The government is scrapping a $20 million prototype of its highly touted “virtual fence” on the Arizona-Mexico border because the system is failing to adequately alert border patrol agents to illegal crossings, officials said.
The move comes just two months after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff announced his approval of the fence built by The Boeing Co. The fence consists of nine electronic surveillance towers along a 28-mile section of border southwest of Tucson.
So Boeing loses yet another high-profile government contract. Or has it?
Boeing is to replace the so-called Project 28 prototype with a series of towers equipped with communications systems, new cameras and new radar capability, officials said.
Um… isn’t that what the existing virtual fence is, a series of towers equipped with communications systems cameras and radar? Is there any penalty for failure? I’m confused.
Either way, it’s a pretty sweet deal. I need to get myself one those $860 million government contracts, because I’m pretty damn sure I could build a virtual fence that doesn’t work, and still have enough money left over to make these pledge drives a thing of the past.
Goly, you could probably build a virtual fence that doesn’t work, but you might lack the experience and skill to build one that doesn’t work per the prevailing DHS standards of waste and failure.
Goldy…your not bitter, are you?
Goldy,
On a much smaller scale, you might want to talk to Roger Rabbit. He’s gotten a bunch of gov’t. money over the years for his failures.
Mayhaps Goldy is feeling a little bit like Tom Sawyer today. Could you see him painting…… er, building that fence all by himself?
Rewarding failure is the essence of Republicanism. How else did George W. Bush become president? I, too, would like some federal dough for failing. Do any of you trolls out there have some suggestions how I might collect a little?
Boeing stopped being a real company and started being a welfare-queen back when St. Ronnie was king.
Actually, Boeing and all the other big “aerospace” companies became chattels dependent on government largesse with the end of World War II. Even commercial air travel, to which both Boeing and Douglas successfully provided equipment, has through its history been highly regulated and heavily subsidized.
I bet some guard towers and night vision equipped border patrol agents could do the job just fine. But, that’s not the “real job” is it. No, the real job is to make rich people richer though government contracts and letting illegals through so that rich people can get richer off of cheap labor.
@ 5:
Duh, did anyone else catch the irony in all of this ineptness?
Michael Chertoff of Katrina infamy.
Sheeeeeez, if he’s involved it’s an automatic massive FUCK UP.
Hey, you’re doing a heckuva job Chertie.
this one they deserved to lose – it doesn’t work. but the tankers – they have to build new airfields just for the bigger planes – what crap! We are spending money to accomodate larger planes for France to build – thanks McCain!
Let’s hope it doesn’t work, because if it does, there goes our social security benefits! We need to keep ripping off illegals who pay social security taxes but aren’t eligible for benefits to make the ledgers balance.
@3 I was highly effective in government service. I can’t vouch for all of my co-workers, though. The reason you’re here is because they gave your file to someone else.
Bunny Boy @ 12 “I was highly effective in government service.”
Uhhhh… That ain’t saying much.
BTW, Rog, like my Gravatar?? :)
Remember the election in 2006?
In just 2 years of democratic control.
Thought you might like to read the following:
A little over one year ago:
1) Consumer confidence stood at a 2 1/2 year high;
2) Regular gasoline sold for $2.19 a gallon;
3) The unemployment rate was 4.5%.
Since voting in a Democratic Congress in 2006 we have seen:
1) Consumer confidence plummet;
2) The cost of regular gasoline soar to over $3.50 a gallon;
3) Unemployment is up to 5% (a 10% increase);
4) American households have seen $2.3 trillion in equity value evaporate (stock and mutual fund losses);
5) Americans have seen their home equity drop by $1.2 trillion dollars;
6) 1% of American homes are in foreclosure.
America voted for change in 2006, and we got it!
Remember it’s Congress that makes law not the President. He has to work with what’s handed to him.
Taxes…Whether Democrat or a Republican you will find these statistics enlightening and amazing.
http://www.taxfoundation.org/p.....w/151.html
Taxes under Clinton 1999
Taxes under Bush 2008
Single making 30K – tax $8,400 Single making 30K – tax $4,500
Single making 50K – tax $14,000
Single making 50K – tax $12,500
Single making 75K – tax $23,250
Single making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 60K – tax $16,800
Married making 60K- tax $9,000
Married making 75K – tax $21,000
Married making 75K – tax $18,750
Married making 125K – tax $38,750
Married making 125K – tax $31,250
It is amazing how many people that fall into the categories above think Bush is screwing them and Bill Clinton was the greatest President ever. If Obama or Hillary are elected, they both say they will repeal the Bush tax cuts and a good portion of the people that fall into the categories above can’t wait for it to happen. This is like the movie The Sting with Paul Newman; you scam somebody out of some money and they don’t even know what happened.
@7
Yeah true, but it really took off with Regan and the benefit to the middle/working class seemed to lose importance.
Well, if Warren Jeffs and other agents of the FLDS church can get cushy military contracts, why not Goldy?
@13 I was wondering why I hadn’t heard from my cousin Vinnie.
I tried to “help” Boeing out a few weeks back in regards to their pricey, fence building ineptness.
I pointed out that they might want to consider tapping in to some of the cheap labor that was passing by….
No word back so far.
@14 When did the Democrats in Congress hold their secret energy tax force and rig oil prices? I missed that.
P.S., you forgot to count the Inflation Tax resulting from GOP borrow-and-spend.
14 Yeah, we’re paying a few thousand dollars less taxes, but lemme tell ya this, buddy boy:
Two years ago, I took a new job, and in the process, my salary increased by 40%. In the mean time, inflation has gobbled up every penny. My wife and I are paying more for groceries now for the two of us than we were back then with a 20-year-old in the house with a ravenous appetite. In addition, without having a new 10,000 pound, 400-horsepower grocery cart to write off as a “business expense” we’re courting the AMT, which blows Bush’s supposed favor to us out of the water.
To top that off, having been Group Health members for 30 years, we’re stubborn enough to want to stay in that system even after my wife lost the job that paid for it. May have something to do with the two of us in our 50’s having enough potential pre-existing conditions we don’t trust some other insurer to refuse to pay if push comes to shove. So, on top of the above, we’re now paying over ten grand a year out of pocket to cover out butts the next time I pass a kidney stone or one of us has a heart attack or gets cancer.
Fortunately, the house we’ve lived in since 1976 is long since paid off. Nonetheless, our bank is trying to get its pound of flesh out of us by changing the terms of our VISA card so they can find an excuse to jack the interest rate to 30%.
Most of what I’ve described above can be directly attributed to our economy going in the shitter because of the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on BUSH’S FUCKING WAR. The rest is caused by the elimination of non-enforcement of the regulations that used to require financial institutions to practice responsible stewardship of their customers’ money.
Yeah, right. I’ve never had it so fucking good.
“2 years of Democratic control”? Of what?
@14
Um… Hate to break the news to ya, but that “War against terrorism” we’re fighting? Yeah, we’re borrowing money from the Saudi’s to do it. The Saudi’s also happen to be al-Qaeda’s biggest source of funding. Interest payments on our war debit are funding our enemy. Genius!
http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/si.....sJan05.asp
@14
Under Clinton we were operating , pretty much, in a paygo state of affairs. Under Bush we now have the largest debit in the history of the U.S., maybe the world. Bush hasn’t saved you a dime he’s delayed the payment of your debit until he’s out of office. When that debit comes due it is going to be huge. And you will turn around and blame it on which ever Democrat happens to be left holding the bag and trying to clean up the mess.
Running for the presidency after Bush is a little like being like the last two people standing in a game of musical chairs when the last chair left has a giant pile of shit on it.
artfart@20 stf up and get a part time job.all you fuckers on the left do is whine.
Unionparamedic needs an emergency MRI of his empty cranial cavity.
“all you fuckers on the left do is whine.”
…whines the retarded wingding. Rich stuff!
Who cares how much money the guvmint borrows, we are all in the shitter once SS goes bankrupt (A democrat ponzi scheme). I know I am doing better now than I ever have and so is 99% of the people I know. Of course I can understand why dems think they are losing, they are losers after all.
27 So, mutt….you call SS a “Ponzi scheme” but I suppose you think packaging sketchy mortgages on depreciating cardboard condos as top-rated “commercial paper” and selling it peoples’ retirement funds is perfectly sound business.
You must really be enjoying that lead-laced Chinese Alpo you’ve been scarfing up.
@27: Another maroon is heard from
JBD says: “I am doing better now than I ever have and so IS 99% of the people I know”
Would those 99% know how to think and spell and use grammer?
Maybe a little facts would help:
Unemployment: UP
Inflation: Up
Housing prices: down
real wages: down
gas prices: up
what fantasy world of ignorant people do you live in? idiot – your every post assures me that right wingnuts are stupid and have nothing to back up the trite sayings they keep talking about. Kind of like the lies about how cutting taxes brings in more money – just plain right wing lies. As the famous German once said – if you repeat a lie often enough….just like bush/Cheney and the false Sadaam/al qaeda lie.
@27
I’ll take it on face value that you and your friends “is” doing better than ever before, but you won’t be doing so hot once we have to pay off all the debit your boy W has run up.
While SS isn’t a Ponzi scheme, it is in trouble and it is going to be a bitch to fix it with inflation up, real wages down and the debit W has run up.
Obviously, Union Paramedic is following the Rove talking points, trying to blame the Democrats who have had a majority in Congress for 16 months for “two years” of economic misery which are the cumulative affect of the previous six + years of Republican mis-management.
Ignoring completely, of course, that Republicans in the Senate have promised to filibuster any Democratic congressional action except that which is insisted upon by Bush, and Bush has promised to veto, and vetoed, any Democratic legisltation which even the Senate Republicans are afraid to block (child health care bill).
I guess they really, really, do count on the American voters to be that stupid. It must be really discouraging when your last line of defense is to count on the most ignorant to supply your base of support.
Time to send the children back to the nursery, and put the adults back in charge. Nothing good will happen in government until Jan. 2009, after the Democrats win the White House, a bigger majority in the House, and a 60+ seat majority in the Senate.
By the way, a while back the Pinkerton Detective Agency was a topic on one of the online history discussion boards. As some of you history buggs might know, Union Gen. George McClellan hired them as spies to determine the size and location of the Confederate armies he was facing in 1861-62. McClellan had a lot of confidence in the Pinkertons, he had previously hired them when he was President of a railroad and needed a security system for the railroad.
The problem was, the Pinkerton operatives were amazingly bad at the job of providing military intelligence. Their agents reported Confederate numbers at twice their actual amount. This caused McCellan to be convinced that he was attempting a military offensive in enemy territory while he was outnumbered to boot – which only reinforced his feelings of inadequacy when the highly respected Robert E. Lee was named to replace Johnston in command of what became the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.
Confederate military leaders learned of these estimates in a variety of ways – from speeches by politicians, newspaper articles, even reports from McClellan himself. They marveled at the innacuracies, at one point asking “They have the same copy of the 1860 census we have – where do they think we are getting all these soldiers they seem to believe we possess?”.
Anyway, so while I was thinking about this discussion, I was reading an article about the Boeing “virtual fence”, and how the whole system of video monitors was being manned by – wait for it – a Pinkerton contract employee, who probably was receiving “good” security-guard wages for rural texas (translation: minimum wage).
I couldn’t help but wonder if the reports from the Pinkerton office didn’t at least double the number of “attempted border crossings” and “suspects apprehended” due to the system.
Speaking of civil war history – yesterday’s announcement of Petraeus taking over Central Command after the “retirement” of his predecessor reminded me a lot of the way McClellan pushed Scott out of command as General in Chief of the U.S. Army in 1861. McClellan pushed out his superior by courting the politicians and newspapers, spreading disparaging rumors about Scott, and otherwise over-promising beyond any results he could deliver.
Of course, Scott’s long-term “Annaconda Strategy” ended up winning the war in the end, whereas McClellan’s promises to end the war in one big campaign (a “surge”) didn’t work out so well – losing big during his Peninsula Campaign, and throwing away a big advantage to settle for a draw at Antetiam (sp?).
Hmm, the Mexicans are coming north because they need work, and we can’t afford to simply hire people to patrol the border? Sounds like the solution suggests itself!
Of course, if McCain is re-elected and we have another four years of Republican rule, we might not have any money left here in the United States. Then, the “immigration problem” might be in reverse – U.S. workers looking for work in Mexico?
@29 Hey, maroon is a color. Moron.