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Via Digby, we find this today in the AP:
The Pentagon is still struggling to get a handle on the unprecedented number of contractors now helping run the nation's wars, losing millions of dollars because it is unable to monitor industry workers stationed in far-flung locations, according to a congressional report.
The investigation by the Government Accountability Office, which released the report Tuesday, found that the Defense Department's inability to manage contractors effectively has hurt military operations and unit morale and cost the Pentagon money.
"With limited visibility over contractors, military commanders and other senior leaders cannot develop a complete picture of the extent to which they rely on contractors as an asset to support their operations," said the GAO, the investigative arm of Congress.
According to the report, some 60,000 contractors are supporting the Army in Southwest Asia, a region that includes Iraq. That figure is compared to the 9,200 contractors used to support the military in the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
So the GAO thinks there are 60,000 contractors in all of Southwest Asia. Somebody tell the Pentagon:
There are about 100,000 government contractors operating in Iraq, not counting subcontractors, a total that is approaching the size of the U.S. military force there, according to the military's first census of the growing population of civilians operating in the battlefield.
The Pentagon seems to think there are 50,000 contractors working for Dyncorp alone in Iraq. That's okay, the ISG thinks there are only 5,000 total in the entire country.
Looks like basic math skills have taken a bigger blow under NCLB than I thought.
Yet another in a continuing series of hideous Republican messes.
Update: The Pentagon wants another $99.7 billion for war in Iraq and Afghanistan. And you thought it was gonna be a hundred billion. Hah. It boosts this year's war costs to $170 billion. That's Heritage Foundation Intern chump change. (hat tip twolf1)
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I’d give the GAO one more shot at counting the contractors.
fitz!
And, according to the Bush administration, contractor cost expenditures are viewed as “proprietary information” beyond the purview of regulators or the public.
Not making that up.
_
“No Contractor Left Behind”
What’s being counted here?
Contracting companies? Or individual contract employees (read hired guns).
Makes a difference!
Having worked in a multi-contractor, multi-monitor, multi-auditor military contract environment long ago for the USAF, I can attest that while the patriotism and work ethic of government contractors span the same spectrum as any other group of loyal Americans, the “catsaway/miceplay” paradigm becomes standard all too soon.
If no one’s watching even the watchers, no rathole is big enough to flush the money down.
… oh, and
Troops [and contractors!]
Home
NOW
BobbyG @ 3
Can I scream now? That’s such an incredible load of b*llsh*t …
BC
Sidney Blumenthal turns a phrase:
This rump group of neocons is the battered remnant left of the phalanx that once conjured up grandiose visions of conquest and blowtorched ideological ground for Bush.
BobbyG @
3
That’s because the funding requests for DoD war costs are “off budget,” which so far has been used as a dodge to keep congress from looking too closely. I hope the dems challenge the assumption that these expenditures aren’t investigateable.
Hey, rw …
Re: Having to turn your furnace on.
Our thermostat comes up to 63 F at 7 AM …
BC
The use of domestic mercenaries who are not subject to the control of even the Pentagon- who have no laws to guide their behavior and who are protected from prosecution by the occupied country– that should get some attention- but it does not…
Aren’t those numbers contractor-dictory?
“CHESTER, England - As Christmas approaches, a virgin mother is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her offspring. She’s Flora, the Komodo dragon.
In an evolutionary twist, Flora has managed to become pregnant all on her own without any male help. It would seem the timing is auspicious: The seven baby Komodo dragons are due this festive season.
“We were blown away when we realized what she’d done,” said Kevin Buley, a reptile expert at Flora’s home at the Chester Zoo in this town in northern England. “But we certainly won’t be naming any of the hatchlings Jesus.”
OK–Where’s President Hawg been hangin out?
punaise @ 8
Must’ve gotten his phalanges in a twist typing that one.
Somebody please tell Li’l George–who can’t count anything, dead or alive–that he needs to make his war smaller, not bigger.
OT — Emptywheel has an idea of why Dick may testify for Scooter.
Get
all
the
troops
and
militia
out
now
dammit!
Gattamond!
Let’s do the math. Say 70K contractors @ $150K each plus 100% overhead (this is typical in a normal company; here it includes housing, food per diem, transportation, medical, etc, so it is very conservative).
Total: 21B per year.
Hey, what the f*ck, send another 70K.
jeff-
The other intriguing possibility is that scooter is calling Cheney to testify to force a pardon. “If ya don’t pardon me- I’m gonna force you to talk about things you don’t even want people THINKING about.”
sorry if previously posted - AP: Pentagon wants $99.7B more for wars
twolf1 @ 20
Gee, guys, that doesn’t seem to be in the fiscal 2007 budget as ignored by the 109th Congress before they skipped out to go cry in their beer…
rwcole @ 5
Or individual contract employees but not counting subcontractors? That actually could explain the disparity.
Gotta
admit:
lamebrain’s
lost
Iraq.
pull
out,
like,
immediately
Gallipoli…
Mercenaries– who would have thought this great experiment called America would ever do this???
OT– this guy is a racist pig:
Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) is under fire for a virulently anti-Muslim letter sent to constituents earlier this month. In the letter, Goode says, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States” if we do not adopt “strict immigration policies.” He references the election of Muslim Rep.-elect Keith Ellison (D-MN), and warns “American citizens” to “wake up” or “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office.”
(snip)
In an interview today with ThinkProgress, Goode’s press secretary Linwood Duncan declared that Goode has “no intention of apologizing.” Duncan repeatedly refused to answer more detailed questions, saying only that Goode’s letter “speaks for itself.” Asked whether Goode had ever targeted Muslim-Americans in his previous statements, Duncan said, “I’ve worked here for 10 years, and I’m not aware of this topic being addressed in the past.” You can call and ask for an apology HERE.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/12/20/goode-apology/
BobbyG @ 3
Same as the software in our voting machines. None of our business apparently.
egregious- Yeah I saw this thing discussed a few weeks ago somewhere- and it occured to me then that there’s an apples and oranges thing goin on.
From Abramoff’s 2001 Christmas gift list:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....01436.html
Sucked to be Doolittle.
what’s a decimal place between friends?
If ya do little- ya get little.
yeah, but his waistline is better for it.
DeLay used his Godivas as a personal lubricant.
angie @ 24
In the interest of avoiding a dispute over the parameters of “race,” I prefer to simply call anti-Muslim extremists “bigots.” They at least have to try harder to dodge that accusation.
Top 5 news searches on Google in 2006 (shouldn’t they wait until 2006 is over? I need to do some more searching on codpieces):
1. Paris Hilton
2. Orlando Bloom
3. cancer
4. Hurricane Katrina
5. bankruptcy
rwcole @ 32
Ewwwwwww.
Brain bleach anyone?
Eureka Springs, AR @ 17
Pullout
only
remaining
thing
America
responsibly
tries.
help!
eject!
run!
Port Arthur, Russian military disaster, contributed to revolution
Don’t miss this last link from Maha in Jane’s post
Did you like the capital A?
I hate war. btw.
Spent my non-kid adult life working for peace, trying to get enemies to reconcile.
Hope a lot of young people are preparing such a career to keep us from being known as the new Germany throughout the 21st century.
EvilDrPuma @ 32
agreed– you’re correct, of course!
sloppy on my part again– I am just so used to rethuglican racism.
Thanks Mrs. K 8 at bottom of previous thread re Arabic script. Phonetically speaking that would be shukran ghazellon.
egregious @
25
“Proprietary information”? So, the “CEO president” views the gov’t as a corporation, huh?
That’s just great.
What was that simple, basic definition of fascism? Oh yeah — the fusion of state and corporate power.
rwcole @ 11
I don’t know if they are covered by the Geneva Conventions.
If we still care about those.
New hope for Hastert:
And can I just say….yummy! This will give me just the excuse I need to drop “gut flora” into holiday conversations.
rwcole @
31
That’s because he couldn’t find Ashcroft’s can of Crisco
From the Chron’s link
OT - Bloggers must disclose sponsored posts
Before this week, advertisers were barred by PayPerPost Inc. from telling bloggers they can’t disclose the sponsorship, but bloggers were able to decide on their own whether or not to do so. Under the new policy, bloggers must disclose that they are accepting payment, either in the write-up or in a general disclosure policy on the blogger’s Web journal.
retirin’ –
Oh good, I’m glad you saw my response to you below. And I hope you caught my second post there, an addendum to the first — this time suggesting you also enlist the aid of reference librarians.
You’re such a good egg! And I hope you are able to get the help you need for your gift — this country has done its damnedest to alienate Iraqis, Arabs, and all foreigners in general. What you want to do for your colleague is nothing short of an act of private diplomacy, and I salute you for it.
Oh &&&& I did an e instead of a u.
Back to drawing board.
December brain malfunction.
Tomorrow, the darkest day.
rwcole @
19
I sure hope so. It’s been a while since we’ve taken to the streets.
twolf1 @ 44
to paraphrase Atrios: We’ll put that on the agenda at the next Blogger Ethics Conference.
rwcole @ 19
A pardon would leave Scooter open for some interesting questions from certain congressmen, not to mention Wilson’s civil suit attorneys.
And would really wake up the MSM, IMHO.
mdhatter @ 47
Pullout
only
remaining
thing
America
responsibly
tries;
hideous
undercounting
revealed.
Port Arthur, Russian military disaster, loss of entire fleet, led to revolution in 1905.
You all may know this already (don’t have time to read all the comments), so apologies if this is a repeat:
Jim Webb in an interview slams Little Boots, calling him a “failed President.” He also discusses his firm commitment to economic fairness, and the gap between the uber-rich and the poor –
http://www.dailypress.com/news.....idget-news
egregious @ 51
this is begging for a Bea Arthur follow-up, but I’m at a loss.
ummm - scratching head in embarrased puzzlement…
Port Arthur and Gallipoi I recognize–should I know Gattamond?
and btw, kudos to the authors of those, um, poems? (is there a name for that word structure?)
egregious @ 51:
Nice! (I think you hit all the bonus squares* on that one!)
And Jane, I like the picture up top. One of the early PCs, isn’t it?
*Scrabble
egregious, Only one more day until the light begins the comeback. Woo Hoo. I’ve been counting too.
Oh, and can you spell “Waterloo?”
Sorry I stepped out..
egregious and punaise, good ones *s*
Mrs. K8 — private diplomacy. A good term. Like random act of kindness. For last six years I feel so guilty about what our country’s become and so powerless as an individual to effect any change. One at a time is all I can do and rely on famous bloggers like CHS to reach the masses :-)
You can Bea Arthur if I can be Guinevere :)
say, do you camelot to this bar?
Sorry, too busy with my medical work. Often with people who come in with egregious wounds, and so I need to Lancelot.
When you take a break try the friar potatoes.
punaise @ 53
You can Bea Arthur if I can be Guinevere :)
Eureka at 59 In honor of TSF’s mantra I thought it might be important to be very specific with demands.
Bring the fucking troops home.
RIGHT NOW.
[returning to shy, proper egregious behavior]
Time to cut our winnings and run!
Mrs K8 at 52–thanks for the link. My favorite part:
“Bush critics have cheered Webb’s feisty exchange as evidence of his willingness to challenge the president and fight for policy changes. But some conservatives have faulted Webb for an impolitic tone toward the president and questioned his fitness for the clubby Senate, where collegiality and compromise are considered essential.”
1st, of course - these guys wouldn’t know collegiality or compromise (essential! they say -now that they aren’t running things) if their noses were rubbed in it.
2nd, I say this is WHY Webb and our other new Senators and reps were elected. We WANT them to speak truth to power, and we WANT them to take the actions Webb outlines after the quoted part.
Hmm - occurs to me C-span may be worth watching when the 110th C convenes - I may have to find a way to get cable tv again…
One can scarcely improve on the Onion’s take. It’s all victory, all the time. Tho our own dear Scarecrow hit the mark as well with his Modest Proposal.
egregious - we LIKE you when you abandon shy, proper behavior!
and , in case you missed my epu’d thanks below - thanks for the hints on tags - I’ve printed them out to save. OTOH, tried to bold a sentence in last post - didn’t work. back to the drawing board, I guess.
They’re not contractors - they’re Hessians.
As a Webb cheerleader and generally polite person, I am fielding a lot of questions about his Bush encounter.
I answer that Bush was specifically warned by his staff to be careful asking about Webb’s son in Iraq, who had narrowly escaped death within the past few days. Several others in his unit died. So this of course is what the oblivious Bush decides to push on.
You know, there’s polite, and then there’s real. Sometimes we need to rise above principle, as my McDad used to say. God rest his soul.
egregious @ 60
say, do you camelot to this bar?
Patrick 4/4 @ 67
We’re hiring Prussians? I thot they were from the Philippines.
punaise @ 53
Ever see John Currin’s painting Bea Arthur Naked? (scroll down, if you dare)
http://www.tate.org.uk/tateetc/issue5/nude.htm
punaise @ 69
Sorry, too busy with my medical work. Often with people who come in with egregious wounds, and so I need to Lancelot.
egregious 68:
Occurred to me listening to Bush this a.m., madly spinning away from the reporter’s actual questions– how would he react if a reporter followed up with:
“That’s not what I asked you! Mr. President!”?
tejanarusa @ 64
Do you have a high-speed connection? A lot of stuff should be available for online viewing via C-Span’s website, I think.
Just a suggestion in case your budget is tight. I know in the event we could only afford ONE thing, our household would choose to keep the high-speed internet connection and kiss the cable teevee good-bye.
egregious @ 72
better clear that with the ladies of the lake.
1,367 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
rwcole and the Firepup Patriots:
“…The use of domestic mercenaries, not subject to the control of even the pentagon…”
rw, I think that the presence in Iraq of over 100,000 well armed and well funded mercenaries who owe fealty only to the American oligarchy thru their corporate fronts, is the “tipping point” condition in the instability of our democracy. It is becoming clearer and clearer every day that Clusterfuck is preparing a confrontation with both Congress and the Generals over an open-ended committment of expansion of the military and dedication of troops to the Middle East. The fact that we will never be able to meet any such increases without a draft leads me to believe that, like the whole Iraq boondoggle, the “surge” is not intended to end the conflict in victory but to prolong and expand the battle indefinitely.
This is the endgame of the corporatist coup of 2000…the political power of the corporatists inside the Democratic Party is not strong enough to ensure a Clinton presidency and Obama is not close to legitimate, no matter what the corporate press says. So it’s all or nuthin’ this next 3 weeks, the confrontation over the expansion of forces will be the first crisis of the new Congress and the 140,000 troops we have in Iraq are hostages now to the corporate mercenaries.
Time to wake up and smell the coffee folks…
KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE FUSKIN’ AMMUNTION, THE BASTARDS AREN’T GUNNA GO QUIETLY!!!
punaise –
I think we should hold a round table discussion on that.
the gal, uhh, had to do it.
Mrs. K8 @ 77
in Late Knight, perhaps…
Matthews is beating Bush about the head with Bush’s call for shopping…..
Shuster called Bush “cheerleader in chief”….we all know that Bush was a cheerleader in prep school….Rah, rah, sis boom bah.
-GSD
Question: If W can delegate to BigTime his classification/declassification powers and his swearing-in-the-SecDef powers, can Junja delegate his pardon powers as well?
Might that not pose a conflict for BigTime testifying as a defense witness, if he can pardon Scooter?
Sparkles the Iguana @ 71
You now owe me a debt that can never, ever be repaid.
OT thanks to Selise and Mrs. K8 for the advice previous. Signing off — gotta prepare for another day in the BushCo economy.
tejanarusa @ 66
You would laugh to hear stories about my newbie html behavior.
If you have any difficulty using the little buttons above, try this:
It was a {b} dark and stormy night {/b}.
Ok, here goes. It was a [I’m typing the left carat, then b, then the right carat here] dark and stormy night. [Now I have just typed the left carat, then the slash underneath the question mark, then b, then the right carat. That means: stop it.]
Then a few more words to make sure my STOP command worked. Then preview.
Happy trails to you!
Except in place of { and }, use left and right carat, which are over the comma and period. Try it you’ll like it! Nobody could have made more egregious mistakes than me with this stuff :)
Hmm - occurs to me C-span may be worth watching when the 110th C convenes - I may have to find a way to get cable tv again…
Do you have a high-speed connection? A lot of stuff should be available for online viewing via C-Span’s website, I think.
Just a suggestion in case your budget is tight. I know in the event we could only afford ONE thing, our household would choose to keep the high-speed internet connection and kiss the cable teevee good-bye.
Mrs K8 - yup. I made exactly that choice a year ago. That’s why I’m here (grins happily) but have no cable.
Digby is shaking her cup for a most worthy cause, please help.
Poor Little Boots couldn’t fill Bill Clinton’s shoes.
-GSD
punaise @ 79
707!!!!
obligatory extra words here, per lesson
Actually, the expenditures for 2007 in Iraq:
$70B plus $100B plus $160B = $330 billion (all supplemental and off-budget)
That extra $160B is an additional appropriation requested (not yet approved) by the Pentagon to replace all the depleted inventory over the last 3.5 years. They have already pulled in deliveries on existing contracts, used up a lot of National Guard equipment (some units so low they can’t train properly in the US), and of course, used up equipment/munitions/supplies/etc at a much higher rate than pre-war. Basically they’ve been robbing Peter to pay Paul - and keep the “advertised” yearly costs at $70B or $80B the last few years, when it really should have been closer to $120B per year. That $160B is sort of a catch up for 3 or 4 years of managing cash flow by burning through existing inventories and accelerating existing contracts.
I won’t belabor what could be done for our country with even 1/10th that amount. $33B for energy conservation, new technologies, student loans, etc. Heck, with $33B you could give every Iraqi family $5K, for food/water/whatever. I’d bet they don’t get close to that in aid from US.
50 years from now historians will look back and marvel at how screwed up Bushco was. And how long it took (I hope) to undo all the damage he’s done.
egregious (OT on html again, sorry everybody else)
see my latest attempt above at 85, to Mrs K8. Seems like it should work like bold, italic, etc on Word, but something - not - quite - perfected—
thanks for your patience, folks.
Patrick 4/4 @ 82
Oh stop….it’s not like it’s Estelle Getty.
punaise @ 79
Are you Gawain to tackle that post?
Sparkles the Iguana @ 91
Now you’re really running up a tab.
nahhh, busy hangin’ Gornement’s
tejanarusa @ 85
Hmm - occurs to me C-span may be worth watching when the 110th C convenes - I may have to find a way to get cable tv again…
Do you have a high-speed connection? A lot of stuff should be available for online viewing via C-Span’s website, I think.
Just a suggestion in case your budget is tight. I know in the event we could only afford ONE thing, our household would choose to keep the high-speed internet connection and kiss the cable teevee good-bye.
Mrs K8 - yup. I made exactly that choice a year ago. That’s why I’m here (grins happily) but have no cable.
Oh, good! The pupsters at the lake benefit from your choice.
It’s not too hard a choice to make, I think. If we ever felt desperate to view, for instance, a teevee series, we could purchase a copy from an online vendor. If we were desperate to see an interview on a teevee news channel, we could play the clip from the news channel website.
I think this is called simplifying your lifestyle.
On the other hand, we would sorely miss Turner Classic Movies, which is almost the only non-C-Span channel we look at.
tejanarusa @ 90
It looks like you are trying to blockquote, yes?
You probably did the first part, which is [blockquote] What you are writing [end blockquote by using slash / ] but maybe the STOP function didn’t work.
To stop, it’s the same except you need the slash / which is over the question mark on your keyboard. Need to press the Caps/capital key to make this slash.
To begin is [blockquote], and to end must include the slash at the beginning, that means STOP: [/blockquote].
Substitute left carat and right carat, over the comma and period, using the capitalize key, for [ and ].
You can hardly mess this up more than I did! Good luck trying to beat this egregious record of errors.
I have a collection of errors. Serious. One of my favorites is that detailed map directions must be accurate map directions. HA!!!!
punaise @ 94
And beneath the tree, you’ll have Chretien de Toyes, no doubt.
egregious @ 68
I don’t think Bush made those remarks to Webb accidentally; I think he made them knowing what he was doing. There’s been some discussion of this today over at Making Light, where one of the later comments (down around 65) describes Shrub as having the emotional development of a three-year-old and the intellectual development of a 15-year-old.
PJ Evans –
I think that “15-year-old” estimate is a bit too high.
Mrs. K8 @ 97
Let’s not forget the Chanson de Roland…
Mrs K8 - oh, yes, TCM was sorely missed at first. also comedy chan for Daily Show–oops, pardon my typing - cat licking off hand lotion (ooowww). Ah, he’s satiated (lotion addict on the left of keyboard).
where was I? Oh, yeach Jon S - I find clips on C&L, YouTube, etc., and my ex records the good ones and saves them for me. (that’s how I saw the TDS makeover of al-Jazeera English. Peppermint Gomez rotfl)Also Keith Olbermann. but ex has downsized his dish svc and had to give up msnbc. Sigh. Yup. We’re all doin’ great in this 4.5 % unemployment ecoonomy, aren’t we? [well, that’s another subject altogether].
boosh constantly talks down to people and gives them nicknames, too.
we’re not talking about close, personal friends– we’re talking about reporters…
he called a particularly thorny british reporter “lad” during the lapdog/chimp presser– it was a put down and the brits kept nailing the irritable boy-king.
it’s not cute, funny, or even good ole boy– it’s motivated by a mean streak a mile wide and he was being disrespectful to the Veteran father of a Marine serving in this illegal and horrid war who had condemned it from waaaaay back.
egregious @ 103
Shoes? Oui. I’m all over it. :D
tejanarusa –
I see you, too, benefit from the Bush Boom in the economy!
Of course, there are worse things that could happen to a person than to lose the corporate propaganda box we call teevee.
BTW — our pupster absolutely LOVES my MSM lotion, always tries persistently to lick it off my hands. Once, when eating a finger-food snack, I accidentally tasted that lotion on my hand. Yucckkkk!
Animals have strange tastes. All the “gourmet” pet food marketing is strictly for humans.
Patrick 4/4 @ 100
Chanson de Roland?
Nah. Chanson de Constitutional Peasant…
The distributin’ of swords by some watery tart is no basis for supreme executive authority!
BC
angie - classic frat-bully behavior, no?
Mrs. K8 @ 97
along with a Cardigan or two
P J Evans @ 98
No, I must disagree. I think he reached the emotional level of a 4 year old. After that children learn TO THINK OF OTHERS NOT THAT WE ARE IN DANGER FROM HIS LACK THEREOF.
Ahem.
You people wanted? me to not be shy?
I’m saying Bush flunked kindergarten.
I personally know someone who was a close friend of the guy who wrote All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten. Close to 5 min edit window, forgive mistakes.
Patrick 4/4 @ 100
played on a Roland?