In addition to receiving an estimated $1 billion in fees from the U.S. government since the Iraq war began, Blackwater is also ripping off U.S. taxpayers by recruiting U.S. soldiers while they are on duty:
Blackwater contractors are allowed to recruit uniformed personnel while they are on duty in Iraq, and they have a powerful recruitment [...]

Mitt Romney’s comments about the civilian killings by the Blackwater private security guards sound kind of familiar. Romney’s counterterrorism advisor, Cofer Black, is vice chair of Blackwater USA.
“I think the allegations are very serious indeed and that there is an investigation which is under way,” Romney told reporters in his first public comment on the [...]

ABC’s Brian Ross is reporting that the White House is refusing to name the company it farmed out its email management to. You know, the one whose fault it supposedly is that we can’t read Karl Rove’s email.
The White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of [...]

One of the hallmarks of the Bush administration has been its willingness to outsource everything from IRS tax collections to intelligence agency functions to Social Security to the Iraq War. Now we find out that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is skipping down the outsourcing path as well.
The state of Texas has already given [...]

Imagine the government watching you, listening to your conservations, reading your mail, and — someday probably — your thoughts as well.
Bad, right?
Now imagine the government farming out these repugnant tasks to private companies. Turns out you don’t have to imagine. It’s a done deal.
The proposed contracts reflect a continuing expansion of the Defense Department’s intelligence-related [...]

At the Veteran’s Administration, it pays to support your president. Literally.
The GAO determined the VA used misleading accounting and claimed false savings of more than $1.3 billion, apparently because President Bush was not willing, at the time, to ask Congress for more money
By lying about their budget, doling out care so bad it risked the [...]

Un-American: Remember when conservatives went ballistic after it was revealed that the Bush Administration planned to hand over management of major U.S. ports to a company based in Dubai? The Republican base was outraged because the government of Dubai, which was a part owner in the ports-management firm, gave money to terrorists groups. You have [...]

Jeb Bush kept a tight lid on the problems his policies created in Florida while he was in office. But Jeb’s gone now and that famous Florida sunshine is shining in the cracks once so snuggly covered.
Take privatization for example. Even a Republican state senator is appalled at the sweet deal Jeb’s prison contractors enjoyed. [...]

Jeb Bush might be wondering how the godly could get him in so much trouble. First he had to call for the resignation of his appointee as secretary of the Department of Corrections after a string of scandals that make former FEMA head Michael Brown look like he really DID a heck of a job. [...]

The Florida test that determines whether students graduate, how much schools are funded, and even property values are being graded by pizza delivery drivers.
Democratic state senators are calling for state government to take over grading of the all-powerful Florida Comprehensive Acheivement Test. Until recent revelations that the people hired by CTB/McGraw-Hill under a three-year, $86.5 [...]