Pamlico County State Legislators

Last Friday I attended the Town Meeting with Pamlico County's State Legislators at Pamlico Community College's Ned Delamar Center.

First the good news. Both State Senator Sanderson and Representative Speciale have become more polished in their presentations since being elected to the state legislature.

I'll get to the bad news in a minute.

I don't know Michel Speciale at all, but I do know Norm Sanderson. He has always been completely courteous in his dealings with me, despite disagreements on policy matters. Now that I have heard the two legislators explain what they view as the significant accomplishments of the General Assembly in the recent session, I have many more policy disagreements.

Most of all, I am disappointed that neither elected official seems to inquire very deeply into the truth of matters affecting their constituents. That is, the voters in their districts.

One example: Michel Speciale's explanation of one provision of the bill making vast changes to election law in North Carolina. The legislature did away with same day registration of voters during one-stop, Speciale explained, "because there was not enough time to review and certify the voter before the election." He did not cite a single case where this had been a problem.

His statement is false in several dimensions:
1. It may not look like it, but votes cast at one-stop sites are actually absentee ballots. They are processed exactly the same way. They are reviewed by the county board of elections weekly during one-stop and either verified, rejected or set aside for further examination. Like any other vote, they don't count officially until the tenth day after the general election in even-numbered years or the seventh day after the general election in odd-numbered years.
2. Every ballot cast at a one-stop site, every provisional ballot and every absentee ballot is retrievable. (That isn't true for ballots cast election day). I don't know of a single case where a county board of elections was unable to determine validity of any such ballot by the time they completed the canvass.
3. Because ballots are retrievable, votes cast at one-stop, including those cast by voters using same-day registration, could be challenged right up to the time the board of elections completes tha canvass of votes cast.

Why does this matter?
a. It makes it possible for voters to correct any errors in their voter registration information even after the registration deadline. Voters often don't review their information until voting begins at one-stop.
b. It provides a safety valve against voter registration scams. In 2012, both in North Carolina and Virginia, "helpful" persons conducted voter registration drives in African American, Hispanic and College neighborhoods. They then tossed all the registration forms for categories they didn't want to vote.

This scam worked in Virginia, where thousands of discarded registration forms were found in dumpsters after registration closed. It was too late for the scammed voters to correct the record and vote.

The scam didn't work as well in North Carolina, where more than half of the voters cast ballots at one-stop sites. Because of same day registration, North Carolina voters were better protected from an insidious form of GOP election fraud.

Our state legislature has now made North Carolina safe for a particular form of targeted election fraud designed to suppress the vote in certain neighborhoods.

I don't know whether the legislators who voted for this change are dishonest or just gullible. I prefer to think they are just gullible.

Pamlico County - Two Wal Marts?

There may be news today on the Wal-Mart front.

Would you believe two Wal-Mart stores in Pamlico County?

I'm not sure even one makes sense in a county of 13,000, but two?

Doolittle Raiders Have Last Public Reunion

Every year since 1942, on April 18, the anniversary of the Doolittle raid on Japan by 16 B-25 bombers taking off from the pitching flight deck of USS Hornet, the survivors of the 80 aviators from the raid hold a reunion. They toast those who passed on during the previous year. Among the mementoes possessed by the surviving raiders is a bottle of fine cognac bottled in 1896, the year of General Doolittle's birth. The plan is for the last survivors to open the bottle and toast their departed comrades.

At their annual reunion this year, the four remaining survivors, all in their nineties, decided that this year's reunion was the last public reunion they will hold. Later this year, they will hold a private ceremony at which the 1896 bottle will be opened. Here is the story.

I have written about the Doolittle raid before: here and here and here and here and here. It was one of the most remarkable military operations in history and had an effect far beyond the slight damage it caused to Tokyo. It was, in fact, a game-changer for the entire Pacific war.

The eighty volunteers who pulled it off were no more remarkable than many others in our armed forces at the time of Pearl Harbor, but only trained B-25 crew members had the chance to volunteer.

They did a remarkable thing, but standing behind them were thousands of sailors, engineers, technicians and military planners who made the plan, modified the aircraft, trained the crews to take off from an aircraft carrier, land in China and get back to the US.

The aircrews got the glory, but all these men were in it together. Teamwork. And it was done with airplanes, ships, soldiers and sailors who were already in the service at the time of Pearl Harbor.

Seventy Years Ago: September 11, 1943: USS Savannah

September 11, 1943, USS Savannah (CL-42), a prewar Brooklyn class light cruiser, was hit by a German bomb while supporting our landing at Salerno. The bomb, which was dropped from high altitude, turned out to be a radio-controlled bomb, which hit the top of turret three and caused extensive damage, destroying part of the keel and killing most of the sailors in the forward part of the ship.

Here is a personal account of the event by one of the sailors aboard. Savannah's effective gunfire in support of US troops ashore figures in the movie, "Big Red One."

The photos below show the ship after the bomb hit.

The bomb killed 197 out of Savannah's 868-man crew.

Syria And Chemical Weapons - Light At End Of Tunnel?

Today's news seems somewhat hopeful.

It isn't clear how it came about, but it sounds like Secretary of State Kerry may have proposed a settlement believing Syria would refuse - and now both Syria and Russia are jumping through hoops as fast as they can to accept it.

The proposal that Syria turn over its chemical weapons to international control is a good one. It was made even better when Russia suggested the weapons be destroyed under international supervision.

Doing this would resolve a potential dilemma: should there be a strike against Syria's chemical weapons depots? On the one hand, that would be the most justifiable target. On the other hand, attacking the chemical weapons would likely release some very nasty stuff into the Syrian countryside - possibly causing innocent deaths.

President Theodore Roosevelt is often quoted as advising that we "speak softly and carry a big stick."

George W. Bush's neocons seemed to think that meant "shout loudly and hit people over the head with the stick."

Sometimes diplomacy can accomplish wonders, but it is hard work best accomplished behind the scenes.

I hope that's what's going on here.

Unemployment Rate Down - Not Necessarily Good News

I have thought for many years that the "unemployment rate" was not a very useful statistic. It doesn't tell us much about the real world of jobs in this country, and when looked at alone, can convey the absolutely wrong impression.

Dylan Matthews of the Washington Post gives a good explanation why last Friday's employment report, showing reduced unemployment, is not good news. As usual, the devil is in the details.

In a nutshell, the unemployment rate is down because of the large number of jobless people who have given up looking.

Jared Bernstein reports that the reduced unemployment rate is "due to a decline in the share of the population in the labor force, which ticked down two-tenths of a percent, to 63.2%, its lowest level since the summer of 1978, according to MarketWatch.com."

Dylan Matthews' article includes a very  illuminating graph:



As the graph shows, the only age group for which the labor participation rate is up is the age group that should already be retired. But many can't afford to retire, so hold on to their jobs as long as they can.

So much for the golden years.

Jared Bernstein has some more thoughts worth considering. He draws particular attention to the fact that since June of 2009, when the present "recovery" began, there has been a significant decline in public sector employment, unlike the recoveries beginning in 1991 and 2001. Without that loss of jobs in the public sector, our overall unemployment rate would be less than 7%. Still not great by historical standards, but better than now.

Town Of Oriental: Let's Have More Studies

Attending Town Board meetings in Oriental can be very frustrating. No one wants to actually take action.

Over the past several weeks, there has been an outcry against the plan announced by Walmart to put a Walmart express just outside the town limits.

The issue wasn't on the agenda for last Tuesday's Town Board meeting. That didn't keep a hall full of people from speaking out during public comment period, but the board maintained its customary silence toward the public.

Not entirely. One commissioner outlined a number of practical problems he saw as affecting the Town and explained what he is looking into - that was Larry Summers, whose points were met with studied indifference by the rest of the Board.

We have had months of agitation over the issue of controlling or regulating boats in the Anchorage. Quite apart from the issue of whether this is a real problem, the Board has seemed uninterested in taking action.

Except for Larry Summers. Larry talked to our state representative and was told he would be willing to sponsor a local bill modeled on one for Carolina Beach, that would grant the Town authority over adjacent waters out to 200 yards. Larry made a motion to go forward with that proposal. To actually act on the matter.

His motion did not receive a second.

Larry tried again to discuss the matter at yesterday afternoon's meeting of the Harbor Committee, explaining that the actual bill would be drafted by the legislative staff in Raleigh. Commissioner Venturi countered that we should refer it first to the Town Attorney (whose expertise in state legislative matters has been hitherto concealed) and who opined that we should first know what we want to DO with the authority before we ask for it. Presumably that would require some more surveys and a new ad-hoc committee.

Speaking of ad-hoc committees, the ad-hoc advisory committee on the water system has met and actually done something. Jim Barton, who has taken charge reported Tuesday night on the accomplishments to date, developing manuals and directives that the Town is required to have, but doesn't. He also pointed out that any ad hoc committee ceases to exist after the election.

The Town continues to speak of a "water board," which apparently never existed - at least there is no ordinance establishing one. On two recent occasions, Larry Summers attempted to introduce an ordinance and received no second.

Names And Their Complications In Elections

My mother, born in Texas in 1916, never had a birth certificate. She had a driver's license, issued in Oklahoma in 1932, but didn't need a birth certificate to get it. Her name was misread by the typist who filled out my birth certificate. My parents were divorced and she remarried a young soldier in 1940. He recorded the marriage with the military but reversed the order of her first and middle names.

When I entered school in 1943, I used my stepfather's name, but I wasn't adopted until 1946. The school didn't care. Their job was education.

When I married, my wife took my adopted name but always went by her middle name rather than her first name. That was never a problem, through my thirty year naval career. She eventually started going by her middle name as her first name and her maiden name as her middle name. That worked just fine for a very long time. Then government bureaucrats started getting all hinckey about names and decided to start using driver's licenses as the equivalent of an internal passport ("carte d'identite) like other national governments issue.

My sister (first name Elizabeth) got caught up in the naming hysteria when the IRS complained that her pay checks, W-2's, etc. were made out to "Betty."

Every one of these perfectly innocent circumstances can lead to problems under the "real identity" laws.

Now Department of Motor Vehicles insist that every document give exactly the same version of the name. I might point out that this has absolutely no connection with whether the holder of a driver's license can safely operate a motor vehicle.

This is a frequent problem for women. Here is a recent article in the New York Times summarizing the problems for a woman who kept her unmarried name for professional purposes and uses her married name for private and family purposes.

This set of issues has now been brought into the artificial hysteria of voter ID. Republicans, who want to destroy the credibility of elections (when the "wrong" people win) levy charges of major discrepancies in voter registration - it must be fraud. These charges are usually based on computer matching programs, and on close (and expensive) investigation by boards of election, it turns out there is no fraud at all.

North Carolina Governor Pat McRory recently asserted that we need all these changes to voting procedures to "close loopholes that allow a voter to vote two or three times." There are no such loopholes.

In 2008 in North Carolina, more citizens cast votes than ever before - more than four million. North Carolina has an extensive set of safeguards and has its own computer matching system to uncover double voting. In 2008, the State Board of Elections uncovered 18 cases of double voting. On investigation, only one was found to be intentional and that case was prosecuted.

In a more recent case, a voter cast his ballot at one of his county's one-stop sites. Subsequently he realized he had not completed the reverse side of the ballot. So on election day, he went to his normal precinct and cast a ballot only on the reverse side. He was caught and prosecuted.

Since passage of the National Voter Registration Act in 1993, registration records in all states have vastly improved. North Carolina's records are among the nation's best.

Don't be hoodwinked. There is no election day voter fraud in North Carolina.

I'll have more to say later.