WTF is the DOD up to? And why?

On February 6th, The New York Times reported that Sioux Manufacturing, which makes the Kevlar for helmets, has agreed to pay $2 million to settle a lawsuit alleging that the company had shortchanged the armor in up to 2.2 million helmets for the military, including helmets used by American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Department of Defense, aware of both the problem with Sioux's helmets and the company's efforts to cover it up, awarded another contract to Sioux a mere 12 days before the lawsuit was settled. That same day, CREW sent a letter to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees requesting an investigation into a Department of Defense $74 million contract awarded to Sioux Manufacturing.

This note came from the good folks at CREW. h/t to John Aravosis at Americablog.
--the BB

Somebody's doing some praying

Over at BlondeSense, another of my sources of information and entertainment, Walt forwards some information from the BBC about the Iraq fiasco. He notes that he has a book that asserts the State Department has a 14-volume document on post-war planning. Amazing. Some folks actually do think ahead.

Here's the catch. Post-war planning--hell, all planning--seems to have been turned over to the Department of Defense. And that would be Rummy's DOD. The same DOD that was running its own intelligence (which they have always done) which was used to the virtual exclusion of any other intelligence (and State has a better record than DOD, but hey, their staff make a living from understanding the rest of the world).

The predictable horrors seem to have played out pretty much as anyone with two functioning brain cells anticipated.

I really like Walt's conclusion:

This has turned out to be once [sic] of the worst Administrations this nation has ever had. Khrushchev said (I believe) that the United States would destroy itself from within, and it certainly looks like it from my vantage point, folks. And the worst thing is these rubes didn't fall through a portal from another dimension - they're the product of American schools, universities, business schools and were elected by people who should have known better.

I pray before Hecate and Ereshkigal that some day there will be a reckoning.

Ereshkigal (possibly)

Courtesy of mesopotamia.co.uk

Anyone for a prayer chain?
--the BB