New Economy : Skilled Labor Wage Inversion Imminent

I have been giving a lot of thought to where Wages are headed in this "New Economy" of global competition and such. My conclusion: wages for those generally considered "skilled labor" are going to fall, and wages for what has been historically considered "unskilled labor" are going to rise (certainly substantially relative to that skilled labor).

I call this my geographically-bound-wages-theory in a global economy, and the subsequent education-vs-wages "inversion" I see coming. Fact is, if your job CAN be outsourced to a cheaper, lower wage country, it WILL be, and there is nothing you can do to stop it. The only jobs that can not be outsourced to cheap-labor markets are those that require a physical presence right here in the United States.

What does that leave here in the United States not subject to outsourcing? Not much! If you do any work that does not require at least half of your time being spent physically "on location" here, forget it. So, if you happen to fall into nearly any job considered "White Collar", get ready for a rude awakening as you job is shipped overseas. Thanks to high-speed communications (aka, the Internet and telecommunications), any "desk job" type work is instantly subject to relocation abroad. This includes:

• Information Technology jobs
• Accounting jobs, including tax preparation
• Lawyers - unless you are one of the RARE lawyers actually chairing a case in a courtroom
• Most management positions - trust me, hiring and firing decisions can be made from abroad based purely on underling performance statistics
• Psychologists
• Architects
• Engineers
• Artists
• Advertising and marketing
• Fundraisers
• Call-Centers and Customer Service

I'm not just making this list up... I have seen news about nearly every type of white-collar position moving overseas, little by little, and the pressure for that movement will only continue as Congress bends to the will of Corporate America.

Very few "skilled worker" or "white collar" jobs will remain physically here in the United States. Sure, some health workers will remain, like surgeons that require immediate on-site access to the patient, but even that is under threat as remote surgery is enabled (this tech already exists!) Nursing: yeah, it seems that would stay here, but don't count on it. I guarantee some enterprising persons or companies will find a way to outsource most longer-term care situations to cheaper geographies eventually, even if if means moving the patient, invalid, elderly, whatever, to foreign shores or South of the border. You wait. It'll happen.

So, what will remain (and remain a decent paying profession)? Essentially, the "blue collar" jobs that require a worker to physically be here (and I do NOT mean manufacturing - since, as we all know, that is going, going, gone!).

Don't believe me? I read recently that in 2005, the average College grad made $51,206/yr (i.e., just under $25/hr.). Now, have you checked the bill from your mechanic lately and compared the hourly rate to what you make? I have seen hourly mechanic rates of $75/hour charged at automotive dealers for service, and I know plenty of people with College degrees that make no where near this amount. And, even if you were to take out over 50% for "shop charges" and "overhead" and so forth, I still know many College-degreed individuals that don't make even close to the remaining figure. The list of people I am comparing to includes quite a few PhD's that just constantly seem to find themselves "overqualified" for positions. I know people that mow lawns for a living or plow snow for a living that make a better hourly rate than people with Masters and PhD level educations. Is this wrong? Not necessarily,... it's just a sign of the times, as jobs that require the work be done HERE have some current demand imbalance that allows them to charge great rates.

How did this happen? We were always told to graduate...go on to College... get advanced degrees... etc. Well, the whole time our government is constantly in the media talking about how we need a better educational system, more people with advanced degrees, and so on... they are (helping Corporate America with) shipping all the jobs that require such degrees to overseas locations.

What is the incentive for ANYONE to get an advanced degree, unless they have some "in" with someone in government or will be one of the few remaining at the top (of the management hierarchy) exploiting those below by stripping the value of their College educations from them daily when they force their US labor force to compete with much cheaper foreign labor? In fact, why even get a College degree? Wages for College-grads are stagnating, to no surprise, for the reasons I'm discussing.

We even offer "retraining" programs for workers... why? Fact is, if retraining of displaced manufacturing workers was successful, we'd have more than enough skilled labor to fill all those Technology jobs our leaders are now pushing for foreigners to fill (there is a current push to yet again raise the 2008 cap on foreign IT workers via H-1B Visas).

Again, trust me, regardless of the talk coming out of the government with regards to advanced education and retraining workers, the only real government push that is going on is to help large multinational companies expedite the transition from a domestic (and "expensive") workforce to a foreign-sourced labor pool (mainly not residing here, as such local people are "expensive" relative to nearly the entire rest of the world's labor pool. Even H1's will become too expensive, unless they quickly erode the average pay-rate here considerably, but, more likely, they are just a transitional step towards overseas outsourcing quite frequently, which is why they are so desired now).

So, if this wage pressure on the middle-class wasn't enough, and you (the College grad or potential College grad) start thinking you should perhaps take up a profession in plumbing, construction and remodeling, housekeeping, lawn care, automotive repair, or any of a multitude of decent jobs that seem like they'll be "safe" from this globalization push, guess what? Next, you'll face the fact that even those good local jobs that require local talent are under attack by our government, as they push for open borders and allow a flood of (mostly illegal) immigration further put pressure on the labor market in an effort to suppress wage-growth and fill the Corporate coffers.

I can't help thinking how dismal the future for the American worker looks if we don't, as a Country, start doing something to stem the flow of decent paying middle-class jobs out of here. I'm not advocating outright protectionism, but we really need to start making companies that outsource their workers and/or their pollution/environmental-damage, pay some type of tax to level the playing field for the US workers and the companies here that truly care about the long-term health of this country.

One massive problem with the whole overseas outsourcing thing is how the average small business can not achieve the economies of scale to outsource like their larger competitors. This all but ensures that few startups will ever be able to compete long-term against those firms that can - in fact, they'll be lucky to gain a foothold at all, since most any product or service (unique, patented, or not) can be copied (illegally in many cases) and brought in to the US within months of going on the market.

This isn't competition. Either is "dumping", and it's rampant -- I often see products from China at stores where the retail price is less than the cost of the raw materials (not even counting labor). This is all part of the systematic destruction of the American Dream and middle class. Something has to change. And, I am looking forward to anyone (with any power) to stand up and slow this bleeding of American jobs, though I have little hope anyone will be able to take on the entrenched establishment in Washington and actually "win". So, you best start figuring out how YOU are going to ensure some sort of unique value proposition in your own job situation, lest you be next on the "sorry, your job has been outsourced" list.

Advertising Simulations / Dramatizations

Am I the only one that thinks all these television advertisements featuring simulations and dramatizations (instead of REALITY) are a bit messed up? It really just tells me that the products being marketed do no really do what the maker claims.

Here's a prime example: teeth whitening strips. We've all seen the ads where some cute model puts these strips on their teeth and miraculously 7 days later their teeth could glow in the dark (with an *Asterisk beside the picture showing the "results" saying "simulated" or "dramatized", etc.). Or, how about laundry detergent where, after an hour, a very dirty garment comes out sparkling clean (once again, with a footnote stating how the results were simulated). Why?

This instantly turns me off, and will keep me from EVER buying the maker's product. Fact is, when you have these very short-term (anything a month or less) cause-effect type sales pitches, then if your product REALLY does what it claims, it would not be very much trouble to actually have your models show REAL before/after pictures (be it teeth whitening, laundry detergent, facial creams promising wrinkle removal, etc. etc.).

If ANY of these products really did what they claimed, wouldn't you (the manufacturer) absolutely want to show "proof" of that? Yes, of course you would. Which is exactly why I am convinced all these products (that can't replace their "simulations" with real time-lapse) are pure junk and a waste of money. If there is a teeth-whitening strip out there that works, I dare a manufacturer to recruit a series of people from the public, have them use their product for a week, and show real before/after pictures (without touchup, without OTHER laser-whitening, etc. being used). I'd take that as proof, and try the product. But, I can nearly guarantee I'll NEVER see such an ad.

I am so sick of marketing bull*#$@ in this country! Marketers and advertisers have become so bad that they can essentially run an advertisement saying "this product is absolutely free", and then subtext (in VERY small print) that, in fact, the product actually will cost you some very real money. It's insane. Why would anyone believe anything like this? It seems to work, but I think it all despicable. If you make a product, then you best be straight about what that product is, how much it costs, and how effective it is. No more of this subtexting, fake (oh, I mean "simulated" or "dramatized") visual proof, and other weasel-like ways of dodging the truth!

I can't help thinking that things will never change though, because people continually purchase products based on false promises and simulated results. Even after they purchase a product marketed under these conditions and are disappointed, they continue to still hope the next dramatized product outcome will be what they too experience. Until people demand something more forthright from companies, this will persist. So, here I sit watching the TV every day completely and utterly annoyed by 90+% of all advertisements (since, at least that percentage are pure junk!).

And, before I forget,... on a related topic: how about those ridiculous trademarked phrases in ads? One that recently just about made me scream was the Dannon Activia yogurt ad that has a "Clinically Proven" sign up in a corner of the screen, which if you look closely, you will see a little "TM" beside it. How in the heck do you get away with trademarking the phrase "clinically proven" for god sakes? I have a feeling if *I* wanted to do so, I'd be denied, but if I have a large enough budget, some good lawyers, and perhaps a lobbyist or two, such a thing would be easy these days. It's all just insane!

Prescription Drug Advertising Waste

I have an incredible disdain for the rampant waste in America's medical and health-care system, with one of the largest money-flushes being that of over-priced prescription drugs. We pay more for drugs than nearly any other country, even though many of these brand-name drugs are actually manufactured here in the USA.

Aside from the fact that big-pharma lobbyists essentially "own" our government and prevent our own government from negotiating the best possible price on widely used medicines / medications / prescriptions, there is one other insane reason for the high costs: advertising!

Other nations enjoy substantially lower prices, and in many cases the lowest prices for the same drugs can be as remarkable as 1/3 of the USA price for the same drug. Could the fact that companies here (in the USA) are dumping Billions and Billions in TV and print media advertising, thanks to the pharmaceuticals industry's lobbying efforts to legalize advertising of prescription drugs (took effect under Clinton as I recall), have something to do with the prices we all have to pay?! Gee, I wonder! (mega-sarcasm!).

Turn on the TV any time of day, and you are nearly guaranteed to see a slew of prescription drug ads - most of the time with a series of nearly unrelated background scenes that are meant to appease you and appeal to your senses, showing the great outdoors, or people being active, etc, and rarely even saying what the hell the drug being advertised does - just something like "ask your doctor if XYZ is right for you". This is ridiculous, and just plain wrong! And, you wonder why something as simple as a cholesterol medicine and gastric-reflux medicine can cost hundreds or more dollars per month - at the same time companies spend mega-millions on advertising to you.

The same goes for prescription-drug print advertising insanity! I just went through an issue of a cooking magazine that was laying around here, and ripped out all the full-page ads (oh yes, no expense spared - full page, two side ads!) to make you want to rush to the doctor or pharmacy and get some medications! Obviously people who cook must need tons of drugs! In just one issue of a magazine, here's a sampling of the ads I see (and what the drug chemical is, who makes it, and what they are targeting sales for):

• Detrol ® LA (i.e., tolterodine tartrate - Pfizer - bladder / urinary related)
• Zetia ® (i.e., ezetimibe - Merck - cholesterol related)
• Vyvanse ® (i.e., lisdexamfetamine dimesylate - Shire - ADHD drug - which, I won't even get into how messed up I find ADHD "drugging" of children!)
• Spiriva ® (i.e., tiotropium bromide inhaler - Pfizer - COPD treatment)
• Ambien ® CR (i.e., zolpidem tartrate - Sanofi-Aventis - sleep improvements)
• ZOCOR ® (simvastatin - Merck - cholesterol).
• Nexium ® (esomeprazole magnesium - AstraZeneca - GERD / gastric-reflux), which it amazingly appears there is an epidemic of from the (sales) numbers! Instead of this "treatment", go for a cure instead: don't eat so much!
  
• ...and there were more... stuff for "restless leg syndrome (RLS)", irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and IBS with constipation, etc., etc...

This is insane!
First of all, if people have an real medical condition that requires a pill, tablet, injection, or whatever, they should be in contact with their doctor already about any symptoms they are having, and the doctor should be able to assist them with understanding what options exist - all without these damn costly Billion$$ advertised drug campaigns!

Yes, awareness of treatments is a good thing, so you know what exists and perhaps more importantly, what the treatment efficacy rate is versus placebo, and what the side-effects are vs. placebo! But, you aren't getting that data from the TV regardless (your lucky in many cases just to figure out what the drug is treating). The magazine ads *sometimes* have enough detail to be useful, but still, this can be acquired online or via your doctor should there really be the need.

I'm sick of paying the highest prices in the world (in many, if not nearly all cases) for the same medicines / prescription drugs that people in other countries get at a super discount compared to us. Even if I don't use these drugs, I am forced to pay for them in my higher medical insurance costs (to cover every one else's use of them). I truly believe that aside from just plainly ripping us off and overcharging for drugs here, the manufacturers are also covering the advertising costs, which are extreme. This is so ridiculous of course, because those ads do nothing for our health, but they do wonders for creating entire generations of "patients" (or should I say victims) that "need" the drug of the moment - be it for ADHD or cholesterol or whatever.

How did humanity survive until now without sleeping pills and restless leg syndrome treatment (perhaps Vitamin-B6 for the latter one!?)? This is just so wrong! Demand change! Quit paying for this waste! Time to get Congress to repeal the changes that allow big-pharma to advertise all over the place (oh, I almost forgot: that will not happen, since they own Congress and your vote doesn't count). I am sick of paying super-high medical insurance rates, and I want to enjoy the lowest possible price for medicines and insurance possible - and, that is not going to happen until (for starters) this drug-advertising waste is stopped!

USA Wind Energy Statistics

I just finished reading a report on where the United States stands, relative to the rest of the World, in regards to Wind Energy (a wonderful alternative energy option we really need to exploit more!) I was quite delighted, and a bit surprised, to see that the US added nearly 45% to its total wind power output capacity in 2007 - adding a whopping 5.2GW last year (that's Gigawatts - or, thousands of MegaWatts, or Millions of Kilowatts). Not bad!

We have a LONG way to go to offset our insane consumption of carbon-based energy (this included ethanol by the way!), but at least the high energy prices are finally encouraging development of alternative energy sources like large-scale wind farms. Here's an excerpt of the report I was reading (courtesy of Technology News Daily):

New developments in 2007 have seen the USA continuing to lead as the biggest annual market with 5.2 GW of new installations, followed by Spain and China, which added 3.5 GW and 3.4 GW to their total capacity respectively.

The North American market experienced the strongest growth with a spectacular 5.2 GW of new installations in the USA alone in 2007, more than double the 2006 figure. The US total wind power generating capacity was expanded by 45% in a single calendar year, injecting an investment of over 9 bn US$ or 6 bn EUR into the nation’s economy. The new wind projects account for about 30% of the entire new power-producing capacity added nationally in 2007 and will power the equivalent of 1.5 million American households annually. With the total installed capacity in the US now standing at 16.8 GW, it can be expected that the US will overtake Germany as the largest market for wind energy by the end of 2009, provided that growth continues at the current rate.

Good news, but...
Now, let me get to the complaints I have with our screwed up tax system in the United States, specifically in regards to tax credits for windmills, tax credit for wind power, etc., especially the disparity between what corporations can get [TONS!] (in tax incentives, abatements, credits, you name it!) vs. what the average homeowner can get [ESSENTIALLY ZERO]! In America, where the government is controlled by corporate special interests and lobbyists, all of the "tax relief" (as GW likes to call it) with regards to alternative energy goes to the existing predominately carbon-based Energy companies (that run the government these days). Sounds a bit messed up? Darn right! Especially while these large energy companies are raking in record profits!

Here's how completely messed up this alternative energy strategy is in America: you and I the taxpayers give our money to the Federal, State, and Local Governments, which in turn give the money to big energy companies in the form of dollar-for-dollar tax credits (for "investments" in wind power, solar power, etc)... those companies get to essentially build (at no cost to them) large wind-farms, solar power generation facilities, and the like,... and then the same companies that got the massive tax breaks get to sell the power generated by the capital you paid for (with tax credits) back to you perpetually. What a deal!! (not for us, the American public though!) Our deal is a simple one: we get screwed forever under this type of plan. And, this plan is not good for the health of our economy - I'll explain more in a bit.

But, this is the ONLY power-delivery model that the big corporations and government will support. They will not offer YOU the tax-credits to put power on your home, decentralizing the power-generation system in this country (which, by the way would also enhance our National security - but, sorry, big business doesn't want that if it interferes with their profits!). Compare this to Germany where pretty much anyone can reap the rewards of alternative energy tax incentives.

Fact is, big energy is scared to death of there being any REAL alternative to the existing model where you, the consumer, pay them over and over to fill up your tank, power up your appliances, and so on, forever. These companies and their lobbying powers have convinced our government that moving away from this energy-delivery model will "hurt our economy" or something (well, it will hurt their own profits if they don't adapt! And, that's what matters to them.) And, the government fears not being able to TAX YOUR POWER you generate (since, we have sales tax, excise tax, and taxes upon taxes on energy consumption now that the government "needs" for building roads, and more often, just wasting!) So, couple the fears the government has of potential lost taxes from the consumer (the whole time preaching "tax relief for individuals"), with the fear power companies have of losing their god-given "right" to collect revenue eternally for selling us power, and you have a formula that spells one thing: NO CHANGE WILL EVER OCCUR!

Here's the thing about this mentality: it's just plain ignorant (aside from the reality that "greed is good" to these folks).

Doing it right: decentralized power generation
The fact is, a decentralized power-generation model where we leverage alternative energy to push power-generation to the point of consumption (the home, or businesses) via solar power or wind energy, reduces the reliance on "the grid", and creates a much more scalable, reliable, power system overall. In theory, it can be more efficient too, as line-loss is reduced, and there should be a corresponding push for higher-efficiency appliances, lighting, heating, and cooling to make the most of locally generated power.

JOBS! Yes, JOB CREATION, JOB GROWTH, and a whole new manufacturing and service industry will arise from pushing power generation out to the homes and business locations. Who do you think is going to install and maintain all those windmills and solar systems and battery-backup systems and power-interconnects, etc.?? Yes, a veritable army of workers will be busy getting this country converted over to power-generation from sun and wind sources. And, with that income comes income tax, and likely sales-tax on the services (well, at least is States like Ohio that will ultimately try to collect sales tax on anything!).

Now, how about the economic impact? Simply put: HUGE! Our ECONOMY will boom if we incent ALL consumers to install windmills and solar panels. Aside from the job creation I mentioned already, our reliance on foreign energy can plummet. This current sucking sound (our money going to the Middle East constantly) is a huge burden on the economy, and a giant outflow of cash! Trade defects could be positively impacted in a huge way as we kept that cash "internal" to the United States and used it to build energy independence. Perhaps if we are really smart about things, we'll also learn to build and export some of the physical products needed for solar/wind (to other countries - and actually help our trade balance out), though I suspect the temptation to outsource manufacturing of all the physical goods to China will be overwhelming. Either way, we'll have our "service sector" jobs installing and servicing this stuff forever!

Also, if we use existing roof-tops for solar arrays, we won't be wasting any more land just to get the area needed for solar farms. A minor issue perhaps, or maybe not? Just multiply out the square-footage required for enough solar cells to power one house, and multiply by the number of households in America to calculate required acreage for an equivalent solar farm: the number is huge!

A comparison... this same decentralized strategy model is used regularly in computing environments to disperse processing and storage across multiple physical machines and locations in order to minimize single-point-of-failure prospects while increasing resource utilization (especially the processing power of desktop computers which tend to be underutilized / idle much of the time).

It can work, and it would work, if our government would take some serious action to encourage wide-scale distributed alternative energy (through personal tax incentives). The curent $150 BILLION idiotic short-term "economic stimulus package" currently nearing reality in Congress will do NOTHING for our economy long-term.

You want long-term economic security? Put that $150 BILLION into PERSONAL TAX-CREDITS (DOLLAR-FOR-DOLLAR) for implementing alternative energy (wind/solar) at the home and small-business level - and, spread this out over a few years so workers and windmill/solar producers can keep up with demand. The money will stay in the country, unlike the current "tax rebate checks", which might as well be 90% signed over to China as soon as consumers receive them!

State of The Union : Analysis 2008

Now that Congress has finally stopped applauding (lol), and the State of The Union speech has commenced, and concluded, we have all heard what United States President George W. Bush had to tell us after his first 7yrs, as he addressed the 110th Congress here in early 2008.

Not surprisingly, he jumped right out and tackled some of the high-level Economy / economic issues, briefly mentioning rising competition in the World Economy, and global trade, etc. There was a lot of political phrasing of grand concepts like "The power and resilience of America's self governance", and how "Republicans and Democrats can compete for votes and cooperate for results at the same time."

But, according to the President, we also need to open more markets overseas too (is the the empowerment he's talking about?) Break down trade and investment barriers around the world and pass more free trade agreements - Columbia, Panama, South Korea, etc. 100 million extra customers supposedly. But, it seems unlikely to me (though, even with Panama and South Korea being more "upper end" economies), that the flow will net out to anything in America's favor. As for Columbia, and how GW proclaimed them a "friend"... gee, well,... drug friend perhaps and money dump "fighting a war on drugs" friend, but what else? It seems that the first thing we need to do is quit dumping Billions on this "war on drugs" - that alone would set the trade-balance with Columbia on the right direction, though we'll never have enough trade with them to offset the Cocaine-cash flow to the country from American drug sales, regardless of whether the illicit drug trade is "being fought against" or not. Sorry, I'm rambling!

Then, we were told how we should trust people with their own money and empower them to grow out economy. 52 straight months of job growth are behind us, and job growth is slowing but still exists.
But, even as job-growth slows, he pushes for foreign workers that "we need to come here and support our economy" (presumably to do those "jobs Americans won't do" - like, construction, which used to be a damn good job here!). Wages are growing, but so is inflation. So.... what do we do about it? Tax incentives / relief / rebates of course!

Tax relief for individuals and families and incentives for business investment was one thing President Bush mentioned quickly, calling the current bi-partisan (apparent) economic stimulus package (ala a tax-rebate and tax-break gift set courtesy of Washington), a "good agreement that will keep our economy growing". (I doubt it - history shows otherwise, and I can't help thinking the BULK of the "rebates" will end up going to China since most goods are made there now!)

Of course, President Bush kept making the pitch for his tax cuts (capital gains and such from a few years ago) to be permanent. Don't (paraphrased quote) "allow tax relief expiration... Make tax relief permanent!", and so forth. He made the claim that 116 million tax payers would experience an $1,800 average tax increase if the existing "tax relief" was allowed to expire. OK, so you're telling me that the government would instantly get an additional $209 Billion). Yes, do the math, 116MM x $1800 = $208,800,000,000. Gee, I look and that and say, "wouldn't that cut our deficit in half" (to which anybody that feels compelled with just say "it'll slow economic growth"). I can't help thinking that much of that money

And, even though the Federal Government (per GW's direction) should not take in that $209 Billion/year, the President says that there will be a budget surplus by 2012 with his proposed budget - yeah, right!! How many times / years have we heard this crap, and NEVER seen a balanced budget (please, don't post comments saying Clinton balanced it or had a surplus - just check the US Treasury's own numbers on debt held by the public/government historically - it NEVER decreased in all of President Clinton's years). Our government is debt-addicted just like all of its citizens, and this will never change. In fact, I'd argue that the people of the United States learn their debt addition behavior from their own government - but, that's another blog topic.

Then came some medical discussion (a topic of concern with most Americans), with things like... Empowering people with better info/options (medical), and make it more affordable/accessible to all Americans... Make decisions about your medical care in privacy of your doctor's office - not the Halls of Congress (uh, whatever that rhetoric means!) How?... you guessed it: expanding consumer choice, not "government control". Sure GW, like that'll ever work or like it has worked at all yet! The ONLY thing that I heard that made (some) sense was the part about allowing EVERYONE to write off health-insurance. Confronting the epidemic of "junk medical lawsuits"... well, I'd like to see proof that if lawsuits were decreased that we'd see our medical insurance costs go down. Fact is, our medical costs / system is so unbelievably broken (and our government is complicit in this mess with special interests and lobbyists literally writing any legislation that would impact them), that nothing is going to change.

Indirectly or otherwise, the government is "owned" by these medical lobbyists when it comes to policy, thus nothing will change (well, not in any way that will help you, the average American consumer, though I wouldn't be surprised if more legislation giving additional corporate handouts, welfare, and guaranteed profit make it into law -- sorta like the Medicare prescription drug plan that prohibits our own government from negotiating lowest prescription prices like all other major Nations can do!).

Education: "no child left behind" was called a success. Supposedly we have recently posted the highest math scores on record last year, and reading scores on the rise (since when!!!??? everything I read about World standings in these areas shows the USA slipping.) Now, education for adults... Displaced workers will learn new skills and find new jobs. Sure, what jobs? Oh... maybe some in these sectors...

What is up with Energy security and President Bush's sudden public (show at least) of wanting to be "green" and climate friendly? Slow, stop, and reverse greenhouse gases... -- yeah, and this is GW speaking, whose administration has done everything to avoid it. Now acting "green". I don't buy it. Confronting global climate change and reduced dependency on foreign energy. Sure, right, since when? Now? I don't buy it.

We heard how the "Genius of entrepreneurs and scientists" needs to be trusted and used to get "green" power up... then, a minute later came the REAL push -- COAL (and a bit of nuke energy perhaps). Advanced battery tech and renewable fuel (read: ethanol! of course; i.e., competing with your FOOD for energy). But, I can nearly guarantee what the REAL agenda is, and where all the money will be focused: CARBON. COAL, OIL, ETHANOL, etc. NOT SOLAR, NOT WIND, but CARBON. This is where the big (existing) lobby money is, and where the government will focus their money because of it. We won't do what we need: i.e., implement a MASSIVE push to get energy independent via distributed power (solar, wind, etc) that could create tons of new jobs for installers, servicers, etc. Instead, the focus will remain appeasing the interest of big energy. Mark my words. I need a whole other blog on this topic too!

Well, the 2008 State of The Union speech is over. Where does it leave me regarding my opinion of the "state of our union"? Simply put: America has some severe issues that I fear won't be addressed in any MEANINGFUL way, and the same old thing will continue and lead us further down a hole we can't get out of. Massive government spending and debt, personal debt levels beyond compare, a financial system in disrepair (thanks to greed on all levels) and spiraling / rising inflation in energy, food, and medical care, all spell disaster.

A fundamental change needs to occur, but I doubt it will. Maybe you got something more optimistic out of this Presidential speech, but I detected the same old government politics (you could see the divided nature of Congress clearly as one side sits, the other cheers). Please, government, wake up and do something for your citizens (not just your lobbyists) and focus on long-term solutions that will help us remain the great country we are (or were and can be).

Government Voting Machine Waste - Scanners, paper, all of it!

Make no mistake about what all this "voting machine" chaos is about: getting more of your money to move from your wallet to the various vendors and special interests that each want their "turn" to sell our government agencies a "voting system" or "voting solution", whether that is manual (paper ballots and manual counting), semi-automated (paper ballots with electronic scanners or punch-card machines to tally results), or fully electronic / computerized voting systems and software.

We, the American public, are being played like a fiddle. Thanks to everyone's paranoia about vote tampering, now it's the automated, electronic, computer-based solutions that are under attack, after we just recently paid BILLIONS to implement these solutions since they were so much faster, better, accurate, etc.

Then, along comes the rumors that the voting machines can be hacked. Sure, it is possible, but is it likely? Let me explain this to all of you computer-phobes out there as clearly as I can: if I wanted to alter a vote-counting mechanism, I'd be much more inclined to:

1. have humans tamper with physical voting records. "Social Engineering" as it is referred to sometimes, is the EASIEST path to cracking any system. Fact is, people have their own desires (including greed or political motivations) that are much easier to appeal to than that of a computer! If you think the humans involved throughout the entire manual-vote-counting system are faultless, you are simply living in a dream land. People constantly manipulate things to suit their own ambitions. Sad, but true.
   
2. alter the old punch-card counters than the new machines. It'd be SO easy. Don't you all get it? Punch-card counters ALSO USE PROGRAMMING and computers to tally what is "punched". Sure, you can do a manual recount, but that typically only happens in close elections anyhow. And then, see #1 (above)!
   
3. And, why can't I alter the scanner results? Again, there is software involved here too!! I guarantee that the counting algorithms in that type of system can ALSO BE ALTERED.

So, to summarize: Wake up boneheads!!!! ANY SOLUTION CAN BE MANIPULATED - COMPUTERIZED OR NOT. Whether you realize it or not, computers have been involved in counting votes for many many years. Only now that you see a touch-screen computer sitting there at your local voting station are you suddenly concerned with the security of the voting data and such. If there was any massive computer-based voting fraud, guess what, it's already been done by manipulating the counting software that read all those punch cards and shaded-circles, etc. This supposed opportunity for "hacking" the vote is nothing new - the opportunity has been there for a LONG time. Just because the machines, computers, and software involved were not where you could see them does not mean they were not tampered with or that they couldn't be tampered with.

The fleecing of us all!
If you love watching your hard-earned money go down the toilet with these insane voting-system "improvements" year after year (of recent), just get involved with the public argument and "outcry" over voting issues and problems. Raise your voice loud! Make sure when the local County officials say they'll be spending another $100 million to address shortfalls and security concerns, that you don't mind funding it. I guarantee corporate America is loving this. Where else can you sell a set of machines for millions, have them replaced by the customer, and then have a new wave of machines purchased that addresses the issues of the first round, over and over and over, for something as simple as counting votes!?

I happen to live in one of the Counties and States affected by the current wave of organized ripping-off of the American population by our Government. First we used paper voting method, then we switched to electronic (fully electronic machines, with a paper-trail mechanism built in). But, that just wasn't "good enough" for people - the rolls of paper supposedly bunched up on occasion. So, what are we doing... yep, going BACK TO PAPER ballots, and now there is some new expense for something like $26 million dollars for the new scanners.

When did it become acceptable to have this constant flow of cash going towards voting systems? Gee, about the same time the government and corporations got the public to start arguing about which method of voting machine is better, safer, more secure, reliable, easier to use, etc.

The Baltimore Sun just had these quotes to offer about their State's situation (yet another example of this madness)!:

Making good on a campaign promise to overhaul Maryland's suspect electronic voting system, the governor there proposed an initial outlay in the state budget toward the purchase of scanners to replace its $65 million touch-screen voting systems.

The new machines would end up costing the state $20 million, the Sun reported, though meanwhile it would continue to pay off the remaining bill for the $65 million worth of touch-screen voting machines the state would evidently retire. That bill is being paid off on an installment plan that expires in 2014.

Thing about this: how the heck did our parents and their parents ever manage to vote!!?!

Amazing! Amazing what this country (and the cronies running it) have done to us all. They've made us all willing pawns, and we sit back and give them a blank check to rip us off over and over and over.

Since you are paying for all those machines (or their removal and replacement), you best darn well get out and VOTE THIS YEAR (and, vote against taxes too - it's your only chance to slow this mess down,... presuming your vote actually counts).

DEP Data-Execution-Prevention Windows 2003 Server "Joy"

I just had the "fun" of dealing with a difficult to track down (the underlying cause of) COM Surrogate error in Windows 2003 Server Web Edition with SP2 on it. The error was showing up constantly in the event logs on reboot, and a web-application that used COM+ components was working and failing intermittently because of something going wrong in the COM system.

Well, after a lot of hunting through event logs and examining system-settings and such, I found the issue was due to Windows DEP (Data Execution Prevention) junk that was introduced into Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1. More than coincidentally, it was at the time of the SP1 install that the web-server program / software in question (using COM Components) began to exhibit strange symptoms and seemingly random failures.

It seems that Windows DEP interpreted data being sent to/from my COM+ Component (Remote Procedure Call to another server where data was being pulled from a SQL-Server 2005 database) as a potential threat - i.e., as code embedded in the data stream that may be an attempt to execute malicious logic. The DEP function would only fail PART of the time, when a certain stream of data (which was actually just large PDF reports) would "look like" potentially malicious code embedded in a a data stream... at least, that is my theory.

DEP was introduced back with Service Pack 1 for Windows 2003 Server, which I installed on the web-server in question back in July of 2005, which shortly after is when I started seeing random COM Surrogate errors (I checked my logs / notes). I found this on the Microsoft support site (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/899298/en-us) Rather interesting bulletin from October, 2006, after SP1 was already installed on the webserver / web-site in question that was experience the COM Surrogate Error under Windows 2003 Server.

SYMPTOMS

The "Understanding Data Execution Prevention" help topic in Microsoft Windows Server 2003 with Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains the following incorrect entry:

By default, DEP is only turned on for essential Windows operating system programs and services. To help protect more programs with DEP, select Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.

By default, in Windows Server 2003 SP1, DEP is turned on for all programs and services except those that the administrator selects. By default, the "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select" OptOut policy is already selected.

Gee, isn't that special!

I never knew Microsoft officially announced that the original help file was BACKWARDS from reality. This whole time, the fix (Which I presume it is a FIX now), may have been just a "checkbox away"! Arghhhhhhhh.

So, here's my updated note to myself about what symptoms to look out for with COM Surrogate Errors under Windows 2003 Server (with SP1 or SP2 or SP3, etc)...

COM Surrogate Error Fix

IMPORTANTNOTE: DATA-EXECUTION-PREVENTION (DEP) SETTING in Windows Server 2003 SP1+ may need altered to allow the COM SURROGATE to run or function!!!

Where: Control Panel, System, Advanced, Performance (Setting button), DEP -- there should be a radio-button (2nd one from top) that is clicked and says "Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select", with a check-listbox below that shows "COM Surrogate" --> that item needs checked, to ALLOW custom COM object(s) to run on WebServer!!

I don't know if this will help anyone else, but debugging a COM Surrogate error isn't fun, and this is something to look into!