Poindexter's Pink Slip

Adm. John Poindexter has been canned due to his proposed futures market in killing terrorists (as if his Total Information/Terrorism Information Awareness plan wasn't reason enough to be sacked).

Worry not for the Iran-Contra felon, however. He's shown a wonderful ability to fail upward. Hence, even in this job market, this latest firing should properly be viewed as the next step forward in a fabulously successful career.

Comments

[Jim]

I'm going along with the contrarian indicator logic. I pretty much already do that with labor unions and the Teacher's union in particular. If they are against it I'll be for it, even if they make it sound like it's a program involving torturing cute animals to cause more children to starve in the streets.

However, it seems to me that what really should happen here is that our collective national security folks should be charting what already goes on in places like tradesports.com. No political outrage there, anymore than the outrage over cops asking their favorite street lowlifes for tips on crimes that we see in all the movies. Plus, I'm fairly confident that if the gov't is running this, they'll find a way to fuck it up. Good idea, just pay attention to what the market is already doing.

[Lefty]

Yeah, Jim. I do that contrarian thing with the telecom, financial, insurance, healthcare and defense companies. If there's a way to fuck you, they will.

[Curt Warner]

I'm still waiting for the indignation from congresspeople over all the Pentagon programs that result in the actual harming of actual people.

[Kevin Carson]

My hope is that Poindexter is tried as a war criminal and spends the rest of his life being ass-raped twenty times a day by Slobodon Milosevic.

[Sean]

I'm pretty sure the date of his canning was something that could be bet on at tradesports.com. I wonder how well the odds predicted the reality? Maybe the feds should just give up the idea of doing this themselves (i suppose they have for now) and just utilize the resources out there already doing it. If it works, great, if not, can't be any worse than Reagan's astrologer.

[Apis]

Yeah, that'll teach those idiotic bureaucrats at DARPA to think outside the box.

In accordance with Senator Feinstein's edict, the next person at DARPA who comes up with some wacky idea will also be fired...

Good thing Feinstein wasn't around in '67 when Vint Cerf proposed the internet. I can just imagine her comments. "What? An uncontrollable, decentralized computer network run by the government, with a computer in every home? Why, it would be Orwellian. A statist nightmare. I demand that DARPA fire the fiend in human form who came up with this horrible idea..."

[Madog]

There were bids on whether or not he would still be employed by the end of August on tradesports.com. There wasn't much activity when I looked, but at the time the the prices weren't going down. A bit of irony there, he's fired for proposing a tool similar to one that predicted his own firing, proving he was probably right.

[Lefty]

I cannot recall a time when an idea became public, was shot down and the proposer deposed, all in about 24 - 48 hours. Is there something more going on or should this be taken at face value?

[Neil Block]

Puts for "Will Poindexter be on DARPA payroll after Aug. 31? YES" were pretty much nil yesterday, and the option price crashed to almost zero. Someone made some money.

I don't remember something happening this quickly, either, but I think a lot of the senators that were against the program were pissy that they hadn't heard of the program until Monday, when it was presented to them (it's been in development for a while now). But it was politically positive for them to denounce the program, which a lot of lay people (persons not involved in economics or politics) that I've spoken to called "immoral" or whatnot. Markets are evil, remember?

[jim]

Does anyone know the route by which Poindexter got back into the pentagon? It scares the hell out of me that this guy has anything to do with something remotely covert or secret.

[Brad S]

My guess is that Poindexter will use some of his old Lambda Lambda Lambda connections to land another job.

[dude]

Either he'll be hired as a consultant by the Pentagon at twice the salary, or he'll get hired to shill for the Saudis at four times the salary.

He should have been canned for TIA, but such a bipartisan bunch of politicians were upset by this thing that it makes me wonder if it was actually a good/interesting idea. Sort of a contrarian indicator.

[Brad S]

dude - that's a good point. Anything that is universally loathed by mainstream Demicans and Republocrats can't be all bad.

[citizen Able]

jim,

You're kidding, right?

Poindexter lied to Congress but his conviction was overturned on a technicality.

The "outrage fatigue," factor was so high after the Supreme Court installed Bush in office, there was nary a peep when he appointed fascist thugs from the Iran-contra scandal to positions of power in his administration.

Eliot Abrams was convicted of lying to Congress, was pardoned by GHW Bush, only to be appointed to the NSC by GW Bush, where he lurks to this day.

[drudger]

"I cannot recall a time when an idea became public, was shot down and the proposer deposed, all in about 24 - 48 hours. Is there something more going on ... ?

Is there something more going on?!

Hello? What cave have you been living in since about August 2001?

[Apis]

Yeah Kevin, right on. The nerve of that sonovabitch, to thwart the will of congress in his efforts to fight communist revolutionaries in central america. Brotha oughta get the bastinado for that...

[Wilson Robert]

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DATE: 01/20/2004 09:33:04
There are no weird people - some just require more understanding.