Justice Dept. in Hot Water Over Dubious Grants

[babylonsister]

Justice in Hot Water Over Dubious Grants
Reports Show Anti-Crime Youth Grants Went to Abstinence, Golf Programs
By Matthew Blake 07/03/2008



A new investigation of the Justice Dept. is now gaining traction. The scandal stems from the department's decision to distribute millions of dollars in federal grants to questionable youth and crime-fighting programs, despite advice from agency staff members not do so.

Two separate reports released last month, one by Congress and one from a nonprofit group document the controversy. The reports assert that a $1.1-million grant to prevent teenage delinquency was given to an abstinence-only sex education program run by Elayne Bennett, wife of the prominent Republican William Bennett. Career Justice staffers had said the education program "made no sense," but a department administrator overruled them. The staff had also rejected a $500,000 grant for a youth golfing program, but that was awarded as well.

These accusations of dubious grant-making are the latest wrinkle in the widening investigation of the Bush administration's political patronage involving the Justice Dept.

"When organizations cannot be assured that the playing field was level," Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said in a statement, "we are left with the impression that political favoritism, maybe even total randomness, won out over good government."

McCaskill is specifically investigating local law enforcement grants disctributed by the Justice Dept.'s Bureau of Justice Assistance. A report by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight revealed that some of these grants had been, without explanation, made exempt from the peer review process -- where Justice Dept. staff and law-enforcement experts evaluate the grants.

more...

http://washingtonindependent.com/view/justice-in-hot-water

[midnight]

1. Political favoritism, won out over good government.-Bush legacy.

[Warpy]

2. Golf?

From the crowd that screamed bloody murder over opening urban youth centers late at night for pickup basketball?

Christ, I really can't stand these elitist assholes.

[Bozita]

3. So gamblin' man Bill Bennett's wife is one of those government welfare queens.

$1,100,000 buys a lot of those welfare queen land barges aka Cadillacs.

Fucking hypocrites.