THE GUN TOTING LIBERAL™

And, no — I’m not making this up. I’m simply not capable of such a feat…

Oh, and, before you get onto me with this “blame Bush for everything” business, let us not forget that the President of The United States holds the rank of the highest-level military officer; the BUCK stops at the Oval Office…

Hold your noses — here it comes — the stench of far-right, neocon, unregulated capitalism at its FINEST; a perfect “Example A” to future generations on just WHY we need our Government to be focused very closely on keeping an eye on capitalists (and I am one; just an honest one — nope — not an “oxymoron”) to insure they aren’t simply in the “bidness” of transfering our hard-earned tax dollars into their wallets for underrepresented products and services:

Pentagon Paid $998,798 to Ship Two 19-Cent Washers (Update3)

By Tony Capaccio

Aug. 16 (Bloomberg) — A small South Carolina parts supplier collected about $20.5 million over six years from the Pentagon for fraudulent shipping costs, including $998,798 for sending two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas, U.S. officials said.

The company also billed and was paid $455,009 to ship three machine screws costing $1.31 each to Marines in Habbaniyah, Iraq, and $293,451 to ship an 89-cent split washer to Patrick Air Force Base in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Pentagon records show.

The owners of C&D Distributors in Lexington, South Carolina — twin sisters — exploited a flaw in an automated Defense Department purchasing system: bills for shipping to combat areas or U.S. bases that were labeled “priority” were usually paid automatically, said Cynthia Stroot, a Pentagon investigator. …” – Bloomberg

Hold right there. First off, I don’t want the Pentagon investigating the damned Pentagon. I don’t want the PRESIDENT investigating the Pentagon either. I want a bunch of independent, bipartisan, ordinary AMERICANS to investigate both the Pentagon AND that “bunch” in the White House, THEN, I’d like to see them turn their eyes toward Congress — BOTH sides of the aisle. Half of Washington can’t pull a scam like this one off right before the very eyes of the OTHER half of Washington, can they? Just THINK about it; I implore you. Common sense should tell you it just doesn’t happen that way. It’s time for us to follow the money trails, and I mean, ALL of the money trails…

More:

“… Corley, 46, was fined $750,000. She faces a maximum prison sentence of 20 years on each count and will be sentenced soon, McDonald said in a telephone interview from Columbia. Stroot said her sibling died last year. …”

Okay, great. Two less CROOKS on the streets; I’m alright with that. The question is, how do we, as a society choose to hold the two lowest-level crooks in this scam to a level of CRIMINAL accountability while allowing the Pentagon’s leaders and their Commander-In-Chief to face, what? A FIRING? Or, BAD PRESS?

They’re ALL common CRIMINALS; ANY participant in ANY so-called “program” SCAM that is designed to automatically rubber stamp huge [tax dollar financed] invoices as “paid in full“, simply because they happen to be labeled “priority” is not just guilty of participating in an “oversight”; they’re guilty of participating in a CRIME. In my NOT so “humble opinion”, the people at the highest levels who are responsible for this “oversight” CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE should be held accountable to do double the twenty years the lowest fellow criminal on the totem pole must do. Again — common sense.

Now get this: you’ve already read the above “snippets”, if not the entire article, so you already know the most expensive bills were paid for a shipment from South Carolina to President Bush’s home State of Texas.

With that in mind, get THIS:

… “The majority, if not all of these parts, were going to high-priority, conflict areas — that’s why they got paid,” Stroot said. If the item was earmarked “priority,” destined for the military in Iraq, Afghanistan or certain other locations, “there was no oversight.”

Folks, this is a blatant LIE. Saying “the majority” of the parts went to “conflict areas” might be technically, true. But, when a spokesman for the criminals “spins” the fact that we paid ONE MILLION DOLLARS to this phony, right-wing capitalist corporation to ship thirty-eight cents worth of washers from S.C. to Texas; he, she, or it crosses the line from being a “political spin-meister” to becoming a lying, thieving, accessory to a MAJOR CRIME that reaches all the way up through Congress all the way into the Oval Office.

While it’s a great thing the military has finally stopped the practice of paying eight hundred dollars for a toilet seat, they’ve really done nothing good for us in the end when they charge us two million dollars to get it shipped across three, or four state lines, have they? Again: THINK…

When I was in “The Desert”, I found it almost as disgusting to witness the capitalist WASTE, FRAUD, and ABUSE as I did to witness all of those kids with their arms and legs blown off in the name of “faulty intelligence”. Honestly, I’m not sure which flashbacks have cause me the most pain, now that I’m happy to be a CIVILIAN again.

I swear to God, I saw MILLIONS of dollars worth of once-shiny, brand new equipment and vehicles lined up in lonely grid yards, covered in sand, not being used in the least; NEVER used, never to BE used — 0.2 miles on their odometers, literally ROTTING in “The Desert” — serving as nothing more than expensive monuments to tax dollar fraud at the highest levels of our “Gub’mint”.

I witnessed civilians being paid six-figure, tax-free salaries to work side-by-side with our Airmen and Soldiers who made sixteen grand a year to perform the exact, same jobs; the civilians being sub-contracted by a subcontractor of KBR, who was subcontracted by Halliburton or somebody else — saw it all the time. The Airmen were held to UCMJ standards; the civilians being held to beaurocratic, “Gub’mint”, “fifty strikes and you’re OUT” standards. Call it what you will; spin it the way you wish; I call it as I see it: BLATANT FRAUD, WASTE and ABUSE; perhaps, even CRIMINAL in nature…

Meanwhile, there were all these alerts being passed down to we troops, asking us to participate in these “programs” to report any “Fraud, Waste, And Abuse” to our chains of command. “If you notice something suspicious, such as an invoice for eight hundred dollars for a toilet seat, please let your immediate supervisor know about it ASAP” (paraphrased) bulletins were being passed around all the time around the “war zone”. NOTHING about suspicious contracts. NOTHING about suspicious activity such as a bus driver bragging about being paid six figures to drive a bus around base when I had six Airmen with military bus drivers licenses who were being paid an average of sixteen grand a year — no “fraud alert” there — oh, no Siree BOB…

One more, then I can’t even think about this anymore — at least, not today — I’m just not in the mood for anymore of this white collar, White House CRIME coverage:

“… The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency orders millions of parts a year. “These shipping claims were processed automatically to streamline the re-supply of items to combat troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the Justice Department said in a press release announcing today’s verdict. …”

“The Justice Department”, eh? That’s a pretty “generic” term, isn’t it? Who’s the head of the Department of Justice again? That’s right, his name starts with “Alberto” and ends with “Gonzales”. The DOJ’s press release, essentially (knowing the above) amounts to:

“Alberto Gonzales is the front-line crook responsible for this felony.”

Is it just me, or is anybody ELSE getting sick and tired of having our so-called Department of Justice High Crimes And Misdemeanors being headed up a common criminal who answers to yet, another common criminal?

Ready for that “spot of tea“, anybody? Frankly, I’m not… YET. But, I MIGHT just be getting more and more ready for an ORANGE if our elected leaders are going to continue resisting the Peoples’ demands to straighten up and FLY RIGHT…

ASAP, if not YESTERDAY.

***

Thanks to our friend Pamela Leavey of The Democratic Daily for linking in

Thanks also to one of my best budettes in the blogosphere by the name of Jet for linking in from Bring It On

Thanks to MemeOrandum for linking to this post…

Other opinions: QandO; Cliff Schecter; On Deadline (USAToday)

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