Apparently all our tax dollars are going to iPods and expensive suits for bureaucrats and wonks.

[readmoreoften]

And here I thought it was going to private corporations to build toll roads that double charge us, to private corporations and universities for bomb development, to private corporations for reconstruction after the bombs are dropped, and to bail out corporations. Am I supposed to get upset because bureaucrats are writing off iPods? Are they kidding?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080408/ap_on_go_ot/government_credit_cards

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Bleeding the Beast" - republicon homelander fundamentalist strategy to destroy America

"Neoconservative Republicans essentially do not care how poorly the institutions of government work because their ultimate goal is to decimate those institutions. Whether it is mining regulations, banking, securities, health care, social security, environmental protection, education, communications, immigration, port security or emergency management, the goal is the same: Privatize basic functions and reduce government oversight responsibility to a rubber stamp.

(also illegally squander tax money on private republicon kinks & republicon material indulgences).

"In neoconservative parlance, it is called “Starving the beast.” (or Bleeding the Beast)

"The beast is the government, itself, and while our elected officials are not so bold as to deliver a killing thrust, they can bleed the beast with a thousand razor-like cuts and deny essential funding required to maintain its functions.

"From the perspective of society’s well-being, the failures of the Starve the Beast policy have been nothing short of spectacular yet few analysts or pundits have bothered to connect the dots between the policy and its outcomes.

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Feb06/Random21.htm

I guess this would include George AWOL Bush and his apparent use of Jeff Gannon. Your tax dollars at "work."

[SpiralHawk]

2. Don't want no stinkin republion homelanders bleeding, dishonoring my government

Give us back our money.

Give us back our Constitution.

Give us back our democracy.

Give us back our honor.

[Romulox]

3. Are we supposed to be outraged that the money wasn't spent on a couple more bombs?

:shrugs:

[SpiralHawk]

4. Nope. Outraged that the $ not spent for our citizens along the Gulf Coast

or our children in schools.

or to develop alternative energy.

or to repair our crumbling infrastructure.

or, or, or....the 1,0001 honest things that need to be done in the USA.

[Romulox]

5. It was NEVER going to be spent for that...

We live in a deregulated, laissez faire economy. Any additional money in the economy is seized as "profits", primarily for the benefit of multinational corporations.

It reminds me of the "war clock" that was suppose to count up all of the things "we could afford" if not for the Iraq war: universal healthcare, universal secondary education, universal childcare, etc.

Most people, seeing this list, quite rightly said, "We didn't have any of that stuff, before the war, and there is no reason to believe that we would have any of that without the war..."

[SpiralHawk]

6. Well, it sure as hell ought not to be spent for iPods and sex calls for republicon hypocrites

So I feel entirely justified in advocating that our tax money be spent on things that the people of the USA actually need, rather than the trinkets and kinky jollies -- and war machines -- the republicon homelanders are wasting it on.

[readmoreoften]

7. I'm sure there are plenty of Democrats buying iPods with our tax dollars.

Let's not be unrealistic. We're in a good old fashioned kleptocracy.

[MagickMuffin]

8. Keith Olbermann mentioned this last night

I want the government to seize the money from the Feds who bought ALL this stuff with their credit cards.

They KNOW who the abusers are, so, it would seem to me that it should be relative easy to reimburse the taxpayers.

An Agriculture Department employee fraudulently wrote 180 convenience checks for more than $642,000 to a live-in boyfriend over a six-year period. The money was used for gambling, car and mortgage payments, dinners and retail purchases that went unnoticed until USDA's inspector general received a tip from a whistle-blower. The employee, who pleaded guilty to embezzlement and tax fraud charges, was sentenced last year to 21 months in prison and ordered to repay the money.

_U.S. Postal Service workers separately billed more than $14,000 to government credit cards for Internet dating services and a dinner at a Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Orlando, Fla., for 81 people at a cost of $160 each for steaks and crab. The dinner bill also included more than 200 appetizers and more than $3,000 worth of wine and brand-name liquor such as Courvoisier, Belvedere and Johnny Walker Gold.

In the Internet dating case, a postmaster charged $1,100 over 15 months for two online services, including the Ashley Madison Agency. The expenses went unnoticed for more than a year even though he was under internal investigation for viewing pornography on a government computer. The postmaster was eventually told to repay the Internet charges but faced no disciplinary action.

_At the Pentagon, four employees purchased $77,700 in clothing and accessories at high-end clothing and sporting goods stores. The spending included more than $45,000 at Brooks Brothers and similar stores for tailor-made suits — $7,000 of which were purchased a week before Christmas. The credit-card holders said the items were for service members working at U.S. embassies with civilian attire. Pentagon rules allow purchases of civilian clothing when performing official duty, but generally only up to $860 per person.

_Justice Department and FBI employees charged $11,000 at a Ritz Carlton hotel for coffee and "light" refreshments for 50 to 70 attendees for four days, averaging about $50 per person. Seventy percent of the total conference cost of $15,000 was for the food and beverages, while audiovisual and other support services totaled only about $4,000, or 30 percent of the charges. It was not clear what action, if any, that Justice took in light of the conference expenses, which GAO deemed excessive.

_At the State Department, one credit-card holder bought $360 worth of women's lingerie at Seduccion Boutique for use during jungle training by trainees of a drug enforcement program in Ecuador. One State Department official later agreed that the charge was questionable and stated that he would not have approved the purchase had he known about it.

[SpiralHawk]

9. Thank you

to Kieth, and MuffMag

[dysfunctional press]

10. "...sentenced last year to 21 months in prison and ordered to repay the money." ($642,000)

how in the world is a former ag dept. employee going to come up with $642,000? :shrug: