According to a new report, Henry Waxman has compiled a list of audits and investigations that find federal procurement spending has gone up 175 Billion dollars. Halliburton, the poster child for Bush's fraud and corruption campaigns, gained 600 %. So what does this mean for us?

I read the news today Oh Boy, and then I noticed that a good cross section of the top tier of American society, the movers, the shakers, the big money makers in government, business, and the religion game, the very pillars of our community, were in prison, under investigation or actually indicted, awaiting trial or out on appeal, on the prison bus or trapped underneath two large convicts named Leroy and Bubba and I sat back for a moment and smiled somewhat wistfully.

A bittersweet moment and a brief smile because I immediately recognized that what I was looking at was a surface tremor, an advance ripple before the onset of the exposure of a tidal wave of corruption, of civic rot, of a great molting of the fraudulent upper crust, of theft and graft and mendacity in public affairs that this country hasn't overturned since Tammany Hall.

Josh Marshall points us to the San Diego North County Times which reports that even in a jail cell, Duke Cunningham is not cooperating with investigators.

Still, with or without the Dukestir's help, it appears that things are about to get mighty interesting:

"This is much bigger and wider than just Randy 'Duke' Cunningham," he said. "All that has just not come out yet, but it won't be much longer and then you will know just how widespread this is."

The fallout from Cunningham's more than five years of taking bribes from defense contractors continues to reverberate from coast to coast.

In Washington on Monday, the No. 3 official at the CIA, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, announced he is retiring in the wake of last week's resignation by Porter Goss as the spy agency's director.

Foggo's resignation may have more to do with his relationship to Cunningham and Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes than with Goss' decision to step down.

One word of advice to Cortex readers: make sure that you're well stocked in popcorn.

Faced with a crises of confidence in their ability to establish an ethical climate in Washington that everyday citizens can look to with pride, and acting with the kind of boldness and raw courage that we have come to expect from the "Do Less Than Nothing Congress," the august body yesterday passed the "Lobbying Accountability and Transparency Act" which will accomplish ...... Nothing.

It will make government no more accountable nor make the influence lizards of K Street more transparent. What could be more transparent then what is now going on and has been going on between elected crooks and corporate crooks since I first was able to read a newspaper? Is there anyone in this country unaware of the corruption of our Government? Our business community? Please don't answer all at once.

The Bush administration is continuing their sick and pathetic policy of torturing people in Iraq when they think that all the lights and cameras are off. This is the subject of a new report out of Iraq from Amnesty International. The Bush administration would like you to think that the Abu Girhab photos were just a matter of a few frat boys gotten out of control. But this new report shows that the Bush administration's torture plans are far broader than that. In their twisted logic, they thought that as soon as all the lights and cameras were off, they could go right back to doing whatever they wanted to.

This is directed at anybody who thinks that their vote will not be important in the next election for whatever reason. It doesn't matter whether you are a Green disgusted at what you see as a lack of spine by the Democrats or a former Hackett supporter disgusted at what you see as an insular establishment who determines the candidates for Senate in smoke-filled backrooms. You are missing the key point as to why it is so important that you go to the polls and vote for a Democrat. You forget that a vote for a Democrat for Senate or the House is a vote for John Conyers as chair of the House Judiciary Committee.

A news item from the last hour (or the Friday news dump).

Well, as if we didn't already know, it's a small, small BushWorld.  Here's your teaser:

A stunning investigation of bribery and corruption in Congress has spread to the CIA, ABC News has learned.

The CIA Inspector General has opened an investigation into the spy agency's executive director, Kyle "Dusty" Foggo, and his connections to two defense contractors accused of bribing a member of Congress and Pentagon officials. Foggo is the number 3 man at the CIA

Just for fun, see if you can pick up all the Bush threads in following bit of tapestry:

As executive director of the CIA, Foggo oversees the administration of the giant spy agency. He was appointed to the post by CIA director Porter Goss after working as a mid-level procurement supervisor, according to former CIA officials.

While based in Frankfurt, Germany, he oversaw and approved contracts for CIA operations in Iraq.

Foggo is a longtime friend of Brent Wilkes, listed as unindicted co-conspirator No. 1 in government documents filed in the Cunningham investigation. The two played high school football and were in each other's weddings.

Even by BushWorld standards, the Cunningham/Wilkes scandal is mind-boggling:

According to government documents, Wilkes gave Cunningham $630,000 in cash and gifts in exchange for help in getting government contracts.

Wilkes was the founder of ADSC, Inc, in 1995. Under Wilkes, the company obtained more than $95 million in government contracts.

snip>
Cunningham is involved in what prosecutors call a corruption case with no parallel in the long history of the U.S. Congress. He actually priced the illegal services he provided.

Prices came in the form of a "bribe menu" that detailed how much it would cost contractors to essentially order multimillion-dollar government contracts, according to documents submitted by federal prosecutors for today's sentencing hearing.

"The length, breadth and depth of Cunningham's crimes," the sentencing memorandum states, "are unprecedented for a sitting member of Congress."

snip>
The card shows an escalating scale for bribes, starting at $140,000 and a luxury yacht for a $16 million Defense Department contract. Each additional $1 million in contract value required a $50,000 bribe.

Go read the whole thing.  

In this long, long, five-year tapestry of corrupt capitalism running amok, the threads continue to unravel.

The bidness-as-usual business model continues in Washington, partly due to ingrained habits, by virtue of elected office, and partly due to the ambitious benchmark set by  Bush, Inc.

After all, if the C-in-C serves at his own personal pleasure and dynastic benefit, rather at the pleasure of the people he represents, why should those in Congress?

A Senate committee yesterday rejected a bipartisan proposal to establish an independent office to oversee the enforcement of congressional ethics and lobbying laws, signaling a reluctance in Congress to beef up the enforcement of its rules on lobbying.

The Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs voted 11 to 5 to defeat a proposal by its chairman, Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), and its ranking Democrat, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (Conn.), that would have created an office of public integrity to toughen enforcement and combat the loss of reputation Congress has suffered after the guilty plea in January of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Democrats joined Republicans in killing the measure.

GOP Deals In Congress Prompt Call For Change
Big Decisions Made Without Democrats

By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 24, 2006; A01

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would have saved the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Senate version would have targeted private HMOs participating in Medicare by changing the formula that governs their reimbursement, lowering payments $26 billion over the next decade. But after lobbying by the health insurance industry, the final version made a critical change that had the effect of eliminating all but $4 billion of the projected savings, according to CBO and other health policy experts.

I want this bloated, back-room-hatched piece of godawful legislation hung around every GOP incumbent's neck between now and November 2006. Every campaign stop, every radio show, every "meet and greet" by a GOP incumbent, I want some citizen to stand up and say: You actually supported that heap of useless, life-threatening, budget-busting, insurance-company-pandering obscenity of a program? Even I - news junkie that I am - can't keep up with every new nightmare revelation coming up about it. One day, the states say they have to step in during the transition period and pay for prescriptions, the next day the feds are telling the insurance companies should eat the costs, tomorrow ... who knows? The UN will be told to step in and eat it, is my guess.

If you can't trust the Congress, who can you trust.  These are the folks who make our laws, and yet they have such a hard time controlling themselves when the opportunity arises to break those very laws.  They can write laws but not rules and guidelines for themselves.  You do realize that I am refering to the Republicans and their Culture of Corruption.  

Cross posted on Daily Kos, Booman Tribune, My Left Wing

Wed Jan 11, 2006 at 08:20:40 AM PDT

I am losing the ability to trust.

I'm about to turn off the TV. I'm close to throwing in the towel. I'm strong. I'm very strong, but maybe I'm not strong enough to be an American citizen.

Several years ago, I was in Scotland. A Scottish physician said to me, "America scares me!" I looked at her and laughed.

Now, America is haunting me as well. Perhaps all societies must endure a plunge into the abyss before emerging in the brilliant glow of sunshine. But, this great American descent is deeper and longer than I can fathom--with no end in sight.

This morning the NY Times reports that the IRS is withholding refunds due our poorest citizens.

"Tax refunds sought by 1.6 million poor Americans over the last five years were frozen and their returns labeled fraudulent, although the vast majority appear to have done nothing wrong, the Internal Revenue Service's taxpayer advocate told Congress yesterday."

Tom DeLay finally sees what others have long said:

He should resign as Majority Leader.

It's about time.  Too bad it took so long for the inevitable, but the New Year continues to rock!

Here's my favorite part from the quick Times announcement:

DeLay intends to remain in Congress, these officials said, and plans to seek a new term in November.

Some people never learn.  

So the New Year opens with a bang--with lots of whimpers to follow.

[Update: I'll update as events unfold today, but add any details you pick up in the comments below.]

Here's the latest from the Abramoff appearance today in district court to plead guilty to three charges of fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion:

Abramoff was scheduled to appear at a hearing in U.S. District Court here later Tuesday, said department spokesman Bryan Sierra. Abramoff was expected to plead guilty to three charges as part of his agreement.

The thing that speaks for itself:

US should 'seek resolution' with Iraq over $1.4 billion Kellogg, Brown and Root contract
Iraq-USA, Economics, 12/31/2005

The United States should "seek resolution" with the Baghdad Government in relation to a $1.4 billion contract awarded to the firm Kellogg, Brown and Root using Iraqi oil revenue, officials from the International Advisory and Monitoring Board (IAMB) set up to track the Development Fund for Iraq (DFI) said this week.

[edit]

Asked about audit reports that were redacted before being provided to the IAMB, Bert Keuppens of the IMF said early on the Board had noticed that DFI money had been used to pay sole-sourced contracts to Halliburton. US Department of Defense audits provided to the IAMB were heavily redacted, but subsequently the Board was provided with full copies, which had in any event had already been posted on the Internet by US Congressman Henry Waxman.

Nearly invisible, definitely below the radar until this morning, the process of simply managing data is beyond the Feds capability:

Aging computers hobble Homeland Security

Aging, incompatible systems and outdated processes have contributed to a backlog of approximately 1 million people waiting for a decision from the department's Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau. Computer problems at its Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau caused a snafu in which student visa holders were jailed overnight or barred from entering the United States.

Source:  CNET.news, 15 Dec.

If you need to interact with Homeland Security, bring a #2 pencil and paper.