Thursday, September 06, 2007

Amidst constant failing reports on Iraq and Homeland Security GAO backs it up, Bush says they know nothing either!


I just can't stand it. Right from the absolute beginning with the chief idiot, life long Government officials with stellar records all of a sudden started coming up as inadequate and inept while the chief idiot following a corrupt course counter to the rest of America was kept to look innocent and just a victim of circumstances. Absolutely everyone is told they do not do their jogs right or know what they are doing and only so Bush can continue on his corrupt course.
In the past we have seen everyone that speaks against Bush pay for it with their career and every expert and Agency that disagrees with Bush and does not agree with his underhanded corrupt new order course, ignored. With that in mind we have been hearing a lot lately about the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) so I decided to research them to find out if they could all of a sudden be inept.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) is an independent, nonpartisan agency that works for Congress. GAO is often called the "congressional watchdog" because it investigates how the federal government spends taxpayer dollars.

GAO gathers information to help Congress determine how well executive branch agencies are doing their jobs. GAO’s work routinely answers such basic questions as whether government programs are meeting their objectives or providing good service to the public. Ultimately, GAO ensures that government is accountable to the American people. To that end, GAO provides Senators and Representatives with the best information available to help them arrive at informed policy decisions--information that is accurate, timely, and balanced. GAO supports congressional oversight by:

evaluating how well government policies and programs are working;

auditing agency operations to determine whether federal funds are being spent efficiently, effectively, and appropriately;

investigating allegations of illegal and improper activities; and

issuing legal decisions and opinions

With virtually the entire federal government subject to its review they are pretty busy. GAO got its start in 1921. That year, the Budget and Accounting Act transferred auditing responsibilities, accounting, and claims functions from the Treasury Department to a new agency. GAO was created because federal financial management was in disarray after World War I. Wartime spending had driven up the national debt, and Congress saw that it needed more information and better control over expenditures. The act made GAO independent of the executive branch and gave it a broad mandate to investigate how federal dollars are spent. The act also required the President to prepare an annual budget for the federal government. Later legislation clarified or expanded GAO's role, but the Budget and Accounting Act continues to serve as the basis for its operations. In the 1970s, GAO started to recruit scientists, actuaries, and experts in fields such as health care, public policy, and computers. In 1986, GAO assembled a team of professional investigators, many with law enforcement backgrounds, to look into allegations of possible criminal and civil misconduct.

During the last 20 years, GAO has sought to improve accountability by alerting policymakers and the public to emerging problems throughout government. In the 1980s, for example, the agency reported on problems brewing in the savings and loan industry and repeatedly warned about the government's failure to control deficit spending. But GAO did more than just point out shortcomings in government operations . It worked with executive branch agencies to strengthen financial management. GAO urged federal agencies to modernize outmoded financial systems, prepare yearly financial statements, and submit them for audit. As the 1990s drew to a close, GAO did important work on a range of issues--computer security, conditions at nursing homes, the choices posed by continuing budget surpluses, and so on. Today, the agency that once checked millions of government vouchers has become a multidisciplinary organization equipped to handle Congress’s toughest audit and evaluation assignments. GAO History

I don't get it! How then can Bush simply say they do not know what they are doing, discount their reports, and just stay his miscourse? Why the hell do we have these agancies anymore? Why, why does he keep getting away with this? Anyway despite an influx of troops, a draft report by the Government Accountability Office concluded Iraq has satisfied just three of 18 benchmarks set by Congress and partially met two others, an official said. We just heard the Iraqi Security force were worthless and shouild be dismissed but the chief liar says they are doing great. The White House simply dismisses it saying it is uncharacteristically harsh. Not when you take reality into account. I am sick of this crap! I can almost understand dismissing a report by the other Party because of Partisanship but this is an independent Agency. Why are we so powerless? Why can no one hold Bush accountable? This is sick and intolerable!
GAO Iraq Report

Not only that but after hearing for years now how much safer we are though we know better. The Homeland Security Department has failed to meet even half its performance expectations in the four years it has been in existence, Congressional auditors have concluded in a draft report obtained by The Associated Press. Of course once again Bushco knows better. The department disagreed with the findings of the report, particularly with the way auditors defined and measured progress. The report prepared by the Government Accountability Office is to be released Thursday.
The department’s primary mission is to prevent terrorist attacks and to minimize the damage should an attack take place. But the only area in which auditors saw significant improvement was maritime security, the report said. The report measures progress in 14 mission and management areas. Auditors identified 171 performance expectations and found that the department had achieved fewer than half.

In a letter on July 20 to the G.A.O. comptroller general, David M. Walker, the department’s under secretary for management, Paul A. Schneider, accused the auditors of having shifted performance measures during their evaluation. Why the hell should that surprise us and why is nothing done about it?
“The G.A.O. report is based on a flawed methodology that results in an inaccurate representation of the department’s progress and fails to accurately reflect the department’s progress in many specific program areas,” Mr. Schneider wrote. During Congressional testimony Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff defended the department’s progress and assured lawmakers that the country was safer than before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
GAO Homeland Security Report

I just do not get it? Why do we have experts advising us when the proven chief idiot simply ignores them all and continues damaging America, the middle east, and the world, as he follows his blatantly obvious plan for new order? I just don't friggen get it!

James Joiner
Gardner, Ma
www.anaveragepatriot.com

6 comments:

Larry said...

Jim:

Finally someone is protecting our rights:

A federal judge struck down a key part of the USA Patriot Act on Thursday in a ruling that defended the need for judicial oversight of laws and bashed Congress for passing a law that makes possible "far-reaching invasions of liberty."

U.S. District Judge Victor Marrero immediately stayed the effect of his ruling, allowing the government time to appeal. Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd said: "We are reviewing the decision and considering our options at this time."

The ruling handed the American Civil Liberties Union a major victory in its challenge of the post-Sept. 11 law that gave broader investigative powers to law enforcement.

The ACLU had challenged the law on behalf of an Internet service provider, complaining that the law allowed the FBI to demand records without the kind of court supervision required for other government searches. Under the law, investigators can issue so-called national security letters to entities like Internet service providers and phone companies and demand customers' phone and Internet records.

In his ruling, Marrero said much more was at stake than questions about the national security letters.

He said Congress, in the original USA Patriot Act and less so in a 2005 revision, had essentially tried to legislate how the judiciary must review challenges to the law. If done to other bills, they ultimately could all "be styled to make the validation of the law foolproof."

Noting that the courthouse where he resides is several blocks from the fallen World Trade Center, the judge said the Constitution was designed so that the dangers of any given moment could never justify discarding fundamental individual liberties.

He said when "the judiciary lowers its guard on the Constitution, it opens the door to far-reaching invasions of liberty."

Regarding the national security letters, he said, Congress crossed its boundaries so dramatically that to let the law stand might turn an innocent legislative step into "the legislative equivalent of breaking and entering, with an ominous free pass to the hijacking of constitutional values."

He said the ruling does not mean the FBI must obtain the approval of a court prior to ordering records be turned over, but rather must justify to a court the need for secrecy if the orders will last longer than a reasonable and brief period of time.

A March government report showed that the FBI issued about 8,500 national security letter, or NSL, requests in 2000, the year prior to passage of the USA Patriot Act. By 2003, the number of requests had risen to 39,000 and to 56,000 in 2004 before falling to 47,000 in 2005. The overwhelming majority of the requests sought telephone billing records information, telephone or e-mail subscriber information or electronic communication transactional records.

The judge said that through the NSLs, the government can unmask the identity of Internet users engaged in anonymous speech in online discussions, can obtain an itemized list of all e-mails sent and received by someone and can then seek information on those communicating with the individual.

"It may even be able to discover the web sites an individual has visited and queries submitted to search engines," the judge said.

Marrero's lengthy judicial opinion, akin to an eighth-grade civics lesson, described why the framers of the Constitution created three separate but equal branches of government and delegated to the judiciary to say what the law is and to protect the Constitution and the rights it gives citizens.

Naj said...

Dear Jim,

Here's my two cents worth of ramblings:

The New Century project, is also a new century project for America. You see, what is GOOD about Bush's regime is that FINALLY it is not "hiding" whose interest it really CARES TO PROTECT: The interest of his "elite club"

Finally, these rich boys in white gloves, are tired of having been forced into hiding with modernization and democratization and decolonilzation that began in the 60s, and brought us the human rights and etc. It's time for them to RECLAIM their might and their world!

They shall trample on American democracy; without shame or guilt.

It is after all, about the "bottom line" ...

Larry said...

There is no Government Accountability Office as there is nobody or nothing that will hold Bush accountable.

jmsjoin said...

Thanks Larry!
I don't remember who it was maybe POP or Dusty but I commented on someones post last night that wrote abot this. Six years after 9/11 the rights to abuse have been handed to Bush and the damage done.
I am glad to see someone standing up for our rights but I don't see this as a victory for us or the ACLU. The ruling was immediately stayed to give the Feds time to respond. As they always do they well respond and counter respond in an underhanded way enabling them to stay their miscource as long as they want.
Looking at the numbers of checks per year The overwhelming majority of the requests sought telephone billing records information, telephone or e-mail subscriber information or electronic communication transactional records,I know for a fact many were of me and others that speak against what Bush is doing as we are the primary enemy as he endeavors to steal our America.
It will be interesting to see what happens to those numbers now. I would expect to see a jump not a decrease. Bushco will continue to find ways around the law so they can follow their plan. They will not be stopped by mere mortal righteous Americans.

jmsjoin said...

naj
The thing is that Bushco is obvious as to what they are doing it but even though we see the truth they deny the obvious and we seem powerless to stop it.
We know for a fact their are two economies and two America's but he just laughs it off, dismisses the obvious truth, and continues unhindered on his plan for new order.
We all see it but he has too many powers to abuse and misuse and Congress appears powerless too stop him.
Now I will tell you why I did not respond to your reply to me yesterday on your site. It was obvious that you do not have an understanding of what we as average Americans are dealing with and trying to do.
The Patriot Act gave Bush too many powers to abuse and misuse against us no terrorists and he is using them to there fullest.
When we talk about stolen elections we are referring to the outdated electoral voting system that voted him in, the legal system that gave him the election, and those damn electronic voting machines that can be jimmeyed to reflect a vote for whoever, even though the vote was cast for another and it can not be monitored or detected.
As for the twin towers being a symbol of American power! I never thought that nor do I now. Somehow Bush has made that portrayal too and the entire world has fallen for it. We are all under his sway.He practices his Karl Rove taught 3D Politics (deceitful, deceptive,divisive, Politics)to get what he wants and it works.
Now in parting I just want to say yesterday I was saying all average citizens of the world merely want peace and prosperity. Americans made the mistake of thinking Politicians and Bush would do the right thing for us and not Bush's new America. Many still do not get it and those who do, do not matter right now.
I do want to say also that we do not speak against you and average Iranians because our main problem is Bush but we also do not like the annihilation rhetoric coming from the likes of Ahmadinejad nor can we trust the desire for peaceful Nuclear use when we are told we and Israel should be destroyed and nuclear weapons used if Iran gets them.
You can not trust anyone's true agenda today as they are all hidden. Stay in touch!

jmsjoin said...

Larry I have to agree! I just refuse to see that it is as simple as just ignoring all our safeties and doing what you want. This is not right, obviously detrimental. and should not be going on but what do we do abot it. We are powerless!