1. Senator Gordon Smith (R-OR), Senate Floor: “To fight an insurgency often takes a decade or more. It takes more troops than we have committed. It takes clearing, holding, and building so that the people there see the value of what we are doing. They become the source of intelligence, and they weed out the insurgents. But we have not cleared and held and built. We have cleared and left, and the insurgents have come back. I, for one, am at the end of my rope when it comes to supporting a policy that has our soldiers patrolling the same streets in the same way, being blown up by the same bombs day after day. That is absurd. It may even be criminal. I cannot support that anymore.” (Video)
2. Ed Snider, Chairman of the Philadelphia 76ers: “We’re going to trade him.”
deadissue: I can’t think of a reason why we wouldn’t both have the goods to offer Philly and the best reason to go over the top where these other suitors, Dallas and Denver come to mind, aren’t going to yield a top 15 draft pick most likely, so the first rounder the Celtics provide is going to be more valuable than either of theirs following the trade, with Minnesotta’s the only other as enticing as Boston’s. Who is it though, Wally or Ratliff (both around $11 million) to fill the salary cup to match, and what after that? Gerald Green or Ryan Gomes? After Jefferson’s 25-14 performance tonight, perhaps we could get away with something like Szczerbiak, Jefferson, Telfair & a 1st round pick. Assuming the Dallas players Philly would want are Terry or Harris, it could come down to youth and pick value, and Ainge has a strong hand to play this go around. I think he should make this happen if it has to take away a chunk, because this is Iverson, and this team isn’t doing anything else this year as I see it.
3. Iraq Scam – “At the lowest level, Blackwater security guards were paid $600 a day. Blackwater added a 36 percent markup, plus overhead costs, and sent the bill to a Kuwaiti company that ordinarily runs hotels, according to the contract. That company, Regency Hotel, tacked on costs and profit and sent an invoice to ESS. The food company added its costs and profit and sent its bill to Kellogg Brown & Root, a division of Halliburton, which added overhead and profit and presented the final bill to the Pentagon. “… it appears that Halliburton entered into a subcontracting arrangement that is expressly prohibited by the contract itself,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) wrote. “After more than two years, we still do not know how much ESS and Halliburton charged for these security services.”
I think it is impossible for civilian contractors to refrain from gouging the military in expenses, much like a person cannot avoid sucking in breath when they try to kill themselves by holding it.