Slashdot Mirror
Recovery.gov To Get $18 Million Redesign
barbarai notes a report by ABC News's Rick Klein: "For those concerned about stimulus spending, the General Services Administration sends word tonight that $18 million in additional funds are being spent to redesign the Recovery.gov Web site. "Recovery.gov 2.0 will use innovative and interactive technologies to help taxpayers see where their dollars are being spent," James A. Williams, commissioner of GSA's Federal Acquisition Service, says in a press release announcing the contract awarded to Maryland-based Smartronix Inc. according to the ABC news blog."
$18 million to redesign a website? WTF are they doing with it?
From TFA, they're going to spend $9.5 million over the next 6 months or so. Assuming $75k salaries for the web developers/DBAs/etc (generous), they'd be hiring 250 people to design a website.
And Americans wonder why they have such a big deficit.
And the same company gave tens of thousands of dollars to the House majority leader when the House was controlled by Republicans.
This is not a partisan issue, I hope you weren't trying to make it into one. Because that would dodge the core issue.
This is just another example of a fundamental flaw in how campaign finance works in the US, and the current party in power shares the culpability with the prior party in power.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
You have to wonder if these people have either a wonderful sense of irony or no understanding of the word at all. To pay 18 million to create a website that will show where our money is going is so ludicrous I thought I had clicked the bookmark to go to The Onion instead.
They've better not "improve" it like they are doing it to slashdot.
Fuck systemd. Fuck Redhat. Fuck Soylent, too. Wait, scratch the last one.
My guess is that its not 18 million on just developing the site. To get that high of a numer they are probably redoing their entire infrastructure. You're talking licensing which in a corporate envioronment can hit 10 million easy.
Then you're also talking paying developers to create custom applications, build databases, etc..
If you've ever worked in a corporate environment dropping 10 million on an infrastructure is nothing. Not saying its right or ok, just saying most people probably have no idea the cost of things.
Because the sort of person who requires a bribe in exchange for awarding a contract probably doesn't care who has a foot in the door, they care only about the bribe.
Duke Cunningham made lists and, although there were some advantages of scale in his bribe menu, there were no 'foot in the door' clauses.
"Sacrifice for the good of The State" - The State
https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=9745fb34e48a36a32b4fc589c3e371cb&tab=core&_cview=1&cck=1&au=&ck=
The Federal Business Opportunities website listed this opportunity a few weeks ago (could've been up longer than that, who knows).
It's not "just a website". It's a bit of a cluster**** in terms of number of data sources, what they expect to do with the data, etc.
I've done my time (never again!) with sorting through data from various data sources and while the actual programming part is *usually* not that difficult (assuming the data is not too badly malformed), but there are so many problems with processes, dealing with crap data, exceptions, etc. that if I were bidding for this work, I'd inflate my estimates quite a bit, too.
In Soviet Russia, I ruled you
> This is not a partisan issue, I hope you weren't trying to make it into one.
Agreed. It is a general problem.
> This is just another example of a fundamental flaw in how campaign finance works in the US,
Here is where we part company. It has exactly zero with campaign finance. You are upset about a symptom of the problem. The problem is the size and scope of government. A Congresscritter makes a lot more than an average slob but compare the 535 members of the legislative branch with the 500 leaders of the 'corporate branch' (CEOs of the Fortune 500) of our society and ponder. But at those levels it is about POWER as much as MONEY. Which group has more power? Now you begin to understand why a seat that pays so little is worth spending several million every two years to keep. And why the corporations will invest so much into politicians.
When the corporations very survival depends on the whims of political class it would be stupid not to invest as much time and energy into controlling that factor as they spend on any other aspect of success with so much potential to affect the bottom line. Take the example everyone here loves to hate, MSFT. Until the government took such an intense interest in their operations their Washington DC office was vestigial, now it is a major presence. Just like every other major corporation, they either want to deflect the government's gaze or get their snout into the public treasury.
And it will be ever thus until we put the government back into it's proper place. Make the government small enough that a House seat isn't worth millions and the money will go away. Nothing else will work, no law will stop clever people who have so much at stake. At least no law that leaves the 1st Amendment intact and do we really want to go there?
Democrat delenda est
I've a question: how come it's always obviously graft when Republicans do it, but it's a sign that the system is flawed when Democrats do it?
Why can't it be simple vote-buying no matter who does it? And why hasn't tar-and-feathering made a comeback yet?
Potato chips are a by-yourself food.
Actually, he probably with me and is shocked because no one is bitching about the administration, no bid contracts, millions of dollars being spent and payoffs to those responsible for the contract.
I guess maybe if haliburton or cheney was a name in the story, everyone would be pissed.
You don't buy politicians, you subscribe to them.
I get tired of these stories. You could claim it's a waste of money to spend 18 million for setting up a transparency website and then running it for a few years. But put these stories into perspective by visiting DefenseLink every day to view how much of your tax dollars are being "invested."
http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4067
Yesterday alone we awarded over 120 million dollars. The day before that we awarded over 500 million dollars in contracts - I got too disgusted to continue adding the numbers.
So, would I rather not waste 18 million dollars? Sure. But I'd rather spend it on something constructive than destructive. A website about government spending is way more valuable to me than another novel way to hunt and kill humans.
Not all of us want a "progressive politician"--I don't want a politician making my own life decisions and choices for me, whether it's a corrupt one or one that honestly believes that nonsense.
Only persons who can vote should be allowed to donate to campaigns. Can corporations vote? Nope - so no donations from them.
Then we ought not to tax corporations either. No taxation without representation!
Funtime Candy Wow! - my plan for eventually conquering Japan.