Thursday, September 9, 2010

At Least You Can Sue a Contractor...Or Can You?

Veterans just sucking up benefits like pigs at the trough:
In a lawsuit in federal court in Maryland, 241 people from 42 states are suing Houston-based contractor Kellogg Brown & Root, which has operated more than two dozen so-called burn pits in the two countries. The burn pits were used to dispose of plastic water bottles, Styrofoam food containers, mangled bits of metal, paint, solvent, medical waste, even dead animals. The garbage was tossed in, doused with fuel and set on fire.

The military personnel and civilian workers say they inhaled a toxic haze from the pits that caused severe illnesses. Six with leukemia have died, and five are being treated for the disease, a cancer of the blood and bone marrow. At night, more than a dozen rely on machines to help them breathe or to monitor their breathing; others use inhalers.
Ingrates. They got a free trip around the world!

10 comments:

mikey said...

I have a question. I realize this misses the larger point, and maybe it's just the way I see the world, but it really jumped out at me.

We needed to hire KBR under a USG contract to operate some burn pits? To dig a hole, throw some shit in and light it on fire? And even THAT wasn't something we trusted the indigent population to do?

One wonders how much this contract was worth. One wonders how much they charged for their daily usage of flammable liquids. Actually, I'd like to actually READ the contract.

Contractor will provide a hole in the ground large enough to throw unwanted shit into and light it on fire. Contractor will further provide the labor to throw such unwanted shit in designated hole provided (see 2.1.12, hole, parameters and requirements, as provided by USAID Operational Guide, Disposal of Unwanted Shit in Foreign Sovereign Territory). Unwanted shit shall be delivered to fenced, guarded holding area designated by contractor adjacent to previously described hole. Contractor shall not be responsible for delivering unwanted shit to holding area, but will be responsible for providing such labor as necessary to deliver staged unwanted shit to specified hole. Contractor shall further be required to pour flammable liquid accelerant (pursuant to USG Environmental Guidelines and subject to EPA Foreign Responsibilities Manual, including Addendums B and D) on unwanted shit in hole as previously described and lighting it on fire. Fire will be maintained, including the addition of additional liquid accelerant, until such time as unwanted shit is no longer.

Smut Clyde said...

Throwing crap into a hole in the ground and burning it is skilled work, mikey. Some of us have been training to do it for all our lives.

Smut Clyde said...

Also, Lesson 1 was Stand upwind.

W/v is 'dragonsf'. I think Anne McCaffrey has a copyright on that.

J— said...

This one might prove a bit tricky. It's hard to round up 241 people and stick them in a container to help them change their minds.

fish said...

Left out of the discussion was that they were almost certainly not supposed to be disposing of trash like that...

Substance McGravitas said...

Assuming rules is a problem for you lefty types.

Hamish Mack said...

Now if it was Korans they were burnting, it would be different.

Substance McGravitas said...

Or fingers.

mikey said...

Fingers are dumb. Gross, stinky, and that nail's gonna fall off as it dries out. Plus, that sound when you cut 'em off with your bayonet (KBar's too light) makes you puke.

Idiots. We figured it out for you decades ago. It's about EARS. Ears are easy, they don't gross you out when you remove 'em, they dry out to a sort of leather potato chip and you can string 'em through the naturally occurring ear hole. The added advantage is that, while you COULD cheat and count two per confirmed kill (this whole area is pretty thoroughly subject to self-policing), fingers raise a significant exaggeration issue.

It's typical of every generational trend. Even when your parents and grandparents figured out the best way it can work, you have to do it your way. Even if it ends up a clusterfuck....

Brando said...

You h8rs need to get with the program and breathe in the sweet, toxic smell of the free market at work.