Rose Covered Glasses - The Book

"Rose Covered Glasses" by Tony Rose is now available as a free download from the Box Net Cube in the Right margin of this site.

The Vietnam Era Veteran fought and won a 4 year battle with the Federal Government to affirm his citizenship and obtain his social security, which had been falsely denied. The book contains some of his best satirical writings over the last few years.

ARE WE EXPECTING TOO MUCH FROM OUR GOVERNMENT?

The American Public fixates on government when things do not happen as planned or when unforeseen circumstances occur that are negative in nature. They ignore the huge government machine that has grown exponentially since World War II and has tremendous momentum among the civil servants, military personnel and corporate entities who run the multiples of components we never hear about (until something negative happens - a security breach, a financial scandal, an oversight malfunction)

We must understand that the sheer size of the mechanism that runs the government will never be seriously evaluated and made more efficient by politicians and the civil servants that run it. It is not in their personal interest to do so and personal interest and personal fortunes are what has driven the popular culture recently - at least up to now.

The big machine must go bankrupt and totally run out of funding and credibility, then be re-sized like any machine that has become dangerous or is malfunctioning.

The decision makers who remain must then pick up the pieces and put in place a government industrial complex we can afford, based on high technology, prudent judgment regarding world interventions and finance.

There will be much pain involved in the process as we shrink by sheer default.

The current recession and creditors who are thinking twice about showing up at government bond auctions are among the world events going on as we speak that will drive the above metamorphosis:


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2009/01/yet-another-governmentindustrial.html


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-collapsing-towers-wall-street-and.html

BUCKS FOR BANKERS - BILLS FOR THE BRAVE

You may recall the story of Vietnam Veteran Tony Rose who fought a long battle with the Social Security, Homeland Security and Department of Immigration to re-establish his citizenship and gain his pension.

The Minnesota Veteran's Home and the State of Minnesota have seized $44K of Tony Rose's retroactive social security for payment of back rent.

The Federal Veteran's Administration has levied a substantial, indefinate, deduction on his monthly social security check for payment of unspecified medical bills they will not identify, the amounts and details for which they have not been provided to Mr. Rose.

Tony plans to leave the Minnesota Veteran's Home and move to an unspecified location.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE VETERANS AT HASTINGS, MINNESOTA

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

NOW AVAILABLE FREE FOR 2010 – UPDATED, 3RD EDITION – SMALL BUSINESS FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING GUIDEBOOK

Use the Box Net Feature at the below web site for your free Edition of “Small Business Federal Government Contracting” at:

http://www.smalltofeds.com/

It covers 7 major areas of the business with 38 articles and two company models on small business systems and pricing.

VETERAN TONY ROSE NOW HAS US CITIZENSHIP

After a nearly 4 year battle with the Departments of Immigration, Homeland Security and Social Security, the US Government has conceded that Mr. Anthony Aldo Rose who served in the US Navy during the Vietnam Era and worked in this country for 40 years, in fact never left the country, is an American citizen and can draw his Social Security Pension.You may recall his story as covered by the Pioneer Press and the Hastings Gazette last year. The blog on his struggles with the Feds is at:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/11/help-for-us-navy-vet-without-country.html

Our thanks to Pro Bono Lawyer Stella Mednick, who we met through "Linked In", for her untiring efforts on Tony's behalf.

Below is the link to the St. Paul Pioneer Press coverage of the Citizenship Ceremony:

http://www.twincities.com/localnews/ci_13828521?nclick_check=1

Global Village

We found this presentation beautifully conceived, informative and inspirational.

If you agree, pass it on:

http://www.box.net/shared/rv3a0vdr6b


Rose Covered Glasses

WATER QUALITY TEST RESULTS LAKE REBECCA, HASTINGS, MINNESOTA

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

The below report was recently provided by Travis Thiel, Watershed Specialist Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization, Dakota County Water Resources Department.

Travis is responding to the test conducted on potential water pollution incidents reported at this site. We wish to thank Travis for his investigative and coordinative efforts over the last year on this matter.

Let us hope the wild life and fish pictured here will continue at the lake in health and abundance.

REPORT

"I have received all of the lab results on the sample you were concerned about. I didn’t include the raw data as I felt it would be better understood by everyone involved if I touched on the results versus sending raw lab results out that likely wouldn’t make much sense to most people without guidance and research.

Here’s what I’ve found: Upon my initial review, nitrogen values looked a bit higher than normal with the exception of Ammonia. These nitrate values are higher than what I’ve personally seen in other urban settings from storm water pipes I’ve monitored in the past. After consulting Travis Bistodeau, Water Resource Specialist at the Dakota SWCD, who has extensive experience with monitoring around the County, he indicated that the levels detected were similar to levels he has detected while sampling the Vermillion River near the Falls and other locations upstream in the watershed. This level of nitrate detected was not in exceedance of the drinking water standard. I would expect nitrogen values to be slightly higher as well considering the time of year and use of nitrogen on lawns and fields. The ammonia value detected appeared to be relatively normal. My guess is any elevated nitrogen levels are a reflection of warm season nitrogen application and current background nitrogen levels found in this area of the County.
Metals values detected were less than any toxicity levels stated in the MN ch. 7050 water quality standards.

MBAS (Methylene Blue Activated Substances) is a test for surfactants that the lab ran and helped me interpret the results since I’m not familiar with it. I was hoping this test would address any foaming that was present in the water. The text below indicates the lab’s opinion on what was detected. It appears that a situation like someone washing a car or cars may have contributed to this surfactant level as it does not appear to be a wastewater issue.

From Standard Methods:

"At current detergent and water usage levels the surfactant content of raw domestic wastewater is in the range of about 1 to 20 mg/L. Most domestic wastewater surfactants are dissolved in equilibrium with proportional amounts absorbed on particulates. Primary sludge concentrations range from 1 to 20 mg absorbed anionic surfactant per gram dry weight. In environmental waters the surfactant concentration generally is below 0.1 mg/L except in the vicinity of an outfall or other point source of entry."

Based upon this and the 0.1mg/L in waters, the 0.527 mg/L would seem to indicate a slightly elevated surfactant level. Plus, remember that the sample was already about a week+ old (hold time 48 hours) before it was analyzed.

I hope that provides some clarity about this potential discharge concern. We greatly appreciate having some "eyes and ears" within the watershed to help us potentially locate and fix problems that might exist on the upland areas that drains to our water resources. Please let us know if we can further assist you with this matter and also let us know if other potential concerns arise.

Regards,

Travis Thiel
Watershed Specialist
Vermillion River Watershed Joint Powers Organization
Dakota County Water Resources Department
14955 Galaxie Avenue, Apple Valley, MN 55124
Phone: 952-891-7546 Fax: 952-891-7588
travis.thiel@co.dakota.mn.us
http://www.co.dakota.mn.us"

SAIC Case Sheds Needed Light on World of Government Contracting

By Steven Pearlstein

Friday, July 10, 2009
Washington Post

Science Applications International Corp. is not only one of the federal government's largest contractors -- with more 17,000 Washington area employees, it is the region's fourth-largest private employer. So it is of more than passing interest that after a lengthy investigation, the Justice Department has now accused company executives of conspiring with corrupt Navy officials to rig a 2004 computer contract potentially worth billions of dollars.

Last week the Justice Department asked a federal judge in Jackson, Miss., to order the company to pay damages that could top $350 million -- a lot of money for a company that earned $450 million last year. A judgment might also lead the government to temporarily suspend SAIC from competing for new contracts.

See Above link to read more.

New Pollution Spill at Lake Rebecca, Hastings, Minnesota

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

SPRING COMES TO HASTINGS, MINNESOTA

SCENES FROM THE VERMLLION AND MISSISSIPPI RIVER VALLEYS - MAY 2009

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

Pollution on the Vermillion River at Hastings

PLEASE CLICK ON THE IMAGES OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

The Minneapolis Star Tribune and Hasting Gazette recently reported on my pollution findings at the 18th Street Bridge in Hastings:

http://www.startribune.com/local/south/42647742.html?elr=KArksUUUU

http://www.hastingsstargazette.com/articles/index.cfm?id=19832&section=News

This "Old Guy" as a reader commented is attaching the actual photos of the event.

Judge for yourselves.

Ken Larson

larsoke3@hotmail.com

THE ONE YEAR US GOVERNMENT BUDGET CYCLE MUST GO

Having been inside the funding process in the government contracting industry (both large and small business) for over 40 years through many administrations and much frustration, Ken Larson can discuss with some credibility a major weakness in the huge machine we call the federal government, the one year budget cycle.

Here is his take on the matter, which recently received a “Best Answer” Rating on the “Linked In” web site:

http://www.linkedin.com/answers/government-non-profit/government-policy/GOV_GPO/446421-16580597?browseIdx=3&sik=1238606343092&goback=%2Eama

“About mid-summer every agency begins to get paranoid about whether or not they have spent all their money, worried about having to return some and be cut back the next year. They flood the market with sources sought notifications and open solicitations to get the money committed. Many of these projects are meaningless.

Then during the last fiscal month (September) proposals are stacked up all over the place and everything is bottle-necked. If you are a small business trying to get the paperwork processed and be under contract before the new fiscal year starts you are facing a major challenge.

Many companies go out on risk to continue multi-year procurements with no guarantee on paper that they will get the funding from the government in the new year due to the backlog. In October the flood gates open and everything is “Plussed-Up”. This process must be changed as we scale down the size of the federal machine.

Let’s face it. We are broke and we are operating on credit here. The stimulus is just that - our children's future credit bills. We should be able to plan five years out and fund accordingly. Most well managed organizations do and with the size of this machine right now I agree with the others who have commented here that it is almost impossible.

We are about to pump "Stimulus" money (really credit with huge coat tails) in the billions into this already preposterous machine and we expect reasonable management? They do not have the infrastructure, the capability or the inclination to manage it. They will outsource the job to companies who can perform the process, establish the IT and lend a hand.

I have hundreds of SCORE clients right now who are getting in line to get qualified to become federal government service contractors in these fields. I don't blame them. They will get the first money injection to keep the GAO happy and prop up the agency heads that will be overwhelmed.

We will be forced to give up the annual budget cycle. It has become a ludicrous exercise we can no longer afford and our government is choking on it.”

Local Pictures of Hastings, Minnesota Veteran's Home Area 1 March 2009

YET ANOTHER GOVERNMENT/INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Whether or not the average US Citizen knows it, the United States is creating the second-largest government/industrial complex in our nation's history. It is envisioned as a cocktail of bailouts to the financial industry, the automotive industry and others who show up with their hands out and their lobbyists in tow. It is also comprised of state governors who are poised to invent yet another form of pork with federal representatives and senators at their sides while raising local taxes for the citizen back home. This speculative panacea cannot survive.

HISTORY

The longest running and largest consortium of this type is the US Military Industrial Complex (MIC), funded each year at an amount many times the Wall Street and automotive bailouts combined. It is the elephant in the room in the burgeoning financial crisis, carrying the weight of wars, weapons systems and a pentagon/corporate financial relationship based on cost plus and time and material contracts since World War II:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-collapsing-towers-wall-street-and.html


IMPORTS AND EXPORTS

We are importing goods and services and borrowing money from the Chinese, the European Union, Japan, Korea, India and other developing countries at a rate unmatched in our history. Loan proceeds are being used to fight wars and bail out our bankers, carmakers and state governors.

Our largest export today is our public debt and our credit rating is slipping.

THE ILLUSION

What shall the prospective, second-largest government/industrial complex be called, “The Department of Wishful Thinking”? It is being financed with money borrowed from entities future generations will owe as the US kicks the financing can down the road like it has for the last 60 years.

No doubt Washington will attempt to regulate the outlay, put in auditors and control mechanisms like the Federal Acquisition Regulation and Cost Accounting Standards that evolved over the years on a reactive basis dealing with the white elephant scandals in the Military Industrial Complex. But somehow those controls have never been able to stop the mammoth waste, fraud and abuse that occur in the MIC.

Big money attracts greedy people, not only in the MIC but also on Wall Street and in the corporate boardroom. It also buys influence and crooks in government.

FACTS

The natural order of economics is still out there. Washington's money-and-power-influenced, artificial reality cannot survive what historically has been the rise and fall of booms and busts in the last 100 years. Economics is now on steroids through high technology, the Internet, mass communications and frauds that cross national borders like cobwebs.

The MIC will be scaled down by collapse. The Russian MIC led to that country's financial demise. It is now apparent that we did not outspend the Russians at weaponry and interventions. We simply had a better credit rating that is now maxed out

The other government agencies will be re-scaled and downsized as well but not by any specific action taken by the pending or future federal establishment. The over 50 entities that make up the federal government, together with their corporate outsource services, will be shrunk dramatically because the US is broke. The feds will fight to preserve the artificial reality, but US financing and credibility on the world stage are drying up and the creditors are suffering.

No new administration can change the above facts by riding on the taxpayer's back with "Social Improvement", " Public Works" and "Creating Democracies in Other Countries" mantras. Such policies in the past have led to foreign interventions, thousands of young soldier’s deaths, bureaucratic growth in Washington and bloated corporations performing low quality service contacts.

Annual budget deficits and the national debt are at intolerable levels.

ECONOMIC REALITIES

The US will come home from military adventures abroad because it will no longer have the money to run them and it will cease bailing out failing commercial establishments because there will be no funding for that.

The US will re-align priorities at the state and the national level much like all the little "Joe the Plumbers" throughout the country, who are toting skinny 401K's without jobs. They represent the present and future tax base upon which this country will run. America will not spend its way out of this dilemma because there will be no cash or credit left to spend.

The US will demonstrate financial prudence out of necessity, align spending with available revenue, downsize the federal government and its corporate cadre, cultivate technology and the small business base and take care of its most important constituent here at home - the average tax payer.

The US will understand the above are not political objectives but economic realities that are here and now. World economics will not allow a new, financial, government/industrial complex to emulate or replace the MIC.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM THE VETERANS IN HASTINGS MINNESOTA

MORE PHOTO AND POETRY BY KEN LARSON :

http://entertainment.webshots.com/album/560695345WHqpBD


http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/560300957qoYZfr

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

UPDATES - ON STATUS OF NAVY VETERAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY - GOVERNMENT CONTRACT WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE

TONY ROSE GETTING PRESS AND GOVERNMENT COVERAGE ON HIS PENSION STATUS

The Pioneer Press has run a story on Tony Rose, the Navy Veteran who has not been able to collect his social security pension for 2 years while being snared in a malfunctioning Homeland Security database:

http://www.twincities.com/ci_11190464?nclick_check=1


The Office of Norm Coleman and the St. Paul Pioneer Press have also interviewed Mr. Rose in continuing efforts to focus attention to his problem.

Mr. Rose's case has not been re-opened by the St. Paul Office of the Social Security Administration and his lawyer is preparing affidavits in pursuit of hearings on the matter.

USA TODAY COVERAGE OF GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR WASTE FRAUD AND ABUSE.

The following two stories detail the horrendous waste of taxpayer money in connection with federal contracts containing funds earmarked for support of the Iraq war.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-11-17-iraqcontracts_N.htm

http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-11-17-iraq-contract-inside_n.htm

The data points to the escalating demise of the Military Industrial Complex as covered in the following postings:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/09/two-collapsing-towers-wall-street-and.html


http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/11/as-recently-announced-by-project-on.html

NAVY VETERAN HAS WAITED 2 YEARS FOR SOCIAL SECURITY

BAKER AND ANIMAL CARE SPECIALIST
TONY ROSE,
HONORABLY DISCHARGED AS A US CITIZEN FROM THE MILITARY,
PAID INTO SOCIAL SECURITY WORKING IN THE U.S. FOR 30 YEARS AND NOW CANNOT COLLECT HIS PENSION


As Veteran's Day approaches, 67 Year Old Tony Rose and his lawyer are wondering what additional rocks they have to look under to find his lawful Social Security Pension.

He was born in England.  His family moved to New York when he was a child.  His father was a dual Canadian and US Citizens. After Tony's Navy discharge he worked in the US for over 3 decades, paying state and federal taxes and Social Security.

In 2006 when Tony applied for his pension he was informed that the US Department of Homeland Security had revoked his US citizenship and did not recognize his Canadian citizenship. He has attempted to resolve this matter for over 2 years and has been without a pension during that period.The Social Security Administration will not begin his pension payments until his citizenship issue is resolved. He has been trying to work this matter through a lawyer, the VA, his local representatives in government (congressional level) and directly through the Social Security Office.

No one seems to know what to do, who should take action and who has responsibility. Letters directly to the presidential campaign received no response. The Inspector General of the US has been notified and Tony has camped out in his local Congressional Representative's Office on numerous occasions and been turned away.

The veteran has lived in the United States since 1946 having moved from Windsor, Ontario, Canada to Detroit Michigan with his family that year at the age of 5 years old. He attained dual citizenship in Canada and the United States and received a valid US Social Security Number. Tony served in the Armed Forces of the US honorably and has paid state and federal taxes to include social security from 1963 to the present in the United States of America. He is still paying those taxes at his current part time jobs.

At this writing, Mr. Rose has been given no indication by the US Government that his case is being examined by anyone who can take a responsible course of action, schedule a hearing or otherwise determine the bottom line in this matter. His lawyer, who is working pro bono, is totally frustrated and each of the agencies involved has stated the other should be responsible to do something.

Tony lives at the Hastings Minnesota State Veteran's Home and works locally at the 2nd Street Coffee Shop and the Animal Ark.

Happy Veteran's Day, Tony - Such as it is.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BECOMING MORE TRANPARANT ON WASTE, FRAUD AND ABUSE CASES

As recently announced by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) Congress and President Bush have mandated a federally maintained database on waste, fraud and abuse cases by government contractors. The purpose of the record is to inform government contracting officers, source selection boards and buyers regarding details on past performance of a negative nature in this area that can weigh in future contract awards.

http://www.pogo.org/p/contracts/ca-081015-fcmd.html

Since the government database will not be visible to the public, POGO continues to publish this information from public records and has for many years as a non-profit organization. POGO has also pressed the government to assume responsibility for the information. That effort has now succeeded.

We applaud POGO's success.

http://www.pogo.org/p/x/aboutus.html

POGO has published its most recent records at its web site:

http://contractormisconduct.org/

The top 100 government contractor track records are shown as well as others. As POGO states in the analysis at its site, it should be noted that the most serious offenders continue to receive contracts from the very agencies that have prosecuted them for fraudulent activities.

POGO also points out that many of the top 100 contractors have no apparent instances of a negative nature or very few. It is possible to be a major player in the industry without resorting to waste, fraud and abuse.

The above table is POGO's latest data from public records on the top 100 federal government contractors. If you are interested in the details of these cases, go to the POGO site and click on the name of the company. A convenient summation of the government cases against the firm will appear.

TWO COLLAPSING TOWERS - WALL STREET AND THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

While we observe Wall Street go through an implosion and our lawmakers mortgage the future of America with the associated bailout, let us keep an eye on another adjacent and related tower with a weak foundation, teetering dangerously in the wind. The Military Industrial Complex (MIC) is also subject to bad decision-making by misinformed and manipulated government officials.

HISTORY

Congress has just funded the MIC at only slightly less than the 700B now necessary to bail out the US Financial catastrophe. The MIC is monumentally dangerous and has led our country into a continuing series of costly, fraudulent wars since Korea. Eisenhower forecasted the danger in his departing speech:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y06NSBBRtY

The most recent MIC adventure is being fought in the memory of 3,000 dead civilians attacked by a terrorist the US created by not leaving the Middle East after the first Gulf War. That excursion has killed thousands of our finest youth and maimed the lives of countless others. The average American will pay for this ruin in decades to come through taxes supporting hospital care, social services and veteran's homes.

HOW DO I KNOW?

I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 misguided years working in the defense industrial complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak. Given a clearly defined mission and the best armaments and systems in the world, I believed that another Vietnam could be avoided for the American Soldier.

I was wrong.

I live in a Veteran's home, having recently undergone treatment through the VA for PTSD and Depression, long overdue some 40 years after the Tet Offensive that cap stoned my military 2nd tour in Southeast Asia with a lifetime of illness:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2006/11/odyssey-of-armaments.html

Politicians make no difference. I saw this on a daily basis from inside the MIC.

The chart at this posting illustrates the historical % of our national debt to our GDP. That % is on a precipitous rise with the current US warfare mentality and imminent Wall Street bailout:

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGES OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

Other countries will not tolerate our on-going presence, decreasing value on world market and shortsighted vision, based exclusively on stockholder profits. The Wall Street financial tower has fallen. The MIC will be next.

ABOUT THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

It is corrupt and driven by corporate influence:

http://www.playboy.com/magazine/features/lockheed/index.html

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/11/halliburton200711

It is broken and riddled with incompetence:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-federal-government-procurement.html

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-american-public-must-know-about.html

THE COLLAPSE

The MIC, like Wall Street, will go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous. The situation will right itself through yet another trauma.

A government ENRON is on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning. The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. They will try to fix the financial mess and become pawns of corporate America in widening our military influence attempting to mend corporate bank accounts. But the MIC tower will implode as well - the next big event in government you will watch is the collapse of that establishment.

HOPE

Non-profit visionaries and small business know the course that must be taken and they are taking it:

http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2008/04/einstein.php

These "Action People" are not in our government. They are more practical than that. They are the communicators, the true venture capitalists setting up worldwide non-profit foundations (Gates and Buffet for example). They are like the Bill Moyers, perpetually exposing waste fraud and abuse and then going one step further to fix it from the inside. They are the young inspirational members of the small business base in this country that will be tasked with picking up the pieces and re-inventing the future so our government can follow along.

As a volunteer counselor, handling 30 cases a week through SCORE I see every form of unique small business inventiveness imaginable - efficiently created, using technology to the max and not seeking financing to the hilt - only the opportunity to succeed:

http://www.smalltofeds.blogspot.com/

http://www.score.org/


The US GDP is still the largest in the world.

Our high technology cannot be matched.

We have enough weapons systems and science to beat all our competitors and solve our problems.

We need to come home.

CONTINUED GOVERNMENT EMPHASIS ON SERVICE-DISABLED, VETERAN-OWNED BUSINESSES

Since 2004 after a presidential mandate to contract 3% of all federal contracting dollars to service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, federal agencies have struggled to meet that goal.
Now renewed emphasis has been placed on the matter by the GSA and the Veteran's Entrepreneurship Task force (VET-Force) with the signing of an agreement on Tuesday,19 August 2008. Under the memorandum of agreement, VET-Force will use its network of veterans to expand training and information on federal opportunities for these firms.

VET-Force is composed of more than 200 organizations and affiliates -- many small businesses -- representing thousands of veterans. It was organized in 1999 to lobby for the Veterans' Entrepreneurship and Small Business Development Act, which became law, and provide assistance to veterans who are starting businesses.

"GSA welcomes the opportunity to work with the VET-Force and other organizations committed to helping veterans and service-disabled veterans who are entrepreneurs," said GSA acting Administrator David Bibb. "This is a point of honor, but it is also a point of common sense. When we expand economic opportunities for veterans, we're drawing on men and women who know teamwork, discipline, cooperation and mission accomplishment."

In fiscal 2007, GSA spent 2.2 percent of its procurement dollars on businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. In announcing the agreement, officials said preliminary data for the third quarter of fiscal 2008 shows GSA has increased that figure to 3.2 percent, surpassing the statutory goal.

The agreement was part of GSA's 21 Gun Salute initiative, led by the agency's chief of staff, John Phelps. GSA works with other agencies, veterans and industry to meet the 3 percent spending target.

GSA also drew up the first government-wide acquisition contract set-aside exclusively for small businesses owned by service-disabled veterans.

The Veterans Technology Services GWAC, through which agencies can procure systems operations and maintenance and engineering services, was the first contract vehicle reserved for service-disabled veterans. The contract was awarded in 2006 to 44 businesses and has a $5 billion ceiling.

Veteran's can obtain assistance in the details of entering federal government contracting at:

http://smalltofeds.blogspot.com/2006/12/registering-your-small-business-for.html

For additional information on the disabled veteran's contracting initiatives please see the following links:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080820_3219.php?zone=ngtoday

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080821_5928.php?zone=ngtoday

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/10/20041021-5.html

The Pentagon's New "Spokesdrone"

Pentagon's New "Spokesdrone"

http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2008/08/pentagon_unveils_new_unmanned.php

As Reported by "The Onion"

Satire Now - Reality Later?‏

THE ELECTION AND THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Above book is free to interested readers at:

larsoke3@hotmail.com

5 Questions for the American Voter

1. How well does the candidate you are considering understand the Military Industrial Complex (MIC) that now consumes 60 cents of every tax dollar you pay?

2. How subject to influence by the MIC Lobby will your candidate will be?

3. Does your candidate have the skills, inclinations and abilities to rebuild the MIC when it derails?

4. Can he or she manage the newer, smaller, leaner and more business-like organization that will have to replace the bloated, misguided enterprise we call the Pentagon and its industrial component today?

5. Will your candidate know when to ask the hard questions, put the brakes on the billions being spent on outmoded weapons and autocracy and know the difference between a real threat by a real enemy and a political show?

The men and women you elect will decide how the new machine will be designed and run. Below is additional information on this vital issue for 2008 and beyond :

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/01/what-american-public-must-know-about.html

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/02/warped-priorities.html

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2008/04/us-federal-government-procurement.html

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING FOR SMALL BUSINESS

For an all-volunteer site, dedicated to small businesses who wish to succeed in federal government contracting, please see the below site:

http://www.smalltofeds.blogspot.com/

The federal government will contract in excess of $80B to small businesses in the next fiscal year. There are over 50 agencies or "Departments" in the federal government. Each of these agencies has a statutory obligation to contract from small business for over 20% of everything it buys. Contracting officers must file reports annually demonstrating they have fulfilled this requirement. Not fulfilling the requirement can put agency annual funding in jeopardy. Small business has a motivated customer in federal government contracting officers and buyers.

Large business, under federal procurement law, must prepare and submit annual "Small Business Contracting Plans" for approval by the local Defense Contract Management Area Office (DCMAO) nearest their headquarters. These plans must include auditable statistics regarding the previous 12 month period in terms of contracting to small businesses and the goals forecast for the next year. The federal government can legally terminate a contract in a large business for not meeting small business contracting goals. Approved small business plans must accompany large business contract proposals submitted to federal government agencies. Small businesses have motivated customers in large business subcontract managers, administrators and buyers.

There are set-aside opportunities available for small entities, veterans, disabled veterans, women and minorities. All it takes is navigating the system, persistence, asking questions, registering, and marketing, teaming and working hard.

Small Business America is good at that.

THE RIGHT COMBINATION OF AMERICAN REALISM AND OPTIMISM

The below article by Bill Sharon in "Next Gov." should be required reading for all of us who are concerned about our government and where we are headed as a country:

http://techinsider.nextgov.com/2008/04/einstein.php


Mr. Sharon does not pull any punches regarding how our collective heads of state, our citizen attitudes and our war machine in recent years have placed this country in a precarious position economically, strategically and environmentally.

But he holds out hope and begins to detail how the US will be forced to respond as it always has during times of extraordinary challenge in the past; waiting too long to take action but with a genius for finally getting it right after a substantial sacrifice and a heroic effort.


"Getting to the Next Level to Solve Problems
By Bill Sharon Tuesday, April 15, 2008 4:37 PM /Techinsider/Next gov.com


No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
~Albert Einstein~

We hear a lot about consciousness these days. This attention to a new level of awareness has increasing numbers of people checking their egos, performing acts of kindness and attempting to inject a greater level of civility into our daily discourse. All of which is welcome indeed, but it is less clear how the expansion of consciousness will have any impact on the very serious issues we all face in the world of politics, business and the economy. Einstein’s quotation gives us a hint.

Regardless of whether we protested or agreed, we have all lived in a political and social context over the recent years that operated on two fundamental principals: We could have war without cost and profit without value. On their face, these principals make no sense. We all knew they made no sense. Now we are beginning to experience the reality that they make no sense and the potential consequences from an economic perspective look worse every day. Just when the latest mortgage backed securities write-offs by UBS were supposed to mark the end of that crisis, we discover that the financial turmoil has seriously impacted GE, a stalwart performer whose stock price dropped nearly 15 percent last week. So much for the theory that the credit crisis would only affect the financial services sector of the economy.

The cost of the war, at $3 billion a day, also has finally come into our awareness. We can do the math in our heads to know that the amount spent in Iraq could have a significant impact on education, health care and the state of our infrastructure. Since we haven’t taxed ourselves to pay for the war, we have borrowed the money and grown the debt to astronomical proportions. There is a new context – an understanding of what we have done and the choices that we have made – even though those choices were in many ways a decision to let someone else decide.

Now that we are at the beginning of this awareness, many are clamoring for a “solution” to the many problems that face us. More regulation, say some. Less regulation, let the market sort itself out, say others. Withdraw immediately, say some. Remain for the foreseeable future, say others. These are all reactions in the same “consciousness” that created the problems. Reactive change is never resilient change and despite some transient upward ticks in the stock market, any of these actions are unlikely to have a prolonged effect.

To move to the next level of awareness it is becoming clear that we will need to experience a more detailed understanding of what we got ourselves into. The unraveling of the financial system will happen in due course. This is far beyond the supposedly normal process of a business cycle. The issues we need to deal with have to do with the corrosive effects of debt and the worthless nature of many “structured financial products." Those who cheer at the collapse of companies and financial institutions are foolish indeed; there has been and will continue to be much suffering.

But we can also see the beginnings of the new consciousness that Einstein suggests impacting both the economic and the political realities. Energy generation from what we now call “alternate” sources is beginning to come on stream in a significant way around the world. We will likely see these energy technologies develop both at a local level with individuals and municipalities deploying them and at a macro level as companies like Shell and BP continue to invest in them. The fundamental difference here is that the source of the energy (wind, solar, ocean currents, etc.) is essentially free. The economics will revolve around acquiring the devices to harness the free energy, and we will likely see significant changes in the economic structure of the current liquid fuel industry. This is not futuristic babble – the technologies exist today. It is well within the realm of the probable that our children will see the fossil fuel economy the same way we saw communism – seemingly impregnable and immovable and then a dusty memory. In any event, who with any sense and a blank piece of paper would choose to base an economy on an energy source that was limited, increasingly hard to find, dirty and located in some of the most unstable regions of the world?

Managing risk in this new environment or consciousness will be a challenge but it will be a welcome change from the defensive posture of the last several decades. We have been operating in the economics of scarcity and we are now entering the economics of abundance. Instead of looking at the world from the perspective of a country that constitutes 5 percent of the global population and consumes 30 percent of the world’s resources, we can conceive of a reality where, from an energy standpoint, an unlimited supply is achievable. Creating economic models that allow for the construction and deployment of the machines necessary to harness these energies has already begun.

So we are in the process of a tremendous change, one that seems unachievable and one that will cause a good deal of suffering even in the best scenarios. Einstein’s quotation provides us with a signpost of the direction that we need to move toward. We need to take the risk.


About Bill Sharon
Founder and Chief Executive Officer
Strategic Operational Risk Management Solutions

Bill has 25 years' experience in the financial services and marketing and communications industry in a variety of C-level positions and consultancies. As the chief operating officer of corporate real estate at JP Morgan, he was a key player in its transformation from a commercial bank to an investment bank through the development and construction of high-tech offices in 23 markets that reflected a new organizational culture. Bill went on to develop cross-functional risk management processes for penetrating markets and establishing products. He also created the first proactive operational risk management process designed as a vehicle to communicate opportunities as well as hazards.

At Price Waterhouse, Bill established the North American operational risk management practice, which focused on the upside of risk — the choices an organization has to make to stay competitive. Most recently, as the chief information officer at McCann Worldgroup, Bill developed a global collaborative system as the foundation for supporting the cross-discipline business strategy of demand creation.

Bill holds a clinical degree and for the first 10 years of his professional life worked with adolescents in the South Bronx and East Harlem, an experience that taught him the difficult skill of how to listen. "

Video Artwork By Fellow Veteran

This video is a remarkably beautiful and informative work combining education with art and music. It was choreographed by Phillip Cunningham, a fellow veteran at the Minnesota Veteran's Home in Hastings, Minnesota.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/5289335/the_amazing_human_body_fearfully_and_wonderfully_made/

THE U.S. FEDERAL GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT MACHINE IS BROKEN

A federal court has forced the General Services Administration to forgo the award of the largest information technology (IT) Government -Wide Acquisition Contract (GWAC) in recent memory. Alliant (valued at $50B) was awarded earlier this year and subsequently protested by the losers. See the following Next Gov link:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080328_8261.php?zone=ngtoday

More than 60 companies have spent millions marketing, forming teams and preparing proposals for this program. It is now likely that it will be totally re-competed.

The federal court agreed with the protesters that the past performance award criteria for the Alliant contracts was fatally flawed. At the heart of the protest is the performance of a polling firm contracted by the GSA to conduct past performance ratings. The firm turned out to be totally unfamiliar with the Alliant Program Technology and delivered results the GSA foolishly trusted and the court ruled were unfair.

The GAO has also noticed a disturbing trend in government outsourcing of proposal evaluations to outside firms who have serious influence conflicts in performing objective determination of winning companies as revealed in this Next Gov Article:

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080321_1740.php?zone=themostread

IBM has been suspended from further federal government contracts, apparently due to violations of the Federal Acquisition Regulation tolerated by the EPA under IBM’s contracts valued annually in excess of $1.5 B per year.

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20080331_3516.php?zone=ngtoday

Add the above to the sorrowful performance history of federal government contract administration in high technology, homeland security and Iraq military support projects that this blog has covered in detail and there is one inescapable conclusion:

Our domestic procurement contracting agencies are woefully lacking in expertise to administer the billions entrusted to them.

We must downsize the agencies in charge of these wasteful boondoggles, reform federal government acquisition, reassess our priorities and establish qualified professionals in the government ranks who can be trusted to spend public monies professionally and autonomously.

The best way to do this is to pull the budget purse strings shut until an agency can demonstrate the expertise, the plans and the objectives that Congress mandates. It may grind the government to a halt in certain quarters but a pause is in order before the machine collapses from waste, fraud, abuse and incompetence.

Why continue to drive a broken vehicle until it collapses and runs us into the ditch?

WHERE AMERICANS CAN SEE WHERE THEIR MONEY GOES

Our thanks to Phil Cunningham for suggesting and making available Bazarro's fine art as a companion piece for this article.

BELOW IS A QUOTE FROM A NEW FEDERAL GOVERNMENT WEB SITE:

"Have you ever wanted to find more information on government spending? Have you ever wondered where federal contracting dollars and grant awards go? Or perhaps you would just like to know, as a citizen, what the government is really doing with your money.

The Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (Transparency Act) requires a single searchable website, accessible by the public for free that includes for each Federal award:

1. The name of the entity receiving the award
2. The amount of the award
3. Information on the award including transaction type, funding agency, etc
4. The location of the entity receiving the award
5. A unique identifier of the entity receiving the award"

CLICK ON THE BELOW LINK TO ACCESS THE DATA DISCUSSED IN THE ABOVE ARTICLE:

http://www.usaspending.gov/

OFFERING SOME "INTELLIGENCE" TO THE CIA - THE WASHINGTON THINK TANKS - AND THE MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX (MIC)

USA Today recently reported in its Washington Section that the CIA plans to utilize more open sources and blogs in its intelligence work and outsource more of its intelligence software development to commercial contractors in an attempt to re-establish itself as the premiere world intelligence agency. The "Strategic Intent" is posted on the CIA public web site.

Defense Industry Daily reports that General Electric gobbled up Smith's Industries for $4.8B.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/2007/01/ge-buys-smiths-aerospace-for-48b/index.php

Let's look at these developments for a moment and do our patriotic duty by reading along with the CIA (after all, they have announced they are reading this blog).

1. The new CIA approach comes exactly at the formation of the agency’s new "External Advisory Board", which consists of the following:

* A former Pentagon Chairman of the Joints Chief who is now a Northrop Grumman Corporation Board Member

* A deposed Chairman of the Board of Hewlett Packard Corporation (HP)

* A Former Deputy Secretary of Defense who now heads up a Washington think tank with Henry Kissinger

2. Northrop Grumman Corporation and Hewlett Packard are two huge government contractors in the Pentagon and CIA custom software development arena. Their combined contracts with the government just for IT are in the multiples of millions. I wonder what the advisory board is filling the CIA's ear with?

3. Washington "Think Tanks" are fronts for big-time lobbies, sophisticated in their operations, claiming non-partisanship, but tremendously influential on K Street. If a lobby cannot buy its way in, why not sit on the advisory board?

4. GE already has the military aircraft jet engine market sewn up. In buying Smith's, it takes one more major defense corporation out of the opposition and further reduces the government's competition tools. GE now joins the other monoliths such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon with tremendous leverage in the $500B +++ per year defense market.

5. Note the synergy that now exists between the Pentagon and the CIA. Note the influence by the major corporations and the think tanks.

6. Also note the balance in your bank account and your aspirations for future generations. Both are going down.

7. The huge Military Industrial Complex (MIC) continues to march. Taxes and the national debt are marching straight up the wall to support it.

8. Do you have any "Intelligence" to offer the CIA, the MIC and the Think Tanks?

HOW THE PENTAGON CONTRACTS ITSELF INTO A CORNER

Government Computer News (GCN) carried a story on the difficulties experienced with, "Performance-Based Contracting". The process was made part of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) in an attempt to pre-establish at contract award those discrete outcomes that determine if and when a contractor will be paid.

Interestingly enough, the article splits the blame for the difficulties right down the middle, stating the government typically has problems defining what it wants as an end product or outcome and looks to contractors to define it for them. More than willing to do so, the contactors detail specific end products or outcomes, set schedule milestones and submit competitive proposals.

The winner is selected based on what the government thinks it needs at the time to fullfill its requirement and a contract is negotiated. Once underway, the government decides it wants something else (usually a management-by-government committee phenomina with a contractor growing his product or service by offering lots of options).

The resulting change of contract scope invalidates the original price and schedule, so a whole new round of proposals and negotiations must occur with the winner while the losers watch something totally different evolve than that for which they competed. The clock keeps ticking and the winner keeps getting his montlhy bill paid based on incurred cost or progress payments.
The link to the GCN ariticle is below and is yet another indication of how government keeps getting bigger by incompetancy:

http://www.gcn.com/online/vol1_no1/42691-1.html

Latch onto the 1980's HBO Movie, "The Pentagon Wars", a humorous but remarkably true story of the design and development of one of the costliest weapons systems ever to grace the Pentagon Budget, the "Bradley Fighting Vehicle". The movie starred Kelsey Grammer as the Pentagon General who led the government establishment sponsoring the vehicle program. The profusion of design and performance specification changes and other difficulties which plagued the program for years was hilariously but accurately portrayed in the film. It was nominated for an Emmy.

Further details on The Defense Industrial Complex see the following posting:

http://rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com/2007/02/warped-priorities.html

VANITY FAIR EXPOSE' ON IRAQ

The People vs. the Profiteers
Vanity Fair - November 2007
Americans working in Iraq for Halliburton spin-off KBR have been outraged by the massive fraud they saw there. Dozens are suing the giant military contractor, on the taxpayers' behalf. Whose side is the Justice Department on?
by David Rose November 2007

HELP FOR A US NAVY VET WITHOUT A COUNTRY

We have a military veteran friend who was honorably discharged during the Vietnam era. He served in the US Navy while having dual citizenship (Canadian/US). He was born in England and his family moved to New York Via Canada when he was a child, where he became a dual Canadian and US Citizen.

After discharge my friend worked in the US for over 3 decades, paying US taxes and Social Security. When it came time to retire and apply for his pension he was informed that the US Department of Homeland Security had revoked his US citizenship and did not recognize his Canadian citizenship.

The Social Security Administration will not begin his pension payments until his citizenship issue is resolved. He has been trying to work this matter through the VA, his local representatives in government (congressional level) and directly through the Social Security Office. No one seems to know what to do, who should take action and who has responsibility. The DHS will not reply to his inquiries. Any ideas?



POST SCRIPT: This request was sent to DHS today:

ANTHONY ALDO ROSE
MINNESOTA STATE VETERAN’S HOME HASTINGS
1200 18TH STREET
BOX 202
HASTINGS, MINNESOTA 55033

(Certified Mail, Return Receipt Requested)

11 November 2007

Mr. Brian J. Welsh
U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services
National Records Center, FOIA/PA Office
P. O. Box 648010
Lee's Summit, MO 64064-8010

Subject: Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Request for Records

Enclosure: DD Form 214 – Discharge from United States Armed Forces

Dear Mr. Welsh:

The purpose of this letter is to request records in my name on file in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The undersigned is a US Navy veteran who is a resident in a state veteran’s facility in Hastings, Minnesota. I am writing to you on Veteran’s Day to request any and all records on file at the Department of Homeland Security pertinent to my citizenship in the United States of America and the disposition of my records status as a citizen of the US, to include notifying the US Social Security Administration of my citizenship status.

I have lived in the United States since 1946 having moved from Windser, Ontario, Canada to Detroit Michigan with my family that year. I attained dual citizenship in Canada and the United States and achieved a US Social Security Number. I served in the Armed Forces of the US honorably and I have paid state and federal taxes to include social security from 1963 to the present in the United States of America.

In 2006, upon my retirement, I applied for my Social Security Pension and was informed by the Social Security Administration that the Department of Homeland Security had taken administrative records action that denied my citizenship status and precluded my being able to obtain my pension. I have attempted to resolve this matter for over a year and have been without a pension during that period.

Pursuant to requesting a hearing with regard to this matter I hereby request copies of all records in the Department of Homeland Security against my name, my social security number, my service number, my former addresses and my citizenship status, to include correspondence to other agencies such as the Social Security Administration.


Anthony Aldo Rose

UPDATE:

MISSISSIPPI SUNRISE MIST - HASTINGS, MINNESOTA

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

Mist arise through brilliant light
Slowly clear from shrouded night
Offer visions through the pane
Allowing me to sleep again

Brief delay from clarity
Softly rise to comfort me
I am not ready yet for day
With harsh detail and waiting ray

Wash this trance all over me
Cloak my vision
Set me free
To dream with my illusions

GEORGE FRIEDMAN AT STRATFOR - BRILLIANT SYNOPSIS OF 911 6 YEARS LATER

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

The link at this post is the best objective view of all parties involved in the global war on terrorism at time now. It reminds veterans of Korea, Vietnam, the Balkans, and all other recent global interventions in which the US has been involved that the USA is singing the same song with a different set of singers; a parody of human weakness and political blundering. The above accompanying poetry is from an old Vet's Heart. The question by George at the end of his analysis is an excellent one. How will we answer it?

VETERAN'S PLEA - IRAQ WAR LORDS – AND TALKING HEADS OF NATIONS AT WAR

WE WHO HAVE BEEN IN BATTLE BESEECH YOU

LISTEN TO NATURE
NOT THE ARTIFICIAL REALITY
YOU ARE CREATING
WITH WEAPONS AND EGO

AS YOU STREAK TOWARD PREMATURE GREY
AS YOUR CHILDREN DIE BEFORE THEIR TIME
LOOK AROUND AND LISTEN

LIFE IS PRECIOUS
TIME IS SHORT
LEARN FROM NATURE

TREASURE THE REALITY OF TODAY
FIND PEACE IN THE BEAUTY
AND THE SYNERGY
OF THE NATURAL WORLD
AND EMULATE IT TO SURVIVE

PLEASE CLICK ON BELOW IMAGES OR DOWNLOAD TO ENLARGE

US SECEDES FROM VERMONT

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THE WAR BUSINESS, Squeezing A Profit from the Wreckage in Iraq

Link to Chalmers Johnson's prophetic article in November 2003 Harper's Magazine.

If you are concerned about the Military Industrial Complex and how it controls our government, this is a must read.

The War Business

NATURE EXPRESSIONS WITH PICS - MAY 2007 - PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

THIS BOOK IS FREE IN ELECTRONIC FORMAT UPON REQUEST. CONTACT:

larsoke4@live.com

LOST IN HOMELAND SECURITY

PLEASE CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE

IRAQ QUAGMIRE COSTS

IN MEMORY OF DAVID HALBERSTAM, KILLED THIS WEEK IN A CAR CRASH.

ONE OF OUR FAVORITES AND A HERO TO JOURNALISM, DAVID WAS AMONG THE FIRST TO USE THE WORD "QUAGMIRE" TO DESCRIBE THE VIETNAM WAR.

NOW COMES GEORGE C. WILSON ON IRAQ:

Forward Observer: Quagmire Costs
By George C. Wilson, CongressDaily

President Bush, with his little war in Iraq, has outspent President Lyndon Johnson with his big war in Vietnam during comparative five-year periods, according to the Pentagon's own recently released figures.

The Pentagon's chief bean counter, the comptroller, sets forth figures documenting this in his "National Defense Estimates for FY 2008." The impartial numbers show that Johnson spent $2.1 trillion in fiscal 2008 dollars on the American military from fiscal 1964 through fiscal 1968 when both the Vietnam and Cold wars were raging. He put more than 500,000 troops on the ground in Vietnam from an active duty force of 3.5 million men and women, many of them low-cost draftees.


Bush spent $2.5 trillion in the same fiscal 2008 dollars on military activities from fiscal 2003 through fiscal 2007, even though his expeditionary force in Iraq was only about one-fourth as big as Johnson's -- some 140,000 troopers -- and the Cold War was long gone.


Also, Bush was paying a much smaller active duty force, numbering about 1.4 million in fiscal 2007, during that five-year period.


The stories behind those figures, which the comptroller did not go into in his 217-page report, are that the price of paying, equipping and caring for soldiers has gone way up since the days of Johnson's draftee military; that neither Congress nor Bush has had the will to cancel super weapons, including several designed for a Cold War that no longer exists, and that American taxpayers who just sent in their income tax checks are paying more and getting less for their money because of the Pentagon's failure to hold down the costs of new weapons.


The comptroller shows on Table 6-11 (page 129) of his new report that in fiscal 1968, when the American military was much larger, the Pentagon spent $169.7 billion on its military personnel in fiscal 2008 dollars.


In fiscal 2005, when the military had been dramatically downsized but the pay of the all-volunteer force had been raised, spending on military personnel in the same dollars approached the Vietnam era total, coming in at $139 billion.


The cost of general purpose forces -- the troops and trucks and tanks that fight conventional wars on the ground like the ones in Vietnam and in Iraq, as distinguished from strategic warfare waged with ocean-spanning missiles -- has jumped from $188 billion in fiscal 1968 to $216 billion in fiscal 2007, again in comparative fiscal 2008 dollars.


As for the advanced weapons systems, the Air Force F-22 fighter was designed during the Cold War to fight Warsaw Pact forces over Europe, and the Pentagon's Selected Acquisition Report issued earlier this month shows that the Air Force will get fewer planes for more money.


The SAR reveals that the Bush Pentagon plans to buy 184 F-22s for $65.3 billion, or $355 million for just one, counting the money already spent on its research and development.


On Aug. 2, 2001, Air Force procurement executive Darleen Druyun assured a House Government Reform subcommittee that "the F-22 team remains absolutely dedicated to the objective to deliver 339 production aircraft to the warfighters at an affordable cost."


Druyun eventually went to work for Boeing Co. and was later convicted and went to prison for using her military position to negotiate the Air Force's tainted deal to lease 100 KC-767 aerial refueling tankers from Boeing.


The prices of other weapons in the Pentagon's latest SAR underscores the Government Accountability Office's lament last month that Pentagon procurement is out of control.


The SAR shows that taxpayers are expected to pay $300 billion for 2,458 Joint Strike Fighters, or $122 million each for a plane that the Pentagon originally advertised as bargain basement; $54.6 billion for 458 V-22 Ospreys, or $119 million each for this aerial taxi for the Marines that has crashed a lot and threatens to take the Corps to the poorhouse in a Cadillac; $35 billion for three Navy CVN 21 aircraft carriers at $11.7 billion a copy; and $93 billion for 30 Virginia class attack submarines despite the near demise of the once-threatening Russian undersea force, or $3.1 billion for one.


Said the GAO despairingly in its March 30 report on Pentagon procurement: "GAO's reviews of weapons over three decades have found consistent cost increases, schedule delays and performance shortfalls. The nation's growing long-range fiscal challenges may ultimately spur Congress to cut spending on new weapons and to redirect funding to other priorities. In response, DOD might be compelled to deliver new weapons and to redirect funding to other priorities."


Bush was first elected to the presidency on a platform of bringing business-like practices to Pentagon procurement, including skipping whole generations of weapons if that made sense rather than making incremental improvements on obsolete ones.


Such reforms, assuming he was serious about them, have been among the casualties of Bush's embrace of pre-emptive warfare, with Iraq bloody proof of how easy it is to launch a pre-emptive war and how hard it is to get out of one.

IN MEMORY OF A GOOD FRIEND AND FELLOW VETERAN

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WE AT ROSE COVERED GLASSES AND THE VETERAN'S COMMUNITY AT HASTINGS WILL MISS AL LONG WHO RECENTLY PASSED AWAY AFTER A BATTLE WITH CANCER.

OUR THOUGHTS ARE WITH AL'S FAMILY

NEW TERM FOR STUDY OF DEFICIT SPENDING

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