A Defense Department analyst who authored a report critical of a controversial multi-billion dollar weapon system, alleged that his analysis was ”buried” by senior DoD officials on the eve of a crucial Congressional vote to authorize funding for the new program.
Alan Carlin, an economist for nearly two decades with the Office of the Secretary of the Army, wrote a 95-page internal study this past spring that found that the planned weapon offered little–if any–improvement over existing platforms, was based on shaky science and immature technologies, and did so at a cost more than twenty times that of the weapon it is intended to replace. Knowledge of Carlin’s report might have swayed the close Congressional vote last week when the House of Representatives approved funding of the new program by a mere eight votes amidst a storm of protest.
According to internal emails, after Carlin produced his study he was “forcibly reassigned” to a different department and ordered not to discuss his findings. The emails only came to light pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act request by a defense watchdog organization.
In a written statement, Senator Coburn (R-OK) lambasted Army officials, in addition to many of his own colleagues, whom he says are “actively seeking to withhold new data in order to justify an unaffordable and unworkable pork barrel project.”
You would think that a story like this should deserve to break through the relentless onslaught of Michael Jackson coverage. That it does not just goes to show how much power the military-industrial complex has over Congress and the mainstream media.
Byline: bob | Category: Media | Posted at: 4:14 pm
52 professional media outlets have asked to attend an arraignment hearing for some singer accused of beating his girlfriend . . . meanwhile the world depends on amateur footage to get honest reporting from Iran.
Byline: bob | Category: Culture | Posted at: 2:52 pm
Up on Drudge right now are two juxtaposed stories that demonstrate what I’ve long said about politics. The two stories are about the gunman who killed at least one at the Holocaust Museum in Washington. One report says that he is an “89-year old white supremacist;” the other notes that he was a “9/11 ‘Truther’.”
Politics is not a linear spectrum; it’s a circle. And on the dark side of the globe is where loony left and loony right meet.
I hated them when it was a Republican Administration appointing them:
The food czar joins the drug czar, the health czar, the anti-terrorism czar, the education czar, and a whole host of other “czars” who have been placed into ceremonial positions of mock authority in order to provide the illusion of progress.
I can’t think of one “czar” who has yet improved the situation for his “subjects”. Come to think of it, maybe then these bureaucrats should be called “czars,” since that is also the track record of real czars.
And I still hate them when it’s a Democrat in charge. And if we are to have them, I agree with my friend Willy the Second; “Kaiser” has a much better ring to it.
But seriously, why do we as Americans want to have an unelected elite leadership placed in charge of controlling the destiny of things like health care, the auto industry, and technology? Not to mention, the easy willingness with which we blindly accept the connotation implicit in the meaning of the word “czar” is an indication of just how much we subject ourselves to the rule of autocrats instead of determining our own future ourselves. Czars are simply un-American.
I don’t often use my blog to tell you guys about my day, but this week has been so fun I just had to share. It’s been an oenophile’s dream.
On Wednesday I was at Ridge Vineyards to meet with Paul Draper, the head winemaker there since 1969. For three hours I had the run of the winery on Monte Bello Ridge with the ultimate tour guide as my host. I tasted the ‘08 MB Cab, wine that was just on the vine only a few months ago, directly from the barrel. It’s a surprisingly smooth wine even this young and will probably be drinkable immediately upon release some time next summer. I drank the ‘07 MB Cab straight from the fermenting tanks where the barrels had been recently combined before bottling this week. I had the ‘08 Geyserville Zin straight from the hose as it was being racked. Both of the latter two wines had big tannins that will make them a little harsh when first released, but will enable them to improve with age.
Then I went to the tasting room where Paul wanted me to compare the ‘07 Geyserville with the ‘97 (a great California vintage) so that I could see how it stood up to time. The answer: quite well. It was much softer than its younger brother, but still had all the fruit, spice, and character you expect with a fine zin.
After that it was up to Sonoma so that I could meet with Joel Peterson of Ravenswood Winery, a legendary producer of big zins. He and I spoke for about an hour and then it was off to taste wines. All of his zinfandels were what you would expect: huge. Ravenswood’s motto, after all, is “No Wimpy Wines!” But the biggest surprise was his gewurztraminer. Actually, it was two surprises in one. I was first surprised that he made a gewurz, and then I was really surprised how good it was. And at only $17, it’s a steal. But, alas, I can’t order it online because I live in one of the 22 monopoly states that don’t allow direct shipment of wine because that would keep the wine wholesalers from getting their unfair cut.
The next morning was an early flight so that I could get back home for l’Ete du Vin, a great cause and serious wine event. Here I encountered Napa in Nashville. Barely an hour off the plane I was at a tasting with Chateau Montelena’s Bo Barrett (yes, that Bo Barrett, of Bottle Shock fame). His wife, Heidi Barrett, a great winemaker and wine consultant in her own right, was there with two very different and very good offerings from La Sirena. Laurent Sarazin brought two sparkling wines from Schramsberg–his ‘05 Brut Rose was killer. Dirk Langford came from Beringer with a ‘98 Private Reserve Cabernet, which I found disappointing, but the ‘05 was seriously good. Damian Parker of Joseph Phelps Vineyards brought his Insignia cabernet brand from ‘98 and ‘06. There, the situation was reversed; the older wine was spectacular while I found the young one a little tired. Finally, Peter Mondavi Jr. was there from Charles Krug Winery. His ‘04 “X Clones” Cab was phenomenal.
Then today, a good week got even better when I had the opportunity to sit down with Gary Vaynerchuk to discuss wine retailing, Jets football, and family. I had a bunch of questions for him, but the one I most wanted to ask was the last:
You are offered ownership of the New York Jets, but you have to give up drinking, selling, and writing about wine; what’s your choice?
Gary’s answer: “If you cut my veins open, I bleed green.”
If you don’t know who Gary Vaynerchuk is, or if you don’t like wine, or even if you think you don’t like wine because it’s snobby, foreign, and pretensious, you need to watch Gary’s daily video blog, already viewed by more than 80,000 “Vayniacs” every day. He makes wine approachable and fun.
That actually was true of everyone I met this week. These guys are legends in the wine world. Bo Barrett’s Chateau Montelena Chardonnay bested the very finest white Burgundies at the famous 1976 Judgment of Paris. Paul Draper’s 1971 Monte Bello Cabernet came in first over Bordeaux’s greatest red wines at a thirtieth anniversary retasting of that epic event. Everyone of these folks was approachable and fun.
Which is the lesson of this week . . . wine is meant to be approachable and fun. It’s not just for the snob at the country club or for special occasions. There is a wine for every occasion and in every price range. So get out there and find the ones that you like.
I think that I was the first to coin BDIT (pronounced bee-dit): “Bush did it too!” to refer to the instinctive response of Obama acolytes to justify their man’s Bush-like actions–the same actions he, and they, railed against . . . right up until November 5th.
Apparently I need another acronym: WIBHDI (pronounced wib-dee): “What if Bush had done it?” Here’s an example why:
Imagine if the Bush Administration had launched a Boeing 747 low over Manhattan and escorted by military aircraft, all for the purposes of an unannounced publicity stunt. . . Nope, I can’t imagine it either. And I definitely can’t imagine that he would get a pass on the faux pas.
Perhaps you recently saw on Drudge a list of the various scandal investigations currently embroiling several Washington politicians. While this is currently a Democratic Party problem, it wasn’t too long ago that it was Republicans who were caught up in a mess of their own creation–remember Abramoff and Stevens?
The underlying problem, as described in this short video, isn’t incomplete ethics laws, but too much government. It’s the same argument George Will made three years ago when scandal was then hitting Republicans:
People serious about reducing the role of money in politics should be serious about reducing the role of politics in distributing money.
Smaller government offers the corrupt a smaller target.
