Well here it is Saturday and I am slaving over a hot keyboard. It is cooling down since it ahs been about an hour since I stole it from a co-worker. I love writing proposals. In fact, I like it so much that I am thinking of just hiring myself out to do it fulltime.
I also have a really good land deal available for those with ready cash.
I had a really interesting talk this morning with my fellow proposal writer as we ate breakfast and prepared for a long, hard day. The subject? Katrina and the governments response. Sam reminded me of the inability of so many people we know who cannot "do" anything themselves. Moving a lot of supplies is a hard thing and doesn't happen overnight but it is usually done by guys with blue collars covering rednecks. All the "leaders" need do is tell them to get going and it happens. Unfortunately, it appears that in Louisiana, the "leaders" forgot to give the order or else never knew the order needed to be given.
Thing is, I am not sure that being able to get oneself elected Major, Governor or President is the same as being able to lead and many of the "leader" jobs for emergnecy management are filled with valiant campaign workers. Will Katrina change anything?
If you think it will please see my land offer above.
posted by Larry at 1:29 PM
Another day in the saltmines. We are preparing a proposal for a contract that is so rigged it looks like a circus tent or a tall ship.
I have no respect for people who can't even cheat smartly.
posted by Larry at 8:44 AM
I am greatly upset since I seem to have violated at least one Axis of Weevil rule by not posting for over thirty days. Rats! Just when the AoW was beginning to feel like home and now I run the risk of being kicked out.
This has been a pretty rough month. We have been anticipating a couple of government contract opportunities for almost a year and they were both released for proposal a couple of weeks ago just as we got a call from a large company asking us to try to find several senior engineers to support them. I suppose that is all good but it certainly adds to the workload and shortens the play time.
The whole NO evac fiasco reminds me of NEO- Non-combatant evacuation operations, the supposed plan by which the government would move all the American military families out of Europe and other overseas areas in the event of hostilities. We were supposed to have NEO kits prepared and ready at all times and each small unit had a Sergeant who went around once a month to check on the kits. Most families treated it as a joke. Me, I read the papers daily and had my own plan of moving my family as soon as things started downhill. My expense but also my family.
A friend was told to look at the NEO potential in Baumholder, Germany in the early 80's. He found that there was little likelyhood that the politicains would ever make the decision to move the approximately 250,000 family members in Germany in time to get them out. In his report, he recommended that the families be issued survival gear such as gas masks, canteens,etc. The General's wife went ballistic when she heard about Bill's report and demanded that it be trash canned which it was. She said that the Army would get her out and she refused to even think about any alternative.
Ironically, there had already been a real NEO conducted in 1979 for the families in Iran. The politicians (read Jimmy Carter) waited until it was too late to move anything except the people themselves and then only barely. As we all know, not everyone got out before the Iranian government fell. I have a friend who left Tehran the night before in a C130 with her three young children, two small bags and a few dollars.
At one of Bill's briefings, he asked for comments or questions. As he described it to me, the wife of one of the Infantry Battalion executive officers stood up and commented that after listening to the Bill's briefing and the brilliant comments of the senior leaders she was going home and make sure she had her NEO kit complete and ready to go but she figured she better add some things to it....a bottle of vodka and a pair of red panties.
posted by Larry at 2:21 PM
