State Department Lost Track Of $6 Billion

A State Department Inspector General's report found that auditors were unable to account for at least $6 billion in spending over the past six years, a third of which related to contracts supporting the U.S. mission in Iraq. Thirty-three of the 115 contracts related to Iraq were missing altogether, which accounted for $2.1 billion in spending. The Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement lost track of a $1 billion contract in Afghanistan where the CIA operates the largest international heroin trafficking ring in the world. Where did the money go? Did we ever learn what happened to the more than $2 trillion in lost Defense spending that former Secretary Donald Rumfeld announced the day before a plane supposedly crashed into the ring of the Pentagon and killed most of the Defense people working in the controller's office who raised questions about this missing money?

I'll tell you where it went. It went into the pockets of the corrupt, elitists scumbags who make up the military/industrial complex. They're the people whose businesses and executives are maxing out political contributions to our corrupt politicians every election cycle and finding other corrupt ways of funneling money into the politicians' bank accounts to make them all multi-millionaires. Most members of Congress are the recipients of illicit transfers into their bank accounts. Check their financial disclosure statements before and during the time they entered the Congress. As incomplete as their reporting entails, it gives you enough information to figure out that virtually everyone who becomes a member of Congress becomes a multi-millionaire regardless of how little money they had before entering Congress. Members of Congress no longer care about what you think; they only care about the people enriching them and their family members. The American voter has become irrelevant in the American political system. A Republican form of government envisioned by our founders exists only in the figment of our imaginations.

The Day Sen. Dan Coats Showed Up For The Wrong Hearing

Seriously, The FBI Devoted Massive Resources To Seize A 91-Year Old Man's Private Collection Of Artifacts?

Aerial view of FBI raid on Don Miller's residence (Star Photo/Kelly Wilkinson)

A 91-year old Rush County man's home was the scene of a massive FBI raid where agents seized more than a thousand cultural artifacts Don Miller reportedly collected over the past eight decades according to the Indianapolis Star. Miller has not been charged or arrested for committing any crime. Yet agents will spend months cataloging his cache of artifacts to determine their origins according to Robert Jones, special agent in charge of the Indianapolis office. "The monetary value of the items and relics has not been determined Jones said, but the cultural value is beyond measure. In addition to American Indian objects, the collection includes items from China, Russia, Peru, Haiti, Australia and New Guinea.," he said. We have politicians and their cronies stealing hundreds of millions of our tax dollars in plain sight, and the only thing our local FBI office has time to do is badger a 91-year old man who apparently devoted his life to collecting cultural artifacts. Is there a law against that?

UPDATE: An observant reader passes along this background information on the fascinating life of Dr. Don Miller the media reports don't mention:

A little background on Don Miller, the "artifact" collector in Waldron. Given recent developments across the pond it would appear that this old guy possessed material of extreme importance to be applied to the NATO war effort that's building up there.  

The gov's pretense to recover artifacts is a ruse. I would wager that 99.999% of the men involved on the ground at this guy's house do not know the real nature of the raid and were told to collect and catalog artifacts while special agents quietly found and took what they were actually looking for. 

Miller was an electrical genius and developed communications hardware for the MIR space station. Had a huge hand in training cosmonauts in how to use it. He was heavily involved in very high tech ham equipment and networks particularly in Russia. 

The old man had a lot of things the state department wanted but illegal artifacts isn't one of them. You can rest assured that Don Miller will not say a word about anything. How would it look for a true American WWII patriot to be outed working with the Russians, even if at the time it was completely legal to do so.

Here's a link mentioning Dr. Miller's work on the MIR Russian space station.

UPDATE II: An anonymous Internet sleuth points out that Dr. Miller had created transponders used by NASA.

Most recently Dr Miller developed the technology to locate any transmitter through triangulation after the beacon has failed. This technology would be very useful say if an airplane went down and was unable to be located . . . 

Looking at the photo of Dr. Miller's home it is very obvious that he installed several 40'-50' antenna towers on his property which is located out in the middle of nowhere. The FBI (or some agency) set up containment/quarantine tents all over his property and there is no identification of any particular government agencies on the vehicles on his property. I was able to locate video showing those towers being removed which would fall under the definition of artifact but weren't mentioned by reporters.

The fact that the the news doesn't mention that this man was very prominent in the development of nuclear weapons, space science, groundbreaking transponder technology, spectral analysis or the sole heir to his famous brothers research on the origins of life is wherein the truth lies.

The Internet sleuth also claims that Dr. Miller is the brother and sole heir of Dr. Stanley Miller, a world renowned chemical physicist. Although Stanley had a brother named Don, he is from a different family unrelated to Rushville's Don Miller. A website discussing Dr. Miller's research was taken down just last month. A 2007 story in the Rushville Republican discusses his role in the development of the first atomic bomb during
World War II.

Former NSA analyst and independent investigative journalist Wayne Madsen adds this pithy comment about the FBI's actions against Miller:

How long before the FBI sells these artifacts on the black market? They have a history of fencing stolen art work. Just across E Street from FBI Headquarters is Weschler's, art auctioneers and appraisers -- there since 1890.

Chicago Media Boasts That Indianapolis' Murder Rate Is Worse Than Chicago

It's come to this. WBBM/CBS Channel 2 Chicago is boasting about the fact that Indianapolis' murder rate this year is worse than Chicago's murder rate.

If somebody told you that Indianapolis, once nicknamed “nap city” because not much happened there, has seen more murders than Chicago in the past few days, would you believe it? 

It’s true. Way more. 

Chicago’s national reputation as a murder-plagued city is well-documented, but a recent outbreak of violence in Indianapolis has been twice as deadly. Chicago has recorded a total of four homicides since Friday. 

As many as eight people were murdered in Indy over the same time period . . . So far in 2014, there have been 41 murders in Indianapolis, putting the city on pace for more than 160. 

Through March, Chicago Police have recorded 62 murders for the year–the lowest first-quarter total since 1958. 

In 2013, Indianapolis police said the city recorded its highest murder rate in seven years, according to media reports. A total of 124 people were murdered, putting its homicide rate at 17 per 100,000 people. 

By comparison, Chicago had 415 murders in 2013, for a rate of 15 per 100,000. While murders were at their lowest level since the mid-1960s, Chicago is still more violent in terms of murders than Los Angeles and New York.

Another Senseless Murder Sparks Major IMPD Response To West Side Neighborhood

Nathan Trappuzano

A 24-year old computer programmer, Nathan Trapuzzano, became the 41st homicide victim in Indianapolis this year. Nathan and his wife, Jennifer, were married just last May and were expecting the birth of their first son in a matter of weeks. Trapuzzano was out for an early morning walk close to 6:00 a.m. this morning in the 3500 block of West 16th Street when two hoodlums confronted him at gunpoint and shot him in the parking lot of Tron Tire Shop. Trapuzzano died during surgery after being transported to Eskenazi Hospital.

The Indianapolis Star has uploaded  surveillance video footage of the deadly encounter on its website that IMPD obtained from the business' owner who didn't personally know Trappuzano but had become familiar with him because of his daily walking routine. "He is an everyday walker. We usually saw him at closing time about 7, when we were pulling tires in," Adrian Ordaz said. "Rain, snow, cold, hot — he would be walking. "We didn't really ever set down and talk to him," he said, "But you see him every day. It's kind of like seeing your neighbor, you know."

Trapuzzano was one of 7 people shot over the past two days, four of whom died from their injuries, including a triple homicide at an apartment complex near 21st and Post Road. Trapuzzano's shooting prompted IMPD to deploy a large contingency of police to the neighborhood not far from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in hopes of developing leads on the two suspects wanted in connection with the shooting. I found this touching video of the victim's wedding day on YouTube.

Son Of Herff Jones Executive Charged In Fatal Hit-And-Run

Alex Parrett

Avon police have charged a 19-year old Avon man, Charles Alex Parrett, with a fatal hit-and-run accident on U.S. Highway 36 that took the life of 36-year old Robert Blakenship. Parrett, who is the son of Herff Jones VP and CFO Michael Parrett, has been charged with two Class C felonies for fleeing the scene of an accident causing death and driving while under the influence of a controlled substance according to Fox59 News. When Parrett's vehicle struck Blankenship on February 5, he initially fled the scene and drove to a restaurant in Plainfield before later returning to the accident scene with his mother.

Avon Police detective Brian Nugent told reporters that it was not necessary to arrest Parrett at the time because he acknowledged being the driver of the SUV that struck Blankenship and submitted to a blood draw. Blankenship was walking in the turning lane when Parrett's car struck him, presumably because the roadside was snow-covered. Toxicology results later indicated the presence of marijuana in his blood. Nugent said that police wanted to await the toxicology results before charging Parrett, who was not viewed as a flight risk by police. He was attending classes at Wabash College where he is a freshman and wide receiver for the football team when he learned of the charges. Parrett was taken into custody at the Hendricks County jail and later bailed out after posting a $25,000 bond.

Indiana Guardsman Pleads Guilty To Bomb Charges

An Indiana guardsman who served as groundskeeper for Muscatatuck Urban Training Center in Butlerville, Indiana has pleaded guilty in a federal district court to felony bomb charges. You may recall the strange story about Andrew Boguslawski being pulled over by Ohio state police on I-70 near Columbus last January for speeding when police discovered that his van contained 48 homemade bombs and remote control detonating devices. Boguslawski told police that he was traveling from Pennsylvania to his rural home near the Muscatatuck Urban Training Center at the time, and that the explosive devices were "smoke bombs" used for suicide-bomber training. Police also found blueprints in the van for a military training facility. Reports at the time indicated that police were unsure whether the blueprints were for Muscatatuck or another military training facility. Although Boguslawski was originally charged in state court, his case was transferred to federal court. According to the Columbus Dispatch, Boguslawski faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

UPDATE: I'm curious whether Boguslawski's "smoke bombs" were the same type used at the Boston Marathon bombing. Here's a great video by an observant Ausie who has helped expose last year's terrorist attack as a total hoax with crisis actors and all.

Indiana Toll Road Operator Facing Bankruptcy

The private consortium that operates the Indiana Toll Road is facing growing debt problems according to a recent Wall Street Journal report. A European bank that loaned money to the Spanish firm, Cintra, and Maquerie Group, which paid $3.8 billion to the State of Indiana under the terms of its 75-year lease of the toll road, recently sold $500 million of its debt for the toll road to an outside investor for 60 cents on the dollar. Pressure from bondholders could force the controlling partners to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection according to the Journal. Less-than-expected traffic on the toll road is blamed for the private operator's woes.

The problems encountered by the Indiana Toll Road operator should be giving Gov. Mike Pence pause about rushing into his plan to construct the Illiana Expressway under a public-private agreement the state is undertaking with the State of Illinois, but it isn't. Under that agreement, the private operator will build, operate and maintain the new toll road; however, if toll road fees fail to meet their target, the State of Indiana will have to make up the shortfall to guarantee minimum payments to the private operator. Recent documents prepared for the Illinois Department of Transportation suggest that toll road fees for the Illiana Expressway will cost considerably more than the current toll road fees--at least double--charged to drive on other area toll roads. Deficiency payments required to be paid by the state to the private operator would mean less money to fund other highway projects throughout the rest of the state.

Duke's Costly Edwardsport Plant's Output Less Than 1% Of Capacity In February

Output at Duke Energy's new $3.5 billion power plant at Edwardsport was at less than 1% during the month of February according to figures the utility filed with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission the Star's John Russell is reporting. Duke blamed "equipment challenges" and a decision to "move up spring maintenance" during what's been one of the coldest winters on record in Indiana. Since going online last spring, the plant has encountered leaking valves, cracked pipes and frozen machinery. Duke claims it ramped up production at the plant in March, but it was still only operating at 44% of capacity.

As evidence of just how bad of a boondoggle the Edwardsport plant has turned out to be, the Indiana Office of Utility Consumer Counselor says that the plant actually consumed more energy than it produced last year. Consumer advocates complain that Duke is trying to get around an agreement with the IURC to cap construction costs for the new plant that are passed on to consumers by claiming them as ongoing maintenance expenses. The plant was originally supposed to cost $1.9 billion, or about $1.6 billion short of what it actually cost to be build. The IURC capped the cost passed on to consumers at $2.6 billion.