Tag: Spreading the Misery

Some local election officials are resisting Secretary of State Ruth Johnson's demand voting applications in the Nov. 6 general election that ask voters to affirm their U.S. citizenship.

Clerks in Macomb County and Lansing plan to defy Johnson's instructions and remove the question from ballot applications, and the Washtenaw County Election Commission voted Thursday to leave it off the forms after the county clerk planned to give townships and cities the option to ask about citizenship.

"It seems like it doesn't really add anything positive to the process. People have already affirmed their citizenship when they register to vote," Lansing City Clerk Chris Swope told The Detroit News.

Other clerks said they have no plans to enforce the question or will use old forms that don't inquire about citizenship. As a reason why they don't have to comply, several clerks cited Gov. Rick Snyder's July veto of a bill that would have made the question law.

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Yannow know something, Rick... you're off to play footsie with your ChiCom buddies again soon, when you finally get there, why don't you just stay there.

The wind tunnel effect of prop 2 and 4 puffery by labor leaders smelling the money of forced union membership might  seem to be enough to be filling the sails of prop 3, but alas, no amount of hot air, deep sighs or physical reality matches the required blow to make it happen.  Prop 3 is a non starter from the physics sense alone:

"That's because almost the entire state of Michigan is "poor" or "marginal" for wind as a resource at 50 meters above ground (see image), according to the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. The information says Michigan's best wind opportunities at 50 meters, which would be classified as "excellent" and "outstanding," are all located offshore.

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory says annual wind speeds of about 6.5 meters per second at 80 meters or higher are "generally considered to have a resource suitable for wind development."  "

Its not the point.

The use of energy and accompanying pollution that must surely be generated by coal fired and natural gas generation must surely be stopped.  Certainly, if we do that, then wind and solar technology by necessity will have to be improved or we all starve, lose our modern conveniences and health maintenance devices. (you know refrigeration, medical apparatus etc..) If only we would understand "necessity is the mother of invention", damn it!

And in the meantime a little equalization wouldn't hurt the dying planet too.

The U.S. Transportation Department today will launch a 3,000-vehicle test of "smart car" technology in Ann Arbor.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator David Strickland will join automakers to begin the yearlong test, the largest to date.

Vehicle-to-vehicle technologies have the potential to significantly reduce crash fatalities and injuries and could one day help motorists avoid crashes altogether, Strickland said.

This first-of-its-kind effort will test a Wi-Fi-like technology by which vehicles and highways can "talk" to each other and perhaps reduce crashes and improve traffic congestion. Cars, for example, could alert each other that a driver was about to miss a stop sign or pull onto a busy street. Or that a vehicle has entered a driver's blind spot.

The test will include vehicle-to-vehicle crash avoidance technologies such as forward-collision warnings, "do not pass" alerts and warnings that a vehicle ahead has stopped suddenly. It also will involve some vehicle-to-roadway testing.

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A demand for engineers in Michigan:

"Andrew Watt says he figures the shelf life of an auto engineer looking for a job in Michigan is about three days. Companies that wait longer than that will have to get back in line for the next candidate.

"If their skills are even on the edges of automotive, they can get a job," said Watt, whose iTalent LLC in Troy finds engineering and information technology workers for companies in nine states. "There's an extreme shortage. There's way more demand than supply."

Demand, Supply ..  Funny how such things work.

The long term effect of our emerging technical interaction with each other will continue to create demand for such things as better engineered automobiles, heavy equipment and other manufactured goodies.  But the most important thing that ties it all together is electricity.  Cheap, abundant electricity that will continue to power the goodies, toys, and necessary equipment that keeps us healthy, mobile, and interactive.

Environmentalists in Michigan, need to mature into the continuing reality of our still relatively industrial state.  Those idealists growing up and believing the world of The Lorax exists around us need to stop believing in the fairy tale promises of such efforts as the United Nations 25x25 plan which will appear on your Michigan ballot in November.

DR. Seuss is dead.

And yes, I DID say, the United Nations plan.