NRCS Leaps Ahead Again

The government is now on You-Tube. I went there to check out what they had for agriculture--some Vilsack clips and this NRCS video on the farm bill. I have to say I prefer Susan Boyle, but NRCS should get some credit for being the first USDA agency to take advantage of the new deal.

And via Government Executive, this Nextgov article outlines the government's use of social media and plans for the future.

Government ID's

This piece at Government Executive outlines a proposal to replace the "Real ID" law. I'm particularly amused by this:

"The bill would eliminate a mandate for states to create a national information-technology system for sharing data. Instead, state departments of motor vehicles would have to "take appropriate steps" to determine a person does not have a license from another state."

Meanwhile this Federal Computer Weekly piece covers attempts to improve the ID's of first responders.

Federal Emergency Management Agency officials hope a pilot program demonstrated today to make first responders' credentials interoperable across jurisdictions will expand nationwide.

Run by FEMA’s Office of National Capital Region Coordination (NCRC), the program encourages state and local officials and the companies that run critical infrastructures to ensure that their credentials comply with Federal Information Processing Standard 201.

And Equifax has its own proposal:

Equifax, the big credit agency that already knows more about your flea count than you do, wants to help.

It is developing a service that will let you create an online identity that can assert various “claims” that it will back up. To an online wine merchant, it might back you up when you say you are of legal age. If you are applying to open a bank account, the company might vouch for your entire profile, including name, address, birthday and Social Security number.

Personally, as a confirmed bureaucrat, I'd like one Federal ID card. But that's not possible in our society; we're too paranoid.

There's No Sanctuary from the Damned Consultants

It was shocking to read this item on the extension.org feed: The first two sentences under the "Introduction":

Would anyone doubt that a successful dairy farm requires a team effort? Silly question? Not at all. Most dairy farms have groups of people or collections of individuals rather than teams.

It shows how things have changed since my childhood.

The Country's Changing Concerns: Diversity

The Sotomayor nomination prompted me to check Wikipedia, which has a very interesting article on Demographics of the Supreme Court of the United States. Did you know Roger Taney was the first Catholic Justice? And we used to worry about geographic diversity? It's a nice way to view our changing history. (And the Wikipedia article on Sotomayor offers a different view than one will see in the hot button blogs--as a tease, she voted in support of pro-life position, racists, and baseball. )

Safety, Safety, Where Is Safety?

Sara at Down To Earth writes about how to use reusable cloth bags safely. It's a reminder not to take safety for granted, there's a continual conflict between "them (viruses, bacteria, etc.)" and "us", and perhaps also that it's possible to sweat the small stuff too much.

NARA Needs Reinvention

I'd agree with the thrust of this Nextgov post, which is NARA builds a museum for records, but doesn't get into the government's handling of records:

A year ago, NARA announced plans to build an Electronic Records Archive, but "has been passive [in] trying to update records management practices at most federal agencies," said Meredith Fuchs, general counsel for The George Washington University's National Security Archives. She referred to a report from the Government Accountability Office that found NARA no longer performed inspections of agency records management programs for e-mail and has not conducted any since 2000.

Organic Internships

This NY Times article says they are more and more popular. College students want to spent their summers working on an organic farm. I guess it's a good way to get cheap help, if you've got the personality and the patience to make it work.

FSA Office Employees Commute

I remember a state specialist in Washington (state) who refused to come to DC. He had several reasons, but as I recall one was the idea he lived close to the office. And that's the mental image I've had all these years--in the counties the employees are living nearby and there's definitely no rush hour.

I may have to try to reconsider, given this quote from a NASCOE report:

"In my county office I have 2 employees who are each traveling over 86 miles a day." (I wouldn't be surprised if one of the employees had transferred from a closed office, but I don't know. Whatever the cause, 43 miles is a long commute.)

Ag Land Prices Decrease

For a while I thought I was seeing an exact duplication of the 1970's and 80's in the boom and bust of farming, but I guess the land prices never took off quite as much. So now the value of good farmland has dropped only 6 percent, which shouldn't put too many people in trouble.

FSA and Payment Limitation

This Agweek report should, but won't, cause the greens and foodies to have a second thought about tightening payment limitation rules. Why? It shows, at least to someone who's familiar with the process, the complexities of enforcing the existing rules. I'd guess this case has probably taken several years worth of USDA employee time. Bottom line: if someone lies, how the hell does a government bureaucrat find the lie? More important, how do you get enough proof to convince a Federal prosecutor he or she can convince a jury of the farmer's peers to convict? And finally, how do you get the money back? Those difficulties can be daunting. I suspect, but don't know, the psychology is often similar to dealing with a problem employee, or a problem person; it's easier to close one's eyes, to let the possible problem pass, to let the cup pass from one.

That's why we need a certain number of classic bureaucrats, those who self-righteously want everyone to obey the rules, to the letter.