War on entitlements - NSFW

Doesn't anyone know why these things are called fucking entitlements?

Because they are.

That's why they aren't called handouts. Handouts are reserved for big pharma, Wall Street, auto companies and other big contributors.

Live with it.

I have a boilerplate I'm ready to send to every fucking asshole in government I can. It's pretty simple:

You have military nearby. If you want to cut entitlements, please send some to kill me because it'll be cleaner, quicker and probably hurt less. That is if you skip the waterboarding shit.

You don't wait until someone is retired and depending on their entitlements to be there and then pull the God damn rug out from under them.

An actual letter to the passport office…

U.S. Passport with RFID symbol
Agreed. Ya never know if this is random fictional ranting out of frustration, clever ranting which is also fiction or a true letter. Right now I can relate entirely.

I don’t know if this is true or not, but I can understand the frustration it depicts…..

Dear sir

I’m in the process of renewing my passport, and still cannot believe this. How is it that Radio Shack has my address and telephone number and knows that I bought a t.v. cable from them back in 1997, and yet, the Federal Government is still asking me where I was born and on what date.
For Christ sakes, do you guys do this by hand? My birth date you have on my social security card, and it is on all the income tax forms I’ve filed for the past 30 years. It is on my health insurance card, my driver’s license, on the last eight goddamn passports I’ve had, on all those stupid customs declaration forms I’ve had to fill out before being allowed off the planes over the last 30 years, and all those insufferable census forms that are done at election times.
Would somebody please take note, once and for all, that my mother’s name is Maryanne, my father’s name is Robert and I’d be absolutely astounded if that ever changed between now and when I die!!!!!!
SHIT!

I apologize, I’m really pissed off this morning. Between you an’ me, I’ve had enough of this bullshit! You send the application to my house, then you ask me for my fuckin’ address. What is going on? You have a gang of Neanderthal assholes workin’ there! Look at my damn picture. Do I look like Bin Laden? I don’t want to dig up Yasser Arafat, for shit sakes. I just want to go and park my ass on a sandy beach. And would someone please tell me, why would you give a shit whether I plan on visiting a farm in the next 15 days? If I ever got the urge to do something weird to a chicken or a goat, believe you me, I’d sure as hell not want to tell anyone! Well, I have to go now, ’cause I have to go to the other end of the city and get another fuckin’ copy of my birth certificate, to the tune of $60. Would it be so complicated to have all the services i n the same spot to assist in t he issuance of a new passport the same day?? Nooooo, that’d be too
damn easy and maybe makes sense. You’d rather have us running all over the fuckin’ place like chickens with our heads cut off, then find some asshole to confirm that it’s really me on the goddamn picture - you know, the one where we’re not allowed to smile?! (fuckin’ morons)
Hey, you know why we can’t smile? We’re totally pissed off! Signed - An Irate Citizen.

P.S. Remember what I said above about the picture and getting someone to confirm that it’s me? Well, my family has been in this country since 1776. I have served in the military for something over 30 years and have had security clearances up the yingyang. However, I have to get someone ‘important’ to verify who I am - you know, someone like my doctor WHO WAS BORN AND RAISED IN COMMUNIST CHINA !

Sincerely,

You Sure In The Hell Should Know Who.

BTW, everything about RFID.

Note: Headline links to source.

Hay Belly Nation

For some of you this will be an easier question to answer than for others simply because it wasn't that fucking long ago you experienced it.

Remember when you'd ask you mother if you could do this or that and she would tell you to ask your father who would tell you to ask your mother?

Same circular shit happens in the government.

Mum's the word among federal officials about the health benefits of eating organic foods. The Department of Health and Human Services defers questions about organic foods to the Food and Drug Administration. But the FDA has no policy on organics because it says they're the domain of the Department of Agriculture, which will admit to using the "o-word," but says its mandate is simply to regulate use of the certified organic label, not to judge the relative benefits of organic versus conventional foods.

Note: Headline links to source.

All salmon fishing banned on US West Coast

Chinook or King salmon
This is what happens when you don't have "big" government judicially regulating an industry. Thousands will be economically devastated.

Here is what could have happened.

1. Limit takes. Don't let the trawlers over-fish the salmon to the point they are decimated.

2. Set a limit on the number of boats allowed to fish through licensing.

3. Establish a waiting list of captains who want to fish and dole out licenses as other captains retire or die.

4. Set limited seasons on when boats can take salmon.

These steps, had they been implemented earlier could have prevented this catastrophe. Everyone would suffer to some extent, but not been deprived of their livelihoods completely.

Salmon fishing was banned along the West Coast for the first time in 160 years Thursday, a decision that is expected to have a devastating economic impact on fishermen, dozens of businesses, tourism and boating.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez immediately declared a commercial fishery disaster, opening the door for Congress to appropriate money for anyone who will be economically harmed.

Note: Headline links to source.

Federal Agencies Flunk Their Audits

Sometimes it seems there is an infinite number of things needing fixin' in Washington DC.

Ten years after Congress ordered federal agencies to have outside auditors review their books, neither the Defense Department nor the newer Department of Homeland Security has met even basic accounting requirements, leaving them vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. An Associated Press review shows that the two departments' financial records are so disorganized and inconsistent that they have repeatedly earned "disclaimer" opinions, meaning that they simply cannot be fully audited.

"It means we really can't put any faith in the numbers they use," said Ross Rubenstein, who teaches public administration at Syracuse University's Maxwell School.

The Federal Financial Management Improvement Act of 1996 requires, among other things, that the financial systems of major federal agencies "comply substantially" with generally accepted accounting standards. Each year, those agencies are required to release results of outside audits.

The AP review of financial statements from the federal government's 15 executive departments shows that most pass their audits, although many agencies - including NASA, the Coast Guard and FEMA - have been frequently cited for serious accounting errors.

The entire Homeland Security Department, with a $35 billion budget this fiscal year, passed its first audit in 2003 with strong stipulations, but has failed every one since.

And the Defense Department, with a $460 billion budget this fiscal year, has never even come close to passing. Because that department makes up at least 20 percent of all federal spending, the entire federal government also has failed its audits since the congressional mandate took effect.

Failing an audit in any other venue could have dire consequences - a public company's stock could plummet, state and local governments could see bond and credit ratings sink. But for the federal government, effects are less direct because the U.S. Treasury is a guaranteed funding source.

Via Associated Press.

Thailand braced for leap into political unknown

King Bhumibol Adulyadej

Now this is scary. With the military in control, the Thai government was shaky enough and now this.

Thailand is braced for a leap into the unknown this week as a court decides whether to disband the country's top two parties and ban their leaders from politics for breaching election laws.

Fears are widespread the verdicts on Wednesday may escalate the coup-prone nation's political uncertainty into chaos.

Those fears were laid out starkly by King Bhumibol Adulyadej when he summoned top judges to warn them whatever decisions the Constitutional Tribunal made would upset somebody.

"Whatever the verdict will be, it will bring damage to the country. Whatever direction it will take, it will be erroneous," he said in a 15-minute speech to the judges.

The words of the monarch, who is genuinely revered, prompted the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and the Democrat Party to promise restraint.

"There will be people who are unhappy with the verdicts and will protest on the street, but I don't think there will be hundreds of thousands," Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont said.

(read more)

George W, CEO

Bush said he would run the government like a businessman. Well, it looks like he was telling the truth. Unfortunately, he's running it like he's run other businesses.

Fiscal Responsibility
George W. Bush took over as CEO of USA Inc. when the country was running substantial surpluses, rapidly paying off its debt, and moving toward a future with a balanced budget. Forecasts predicted the country would continue to grow and be debt free in the near future. Bush took charge, and the opposite occurred: the country is running record deficits; debt service is skyrocketing. Bush's most recent economic forecast (arguably optimistic) predicts a balanced budget by 2012 (contingent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan not costing the United States a dime after 2009), which is, ironically, when he will no longer be in office. The trade deficit with USA Inc.'s No. 1 competitor, China, is increasing. Interestingly, a characteristic of many failing CEOs when losses are mounting is to hide or obfuscate the real deficits. This president, in addition to incurring massive deficits, has managed to hide the magnitude of the losses by special (otherwise known as "off balance sheet") allocations of billions of dollars that do not appear in the annual budget.

Found at Brilliant at Breakfast.