President Barack Obama has recently released top-secret CIA memos detailing torture techniques and directives. At the same time those extremely sensitive and controversial documents were being released, the Obama Administration was fighting a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request I filed with the Small Business Administration (SBA) for the e-mails and phone records of SBA Press Office Director Mike Stamler. One can only imagine the horrific threat to national security the release of Mike Stamler's e-mails and phone records could cause.
I guess President Obama thinks Stamler's e-mails could somehow be used by Al-Qaeda or the Taliban to pinpoint weaknesses in our national defense network, and put every man, woman and child in America at risk.
Attorney General Eric Holder is leading the Obama Administration's opposition to the release of Stamler's e-mails and phone records. The Department of Justice (DOJ) has asked a San Francisco Federal District Court Judge to drop my case against the SBA for Stamler's phone records. In addition to the legal battle over Stamler's e-mails and phone records, Justice Department attorneys are reportedly preparing to appeal a federal judge's ruling directing the DOJ to pay my attorneys fees in a recent case we won against the SBA for refusing to release the names of firms, including hundreds of Fortune 1000 firms, that received billions of dollars in federal small business contracts.
I requested Stamler's e-mails and phone records after several journalists complained that Stamler had launched an aggressive campaign to defame the American Small Business League (ASBL) and myself.
Stamler's tirades against me began after I won a series of federal lawsuits against the SBA forcing the agency to release thousands of pages of embarrassing data, which prove the SBA attempted to mislead Congress and the public about the diversion of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms.
After the Long Island Business Journal (LIBJ) quoted me in a story, the publication received a profanity saturated e-mail from Stamler, which was so offensive and obscene they were compelled to publish a blog entitled, "Expletives the SBA's Forte." (http://libn.com/libizblog/2008/02/22/expletives-the-sbas-forte/)
Any journalist that has written an accurate story regarding the diversion of billions of dollars in government small business contracts to Fortune 1000 firms has received an angry phone call or a nasty e-mail from Mike Stamler or someone else in the SBA press office.
Since 2003 there have been a constant stream of federal investigations that found Fortune 500 firms such as: Xerox, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, Dell Computer, John Deere, Rolls-Royce and even British Aerospace (BAE) have been receiving billions of dollars in federal small business contracts. Every major newspaper in the country has reported the story, along with most of the major television networks such as ABC, CBS, FOX and CNN.
The SBA has consistently tried to cover up the rampant fraud and abuse with a massive misinformation campaign claiming Fortune 500 firms have received federal small business contracts every day for over seven years accidentally through "miscoding." They even attempted to convince the media that the diversion of hundreds of billions in federal small business contracts to corporate giants around the world was a "myth."
During the campaign, President Obama repeatedly promised to increase transparency in government. It looks like the increased transparency President Obama promised does not include such super top-secret government documents as nasty and libelous e-mails from the SBA press office.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Congress Continues to Ignore Top Issue for Middle Class Firms
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 19, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. – Sunday, May 17 marked the beginning of National Small Business Week. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to produce any legislation to address one of the more pressing issues for middle class firms in America.
Since 2002, a series of federal investigations have been released, which found that every year over $100 billion in federal contracts set-aside for small businesses are diverted to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses around the world.
In 2005, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (IG) referred to the problem as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today…"
Investigative stories by ABC, CBS and CNN have all found that firms such as: Office Depot, Rolls-Royce, Microsoft, Wall-Mart, L-3 Communications and British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) have all received government small business contracts.
In June of 2008, the Department of Interior (DOI) IG found that in a sampling of just 0.3% of the agency's total contract actions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 and 2007, the DOI had awarded small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms like: Home Depot, Xerox, Starwood Hotels, Dell Computer, Sherwin Williams, Ricoh, Weyerhaeuser, McGraw-Hill and Waste Management.
Even President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue during the campaign, when in February of 2008 he said, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
To date, Congress has failed to pass legislation to address the issue. The only legislation ever written to address the issue was drafted by the President of the American Small Business League (ASBL), Lloyd Chapman. The draft legislation, which is titled the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, is currently making the rounds in Congress. If passed, the bill could redirect over $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts back to legitimate small businesses around the country.
"It has been 7 years since this issue was exposed. There have now been over a dozen investigations. It is time for Congress to pass legislation to address this issue. Clearly, small businesses are the backbone of our nation's economy. It is time for politicians to quit talking and take some action," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act is the most effective legislation ever proposed to address this issue. It will create more jobs than anything that has been proposed by the Obama administration to date."
-###-
May 19, 2009
Petaluma, Calif. – Sunday, May 17 marked the beginning of National Small Business Week. Unfortunately, Congress has failed to produce any legislation to address one of the more pressing issues for middle class firms in America.
Since 2002, a series of federal investigations have been released, which found that every year over $100 billion in federal contracts set-aside for small businesses are diverted to Fortune 500 firms and thousands of large businesses around the world.
In 2005, the Small Business Administration (SBA) Office of Inspector General (IG) referred to the problem as, "One of the most important challenges facing the Small Business Administration and the entire Federal government today…"
Investigative stories by ABC, CBS and CNN have all found that firms such as: Office Depot, Rolls-Royce, Microsoft, Wall-Mart, L-3 Communications and British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) have all received government small business contracts.
In June of 2008, the Department of Interior (DOI) IG found that in a sampling of just 0.3% of the agency's total contract actions for Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 and 2007, the DOI had awarded small business contracts to Fortune 500 firms like: Home Depot, Xerox, Starwood Hotels, Dell Computer, Sherwin Williams, Ricoh, Weyerhaeuser, McGraw-Hill and Waste Management.
Even President Barack Obama weighed in on the issue during the campaign, when in February of 2008 he said, "It is time to end the diversion of federal small business contracts to corporate giants."
To date, Congress has failed to pass legislation to address the issue. The only legislation ever written to address the issue was drafted by the President of the American Small Business League (ASBL), Lloyd Chapman. The draft legislation, which is titled the Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act, is currently making the rounds in Congress. If passed, the bill could redirect over $100 billion a year in federal small business contracts back to legitimate small businesses around the country.
"It has been 7 years since this issue was exposed. There have now been over a dozen investigations. It is time for Congress to pass legislation to address this issue. Clearly, small businesses are the backbone of our nation's economy. It is time for politicians to quit talking and take some action," ASBL President Lloyd Chapman said. "The Fairness and Transparency in Contracting Act is the most effective legislation ever proposed to address this issue. It will create more jobs than anything that has been proposed by the Obama administration to date."
-###-
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
