METRO Story of the Week

Most of you know that I bring up the subject of METRO...our bus and subway system....almost weekly. It's never a positive comment....if you will notice.

This week....we had the older gal who is the Metrobus manager.....who was suspended for 13 days (don't ask why this was rounded to 13 days....in METRO...it just is).

The reason? Well....she came out to a graduation speech back at the end of April....and gave this speech which apparently was deemed as "inappropriate and offensive". Various comments were made against older folks, young black dudes and Asians.

On the positive side....at least this episode didn't involve any wrecks or crazy folks with METRO. You really have to admire the public affairs guy who works for the organization. He probably works sixty hours a week.

My Snuffy Story

This is a true story. There was a defense-related operation of high importance....around the late 1970s in the US. They had main frame computers, with technology that was mostly centered around the mid-1960s.

There had been talk of upgrading but they were continuing screwing up the design by adding and subtracting the future system that ought to be delivered. So they were surging ahead....with equipment and software that was outdated.

The code was the key to the effective operation of this highly sensitive system. It was a group of mostly junior NCOs who sat around and added or deleted the code.

If you talked to the leadership....none of them grasped the significance of the code....and they saw the massive apparatus as more of a "Taj Mahal" than anything else.

Behind this entire group....was a contractor team....who had the big job of making sure that the outdated system simply kept working....one way or another. Naturally, they were paid well.

One day, Sargeant Snuffy....a junior NCO....came up and was basically labeled a malcontent kind of guy. The leadership decided to dump on Snuffy.....and make sure that Snuffy was pushed out. Snuffy was one of the young guys who wrote code (that mattered in this case). The military was finally successful in the end....pushing Snuffy out of the military.

They asked Snuffy what he was going to do as he out-processed. He said....he'd stick around the local area and wait for a job.

Around a month later....someone in this massive computer complex began to realize that the system was starting to take longer reaction times. Folks started to note this as a daily event. The contractor team checked pieces and parts. The government guys got worried. Folks wrote code to speed up the process....but the next day....it just got slower. The leadership got fairly worried over this. Their massive dreams of this forthcoming new system....was several years away.

At some point of desperation....someone remembers Snuffy. They decide that via the contract vehicle....they could bring him in.....after all....his clearance was still open. So the company offers a very temporary kind of contract to Snuffy. He comes in....and after twenty-four hours....he's speeded up the process by fifty percent....finding a glitch here and there. Another day passes and he finds another problem. After a couple of days....Snuffy has the system back at 100 percent.

Naturally, the leadership was viewing the whole apparatus as the "Taj Mahal" and didn't really stand back to ask why Snuffy was successful when the others weren't. They just wanted it to work.

The company ended up offering under-appreciated Snuffy a job, which paid very well. Snuffy came in and helped to make sure the old and obsolete system that the government owned....kept working.

The guy who told me the story....simply stood back as all of this occurred....and just kept shaking his head at how no one asked questions at the end....they just accepted this idea that Snuffy was really smart.

The Washington Post Second Article

The second part of the Washington Post articles on contractors and intelligence occurred today. A good bit centered around the way that contractors cost more than government workers.

There wasn't much argument against this 'cost' factor.....which I found kind of funny.

The government gets stuck into this corner because they see a necessity to do something with a deadline involved....and once you start thinking this way....your operation is screwed if it's 100 percent government worker.

An example. When Larry, your government worker leaves....you quickly move to get a replacement. There's an ad, resumes are sent in, and this long process starts up. From the closure of the ad....until the new guy arrives....it could well be twenty to twenty-four weeks. If there are screw-ups or problems....add another sixteen weeks....maybe even twenty-four more weeks.

In my government agency....we advertise these government jobs. When the job closes.....there's this typical four-week period where the HR filtering system goes into effect and eventually dumps the folks felt qualified. We had a case recently where three resumes were handed. I think our guys were hoping for at least ten to fifteen. As our guys read the three resumes....none really showed any potential. So we re-advertised.

The second time around....there were more choices but then we ran into a funny episode. The number one pick said "sure"....but he wanted to enter NOT at step one of the grade offered.....but like step three (a $6k difference). This took up another week as we finally declined him and moved to candidate number two....who repeated the same game. Finally candidate number three ended up agreeing to step one and we closed this somewhere around week 37. Contractors would have taken six weeks max....from closure of the ad....to the guy arriving.

There's this other problem involved in the game as well. Clearances. In a lot of cases, the government is willing to hire the guy and wait four to eight months for him to get a clearance. This means that Larry arrives and just sits around....collecting checks....and doing nothing as we wait for his security clearance. The contractor team? Well....they hire the right guy with the clearance ready to go. They don't wait.

Then you have this odd plus-up with contractors. If you have a project which has taken off and suddenly is important....you can turn to a contractor team and say that you need 100 intelligence support folks in three months for a major project. You write the preferences of the 100 positions, and then the contractor goes out to hire.

If these were government positions....by the time you figure the fight with the local HR folks, and the various forms of paperwork involved....then you've got around eight to twelve months involved in the process. The contractor team beats that every time.

The Post fails to ever consider retirement costs in any of their article....which I found interesting as well. The typical contractor company? They offer up a 401k deal....and that's it. You get three bucks for each three you contribute, and that's the end of the retirement deal. You invest for your own future.

The government? Well...first, there's the retirement pay at the end of your career, which could add up to $60k a year if you keep making the steps at the right time. It could even go beyond the $60k. A regular clerk for thirty-five years....could easily walk away with $30k. Then you have TSP.....the 401k government plan....where they match your funds just like the company does. So they are paying more long after you are gone.

The need for computer experts that the Post mentions? Yeah....the government is massively entrenched into bigger and better hardware and software. Frankly....they can't maintain an edge....without paying for the expertise. But go over to Sears, or Vanguard, or Google. They are in the same boat and hire the same kind of help.

My feeling over what the Post is aiming at for an agenda? Probably another OMB organization that functions like a hiring post similar to what the government workers have. This massive apparatus is what makes government employment comical....being applied against contractors? The aim is a bunch of bureaucrat guys running the doors to the contractor kingdom? You just crossed off half of the advantage of using contractors.

So far, the journalism factor of these two articles isn't exactly surging toward that Pulitzer Prize....if you ask me.

A Good Movie Script?

If you haven't followed the story...there's a number of Afghan mlitary guys who were brough into the US to a Air Force installation for English classes...and they were to go onto more classes within the US military. At some point...around 46 of these Afghan guys simply walked away. No one completely sure where all 46 are located.

A search has determined the location of some of these guys...but it's an amusing episode when you start to pull the curtains back from this episode.

How did the guys walk away?

Well....the Afghan boys had this fascination with BMWs. It's not the BMW that you envision....it's "big Mexican women". Yeah....they had this lusty fascination with BMWs.

So around this base where they were....they got into the social environment and then things got a bit lusty. Some of the BMWs...were legal immigrants...and some were illegal immigrants.

You see...the ladies kinda knew how to move around without documentation. They'd done it for years and the Afghan guys learned from their lady friends.

So this adventure of sorts....which starts out at Lackland AFB, Texas....has an interesting trail.

The Air Force actually put this together. The Afghan guys started to meet up at night clubs in the local area....Tiffany’s Cocktails and the Mirage....along with the Graham Central Station. Grahams...for those of you who might care....features Jello night.

You can imagine this image....a bunch of Afghan dudes....at a Jello wrestling event....picking up on big Mexican women....legal or illegal.

Out there today....are all these Afghan guys....pretending to be Mexican guys....and having hot lusty relationships with big Mexican women who are probably illegally in the US. This is almost a 5-star script for a movie....but I just don't know who'd play the Afghan 5-star guy (maybe Brad Pitt?).

A Bale of Hay Per Day

There's an interesting story over at the Local today....from German researchers.

There's been this odd thing that medical folks have noticed over the years...that kids who grew up on farms.....didn't have that many allergies or asthma....compared to the 'normal' crowd. I never really noticed this....but apparently some folks have noticed it.

Well...researchers now say that barn dust tends to protect kids from ever getting allergies and asthma.

There's this plant substance...a sugar molecule (arabinogalactan) and it plays a role in your immune system.

Apparently, the researchers ran around testing barn dust in several countries in Europe (Germany included) and found this arabinogalactan is kinda common in hay used to feed livestock.

The key to this research? You need to get heavy doses of this early in life. Course, the doctors were looking for a pill-like formula for this fix. Me? I was thinking to dump all of these round-bales and work-easy solutions and put these punk kids back into the hay fields to haul real hay and sniff the stuff up close and friendly. There's nothing better than sweat-absorbed hay on your arms and face.....then you combine that with the feel of climbing into a 80-year old barn and sniffing the dusty air there.

Heck, we might even be able to charge folks money to help improve their immune system. An afternoon in July.....94 degrees.....moving 150 bales of hay. And top it off with a catfish plate and some pecan pie that evening.

The Harvard Factor

There's an interesting article over at the New York Times. I don't usually give them much credit....but it's a pause-and-think article.

Two smart Princeton sociologists...Thomas Espenshade and Alexandria Walton Radford...did this research into the folks who go to Harvard....or rather, who gets accepted into Harvard. The emphasis of the research? Black and Hispanic kids had a slightly easier time of getting accepted....Asian kids needed the higher grades typically to make it.....and rural/working-class white kids could just about forget about it.

What worked against you? Well....you could count 4-H, Future Farmer's of America, ROTC and the typical associations that you'd see in the rural aspects of America.....work against you. Yep, if you were big in 4H....you were doomed on your application for Harvard.

I sat there and read the entire article, and then pondered for a while.

Speaking frankly here....the last thing on my mind in 1977 upon graduating from high school....was attending Harvard. I can't think of a single kid where I attended school of ever thinking of such an act of stupidity. From the whole state of Bama? I'd imagine less than three kids having this on their list of aspirations.

It isn't just about going to a school with no real NCAA football team....it's about this stigma tied to you. You'd have to vow to never return to Bama because no one would ever take your degree serious. Take a look around today at business and financial analysts with the big losers at AIG and Goldman Sachs....Harvard grads. Being labeled "Harvard" didn't really help much.

In the world of reality....dreaming of Harvard....is pretty much bogus. Imagine yourself standing there....with a bunch of loser guys whose ambitions in life are mostly working for loser banks and financial organizations....or sipping brandy at some private club in Jersey where a bunch of Harvard guys stand around and admire each other's rings.

So, this accusation of Harvard slamming the rural or working-class kids? It's probably the best thing we have going in America. It's preventing kids from joining up with a bunch of idiots and getting labeled as a "loser" in life.

Just my humble two cents of observations on the topic.