TWIST: Really Annoying

The Way I See It finds State's treatment as a "red-headed stepchild" compared with DOD "really annoying." You can read the post here.

Is This Really Annoying, or is It Me?

The Washington Post reports:

Two members of the Senate Armed Services Committee called yesterday on Pentagon officials to further explain the awarding of a $50 million Air Force contract to a company owned by people close to senior Air Force officials, demanding accountability at the highest levels of the service.

...

A Defense Department Inspector General's report disclosed Thursday showed that senior officers pushed the contract to Strategic Message Solutions as part of an effort to improve the Air Force's Thunderbirds air show.

FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS to upgrade an AIR SHOW. Wow.

Does anybody else in the Foreign Service find it deeply disturbing and/or insulting and/or infuriating that we are spending FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS on an AIR SHOW while we at the Red-Headed Stepchild (read: State Department) have been told we can't have any new pens or notepads because there's no money?

Just for fun, let's think about what FIFTY MILLION DOLLARS could buy us at the Red-Headed Stepchild. Hmm....just off the top of my head, I'm thinking about a few of those positions that are being left vacant to staff Iraq. Or maybe some travel money so we can actually visit the places we're supposed to keep up relations with. Or, I don't know, trailers with solid roofs so we don't have to sleep under our desks when insurgents shell the green-zone....