Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Culture of Corruption

According to the Associated Press, the Department of Defense (DoD) has released details of General William “Kip” Ward’s unauthorized spending spree. A 90-page report accuses General Ward of unauthorized travel, lengthy stays at lavish hotels for him and his wife, use of multi-vehicle motorcades, and accepting bribes from military contractors. General War previously served as Commander of the United States African Command, intended to retire a year ago, but the Army retained him on active duty pending the outcome of this investigation. Currently, Ward serves as a special assistant to the Chief of Staff of the Army.

DoD investigators did not release the amount of General Ward’s arrogant dishonesty, but inside sources compared it to the $800,000 excessive spending by the General Services Administration. Examples cited in the report included the following transgressions:

• During a trip to the nation’s capital, General Ward spent one day visiting wounded soldiers, had a 90-minute meeting on another day, a State Department meeting on a third day, and ended up billing the Pentagon more than $129,000 to cover per diem costs for himself, his wife, and 13 civilian and military staff members.

• Superiors denied General Ward the use of military aircraft for a personal trip, but he subsequently changed the trip to an official one, adding a quick meeting, and used the aircraft anyway.

• General Ward’s staff —that can include advance and security teams— often traveled days prior to his arrival, including one to Bermuda, remaining behind after the general departed. The cost of rooms in Bermuda for Ward and his staff came to more than $10,000, not including meals, transportation, or other costs.

The official who will decide General Ward’s fate is Defense Secretary Panetta. Panetta can force Ward to retire at a lower rank (lieutenant general), or he can force him to retire as a major general if there is evidence that Ward failed to serve satisfactorily in the grade of lieutenant general.

Here’s the problem. We should have a very high standard for our most senior military and civilian personnel, but the truth is that we often have a much lower standard. There does appear to be a culture of corruption in this administration. I cannot predict what Leon Panetta will decide in General Ward’s case, but I think that given the GSA scandal, Holder’s refusal to hold John Corzine accountable for his theft of over a billion dollars, and the fact that Barack Obama has wasted taxpayer money flying Michelle to New York City for a date and sending his kids to South America for Spring Break —General Ward will retire as a four star general.


Mustang Sends

44 comments:

Ducky's here said...

Compared to military contract corruption this stiff stole tip money.

Unknown said...

Exactly. Leadership begins at the top. Obama is a crook, Holder is a crook, Panetta is incompetent ... heck, why not allow the 4 star to gouge the American people, too?

Equal opportunity, right?

Anonymous said...

Privatize most of government. Then corruption via public money is gone.

That's what the leftist don't get. Big gov = big corruption.

Ducky's here said...

Yeah, there's no corruption in the private sector, Froggy the Gremlin.

Buy a vowel.

Anonymous said...

Hey moron, can you read?

"Then corruption via public money"

Anonymous said...

Shows what an imbecilic angry man you are since you jump to people's throat without reading.

Silverfiddle said...

Obama is not to blame for this, that general is, and this is fairly typical, if someone were to dig.

Much of it depends on the person.

When I was doing military advisor duty in South America, we had A general from USARSO (I think a 2-star) come down, and he brought the whole damned entourage, got the police escort everywhere and stayed in the best hotel. That trip had to cost some bucks.

Same tour, an Air Force 2-star general came down, and a captain and I met him at the airport in an embassy vehicle and took him to a small hotel right by our Mil Group building. He walked to and from work.

I also ran into General Bruce Carlson when we were both flying out of Reagan National years ago. He was a 3-star flying coach sitting next to me. He had one aid with him. I introduced myself and told him I'd left Holloman AFB just before he arrived as the new wing commander.

We had a nice chat, with him asking me if I knew so and so, etc.

Very nice man.

Snowbrush said...

And then there was Mrs. Obama's trip to the Olympics. Why, exactly, should taxpayers pick up that bill?

Ducky's here said...

Yeah, check out the Facebook IPO, Froggy the gremlin.

Buy a vowel.

Anonymous said...

Looks like the General's spending habits might just qualify him for mayor of Detroit or Philadelphia?

Or even the Senate / Congress. He can take his cues from Maxine Waters or Charlie Rangel.

We owe it to him remember?

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Ducky, would you mid elaborating on how the Facebook IPO demonstrates corruption directly involving tax payers' money and gov officials. I'm still trying to understand how it fits with what I said.

Thanks for elaborating instead of talking out of your old man's rear end.

Anonymous said...

On a side note, I hope you didn't buy Facebook stocks. Did you?

Bob said...

General Ward is home free. He is black, and that is his "get out of jail" card. The Obama Administration is nothing if not racist.



Bob said...

"Compared to military contract corruption this stiff stole tip money."

Does that make it acceptable? Would it help to prosecute him if he a white Hispanic instead of a General officer?

Unknown said...

I agree with Silverfiddle; it would be a mistake to assume that every senior officer is gauging the American treasury when in fact incidents such as this are far and few between. At the same time, we cannot help but notice the frequency of this “entitlement” mentality within the Obama administration. When the commander in chief abuses the treasury, then why shouldn’t a four star general? I also think Bob is right: his skin color is a get out of jail free card. How interesting this “double standard.” It must be nice to be the king.

Anonymous said...

FROM Z:

Ducky, you need to pay more attention to the posts and don't jump quite so quickly to protecting your own beliefs and sensibilities, always acting as if you're the only one here who's correct. It' silly and you don't learn.

"stolen tip money," Really?
Maybe that's why Obama's admin has brought us so much further into debt, the left maybe can't quite realize that 'tip money' adds up, too?

FB is right...when there's a private contract, there's LOTS less room for cheating, for inflating prices, invoices, etc etc

SF and Robert; I think that's right and I am sure Mustang, too, would agree that not all soldiers are like that.

Odd, I see that picture of the Black soldier and would have thought he'd NEVER EVER be the one to do what he's done....because he's black. Seriously.
Maybe that's reverse racism and shame on me, but most Blacks I know wouldn't dream of doing anything like that.
I'm blessed, I guess.

Anonymous said...

FROM Z:

Ducky, by the way, I don't mean to sound like I'm telling anybody off around here, but your predictability says a lot.

This guy did wrong...deal with that.
And, for someone without a blog, you sure do like to tell bloggers who work hard that their posts aren't relevant.
You might not think they are, but many don't agree with you and that never EVER makes them wrong on the face of it.

Sam Huntington said...

Interesting how this investigation is unfolding. I am not surprised that some people abuse the trust of the people. I wasn’t surprised that it didn’t take Obama long to abuse our trust. Here’s something else that doesn’t surprise me: Ducky’s utter stupidity. But Z … the truth is, we don’t give a damn what Ducky thinks. The man is a fool.

Anonymous said...

Ducky is gone for the rest of the day b/c he made a fool of himself.

He'll come back to the next post.

Mustang said...

I do agree, Z ...

Yet, this man’s arrogance is insufferable and I’m wondering if even now he understands what he did wrong. I'm sure they teach ethics at West Point. Maybe he was sick in quarters that day.

Brooke said...

I'd love to see the ghosts of Patton and Pershing come to do a real court marshal of this POS.

Unreal.

Anonymous said...

Mustang...

"I'm sure they teach ethics at West Point"..

What makes you think he went there? Oops...silly me...I know...slap me Hard.

Trekkie4Ever said...

Really getting tired of how our government officials waste our tax dollars for their own private and personal entertainment.

I believe it is time to put a stop to this, it's time to say "no, that is not official American business," if they want to go on private vacations they should pay for it out of their own pocket. Mrs. Obama should have forked out her own money to go to the Olympics and not on our dime. I would have loved to have gone myself.

Just like any job, our employers don't give us the transportation, money, or anything when we go on vacation or whatever, we pay for it from our own bank accounts. The only time an employer pays for a trip is for business purposes only and that's how our government officials should be treated as well.

No more special privileges. Granted, some of our officials need protection, which is understandable and worth the cost, but enough of us paying for personal pleasure for these people, we cannot afford it.

Mustang said...

Everyone ... go say "Happy Birthday" to Ed.

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Leticia, those guys are the new monarchy.

Louis XVI kept spending and tried to raise taxes on the folks. (Granted he spent a lot on the American independence war.) That's what really triggered the French revolution after the French debt and the tax increase forced the King to call the "Etats Generaux."

At some point the same thing as in 1776 or 1789 will happen to them.

That's why I'm very thankful Americans can keep their guns.

Black Sheep said...

"lengthy stays at lavish hotels for him and his wife, use of multi-vehicle motorcades, and accepting bribes from military contractors"

He doesn't just LOOK like Obama...

Z said...

TO EMAIL BUDDIES:

I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EMAIL COMING IN ON EITHER ACCOUNT...JUST SO'S YOU KNOW.
WILL BE WORKING ON IT WHEN/IF MY COMPUTER WHIZ KID CALLS.

HOPE TO BE ON SOON.

Z


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ED!!

Anonymous said...

@Z...

"
I HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO EMAIL.."



Now that you have a job...you can afford a MAC...LOL

Anonymous said...

Ahhh hell..cut the guy some slack...If Moochele has to have her bling bling...so duz the generals wife.

Z said...

Imp, it all came back while I was away from the computer (so there :-)

Sam, a lot of people have said Ducky's stupid but I have to admit I don't think so..One doesn't obfuscate as well as he does and be stupid and he's too cunning and cruel to be stupid.

And bitter.





Anonymous said...

@Z....


Pfffffffftttttt.../ grin

Anonymous said...

@Z...

"Imp, it all came back while I was away from the computer..."

Ummmm....is there a lesson there??? / LOL

Z said...

A lesson? OH, yes....definitely :-)

And NOW I have to learn WIndows 7 where I'm working and I HATE Gmail and that's what we've got..
and EXCEL (ARGH!)

Anonymous said...

@Z..

"I HATE Gmail.."

LMAO...GMail is so cool...and so easy...and it has all kinds of wonderful apps....and everyone has a gmail address too. Video...chat..translator...cloud docs...storage...

Yep..it's a Windoze app you hate...Excel. But...a hugely powerful and excellent app...probably the best MS has ever done.

Anonymous said...

@z...Oh....

And I even like Win7....it's better than anything they've done ( except for XP ) in the last 10 years.

But of course Apple has beaten them again with "Lion"...the coolest OS ever.

Z said...

Glad you like them, Imp

beakerkin said...

Duncy

People have been fired for less where I work. Even on official travel I only use my government travel card for hotels and airfare.
Items like gas and so forth I pay directly out of pocket to avoid any
potential issues.

The government does frequently ignore its own rules depending on who is breaking the rules. Privacy rules go out the window when a French Socialist is accused of raping a maid. Of course if the accused was a Republican the Duck would be screaming about privacy.

Anonymous said...

As I always say, gov is the only one authorized to legally steal your money. That mere fact to me make it an organization that cannot be ethical, hence it should not be idealized as such.

Z said...

have you all seen the VA scandal now?

$800,000 for pens at a lavish convention?

Anonymous said...

I doubt that this type of corruption is new; but I suspect it is much worse under Obama since he sets such a poor example.

Anonymous said...

I think we have to make a difference between waste and corruption too.

In both cases, gov sucks.

Mustang said...

Government officials enjoy giving away Mont Blanc pens ... almost as much as they enjoy hiring prostitutes.

$800,000 seems about right. And, I think the Mont Blanc company appreciates our business. I know the prostitutes do.