whats the difference between the kbr & acorn cases

[blu]

acorn got barred from receiving grant funds without any court date or real trial. just a bunch of pissed of people, based on video obtained, who then drove their elected officials crazy. many people on the left said acorn was victim of a witch hunt.

now kbr/haliburton is being forced to change their contract so that employees in the future can sue the company/take legal action, since the woman said she was gang raped, imprisoned, etc by kbr employees, and her contract with them prevented her from getting any real justice. now you have the 30 republicans voting against forcing contact stipulations, and getting called "defenders of gang rape", ( 30 GOP Senators Vote to Defend Gang Rape | Health and Wellness | AlterNet )

both of these companies were accused of bad things, had no trial, and lost $, reputation, and the way they can conduct their business. what do people think of this? personally it reminds of witch hunts and mccarthism and whoever gets a lot of loud people against them is going to suffer.

 

[garyd]

No real comparison. Acorn has numerous convictions of various members for voter fraud. If the women in question were gang raped then the people they should have gone to are the legal authritites not the civil authorities

 

[Si modo]

Is this a serious thread?

 

[veritas]

Exponents.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

The Republican should have shut ACORN down under RICO when they had the chance

 

[Old Rocks]

KBR killed a number of our soldiers serving in Iraq;
KBR a threat to safety of our servicemen | UWIRE Opinions


KBR, the former Halliburton subsidiary that's now the Army's largest contractor, is a threat to the safety of our servicemen and servicewomen.

The latest evidence of this comes in the form of a report from the Department of Defense's inspector general released Monday that directly linked KBR with the death of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth in January 2008.

Maseth was electrocuted while showering in a U.S. base in Iraq. The report said that KBR didn't ground equipment at the base during installation, including the water pump that short-circuited and killed Maseth, and failed to report improperly grounded equipment found on routine inspections. The report goes on to say that KBR, along with another contractor, “performed electrical repairs that perpetuated electrical hazards“ and fell short of the “skillful and workmanlike manner“ called for in KBR's contract.


KBR, predictably, continues to deny it had anything to do with Maseth's death. The company is also on the receiving end of several lawsuits from servicemen and servicewomen who were exposed to toxic fumes while working near or around KBR-operated, open-air burn pits.

According to an article in the July 13 issue of Newsweek, KBR was contracted to provide waste-disposal services for several U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The company used these burn pits to incinerate things like medical waste, batteries and artillery, allowing carcinogens to permeate the air. One plaintiff reports having kidney disease, chronic bronchitis and a skin condition after being exposed to the fumes from one such burn pit. Similarly, CNN reported that other service members said they have severe chest pain, asthma, severe migraines and breathing problems.

 

[Old Rocks]

16 US service men killed by this companies negligence. We have given them billions in profits. And you yell about a paltry 53 million to Acorn?

Please Cut the Crap!: KBR Negligence Kills Soldiers; Bushies Covered it UP!

From the Associated Press: Sailor electrocuted - Yahoo! News.

A third U.S. service member has been determined to have been electrocuted in a shower in Iraq, and Navy criminal investigators are investigating, The Associated Press has learned.



Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class David A. Cedergren, 25, of South St. Paul, Minn., died Sept. 11, 2004, while showering. His family was told he died of natural causes.

Late last year, the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology changed the manner of Cedergren's death to "accidental," caused by electrocution and inflammation of the heart. The Naval Criminal Investigative Service has reopened an investigation into his death, Ed Buice, a NCIS spokesman, said Monday.

Cedergren's death is among 18 electrocution deaths — 16 U.S. service members and two military contractors — under review as part of a Department of Defense Inspector General inquiry. Improperly installed or maintained electrical devices have been blamed in some of the deaths, while accidental contact with power lines caused others.


THIS is how Dick Cheney's been getting rich? Letting his Halliburton contractor buddies get away with putting up defective facilities, and then covering up the deaths and injuries that result from it? And worse is lying to the families of the servicemen about how the death occurred?

 

[Old Rocks]

The Republican should have shut ACORN down under RICO when they had the chance

The Rushpublicans are too busy keeping their own ass out of court under those laws.

 

[Toome]

Aside from all of the partisanship that seems to always cloud any real attempt at serious discussion, there should be no differences. I understand the logic behind granting large contracts to corporations. Rather than negotiating a million separate little contracts for different services, it seems more efficient to negotiate one huge contract to a corporation such as KBR that can offer a wide spectrum of services.

My experiences were dealing with the Mitre Corporation both in and out of combat zones. To be fair, there were some good advantages to a one-stop process, but there were also disadvantages. Or rather, there were the typical contractual clause type of loopholes that both got contractors out of doing things one would logically assume they should do and others that afforded them huge payoffs because it was technically not covered in the contract and resulted in additional expenses. I doubt that there's any real way to police up this sort of activity. Looking at it from a contractor's perspective, I guess they have to make sure they look out for themselves. Also, there are government employees not smart enough to know when they are being conned.

At any rate, whenever there's evidence of fraud, waste and abuse, there needs to be punishment. Not so sure canceling a contract across the board is always the right thing to do unless there's evidence of widespread abuse or corporate-directed abuse.

KBR is a company that provides direct services to its customer. As a retired soldier who once lived out in the mud, having a place that did my laundry, cut my hair or offered a place where I could buy a box of cheap cigars made a difference to me. That's what KBR did for me. I don't see that in ACORN. But that's up to Congress to legitimize these contracts, and if Congress no longer sees any legitimacy to the business arrangement, then it's up to Congress to cut the ties.

That's what business is all about.

 

[Bfgrn]

whats the difference between the kbr & acorn cases

No one died because of ACORN...


Major US Military Contractor KBR Appears Responsible for Electrocution Deaths of US Soldiers in Iraq – US Government Unwilling to Act

Mike Ferrara
Attorney

November 26, 2008 7:08 AM

The Iraq contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR), a private company and former subsidiary of Dick Cheney’s Halliburton, has been found in “serious noncompliance” of its US Military contract by the Pentagon's Defense Contract Management Agency, for neglecting to conduct adequate inspections of electrical wiring at US bases all over Iraq.

Tragically, KBR’s neglect has been linked to the accidental deaths of at least 18 American troops, who have died from being electrocuted due to sub-standard wiring.

 

[Polk]

No real comparison. Acorn has numerous convictions of various members for voter fraud. If the women in question were gang raped then the people they should have gone to are the legal authritites not the civil authorities

There weren't any legal authorities to go to. The rape didn't occur in the US, so it's outside of the domain of our law enforcement and the contractors are exempt from Iraqi law.