The Stuff I Didn't Get To -- 3/27/08

He's all like a defense contractor and stuff

-Efraim's bogus journey-
It must not take much to become a defense contractor. In fact, it seems to take pretty much nothing other than a MySpace page loaded with spelling errors and bad grammar.

Meet Efraim E. Diveroli, the 22-yo CEO of AEY Inc. Despite not having any experience at all, the Defense Dept. gave him a $300 million contract to provide ammunition to troops in Afghanistan. According to the report, "The shady deal resulted in decades old, substandard munitions being delivered to US and Afghan troops fighting on the front lines of the war on terror."

Golly, and he seems so competent on his MySpace page, which tells us that despite having "problems in high school," he's a "super nice guy!!!"

Well, that's what you want in a multimillion dollar defense contractor. His page goes on to say, "I finally got a decent apartment and im content for the moment. however i definately have the desire to be very successful in my business and this does take up alot of my time." Spellcheck, apparently, takes up none of his time. I swear this is all true, BTW. Sometimes, you wonder.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman has announced an investigation. Experts expect the testimony to be peppered with phrases like "Whoa, dude!" and "chill!"

And that's just from officials from the Departments of State and Defense. (Raw Story)

-Headline of the day-
"Graham Claims McCain 'Has Never Said That This War Would Be Easy.'"

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a McCain booster, went on FOX's Hannity and Colmes to spread crap. If you're going fishing, you go to the fishing hole; if you're going to spread crap, you go to FOX. "[John McCain] has never said that this war would be easy," Lindsey said. "He has been the guy saying for four years that we’re getting it wrong. We need more troops."

Reality begs to differ.

"Because I know that as successful as I believe we will be, and I believe that the success will be fairly easy, we will still lose some American young men or women." [CNN, 9/24/02]

"But the point is that, one, we will win this conflict. We will win it easily." [MSNBC, 1/22/03]

Of course, Bomb-Bomb McCain never said exactly the words "this war would be easy," so by GOP standards, Lindsey told the unvarnished truth. Colmes tried to call him on it -- but, hey, it's FOX. Realism will get you nowhere. (Think Progress)

-This public service announcement brought to you by reddit-
Headline: "I am a National Guard Soldier going back to Iraq for the second time at the end of this year, and getting stop lossed. Vote Obama."

And vote this one up, while you're at it. From the post, "...I don't want to go to a stupid pointless war with unclear objectives where I'm fighting for the 'freedom' of people that don't want me there. I don't like to be told, as a medic, that since the Geneva Conventions aren't in effect that I may have to kill people, which I will refuse to do. I don't like the fact that the military is stop lossing me when almost 50% of soldiers haven't even been deployed overseas yet. I also really don't like the fact that the National Guard has been misused and pillaged for the benefit of the Federal government's pointless war, but I fully intend to go and finish out my contract. Hell, I might even go back in as a physician's assistant. Sorry for being antiwar."

This soldier should be just as sorry about being antiwar as I am for putting up two reddit posts in as many days -- i.e., not at all. (reddit)