Digital Meanderings
Meanderings of a coder

The title of this post is a bit of a misnomer, but writing the full titles of these two books would’ve been insane. This post is about two books from John Perkins - Confessions of an Economic Hit Man and The Secret History of the American Empire.

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man

Just the title of this book had me thoroughly intrigued. This non-fiction, fast-paced book guides you into a cloak-and-dagger world that is usually reserved for CIA spies. The main characters are economic hit men (EHM) of which John Perkins was one, jackals and the military. The goal of an EHM? To gain control of a country, more correctly its resources, without having to invade.

If only half of this book is true, it paints a scary picture of how the US Government operates. The stories told are of assassinations and of one-sided deals that were a boon the American companies involved.

The Secret History of the American Empire

This book is a follow-up to Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. It goes into greater detail regarding the events mentioned in Confessions. It discusses John’s meteoric rise in the EHM ranks and his moral awakening.

Although a truly a great book the last chapter was too preachy for me. I understand his plight and why he’s trying to motivate the reader but I feel that it is misplaced and it better suited for another book.

Wrap-Up

If you’re interested in clandestine operations of the United States these books will prove to be a great read.

—I have read and thoroughly enjoyed both of these books. In the interest of full disclosure, this post contains Amazon affiliate links.

Tonight I read an article in Dr. Dobbs Journal by Ed Nisley titled “Root the Vote: Wetware.” Although the article discusses the problems of voting machines, it doesn’t offer any idea on how to resolve them. A brief Google search didn’t yield any usable results, at least as far as I’m concerned. The question I have is this: What is so hard about writing voting machine software?

Here is my proposed solution:

1. Voter Verification
To insure that only the votes of registered people are countered there needs to be a method to validate them. Allow the machine to perform the verification. The voter swipes their card and is asked a series of questions to determine and validate their identity.

2. Voter Database
In order for the above to work the voting machine will need to have access to a database of voter data. Since setting up a network may prove difficult, copy the database to each machine. I don’t think the databases will be prohibitively large.

Since voters need to be registered a certain length of time before they vote the machines can be synced up well before the voting begins.

I do notice a big problem with this, and I will discuss it later on.

3. Vote Validation (for the Voter)
After the voter has cast his ballot bring up a simple screen that displays the position, the person that was voted for and two buttons: “Submit Ballot” and “Change.”

The “Submit Ballot” button would officially and irrevocably cast the voter’s ballot. The “Change” button would bring the voter to a screen that would allow him to fix which ever positions were found to be in error.

4. Determining the Winner
Each machine would be synced with a central computer. This computer would copy each machine’s data to its database. Thereby creating a duplicate of the information.

Having a local copy of the voter database does pose a problem, namely fraud. Since each machine has a copy of the voter database, and a record of who voted, it is possible for someone to vote on multiple machines. To prevent this the sync process would identify the votes that have been cast more than once and would only use the earliest recorded vote in its tally.

Once all the machines have been synced, and the votes verified, then the winner can be determined by simply counting the votes.

5. Vote Validation (for the Auditors)
Each machine would keep track of the voters who logged in and who they voted for. A simple database query could display this data.

Once the machines have been synced a report would be available to show any votes that weren’t counted for whatever reason.

I understand that I’ve taken a terribly simplistic approach to this but I just wanted to get my ideas out there for the public to tear apart. I am by no means an expert on electronic voting machines and I don’t since the issue with getting them correct. Maybe I’m dense or maybe I understand the complexities. Please feel free to leave a comment.

CNN is running an articled titled Low pay threatens judiciary, Roberts warns. The whole gist of article is that John Roberts, Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court, says that the low salaries given to federal judges will allow only the rich to serve. Sounds like a valid argument until you read the what these judges get paid:

• Federal district court judges - $165,200
• Appeals court judges - $175,100
• Associate justices of the Supreme Court - $203,000
• Chief justice of the Supreme Court - $212,100

I understand that people in the private sector make gobs more but is a yearly salary of over $100,000 USD something to complain about? According to GlobalRichList.com making $165,200 a year puts you in the top .23% of the richest people in the world! If you are a married Federal district court judge making $165,200.00 a year and you jointly file your taxes you would pay $64,564.80* in federal income tax and net $100,635.20. This still puts you in top .64% of the richest people in the world!

I would love to understand why Roberts is quoted as saying that this problem “has now reached the level of a constitutional crisis.” Protecting and shaping this country’s legal system should be a privilege that is valued more than wages.

Roberts is also quoted as saying “Inadequate compensation directly threatens the viability of life tenure, and if tenure in office is made uncertain, the strength and independence judges need to uphold the rule of law — even when it is unpopular to do so — will be seriously eroded.” I think the more serious threat is the greed that shown by these judges. As I’ve proven previously their salaries are great. I realize DC is expensive but a net pay of $100,635.20 will most certainly provide for a comfortable life.

What are your feelings on the matter? Feel free to post a comment.

*Federal income tax is based on the 2006 Federal Tax Schedule.