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jfsabl

User Profile Image jfsabl
Member since : May-28-2009 (Verified)
1 Ideas, 22 Comments, 125 Votes

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Ideas Posted

Regarding this board or future dialogue boards: a lot of space is taken up by people reposting their issue, or venting about a personal issue, or posting ideas that they have not put much thought into. It's taking a lot of work to wade through the drek in search of thoughtful, national-level proposals, and some very good ideas are being buried.

I'd suggest a strict baseline limit on the number of posts per week. Then, give generous extra "posting credits" to people whose ideas garner support (for example, "in the top 30% of proposals," or "more than 25 votes"). People who really do have multiple great ideas retain basically unrestricted access. People with a few good ideas would be encouraged to polish them up so they are understandable and get votes. And people with bad posting habits or other problems would retain access, but on a limited basis.

Bad postings would not count as a negative, so people would be encouraged to improve, instead of being discouraged from participating.
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Comments Posted

jfsabl 9 months ago
In case anyone serious is still reading, note that this is the phrase adopted by past presidential assassins and would-be assassins. Exactly what it's doing here, I'm not sure.
jfsabl 9 months ago
Thanks for this explanation--
I knew the employment figures were bad, but I figured it was all part of the big lie (that people can choose their training--lie, in most cases--that the training is relevant for the civilian workforce--lie, in most cases--that learning to follow orders or give them molds someone, psychologically, for a worker or leadership role in the business world, etc. etc.).
jfsabl 9 months ago
I'm not talking about making comments. I'm talking about people who keep re-posting the same idea, or an idea that has already been posted, because they are too lazy or two busy to look through previous posts. There's a lot of hair tearing and hand wringing over how few people are participating on this site. They were expecting more than 10 times the traffic. So SOMETHING is turning a lot of people off from participating.
jfsabl 9 months ago
And do we also forgive them for students who are corporate lawyers making six figures? How about we allow people to work off their loans by crediting them for socially valuable work in positions that are understaffed and underfunded?
jfsabl 9 months ago
http://www.ontheissues.org/International/Chuck_Hagel_Energy_+_Oil.htm
jfsabl 9 months ago
http://www.ontheissues.org/Domestic/Chuck_Hagel_Civil_Rights.htm
jfsabl 9 months ago
well put!
jfsabl 9 months ago
postmen are not government employees

facebook is a huge time-suck

people have a right to privacy even if they work for the government.
jfsabl 9 months ago
This is usually derided as "pork." I'm not saying there's no rationale for making pork more egalitarian, but I'm not sure that your method works out to anything more than an invitation for congressmen to thank their biggest donors by handing contracts to them or their brother in law.
jfsabl 9 months ago
You want the ARMY to check your bin each week to decide if you qualify for the rebate, and document it???
jfsabl 9 months ago
Much of this already exists outside the gov't. Fundrace, for example http://fundrace.huffingtonpost.com/ and Open secrets: http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/
jfsabl 9 months ago
a more intelligent version of this might have incorporated the "cost of taking several people" issue, and suggested that, as in much of europe, we sell family passes and group passes at a reduced rate, to mimic the benefits of putting the whole family in the car. (Where, BTW, the train is also not guaranteed cheaper than the price of gas, and people make the choice based on other savings.)
jfsabl 9 months ago
Yes, it's badly phrased (and the poster seemed doggedly unaware about the massive savings in car insurance that you can get if you only use your car to commute a few days a week, or not at all...and the savings from less frequent oil changes and maintenance...and assumes that everyone makes decisions based on "what will it cost me in the next day or two" rather than "what will it cost me over the next six months." But you're right, there are not a lot of other rail-subsidy-focused posts, so this is about as good as it'll get in the next hour.)
jfsabl 9 months ago
Azaleahs; please read a bit more carefully. It says, "Regarding this board OR FUTURE DIALOGUE BOARDS."
jfsabl 9 months ago
It's a felony. But it was a felony back in the heyday of the political machines. (And as far as unions, I think the problem was far worse with the job bosses / company men.) Our state election laws say that if a voter wants someone with them to help them vote, the only people who can't be picked are the judge of elections, the union rep, and the person's own boss / job supervisor.)

Why the judge of elections? Let me explain the concept of a "chain ballot." This is from the bad old days (and the history books) but I'm told it happened "well within living memory."

Election official (Judge) has a single, filled out paper ballot-it's their own ballot, but they don't drop it in the box. Election official hands this (and a dollar) to the first voter. The voter hands over their blank ballot, which the election official again fills out. Repeat process until the end of election day. The source of the money was candidates who had paid for the vote. For simplicity, this was usually handled by delivering a unanimous vote. And a dollar went a long way in those days. (Just in case anyone is unclear on their being risks to paper ballots, too, if people are willing to commit election fraud.)

No, I never knew about stuff like this when I lived on the West Coast, and I didn't see any real risk to paper ballots (compared to e-voting). But I've had my eyes opened a bit. I like the scantron voting best (combination of an electronic and a voter verified paper record, because each one serves as backup for the other).

A bit off topic...Wanting election day and tax day on the same day?!? Surely you don't think that because your taxes are simple, they're simple for everyone? Lots of people stay up overnight to finish their taxes, and then crash in exhaustion, or spend several weeks focused on getting their tax information together. Silly to do that at the same time that you're finding out about candidates and issues (if you live in a state with referenda) and judges (if you live in a state with elected / election retention judges) and bonds (if you live somewhere where bond issuance has to go to the voters).
jfsabl 9 months ago
In a word, yes. A friend was unable to vote in this last primary because he had a double shift at Wendy's. A lady down the street was unable to get to her polling place between shifts as a home health care aide. The nurses laughed, and said they'd been long-scheduled that day. And in the last presidential election, there were 5 hour waits at some polling places.

This problem differs from place to place, for sure. This is due, in part, to very different laws on absentee voting. (I live in a place where historically it was assumed that absentee voting for all would mean that the husbands would vote for the wives, and the unions or the bosses would vote for the workers, so getting an absentee takes a lot of effort if you are under 65.)

That's why we need a national solution. The places where people already are reasonable about letting everyone vote will be fine, either way. The places where people are being kept from the polls? They don't (obviously) have the ability to elect people to create that change locally. We're one of the very few countries to not have election day as a holiday, you know. And they mostly have much higher voter participation than we do.
jfsabl 9 months ago
an interesting mix of things that everyone would support (the "apple pie" clauses) and changes that strike at the bedrock of our system of government ("abolish the senate"). I find this misleading and unfortunate in a long post that people may not read top-to-bottom before signing.
jfsabl 9 months ago
remember, all sorts of people still have to work on most national holidays. This needs to include at least a half-day free during polling hours for even fast food, nurses, etc.
jfsabl 9 months ago
can you make this proposal clear to those of us who don't work within government?
jfsabl 9 months ago
Why do your other savings not matter? Not having to get an oil change is a savings, even if you have a car. Avoiding tolls is a savings, even if you have a car. I'd support this if you said $15 (gas plus other immediate costs). After all, we do already subsidize a bunch of other car related things, so it makes sense to subsidize some train-related things. But not ALL car costs except for gas.
jfsabl 9 months ago
I have a hard time with the "erase punative discharges" item. Lying, cheating, disruption of the workplace, incompetence and pilfering are just as relevant for people in the armed services as in any other employment. Otherwise, most of this seems reasonable.
jfsabl 9 months ago
Voice recognition technology works much better if it is trained for each voice that uses it. There are no real cost savings from trying to do it at a central location. It's one thing to train a computer to recognize a few words and numbers in a range of voices, but general voice recognition for all words is still in development. In another 5 or 10 years, a centralized service might make good sense. (I used viavoice a decade ago when I had bad tendonitis.)