Just Another Hog
By now you will have read about this somewhere, here’s the Washington Post version: Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama holding up Obama nominees for home-state pork.
What you probably don’t know, is that the largest chunk of money that Shelby is attempting to extort by his tactics, is to build a facility in Alabama that is designed for the manufacture of Northrop/EADS KC-45, an aircraft that the Defense Department has not yet decided to purchase.
Wikipedia has a decent short version of the sordid KC-X affair, which is the search to replace the venerable [a nice way of saying archaic] KC-135 fleet of aerial refueling aircraft. It involves an initial order of 180 aircraft, so it is a very large chunk of money at stake.
I’ll give you a hint at how bad this process has been – the Hedgemony canceled a defense contract and actually prosecuted people for corruption. Members of Boeing’s top management had to resign. It has been bid three times, and the decision on the third bid isn’t due until this summer.
Shelby is trying to force the Air Force to accept a bid from an individual company, essentially acting as a lobbyist for that company/consortium, and holding up 70 appointments to accomplish this. He is holding up the work of the government for the possibility of 1000 jobs in Alabama.
February 5, 2010 4 Comments
Friday Cat Blogging
The Lone Ranger 2003-2010
She was the alpha female for the ferals. I knew something was wrong last Spring when she didn’t have any kittens, having consistently produced two every season. She has been getting thin lately, and was probably taken by a respiratory infection.
February 5, 2010 17 Comments
