The American Prospect has posted an excellent article on the IRS privatization program- particularly all the shady and suspicious political donations that seem -but have not been proven- to be the driving force behind the program. Also, the article sheds some light on one of the mysteries of the privatization program- that it's found a staunch supporter in Rep. Bart Gordon (D-TN) (emph. mine).

In weird sort of Zen meditation on the nature of oversight, the Department of Education overlooks a stark conflict of interest by selecting the company which implemented a billion-dollar reading program to evaluate the very program that it implemented. And the company in question has been criticized by the Ed. Dept.'s inspector general for failing to avoid conflict of interest problems when it originally implemented the program.

Can you guess which disaster this Washington Post article is about? In a stinging, wide-ranging assessment of..efforts, .... said that...had no strategy for restoring either government institutions or infrastructure. And in the years since, other agencies joined the effort without an overall plan and without a structure in place to organize and execute a task of such magnitude. Lines of authority remained unclear in the...effort. With a demand for speed and a shortage of government personnel, much of the oversight was turned over to the contractors doing the work. There was little coordination among the various agencies. The result was a series of missed opportunities to address the unraveling situation.... A. Hurricane Katrina. B. The Iraq war reconstruction C. The Afghanistan war D. It's an article from the future- it's about how they'll handle the next disaster.

Ace investigative tax reporter David Cay Johnston has tracked down another ridiculous IRS proposal: outsource the writing of IRS regulations to the people they regulate. Check out the story in today's New York Times. Money quote (from our executive director): Looking at the issue in its broadest terms, Gary D. Bass, executive director of OMB Watch, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that tracks the Office of Management and Budget, warned that the Bush administration was turning over too much government responsibility to those it is supposed to be keeping an eye on.