Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
Blackwater, Xe, ACADEMI
December 13th, 2011Via: AFP: The US security firm formerly known as Blackwater, which was barred from Iraq over a deadly 2007 shooting, has renamed itself a second time. USTC Holdings, the investor consortium that acquired ex-Blackwater firm Xe Services in December 2010, announced ACADEMI as the new name and brand for Xe Services. The rebranding came as […]
Inside Romania’s Secret CIA Prison
December 8th, 2011Via: AP: In northern Bucharest, in a busy residential neighborhood minutes from the heart of the capital city, is a secret the Romanian government has long tried to protect. For years, the CIA used a government building — codenamed “Bright Light” — as a makeshift prison for its most valuable detainees. There it held al-Qaida […]
Alabama: Inmates Can Replace Hispanic Farmhands
December 7th, 2011Via: Politico: Alabama farmers frantically looking for workers to replace those that have fled the state in the wake of its tough new immigration law should just stop by their local prison, according to the head of Alabama’s agriculture department. John McMillan, commissioner of the Alabama Department of Agriculture and Industries, told the Montgomery Advertiser […]
New Zealand: 1 Million Didn’t Bother to Vote
November 28th, 2011Update: National Almost Beaten by The Abstention Party Via: New Zealand Herald: Voter turnout in the general election was an historic low of 68.8% of eligible voters. An argument can be made that the National Party was almost beaten by The Abstention Party, which won 31.2% of the (non)-vote. Once you take into account the […]
What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?
November 27th, 2011Via: The New York Review of Books: The man I asked to talk to—and to whom I was not put through—was René-Georges Querry, Sheehan’s ultimate superior at Accor and a well-connected former chief of the French anti-gang brigades, who was now head of security for the Accor Group. Before joining Accor Group in 2003, he […]
Foxconn Wants to Build “Intelligent Robotics Kingdom” to Replace Human Workers with Robots
November 7th, 2011I love how they mention that this facility will create jobs! Yeah, 2000 jobs for people who are tasked with figuring out how to eliminate millions of other people’s jobs. This is definitely one for your Arbeit Macht Frei file folder. Via: Cnet: iPhone maker Foxconn aims to manufacture its own robots and automation equipment […]
Race Against the Machine
October 26th, 2011A few weeks ago, a reader sent me a gift, an ebook from Amazon. I don’t have a physical Kindle reader, so I downloaded the Kindle application for Windows and, in a few seconds, I was able to read the book. I went to look at the Amazon page for the book, A Zombie Prescription […]
Obama to Leno: Libya ‘A Recipe for Success’
October 26th, 2011A recipe for success? The grinning, shill, international terrorist President of the United States talks up the regime’s atrocities on a late night comedy show, with the host, audience and millions of people out in TV land going along with it… Holy shit. To me, Obama’s “recipe for success” looks and sounds like a child […]
U.S. Troops to Leave Iraq by Year’s End, Obama Says [wink]
October 22nd, 2011I was surprised that this New York Times piece actually contained the punchline, for those who kept reading long enough: There will also be 4,000 to 5,000 private State Department security contractors, as well as a significant C.I.A. presence. In Afghanistan, about 95,000 American troops remain. *chortle* Remember the Superbase? View Larger Map Anyway, this […]
‘Rise of the Machines: America’s Jobs Challenge’
October 20th, 2011Via: Reuters: For decades, American workers and their machines advanced in tandem. As companies invested in technology, more workers were needed to operate machines. That relationship is now looking unsteady. Since 1999, business investment in equipment and software has surged 33 percent while the total number of people employed by private firms has changed little. […]
