As Captain Renault in the timeless movie Casablanca would say, "I am shocked" SHOCKED to find that there are corruption and accounting irregularities in the Department of Homeland Security. The Associated Press via TPM,
"Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.Holy smokes; this sounds pretty bad, and this Norquist guy seems pretty flippant about it all. Who is this guy that is so carefree and nonchalant with the taxpayers money during a time of war and massive budget deficits? Norquist...the name seems vaguely familiar. Oh, it is David Norquist, brother of Grover Norquist, Jack Abramoff's best friend and co-conspirator in the defrauding and looting of American Indian Tribes; and author of the infamous quote "I don't want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub."
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"The inability of Defense and Homeland Security to pass financial audits is costing taxpayers dearly. There is no accountability for billions in wasteful spending," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. "Private contractors are getting rich, military equipment can't be tracked, and fraud is growing. The departments seem incapable of providing even the most basic level of accountability by balancing their financial books."
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Nor is there a central accounting system: In 2005, after spending $52 million, DHS dropped a $229 million contract with BearingPoint to develop a single software accounting system after it became obvious it wasn't going to work. The department now plans to base its systems on those already in place at the Transportation Security Administration or Customs and Border Protection.
Norquist also likened his agency's situation to a house. "If you left your front door unlocked, it doesn't mean your house got robbed. But you should be concerned if your front door is routinely left unsecured, he said."
Oh my; so David, the ideological idolizer and clone of brother Grover Norquist, is the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Homeland Security. The cabinet department so screwed up, corrupt and out of control that it can't even be audited. As Condi Rice would say, "Who could have predicted this?" So who put this terminally ill suited man in this position? That would be George Bush and Michael "What? There's a storm in New Orleans?" Chertoff. The only two men in the world that make Mike "Heckuva Job Brownie" Brown look like the most intelligent and efficient manager in history.
It is a consistent pattern with Bush to place the most dangerously incompetent and ill suited hack cronies in the most critical positions. Jerry Bremer for pro counsel of Iraq, Harriet Miers for White House Counsel and almost the Supreme Court, Joe Albaugh and Michael Brown at FEMA and, the most destructive of all, Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General. Alberto Gonzales could not find a courtroom with a map and a GPS device. Literally, the only time Gonzales has been confirmed to have actually been in a courtroom was when he went to a local city court in Texas to try and get Bush out of jury duty, out of fear that the public would find out about Bush's history of DWIs and alcoholism. This legal cipher was placed in charge of the entire justice system of the United States.
Clearly, George Bush, like Grover and David Norquist, wants to drown our government "in the bathtub" and then flush it down the toilet. The Bush Administration puts the most corrupt, incompetent people in critical positions and allows them to rape, pillage and plunder their departments to effective death. Ladies and gentlemen, they are very close to "Mission Accomplished".
