We can’t afford $445,891 Blackwater security specialists

Published 5:51 am Monday, October 8, 2007

By Staff
Civilian casualties in Iraq got Blackwater hauled before Congress, but it seems like the sheer cost of the security firm would have garnered it scrutiny before now.
I don't know what the threshold is for blatant war profiteering, but billing the U.S. government $1,222 per day per "protective security specialist" works out to $445,891 annually, according to a congressional committee report released Oct. 1.
Isn't that a wee bit more than we pay real soldiers?
It's breathtaking that as recently as 2001, Blackwater, founded by Dick DeVos's brother-in-law, Erik Prince, made less than $1 million from government work.
Yet it has earned more than $1 billion since from lucrative federal contracts. The State Department paid Blackwater more than $832 million just between 2004 and 2006.
Why would they want this gravy train to ever end?
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Oct. 5 ordered federal agents to ride with Blackwater escorts of U.S. diplomatic convoys in Baghdad to beef up oversight after the Sept. 16 shooting in which private guards are accused of killing 13 Iraqi civilians.
Blackwater contends its employees came under fire first.
She also ordered video cameras in Blackwater vehicles.
The steps will require the State Department to deploy dozens of additional in-house Diplomatic Security agents to accompany Blackwater guards and are the first in a series of moves Rice is expected to take to strengthen control of contractors the agency relies on to protect diplomats in Iraq.
Oct. 4, the House 389-30 passed legislation that would place all private government contractors in Iraq under U.S. criminal statutes.
Fred Upton voted yes.
The bill's sponsor, Rep. David Price, D-N.C., said, "The secretary still needs to address the essential question of accountability: How will rogue individuals who commit criminal acts be brought to justice?"
Quips, quotes and qulunkers: "(Michigan lawmakers) didn't sacrifice any of their own benefits or pay. (Those) proposals were not included in the emergency budget plan passed by the Legislature late (Sept. 30) and early (Oct. 1)."
– Associated Press
Tom Clay, a former state Treasury official, Oct. 5 painted a grim picture of Michigan's budget over the next 10 years despite a two-tax-increase deal.
According to the Oct. 6 Detroit Free Press, Clay, a "brilliant" friend of Gov. Jennifer Granholm, state expenses will outpace revenues by about 5 percent every year, creating a $6 billion annual general fund shortfall by 2017. That's more than three times the amount of the budget crisis this year that led to a brief Lansing shutdown.
Clay said the middle-of-the-night budget deal, which raises income tax from 3.9 to 4.3 percent while expanding the 6-percent sales tax to business services, does little to check the trend.
The Department of Corrections spends $1.9 billion annually, including almost $300 million on prisoner health care.
Corrections spending has grown an average of more than 9 percent a year since 1980 while Michigan locks up convicts at a 40-percent higher rate than neighboring states.
Matching those rates could save the state $500 million a year, Clay said.
Clay also pointed out Michigan spends $9,000 annually on benefits for each state employee and $8,000 for each school employee.
"The long-term issue of budget reform really wasn't done," Karl D. Gregory, a retired Oakland University economics professor told the Free Press. "This was a short-term fix and it wasn't even a very good short-term fix."
Whatever happened to?: Kaye Lani Rae Rafko. Hard to believe it's been 20 years since the 24-year-old Monroe nurse and Miss Michigan became Miss America 1988 on Sept. 19, 1987. I interviewed her in her dressing room when she came to Dowagiac for the Miss Cass County pageant and demonstrated her unusual talent, Hawaiian-Tahitian dancing. She won the swimsuit competition in Atlantic City. She was crowned by Kellye Cash, who visited Cassopolis. I don't think I've seen a Miss America in person since those two.
Rafko, now Mrs. Chuck Wilson, mother of three, was interviewed by The Evening News of Monroe, where she still lives.
It was timely reading about her because I recently rewatched "Roger and Me," where she was ambushed by Michael Moore while riding in a Flint parade.
The American Nursing Association credited Kaye Lani with single-handedly alleviating a national nursing shortage by speaking out during her reign.
She began personal platforms which eventually percolated all the way down to the grassroots level.
99 years and counting without World Series title: Arizona Diamondbacks sweep the Chicago Cubs 3-0 in the National League Division Series.
Stunning fall from grace: For years, Marion Jones, 31, angrily denied using steroids. Oct. 5 the three-time Sydney Olympic gold medalist pleaded guilty to lying to federal investigators when she denied using performance-enhancing drugs.
The International Olympic Committee said it will move quickly to strip once the most celebrated female athlete in the world of her medals. Jones is the biggest name brought down – so far – in the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative (BALCO) scandal, though a grand jury is still investigating Barry Bonds' veracity with federal investigators.