If you Republicans were offended and outraged by the back-room (and front-room) deals the Democrats were making in order to shove Obamacare down our throats, don’t feel too self-righteous yet.
Many of us were stunned by the shameless way in which Harry Reid and the Democrats made special deals with certain states and individual companies in order to secure support for the health care bill.
Richard Shelby (R) - Alabama
Senator Richard Shelby has shown that Republicans can pay the same kind of “the nation be fucked, the voters be fucked” hardball if it means giving his home state of Alabama a leg up on a $40 billion deal to build the US Air Force’s next series of aerial refueling tankers.
Shelby is blocking about 70 pending Obama nominations to various government posts until he gets guarantees that Alabama gets the tanker project.
Don’t get me started on the tanker deal. It’s filled with corruption and incompetence on the part of the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the Congress, the bidders, and just about anyone else who could see a nickel maybe coming his way. It’s ten years late because of the corruption and screw-ups.
US Air Force Tanker - Boeing Design
Today’s reality is this. There are two bidders for the project: EADS/Northrup Grumman and Boeing. What makes this a bit unusual is that EADS is the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V., the sole stockholder in Airbus, Boeing’s chief competitor. In other words, the US Air Force is on the verge of awarding a major contract for military aircraft to a foreign manufacturer. (Northrup Grumman, EADS partner in this venture is a US company). In fact, the contract already had been awarded to EADS/Northrup but a protest by Boeing forced the Air Force to re-open the bidding. Boeing probably would do final assembly of the aircraft in Washington and build components in other states and, possibly, some overseas locations.
So, in steps Senator Shelby and says something like, ‘Until I have guarantees that the contract is coming to Alabama (in other words, is awarded to a foreign company that will erect a factory in my state) I will do everything I can to block Mr. Obama’s nominees in the Senate.’
US Air Force Tanker - EADS Northrup Design
This is the kind of shit Nebraska senator Ben Nelson pulled to make sure Mutual of Omaha and the state of Nebraska got special treatment if Obamacare were passed.
The corruption and extortion common to banana republics, Indian reservations, and Muslim theocracies is alive and well in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 5:00 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Extortion – Republican Style
If you Republicans were offended and outraged by the back-room (and front-room) deals the Democrats were making in order to shove Obamacare down our throats, don’t feel too self-righteous yet.
Many of us were stunned by the shameless way in which Harry Reid and the Democrats made special deals with certain states and individual companies in order to secure support for the health care bill.
Richard Shelby (R) - Alabama
Senator Richard Shelby has shown that Republicans can pay the same kind of “the nation be fucked, the voters be fucked” hardball if it means giving his home state of Alabama a leg up on a $40 billion deal to build the US Air Force’s next series of aerial refueling tankers.
Shelby is blocking about 70 pending Obama nominations to various government posts until he gets guarantees that Alabama gets the tanker project.
Don’t get me started on the tanker deal. It’s filled with corruption and incompetence on the part of the Department of Defense, the Air Force, the Congress, the bidders, and just about anyone else who could see a nickel maybe coming his way. It’s ten years late because of the corruption and screw-ups.
US Air Force Tanker - Boeing Design
Today’s reality is this. There are two bidders for the project: EADS/Northrup Grumman and Boeing. What makes this a bit unusual is that EADS is the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company N.V., the sole stockholder in Airbus, Boeing’s chief competitor. In other words, the US Air Force is on the verge of awarding a major contract for military aircraft to a foreign manufacturer. (Northrup Grumman, EADS partner in this venture is a US company). In fact, the contract already had been awarded to EADS/Northrup but a protest by Boeing forced the Air Force to re-open the bidding. Boeing probably would do final assembly of the aircraft in Washington and build components in other states and, possibly, some overseas locations.
So, in steps Senator Shelby and says something like, ‘Until I have guarantees that the contract is coming to Alabama (in other words, is awarded to a foreign company that will erect a factory in my state) I will do everything I can to block Mr. Obama’s nominees in the Senate.’
US Air Force Tanker - EADS Northrup Design
This is the kind of shit Nebraska senator Ben Nelson pulled to make sure Mutual of Omaha and the state of Nebraska got special treatment if Obamacare were passed.
The corruption and extortion common to banana republics, Indian reservations, and Muslim theocracies is alive and well in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
This entry was posted on Monday, February 8th, 2010 at 5:00 PM and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.