(no subject)

[winterbadger]

Thanks to kmusser for this link. I'm shocked, shocked to find illegal preferences being awarded here. THis lady should be *running* the contracts office, not being pushed out of it.

Also, look here for an op-ed on the counterinsurgency in Iraq by the lovely and talented poliscidiva. Sorry, free registration required.

Comments

[azbound.livejournal.com]

A) Nora is a great writer.
B) Through this article (about the cotracts officer) I found out my Dad is working for a subsidiary of Halliburton. Hmmm.

[winterbadger]

KBR? They're pretty massive. I used to hear about them when I worked at WERF, when they were just Brown & Root and did environmental engineering.

[azbound.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he just started there.

[beckon.livejournal.com]

It's ok, could have been layed out better ;) Haven't seen her in forever. next time you talk to her give her my regards.

Oh and are you up for some gaming at some point?

[winterbadger]

1. I will be sure and give Dr. B. your regards; perhaps you will have a chance to convey them yourself!

2. Certainly! There's a DC United match this Saturday (late afternoon), but I don't *think* I have any plans for Sunday. Likewise, next week there's a DC game (normal time--evening) on Saturday and Sunday is clear (I think!)

Can I interest you in any miniature gaming?

[shy-kat.livejournal.com]

What ever happened to your monthly gameday thing? Not doing that anymore?

[winterbadger]

Response the last few times was so poor that I decided to give up on it and just play games with you guys and whoever else we could rope in whenever we felt like it.

No matter how many times I do it, I just can't get used to the fact that when one invites 30+ people to a party, giving them plenty of notice, only about a dozen will bother to reply, and usually half or more of those will be unable to come. It's just too depressing/frustrating.

[shy-kat.livejournal.com]

ok, just wondered. /hug/

[winterbadger]

I should be used to it by now; I had a party sophmore year in college, invited about a dozen people, and one person showed up, looked embarrassed, and left after about ten minutes. :-)

[beckon.livejournal.com]

Oh I quite like her, so it would be nice to convey them myself however I haven't seen her in months...

Saturday I have committed to spending some quality time with M.

Sunday is a possiblity and I am always open for trying out new things including minatures.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Whistleblower protection was gutted by the Bush Administration just a year ago, I recall. I can't believe anyone is surprised at the reason...

[winterbadger]

The "shocked, shocked" line is, of course, irony and a refernce to Maj. Renaud in Casablanca. I'm not at all surprised to find people getting raked over the coals for questioning no-bid, five-year contracts going to the VP's former company. I'm just angry about it. I work on a five-year contract, but we just won it this year agaisnt very tough opposition, and it has a cancellation clause every year in case we're not performing to the satisfaction of the contracting officer and the COTR. Why do I suspect that these limits are not placed on KBR?

There was an(other) op-ed today on the need to get USG civilian diplomatic and armed contractor personall out of Iraq; if I recall where I saw it, I'll post the link. The author was quite eloquent on the extent to whihc the attitude of these people in general and the cost of protecting them are preventing a lot of important reconstruction work from getting doen.

[flewellyn.livejournal.com]

Oh, believe me, I got the reference. :-) But you're right, it's basically payola and corruption. Try to fight it, and those benefitting from it just fight back. And they're usually in more powerful positions.

Not that this kind of thing is new to the US armed forces; the brass will always try to cover their asses when anything goes wrong by blaming underlings, which is so in keeping with the stated military tradition of honor and courage. (Here I am reminded of the USS Pueblo incident.)