November 25, 2004
I am thankful for Scattergories
I'm at a Thanksgiving pot-luck at my friend Rob and Tycho's place, and we're playing Scattergories. It's my first time, and I've abstained from this round - List 5 with the letter I is useless, exquisite bullshit! I was on
Win Ben Stein's Money, goddammit! I don't have to put up with this common gutter tripe! I cower from the competition, and await Boggle or Scrabble or other games that...I can win. :-)
jb | | # |
Show me the money
In a little corner of the Department of Defense website are the department's RSS feeds, including a list of awarded general contracts of $5 Million or more that's updated every single weekday. The list is broken down into each branch of the armed services: Navy, Marines, etc. It's pretty shocking the amount of financial traffic that goes down at the DoD. No wonder they swing such a big one in the cooridors of power. Here's just one, from November 18th, 2004:
Raytheon Systems d/b/a Raytheon Systems Co., Tucson, Ariz., is being awarded a $158,222,040 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract (N00019-04-C-0006) to exercise an option for the procurement of AIM-9X Tactical Missiles for the U.S. Air Force (178) and the U.S. Navy (93), and the Governments of Poland (178), Denmark (60), South Korea (41), and Switzerland (1 Lot (quantity classified); Captive Air Training Missiles for the U.S. Air Force (70) and the U.S. Navy (42), and the Governments of Denmark (32); Poland (20), and Switzerland (3); and containers for the U.S. Air Force (69) and the U.S. Navy (39), and the Governments of Denmark (28), Switzerland (24), and South Korea (10). This contract combines purchases of the U.S. Air Force ($43,397,637; 27 percent), U.S. Navy ($23,559,216; 15 percent), and the Governments of Poland ($46,416,730; 29 percent); Switzerland ($18,852,323; 12 percent); Denmark ($16,000,976; 10 percent); and South Korea ($9,995,158; 7 percent) under the Foreign Military Sales Program. Work will be performed in Tucson, Ariz. (84 percent); Rocket Center, W.Va. (13 percent) and Andover, Mass. (3 percent), and is expected to be completed in April 2006. Contract funds will not expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md. is the contracting activity.
Whoa...we're an arms dealer.
The lists read like the VIP list at the annual Military-Industrial Complex Christmas party.
- Lockheed Martin Corp., Maritime Systems and Sensors, Manassas, Va., is being awarded a $31,879,611 cost-plus incentive-fee/award-fee modification to previously awarded contract
- Hamilton Sundstrand Power Systems, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $28,573,066 modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price contract
- Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego, N.Y., is being awarded a $19,906,455 cost-plus-incentive-fee delivery order against a previously issued basic ordering agreement
- Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Linthicum Heights, Md., is being awarded a $139,230,866 cost-plus award-fee contract
- The Boeing Co., St. Louis, Mo., is being awarded a $66,296,764 firm fixed price contract to provide for T-38 Avionics Upgrade Program
- Northrop-Grumman Space and Mission, Clearfield, Utah, is being awarded a $24,018,130 cost-plus award-fee contract modification
- Valero Marketing and Supply Co., San Antonio, Texas, is being awarded a $103,331,200 fixed price with economic price adjustment type contract for fuel for the government of Israel
- Raytheon Co., Tucson, Ariz., was awarded on Nov. 23, 2004, a $24,500,000 modification to a firm-fixed-price contract for 500 TOW 2B AERO GEN 2 Missiles.
- Hensel Phelps Construction Co., Austin, Texas, was awarded on Nov. 22, 2004, an $84,276,830 firm-fixed-price contract for design, construction, renovation, and alteration projects
- Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, Orlando, Fla., is being awarded a $112,251,744 firm fixed price contract modification
- Calpine Power America, LP, San Jose, Calif., is being awarded a $25,402,803 firm fixed price type contract for electricity for a Federal civilian installation in Texas
- Constellation NewEnergy, Houston, Texas, is being awarded a $91,265,994 firm fixed price type contract for electricity for various U.S. military installations and Federal civilian agencies in Texas
And so on and so on. RSS is making it easier to follow the money. :-)
jb | | # |
It's Thanksgiving - call your mom
And on this day, let's all give thanks for our moms. I just got off the phone with mine - she's back in Michigan heading over to my sister's place with a batch of baked goodies. She's 65 this year, and like every woman of a certain age, she has certain opinions. Today, she imparted this:
"George Bush is a Christian like my asshole is gold."
I love my mom. I don't think even Quentin Tarantino could have come up with that. Thirty years on a Detroit assembly line plus several years driving a cab gives one a certain edge, and my mom's is still sharp as it ever was.
My mom's life has been a winding spiritual journey the equal of any Beatle, just without the drugs. Her path has taken her to a point today where she is both a devoted Christian and an unapologetic critic of Christian Evangelicals. Today, by and large, she's a nondenominational Catholic, if there can be such a thing. She goes to Catholic mass, but feels no allegiance to the Church as a political entity. She also accompanies her more evangelical friends to a (I think) Pentacostal Church on occasion, where she more often than not leaves a little exasperated.
"Jason!" she told me today. "They live in their own world... This one lady today said she won't watch the news or read any non-evangelical papers because we [Christians] aren't really of this world, and I said, 'Listen, as long a I breathe, I am of this world. Cutting yourself off and not reading the news doesn't make you more like Jesus.'" And then, "Can you believe they pray for Bush just because he's a supposedly a Christian? People are dying, and they say it's God's army."
And I said, "The isolation is just cowardice - American ignorance and fear, a constantly reinforced sense of religious victimhood."
"They do! They're always 'under assault,' and 'at war.'"
Two exasperated pacifists, reaching out from far-away blue states and trying to feel thankful across a sea of red.
But the state of my country aside, I've much to be thankful for:
- my life
- Simba
- my friends
- my family
- my talents
- my faults
- my health
- my warm bed
- my broadband :-)
- the Internet
- California
- scalable vector graphics
- my music
- Europe
More as I think of them.
jb | | # |
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