This is worth checking out for the photos. Another obscene show of our govt's elitist prorities. Appearance before substance rules the day.


Watchdog: Leaked photos show troops fly in squalor
Nick Juliano
Published: Tuesday July 22, 2008

A government watchdog has uncovered pictures that suggest US troops on their way to battlefields in Afghanistan travel in squalor while top military and government officials are cocooned in "comfort capsules" with reclining leather seats and flat-screen TVs.

Last week, the Project on Government Oversight asked for photos of the dilapidated airline seats; it wasn't long before pictures of torn, moldy, stained seats started rolling in. POGO did not identify the source of its photos, but it said they were taken at Al Udeid Airbase in Afghanistan.

The watchdog, which focuses on exposing waste, fraud and abuse in the US government, recently worked with the Washington Post to expose an Air Force program to spend money earmarked for the War on Terror to upgrade luxury cabins used to ferry top officials. Internal e-mails POGO obtained through a public records request showed "that Air Force generals frivolously blew hundreds of thousands in taxpayer dollars because they didn't like the color of seat belts, carpet, leather and wood used in work and living space units being developed for use on cargo planes," the group says.

In its request for the photos, POGO said it was "aware" of deplorable conditions in troop transport seats and noted that a program aimed to "remedy the current deplorable state of these seats ... is moving too slowly," as opposed to the plans to upgrade the cabins for top brass, which were known as Senior Leader Intransit Comfort Capsules.

The Post noted that the Air Force already provided top-notch arrangements for VIP travel before seeking the new cabins.

The Air Force already has two trailers, known as Silver Bullets, that can be loaded aboard large transports for use by top military and civilian officers, plus a fleet of about 100 planes specifically meant for VIP travel. But McMahon, who is now the Air Force's deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations and mission support, said the new program was started because the service ferried more "senior travelers" to distant regions after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and identified a "gap" in its capability.

The existing trailers already seem pretty cozy. UK's Metro obtained some pictures of a modified Airstream trailer that took First Lady Laura Bush to Afghanistan recently.

"With wood panelling, plush grey carpet, comfy leather seats and, most importantly, thick window shades, Mrs Bush could forget she was anywhere near the War on Terror being played out below the clouds," Miles Erwin wrote for Metro.

The Raw Story | Watchdog: Leaked photos show troops fly in squalor

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn

This is funny considering not to long ago there was an argument about a huge spending bill for updated VIP accommodations.

I think that the military should no longer be responsible for there own budget. I think we would be better off having a third party to run their financial affairs. And administrative at that.

My brother sat in a barracks for 3 months after a doctor declared him unfit for duty, he had a Neural condition. and was to be medically discharged.

But he got to sit there for three months he was not allowed to do anything, At all. Just waited for them to finish 10 min of paperwork.

Mind you at this time he was no more then 60 miles away from me, and they would not allow me to come pick him up.

Anyone who has served in the army can tell you similar stories about the Armys administrative failure.

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Mal, you definitely have something there.

My experience in government has been that government people are usually not business people, and develop a very different attitude about money than the private sector. No business would have allowed the above situation or the one at Walter Reed to happen.

I am very pleased to see watchdog groups like POGO exposing this stuff. Government needs greater accountability.

I am a big fan of zero based budgeting, myself, and I'd absolutely be open to ideas on how to integrate actual business practices into government. Government will always be "non-competitive" by nature (obviously, we can't have two competing militaries....), but a change in mentality would be welcomed, I suspect, especially by the grunts and the taxpayers.

I have long thought that most people wouldn't have so much of a problem paying their taxes if government were run better and more efficiently. People want to see their money being spent wisely.

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Walgreens has basic financial calculators for sale for $1.79. Send one to your Congressional representative for Xmas, this year!

Disgraceful. Just disgraceful.

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January 20, 2009 - The end of an error.

As long as the grunts are seen as disposable - the priorities will remain making everything cozy for the upper echelon. Compare your raises and benefits to congress - and the problem becomes even more obvious.

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Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedy.
Ernest Benn