http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...067824382.html
Your tax dollars are paying not once but twice to serve the elite, in the manors that they have become so richly accustom to.
It would seem to ply them, there must be a tad bit of padding going on in the defence budget to fit things like this in, wouldn't you say?
Military officials bought thousands of dollars worth of alcohol, food and other amenities for the U.S. lawmakers they accompanied on trips overseas, travel records viewed by The Wall Street Journal show.
The documents don't show these outlays have secured any favors or favoritism from lawmakers. And the funds spent by military personnel—which ran about $4,300 per trip for the 43 trips examined by the Journal—usually account for only a small portion of the total lawmakers spend on overseas travel.
Instead, the records shed light for the first time on how the military exploits its official escort role on these trips to foster relationships with lawmakers who approve departmental budgets and top appointments. The disclosures also underscore the military's pervasive pursuit of congressional access.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi with the Dalai Lama during a March 2008 trip to India.
.Read More
Documents show that military liaisons who travel with U.S. lawmakers overseas often pick up the costs for food, alcohol and other expenses. The same military officials are also in charge of lobbying Congress.
Military aides bought hundreds of dollars in alcohol and snacks for a delegation of ten lawmakers that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) led to England, India and Spain in March 2008.
The military paid $8.68 for a bottle opener and a corkscrew for a December 2008 trip to Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and Spain led by Sen. Byron Dorgan (D., N.D.).
Lawmakers on a trip to Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan and Hungary requested a bottle of Bailey's Irish Cream
An internal military email shows that the Army was hoping to "establish a personal connection" with Sen. Chris Dodd (D., Conn.) and get his support for a weapons program.
.Indeed, the military aides who accompany lawmakers overseas are usually the same people who lobby Congress at home; their offices are in buildings shared with lawmakers.
Joel Johnson, a defense-industry analyst with the TEAL Group Corp. who once worked on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, described the situation as the equivalent of
