Barbara Ehrenreich recemtly wrote about Jeff Sharlet's shocking exposé The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power will be published in May.

It is about the secret cult religion (kind of like a Christian Trilateral Commission) that the neocons are part of....Frank Wolfe is a member of this "secret" group.  Shockingly, so is Hillary Clinton.

I figured it would be a "must read" for anyone in Wolfe's district.

buzz...Buzz...

not "Wolfe."  But yeah, he's not nearly as "moderate" as he loves to the claim and as the Washington Post loves to parrot.

You are a moderate by the WaPo standards. Hey, maybe even if you do...

I recently re-read the terms of the existing sole source contract and have re-confirmed my recollection that the contract can in fact be terminated for the "convenience of the contracting agency" with no termination cost to the government. That simply means that Pierce Homer has no contractual or legal obligation to even give a reason to the contractor for termination. Anyone in the contracting department knows full well, again by the binding terms of the contract, that there is no legal basis for the statements made to the effect that the contractor might sue for breach of contract. The other, even more absurd, reason given by (I think) Kaine is that there would be a risk that no prospective offeror (bidder) would submit a proposal for fear that a competitively awarded contract might be terminated, unless of course they failed to perform in accordance with the terms of the awarded contract.

I have become very concerned with Governor Kaine's repeated refusal to order termination in the absence of any factual basis given by him. My best guess is that Kaine has not asked the contracting department to give him a thorough briefing on these facts so he can make a correct decision. I have no idea why Scott Monett has not already gone to Richmond with the contract in hand and demanded that the contract be terminated post haste, and make sure that the press, especially WaPo correct their positions -- and even read the contract themselves. It appears to me that Scott has been attempting to sue the wrong agency. But more basically there is no rational reason I know of that it should even be neccessary to sue the Va. contracting agency to force termination that is already authorized by the contract terms.  

Talking about "secret" societies and this expose is not a good idea for anyone running against Wolf. I believe one of his opponents (not Feder) tried this in the past a few years back and it just made him look a little silly.

There are plenty of very important things to campaign, this just brings a conspiratorial atmosphere to the campaign.    

... is that TysonsTunnel.org thinks the Bush admin is going to run out the clock on Dulles rail. The project is in a holding pattern until a new administration arrives in January. No sense blowing time and money on a lawsuit now before knowing what the Clinton/McCain/Obama administration will do.

among several plausible explanations.

but couldn't we start the re-bidding process now, so we have things lined up and ready to go?

Per my comment above, the current sole-source contract terms provide for termination at any time and for no reason other than for the convenience of the government.

Given that it will undoubtedly take some time for the contracting office to put together a convincing briefing for Kaine, preliminary preparation of a proper competitive RFP can and should begin now. Further, so far as I know Pierce Homer already has the authority to begin the process and does not need an Executive order from the governor because it is a routine procedure and there would be very little cost involved (only in-house labor by employees already being paid) at this stage. The preliminary work could be done quickly and could be used as part of the briefing to show what the RFP will look like.

One other contract termination provision I failed to mention is that if the contracting officer prefers to give a substantial reason for termination the government can also terminate if funding is no longer available, which is certainly the case here. Invoking this provision would avoid the perception of unfair termination, would essentially be a "no-fault" termination from Bechtel's perspective and would most likely convince even Big Dig Bechtel lawyers that a breach of contract law suit would be fruitless and a waste of corporate funds.

Your idea is excellent. I think it would be very beneficial for some of us to meet with Homer and his contract people. Lowell, would you be interested in arranging for a meeting with these folks ? This is very much in the context of the private e-mail exchanges we had shortly after the Feds. indicated their financial support was at high risk.

                         T.C.

After TysonsTunnel actually did what they were hired to do - which was to fight for a tunnel - WestGroup, the primary financial backers, suddenly pulled the plug.  Oh, the irony.

Anyway, that leave TT without nearly as much money and lawsuits cost lots of money, so I'd guess this was the primary factor, along with the fact that the project is on a significant hold for the moment.

n/t

I, too, saw that tidy sum for deferred maintenance which Metro announced, and was immediately reminded of the collapse of the bridge in Minnesota. Of course, great effort has been made to blame the collapse on  an antique failure of design, not maintenance, partly because, if true, that would let the Republican Governor off the hook for constantly short-changing the maintenance line in the budget. The truth seems to be, though, that adequate maintenance (which includes money for more than superficial inspections) probably would have discovered the flaws in time to avoid the collapse.

My question, therefore, is: will it take a major accident in Metro for the penny-pinchers to scramble to find a "design flaw" excuse for Metro? We face literally billions of dollars in costs to repair our basic infrastructure in this country, the infrastructure which underlies our economic strength

... and still everyone bleats about mass transit to alleviate our dependence on foreign oil, but they can't find the money even to do that, much less maintain what we've got. Republican refusal to use public funds wisely (for example, squandering money on Iraq), or to ask the members of our society who receive the most indirect benefits from our system (the wealthy plutocrats), and their distaste for using government power to benefit the common good (rather than fawning on those wealthy few) is what is at the root of our problem.  Example: It all comes together right here in the Tyson's Metro.