Pentagon Pundits Scandal

For years now, retired military officers have been used by network TV programs to assess the most current situation and to give guidance and advice on the future concerning the Iraq war. What the networks did not know, but should have discovered, was that The Pentagon was orchestrating the viewpoints of these men even to the point of writing scripts for them to mouth on TV. Their glowing reports were made to ramp up support for the War, according to the New York Times, which broke the story. Worse, some of these same former officers had financial holdings in some of the contractors and companies upon which they were opining, without disclosing such ties.
For More see: Democracy Now and The Nation

Video Length 3 min 54 sec


Video Length 9 min 27 sec

Corn Ethanol Doesn't Seem an Answer

Even though the use of corn ethanol as a gasoline additive is both uneconomical and counter-productive, the farm industry has pushed through a 54-cent-per-gallon subsidy for its production. This is likely due to the massive campaign contributions and lobbying expenditures of the large-scale farm companies. Most experts now agree corn ethanol will not help our energy problems because it uses as much energy to produce it as is gained from its use. But worse, the expanded use of corn for etanol production has pushed up the cost of corn, which in turn has pushed up the cost of corn for human consumption and raised cattle prices at the same time. And while the U.S. is subdizing domestic corn ethanol production, it has placed a 50-cent per gallon tarriff on Brazilian sugar cane ethanol, making it uneconomical to import.
For more see: Mother Jones and Financial Sense and Brazilian Ethanol

Video Length 4 min 44 sec

His Hair's On Fire

The American financial crisis is, by far, our most important issue---more important than terrorism, according to David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the U.S. He calls the Congress totally irresponsible. Without serious changes in fiscal policy, the United States is literally headed for bankruptcy. Unfortunately, legislation that provides additional benefits is easy to pass. But Congress is loathe to consider denying or reducing benefits for any segment of the population because it might cost votes. And that's the problem.

Yet, unless the entitlement programs of medicare, medicaid and social security are changed, they, along with interest on the debt, will grow to outstrip all available resources and crowd out all discretionary spending. The crisis is not yet obvious to citizens and it is easier for Congress not to act, but the longer this goes unaddressed, the more difficult it will be to fix---and if they wait too long, it will not be fixable. Walker likens our situation to a car headed for a crash into the Grand Canyon at 100 miles per hour. If you watch Walker explain the seriousness of our situation in this short video, it will likely scare the dickens out of you.
For more see: NYTimes and GAO Report

Video Length 7 min 57 sec

White House Ignores Corruption

The Bush administration has ignored corruption at the highest levels
within the Iraqi government and tried to keep it a secret according to two former State Department officials. According to them, this was to retain a good relationship with the Iraqi government. It seems that allowing fraud and corruption by Iraqis is simply part of paying the Iraqi government for continuing to supporting the United States mission. Instead of just providing the Iraqi government with U.S. aid, the White House strategy is to also pay off Iraqi officials for being allies. In fact, much of the "success" of the surge has been related to "buying" the loyalty of insurgents. But when we stop paying them, what will happen? Will they continue to be allied with the U.S.?

White House supporters in Congress snuck a provision into a previous defense funding bill that eliminated the federal agency that investigates fraud in Iraq. And Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has announced that neither he nor his cabinet may be investigated for corruption.

For more see: SFChronicle and NBC

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Pork Barrel Spending

Congressmen and Congresswomen feel compelled to "bring home the bacon." So they add self-serving appropriations to various bills to aid certain constituents or to make a name for themselves. These appropriations never go through committee scrutiny. You can browse through the "Pig Book," below, to see the plethora of pork projects. Some of these projects are likely in the national interest but many appear either frivolous or too narrowly focused at the expense of higher priorities . Here is a list of some that may seem frivolous:

$107,000 to study the sex life of the Japanese quail.
$1.2 million to study the breeding habits of the woodchuck.
$150,000 to study the Hatfield-McCoy feud.
$84,000 to find out why people fall in love.
$19 million to examine gas emissions from cow flatulence.
$144,000 to see if pigeons follow human economic laws.
$219,000 to teach college students how to watch television.
$2 million to construct an ancient Hawaiian canoe.
$20 million for a demonstration project to build wooden bridges.
$160,000 to study if you can hex an opponent by drawing an X on his chest.
$100,000 to study how to avoid falling spacecraft.
$1 million to preserve a sewer in Trenton, NJ, as a historic monument.
$6,000 for a document on Worcestershire sauce.
$57,000 for gold-embossed playing cards on Air Force Two.

For more see: 2008 Pig Book and CNN and Fox News

Video Length 4 min 18 sec

Massive Halliburton Fraud in Iraq

It's hard to belive the level and scope of fraud and corruption being perpetrated on the American taxpayer by Halliburton in Iraq where a single employee can bilk the U.S. government out of $3 million. It is reprehensible, outright, calculated deception on a massive scale. For example, Halliburton employees have paid $250,000 for a three-year lease of a $50,000 automobile, gotten 15 pounds of laundry done for $100 and have purchased brand new trucks when engines only need repairs. This is because Halliburton is given "cost-plus" contracts which encourage spending, spending, spending to the max. The more money spent, the greater the profits. But what is worse, even when the U.S. Congress is provided with evidence of dishonesty, it appears that there is no penalty. To the contrary, Halliburton receives new contracts instead. And why has the Senate rejected legislation to investigate Halliburton? Is this because Halliburton provides millions in campaign contributions and has friends in high places? A dozen or so whistleblowers have gone on record in the video below to describe the enormity and depravity of the dispicable graft that is being committed. You might be astounded by watching the short video below.
Fore more see: BBC and NYTimes


Video Length 10 min 44 sec

Unbelievable!

Back in 2006, Stuart Bowen, Director of the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR), had issued a huge number of reports of massive fraud, corruption and mismanagement by our own military and their contractors. A great deal of waste had been uncovered by Bowen and his staff. Can you believe that while Bowen was uncovering such waste, our U.S. Congress voted to eliminate his agency? Let's repeat that: OUR U.S. CONGRESS VOTED TO ELIMINATE BOWEN'S AGENCY. This provision was added to a defense authorization conference report at the last minute without the knowledge of members. So when they voted to authorize military funding, almost none realized that this provision was burried in the bill. Yet, a handful in Congress appeared to want waste and corruption to continue unabated. Why would some in Congress NOT want misuse of American money uncovered? Could it be that some in our defense department and its defense contractors did not want their mismanagement and waste scrutinized? Could it be that our military and their contractors did not want unfinished work or inadequately performed work to be discovered?

“It appears to me that the administration wants to silence the messenger that is giving us information about waste and fraud in Iraq,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, a member of the House Committee on Government Reform.

Soon after this provision was discovered, it was changed. Bowen's office will now be closed 18o days after only $250 million in reconstruction remains unspent.
For more see: Stuart Bowen's Report and NYTimes


Video Length 9 min 58 sec

Who's Your Daddy?

The Pentagon is planning a $5 billion transformation of the "green zone" in Baghdad into a tourist paradise to go along with the soon-to-be-completed $1 billion U.S. Embassy there. The development is apparently being developed by a firm involved in Disneyland USA and envisions, among other things, a Marriott Hotel, Tigris Woods golf course, riverfront park, museum, theatre and an amusement park.
An important question that goes unanswered is, how much taxpayer money will go into this $5 billion development? Since the Congress has no idea of precisely where the billions of war funding for Iraq goes, how much of this will be U.S. taxpayers funded? Is this a higher priority than water, sewers and electricity?

For more information see: ABC News and Contrary View

How to Hack a Voting Machine

Would you like to see, first hand, how to hack a voting machine? Well, the video below shows you, step-by-step, how it is done. And it is amazingly simple. A Princeton University team demonstrates how it was able to not only manipulate votes on an electronic voting machine, but then how their software erases itself after doing the illegal act, leaving no traces of the crime.

Even machines with a paper trail can be programmed to print out one result while tabluating another. And optical scanning machines can also be compromised as well if their computer code is modified. Below is a demonstration of how a voting machine is compromised.
For more see: Princeton Study and Confesions of a Computer Hacker and Hacking in 60 seconds


Video Length 9 min 29 sec

On Whose Side is the EPA?

Some people wonder if the Environmental Protection Agency is there to protect the public or the industries EPA is suppose to regulate. Mary Gade, director of the Midwest office of EPA tried to force the Dow Chemical Company to clean up contamination in the Tittabawassee River system where dioxin levels were the highest amounts ever found in the U.S.

But after Dow met with EPA officials in Washington, Gade was fired. This is not the first time EPA has appeared to side with industry as it previously denied California permission to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from automobiles and refused to declare greenhouse-gas emissions a threat. For more see: WSJ and Chicago Tribune
Video Length 4 min 17 sec

When Lobbyists Become Regulators

According to Anne Mulkern of CommonDreams.org, President Bush has installed more than 100 top officials who were once lobbyists, attorneys or spokespeople for the industries they oversee. These include regulators in the FDA, Interior, Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, USDA and EPA. In spite of the serious problems with manufacturers of everything from toys to drugs, Presidednt Bush nominated Michael Baroody, executive vice president at the National Association of Manufacdturers, to head up the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. Amid strong opposition, he withdrew his name. Has our Congress and administration become too cozy with the very organizations that government is meant to regulate? For more see:

Anne Mulkern and Source Watch and Washington Monthly