$630 Billion Dollars and the Drunk Nuclear General

[Ichingcarpenter]

$632.8 billion worth of military spending was approved late Thursday night by the Senate in a 84-15 vote, moving the bill, approved last week in the House, to President Obama for a signature.

In reality, there was one clear winner: the bipartisan defense lobby, a category that does not apparently include wounded veterans, who must give up some of their pensions for the sake of restoring that public faith, not to mention funding the extra $22 billion for defense that will flow inexorably into the pockets of Lockheed (stock already up 55% this year), Raytheon (up 54%), Northrop (up 64%) and their peers. With the hearty endorsement of both parties, they have emerged triumphant from the budget wars at the expense of old-fashioned special interests such as veterans, the poor, the unemployed, children (57,000 kicked off Head Start) and the aged.


http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cockburn-budget-deal-defense-20131220,0,4067784.story#ixzz2o0Ptn8u0

Amazing details from the drunken Moscow bender that got an Air Force general fired



The Air Force has just released its official report on its investigation into Maj. Gen. Michael Carey's July trip to Moscow, which got him fired in October.

Carey oversaw three wings of nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles, with 450 ICBMs in all.


At the time, the dismissal was reportedly over personal misconduct during the official trip. But "misconduct," it turns out, does not even come close.


The 42-page report is a doozy. It describes Carey as drinking heavily, spending an awful lot of time with two foreign women (a possible security risk), skipping meetings, complaining, offending the Russian hosts, at one point trying to perform with a band at a Moscow bar called La Cantina and generally acting a bit like a college kid on a semester abroad. The drinking got so bad that, according to the report, "one witness was concerned that Maj Gen Carey needed assistance standing." As a bonus, the report mentions Carey's impolitic comments about "Eric Snowden."


Here are some choice excerpts from the report


http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2013/12/19/amazing-details-from-the-drunken-moscow-bender-that-got-an-air-force-general-fired/


i thought these two stories complimented each other

[idwiyo]

1. k&r

[another_liberal]

2. Who needs a military coup?

The Pentagon clearly already has control of our national treasury!

[mitty14u2]

3. Afghan Audit Finds U.S. Military Aid Prone To 'Waste, Fraud, Abuse'

A U.S. auditor says an effort to supply spare parts to the Afghan National Army is plagued by waste and potential fraud because of Kabul's poor record-keeping.

The audit by the Special Inspector-General for Afghanistan Reconstruction says much of the $370 million spent by the United States and its allies on spare parts for Afghan military vehicles from 2004 to 2012 "cannot be accounted for."

It says Afghanistan has failed to keep an up-to-date tally on parts in stock, what parts have been ordered, and when parts are scheduled to arrive.

The audit did not find any documentation confirming the delivery of spare parts to the Afghan army from 2010 to 2012.

http://www.rferl.org/content/afghanistan-us-audit-waste/25139137.html

The Building For No One: The Defense Department Set To Demolish Huge Facility That Was Unused And Unneeded

As the federal and state governments continue to shutdown or curtail core educational, environmental, and scientific programs due to lack of money, the disclosures of unspeakable waste continue to mount in Afghanistan and Iraq with no appearance of accountability or abatement.

Indeed, for years, the media has reported billions of lost or wasted funds, including money disappearing into the corrupt government circles of leaders in the countries. Yet, Congress would prefer to debate Planned Parenthood or global warming grants. Consider the latest outrage.

The U.S. military spent $34 million to build a huge headquarters for the Marines in Afghanistan with a theater, special operations rooms and other amenities. The problem that various people including the Marine commander were saying that it was not needed and would not be used. Now it is likely to be demolished, unused and unoccupied. There was the bridge to nowhere and now we have the building for no one.

The building is larger than a football field and has state-of-the-art air conditioning and equipment. As usual, contractors made a mint on the building and people in the military made sure that its lack of need or likely use would not stop the money flowing to willing hands.


http://jonathanturley.org/2013/07/10/the-building-from-no-one-the-defense-department-set-to-demolish-huge-facility-that-was-unused-and-unneeded/

[spanone]

4. while cutting unemployment insurance for americans facing hardships

[neverforget]

5. it's all so bipartisan.

[RobertEarl]

6. Obama should veto the bill

And tell congress to cut spending on bombs and rise spending on health care and feeding the starving.

It would be a great Democratic Party move and inspire millions of activists.

Signing this bill will mean more starving, more ill health and dis-encouragement of millions of grassroots activists. Hell, we may as well all become republicans since democrats sure ain't listening to The People.