Gov Paying Over a Half Million Dollars a Pound for Sliced Ham?

Gov Paying Over a Half Million Dollars a Pound for Sliced Ham?

www.americanthinker.com

According to Recovery.gov, the new Obama website showing us how much the country is being stimulated by government spending, the taxpayers are buying sliced frozen ham at $550,000 per pound. I wonder what they would pay for fresh ham?

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.recovery.gov

I guess that being awarded for a contract to deliver 2 pounds of sliced FROZEN ham by the government sure would be pretty "STIMULATING" to the economy, at least this companies economy!!!

How do contracts like this slip through the cracks???

Whoever it was who awarded this company that contract, actually robbing the taxpayers, should be held responsible and maybe even prosecuted for something like embezzling or racketeering or something!!!

I think that by prosecuting the people responsible for these contracts will be the only way to curb this misuse of taxpayers money!!!

That company must have some lobbying staff to get a contract like that!!

Oh YEAH!!

Outlaw the ability for big companies/corporations/"special interest groups" to lobby "THE PEOPLES REPRESENTATIVES", we elected these officials, not these groups, to represent US, not "THEM"!!!

Here's a link to the actual contract agreement on the website RECOVERY.gov, ...

Contracts - Recipient Summary : CLOUGHERTY PACKING, LLC

www.americanthinker.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 7/19/2009 by Keyhole]

John Perkins talks about this kind of thing in his book "Confessions of an Economic Hitman," in which he states (and I believe him) that this is not accidental. It is in fact a form of bribery.

For example, a construction company plays an instrumental role in getting (lets say) Bush elected, by campaign contributions, radio time, or whatever. In return, the president will award that company with a contract for a dozen bulldozers to be used by the US military. Each bulldozer might cost $1,500,000 on the open market, but the company will charge the US Gov 3,000,000 for each bulldozer.

This is never accidental. It's just one way to make a legal bribe.

The Other White Meat

That must be some damn good ham.

Gives new meaning to "pork barrel politics." Nyuck nyuck nyuck.

On a slightly more serious note, this is only one of literally millions of examples of the partnership between government and crime that infests the United States, and yet another strong argument for limiting its size and power as much as possible.

But alas, you cannot con an honest man, and at the root of it all is the moral failing of a society that has come to accept and even encourage systematic plunder of its citizens -- as long as they can be convinced the victim is someone else.

Representative government is a grand ideal, but may ultimately prove to be nothing more than a grand tragedy of the commons.




[edit on 7/19/2009 by Majic]

Here's some info on the company:

Clougherty Packing processes pork products, including fresh-cut pork, prepared bacon, sausages, and boneless and bone-in cooked ham. The company distributes its meat to retailers under the Farmer John brand name. It is a sponsor for the NFL's Arizona Cardinals, as well as the Los Angeles Dodgers and makes the hot dogs long-time baseball fans know as Dodger Dogs. The company's Web site offers recipes and cooking and serving tips featuring Clougherty products. Founded by the Clougherty family in 1931, the company was purchased by Hormel Foods in 2004.

Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008:
Sales: $378.1M

Officers:
President: Greg N. Longstreet
VP Operations: Albert Lieberum
VP Finance: Gary Jameson

Competitors:
JBS Swift
Smithfield Foods
Tyson Fresh Meats

www.answers.com...

Feel free to call them up personally and inquire about this!

Phone:

800-846-7635
Monday-Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. CST
Mailing Address:

Consumer Affairs Department
Farmer John
1101 N Main Street
Austin, MN 55912-3680

www.farmerjohn.com...

[edit on 19-7-2009 by Kaytagg]

Over half a million a pound for sliced ham. Makes me wonder just what the new medical cost will be,5 trillion for stiching up a deep cut?
Somehow sensible judgment just doesn't live within our government.

finance.yahoo.com...
and
finance.mpr.org...

Link to the 4 billion dollar parent company, which probably has connections with the Obama Administration, if they're getting paid 500,000 per pound of ham.

Hrmm, so how long is it going to be before "recovery.gov" goes down or this info gets whitewashed?

That should be kind of hard to do seeing how the story of them web development company getting paid 18 million over the length of the contract to keep it going.

This admin and congress is possibly one of the, if not the, most corrupt in history. I don't think they thought through this whole, "lets start a website and put where all the stimulus money is being spent" idea through fully.

It's sort of like the beginning of the rabbit hole. People are going to what to know exactly how far this goes.

Jeeze Louise!
I thought it was bad when I was in the military and found out our barracks rooms were furnished with 24,000 dollars worth of "furniture" (crap was all but made of wicker and it was just an 'entertainment center', a bed and a two drawer dresser)... but this is like a whole different level of ridiculous.

As the second poster says, it is a bribe payout.

Not being accustomed to this type of thing, I may be completely wrong, but couldn't that description be the description of the packaging and what is lacking is the amount of "2 POUND FROZEN HAM SLICED" packages?

reply to post by ArMaP


Yeah, I agree because there is a 2nd contract for 2+ million dollars with the same description (2 pounds) so I think this was misread. The 2nd contract:

www.recovery.gov.../contracts-recipient-summary&id=12-AG3J14120297210&primeid=4

CLOUGHERTY PACKING, LLC
Clarification of Codes

Award Overview
Agency Name Department of Agriculture Project Location LOS ANGELES
Contract Number AG3J14120297210 Project Location - State CA
Funding Amount $2,531,600 Project Location - Zip Code 90058-1800
Completion Date 2009-09-30 Congressional District CA-34


Recipient Information (Award)
Recipient Name CLOUGHERTY PACKING, LLC Recipient Address 3049 E VERNON AVE
Recipient City LOS ANGELES Recipient State CALIFORNIA
Recipient Zip Code 90058-1800 Congressional District CALIFORNIA-34


Description of Work/Service performed
HAM, WATER ADDED, COOKED, FROZEN, SLICED, 2-LB


So either the government just paid over 3.5 million for 4 pounds of ham or this "contract" is explaining the product and not the # of products (I assume 2 LB hams) purchased.



[edit on 19-7-2009 by infolurker]

Well now we know Obama isn't Muslim. No self-respecting Muslim would spend any amount on ham...Let alone $550,000.

reply to post by ArMaP


Well, the problem is that it says, "Work/Service Provided" or something like that.

Also you have to go off of past experiences and you have to remember this is the same government that were buying 600 dollar hammers.

reply to post by Hastobemoretolife


I don't know about the hammers (I don't usually follow domestic US politics, I am Portuguese), but I am used to read the same type of announcement (country or local government agencies asking for some service or product) in Portugal, and it made me think of that, because what is asked for is the product, not the full quantity, that is in a different field on the form.

For example, they would ask for toilet paper, but that would not mean that they were paying for just one.

Non story it was 760,000lbs of Ham a brief google search revealed this rather quickly.

Link is to a pdf file

PDF report

To be honest if it was a real story it wouldn't really suprise me that much though.

reply to post by Teknikal


At first I thought that the ham was going to be sent to the space station, overnight delivery.

Tek, thanks for the pdf.

And thanks also to ArMaP for Denying Ignorance.

That is amazing. I love ham but certainly not $550,000 ham. This must be that "Pork" that they were talking about campaigning...


The sad thing is this ham project is only the tip of the iceberg. I believe we're only at 10-15% of diverging the stimulus money to where its supposed to go but already we've failed epically.

Bottomline is...These stimulus packages were b.s. We've lost and continue to lose more and more money (as taxpayers) because somebody with a nice big office and nice leather chair who drives a jaguar to work everyday and likes to sleep in fancy satin sheets decided "Hey...I'm just not rich enough and I really want to make sure that everyone else is broke while I keep getting richer." I dont know what happened over the course of the last decade but there has been a line drawn in the sand...Rich people get rich while the rest continue to get battered down into a pulp and everytime we try to take a step up- we're pushed back down.

And again no one bothered to research first before riding in on a high horse ...

Whatever happened to deny ignorance?

Star for you Teknikal

Yeah and a decade ago it was $200 toilet seats and $600 hammers, they have to hide the black budget spending some how.

Too bad they don't think, because some people actually check the numbers. And they havn't added up for decades.

Thanks I got a good hard laugh at this thread. You do realize that it is lots and lots of "2lb hams" not just 2lbs of ham. Right? People are talking like they paid that for 2 pounds of ham, it's 2 pound hams they are buying, lots and lots of them. Since when does the government just buy 2 lbs of ham at a time?

whoops, just saw the pdf, sorry for reiterating

[edit on 20-7-2009 by damwel]