The Angry White Guy

How many people does it take to watch a Gitmo detainee? Answer 30.

Posted November 17th 2009 at 4:47 pm by AWG

Plan to move Guantanamo detainees to rural U.S. jails sparks interest, debate

Senator Dick Durbin want to bring the the Gitmo detainees to Thomson Illinois State Prison let’s us look at what he said…

Now get in mind there is about 100 Gitmo detainees… 100, that’s all.

Dick Durbin, a powerful Democratic senator from the state, are keen to see the feds send about 100 of the detainees to Thomson, Ill., saying it would help create about 3,000 jobs in the economically depressed area

3000 Jobs!!! Are they using a recovery.gov stimulus funding calculator? That’s 30 jobs per detainee… that doesn’t sound right, that doesn’t add up…does it? I know it takes twice as many government employees to do the same job that done in the private sector but something tells me that even at the most secure prison in the country it’s not a 15 employees to 1 ratio… perhaps the other way around.

So why does it take 3000 people to watch 100 people?

Well others seems they don’t believe it either…
The Illinois Republican Party lays out the harsh facts in a press release:

CHICAGO – Illinois Republican Party Chairman Pat Brady today expressed his disappointment in Illinois Governor Pat Quinn and Senator Dick Durbin’s deliberate attempts to mislead the public on the plan to move a terrorist detention facility from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to Illinois.

Just hours ago, the Associated Press reported that “Colorado officials have not been contacted by the federal government about housing Guantanamo Bay detainees at federal prisons in the state, despite public comments that a facility in Florence is under consideration.”

While Quinn said a federal prison in Florence, Colo., and another facility in Montana were competing with Illinois over the GITMO move, “Colorado officials said they haven’t been contacted by the federal government regarding housing Guantanamo prisoners in the state.”

Quinn and Durbin have also misled Illinois citizens about the number of jobs the Thomson plan would create. The Illinois Democrats repeatedly told reporters that the plan would create roughly 3,000 new jobs. But in a press release distributed this morning, members of the Illinois congressional delegation reported that only 450 to 500 jobs would be created – with no guarantee those jobs would go to local communities:

According to a congressional briefing from officials at the Department of Defense and the Bureau of Prisons, between 450 and 500 new employees would be hired at annual salaries of $37,000 to $47,000 at the Thomson Correctional Center. However, no hiring preference is given to residents from the surrounding area. Local residents would compete against applicants from across the country. Additionally, new hires must be under the age of 37, and must be or become law enforcement officers.

While downplaying the security threats posed to Illinois by moving GITMO to our state, Governor Quinn has no problem exaggerating the move’s economic impact or hyping a perceived competition,” Chairman Brady said. Instead of looking out for our state’s best interest, Democrats will do whatever it takes to cover up their total mismanagement of the Illinois economy. Governor Quinn and Senator Durbin should stop playing politics with our security.”

450-500 new jobs? Slightly more reasonable but what I still believe is inflated, as it is with every job number coming from the government. Frankly I don’t care if it wipes out nationwide unemployment for the next 10 years… we do not need these terrorist on American soil… then again I wouldn’t put them on a tropical island, I’d put them in some Arctic tundra wasteland and feed them to the Polar bears, but that’s just me.

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