Virginia Gun Owners Forum - VGOF

Strike 1: Spend $5.4 million tax dollars to outfit embassies with crystal plateware
Strike 2: No bid contract sends $5.4 million to Swedish mfg.
Strike 3: American companies didn't even get a chance to compete


WASHINGTON --- Hillary Rodham Clinton's State Department is spending $5.4 million to buy fine crystal stemware for American embassies -- but it won't give the US economy much of a boost.

The contract was given to a tiny Washington, DC, interior designer, which in turn subcontracted the crystal work to a Swedish firm -- snubbing such US companies as the famous manufacturer in Clinton's own back yard, Steuben Crystal of upstate Corning.

The firm didn't even get a chance to bid on the contract, which will outfit embassies and ambassadors' residences with fancy crystal for ritzy functions.

Ironically, under the no-bid contract, some of the crystal is to be custom-crafted to include the seal of the United States, although Swedes will do all of the manufacturing.

Contracting rules require any American firms that subcontract work to use a domestic firm or get a waiver.

The firm that got the contract, Systems Design Inc., is a small interior-design firm in tony Georgetown. The company, which is eligible for minority small-business contracts, does not appear to have done any similar work.

After getting the contract in September, the firm subcontracted to Swedish glassmaker Orrefors/Kosta Boda USA.

Department spokesman Darby Holladay said Systems Design couldn't find a domestic producer who could meet the 100 percent lead-free requirement, although a Steuben spokesman said it does manufacture lead-free crystal.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/h ... z0iG6Cvhxd

She has more strikes than a cat has lives

yeah but to be fair, she is redistributing the wealth to a socialist country who desperately need sthe influx in cash, esepcially US tax dollars..... you see how this all fits now?



We are told that globalization calls for accountability and that accountability demands uniform, universal standards. That sounds reasonable, doesn't it? But what about standardized people? Or standardized beliefs and values?

Like it or not, such standards are here. A massive network of "quality" management systems have been weaving a web of control around the world. Each organization within this global network must assess and monitor the compliance of the people within its own sphere. And those personal assessments will be based on global standards for the envisioned 21st century citizen.

There is nothing inherently wrong with standards. But when global managers set standards designed to measure and monitor what they define as "cooperation," tolerance and beliefs, they undermine the rights guaranteed by our U.S. Constitution. And if our personal values must conform to the new global vision, the "land of the free" will cease to exist.[1]





Like Marc Tucker, former DHHS Secretary Donna Shalala envisioned a "seamless" system that would manage the planned change.[7] Small wonder, since the two departments -- education and health -- serve the same global goal. Nationally as well as globally, the standards for "lifelong learning" and "mental health" complement each other. Both are vital to the "seamless" system which would coordinate and monitor global transformation.

But it gets more complicated. A few years ago, I visited the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Winnipeg, Canada, where I picked up a little book called Global Green Standards: ISO 14000 and Sustainable Development. Well aware that "sustainable development" refers to the three E's of social transformation -- Environment, Economy and Equity -- not just to environmental protection, I wondered how such standards could affect ordinary people. Would the Geneva-based International Standardization Organization (ISO) use its "Green Standards" to control human resources and mandate "sustainable" lifestyles around the world?

In language typical among UN-related organizations, the IISD manual promised that its global standards would be "voluntary." But -

"This is not to say that an organization may not 'require' its suppliers to meet these environmental management system standards, thus creating a de facto requirement. However, such a market-based requirement is still considered 'voluntary'."

"Although all ISO standards are developed as voluntary standards, many are eventually cited in legislation."

"This overlap between voluntary standards and regulations means that they cannot be considered as mutually exclusive."[8]

Most people appreciate standards that regulate local pollution. But we had better be alert to standards that would regulate human values and economic freedom. Global Green Standards tells us that "the sustainability trilogy of economic, social and environmental issues" includes issues such as "improving the distribution of income and wealth."[9] That may sound noble, but history has shown that such socialist or communist attempts at central planning bring all but the ruling elite down to the lowest common denominator.

http://www.crossroad.to/articles2/Reinventing3.htm

Horse hockey.

zephyp wrote:Horse hockey.

what? you don't agree with the Sec. of State's approach to "spread the wealth around"?

I know I don't think she should be spending our money out of the country without letting people here bid on the work first 5.4 Million is a lot of money to ship out of our economy. She won't care, but I do.
Bill