TheAgitator.com
Morning Links
Wednesday, February 24th, 2010- More Blackwater shenanigans. How is this company still getting federal contracts?
- The good news about this repugnant screed is just how anachronistic it reads. Comes off like the last angry death rattle of terminal worldview, doesn’t it? Also, do the scare quotes around the phrase radical regime mean that Cliff Kincaid sees nothing radical about Uganda’s plan to exterminate homosexuals?
- A gallery of old breakfast cereal ads.
- Toll collectors gone wild!
- Obama exercises his SOTU-promised “belt-tightening” with plans for a new, $1 billion U.S. embassy in London. Also, a friggin’ moat?
- So much going on in this photo.
“More Blackwater shenanigans. How is this company still getting federal contracts?”
Been through a TSA line lately? The Fed is not big on using actual performance data as feedback into hiring, firing, or contracts negotiations.
Perhaps this is the consequence of many years of unionized federal employees (who are unassailable despite any number of well-publicized fuckups) becoming encysted into the Federal workforce. The adage in Federal emplyoment is: if you really, really want to get rid of someone incompetant, get them promoted. It is much easier than getting them fired. Clearly the HR “immune system” is hopelessly compromised and is incapable of recognizing endogenous threats, much less the parasitic threats from Blackwater et al.
If they treat problems w/ direct employees in this way, just exactly what training do they have for taking adminitrative action in a contracts administration case? Answer: none.
To be fair, those toll collectors are in Jersey. So, spit, fights, challenges to fight, flashing, cussing, throwing shit, being rude, and theft are part of the local flavor. Hey, you don’t go to Paris and order a burger.
Remember that Americans had to have a long list of comparison examples so they could understand how much $1 trillion is. In order to put a $1 Billion embassy in perspective, just mention that the most expensive and grand stadium in the world was built for the Dallas Cowboys by Jerry Jones, seats over 100,000, and cost about $1 Billion.
I’ve always been very critical of government buildings being so massive and grand even in tiny towns where most people live in 2×4 houses barely over 1000 sq/ft. It is a bit like the Presidential Palace in the middle of Haiti. Actually, it is exactly like that.
Show me the city where town hall is in a steel barn on low-value land and I’ll show you a town that might have the proper perspective on priorities.
As a Marine, I find it hard to take issue with workplace upgrades ;)
And the moat is in place of blast barriers.
I say keep the moat; it’s the perfect metaphor for how the government sees itself: the new nobility lording over the serfs.
“How is this company still getting federal contracts?”
That’s easy. They know where the bodies are buried because they buried them on federal contract. Lots of interesting stuff would maybe come to light if the govt dumped them.
> Under these “gay conservatives,” one can imagine gay soldiers being deployed to overthrow “homophobic” regimes.
You’ve got to admire the insane arguments these people are able to come up with and publish in support of their dying ideology.
So it is so far out of town that it is hard to get to?
There is a reason that small towns have their town halls in the center of town; easier access for the majority of the community.
Why would Blackwater not get contracts? They fulfilled the DOS WPP contract perfectly with zero losses.
Lee, that might’ve been true when everyone had to walk or take their horse or buggy to the town hall. But with cars, the ‘easiest access’ is the one that’s on the good road, with enough room for a proper intersection, away from other interference in the roadway. There’s no need access-wise for town halls to be in the center of town anymore. It’s strictly posturing.
Oh, I forgot “plenty of parking available”. That’s another reason to get on the cheap land out of the center of town.
Unless another reason to have the town hall in the center of town is to generate parking revenue through tickets and meters…
Finger off the trigger, Charlie.
Love the gay infiltration article… “In ‘controversial’ remarks, Sorba said homosexuality was unnatural and that he welcomed more debate and discussion about the subject from his political adversaries.” I wasn’t aware that condemning CPAC for inviting a gay group to speak and then pronouncing other attendees as “enemies” is an accepted means of welcoming more debate and discussion from political adversaries.
I hadn’t realized that CATO was a puppet that George Soros uses to make it legal for him to get high and enjoy sodomy legally. I also hadn’t realized that it the social attitudes of the founders that we should be following. I wonder if the author realizes that Jefferson also grew hemp.
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_14429070
I don’t mean to threadjack, but my girlfriend forwarded me this link about Utah’s new illegal abortion law. Discussions of abortion morality aside, this thing looks like a grandstanding prosecutor’s wet dream.
WTF. Kincaid seems to SUPPORT Uganda’s law as “trying to prevent the spread of AIDS and protect traditional moral values by toughening laws against homosexuality.”
“A Blackwater subsidiary known as Paravant that until recently operated in Afghanistan …”
Blackwater subsidiary? Are you kidding me?
Run for your lives, the beast has grown seven heads!
Here’s the money quote for the conservative vs libertarian debate:
We have our work cut out for us, between the media and the libertarian student movement that supports sodomy. We are going to organize a huge turnout of socially conservative youth next year, to offset the libertarian slide that CPAC has taken.”
Obviously, the only possible counter tactic is a hail mary “Libertarians students for blowjobs” movement. Such an idea might be a long, hard slog in today’s collage environment, but we must hold true to our values.
(Regarding the moat around the London embassy – I was there a few years ago and a moat would look a lot better than the jersey barrier style bomb shields they had blocking off several blocks around the embassy. )
I wonder why Kincaid doesn’t allow comments on his site? I imagine a reasonable, balanced article such as that would garner a wealth of reasonable, balanced discussion.
Also, I wish he would provide more information on his stance regarding the constitutionality of heterosexual sodomy. I imagine he’s against it, but the juvenile in me just loves reading the phrase “anal intercourse”.
Boy, those toll collectors sure don’t like pennies, do they?
In that pic of Wilson, is that him with Milton Friedman in the photo on his desk?
“So much going on in this photo.”
[ ] Treating all guns as though they were loaded
[ ] Pointing muzzle in safe direction
[ ] Knows his target and what’s beyond
[ ] Finger off the trigger until ready to fire
“Also, do the scare quotes around the phrase radical regime mean that Cliff Kincaid sees nothing radical about Uganda’s plan to exterminate homosexuals?”
Given that elsewhere in the article, he states that the only reason homosexuality shouldn’t be banned is because it’s just not politically possible at this point, and that he favorably discusses 18th and 19th Century laws that punish homosexual intercourse with castration, I’d say that’s a strong possibility.
Though I do have to take issue with using “radical” as a synonym for “extreme”. To be radical simply means one is intellectually consistent; a radical may well favor less extreme measures than a conservative (pure pacifism is as radical as one can get, after all).
Charlie Wilson was the Democrats answer to Oliver North. I don’t understand why he is revered for funnelling tons of money and weapons to the people that would eventually turn against us. But then again, a lot of things don’t make sense.
Typical libertarian conspiracy theory. Guns are missing so it must be the Blackwater boogey-men that stole them. Did you ever stop to think that just maybe Eric Cartman really did steal those guns. We all know what he did to Scott Tenorman, do you really think a little treasonous larceny is beyond his reach?
If you scroll down to the bottom of the embassy article, you’ll see that the old embassy is being sold more than a billion dollars, making the whole operation roughly revenue neutral.
#24 @Mattocracy – Charlie Wilson was nowhere near the hero to Dems that Ollie North was/is to Republicans.
Regarding the embassy,
As Chuchundra noted, the old embassy is being sold for roughly the same amount as the new one is being purchased for (barring the inevitable cost overruns) so the cost isn’t quite as high $1B…the move from overpriced central London to Battersea makes sense. Also, the moat is also likely not the choice of the U.S. government…the new neighbors in Battersea likely demanded that as a condition of sale since they didn’t want the obligatory security barriers in their neighborhood (in England, local planning councils have a lot of authority to micromanage property owners if the neighborhood bands together to bitch). Also, the new location moves the U.S. embassy out of the congestion fee zone of central London (where the city of London has attempted to gouge our diplomats for $32 million).
I abhor excessive government spending, but in this case I don’t think the government is behaving irresponsibly. They’re just moving an embassy that was becoming a problem between our countries and most of the costs incurred are reasonable considering the circumstances. The embassy in Iraq was a much more egregious situation of government excess.
#2 “Hey, you don’t go to Paris and order a burger.”
Sure you do, you just have to ask for a Royale with cheese.
The area of town where the new embassy is going doesn’t have too many residents – it’s near the old Battersea power station (beautiful building, but has been deteriorating for a number of years now). Mainly a more industrial area if I remember correctly.
In all my time in London, I never actually went by Grosvenor Square (the old embassy), but it was in a very exclusive neighbourhood. I’m sure they weren’t happy with the force protection changes after 9-11.
I just wonder if they are going to import alligators for the moat – deter terrorists trying to swim over…
And the subject of the cover of one freaking awesome Pink Floyd album (Animals). :)
I think the Blackwater article may have some slightly misleading info. Specifically, it says this:
s a result of Blackwater’s disregard for U.S. military restrictions on contractor firearms, four employees of Paravant — which held a subcontract from defense giant Raytheon to train Afghan soldiers — under the influence of alcohol opened fire on a car carrying four Afghan civilians on May 5, 2009, wounding two.
But I think they are referring to this incident where two were killed and three wounded:
http://www.whsv.com/virginiaap/headlines/85210542.html
The Justin Cannon dude was a regular poster on the “Cop Talk” section of “Glock Talk” (recommended reading for all regulars here at the Adge blog, btw. The posts he wrote there right after he did the murders were pretty harrowing. In his earlier posts he said that he joined Blackwater rather than the Texas reserves, because he could only keep his military disability payments going by going with Blackwater. He also said that he had to shoot the men in the car and the man walking his dog because they were coming right at him.
Off topic, but noteworthy:
Our friends at Motorhome Diaries are moving forward with their civil suit against the Mississippi sheriffs that violated their 4th amendment rights, damaged their property (including erasing exculpatory video evidence) falsely arrested the trio, and helped convict them of bogus trumped up charges in an attempt to cover their butts and intimidate the traveling freedom seekers.
The guys have a class-A team of lawyers representing them. It should be interesting.
Dibs on Wilson’s rifle.
@ boomshanka,
Maybe so, but I still stand by my comment. Wilson is a perfect example of why our foreign policy pissed off so many people around the world and why our covert operations have always come back to bite us in our collective ass. I’m pretty confident that if he was a Republican, the mainstream media would paint him in a very different light.
Highway,
All the towns that were founded post automobile (actually I would put it post WW2 when autos became so prevalent) could have their town halls located with easier access. But those that were founded prior, you want them to go thru the expense of relocating?
Then what happens when THAT area is no longer low-value land since it will have that increase in traffic.
The moat is vital to keeping out the Black Knight.
Lee, I’d rather see the ‘expense’ of relocating to a much cheaper building on much cheaper land, with sale of the expensive building and land making it probably revenue neutral or better than the ‘expense’ of renovating some old building into a great new building. And when that land is expensive and worth more, then you move again.
Wow, this seems to be a way for the town to generate some revenue!
Or waste a lot of tax payer money.
Which do you think is more likely given the inefficiencies of government?
That’s great that the embassy is roughly a break even prospect. But in these rough economic times I think “belt tightening” would involve perhaps making do with a mere $100 million dollar embassy and bringing $900 million back stateside. Perhaps it could even be used to create some jobs here.
Our town hall just sold a nice granite building (and another building) on Main Street to a developer, took over a vacant (thank you economy) old building on an industrial street, and put the cash into the town’s account. New building is multi-purpose and now off a major highway exit with plenty of parking.
Yes, local governments should look at relocation ROI. Especially when assets such as buildings can realize a windfall due to increased real estate prices (where they still exist). Managing assets is part of the job description of running a city.
Why is this controversial? If the ROI is there, do it. If it isn’t, uhm, don’t do it.
“Break even” doesn’t hold up logically. Evaluate if a $100 million embassy will do, regardless of how much you sell the old one. Thanks.
Charlie, keep yer booger hook off the bang switch!
As a comparison, the cost of the London embassy is similar to the cost of the new Dallas Cowboy stadium. Talk about excess.
#35 @ Mattocracy
“I’m pretty confident that if he was a Republican, the mainstream media would paint him in a very different light.”
Do you mean a Republican such as Reagan, for example? I don’t think the MSM discriminates when it comes to advocating interventionism.
I’m wondering if Charlie’s mommy dressed him that morning? Just sayin…
The reasons why the US embassy in London might be more expensive than others embassies or normal office space:
-land in London is Über-expensive
-it was already the biggest embassy the USA has in Europe, and yet needed to expand
-the current state-department policies require that the building be set back from all accessible roads, and land is expensive in London…
-London is, frankly, the biggest headquarters and recruiting grounds for the particular religious extremism that is a US national security risk., so the building must be designed with risks in mind
-The US has a policy of embassy architecture being “open and inviting” rather than “fortresslike and insular”. Obviously this has synergies with the some of the previous points, because if your building must have a blast-resistant facade it is obviously cheaper to make it from glass (as in the design above) than from some more fragile material such as steel, stone, or concrete.
-If you let just anyone in as a labourer during construction you end up with interesting surprises, as was discovered in the ’80′s
The current embassy can’t be secured, the efforts we are making to do so are making the neighbors justifiably pissed off.
[...] 24, 2010 by Daphne Radley Balko introduced me to a man named Cliff Kincaid this morning, a foul troglodyte who spews vile [...]
//Finger off the trigger until ready to fire//
It’s been awhile since I’ve handled an Enfield, but isn’t that rifle cocked, and the safety on “fire”?
**It’s been awhile since I’ve handled an Enfield, but isn’t that rifle cocked, and the safety on “fire”?**
It looked that way to me. The hammer at the rear of the bolt looked like it was extended, meaning the bolt had been cycled and the trigger ready to actuate.
I am a libertarian. I guess I agree with the nutjobs like Kincaid. Libertarians are NOT conservatives. If being conservative means being obsessed with anal intercourse and waging war, why the fuck would I want to be lumped in with those assholes? Let the conservatives have their violent gay-hating “movement” all to themselves. Why are libertarians always trying to position themselves as the “real conservatives” or old school conservatives. Conservatives have NEVER been pro-liberty or small government. They use government to advance their agenda and claim “small government” or Constitutionalism only when convenient. What the fuck kind of person is against sodomy? Fuck them.