Aren’t you glad you voted for Bush and Co? What a bang-up job they’ve all done over the last eight years. Nothing like having had a small government, fiscal conservative in the White House who protected every dime of your tax money. Good times, good times…

A Defense Department project, supposedly designed to support U.S. troops, was used instead to channel millions of dollars to personal friends and allies of its chief. The “America Supports You,” or ASY, program was led in a “questionable and unregulated manner,” according to a Department of Defense Inspector General report, obtained by Danger Room. At least $9.2 million was “inappropriately transferred” by the project’s managers. Much of that money served only to further promote ASY, instead of assisting servicemembers.
[…]
In time, however, the program grew. Pro-troop rallies were organized. Special wristband and dog tags were made. Special-edition comic books were printed up. Processions were held on the National Mall, on the 9/11 anniversary. Sesame Street characters were enlisted to make DVDs that encouraged families with young children to talk about overseas deployments. America Supports You became a kind of umbrella group for all sorts of charity-related work for service members and military families.

Meanwhile, ASY began to spend millions — not to help the troops, the Inspector General says, but to help itself.
[…]
Worse still, in the eyes of many, was that Barber used the Stars & Stripes newspaper as a kind of money-laundering service, to pay Davis and Semel. The paper is partially financed by the Pentagon, and was part of Barber’s American Forces Information Service. But Stripes has a decades-long tradition of fierce independence. Editors were galled to discover that Barber’s office was pouring money into the paper’s coffers — and then paying Davis and Semel out of accounts with less congressional oversight and fewer spending restrictions than typical Defense Department funds.

Don’t people usually go to jail for this kind of thing? I mean those who aren’t military brass, military contractors, Congress, White House, etc.




  1. Greg Allen says:

    >> Aren’t you glad you voted for Bush and Co?

    What appalls me MORE is how many people voted for Bush THE SECOND TIME.

    Everything bad now was already obvious in 2004.

  2. Pagon says:

    I just read an article of extreme importance to anyone who loves our Constitution and who cares about the future of our Country.

    It’s called “Justice After Bush” by Scott Horton, and is in the latest issue of Harper’s.

    Please – please read it.

    It’s easy reading by the way, and you won’t be able to put it down once you start.

  3. Ah_Yea says:

    After having read this article, one sage adage came to mind.

    “It’s not what you know but who you know that matters”.

  4. onomontapeia says:

    What happened to the U.S.O.? How many government organizations do we need to do the same thing? Does everything need to be done in triplicate?

  5. doug says:

    small potatoes compared to what was wasted in Iraq, and the fraud that went into covering the failure up:

    http://tinyurl.com/6m2xtk

  6. MikeN says:

    Ahh, selective outrage.

  7. Wretched Gnu says:

    Well at least this accounts for a tiny bit of the 3 *trillion* tax dollars that the Pentagon simply “cannot account for” — i.e., whose expenditure shows up on no ledger of any kind, even those that deal with “classified” procurements…

    3 Trillion dollars, folks.

  8. Glenn E. says:

    Haven’t you learned yet, Uncle Dave. You can’t question the motives of anything that supports the troops. Besides, even if Al Gore had been president, some similar scam would doubtless have been created.

    Not to defend George Bush, but this was caused by members of the Defense Department. Bush is just a figurehead, that appointed those that wanted to be appointed to their lucrative positions. And ASY is just another sham front for “business as usual”. The GAO reported in Dec 2001 of the USO wasting $433K on luxury expenses. Probably for the top brass.

    When I was in the service, I noticed that the USO was only located in major cities like DC, Baltimore and Denver. But nowhere near the US towns and bases where the majority of service member actually served. So only if you were visiting a huge city, had no other plans, and were running out of cash, might the USO come in handy. I guess they’re weren’t interested in supporting the troops in the middle of our American deserts. Just in high profile places, like Iraq. Granted, they should be there too. But are they really just in Iraq now, to appear being useful? About as useful as the ASY holding concerts in NYC, on the Intrepid. Thank god troops serving there had something else to go to besides all the pricey Broadway theater, and Coney Island.

  9. qsabe says:

    Good job Brownie…..
    Doesn’t it make a republican proud. They voted their faith.

  10. JimD says:

    10 Million is CHICKEN-FEED, compared to the 10 to 12 BILLION A MONTH INTO CHENEY/HALLIBURTON’S POCKET !!! When will Cheney be ARRESTED ???

  11. Rick Cain says:

    Its almost like they intended to do this to our country from the very beginning…


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