He Is The Very Model of A Double-Dipping General. Conflict Much?
Talk about double-dipping! I wonder if it would be too much to ask that media outlets ask about such conflicts before they offer them outlets as "objective" analysts:
WASHINGTON — After retiring from the Marine Corps in December 2003, Emil "Buck" Bedard headed back to work — for both the Pentagon and defense contractors.
Two months after leaving the service as a lieutenant general, Bedard became an adviser for the Pentagon's Joint Forces Command, a job that this year paid him about $1,600 per day to help run war games and mentor high-level commanders on how to lead troops in battle. Bedard also signed on with seven defense contractors as a corporate director or consultant.
For one of those firms, Bedard marketed a video surveillance system to the Marines during the time he was getting paid by the Pentagon for mentoring, even after a general concluded that the technology "did not work as advertised," a USA TODAY investigation found.
Bedard's activities present a case study of the kinds of situations that arise when retired senior officers become paid Pentagon advisers even as they market products to the military as consultants for defense contractors. USA TODAY reported last month that roughly 130 retired generals and admirals have held taxpayer-funded military jobs as "senior mentors" while also working for defense contractors.
Bedard's case goes beyond getting paid to advise the government and industry at the same time. E-mails and interviews show that Bedard pushed for his former service branch to buy the video system, including sending e-mails while on mentoring assignments.
"In the corporate world, this ... would not be tolerated," said Kirk Hanson, director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University in California.
"It is not uncommon for someone to consult with their former employer, but it is a major concern if they are simultaneously representing groups that sell to or try to influence their former employer."
Iron Triangle?
This is simply a natural evolution in the military industrial complex and/or the current layer of oligarchy that covers our government like a warm snugly blanket.
Is it really any different when a former Senator works as a lobbyist trying to get government contracts and cost saving deregulation from their former friends who still hold power?
whatsamatter Buck ?.... too ugly to make it as an 'advisor' to Wolf Blister on the CNN Gravy Train?
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
Both the Bush and Obama administration insist that these are times of war, though technically there has been no formal congressional declaration of such. So, shouldn't people like this be declared profiteers and thrown in the brig?
"In theory theory and practice are alike. In practice they are very different."
1945...?
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
Piece of crap, it's all about the money, not the Marines or soldiers.
... they named the ladies of easy accommodation "hookers" to differentiate them form the whores otherwise known as general officers.
Corruption favors the wealthy.
As you have your life on the line
he's rifling around trying to
find some thing of value to Steal!!
"... Git out there p^&&y and kills some r@gh%$ds .... me? oh I'll stay back here ...gotta move some money around ... "
I'm Boycotting NewsCorp! Heres what not to buy: http://www.cjr.org/resources/index.php?c=news...
What do you think they teach these A@#$%%-wipes at the military academies and the war colleges and other institutions that are 'military training facilities' ?? Life Saving?? NOT...
They teach PROFITEERING...THEFT....PANDERING...HOW TO BE A MERCENARY...
Get a clue.. All one has to do is follow the path of Eric Prince, father of Blackwater, and how most of what has been done in the middle-east was ENGINEERED by RUMSFELD AND CHEEENEY for the purpose of contractors making TRILLIONS from killing folks.. This has been going on for CENTURIES but has gotten progressively worse over the last 50 years. When Ronny Raygun came to office it spiked and kept going straight up from there.. WHY do you think pappy bubba 41 liked being CIA pupaa so much??? Why do you think Chimpy loved it..Cheeney helped set the latest grab for the trillions for his and Lizzy's retirement!!!
Goldman Sachs is the military. We fight for Goldman Sachs. And many die for Goldman Sachs too.
Military-Industrial-Congressional-Complex works. Just move the folks in and out from the military to the corps and banks to the political jobs and rotate.
Just like musical chairs - except, these MICC folks get rich and famous, and the public gets screwed. Ain't dee-MOCK-eracee great??!
"Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of Stupidity" - Frank Leahy
It takes a real hero to walk away from the gravy train.
Obviously this guy isn't one of 'em.
life Colonel Mustard!
Everyone in the military with enough rank, experience, or expertise knows they can leave and make up to 10 times the pay as a 'contractor' doing essentially the same work, whether it is good work or not. I know. I did it for a bit. It is a lucrative racket.
We are fucked as a country if we don't rid ourselves of these double dealing slimey rats that are fucking up everything!
Washington need to be cleaned out even if it means burning the whole district to the ground.
We have to rid ourselves of these parasites!
There really is a lot more of us then them. They cannot lock us all up.
Even with their weapons they csnnot take us all out.
I think we may have to force them to try before we rid ourselves of them!
General Butler was right. War is a racket.
Think what Ike would say about this swindler.
add a Military-Industrial complex tag
You'd THINK that the cost of the system Bedard was endorsing and the government paid would be significant enough to mention up front, but I had to search the story to find it.
Buried about halfway through, we learn the nearly useless monitoring system cost the Pentagon "$26 million over four years".
* There are two types of Republicans: millionaires and suckers.
"Mugsy's Rap Sheet": Recording history for those who seek to rewrite it.
There are virtually no limits on military spending. The Pentagon can request virtually anything and it is political suicide to deny them. How much room for corruption do you think that leaves and how deep do you suppose it goes? Nobody asks. . because it's political suicide to hassle the Pentagon about money. .
"fiscal responsibility" ends at the Pentagon's security checkpoints.
you'd have to believe that there was daylight between the Pentagon and defense contractors in the first place :)
No wonder the military industrial complex has such staying power
I worked for a major defense contractor for a while. The head of the division was a retired Brigadier General. The ONLY reason this drone was working there was to sell product to his "connections" in the Pentagon ...he did essentially no work, spent whatever time he was actually present locked in his office with his secretary (who he was balling), and then junketing down to Washington to hobnob with his pals and sell them on huge military contracts for junk that was either unnecessary or didn't actually work. Double-dipping all the way. IF PEOPLE ARE GOING TO RETIRE FROM THE MILITARY, THEY SHOULD HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL THEY ARE 65 TO COLLECT THEIR PENSIONS, JUST LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE!!!!
Patriotism. The Republican Way.
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