Scottie -

I'm trying as hard as I can to keep up, but I'm not quite up to speed on your slang.

I ain't the brighest bulb in the box, but if you keep at it, I'll catch on sooner or later.

It's entertaining, even if I don't understand it all.

your a good guy

__________________
http://www.x-trail-uk.co.uk

“Attitudes are contagious. Is yours worth catching?”

Recently I've heard that Bush and Blair are relatives?

Regarding the war, well... People suffer and rich mofo's make more money.
I've spent seven years in war, I've lost close family mambers, few friends, and I wish nobody has to go through the war ever.

To X5Jones:

I don't think that people hate Americans. My opinion is that nobody can't believe that Bush is still a president after what he has done, to his own people, for a personal gain. But that is my point of view, and I may be wrong.

What has he done? What personal gain?

I don't know if I would call it "personal gain", but his Administration has given many very large government contracts to companies that either family members or friends own large stakes in, or were affiliated with prior to him being President.

One example is the Carlyle Group that under his Presidency has gone from being a rather medium-sized company to being one of the top 10 largest military contractors. His father (Bush Sr.) as well as some family friends and associates are among the majority stockholders in that company.

There are quite a few other similar examples as well.

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

But isn't that true of any business? You go with what and who you know.

I suppose if you are running a private company and you are spending your own money, then you can do what you want. But government officials who are spending the pubic's tax money are supposed to have companies go through a bidding process.

I do business with many government agencies including the United States Army, and each year I have to submit a bid and they have to get at least 2 other competing bids. They are required to reward the contract to the company with the lowest bid.

But what has been happening the last 5 years is that the Pentagon has been handing out 75% of their contracts on a no-bid basis. As we have found out after the fact, most of these companies are getting the contracts because they know someone on the inside, and they are vastly overcharging the government for the services they are providing. In almost all of these cases, there are other companies that can do the same job for much less money.

The GAO has investigated this on numerous occasions, but the Justice Department has not prosecuted any of these companies. Instead, in a couple of cases that the media exposed and there was quite a bit of public outrage, they made settlements with both Haliburton & Bechtell to return some of the money they had stolen. But the Pentagon has continued to give no-bid contracts to both of these companies even after they admitted to vastly overcharging the government.

If the government was indeed being run like a business, these two companies would be dropped in a second. But instead, the government is being run like a welfare donor, and these companies are receiving vast amounts of corporate welfare at the taxpayer's expense.

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...

I agree, there has been overcharging in ALL areas of the government.

But cheapest isn't always the best. Some of my suppliers aren't the cheapest but we still use them because the product is better. That's why we drive BMW's and not a Honda Pilots. Their vendors are charging whatever they "think" they can get away with. The government is lacking the checks & balances to catch everything.

The company I work for isn't always the cheapest but we're the best and that's why we're #1 in our industry.

I definately agree, but these companies are not the slightest bit efficient. They make huge mistakes, do not complete their projects on time (or even at all sometimes), and they overcharge the government. But they are given no-bid contracts over and over regardless of their past performance. Read some of these articles:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/...in588216.shtml

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/39860/

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/30/wo...rssnyt&emc=rss

__________________


my experience on X5world when I spend too much
time posting in political threads in the lounge...