Defense Contractor Brooks Buys Teenage Daughter $10,000,000 Party

NOTE: The David H. Brooks who threw this party for his 13-yr-old daughter is the same defense contractor who sold our troops the defective body armor.

Not-so-Petty cash to rock bat mitzvah


History will forever record Elizabeth Brooks' bat mitzvah as "Mitzvahpalooza." For his (13-year-old) daughter's coming-of-age celebration last weekend, multimillionaire Long Island defense contractor David H. Brooks booked two floors of the Rainbow Room, hauled in concert-ready equipment, built a stage, installed special carpeting, outfitted the space with Jumbotrons and arranged command performances by everyone from 50 Cent to Tom Petty to Aerosmith.

(snip)

The party cost an estimated $10 million, including the price of corporate jets to ferry the performers to and from. Also on the bill were The Eagles' Don Henley and Joe Walsh performing with Fleetwood Mac's Stevie Nicks; DJ AM (Nicole Richie's fiance); rap diva Ciara and, sadly perhaps (except that he received an estimated $250,000 for the job), Kenny G blowing on his soprano sax as more than 300 guests strolled and chatted into their pre-dinner cocktails.

"Hey, that guy looks like Kenny G," a disbelieving grownup was overheard remarking - though the 150 kids in attendance seemed more impressed by their $1,000 gift bags, complete with digital cameras and the latest video iPod.

(snip)

I'm told that at one point Brooks leapt on the stage with Tyler and Perry, who responded with good grace when their paymaster demanded that his teenage nephew be permitted to sit in on drums. At another point, I'm told, Tyler theatrically wiped sweat off Brooks' forehead - and then dried his hand with a flourish.

(snip)

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/col/story/369995p-314735c.html

About David H. Brooks and his company DHB:

...the Pentagon’s sole supplier of body armor--Point Blank Body Armor--is swimming in scandal. Point Blank is owned by DHB Industries--which stands for "David H. Brooks."

Brooks is a corporate crook of the highest order. In 1992, he was implicated in an insider-trading scam, and since then, he’s racked up several Securities and Exchange Commission complaints for shady deals. DHB is also known for union-busting. Last year, it was found guilty of labor law violations for firing, locking out and threatening employees at its Fort Lauderdale, Fla., plant.

But none of that stopped the Pentagon last month from awarding DHB a $77 million contract to supply troops overseas--the largest order for body armor in Defense Department history--just months after it had handed DHB a $60 million contract. Specifically, the new Pentagon contract is for thousands of Interceptor vests--a heavier version of the type of vests that DHB has supplied to the New York Police Department.

In 2002, DHB was forced to settle out of court with the NYPD--after it was revealed that as many as 5,000 of the vests that the company supplied were defective. Former Point Blank employees have reportedly come forward to say that they were ordered to place updated labels on out-of-date body armor, that vest sizes were mislabeled, and that vest shells were mismatched with their ballistic liners.

http://www.socialistworker.org/2004-1/495/495_06_BringThemHome.shtml

It is indescribably obscene. I'm appalled.

check out this show (if it's even showing anymore) on mtv - "my super sweet sixteen". my teen son watches this and watching it made go :wow:

*ush's base is making (our) money hand over fist and this is how they are spending it - it IS truly obscene :grr:

to this level of lifestyle by heredity.

Don't you see how this guys tax-cut created all these jobs for the performers and the carpet layers?!!

Jeesh, you liberals can really ruin a little party! It's just some millionaire defense contracting, RepubliKKKan supporting dude's daughter and her friends blowing off a little steam.

:sarcasm:

Seriously, though, I wish a reporter with some balls would ask this question of Dick Cheney;

"Mr Vice President, not counting the extra investigators in the Special Prosecutors office, or your legal defense team, can you tell me of ONE JOB YOU'VE CREATED WITH YOUR $342,000 TAX-CUT.

Don't act so appalled! You're just jealous!

/Republispeak

money."

I don't care if it's corporate money or if it came out of his personal bank account. I don't even care if he got it through Bush's tax cuts.

I care that it is ridiculous waste! Dear God in Heaven, how many people could $10M feed, clothe, house? How many hospices funded, how many meal programs, how many free clinics? :banghead:

all those $10,000 toilet seats really DO add up.

(first time ever for me using the puke emoticon) :puke:

An ostentacious, tasteless display of wealth by one of the merchants of death. Sad, just sad.

At least not the kind that people like you and I pay to go see. Disgusting.

You could put on a major festival for that kind of dough.

Words fail me.

:puke:

Last itme I check it's a business too. And if they can get some moran to pay over a huge fee for a kids birthday why shouldn't they take it.

court jester.

Dance Fitty!

Dance Aerosmith!

Dance Henley!

It would be different if it were Paul Allen who made the Experience Music Project and actually is trying to do something for rock and roll.

But a kid's birthday party? WTF?

sold by his company, that's where the 10 mil came from.

Republican family values!

vengeance"? And just to top it off, to celebrate a religious event!

"to celebrate a religious event" -

Sigh.

This disgusting pig should be horsewhipped, have his ears nailed to a truck bumper and be dragged/driven through the toughest neighborhoods in the Bronx. And after that he should be drawn and quartered. :grr::banghead:

He probably wouldn't last 5 minutes, if what they say about the defective body armor is true.

How many kids died so his kid (and he) could party to the tune of $10,000,000??

Never thought Id sound like an old fogey when it comes to MTV since I was part of the first generation that grew up watching it but they have their priorities seriously out of whack to put that on the air.

That network had guts, and real progressive news reports. It's now a bling-o-rama.

But you're right - that show is beyond anything else. It's everything that is wrong with our society wrapped up in a big package and presented to kids as if it's something they should be lusting after.

Hell, I'm probably even younger than you are and here I am sounding two or three times my age.

winter and the rich have it in the summer."

most of them likely business associates of DHB. That makes some or most of this a deductible business expense. So are the corporate jets.

Your hard-earned tax dollars at work. Truly disgusting.

Heaven help us when that Paris-Hilton-in-waiting grows up...I'm starting to REALLY hate capitalism if this is what it leads to.

I just don't get these people. If he's greedy, then why spend so much money on a birthday party? If he's not greedy, then why not teach his daughter something about philanthropy? For example spend $1 million (still a very kick ass party for a 13 yo) and donate $9 million in charity in his daughter's name? Of course, I live in the real world, obviously, they don't.
The daughter is probably a spoiled little brat and I bet all the servants want to kill her!!

Get your name all over the papers as the guy who could hire all these famous musicians for your kid's party? Get to hobnob with said celebrities? That's better than a barrel of diamonds for that kind of person. Plus, he probably views his daughter as an extension of himself.

Genuine pure misers, who just want the numbers in the bank (like racking up video game scores or something) and nothing else, are pretty rare IME. Usually it's mainly about showing off and bossing people around.

these are the people that are running this country. While countless Americans can't afford health care and may not know where their next meal is coming from this little 13 year old rich bitch has a party that takes conspicuous consumption to new heights. My guess is she has forgotten about this party and moved on to newer more expensive flights of fancy. The whole Brooks family should be lynch mobbed.

Bet he wants us to stay the course in Iraq real bad!

Statue copy Peeing Champaign to the tune of several million, for his wife's Birthday and look at where he is now. That part was before his fall from Tyco.

Something this outrageous will catch so much attention he must be a total looney. I hope the daughter cares enough about him she visits him in jail..but she might just decide her rich friends who came to her "bash" will disown her if she's goes to give daddy a kiss while he's wearing striped pajamas.

and everyone associated with him. I hope everyone hears about this story.

....CLASSLESS , WAR PROFIT.....I TOO HOPE THIS STORY GETS LOTS AND LOTS OF PRESS.
10 MILLION IN ARMOR TO THOSE FIGHTING WOULD HAVE BEEN THE HUMAN THING TO DO , INSTEAD THEY SPEND IT ON A DAY OF ENTERTAINMENT FOR A 13 YEAR OLD.ALL THE SUFFERING IN THE WORLD AND THIS VERY PUBLIC DISPLAY IS IMMORAL

I think this explains it all. This is the first time George W. Bush has ever run a profitable business... well at least for his friends it's profitable.

Okay, where are the pitchforks and torches? This kind of thing really makes you want to believe there is a hell.

Tell them to go fuck themselves with a cholla cactus here:

http://www.dhbindustries.com

When the troops come home, the big money train slows down.

Time for a new "French Revolution"!

or maybe a putz. whaddya think ?

actually, shyster captures it pretty well too.

Mr. Spritzer?

but I'm not sure the fraud (knowingly selling the U.S. military defective body armor) took place within Spitzer's jurisdiction.

I kind of hope Eliot Spitzer DOESN'T become NY governor, if it means an end to his fine investigations.

or, well, something. :eyes: :shrug:

were there for daddy's sake and not the 13 yr old.

I shaking my head.

although my 8 year old son thinks he's cool - that's clearly my influence.

By the time he's 13, I expect him to be rejecting my tastes and developing his own.

are in charge...

... will get a new Bentley when she turns 16.

I wish I had that kind of money. Not that I'd throw a stupidly wasteful concert like that though...and I would never have a piece of criminal shit like 50 Cent either.

It's amazing there were so many pigs and sows at a bat mitzvah.
That's a lot of pork at a party which would be attended by mostly Jewish people.

I don't know where to begin.

Shame. Shame. Shame.

Not _DON HENLEY_. Mr. Walden Pond. Please. I'm beggin' here.

And we paid for it. Unbelievable.

:grr:

Just truly unbelievable.

I wonder what her Sweet 16 will be like? Just think of all the good he could have done with that money.

They'll eventually get the picture that we are paying attention and they should as well. This is totally unacceptable.

:puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke: :puke:

My mother in-law has purchased BRAND NEW(why??) skis, poles and boots for my two daughters as Christmas presents. My wife and I got them seasons passes(for night skiing)at $200 a piece. This is definitely the most decadent thing we've ever done and I was feeling really weird about it.

But I guess it's OK.

This is really messed up, and the man is a shame.

;) Disgusting.

Addict Rush Limbaugh used to rail about it all the time. Then he wondered why the majority of his listeners had no idea what he was so outraged about, and thought he had lost touch with them.

This post with both snips needs to get out there PRONTO!!!!!!!

Some guy named Bob Dylan wrote a song about it. "Masters of War".

It is embaressing and criminal when so many are suffering.

This is a shonda (a scandal) if there ever was one. I take a certain grim consolation in the fact that he will never hear the end of it from the great majority of the Jewish community. MOST of us still remember what our values are. He should have held a modest celebration and given most of the money to charity, maybe a fund established in his daughter's honor. AND he should not need to be told this!

But then what would you expect from a defense contractor? Goddam pirate!

He's still easily outdone by Dick Cheney.

What, no XBOX? :P

One young girl's birthday is far more important! 32 million could have updated the levee system in New Orleans. This probably is just business as usual among the real people who control America.

:grr::puke::grr::puke::grr:

I can't believe it. Such a ludicrous claim. Is it a misprint? That is abso-f'ing-lutely insane.

:puke: :grr:
UFB.

With our tax dollars by the way. I simply cannot believe it.

I just did a google on the company. Check this out.

For example, David H. Brooks, CEO of bulletproof vest maker DHB Industries, earned $70 million in 2004, 13,349% more than his 2001 compensation of $525,000. Brooks also sold company stock worth about $186 million last year, spooking investors who drove DHB’s share price from more than $22 to as low as $6.50. In May 2005, the US Marines recalled more than 5,000 DHB armored vests after questions were raised about their effectiveness. By that time, Brooks had pocketed over $250 million in war windfalls.

http://www.faireconomy.org/press/2005/EE2005_pr.html

He should go to prison.

becoming public at last.

"Beggars' Ball" at the Waldorf-Astoria, where they all came dressed up as poor people--hobos and tramps--and dined and drank and danced the night away beneath the glittering chandaliers. Their fellow Americans were already starving and freezing outside in the streets, with no jobs, no home, and no hope, due to the greed and irresponsibility of this elite. What did they care? They mocked the poor. They thought it was a joke to dress up in rags and yet to eat well, amidst unprecedented luxury.

I can understand lavishing gifts on a child. It's probably basically a good impulse, maybe the best the man has in him. But the blindness of it--in these times--is staggering, with a bankrupt federal government, the corpses of Americans floating in New Orleans due to the Bushites' murderous neglect, many without homes from that disaster, and their mortgage payments due--so like the Dust Bowl, so like the Dust Bowl!--and many Americans already starving and freezing, and being robbed of every penny by Bush donor energy companies and all the other greedbags, and many Americans with no medical care, no jobs and no hope, and with tens of thousands of dead in Iraq, and the Middle East a tinderbox that, at any moment, could ignite a nuclear holocaust that could end the world, and with the Greenland ice caps melting, due to greed and thoughtlessness, and the planet in real peril. Such blinders. Such tunnel vision. Such ill gotten gains.

Better to give your little girl a peaceful and prosperous and healthy world, where her mind could be at ease that other children are taken care of, that everyone is well, and that there are no bombers coming from the United States to blow some helpless child, and her family and her village to smitereens.

Speechless. No wonder "they" don't want to end the war. They're profits would cease to exist.

Evil is as evil does. Karma can come back to haunt ya.

He has such a big heart!

he's actually earned the money himself instead of making it from bogus government contracts. That's our taxpayer's money funding his ridiculous lifestyle. And he didn't even give the government what he was paid for, he gave them defective armor for a war.
That's the part that I find the most sick.

Strange sounding guests, were they all undercover spies?

"as more than 300 guests strolled and chatted into their pre-dinner cocktails."

And how many children were talking into their cocktails? Hmm....?

DHB has serious ethical issues as well as criminal.

And he can do what he wants with it. I'm not condoning. I think he's giving his daughter a vulgar and distorted view of the world, but he's allowed to do what he pleases with his cash.

It's the second part of that post that really angers me. This man should be in prison -- or, at the very least, his contracts should be terminated -- for the harms he's done to our troops.

Goddamn, this guy is exactly the reason why I don't have a problem with the occasional discreet assassination.

Here he is, with money made from knowingly giving our troops substandard body armor to pad the bottom line, and the motherfucker uses it to throw a goddamn BIRTHDAY PARTY for his spoiled brat!!! He should be down on his knees begging for forgiveness from the families of any soldiers who died because of the defective SHIT he sold the government!!!

Will he? Fuck no! He'll just keep spending the money on his goddamn kid without giving a damn that American troops are dying every day, and he's profiting from it.

There truly is no justice in the world when scum like this man are allowed to live.

could help a lot of people with it.. I mean a hell of a lot of people. This is just another example of how the rich are getting so ridiculously rich, it is pathetic....

No fancy parties, balls, expensive gowns and galas.

That kind of stuff was regarded as unpatriotic during World War II (since the neo-conservative pecker heads like to make tired WWII analogies).

Happy Birthday young lady. I expect you to enlist 5 years from now.