August 1, 2006 by lonbud
BushCo’s Recipe For Success
When the chips are down, the Bush administration apparently just cooks the books and hopes for the best.
In an Associated Press story filed today by journalist Frank Bass, the White House was cited for meeting its obligation to award 23% of some $314 billion in Federal contracts to small businesses by awarding over $12 billion in Small Business Administration grants to such plucky upstarts as The New York Times Co., USA Today International Corp., Bloomberg L.P., The Associated Press, and the Public Broadcasting Service, along with mighty-mite contenders Exxon Mobil and Microsoft.
Spokespersons from several of the firms mentioned in documents released to congressional investigators roundly denied characterizing themselves as small businesses in an effort to win government contracts and placed blame squarely on the administration for what they called “clerical errors.”
All of the companies listed in the report employ thousands of people worldwide and report billions of dollars in revenue each year.
Tam O’Tellico - August 2, 2006 @ 7:09 am
No surprise here; just “Free Market” economics at its finest. But this should come as a surprise to no one – the Bush family has used the SBA like a personal piggy-bank for years.
Now I’m sure the source I’m about to cite doesn’t measure up to the high journalistic standards of Fox News, but the facts of the matter are not really in dispute.
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec2004/Pringle1222.htm
What stands out most in the sordid resume of Neil Bush, oilman, is that it is so strikingly familiar to the resume of brother George. It amazes me that the American public, particularly those who are so fond of economics and statistics and ought to know better, could possibly permit their ideology to blind them to the all too obvious fact that people who can’t run an oil business – even with every advantage – should not be trusted to run a country.
If the Free-Market system really was free – that is, fair and balanced – the Bush boys would be working the rear-end of a garbage truck. Instead, the fool who would be king is at the wheel and about to drive us all over a cliff.
lonbud - August 3, 2006 @ 5:40 pm
He’s not about to do anything. w has doomed this nation to a decade or more of diplomatic and economic chaos that will render the United States just one more voice in the wilderness by mid-century.
Michael Herdegen has often trumpeted in this space the example of the 70s as a taste of “real” hard times for which today’s bottom third of the social scale have no appreciation. Well, don’t look now, Virginia, but it’s getting ready to be 1974 all over again…
Tam O’Tellico - August 4, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
Lon, I’m afraid 1974 will look like a cakewalk compared to what looms over the horizon. The smart money already knows that we’re looking at the 30s again – or even worse.
Michael Herdegen - August 5, 2006 @ 1:45 am
LOL
Tam O’Tellico - August 5, 2006 @ 7:04 am
Michael, if you think I’m a pessimist, try the Financial Times. You can quote deficit as a % of GNP and use all the other Enronian accounting practices you like, but my assessment is based on trends, and the trend of far too many indicators is down.
How hard our fall will be is hard to predict, but fall we will. The reason for this has nothing to do with statistics spoon-fed by accountants in the employ of fact-benders and spin-meisters. It is a consequence of a decision by Free-Market interests, with the tacit approval and considerable assistance of govt with NAFTA etc, to turn America into the world’s computer and the Third-World into the world’s foundry. There are two serious problems with that decision.
First, relocating heavy industries to foreign countries may work well for companies looking to make big bucks on semi-slave or actual slave labor, but it leaves our country as vulnerable as being dependent on foreign oil. The fact is, this country’s industrial might made victory in WWII possible. In the same time period (roughly 3 yrs) that this country produced the massive quantity of armaments that supplied most of the free world and won that war, we have not been able to keep up with the demand for up-armored humvees and body armor.
Think seriously about that for a moment, then consider this. What does it take to move an industry like steel from America to Japan or China? Then ask yourself this: What does it take for the Chinese to steal our intellectual property? A couple of keystrokes on a computer.
The fallacy of the Information Society, the vulnerability of Virtuality, is that Intellectual Property is far too easy to steal and far too easy to transport a world away. And now, multi-natiionals are giving away the hard drive to places like India, and choosing to be the CPU instead. Meanwhile, China is looking to co-opt the CMOS.
But enough of this virtual analogy – let’s get back to the awful reality.
The success of the Information Society is dependent on several things we have not made a commitment to as a nation. First and foremost, it depends on a first-rate educational system, the only natural resource for the Thought Economy. Second, it depends on long-range govt planning and control of certain essential elements, tele-communications being at the head of the list. Decades ago, Japan was wired for fiber-optics, while we chose “de-regulation”. As a consequence, most of Japan now has broadband, while we have AOL finally getting the message ten years too late and telecoms suing cities like Philadelphia for daring to become an ISP.
In addition all this, as Jefferson rightly pointed out, the success of the American Experiment depends on an informed public. While we have many more outlets for the news what with the Internet, it does not appear the general public is nearly as well-informed as it was in the days of Ed Murrow. Trading Walter Conkrite and Huntley-Brinkely for Geraldo and Bill O’Reilly does not appear to be progress to me. As I’ve said before, a public satisified with swallowing slogans like “Stay the Course” and “Flip-flop” is a public fit only for consumerism, not republicanism.
If you need more proof, try to get an intelligent conversation about Intelligent Design. If there is a Great Designer, we apparently aren’t made that much in his image. Or try to find someone who understand the real complications and potential of Stem Cell Research. Hell, try to find someone who can program a VCR – oops a Tivo – let alone a clone.
You see, the real danger of the Information Society is that it is creating a caste system in America, one in which the Literati has access to knowledge and therefore, power, and the Proletariat are reduced to struggling against aliens from Mexico and Central America for table scraps. If you think we aren’t creating such an elite, try fixing your own Information Society warehouse. If you’re like most, you can’t – you just go out and by a new computer.
In the words of the Taoist philosopher Jake Vest, “I ain’t worried about Artificial Intelligence, but if they ever come up with Artificial Ignorance, I’m out of a job”.
Amen, Brother Bush.