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News & ArtsWednesday, March 4, 2009
Crime / News How to Succeed in Business...
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Mar 4, 2009 at 10:02 AM
Among the Defense Department payments made to Corley, co-owner of a South Carolina parts distributor, was $998,798 for shipping two 19-cent washers to an Army base in Texas; $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, Fla., Pentagon records show.
5
the pentagon has been guilty of/complicit in shameful and documented waste, fraud and abuse for decades. this is nothing new. and nobody seems all that interested in fixing it. it's so much easier to scream about "welfare cheats." yeah, i'm talking to you, the rush limbaugh fans who have infected this blog in the last four months or so. go blow yourselves.
6
Seems like these stories are always missing the "how the fuck did the Pentagon let this happen?" angle. Do they not have any kind of system that would flag an invoice for nearly $1 million for a couple of washers? I know the Pentagon is an enormous business, but this shit seems obvious.
7
Economic crime is under punished. These folks defrauded the military during war - 10 years in brig! Dead serious.
10
@6, call a washer a "Friction-modifying, captive, hardened, rotatable base for turret-support bolts," or whatever, attach 30 pages of metallurgical specifications and test parameters, and run it all by some accounting clerk who never gets out of the office.
12
@6 & @10 - or there's a plain old kickback to the clerk/commanding officer/Republican Party*.
*I'd say either party, but when was the last time a Democratic donor was caught in DEFENSE Dept scam like this? They're always dinky, little companies that somehow find $100-500K for the Republicans.
*I'd say either party, but when was the last time a Democratic donor was caught in DEFENSE Dept scam like this? They're always dinky, little companies that somehow find $100-500K for the Republicans.
13
Further proof that the Government really is better at spending our money than we are. Makes me feel much better about having my taxes jacked up through the roof by Obama when I read stuff like this...
14
But this was standard operating procedure for businesses during the Bush administration.
Hell of a way to run a war that gained us nothing and cost us so very much.
Hell of a way to run a war that gained us nothing and cost us so very much.
15
@13, please explain how your taxes are "jacked up through the roof by Obama." They go down unless you make more than $250k a year, in which case they only go up to Reagan-era percentages. Middle-class inflation-adjusted incomes have dropped by 16% since the 1970's, while upper-class incomes have skyrocketed in real terms.
Moreover, imagine how many of these overcharges sailed through during the Bush administration with no public awareness. Obama-era investigations and transparency will doubtless bring many more old ones to light (and yes, probably a few new ones too).
Moreover, imagine how many of these overcharges sailed through during the Bush administration with no public awareness. Obama-era investigations and transparency will doubtless bring many more old ones to light (and yes, probably a few new ones too).
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