politics. That's why military officers, like civilian officials, take an oath not to the particular president who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but rather an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. No one should understand this more clearly than a person who has served both in the military and in high public office.
Regrettably, charges that a particular candidate or incumbent is disloyal are as old as the Republic. During the Adams administration, Federalists accused Thomas Jefferson and his followers of disloyalty. Those charges led to the infamous "Alien and Sedition" laws. One result of these laws was the imprisonment of certain journalists who supported Jefferson.
The charge of disloyalty against democrats reached a low point in the 1884 campaign of republican James G. Blaine against Grover Cleveland. A few days before the election, a minister at a religious gathering with Blaine present charged democrats with being "the party of rum, Romanism and rebellion." This alliterative remark probably cost Blaine the New York vote and the election.
That didn't keep republican supporters of Hoover from resurrecting the remark in the 1928 campaign against Al Smith. It didn't hurt Hoover in 1928, but didn't help him in 1932.
Charges of disloyalty, however expressed, have become a regular staple of republican campaigns.
It's worth pointing out that the supposed preference of veterans for veterans didn't help George McGovern, Jimmy Carter (1980), Michael Dukakis, Al Gore or John Kerry. Nor did lack of military experience seem to hurt Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.
Most importantly, our Constitution doesn't award any special role for veterans in selecting our presidents. They don't need a special role. They are Americans.
"If you polled the military, the active duty and veterans, and said ‘would you rather have a president of the United States that never served a day in the military or someone who is a veteran?’ They’ve going to say, I would venture, that they would like to have a veteran.”
"The president had the opportunity to serve his country. I’m sure at some time he made the decision that isn’t what he wanted to do."
Perry's remark is not unlike a remark made by the late Senator Jesse Helms that if President Clinton visited the troops in North Carolina, he'd better bring a body guard with him.
Both of these remarks are at odds with the strong tradition in this country that members of the military have no special role in partisan politics. That's why military officers, like civilian officials, take an oath not to the particular president who occupies 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, but rather an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. No one should understand this more clearly than a person who has served both in the military and in high public office.
Regrettably, charges that a particular candidate or incumbent is disloyal are as old as the Republic. During the Adams administration, Federalists accused Thomas Jefferson and his followers of disloyalty. Those charges led to the infamous "Alien and Sedition" laws. One result of these laws was the imprisonment of certain journalists who supported Jefferson.
The charge of disloyalty against democrats reached a low point in the 1884 campaign of republican James G. Blaine against Grover Cleveland. A few days before the election, a minister at a religious gathering with Blaine present charged democrats with being "the party of rum, Romanism and rebellion." This alliterative remark probably cost Blaine the New York vote and the election.
That didn't keep republican supporters of Hoover from resurrecting the remark in the 1928 campaign against Al Smith. It didn't hurt Hoover in 1928, but didn't help him in 1932.
Charges of disloyalty, however expressed, have become a regular staple of republican campaigns.
It's worth pointing out that the supposed preference of veterans for veterans didn't help George McGovern, Jimmy Carter (1980), Michael Dukakis, Al Gore or John Kerry. Nor did lack of military experience seem to hurt Bill Clinton or Barack Obama.
Most importantly, our Constitution doesn't award any special role for veterans in selecting our presidents. They don't need a special role. They are Americans.
Friday, August 19, 2011
Social Security Anniversary
Last Sunday, August 14, 2011, was the 76th anniversary of FDR's signing of the Social Security Act.
My great grandmother, who was born in 1870, was a sixty-five year old widow the year the act was signed. I don't know if she ever received much in the way of benefits after they started being paid in 1942. I do know that she received most of her support the old fashioned way - from her children.
In fact, she never owned or even rented a place of her own. She would simply live with one of her children until she decided it was time to move on. She would pack a suitcase, get on the bus and travel to the town where another child lived. The first the next host knew about it would be when the phone rang and my great grandmother announced, "I'm at the depot. Come get me."
It helped that seven of her children lived to adulthood. That spread the burden a bit.
Last Sunday was also the 76th anniversary of efforts to attack or do away with social security. That battle isn't over.
My great grandmother, who was born in 1870, was a sixty-five year old widow the year the act was signed. I don't know if she ever received much in the way of benefits after they started being paid in 1942. I do know that she received most of her support the old fashioned way - from her children.
In fact, she never owned or even rented a place of her own. She would simply live with one of her children until she decided it was time to move on. She would pack a suitcase, get on the bus and travel to the town where another child lived. The first the next host knew about it would be when the phone rang and my great grandmother announced, "I'm at the depot. Come get me."
It helped that seven of her children lived to adulthood. That spread the burden a bit.
Last Sunday was also the 76th anniversary of efforts to attack or do away with social security. That battle isn't over.
Moderation
"There's nothing in the middle of the road but yellow lines and dead armadillos."
Jim Hightower
(You don't have to be from Texas to get this, but it might help)
Jim Hightower
(You don't have to be from Texas to get this, but it might help)
Thursday, August 18, 2011
Arrest of Voters in Wake County North Carolina
Last Saturday's New Bern Sun Journal published an article about the arrest of three voters in Wake County on charges of voter fraud in 2008: here.This morning's News and Observer reported an additional arrest on similar charges.
All four cases apparently involved voting by absentee ballot (or at one-stop early voting) and subsequently voting at the normal voting precinct on election day. According to newspaper accounts, none of the accused attempted to impersonate another voter. They were legally registered voters eligible to cast votes in the election.
Would voter ID have prevented these four cases? No.
So what went wrong and how can this kind of double voting be eliminated?
First, we should recognize the magnitude of the task. In 2008, 444,013 Wake County voters out of 593,043 registered cast ballots in 189 precincts. If only four of those voters voted twice, my calculator can't display the percentage of error, it was so small. There are just too many zeroes after the decimal.
Secondly, until the charges are tried and evidence put before a court, we won't know whether any fraud was committed. A judge or jury might find inadvertence rather than intent.
The truth is, procedures are in place that should have caught and prevented double voting in these four cases. On the other hand, it is human beings who carry out these procedures. No organization is likely to achieve perfect results in any human endeavor. But improvement is in order.
How to do even better in the future? (Better, that is, than 99.999999999%)
Find the source(s) of the problem. I see two sources.
1. In 2008 Wake County had to print poll books for all 593,000 registered voters prior to one-stop. After one-stop but before election day, each precinct's poll book had to be manually corrected to show one-stop and mail-in absentee voters who had already voted. This is an enormous task.
2. Wake County uses optically scanned paper ballots instead of Direct Record Electronic voting machines. While the M-100 optical scanner has proven to be highly accurate with properly completed ballots, the system does not prevent the voter from making errors. In one of the cases charged, the voter explained that he inadvertently failed to vote on the reverse side of the paper ballot when he voted at one stop, and went back on election day to complete the back of the ballot. Direct Record Electronic voting machines like the IVotronic machines we use in Pamlico County would have reminded the voter of additional pages, informed him if he had left any selections blank and prevented him from selecting too many candidates for an office, thus spoiling his ballot. The paper ballots do not provide such safety features.
In Pamlico County, our Board of Elections strives for perfection. And we are constantly trying to improve our performance.
We are fortunate not to have to print poll books for more than half a million voters. On the other hand, we have limited resources. An advantage of being a small county is that we are able to try out new improvements more easily than the very large counties in the state. Last year, for example, we were able to introduce On Site Voter Registration Database (OVRD) to about half of our precincts. This system of computerized poll books greatly reduces the chances for errors like the four cases of double voting in Wake County.
We look forward to even more improvements in OVRD in the coming year.
All four cases apparently involved voting by absentee ballot (or at one-stop early voting) and subsequently voting at the normal voting precinct on election day. According to newspaper accounts, none of the accused attempted to impersonate another voter. They were legally registered voters eligible to cast votes in the election.
Would voter ID have prevented these four cases? No.
So what went wrong and how can this kind of double voting be eliminated?
First, we should recognize the magnitude of the task. In 2008, 444,013 Wake County voters out of 593,043 registered cast ballots in 189 precincts. If only four of those voters voted twice, my calculator can't display the percentage of error, it was so small. There are just too many zeroes after the decimal.
Secondly, until the charges are tried and evidence put before a court, we won't know whether any fraud was committed. A judge or jury might find inadvertence rather than intent.
The truth is, procedures are in place that should have caught and prevented double voting in these four cases. On the other hand, it is human beings who carry out these procedures. No organization is likely to achieve perfect results in any human endeavor. But improvement is in order.
How to do even better in the future? (Better, that is, than 99.999999999%)
Find the source(s) of the problem. I see two sources.
1. In 2008 Wake County had to print poll books for all 593,000 registered voters prior to one-stop. After one-stop but before election day, each precinct's poll book had to be manually corrected to show one-stop and mail-in absentee voters who had already voted. This is an enormous task.
2. Wake County uses optically scanned paper ballots instead of Direct Record Electronic voting machines. While the M-100 optical scanner has proven to be highly accurate with properly completed ballots, the system does not prevent the voter from making errors. In one of the cases charged, the voter explained that he inadvertently failed to vote on the reverse side of the paper ballot when he voted at one stop, and went back on election day to complete the back of the ballot. Direct Record Electronic voting machines like the IVotronic machines we use in Pamlico County would have reminded the voter of additional pages, informed him if he had left any selections blank and prevented him from selecting too many candidates for an office, thus spoiling his ballot. The paper ballots do not provide such safety features.
In Pamlico County, our Board of Elections strives for perfection. And we are constantly trying to improve our performance.
We are fortunate not to have to print poll books for more than half a million voters. On the other hand, we have limited resources. An advantage of being a small county is that we are able to try out new improvements more easily than the very large counties in the state. Last year, for example, we were able to introduce On Site Voter Registration Database (OVRD) to about half of our precincts. This system of computerized poll books greatly reduces the chances for errors like the four cases of double voting in Wake County.
We look forward to even more improvements in OVRD in the coming year.
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Russia and Gorbachov
Yesterday's Der Spiegel On Line, the internet version of the German magazine, published a very interesting interview with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov.
Gorbachov plainly has had enormous influence, not all of it planned, on the shape of the world today. The interview, headlined 'They Were Truly Idiots' (referring to his former Kremlin colleagues), is notable not only for the insider's tidbits, but for the light it sheds on Gorbachov's essential humanity. He was an important transitional figure, and we should be grateful for the role he played.
Gorbachov plainly has had enormous influence, not all of it planned, on the shape of the world today. The interview, headlined 'They Were Truly Idiots' (referring to his former Kremlin colleagues), is notable not only for the insider's tidbits, but for the light it sheds on Gorbachov's essential humanity. He was an important transitional figure, and we should be grateful for the role he played.
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