Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Bidding on Thomson

I'm not knee-jerk opposed to housing terrorists in a Supermax prison in the states--Yousef, Murad and Nichols (more on them in a following post) are still locked up in Colorado with very little problem. Yes, information will leak out at some point as it always does but as they say, dems the breaks. Such is the price Dick Durbin must pay for closing the "gulag".

I'm also not against the site of Thomson, Illinois since it's a remote area not close to any major interstates or other transportation (one rail line borders it).

My main question right now is how Thomson was chosen. This CNN article makes it sound like a plum:
The governor and other officials have said that such a deal could provide up to 2,000 jobs and up to $1 billion in federal money to the area.
What about America's other small towns in need of more bait shop and diner patrons? Was there a competitive bid process or is this the kind of thing the executive branch can simply do based on exigent needs? And if so, aren't we supposed to be appalled and sickened by no-bid government contracts regards the GWoT?

3 comments:

Right Truth said...

There were three or four different places considered, I did not read exactly how the final decision was made or who made it. Would be very interesting to know the process.

As to whether this will bring jobs to the area or not, is still to be seen. I also don't see ten billion dollars being brought into the area either.

Debbie
Right truth
http://www.righttruth.typepad.com

LA Sunset said...

It's Illinois, Obama's home state. Returning favors is part of government and a major component of the Chicago way.

I would be interested to know: Who had that thing built and who was on the hot seat for letting it sit empty? That might be one angle to solving the puzzle here. But then again, maybe not.

More than anything, sending federal business back to a President's home state has been part of Washington politics since the inception of the office. Reagan sent money to the defense industry, much of it located in So Cal.

A.C. McCloud said...

LA, I looked around briefly before posting and found that it was the previous GOP governors who had it built--but they were trying to close Joliet prison in the process. The people in Joliet made a fuss and kept their prison, so there you go--cronyism at its finest. Now Obama has circled the square.