Congress Still Denies Real Electronic Voting...

When Congress talks of electronic voting they invariably talk about the lousy gadgets inside the voting boots. No Bank would ever allow to use this technology to access a Bank Account. Regardless, our votes are supposed to be both secret and sacred. When the Banks and the whole Financial Industry are fully inside the electronic world why can we not vote in this environment.

I had "fun" last time when voting. When I brought my finger close to the screen the machine decided how I would vote for each of the few main candidates. It was impossible to fix this on the respective vote screen during the first round. I went through the process and returned back from the end to revote. This time around I had no problems as the vote screens obeyed my fingers with no premade decisions. I complained on the spot and also to one party via internet but got no feedback. I have no idea whom I really voted.

I am seriously pondering: Is it worth to waste time to vote when you do not know who gets it?

The rest of the civilized World is moving also towards electronic voting - and for them this means real electronic voting with ID and password - and no toys. Their systems will allow the voters even change their voting until the final deadline - and they can always check how they had voted - one ID one Vote. Computers are marvelous tools.

Perhaps the real resons that we still play with toys remains inside the Congress. This is unreal as with real electronic voting the power of Congress will actually increase. It does not decrease like might happen to the health of bank accounts of many individual favored by the lobbyists.

The lobbyists would get a very short stick and some might even go home and stay there. Remember, that the US Constitution states where the power is: "We the People...". Congress should pay more attention to these three simple words.

Love thy Lobbyists and Business Analysts

The DIFFERENCE between LOBBYISTS, Business ANALYSTS and real CONSULTANTS

1. When our Government needs some information an army of lobbyists is called in. These lobbyists are happy to come in town and give their input to any issue at hand and then leave the town. However, they have a strange business practice as they do not bill for their service. However tiny miracles happen elsewhere as cash appears in the coffers of major political parties and often also on the election accounts of the most receptive and influential politicians in the town.
2. The Businesses have used the same process with the Wall Street Business Analysts almosts forever (see Finacial Times article on front page on July 27, 2007). Only this time the "rewards" go the other direction to the Analysts. Real money never changes hands but almost miraculously those who understand - that negative news from a Company does not need to be that negative, nor does it need to surface immediately - will advance over their peers and will become highly "respected" and sought after by the businesses.
3. However, the same Businesses act differently when they need to know something for real. This time they study hard, and additionally most of them hire highly skilled experts on specific fields to give their opinions of issues at hand. These experts are rewarded well but the businesses are happy to pay as almost every time the value of their opinions exceed multiple times the expense.
4. The large Banks do the same whenever they consider a large loan to any business. They know lareday the story from the Wall Street Business Analysts and they wonder if that is the real story. They solve this a simple weay and hire a group of highly skilled and seasoned engineering professionals to analyze in all, in and out, at the facilities of this "borrower". This is a real analysis covering in addition to money flows everything physical that the facilities: their efficiency, expected life span, maintenance, raw materials, markets, competitors and their cost structure, etc... The added questions sometimes include even personal opinions of the management, etc...

So, if the Businesses and Banks do this when they are serious, why can we, the voters, not get our Government real and frugal on spending our tax dollars? Are we doped so deeply by the system that we are incompetent to steer our ship any more?