| Author | Message | ||
     Whatever |
Have not read the entire report yet, but I plan to. Looks like the GOP needs to own up... and the Dems that supported them. http://www.cnn.com/2011/POLITICS/08/31/wartime.con tracting/index.html | ||
| Whatever |
Full report here: http://www.wartimecontracting.gov/docs/CWC_FinalRe port-lowres.pdf | ||
| Jb2 |
I'd like to see all the money we've wasted on food stamps, welfare, ADC and all the other handout programs(scams). And, while we're holding people accountable, let's dig up Johnson and ask him if this was supposed to lift people from poverty then what happened because all we've done is ADD folks to the welfare roles. We now have 3 and 4 generations of folks living off the backs of tax-paying American workers. How is this right? | ||
| Strokizator |
Let the blame fall where it belongs regardless of party affiliation. I wonder though how much of this waste is the responsibility of entrenched bureaucrats who are not really concerned about saving money when it's not theirs in the first place. I know it's popular to hate Halliburton and the Chaney connection for their "no bid" contracts in Iraq but a lot of that work couldn't wait for the normal bid process to run it's course. The only other oilfield experts are Schlumberger, a French company. I'm not sure giving them our tax dollars is a good idea. I'm not denying there were abuses either which again can likely be traced to bureaucrats. What do you do? Perhaps a better question would be "Why the heck are we rebuilding Iraq in the first place?" We're never going to "win the hearts and minds" of any middle-east muslim nation. | ||
| Cowboy |
Halliburton---Chaney---What party did L B J Belong to? Some people have a short memory or just to young to know. | ||
| Reepicheep |
I havent had the chance to read that report yet either. If there was theft, there should be jail, regardless of party affiliation. I'm guessing most of the $$ was actually third world country graft, and I suspect it was pretty clean until it left US hands. Once it hits the "new Iraq nation", I'm sure each petty bureaucrat in each layer removed about 50% of it before passing it down to the next layer. Which would (IMHO) make it a paragon of virtue and efficiency for a middle east nation. America would never dream of doing to these countries what they do to themselves and each other, but that's a different topic... The "no competitive bid" stuff is also bogus. I am involved in software selection for a big company. You start with competitive bidding (for example, Peoplesoft versus SAP). You put the vendors through the ringer, and put them up against each other to nickel and dime them to death. Then you sign the contract and drink the cool-aide together. From there, you invest a fortune tying their software to your company (you can try and manage the coupling, but if you are using it, you are depending on it). Then, over time, the vendors start sticking it back to you (maintenance, updates, etc.). We all know how the game works. So the first buy is competitive. Strike that, it's not competitive... we stick it to the vendor six ways to Sunday in order for them to get the deal instead of us going to their competitor. But then the deal is done, and it's one vendor, and everyone knows it. The vendor has to operate within the contract we both signed. And they must be reasonable, if they go too high, you jettison them completely and go with another vendor (at great cost to change over) and they loose you forever. But they are sticking it back to us, trying to make up for the fact that we forced them to start at a loss anyway. I'm sure its the same with Haliburton, and I don't know who else is prepared to be the logistical company on the kind of scale that was needed at the time. I will say I'm a lot less interested in helping thankless nations now then I was in 2001. Regardless if I think it is the right thing to do or not, we just can't afford it anymore. | ||
| Hootowl |
Haliburton was already doing the same job in Kuwait on a contract that they won in open bidding. They had people and equipment in theater. And it was contract extension, not a new contract. Dead horse. As to the waste in government contracts, what else is new? I'm sure if we look we'll find the same percentage of it in every program the government runs. It all needs to stop. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I agree waste is bad. This should be tracked down. That said, ANY time the government is involved, waste is SURE to follow. Remember this from September 10th 2001? Why the HELL would ANYONE want MORE government? | ||
| Aesquire |
It's their religion. | ||
| Doerman |
I heard about this on the local radio today. Interesting take. A Captain in the marine was interviewed. His contention was that much of that was paid to fronts for Al Quaida and Taliban as a bribe in return for letting roads be built and convoys through. That was just one man's opinion. | ||
| Blake |
Gov't fraud? Say it isn't so!  Nice video report Jeremy! Thanks. | ||
| Ft_bstrd |
I find it interesting that had 9/11 NOT occurred, substantive audits of the military and Pentagon would have been a high priority. Instead, we dumped more into the leaky boat. I do find it odd that the segment of the Federal budget that repeatedly gets attention for waste makes up only 20% of the total budget:  Do you believe that there is more waste in the military or in discretionary spending? How about Medicaid or Medicare? Social Security? Could it be that the military is a more favorable target? Odd that of the expenditures of the Federal government, the military is one of the few specifically authorized by the Constitution. | ||
| Gregtonn |
On Haliburton and the government contract bid process. Gus Grissom was asked what it felt like waiting to be launched into space. His reply was something like this, "How would you feel waiting to be launched into space while sitting on top of three million parts that came from the lowest bidder." He later died along with two other astronauts sitting atop some of those parts during an Apollo 1 pre-launch test. The lowest bid has it's price. G | ||
| Gregtonn |
Now that I think of it. Shouldn't Obamacare be administered via a low bid process? G | ||
| Reepicheep |
Apparently not. Apparently, it should be administered by an unelected czar, who, no matter how bad your care or outcome is, won't feel a bit of pain or discomfort. When you have a hole in your head, you need more layers between you and your care like you need... well, a hole in your head. | ||
| Blake |
>>> He later died along with two other astronauts sitting atop some of those parts during an Apollo 1 pre-launch test. >>> The lowest bid has it's price. The fire that killed Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee was not due to any defficiency in parts; it was due to a pressurize pure oxygen environment during testing in Earth atmosphere. It was a really tragic oversight by the NASA management and the astronauts themselves. The solution was to use plain old air for tests in Earth atmosphere. No such fire risk exists in that case. And in space, the cabin pressure is about one fourth that seen in the test, so the extreme fire risk there did not exist either. | ||
| Hootowl |
Short in wiring caused the fire, the pure oxygen atmosphere made what would have been a small fire a fatal one. http://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/content.html | ||
| Sifo |
I just don't get where this is a partisan issue. Aren't both sides responsible for controlling the purse strings?  Welcome to the Tea Party! | ||
| Blake |
You are right Hoot. I also forgot to mention the lack of egress for an overpressure situation, which sealed the door shut. As so often is the case, it was a lack of imagination that ended up killing people. That was my point. Greg made it sound like cheaply built parts were the reason the men died. I just cannot agree with that. | ||
| Blake |
Interesting to read... http://history.nasa.gov/Apollo204/find.html |
