Kellogg Brown & Root can force Uncle Sam to produce records on the Army's alleged failure to provide force protection for KBR logistical services workers in Iraq, a federal judge ruled.
KBR could face civil penalties of more than $300 million, on the United States' claims that it billed the federal government more than $100 million for private security contractors it hired.
The government says its LOGCAP III contracts with KBR prohibited the use of such contractors.
U.S. Chief Judge Royce Lamberth ruled on Aug. 31 that he would allow discovery, after dismissing, in April, the contractor's argument that the federal government failed to provide adequate security.
KBR also asked the government to identify which KBR claims it believes are false, by releasing the invoices, and it sought documents relating to government contracts with other contractors in Iraq, and their relations with private security firms.
Lamberth ruled that the government already has released information relating to the specific claims in question, and that the government's relationship with other contractors is not KBR's business.
"The court is inclined to grant, with limitations, KBR's motion to compel the production of evidence relating to the United States' force protection obligations to KBR and its subsidiaries under LOGCAP III," Lamberth wrote. "Although this court has dismissed KBR's counterclaim, the United States' compliance (or lack thereof) with its force protection obligations under LOGCAP III may be relevant to whether it was reasonable for KBR to charge for [private security contractors]. However, such discovery

What about Israel’s nuclear weapons?

Interesting read and quite informative

Readers periodically ask me some variation on this question: “Why does the press follow every jot and tittle of Iran’s nuclear program, but we never see any stories about Israel’s nuclear weapons capability?”

It’s a fair question. Going back 10 years into Post archives, I could not find any in-depth reporting on Israeli nuclear capabilities, although national security writer Walter Pincus has touched on it many times in his articles and columns.

I spoke with several experts in the nuclear and nonproliferation fields , and they say that the lack of reporting on Israel’s nuclear weapons is real — and frustrating. There are some obvious reasons for this, and others that are not so obvious.

First, Israel refuses to acknowledge publicly that it has nuclear weapons. The U.S. government also officially does not

Thursday, August 30, 201216 Facts That Show How Members Of Congress And Federal Workers Are Living The High Life At Your Expense

Nobody is saying that we should shut the government down. All societies need government. However, the cold, hard truth is that our bloated federal government has gotten wildly out of control.

We desperately need to change course, because our federal government has become a deeply corrupt monster that just keeps getting larger and larger no matter which political party is in control.

The following are 16 sickening facts that show how members of Congress and federal workers are living the high life at your expense....

#1 Nearly 500,000 federal employees now make at least $100,000 a year.

#2 In 2006, only 12 percent of all federal workers made $100,000 or more per year. Now, approximately 22 percent of all federal workers do.

#3 If you can believe it, there are 77,000 federal workers that make more than the governors of their own states do.

#4 In 2010, the federal government spent $33,387 on the hair care needs of U.S. Senators.

#5 In 2010, U.S. Senators pulled $72,370 out of the "Senate Restaurant Fund".

#6 In 2010, U.S. Senators took $166,673 out of something called the "Senate Gift Shop Revolving Fund".

#7 In 2010, an average of $4,005,900 of U.S. taxpayer money was spent on "personal" and "office" expenses per Senator.

#8 Cooks working for the Bureau of Prisons make an average

Your Tax Dollars At Work: The US Budget Visualized For Congressional Dummies

Utterly mind blowing.


With a $3.8 trillion yearly budget, the US Government is the most powerful entity in the world. This simple infographic shows how the money was spent.

And while China slips in the backdoor undetected......US to expand military aid to Israel

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/150517.html

I don't think Congress still understands that "WE" can't afford our own country, let alone someone else's.
It's not like this money appropriation is for humanitarian aid, it's for more "WAR TOYS".
While Haiti is now being ravaged by Cholera, (which the humanitarian aid that the the US as well as the rest of the world pledged but reneged on giving could have helped to prevent)Congress has no problem wasting money to further stockpile Israels assurances of Middle East domination.
Israels priorities and problems should not be the American taxpayers concern or debt!
In 1947 they were given their own country, isn't it about time they started footing their own bills?
This is what allowing dual citizenship in political positions get you, the priority of paying someone elses bills.


The United States has planned to expand its military aid to the Israeli regime over the next two years, adding smart bombs to the new supply list.


US Congress approved a boost of $400 million worth of additional military equipment for Tel Aviv last month, Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported on Thursday.

The fresh aid package will bring the value of American military equipment stockpiled in Israel to $1.2 billion by 2012.

The type of equipment stockpiled in Israel is determined through dialogue between the Israeli military and the US Army's European Command.

It is believed that a great deal of the equipment will include “precision weapons” launched from air, according to the Israeli papaer.

Israeli Army Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said earlier this week that Tel Aviv would need 'much more precision weaponry' for future wars.

The agreement between Washington and Tel Aviv includes conditions under which the Israeli military may use what is officially labeled as US equipment. This has led to speculations as to whether the US military stockpiles in Israel are in fact meant for the Israeli regime.

The Chemist's War

http://www.slate.com/id/2245188/pagenum/all/

The little footnote your history book left out.

The little-told story of how the U.S. government poisoned alcohol during Prohibition with deadly consequences


It was Christmas Eve 1926, the streets aglitter with snow and lights, when the man afraid of Santa Claus stumbled into the emergency room at New York City's Bellevue Hospital. He was flushed, gasping with fear: Santa Claus, he kept telling the nurses, was just behind him, wielding a baseball bat.

Before hospital staff realized how sick he was—the alcohol-induced hallucination was just a symptom—the man died. So did another holiday partygoer. And another. As dusk fell on Christmas, the hospital staff tallied up more than 60 people made desperately ill by alcohol and eight dead from it. Within the next two days, yet another 23 people died in the city from celebrating the season.

Doctors were accustomed to alcohol poisoning by then,

Federal Reserve Seeks to Protect U.S. Bailout Secrets

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aEfuO342uoj8

This is an attempt at a future CYA. Sub prime is over, alt A's and option arms resets have only just begun.
There will be a need for future banking bailouts. If the banks that are named, handed out enormous bonuses this year and then hit up the treasury for further help, all hell would break loose. The FED is trying to ensure that doesn't happen, by making sure the American public is kept in the dark.


The Federal Reserve asked a U.S. appeals court to block a ruling that for the first time would force the central bank to reveal secret identities of financial firms that might have collapsed without the largest government bailout in U.S. history.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Manhattan will decide whether the Fed must release records of the unprecedented $2 trillion U.S. loan program launched after the 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. In August, a federal judge ordered that the information be released, responding to a request by Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News.

“This case is about the identity of the borrower,” said Matthew Collette, a lawyer for the government, in oral arguments today. “This is the equivalent of saying ‘I want all the loan applications that were submitted.’”

Bloomberg argues that the public has the right to know basic information about the “unprecedented and highly controversial use” of public money

Stimulus to bring body scanners to airports

http://money.cnn.com/2010/01/05/technology/full_body_scanner/

Oh look job creation. The question is how much is Chertoff(the ex head of Homeland security) making off of this contract?
Don't you just find it amazing how much personal supplemental income our government officials are reaping off of these contracts all in order to keep you safe from the "terrorists"

The U.S. government is using $25 million in stimulus money to buy and install full body scanners in airports this year, in an effort to ramp up security and create jobs.

The Transportation Security Administration is using funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to purchase 150 of the full body scanners, according to TSA spokeswoman Sarah Horowitz

The contract has helped create 25 jobs, mostly manufacturing positions in the company's Ocean Springs, Miss. facility, as well as some engineering jobs, he said.

Kant said the U.S. government has given the TSA the green light to spend $173 million on scanners, which includes the initial $25 million contract.

"Should we get additional orders, we will have to hire additional manufacturing positions," he said in an e-mail to CNNMoney.com.

Deep Secrets Of A Ufo Think Tank Exposed

http://ufocon.blogspot.com/2009/07/d...k-exposed.html

Rand corporation and the government tucking you into bed at night and telling you only the best of bedtime stories to hear

Since the 1940's the U.S. government has quietly engaged one of its key defense and intelligence agency contractors as a secret UFO "think tank." New investigation reveals that the esteemed RAND Corporation is a "think tank" that has given far more than "passing thought" to things extraterrestrial.

RAND's hidden history of UFO involvement has been discovered to include work in policy analysis; evaluation of evidence and in advising on the potential technological advantages achieved from UFO study. Telling connections have also been found between RAND and the Roswell crash event of 1947.



WHO IS RAND?

RAND Corporation was established in 1946 by the U.S Army Air Force as Project RAND ( for Research ANd Development) and is today registered as a nonprofit organization. It is funded through government contracts, university collaborators and by "private donors." RAND's primary agency clients include the CIA and DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.)

Headquartered in Santa Monica, CA the think tank maintains branches worldwide. RAND's stated mission is to "help to improve policy and decision making through objective research and analysis." Its work is officially conducted "for the public welfare and security of the United States of America."

Over 30 Nobel Prize

Money vs. Wealth

http://www.minyanville.com/articles/NYX-SPY-GSPC/index/a/23402


Over time people have become confused between money and wealth. This is precisely what central bankers have had to do to convince consumers to borrow and spend recklessly. If any part of the US government/ Federal Reserve/ banking system is operating well, it's their public relations/ advertising/ media division.

At any period, there's a certain amount of wealth in the US economy, yet government has created much more "money" over very short periods to intermediate that wealth. Thus wealth per "dollar" has been diluted vastly.

How have they done this? By lowering the cost of debt both to the lender and the borrower and increasing leverage in the system through the fractional banking system. In our credit-based system, money equals debt: We've been spending credit, not wealth.

Recognizing the fact that economies more and more are influenced by central banks that attempt to stimulate economies (consumption) by creating debt many years ago, I began physically moving my assets around the world, shifting my wealth from time to time to the country I felt would devalue its currency the least: When a central bank creates debt, it essentially creates more of its currency, and thus devalues that currency.

Inflation is the creation of superfluous debt that chases unproductive assets (assets that produce little or no income for the risk undertaken). It devalues currency and drives up prices -- especially