Government Welfare - The Gormogons

The title is a term in the federal contracting world for the apparent and inexplicable practice of the federal government repeatedly awarding contracts to certain large, federal contractors after the contractors repeatedly fail. To be honest, I’m sure my employer has had its share of failures as well, but I would classify it’s level of government welfare far below the level that I’m taking aim at here.

To be clear, I’m not saying that anything illegal is taking place – or at least I hope nothing illegal is going on here. These companies have plenty of resources at their disposal to write stunning responses to the government’s requests for proposals which is the entry point. Once in, the government does a poor job at managing the risk and slippage on the contracts. Clearly they want the solution they sought but at some point the sunk cost is indefensible. This is probably where we are with the 2010 Census. Harris Corporation was awarded the contract for the system to collect the census data but have failed big time (read a good piece on it here).

I’m sure this will continue for years to come because of one reason: government inefficiency. Creating huge programs invite larger risk, more complexity, and the ability for lax oversight isn’t the answer but it seems to be the plan for the next 4 years (minus 100 or so days). At least we have the musings of VP Joe Biden to entertain us. By the way – read this too about the census program if for nothing else than the spectacular term, “chunky crapgadget”.

GorT

GorT is an eight-foot-tall robot from the 51ˢᵗ Century who routinely time-travels to steal expensive technology from the future and return it to the past for retroinvention. The profits from this pay all the Gormogons’ bills, including subsidizing this website. Some of the products he has introduced from the future include oven mitts, the Guinness widget, Oxy-Clean, and Dr. Pepper. Due to his immense cybernetic brain, GorT is able to produce a post in 0.023 seconds and research it in even less time. Only ’Puter spends less time on research. GorT speaks entirely in zeros and ones, but occasionally throws in a ڭ to annoy the Volgi. He is a massive proponent of science, technology, and energy development, and enjoys nothing more than taking the Czar’s more interesting scientific theories, going into the past, publishing them as his own, and then returning to take credit for them. He is the only Gormogon who is capable of doing math. Possessed of incredible strength, he understands the awesome responsibility that follows and only uses it to hurt people.