This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • Misiewicz Pleads Guilty In GDMA Scandal

    CDR Michael Vannak Khem Misiewicz has pleaded guilty in Federal court to two felonies in conjunction with the Glenn Defense Marine Asia, Ltd (hereafter “GDMA”) bribery scandal.  The two felonies were conspiracy to commit bribery and bribery of a public official.

    Prior to the scandal, Misiewicz had been selected for promotion to Captain.  Now he faces up to 20 years in Federal prison.  A sentencing hearing is scheduled for 29 April.

    Another Naval officer involved – LCDR Todd Malaki – has also recently pleaded guilty.  He’s scheduled to be sentenced today.  He faces a maximum possible sentence of 5 years in prison.

    In the GDMA scandal, the CEO of GDMA – “Fat Leonard” Francis –  provided numerous expensive gifts to various Navy personnel in exchange for advance information regarding Navy port calls and/or the diversion of Navy ships to specific ports.  This in turn allowed GDMA to overcharge the US Government approximately $20 million for services performed in conjunction with those port calls.

    At present, only one of the GDMA conspirators is fighting charges; the rest have pleaded guilty.  A partial list of those involved from about a year ago can be found here.  However, it is known to be incomplete, as Malaki is not listed there.

    The matter remains under investigation.  More arrests are possible.

    Personally, I hope every one of the US personnel involved – civilian or military – gets absolutely nailed to the wall at sentencing. These individuals were all in positions of public trust and abused them badly. IMO they deserve a looong time to contemplate their misdeeds.

  • There Are Charities – and Then There Are Charities

    Many vets like to help others in need.  Donating to charities that provide services to vets in need is one way to do that.

    But as is always the case, there are veterans’ charities . . . and then there are veterans’ charities.  They’re not all equally good regarding “bang for the buck” – if you define “bang for the buck” as the proportion of donated funds that actually get spent on helping veterans.

    Some veterans’ charities are quite good in that respect.  According to CBS News, the DAV Charitable Service Trust spends 96% of its funds on veterans. Fisher House is also good (91%).

    Wounded Warrior Project?  Um, not so much.  CBS News says the actual figure for WWP is around 60%.  (WWP claims 80% – but per CBS, they do so by including shipping/postage costs, the cost of selected promotional items, and the cost of direct response advertising.  Remove those overhead items and the fraction falls to around 60%.)

    They apparently like to party, though.  In 2014, WWP spent over $26 million on “conferences, conventions, and meetings”. That’s up from a bit over $1.74M in 2010 for “meetings and events”.

    One 2014 annual meeting alone – for about 500 WWP staffers, held at what appears to be a very nice resort in Colorado Springs – cost roughly $3M.  Sounds to me like the people at the VA who plan conferences must have given them a few pointers.

    WWP also seems to pay their top employees well, too.  As in nearly $500k in 2014 salary for their CEO.

    And did I already mention that WWP gave an organization that defends higher spending by charities for fundraising, overhead, and executive salaries a grant of $150,000 last year?  I didn’t mention that yet?  Well, according to CBS – they did.

    Current WWP CEO Steven Nardizzi took over in 2009.  Per CBS News, “Former employees say spending has skyrocketed since Steven Nardizzi took over as CEO in 2009.  Many point to the 2014 annual meeting at a luxury resort in Colorado Springs as typical of his style.”

    CBS News is doing a multi-part report on WWP this week.  Part 1 may be found here; part 2 may be found here; part 3, here.  (I have no idea if CBS plans more parts to the series, so monitoring their web site might be worth your time for the next few days.)  The articles are eye-opening – and to me, rather disturbing.

    I can say with certainty that until WWP cleans up their act, they won’t see a penny from me.   But that’s just me.  I can’t speak for others on this issue.

     

    Edited to add:  a belated footnote – a comment on an earlier article by longtime readernbcguy54ACTUAL  tipped me to the the first CBS story in the series.  My apologies for not giving him that credit earlier.

  • A Clintoon SAP Story

    “Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends . . . .”  Well, at least it seems sometimes as if this one will persist forever.

    Still, maybe not.  Remember the argument a few weeks ago, when the Clintoon camp tried to “pooh-pooh” two emails found on her poorly-secured “private email server” that contained top secret information, calling them the result of a “disagreement” over the proper classification or claiming that they “weren’t classified at the time”?  The IC came on record and flatly stated that was not the case, and that the materials in question were indeed top secret.

    Well, it looks as if there was a bit more to it than that.

    It seems as if the Intelligence Community IG office did a comprehensive review of the issue, apparently between November and earlier this month. And it’s considerably worse than they first let on.

    Bottom line: dozens of classified emails were on that ineffectively-secured and unauthorized “private” server.  And at least some of those emails apparently contained information that was not only top secret, but which was also SAP (special access program) material from the Intelligence Community.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term, this linked Wikipedia article provides a decent overview of what a special access program is and why one would exist.

    If you’re thinking, “That’s bad” – yeah, that’s bad.  Really bad.  As in “Big (Freaking) Deal” bad, to quote the current VP.

    Something like this is simply NOT supposed to happen.  Period.

    The material here is so highly controlled that some members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee – the Senate committee which oversees operations of the State Department – were not authorized access to this information without receiving additional security briefings and signing additional nondisclosure agreements specifically relating to the material.  This was true even though those same individuals were previously cleared for access to all other materials publicly acknowledged as being found on Clintoon’s unauthorized “private” server.

    The linked articles are quite informative – and disturbing as hell.  IMO they’re worth your time to read.

    IMO, a number of people should be going to jail for this.  At this point it appears obvious that this was not merely the result of some “honest mistake” in handling classified information.

    18 USC 793(f) and (g), anyone?  Sure looks like it to me.

  • More IRS IT Data “Issues”

    To paraphrase a great man: “Well, there they go again.” And this time, while it indeed involves the IRS and their IT operations it doesn’t involve screwing with conservative nonprofit groups.

    Some time ago, the IRS entered into a questionable $2.2 million contract with a law firm. The law firm was to assist with IRS audit activities – but had little experience in handling IRS audit data, and was very expensive ($1000/hour billing rate). The contract was bad enough to draw Congressional interest – and could well have been both unnecessary and contrary to Federal law, which appears to restrict performance of IRS audit functions to government employees.

    The matter apparently became the subject of some form of litigation or investigation. As a result, a Federal judge ordered the IRS to preserve the hard drive used on the personal PC of the IRS’s former director of transfer pricing operations at the IRS Large Business and International Division– and individual named Samuel Maruca. Mr. Maruca (or one of his subordinates) apparently oversaw or influenced the contract in question.

    Do I really need to tell you what happened?

    Yeah, you guessed it. Contrary to the judge’s order, the IRS wiped the drive – last April, well after the judge had ordered it preserved.

    To me, it seems this means either the IRS’s IT folks are spectacularly incompetent – or someone is deliberately trying to hide something.  I can’t see any other plausible explanation for a drive ordered preserved by a Federal judge being wiped after it had been ordered preserved.

    But maybe that’s just me.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions regarding why the IRS did this.

    Oh, did I mention that this had happened before?  In March 2014, the IRS deleted “hundreds” of backup tapes containing an estimated 24,000 emails from Lois Lerner – after they’d been subpoenaed by Congress.

    But remember: this is the “most transparent Administration in history”.  So we’ll shortly be getting a simple, straightforward explanation regarding what happened here  – right?

    Yeah, right.  If you believe that . . . please come talk to me about buying this bridge.  I’ll make ya a great deal on it.

  • DoD Creates the R(EMF) Device

    As TAH reader D indicated in his comments to a recent article, DoD has completed a comprehensive review of military awards and decorations policies.   A summary listing all the changes to be made as a result of the review can be found here..

    Most of them seem to make at least some sense.  However, one of them rather “jumped out” at me when I saw that summary.  Check out this change, which apparently will be implemented PDQ (emphasis added):

    Remote Operations

    19. As the impact of remote operations on combat continues to increase, the necessity of ensuring those actions are distinctly recognized grows. Accordingly,the Department will create a “R” device that may be affixed to non-combat performance awards to specifically recognize remote but direct impact on combat operations.

    20. The Department will adopt a common definition of “Direct Impact on Combat Operations” for purposes of recognizing remote impacts on combat operations through award of the “R” device.

    If you’re thinking that sounds kinda familiar . . . well, if you’re a longtime TAH reader it should.  Take a look at this article from somewhat over 2 1/2 years ago.

    Yep.  Looks like DoD is implementing my recommendation, whether they realize it or not.

    The 5-sided asylum can give the “R” device whatever formal title they like.  But whatever they call it, I claim the vernacular/common slang “naming rights” to it.  It’s the REMF device.

  • More Idiocy from the Pinheads at PETA

    Well the fools at PETA have been at it again, clogging up the courts with idiocy. And this latest one is a real winner.

    They went to US court over the copyright rights for a photograph.  The international copyright was owned by a British photographer.  He’d left his camera unattended while visiting Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island, and some monkey managed to take a “selfie” with it.  The photo is now quite famous.

    PETA went to court and requested the copyright rights be reassigned.  They wanted the copyright rights reassigned to the monkey.  And they wanted PETA to be allowed to administer those copyrights “on behalf of the monkey”.

    Yep, you read that right.  They wanted the legal copyright rights – and thus any income derived from same – to be assigned to a freaking monkey.  And they actually went to court to try and make that happen.

    In a refreshing display of common sense, the judge essentially – in polite, legal language – told PETA to go pound sand.

    Sheesh.  These imbeciles should be required to have an escort any time they’re walking around in public, for their own protection and that of others.

  • Wunderbare.

    Remember those two dead terrorist bastards who killed 14 and wounded 20+ in San Bernardino earlier this month? You know, the case where a US citizen went to a nation with a high level of support for radical Islamic terrorism; found himself a “bride”; and brought her to the US on a spousal visa?  The case where the terrorist “bride” apparently had made past posts on social media supporting violent jihad and indicating a desire to participate in same, but was admitted to the US anyway because checking her social media accounts during the visa approval process was against DHS policy?

    Well, sit down – it gets even “better”.

    When a US citizen wants to bring a foreigner to the US as a spouse, there is a existing requirement in Federal law that the two individuals must have met face-to-face at least once prior to that prospective spouse being granted a visa to enter the US.  The purpose of this requirement is to combat “sham marriage” rackets.

    Well, regarding our two dead terrorists . . . do I really need to spell it out?

    Yeah, you guessed it:  turns out there’s no real evidence that a face-to-face meeting ever happened prior to the spouse receiving her visa.  And it also appears that (1) INS noticed a lack of evidence for such a meeting, (2) asked for more information documenting that such a meeting happened, (3) got nothing . . . but approved her entry into the US on a spousal visa anyway.

    Further, there’s actually rather strong circumstantial evidence that such a meeting likely never happened.

    Fox has a decent story from a couple of days ago detailing the timeline and evidence.  It’s worthwhile reading.

    Oh, and remember the dead terrorists’ friend who acted as straw buyer for the weapons they used in their attack?  Turns out he was getting paid $200 a month for his “marriage” to an in-law of the dead male terrorist.  It certainly looks at this point like that “marriage” was a sham, too.

    “Curiouser and curioser”, said . . . well, damn near anyone with a working brain.

    Yeah, Secretary Johnson – looks like your department’s certainly “got some ‘splainin’ to do.”  About multiple things.

  • Thank You, Captain Obvious

    Well, even a stopped clock is right twice daily.  From our “good DHS Secretary”, Jeh Johnson:

    “We do have to be concerned about the possibility that a terrorist organization may seek to exploit our refugee resettlement process,” he said Wednesday.

    Johnson further went on to say that the      group of fools and tools screwing things up by the numbers in DC     current Administration “is continuing to reevaluate” screening associated with the US refugee resettlement program.

    Gee, Mr. Secretary – ya think?  Maybe seeing 14 killed and 20+ wounded by a terrorist who should have been refused admission to the US because of a grossly insufficient visa screening process gave him a clue.

    Personally, I think Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois had the proper response: “I mean this respectfully to the secretary, but, duh.”

    I agree, Rep. Kinzinger.  Even Stevie Wonder could see there was a potential problem with refugee screening months ago.  One has to wonder why those in current Administration couldn’t.

    And speaking of screening those seeking to enter the US, here’s another bit or two of “oh so good” news.  A senior official of the Department of State admitted when testifying before Congress the other day that it’s not just so-called “refugees” that pose a security problem.  It seems that the State department has no idea of the whereabouts of literally thousands of persons admitted to the US whose visa was later revoked. Many of those visas were revoked due to later concerns that the individual had ties to terrorism.

    Further, a senior DHS individual also confirmed in later testimony before the same Congressional committee that while pilot projects are have begun to test screening of visa applicants’ social media posts, “such checks aren’t being done in an abundant manner”.  Let me provide a plain English translation of that bit of Bureaucrat-Speak:  “We’re still trying to figure out how to do that.”

    Yep.  It sure sounds to me like the current Administration has this issue “completely under control.”  No need to be concerned!