WHY isn't this more of an election year issue?

[Capn Sunshine]

Trillions of dollars unaccounted for at the pentagon. TRILLIONS.
Why isn't this getting any airplay?
(rhetorical question.)

we should be howling collectively about this. Are we too weary already?

http://www.whereisthemoney.org/

[no name no slogan]

1. DK is out front on this

He's repeatedly cited this fact as a reason for cutting 15% of the Pentagon budget. If they can't account for over $1 TRILLION, why the hell do we keep throwing money at them?

Of course, he's not a "serious" candidate like DeanGephKerryClarkEdwardsJoe, so the media ignores him and the issues he raises, over and over.

[Nadienne]

4. Maybe the media ignores Kucinich

because of the issues he raises that they don't want to deal with...

[Cleita]

2. Hmm. What are they paying for toilet seats this day?

eom

[mastein]

3. Audits stopped years ago

Heard something on NPR several days ago that said the audits stopped several years ago because they were giving our country a black eye. Congress who ordered the audits know the slop that is going on and just doesn't want to see the military get black eyes every year for toilet seats and hammers. I think the annual audits stopping might have come under Clinton/Contract on America, but am not sure.

[Qutzupalotl]

7. You'll like this

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript245_full.html

MOYERS: Are we getting the best weapons at the lowest prices?

SPINNEY: No. No way at all. We could get… The weapons we're buying, we could get at lower prices if we held the contractors' feet to the fire. And I submit that many of the weapons we're getting, the best that you can say about them is that they are not designed for the threats that we face. Some of them may not work at all.

MOYERS: Spinney should know. His job at the Pentagon for the last three decades: to analyze the cost and effectiveness of America's weapons. And he says, national security is at risk because the country's not getting what we're paying for.

SPINNEY: I think it's out of control. I think a lot of people have just thrown up their hands.

MOYERS: So out of control, says Spinney, that the Pentagon can't account for billions upon billions of the dollars it's spending while its financial books border on pure fiction.

SPINNEY: We have an accounting system that is unauditable. Every year, they do an audit and the inspector general would issue a report saying we have to wave the audit requirements, issue a disclaimer of opinion because we can't balance the books. We can't tell you how the money got spent.

[Capn Sunshine]

8. Carlye's "Crusader Cannon" springs to mind

Long range cannon designed for NATO vs WARSAW pact East German frontier land war.

So heavy, it can't be effectively moved once it's in place.
Rumsfeld wanted to cancel the program.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/military/jan-june02/crusader_5-16.html


Bushco ordered , what , 50 of 'em?

[Minstrel Boy]

5. It should be, but it's unfortunately a bipartisan blackeye.

The trillions started vanishing before Bush took office.

And it's not just slush. I believe most of it has gone to off-the-books defense research and those euphemistic matters of "national security."

[kiahzero]

6. First of all, Clark's been talking about this

Sometimes he gets attention, sometimes not.

Ultimately, this doesn't bother me that much: it seems to be common-sense that at least some of this money would be going to covert ops stuff - you "pay" 11,000 for a toilet seat, you have that money to send a group of people somewhere.

[Capn Sunshine]

9. That's my feeling too

why do we "need" 87 billion MORE for Iraq?

They already refuse to account for 5 bill of it.