The WTF? File: New $500,000,000 U.S. Embassy in London.

[trof]

B.L. Harbert to build $500 million U.S. embassy in London

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- Birmingham's B.L. Harbert International said today it will build the new $500 million U.S. embassy compound in London.

The Birmingham construction company, which has built embassies around the world, beat out several other companies vying for the high-profile job.

"We are honored to have been selected to perform this prestigious contract by the OBO (Bureau of Overseas Building Operations) and look forward to being a part of the team that will manage the design and subsequently build the iconic London Embassy," Chuck Bohn, president of the International Group, said in a statement.

B.L. Harbert International will initially participate in the pre-construction design phase and then proceed with construction of the facility, which will house U.S. diplomatic functions in London.
http://blog.al.com/businessnews/2012/03/bl_harbert_to_build_500_millio.html

So...what the hell is wrong with the 'old' embassy?
We're in hock up to our eyeballs and we can build a $500 mil embassy?
Anybody else heard about this?

[freshwest]

1. Nope. Another boondoggle for crony capitalists. Do the Brits have complaints about the old embassy?

[dipsydoodle]

8. Only inasmuch

your antics , obviously not you personally, overseas led to some of the side streets around Grosvenor Square being restricted with large concrete bollards. They are a nuisance if you want to cut across to Park St from Park Lane to miss out navigating Marble Arch.

[freshwest]

17. Ah, the lust for new and shiny things. Yes, the UK loves them too.

[mr blur]

38. eah, but we can' t afford them.

Not that this stops the idiots spending £12Bn on the bloody Olympics.

[freshwest]

39. Yes, those are always an amazing nationalistic spectacle. Do they actually keep people...

From going to war, though?

Some have said in the past, better to fight it out on the playing fields than the battlefields. Like wars, the cost is passed down to future generations, who may or may enjoy any benefit.

Is there a great difference between war and sport? Perhaps greater minds than mine can figure it out, how about yours?

Just don't hold that teenage rebellion versus the old country against us. You know, the one we can never stop talking about, LOL!

And to Chichester. Always planned to visit a friend there and in another one over in Cardiff, but it's not in the cards right now. Sigh.

[MichaelMcGuire]

50. Sky news has it possibly costing upto as high as £24bn (nt)

[think]

2. Washington is nothing but a den of thieves which needs to be erradicated

[freshwest]

16. Want to go the direct corporate route?

[think]

20. I'll take the law abiding and constitutional route thank you.

Very little of which applies to our government currently.

A US embassy is not high on my priority list while we are drowning in debt. The government is spending like a drunken teenager with the parent's credit card and no seems to care. If those people in the Gov who are in control of the direction of this country ever get back to being a responsible law abiding part of the US and is acting fiscally responsible then talk of new embassies would not bother me in the least.

Until then shame on us for letting these thieves run amok .

[freshwest]

22. Hoping by your signature line you mean reducing the debt by ending war and not killing off the poor.

A lot of those who are waving the flag and the Constitution in Washington, D. C., don't even want enough government left to help anyone but the corporations. You know, the 'get the government small enough to drown in a bathtub,' crowd. But still large enough to fit in every woman's womb, and policing everyone's private lives. Of course, they could save tax dollars by charging women for state mandated rape, and inciting mobs to kill off whoever resists their fascism. No ax liability there, stochastic terrorism is free.

[think]

24. Without cutting security & defense spending and ending the Bush tax cuts

there isn't any money for the rest of the stuff. We will spend over $1 trillion dollars on security and defense related spending this year alone!

One department that should be abolished is the DHS that GEORGE W BUSH created. The department of Homeland Security is an afront to our civil liberties and a complete waste of tax payer money.

As for the regulators like the FDA though I would question whether their efforts help or hinder the American people.

I have no problem with governmental over site of corporations unless the regulators jump in bed with the corporations to screw us over. If we are going to have regulators they need to work for US not the damn industry thugs they were suppose to protect us from.

I'm still waiting for the "transparency" promised.

[freshwest]

25. What do you think about Ron Paul's vision for doing all of that?

[think]

27. What do you think of Ron Paul's vision for doing this since you choose to bring it up?

[freshwest]

29. They lead to fascism, but his points sound just like yours.

[think]

30. Wow. I sound like a fascist for being against the military industrial complex?

That is pretty funny.

[freshwest]

31. Being new, you may not have read the arguments here.

And of course being against the MIC is not fascist. But everything else Paul does leads to that result. You failed to set apart your positions upthread with those that libertarians have argued here.

Going after government as the sole evil actor, empowers corporations and religion. The government has been used to keep a balance between those entities who oppress people much more than the tax man or the government ever did.

I won't ask you again, since we are not speaking the same language here.

[think]

32. So advocating ending the Bush tax cuts sounds like a Ron Paul stance? SERIOUSLY

[freshwest]

33. Alright, my bad. I was still typing a rant about the other one.

My apologies.

I need more coffee.

[think]

36. It's all good. I realize some of my points overlap RP's when it comes to

war and security. I've been antiwar most of my life since my teens and that will never change. I'm not against protecting and defending America through the use of our military but most modern military action is for reasons other than our security. I went as far as to go and pick coffee in Nicaragua for a few weeks in 83 to get in the way of the illegal and undeclared contra war.

But I am a staunch single payer advocate, pro union, and believe corporations and the rich should pay their fair share of taxes. Especially since the military protects them proportionately much more than the middle class & poor.

I also cannot fathom a world without the EPA. Many corporations have no regard for the environment and the damage they do to the earth effects many people while they reap their profits.

Sorry if my responses don't include much of these aspects. Lately I have been extremely upset with endless deficit spending much of which does not benefit the majority of the American people and I do let my frustration out here.

Thanks for being patient with me and my hot headed responses. I need to chill a bit as they obviously did not serve the purpose well.

[freshwest]

41. We are cool, and I'm impressed. Thank you for who you are, and my apologies again.

[dipsydoodle]

3. Looks like they're moving south of the river to Nine Elms

From the picture it looks like there will be moat around it. I wonder if there will be a draw bridge too

Details here : http://london.usembassy.gov/new_embassy.html

The site of the current one in Grosvenor Square as a trade off is worth a bob or two but not $500 million.

[eShirl]

12. "Fetchez la vache."

[dipsydoodle]

13. That occured to me to

I wonder how they'll proof it against cows being launched at it from Vauxhall Bridge using ballistas.

[oldironside]

28. Reminds me irresistably of this.

Ah, is there any great truth not contained in Futurama?

[maddezmom]

4. this is kind of old news but worthy of discussion

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4130288
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4281245
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3524335

[trof]

7. Sorry, those are all obsolete links from DU2.

No info.

[dipsydoodle]

9. They work for me

[MADem]

46. Me, too. nt

[maddezmom]

10. you probably need to be signed in

[freshwest]

19. Check the last, dipsy mentioned what was in it. And it shows how the money is just flying around.

What's a million, billion or trillion among best friends? The peasants will divide the shortages amongst themselves. Nothing to see here, move along.

[freshwest]

18. There's dipsy's barricades. Why not anchor a huge ship offshore. Would be more private.

Oh, who am I kidding?

Just more jockeying around for more expensive real estate between the oil barons and their government employees.

[trof]

42. You may be on to something. Bring U.S. Carrier Constellation out of mothball.

As of January 26, 2012 the Navy's Naval Sea Systems Command posted a notice of solicitation for the towing and complete dismantlement of multiple CV-59/CV-63 Class Aircraft Carriers in the United States, to include ex-Forrestal (CV 59), ex-Independence (CV 62), and ex-Constellation (CV 64).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Constellation_%28CV-64%29#Retirement

They gonna sell the damn thing for scrap!


Constellation had a crew complement of 340 men, and displaced 1,278 tons with a beam of 41 feet and length of 164 feet.
http://www.freqofnature.com/photos/uss_constellation/

It's a perfect solution.
As a war-faring nation, what could be a better embassy representation for us than an aircraft carrier?

Plenty of deck space for helicopters.
Maybe it could even be anchored in the Thames.

[freshwest]

43. I doubt the Thames has the depth, but what a show of elite status for the visitors. They could be..

Flown in on small planes to the carrier deck. No, wait, small planes are rather dangerous for politicians and the like, aren't they?

Of course, there's the famous deep water port of Southampton... That didn't turn out too well for the Titanic and it's too far away from Paris. I'm not sure if that's important, but somehow it seems so.

Sorry about the ship getting cut up for scrap, it's one of many. It's just stupid and wasteful. How long do you think that ship could have kept going?

[MADem]

47. Ouch.

Time marches on.

They're selling the Connie, Indy, and old Forest Fire for scrap...darn!

I feel very old!

[edhopper]

5. I can see the need for a big Embassy in London

Maybe not that expensive, but a major one none the less.
But i do not see how any one can support the one in Iraq that cost over $1 billion.

[freshwest]

34. I don't know any of us peons who did... Except we'll be paying for it.

It appears that we will 'support' it against our will, as usual...

[Glimmer of Hope]

6. A real estate investment is better than bombs.

[eShirl]

11. That's almost as much as our "embassy" in Iraq cost.

[dickthegrouch]

14. FYI the "old" one was built in the 1970s

They obviously don't build them like they used to.

It should be interesting filming the move from the "old" one to the new

[dipsydoodle]

21. No it wasn't

I've still got a photo I took back in 1969 of my wife and daughter sitting on tne grass on the square which faces it.

[MADem]

45. It was finished in 1960. nt

[unhappycamper]

15. A United States Embassy is a sales office for military hardware.

You need to have a 'nice' place to schmooze with potential customers.

On the plus (??) side, it costs less than our $1 billion dollar sales office (a.k.a. Embassy) in Baghdad.

[lonestarnot]

23. Richie Rich at work stealing more of your dough.

I OBJECT!

[DefenseLawyer]

26. "A vital element in keeping the peace is our military establishment."

Our arms must be mighty, ready for instant action, so that no potential aggressor may be tempted to risk his own destruction.

Our military organization today bears little relation to that known by any of my predecessors in peacetime, or indeed by the fighting men of World War II or Korea.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But now we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense; we have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security more than the net income of all United States corporations.

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence -- economic, political, even spiritual -- is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. -President Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1960.

[freshwest]

35. He knew and then the MIC media 'manufactured' our consent. Nice circle.

[seattleblah]

37. That's huge

Are the CONservative here really so paranoid about the UK that they think they need such a monstrosity to exert influence and pressure on them? I guess in their world everything is about intimidation and size.

[SomethingFishy]

40. This reminds me of my job..

I am going on my 7th year without a raise. Hey it's not like the cost of living has increased in the last 7 years

I was told in January how much they love and value me. I was also told "sorry, there is just no money for a raise right now".

No money. I work for a music act. A big one. The day I was told there was "no money" we played 5 minutes over the local cerfew time. (Most arena's and amphitheaters have a cerfew) That 5 minutes cost the tour $9000 in fees plus overtime for the union. Of the next 20 shows we played we paid fines at 8 of them.
The money they paid in "late fees" could have covered my raise for 10 years.

See there is always "money". Just not for us.

[MADem]

44. We've been in the "old" embassy since 1960.

We've been in Grosvenor Square since John Adams went over that way!

We don't own the land under the building, and that's a big part of the problem. Also, the old building is kind of cramped in some regards. It really is past time to move out of the square, despite the historical associations with it--the entire area is just not very secure, even with the ugly ass blast walls and flowerpots, etc. It's way too soft a target.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/3123915/US-embassy-to-move-from-Grosvenor-Square-to-industrial-estate.html

US embassy to move from Grosvenor Square to industrial estate
The American embassy is to move from its landmark London location to an industrial area south of the river in a decision driven by security concerns.

...Ambassador Robert Tuttle said security fears had played a major role in the decision to move but also the current embassy had reached its limits as an office building with a staff of 800.

...The current embassy was always an oddity in the US diplomatic set-up because of the lease arrangement with the Duke of Westminster - virtually every other major mission is owned outright by the US.
The Duke reportedly said he would only sell if the US government returned his family's land, confiscated during the American War of Independence.

Hell, maybe this time they'll get the eagle to look the right way, if they don't take the one they have now along with them to their new home (it's considered a rather famous sculpture now, the guy who designed it was a well known artist--unknown if the reclassification of the building as a historic site means they have to leave it behind, or what) and with any luck, they'll leave behind the statue of Saint Ronnie in Grosvenor Square. Ike looks right there, but Ronnie looks like something plonked down to buy Margaret Thatcher a thrill or something.

If the idiots at Faux news don't like the idea of a black American president building a new embassy (and they don't), that's reason enough to build it, IMO.

[Zorra]

48. 500 million dollars. That's just wrong.

Occupy

[dems_rightnow]

49. China volunteered to build it for free!