Surprise! Major problems found in war spending

By GottaLaff

Instead of Sarah Louise Palin whinin' about all those cuts in spendin', sayin' they're a "sign of weakness" and such, too, also... maybe she should take a little look-see at this:

Construction of a $30 million dining facility at a U.S. base in Iraq is scheduled to be completed Dec. 25. But the decision to build it was based on bad planning and botched paperwork.

The project is too far along to stop, making the mess hall a future monument to the waste and inefficiency plaguing the war effort, according to an independent panel investigating contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In its first report to Congress, the Wartime Contracting Commission presents a bleak assessment of how tens of billions of dollars have been spent since 2001. The 111-page report, obtained by The Associated Press, documents poor management, weak oversight, and a failure to learn from past mistakes as recurring themes in wartime contracting.

The report is coming out Wednesday. And what a report it is:

U.S. reliance on contractors has grown to "unprecedented proportions," says the bipartisan commission, established by Congress last year. More than 240,000 private sector employees are supporting military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thousands more work for the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development.

Maybe they can stand down as the Iraqis stand up.

But the government has no central data base of who all these contractors are, what services they provide, and how much they're paid. The Pentagon has failed to provide enough trained staff to watch over them, creating conditions for waste and corruption, the commission says.

Gee, there's a name for that. Lack of something... overhaul? No. Overweight? Nah. Ah! Got it! Oversight:

In Iraq, the panel worries that as U.S. troops depart in larger numbers, there will be too few government eyes on the contractors left to oversee the closing of hundreds of bases and disposal of mountains of federal property.

There are big question marks in Afghanistan, too. See that? The U.S. is capable of waste and fraud in multiple countries! That's called progress! Want an example of how the Nation of Dick's favorite thugs fared? Why, here's one now!

KBR Inc., the primary LOGCAP contractor in Iraq, has been paid nearly $32 billion since 2001. The commission says billions of dollars of that amount ended up wasted due to poorly defined work orders, inadequate oversight and contractor inefficiencies.

In one example, defense auditors challenged KBR after it billed the government for $100 million in costs for private security even though the contract prohibited the use of for-hire guards.

KBR says the commission is biased. Of course they are, dear, Laffy said sarcastically. You just keep believing that.

There is so much more. Take a look, then find a good, strong wall to pound your head on.

Where Were the NSA Watchdogs?

By GottaLaff

There is so much sludge that could be dredged up. How much will eventually be revealed:

David Nather: "The disclosure of Rep. Jane Harman's intercepted conversation with a suspected Israeli agent has created reactions on multiple fronts. But one of the most overlooked angles has a deeper significance: Lawmakers who were supposed to provide oversight of the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping program reportedly tried to keep the public from knowing about it."

Internal FDA Doc Reveals Agency Stopped Enforcing Safety Standards

By GottaLaff

Fraudulent wars in other countries aren't the only things that kill people. Under Bush, American lives were also put at risk due to irresponsible lack of oversight right here at home:

Since 2006, the Food and Drug Administration has ignored its own internal regulation and stopped requiring manufacturers of medical devices – such as pacemakers, heart valves and other life-sustaining inventions – to meet specific safety requirements before they are deemed safe enough to be implanted in humans.

As the Project on Government Oversight reveals in a special report today based on internal FDA document obtained by POGO, senior officials within the FDA made this decision without public notice. Manufacturers have been trusted to monitor themselves ever since.

The problem is particularly alarming because last year the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that patients harmed by these devices have no right to sue the manufacturers, if the device was approved by the FDA.

Talk about having our hands tied... Is there a remedy? I mean other than wishing BushCo into the corn field.

Congress could [...] boost funding for the FDA and require it to enforce those laboratory safety standards the agency effectively discarded. Second, it could pass the Medical Device Safety Act of 2008, which would nullify the Supreme Court’s decision in Riegel v. Medtronic last year and restore the rights of patients injured by medical devices to sue the companies that made them — restoring a critical incentive for manufacturers to ensure the safey of their own products.

But all of that will take time. And many, many people don't have that luxury.

Another Reason to Can Joe

By GottaLaff

We already know that Harry Reid isn't a fan of Joe no mo'. Josh Marshall gives us another reason that might have slipped by us:

But one, perhaps the most obvious and substantive, has gone little mentioned. Simply put, he was terrible at it. Lieberman's committee is the senate investigations and oversight committee, the senate's counterpart to Rep. Henry Waxman's committee in the House. And if you remember a lot about Waxman's investigations and hearings and nothing about Lieberman's, that's because Lieberman didn't hold any. Even in the face of endless scandals of the late Bush administration, Lieberman couldn't find anything worth poking into.

Rule One: If one isn't good at one's job, one must be fired from said job.

Hit the road, Joe.

Bush/McCain Economy 101

By GottaLaff

In a nutshell:

Protected by Washington, Fannie and Freddie Grew

Helped along by robust lobbying efforts, the imperiled mortgage finance companies resisted stronger oversight as they expanded.

Tomorrow's lesson: How to pack for a gas tax vacation.