Archive for the 'Outsourced' Category
Bancroft Global Development
August 23rd, 2011Via: AP / Huffington Post: On the front lines of Mogadishu’s streets, Islamist militants battle African Union troops. Standing alongside the peacekeepers are members of an American-run team of advisers, former military men who play a little-known but key role in the war against al-Shabab. Aside from covert raids by special operations forces, the U.S. […]
TEPCO Lost Contact with 143 Nuclear Plant Workers; Kept No Records of Their Addresses or Exposure to Radiation
August 11th, 2011Many of these workers are homeless. See: Nuclear Ginza. Via: Japan Today: Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said Thursday that it has not been able to locate 143 individuals working to restore the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant since May. The utility said it has no idea if the 143 have been exposed to radiation […]
Blackwater’s New Director: Bill Clinton’s Lawyer
July 11th, 2011Via: Wired: Blackwater’s rebranding continues at a torrid pace. Danger Room has learned the latest Washington greybeard hired to spruce up the image of the world’s most infamous private security firm is Jack Quinn, a top Washington lobbyist and former White House counsel to President Bill Clinton. Now renamed Xe and owned by an investor […]
America for Sale: Is Goldman Sachs Buying Your City?
July 7th, 2011In general, big is bad. Centralized is bad. Whether it’s public or private doesn’t matter. Now, when it comes to something like a municipal sewer system, or other infrastructure assets where competition isn’t possible, handing those assets over to private corporations should be considered treason, and the politicians responsible should be arrested. (Don’t hold your […]
Visions of Teen Angst, Then and Now
June 29th, 2011When I was a kid, films like Better Off Dead, The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, and many others, told stories about the seemingly infinite number of ways that being a teenager could suck.. I know these types of films are still made, and while I have no idea what the modern versions are […]
U.S. Government Launching Antitrust Investigation of Google
June 24th, 2011Oh sure. I bet Google is quivering with fear. Via: Wall Street Journal: Federal regulators are poised to hit Google Inc. with subpoenas, launching a broad, formal investigation into whether the Internet giant has abused its dominance in Web-search advertising, people familiar with the matter said. The civil probe, which has the potential to reshape […]
Sinister Public-Private Partnership to Spy on Web Users
June 23rd, 2011Via: Guardian: When President Eisenhower left office in 1960, he provided the American people with a warning. “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Sixty years later, […]
Lawsuit Alleges Whole Foods Sold Frozen Vegetables from China Grown in a Polluted Region by Prisoners and Certified as Organic
June 17th, 2011Ahh, imagine my shock. Rant mode: On. We buy some organic foods in bulk from wholesale distributors here in New Zealand. Increasingly, if we want to buy these ‘certified organic’ bulk foods, the country of origin is China. We refuse to buy any food from China, regardless of which organic certification it has. We’ve indicated […]
Blackwater Hires Former AIG Regulatory Compliance Chief
June 13th, 2011I couldn’t make it up if I tried. Via: Wired: Nothing says, “We’re through with scandal!” quite like hiring a former executive from one of the country’s leading economic bloodsuckers. Blackwater — sorry, Xe Services — really wants to turn the PR page from the bad old days of Nisour Square, when the infamous private […]
Not The Onion: Real-Life Mercenaries to Star in Blackwater Videogame
June 9th, 2011Via: Wired: Blackwater Worldwide, the real-life mercenary team linked to the killing of civilians and noncombatants in Iraq during U.S. operations there, will be the subject of a Kinect-supported videogame coming to the Xbox 360 later this year. Published by 505 Games and titled, simply, Blackwater, the game is being produced in consultation with the […]
