Category: Politics

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Linguist Recruitment

So I received a partially handwritten letter from a Recruiting Specialist from Aegis (Mission Essential Personnel) who are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the US Military and “looking for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the US military in Afghanistan.” They are offering a starting package of $210,000 with benefits I was interested in “bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service” to the armed forces. In addition, they are offering $2,000 for any individual I can refer to them from my contacts in the “Afghan-American” community.

You always hear about these things from the news or something online but rarely get something in the mail regarding. Now I don’t know a single word of Pashto or Dari so the decision for me is quite easy but I wonder how successful their recruiting efforts are especially in today’s waning economic days. They offer quite a salary with complete benefits… could be very enticing.

First thing I thought of when I read the name Aegis was the XBox Live arcade game called “Aegis Wings” that I played a lot with my buddies Joe and Chad but turns out that these guys have one of the bigger contracts in Iraq, nevermind Afghanistan. Except for that quote below, I can’t say I know much else about this company but I’ll be sure to keep an interest in them.

Aegis, one of the biggest security companies operating in Iraq. The company was recently awarded a £220 million security contract in Iraq by the United States government. Aegis conducts a number of security duties and helped with the collection of ballot papers in the country’s recent referendum. – Source

I have also included the contents of the entire letter below if anyone is interested in reading it.

LOOKING FOR PASHTO/DARI LINGUISTS

Hello,

My name is xxxxx xxxxxx and I work for a company called Aegis MEP. We are a Federal Sub-Contractor for the U.S. military and are searching for individuals who are fluent in both Pashto and Dari to provide translation support to the U.S. military in Afghanistan. This is an excellent opportunity for helping reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan by bridging critical communication gaps, as well as providing a tremendous service to our armed forces.

I wanted to inquire to see if you would be interested in working on a referral basis for any contacts that you have in the Afghan-American community that are interested in this opportunity. I can offer you $2,000 per individual that is hired. We offer a very competitive compensation package with pay starting at $210,000 per year with medical, dental and insurance benefits. We feel our employees are the focal point of continued success.

Please let me know if you are interested, and I can offer you more details regarding the position.

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ABC Debate: Comedy Hour?

A lot of people have made a big deal with about the debates before where Hilary was asked tough questions and now with Obama. I have no problem with the media trying to investigate these guys (and girl) thoroughly but do it on the issues. It is not important to this election whether the guy wears a flag pin in the Senate or what he thinks about his neighbor (one that he had a limited relationship with) and his dealings with The Weather Underground in the 1960s (when Obama wasn’t even 10 years old yet!). No one questioned why McCain and Clinton haven’t worn their pins in the Senate and that’s fine because that is not an issue that someone should be (or should not be) elected President. I think Jon Stewart pointed out that the first question on economy was posed to the candidates about 50 minutes and 16 questions into the debate… shows where their priorities lied that night.

It matters what they have planned regarding the country’s failing economy, the healthcare system and soaring gas prices that have seeming gone up 10 cents in the past week. I think it was a real joke what ABC did with this past “debate” and it just seemed like a partisan attack from the get go. The moment you have someone who moderates a debate that was a key figure in Bill Clinton’s administration certainly raises questions about the integrity of the debate. Hopefully the Pennsylvanian voters are smarter than that and can see through the mud slinging politics that we are still stuck in today.

Anyways, ran across this clip on YouTube and it is pretty funny. A mock George Stephanopoulos interview with Senator John McCain on the “real” issues but you would never know it if you actually watch the debates or interviews.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCrJB8dwTrA

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Politics. With a Sense of Humor.

So I had taken a little break from blogging because of this Actuary test but the moment I saw this, I knew I had to take a break right now and blog this. While watching The Daily Show, they showed an Obama clip when he was on with Chris Matthews on his College Tour or something like that. Matthews asks Obama if anytime in this campaign if something happened that he went to bed laughing about it.

Listen to Obama’s answer… Priceless.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNMZZzd1wts

The level of news that we get from Cable News is a laughing matter in itself and it does get joked about all the time. The look on Matthews face when he got that response was as unscripted of a look as you’ll ever get from him. But in all honesty, unless the news starts focusing on the actual issues like the failing economy or and not on silly issues like “How Card Counting is Good for Vegas” or how McCain’s wife’s Beer Money is helping his campaign. Can we for once just hear a little bit about what these candidates want to do regarding our failing education system that is leaving so many children behind? or a little news coverage on why McCain said that we would do nothing with the economy and it is bound to recover on its own?

Yes, I like him for his policies and vows for not taking any money from lobbyists but I’m also not naive to know that politicians will be politicians. Anyways, it’s always good to have a sense of humor to go along with all the policy talk and 3 AM phone calls. As for the sense of humor from Sen. Clinton and McCain… they are probably better off not having any.

On a side note… G2, Gatorade Tiger and NHL 08 for XBox 360 are definately the way to go. Anyways, enough of this for now. Back to Oreos and Random Variable Probabilities for me.

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I Approve This Message.

This could be the start of something if the Main Stream Media decides to actually show this, but we’ll see. I love this commercial. Casey Knowles reveals that her footage used in the original Clinton ad is from 8 years ago when they shot the commerical DURING THE DAY! Then they tint the video blue to add the “fear factor”. It’s good to see this girl continue to speak out that against the politics of fear.

Realistically however I really don’t expect the MSM, which is supposed to be so Pro-Obama to show any of this. They’ll just focus on their pastor news or that he-might-be-a-muslim news and continue to feed the fear…

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZT3gDut3_tc

If you haven’t seen the original ad, here it is.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rt9qq2jYkCo&NR=1

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Politics and Soccer

A couple of good quotes I heard from Keith Olbermann recently.

“We as citizens must at some point ignore partisanship, not that we may prosper as a nation, but that merely we may function as a nation.”

“You Are Campaigning As If Barack Obama Were The Democrat And You Were The Republican” – (video below)

On a little tangent, gonna talk about a soccer player from Stevens who graduated and is playing professionally in Cyprus. Unfortunately I only really got to see him play here for a year but when I did he simply played like the field was his to dominate and that he did. Nick “Niko” Gkionis was a center back for the Stevens Ducks from 2003 to 2006 and was named a first-team All-American by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America his senior year. He also sent me a link to the 35-second preview for a soccer mix-tape that he has been working on and I have that embedded below. I can’t wait for the entire thing to be released. He has also been working in conjunction with Brian Granata of Stevens Athletics to provide an inside look at life on the road and life as a professional soccer player through a weekly blog entitled “Beyond the Pond.” His most recent post is from yesterday, make sure to go take a look.