Paging Henry Waxman…. Henry Waxman please pick up the white courtesy phone labeled â€Waste, Fraud, and Abuseâ€â€¦

And when the matters were finally put out to bid, exactly how did Booz Allen come to magically win all five? The prima facie thought would be that the parameters, proposal response times etc. were intentionally rigged to where Booz Allen was the only entity that could win; perhaps the only entity that could effectively even bid.

The only function in which Booz Allen (the quintessential Beltway Bandit) excels is in justifying contract/funding extensions. All substantive work is subsidiary to this function.

bzman,ew thanks so much!

You would think that corporate america and the wealthiest folks would be starting to get a little worried about the potential for a true class war. In a democracy (we are not operating by all are best rules of democracy right now) it’s a little bit easier to over throw the elite class. (compared to a revolt for example…meaning there are avenues within our democracy that we can impose that could cause a backlash for the elite).

Thinking of Warren Buffet yesterday begging to pay higher taxes, and his bet that other highly paid corporate elite could not prove that they paid more taxes (percentage) than their lower paid employees. He bet a million that no corporate elite operating under the current system could say this was true.

He is a visionary in many ways, and I think he sees something coming down the pike that is further in the future than most of us are looking. To him paying his share of taxes is probably the best alternative compared to what could happen. Perhaps he fears protectionism, or some big increase in taxes beyond â€their fair shareâ€.

He says he pays 17% while his secretary pays 33%. Whatever it is seems a worse outcome that actually changing the disparity. I don’t think it’s his generosity that motivates him. He is a business man first. There is a valid business motive for his stand.

It’s time to talk about the potential consquences of these abuses.

We should also document how this process makes professionals rich and the rich wealthy, because what they will do with the power this money conveys is perpetuate their source of funds.

The media stars’ stories are easiest to get. A lanky mediocre lawyer like Ann Coulter gives up her average pay and law practice and becomes a now waning media magnet and a multi-millionaire. Rush Limbaugh, even more infamously becomes a hundred millionaire. But there are thousands of others who’ve made their millions more quietly (like Woolsey, and with fewer gaffes than Lurita Doan), but direclty off of the taxpayers whose interests and heritage they are destroying.

This may be standard Bush, trash the place and walk off with the cash, but it has gone on so long and is so pervasive that it threatens to perpetuate itself. Just as the Supreme Court Bush put in place – a la today’s decision outlawing school desegregation plans – will harm us for years to come.

Maybe time for a little finger pointing — oversight in the Senate on Homeland Security Department matters belongs to the committee Lieberman currently chairs — in the last congress it was chaired by Susan Collins.

Whatever happened to those Ole Time New Englanders who were tight fisted with the dollars?

Once again, it seems as if â€they†really believed the Republicans would rule for a thousand years. These slimy slug trails of easy money are getting so outrageously transparent and common, that culd be the only explanation. They did not put a moment of strategy into what might happen if the Dems got a gavel in their hands.

If Siegelman got 7 years for his political salesmanship, when you compare that paltry scandal to Bush and Cheney, their whole cabal ought to get three life sentences, runnin’ wild…

Nice chart, Marcy, amazing how quickly a measly couple million can turn into AN EIGHTH OF A BILLION DOLLARS, when you got serious no-bid book cookers at the helm. And all for a new intelligence system, as if we don’t already have enough of those, overt and covert…