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Defund the us military!!
How defunding ACORN could lead to the eventual defunding of the entire Industrial-Military complex if enforced......
On 09/23/09 Glenn Greenwald of Salon Radio interviewed U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) concerning the bill passed recently by both the House and the Senate to de-fund ACORN for alleged corruption and misconduct, and why the law should be applied to the major defense contractors.
According to Rep. Grayson, the Defund ACORN bill is written so broadly that it literally compels the de-funding not only of that group, but also the de-funding of, and denial of all government contracts to, any corporation that "has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency." By definition, that includes virtually every large defense contractor, which -- unlike ACORN -- has actually been found guilty of fraud. As The Huffington Post's Ryan Grim put it: "the bill could plausibly defunds the entire military-industrial complex. Whoops."
Salon columnist and radio host Glenn Greenwald writes: The irony of all of this is that the Congress is attempting to accomplish an uncons utional act: singling out and punishing ACORN, which is clearly a 'bill of attainder' that the Cons ution explicitly prohibits -- i.e., an act aimed at punishing a single party without a trial. The only way to overcome that problem is by pretending that the de-funding of ACORN is really about a general policy judgment (that no corrupt organizations should receive federal funding). But the broader they make the law in order to avoid the Cons utional problem, the more it encompasses the large corrupt corporations that own the Congress (and whom they obviously don't want to de-fund). The narrower they make it in order to include only ACORN, the more blatantly uncons utional it is. Now that they have embraced this general principle that no corrupt organizations should receive federal funding, how is anyone going to justify applying that only to ACORN while continuing to fund the corporations whose fraud and corruption is vastly greater (not to mention established by actual courts of law)?
Rep. Grayson is working with the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to compile a list of all defense contractors encompassed by this language to send to administration officials, and he has asked for help from the public in compiling this list. Go to http://pogoblog.typepad.com/pogo/2009/09/if-congress-at... if you want to help.
Rep. Grayson has set up a Google spreadsheet to record entries; go to http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dC1WUm4... and http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=t-VRn4ui8brMB_l5... to make your suggestions.
The President of the United States is REQUIRED BY THE CONS UTION to "faithfully execute" the law, which should mean that no more contracts can be awarded to any companies on that list, which happens to include the ten largest defense contractors in America.
Before being elected to Congress, Grayson worked extensively on uncovering and combating defense contractor fraud in Iraq. In this interview, Glenn Greenwald asked Grayson to put into context ACORN's impact on the American taxpayer versus these corrupt defense contractors. Grayson's reply: "The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Haillburton each DAY during the war in Iraq."
Kudos to Glenn Greenwald of Salon Radio for interviewing Rep. Grayson on this issue and for asking all of the right questions.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/radio/2009/09/23...
Read Ryan Grim's article in The Huffington Post: "Whoops: Anti-ACORN Bill Ropes In Dense Contractors, Others Charged with Fraud." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/22/whoops-anti-ac...
Take a look at The Project on Government Oversight's Federal Contractor Misconduct Database: http://www.contractormisconduct.org /
Defund the us military!!
This is a brilliant Idea. However, a lot of people will lose money. That makes them pissed and into the game.
Yeah that's a big IF, if your boy shows as much loyalty to blackwater as he does the rest of his corprate donors,and wall street, I don't think they should be worried.
^^^Blind pig gets the acorn.
Micca's right. This won't go anywhere.
Federal Contractor Misconduct Database listing 100's of companies that could be defunded under the bill authorizing the de-funding of ACORN...
Dyncorp
Lockheed
Blackwater/Xe
uh oh, I hit the motherload. Database on government contracting fraud. many many Defense contractors listed, hehe...
http://www.contractormisconduct.org /
Excellent resource!
An irrelevent resource. No one in congress, republican or democrat, is interested in going after defense contractors. Nor are any of them interested in coming to acorn's rescue.
Who is going to do the job of Blackwater? If we lose contractors, then we have to increase the military, (with medical, and retirement it's alot of money in the long run)
But.. But..
It was the liberals who replaced critical military jobs with contractors. Think they will reinstate those jobs to the military?
Remember. Blackwater was founded in 1997 when president Clinton slashed the military.
"Blackwater was founded in 1997 when president Clinton slashed the military."
so Clinton caused Blackwater? As usual, impeccable logic.
False. It was Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney.
They didn't start their security department until after Clinton left office.Remember. Blackwater was founded in 1997 when president Clinton slashed the military.
The contracts were placed during his administration for such security. Not during Bush (43).
How is that possible when the security division of Blackwater wasn't founded until 2001?
You mean they had enough demand to form an independent office, right?
You mean 2002, don't you?
Anyway, it's the State Department that highers Blackwater (Xe Services). Not the DoD.
They didn't have demand because they were a training company. Maybe they saw a shift in policy after Bush and his crew entered office.
Someone needs to do this job. Let's get the corruption out of the selection process. Every contract has to be on a bid process. INformation on why a company was picked has to be as public as possible (security). No union-guaranteed company clauses. Best company for the best price! Then Obama's companies would go out of business since they are the only ones buying the products.
My bad. It was formed in 2002.But while Blackwater raised its profit margin and profile with its training services in the aftermath of 9/11, its true fame and fortune would not be gained until it formed Blackwater Security Consulting in 2002 and burst into the world of soldiers-for-hire.
One of the key players in landing that first Blackwater Security conract was A.B. "Buzzy" Krongard, executive director of the CIA, the agency's number-three position. Krongard, who was named to that post in March 2001...Whatever Krongard's invovlement, it was the CIA that handed Blackwater its first security contract in April 2002.
Who is going to do BW's job?
You'd think the military but their numbers are shrinking because the money draws them into being "private contractors". These companies actively poach the military.
The demand for Blackwater came from the Repugs wanting to throw taxpayer $Bs at unaudited, no-bid contractors, which was of course one of the several secret motivations for starting a bull war, ripoff the taxpayers, drive the hated government $Ts into debt, and enrich the corps. Mission Accomplished.
The money is good for the person in the short term but not longterm. The money the Military is saving is alot by not paying for bonuses, or lifetime healthcare and retirement benefits. However if the govt. wants to keep these soldiers then they should pay them what the going rate is in the private sector.
These contractors make six figures if they are working for a year or close.
Doubtful. Again, just ONE of these mercenaries makes six figures in a year.The money the Military is saving alot by not paying for bonuses, or lifetime healthcare and retirement benefits.
Yeah that'll happen.However if the govt. wants to keep these soldiers then they should pay them what the going rate is in the private sector.
deployed. Working in a very dangerous area. Green Berets deploy for six to nine months and come back the rest of that year and do it again.So what. They went through Basic training, AIT, SF training, Airborne training, SEREs Training, Ranger, etc. Plus the BW training they have to do. They are highly trained professional soldiers. The people that BW pick have to do atleast six years in the Special Forces of some sort and have been deployed. Supply and demand work perfectly in this situation. There is a demand for their level of professionalism and expertise and a short supply. Also these guys only get paid so well while they are deployed, I believe.Doubtful. Again, just ONE of these mercenaries makes six figures in a year.
Agreed. That is why people shouldn't that the best and brightest are doing what is good for their best interest, even after they did what less than one percent of Americans did-enlist in the military.Yeah that'll happen.
So do some of these people. It's all based on how much they can make before they get killed.
Huh? I'm not sure what you're arguing here. Oh and you know Blackwater employs many foreign fighters right?So what. They went through Basic training, AIT, SF training, Airborne training, SEREs Training, Ranger, etc. Plus the BW training they have to do. They are highly trained professional soldiers. The people that BW pick have to do atleast six years in the Special Forces of some sort and have been deployed. Supply and demand work perfectly in this situation. There is a demand for their level of professionalism and expertise and a short supply. Also these guys only get paid so well while they are deployed, I believe.
Who's ing about what now?Agreed. That is why people shouldn't that the best and brightest are doing what is good for their best interest, even after they did what less than one percent of Americans did-enlist in the military.
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