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I always liked Congressman Cunningham...
July 9, 2009 | Posted by Ibn Muqawama - 11:26am | 7 Comments
Tom Ricks gives props to my hometown and its nasty defense contracting corruption habit.
Whaaaaaaa?
Whaaaaaaa?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gf8NK1WAOc&feature=related
This doesn't exactly have a
This doesn't exactly have a connection to asymmetric warfare or insurgency, but it is useful. As I asked on the site, do you have a stance of the Center for Defense Information? They seem rather pessimistic about the state of things.
HUH?!? Mr Ricks ALL
HUH?!?
Mr Ricks ALL sectors of government contracting get tinged with corruption from time to time. And that's when it's not pervasive. When I see reporters making as much of a stink about non defense spending backscratching I'll take it more seriously. Check out the Big Dig in Boston. Or seemingly anything in Chicago. Or for that matter my adopted alma mater, NJ - where pay for play is legal. Remember that no less upright a man than Daniel Patrick Moynihan defended Tammany Hall to his dying day - he would point to the Triboro Bridge and say "see that? It went up in less than a year".
This is not about defense
This is not about defense contracting. This is about civil service who use the subcontracting "free land" as a feeder cell for bribes, patronage and other benefits for friends, family and mistresses. It grows in the same atmosphere were an organization has grown too many generations of asset traders in a single location under the direction of a transit or distant management with corrupted or weak oversight. Think the Fulton Fish Market in lower Manhattan as the example. Look for tribal activity. And smell for three day old fish.
Bill, I really expect
Bill,
I really expect nothing more, or less from Americas native Criminal Class, or certainly civil servants.
That's why the founders, and quasi Libertarians like me believe in limited govt, and that it should be decentralized to the local level as much as possible. I would argue we did a lot more building up of our infrastructure in the 19th century and early 20th then we did from the New Deal on. In other words - Feds Out!! I have a lot more chance of getting rid of corrupt local or State Official then I do of a Congressman. They are easier to unseat.
You do realize that everyone of our House of Lords represents 700,000 constituients each, right? Makes it difficult to hold them accountable. The one point George Washington made at the Convention was that he wanted a cap of 40,000 to each representative. Why? Because he wanted the bastards to have to answer to the people.
Since in a nation of 300 million that would result in a Congress of 10,000 plus, it's not workable. So the answer is to push govt back down to the State and Local level, so we can fire the bastards.
Feds Out!!
PS - Fulton Fish Market? Mistresses? Trading firms? I think we may share a somewhat similar CV, at least on the preceding clues... ;-)
Sweet post....
Sweet post....
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