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Politics : Electoral College 2000 - Ahead of the Curve -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: KLP who wrote (3826)	11/28/2000 7:32:44 PM
From: jttmab	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 6710

I think that you may have misunderstood my post. It's not a question of affordability; it's a question of bitching. It's a pervasive problem throughout all of government at all levels. The people of those counties you point to have not bitched about voting machines. They are going to bitch about having recreational activities for seniors, or soccer fields or whatever the demographics are for the region. The people that manage the voting equipment don't really count [no pun intended]. So you'll find that the emergency funding for voting machines being grabbed to put in a new soccer field. [or whoever is bitching the loudest] Back to the FAA. Here's a summarized version of a conversation I had with someone at FAA HQ. We discussed how one would disable all air traffic control around Atlanta airport, without warning and completely. Air traffic control would be totally blind of the status of the air space. [No exaggeration] Easy, low skill, low expense effort. So the obvious question to the FAA is "So why don't you do something about it?" Response: It's never happened, no one's complained and we won't spend any money on it. Don't you realize how much it would cost to fix that problem? It's never happened. Cool. So, how about ground to air communications between the tower and aircraft. The communications is not authenticated and there have been a couple of instances of RF mimics [someone with a radio set to the correct frequency, imitating an aircraft or the tower] in the US [one at National Airport] and several in Europe attempting to redirect traffic. Response: Nothing happened, they were dolts that didn't even understand traffic control jargon. Do you realize how much it would cost to fix that problem? We have radar support systems that still operate with vacuum tubes! The FAA regions canabilize equipment just to keep the radar systems going and you want us to spend money on fixing the RF mimic problem... Cool. End of story.. I'm sorry, but that's the way life works in Government; you don't fix support systems until there is a catastrophe. The Florida counties in question have had their catastrophe and they will probably replace those machines. Unfortunately, my experience tells me that it is unlikely that Harris County, TX will fix their voting machines, simply because the catastrophe didn't happen to them. I wish it were different, but I've seen it happen for 30 years. No reason to think it's going to change now. I've done work for the DoD and most of the Services, FAA and some of those counties down in Florida ... it's all the same. IMO, it's not necessarily corruption, it's people psychology. You can not convince someone that a catastrophe may happen to them; it has to happen before they act. The really amazing thing is [despite any protests you or I might make to the contrary] we would probably do exactly the same thing if we were in their shoes. Here's a jttmab quote: Human beings have an unlimited capacity to rationalize anything they want to do. Best Regards, jttmab