Among other things, government is supposed to try to help increase employment, right?  But it almost looks like the federal and some state governments are trying to cut jobs in this country with overly aggressive on-site inspections.  Businesses are trying to fight back because, as Julia Preston reports in the New York Times, if immigration raids are too successful, they can close down companies that employ hundreds of non-immigrants (meaning law-abiding, taxpaying citizens).   And companies trying to comply with immigration rules face a Catch-22: they are not allowed to scrutinize employees’ papers too closely due to the danger of violating antidiscrimination standards.   In the meantime, these people are trying to keep their businesses alive and people off the unemployment rolls. -NH

The Washington Post’s Walter Pincus, who reads Government Accountability Office reports so no one else has to, looks at a GAO report on mind-boggling Pentagon costs. Major Pentagon weapons systems will cost $1.6 trillion to complete, $335 billion of which will be spent over the next five years. These sums are made larger by the fact that the Pentagon consistently lowballs weapons costs, especially for fanciful projects like unmanned vehicles where the technology has yet to be successfully implemented.

Typically if you’re the Pentagon, money grows on trees. But these weapons systems are harder to defend in the midst of continued, undefined wars with Iraq and Afghanistan. Especially since the most pricey weapons aren’t being used in either war.-MB

The Washington Post’s Carrie Johnson does a follow-up this morning on a report that GOP ties played an improper role in the Justice Department’s selections for its prestigious honors program. Now a prospective employee who suspects he wasn’t hired due to past work with Amnesty International is suing the Dept. Other turned-down employees may follow, especially after the Justice Dept. Inspector General releases reports detailing hiring practices within the civil rights division and for U.S. Attorneys.

How upset should we be about this? It looks like the Bush Administration has violated the Civil Service Reform Act in hiring people with loyalty to the Republican party. Perhaps future IG reports can shed some light on how much this differs from past administrations and how much Justice’s work has been compromised.-MB