Surprised this happened? Not at all. Surprised he/they got caught? Maybe. Realistically, this is how business is done in this part of the world (actually, many parts of the world). US defense contractors do it all the time and there is no way in heck that the US government doesn't know about it.

Somebody didn't get their cut and told a reporter to upset the whole scheme.

All of this... supported by my tax dollars. harrumph!

$100 for a toilet seat..$50 for a hammer anyone?

It's the United States Government. This is just one more issue for us to archive for future use by our candidates. At the same time it is vital that as we grow, as a party, we do not act as those whose actions hurt our country.

kp

Yeah, not a huge surprise, unfortunately.

The "$100 hammer" comment reminds me of an episode of The West Wing where a new military commander arrives at the White House to brief the President on foreign and military affairs. He is drawn into a discussion with a staffer (Dona Moss, for those who follow the show) about $500 ashtrays. She takes the position that the military is too expensive, and that the ashtray is a good example of it. He counters by taking the ashtray and smashing it on the desk. It breaks neatly into three little pieces. He says something like, "That's why it costs $500. If this were on a submarine, the last thing you would want in an emergency is an ashtray smashing and flinging small fragments of glass at sailors all over the room."

Of course, he never explains why they need a glass ashtray on a submarine in the first place!

Is somebody compiling all these outrages into categorized "talking points" for the candidates in the next election? LP candidates have no credibility until they can cite chapter and verse instead of generalizing about bad big government.

FOR FREEDOM, stop spamming irrelevant news articles.

No.

O...K.

lol

HEY GUYS, BIG NEWS, MORE CORRUPTION IN GOVERNMENT. OH MY GOD THIS IS UNBELIEVABLE. THE GOVERNMENT HAS CORRUPTION. CALL THE NEWSPAPERS, CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN, CALL YOUR CHURCH LEADERS. THE GOVERNMENT IS CORRUPT. UNBELIEVABLE. OH MY GOD THIS IS INCREDIBLE NEWS. HOW COULD THEY DO THIS TO US? IMAGINE THAT, OUR GOVERNMENT IS CORRUPT.

GUESS WHAT. THE DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICRATS CONTINUE TO VOTE FOR THIS CORRUPTION AND THEY ARE GETTING EXACTLY WHAT THEY VOTE FOR. IF YOU WANT TO STOP GOVERNMENT CORRUPTION........FIRE THE GOVERNMENT. 2006 WOULD BE A GREAT TIME TOO START.......ITS THAT SIMPLE........

Did you expect silk purses?

A study publishd by the Congressional Research Service (CRS), authored by L. Elaine Halchin, Analyst in American National Government Government and Finance Division: "The Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA): Origin, Characteristics, and Institutional Authorities", April 29, 2004 - {FAS Hosted PDF file (http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/ar27-10.pdf)} stated that there was a great deal of murkiness surrounding the conception of the CPA, and that documents offered by the Bush Administration have served to increase the cloudiness:

"It is unclear whether CPA is a federal agency. Competing, though not necessarily mutually exclusive, explanations for how it was established contribute to the uncertainty about its status. The lack of an authoritative and unambiguous statement about how this organization was established, by whom, and under what authority leaves open many questions, particularly in the areas of oversight and accountability. Some executive branch documents support the notion that it was created by the President, possibly as the result of a National Security Presidential Directive (NSPD). (This document, if it exists, has not been made available to the public.) The other possibility is that the authority was created by, or pursuant to, United Nations Security Council Resolution 1483 (2003)." - {page 2}

"Detailed information that explicitly and clearly identifies how the authority was established, and by whom, is not readily available. Instead, there are two alternative explanations for how it was established: one version suggests that the President established CPA; the other suggests that it was established pursuant to a United Nations (U.N.) Security Council resolution. While these possibilities are not mutually exclusive, the lack of a clear, authoritative, and unambiguous statement about how this organization was established and its status (that is, is it a federal agency or not) leaves open many questions, particularly regarding the area of oversight and accountability." - {page 7}