[Mark Howard]

Wow. What a stir this has caused. Another bottom line for you guys: Unless you are part of the contracting process, or see the fraud, waste and abuse I see daily, you have no idea what is going on. Flint, I don't know what you do or how you serve, but I am glad you do whatever you do, liberal, conservative or whatever, we need everyone. As far as meeting performance criteria, they do not, at least not here at KAF. I have had to personally go to the IG and contracting office just to get KBR to do what their contract says. I am not blowing steam, I am stating facts as I know them. Back in the world, I have several businesses that provide services to FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) for disaster recovery planning and redevelopment. I have NEVER had a cost plus contract, not one. FEMA knows they are too hard to control costs on. I rely on the government for about 50% of my contracts, but I provide a oustanding product for the cost. If I didn't, I would not get another job from them. KBR got in the door first (using their inside track), got the ID/IQ contract, and no one can un-seat them regardless of the job they do. My "superiors" in the Army who approved this contract have never been to KAF, never ate their pathetic food, or had to rely on them to suck the S--t out of the port-a-john. Blowing off steam? No, I blew my steam months ago. Do I see a corporation that could provide better leadership and supervision for their workers for what they get paid? You bet.

I'm just curious...Flint what do you do in the reserve? Army? Air Force? I am the XO for a combat heavy engineer battalion, we blow up stuff and build stuff, hence why I mest deal with KBR construction contractors all the time.

Super: nothing wrong with being liberal, I'm sure you know that. We're here defending your right to be whatever you want to be. I appreciate your support. Now, liberal media is a whole other topic. We laugh daily (although it's not really funny) on the way stories coming out of Afghanistan get twisted by the liberal media. We get one rocket attack here, media in the states reports a major Taliban offensive. Got so bad at one point I had to tell my wife not to watch the TV anymore because she would get so upset about my safety. It's not a cake walk here, but we don't have the Taliban horde attacking our perimeter ever few hours. The liberal media has really put a negative spin on the war, and it's just not that way. Being a liberal is okay, being a lying liberal is not okay.

Just my $.02 (and the full $.02, mine is all tax free right now!)