YOUR (and mine for that matter)

tax dollars HARD at work. while victims of katrina still suffer. all of our children do not have health care or proper educations. our elderly cannot afford their medications. our men and women are dying for no just reason and of course on and on and on

oh yeah, seems like king george (YET AGAIN) made a wicked bang up job of choosing williams too! man, we are SO LUCKY we have king george. choice after choice he stuns us!
Construction Woes Plague U.S. Embassies
Shoddy Work, Contract Choices Cited


By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer

The new air-conditioning system in the $66 million U.S. Embassy in Mali broke down in June, sending office temperatures soaring to 100 degrees. An electrical fire erupted in the rehabilitated annex to the embassy in Rome. And the U.S. ambassador in Belize had to personally help workers sand the floors for new housing.
As the United States seeks to rapidly modernize and fortify its diplomatic missions around the world because of terrorism and other security concerns, the State Department's $5 billion construction efforts abroad have come under increasing strain. In a series of cables sent to Washington this summer, U.S. diplomats complained of building delays and shoddy workmanship, underscoring problems with State's one-size-fits-all approach to building that results in the same air-conditioning system being shipped to embassies in Africa and in Europe..........

...........At the center of the controversy is the man who has run the OBO since the start of the Bush administration -- Charles E. Williams, a retired major general in the Army Corps of Engineers, who quit under fire as chief operating officer of the D.C. public schools in 1998 when a botched roof repair project delayed the opening of District schools by three weeks. State Department officials who have worked with Williams assert that the serious construction problems now coming to light flow directly from Williams's mercurial management style.............

and then there is THIS:

Defense Contractor Was Paid $1 Million to Ship 2 Washers


By Renae Merle Washington Post Staff Writer

A South Carolina defense contractor pleaded guilty yesterday to bilking the Pentagon out of $20.5 million over nearly 10 years by adding hundreds of thousands of dollars to the cost of shipping spare parts such as metal washers and lamps. The parts were bound for key military installations, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan. In one instance, in 2006, the government paid C&D Distributors $998,798 in transportation costs for shipping two 19-cent washers. Charlene Corley, 47, co-owner of C&D Distributors, used the money to pay for luxury homes, cars, plastic surgery and jewelry, according to court documents.
"It is a troubling case because the fraud took place during a time of war," said Kevin McDonald, the first assistant U.S. attorney for the District of South Carolina. The $20 million "that could have gone to assist our military was diverted and used in a fraudulent manner for excessive personal enjoyment."...........