Corruption – Page 822 – Public Intelligence Blog

2011/02/082011/02/08

Why Boeing is Imploding–Spinney, Sprey, & Reality vs Political Engineering & Government Spec Cost Plus

10 Security, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Military

editor spinney time — Chuck Spinney Sounds Off...

Below are three separate contributions: Spinney on Sprey; Sprey on Boeing; and Seattle Times on Boeing.

CHUCK SPINNEY SOUNDS OFF

President Obama says that restoring America’s competitiveness is one of his top priorities. Yet under his watch, deindustrialization, financialization, and globalization continue without interruption. Many advocates of defense spending argue that spinoffs from the Pentagon's R&D and high tech engineering practices are keys to reinvigorating America’s manufacturing economy. For whatever reasons, Mr. Obama shows no intention of reining in defense spending by anything more than a cosmetic amount, even though the defense budget is higher now that at any time since the end of WWII (after removing the cumulative effect of 60 years of inflation), and despite the fact that the United States is spending about as much on defense as the rest of the world combined.

Continue reading “Why Boeing is Imploding–Spinney, Sprey, & Reality vs Political Engineering & Government Spec Cost Plus”

2011/02/062011/02/06

Farm Insurance Fraud–Lacking Domestic Intelligence

01 Agriculture, Corruption

Farm insurance fraud is cheating taxpayers out of millions

Perpetrators falsely claim weather or insects destroyed their crops and cash in on a government-backed insurance program. Some don't bother planting at all. Others sell their harvests in secret.

The vast majority of U.S. farmers follow the rules, insurers and federal officials said. Bert Little, director of the data-mining group Center for Agribusiness Excellence, said that less than one-half of 1% of the farmers who take part in the program cheat the system.

“But that less than 1% represents a pretty big chunk of money, between $100 million to $200 million a year,” said Little, whose Texas group is contracted by the federal government to analyze farm records in search of fraud clues.

Read rest of article…

Phi Beta Iota: Bert Little has been saving the taxpayer millions at a 20:1 ratio (80 million discovered for 4 million in data mining–finding the 1% can be a challenge). He first briefed his successes at OSS '04. If we had the Open Source Agency as recommended by the 9-11 Commission, it would provide intelligence and counterintelligence to Whole of Government, addressing both the legal fraud (Wall Street) and the illegal fraud (inattentive government).

Best Government Money Can Buy Round II

Corruption

Koch brothers now at heart of GOP power

The billionaire brothers' influence is most visible in the makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where members have vowed to undo restrictions on greenhouse gases.

By Tom Hamburger, Kathleen Hennessey and Neela Banerjee,

Los Angeles Times February 6, 2011

The billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch no longer sit outside Washington's political establishment, isolated by their uncompromising conservatism. Instead, they are now at the center of Republican power, a change most evident in the new makeup of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Wichita-based Koch Industries and its employees formed the largest single oil and gas donor to members of the panel, ahead of giants like Exxon Mobil, contributing $279,500 to 22 of the committee's 31 Republicans, and $32,000 to five Democrats.

Continue reading “Best Government Money Can Buy Round II”

2011/02/06

Half a Trillion a Year for Contractors–Poor Oversight

05 Energy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption

Economic Recovery on Edge

Lack of Contract Oversight Puts Billions At Risk

Laurel Adams February 6th 2011
Center for Public Integrity

EXTRACT: The GAO singled out the Pentagon, the Department of Energy, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as agencies with risky contractor oversight. The GAO also said the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services failed to review contractor rates and identified $90 million in questionable costs.

Phi Beta Iota: Government–and society–are comprehensive design problems–advanced intelligence (decision-support). The US Government is archaic in its design, and lacks integrity (holistic accurate feed-back loops) at all levels across all mission areas. It is a useful challenge for 2012 and beyond.

2011/02/052011/02/05

The Howling Wilderness of Carbon Credits

03 Environmental Degradation, 05 Energy, Corruption, Earth Intelligence

The Howling Wilderness of Carbon Credits

FEB 5 2011, 2:30 PM ET

By Chuck Spinney

One of central causes of the financial meltdown was the lack of transparency in the complex derivatives, like bundled mortgages and credit default swaps. Advocates of global warming would have us to believe that they can construct a transparent carbon emissions trading scheme that will provide market incentives to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

At the center of this trading scheme is the idea of a carbon credit, which is a generic term for any tradable certificate or permit representing the right to emit one ton of carbon or carbon dioxide equivalent. Think of a carbon credit as property in a free market economy — Ayn Rand, meet Global Warming.

Read rest of article…

Phi Beta Iota: We have from the beginning denounced carbon credits as a financial scam.

2011/02/052011/02/05

Deficit hawkery as farce [no intelligence or integrity]

Corruption, Government

The Economist on Democracy in America

I'M HAVING trouble writing about the GOP effort to reach a compromise over whether to cut $100 billion out of the 2011 budget, or just $50-60 billion. My problem is that I can't really write about the advantages or disadvantages of one or another version of the cuts when the entire enterprise appears completely senseless to me.

. . . . . . .

That still wouldn't have anything to do with what the US economy needs over the next year or two. But at least it would make sense as a long-term strategy. What the GOP is doing now is frenziedly cutting often worthwhile small programmes because they can't face the political consequences of taking on entitlements and defence or proposing tax hikes, and it's very hard for me to take the charade seriously.

Read full analysis….

2011/02/05

Most-Wanted List for Health Care Fraud

07 Health, Corruption, Law Enforcement

Government Launches Health Care Fraud Most-Wanted List

WASHINGTON — Health care fraud used to be a faceless crime — until now.

Medicare and Medicaid scams cost taxpayers more than $60 billion a year, but the average bank holdup is likely to get more attention. Seeking the public's help to catch more than 170 fugitive fraudsters, the government has launched a new health care most-wanted list, with its own website. Read more…

Phi Beta Iota: What the government does in terms of fraud, waste, and abuse is VASTLY greater, resulting from a mix of ignorance and corruption. It's a good idea–achieving full transparency for all records would put all citizen eyeballs on the mix and produce more corruption leads faster, better, cheaper. What the government is not telling us is that the Connelly law firm has created a 15 company team led by Booz Allen that is about to take over “profit recovery” for the US Government across the entire health care industry–privateers with with civil and criminal authorities. BAD IDEA and the natural outcome of the government not being able to do the right thing–competent employees and trusted information–so instead it does the wrong thing righter–gets bigger, more expensive, outsources more.