{"id":702,"date":"2008-03-27T11:56:58","date_gmt":"2008-03-27T16:56:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/03\/27\/burnishing-the-gops-strong-on-defense-credentials\/"},"modified":"2008-03-27T11:56:58","modified_gmt":"2008-03-27T16:56:58","slug":"burnishing-the-gops-strong-on-defense-credentials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/2008\/03\/27\/burnishing-the-gops-strong-on-defense-credentials\/","title":{"rendered":"Burnishing the GOP’s “Strong on Defense” Credentials"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, I decided against posting this article<\/a> about the new “Cyber-security Czar”. You know, the one without any cyber-security experience whatsoever? Gosh, I know I sleep better at night with America’s cyber-security under the watch of a guy who’s primary claim to fame seems to be a book about how great it is to have organizations without any leadership:<\/p>\n

By all accounts, Beckstrom is neither a cyber-security expert nor a Washington insider. But his private-sector background and published writings emphasize a decentralized approach to managing large organizations.<\/p>\n

In “The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations,” a book Beckstrom co-authored with Ori Brafman in 2006, the authors use the two creatures to illustrate their argument that decentralized organizations — whether in the marketplace or the battlefield — are more nimble, creative and resilient than those that operate in a rigid, top-down fashion.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Why am I posting about it now, then? Just as a little warm up to this NYT story<\/a>, which illustrates the level of care this Administration puts into defense of this country and its allies:<\/p>\n

Since 2006, when the insurgency in Afghanistan sharply intensified, the Afghan government has been dependent on American logistics and military support in the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban.<\/p>\n

But to arm the Afghan forces that it hopes will lead this fight, the American military has relied since early last year on a fledgling company led by a 22-year-old man whose vice president was a licensed masseur.<\/strong><\/p>\n

With the award last January of a federal contract worth as much as nearly $300 million, the company, AEY Inc., which operates out of an unmarked office in Miami Beach, became the main supplier of munitions to Afghanistan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s army and police forces.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This story has to be read to be believed.\u00c2\u00a0 Illegal munitions suppliers, penny-ante fake IDs, and shoddy quality control in the hands of idiot kids.\u00c2\u00a0 This is what the “strong on defense” GOP brings us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Earlier today, I decided against posting this article about the new “Cyber-security Czar”. You know, the one without any cyber-security experience whatsoever? Gosh, I know I sleep better at night with America’s cyber-security under the watch of a guy who’s primary claim to fame seems to be a book about how great it is to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-society"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/702\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blacknell.net\/dynamic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}