For KBCraig: THIS is Homeland Stupidity

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http://www.homelandstupidity.us/2006/10/12/bureuacrats-accidentally-liquidate-homeland-security-copier/

After a screwup by government bureaucrats spending federal homeland security money in which they embarrassed themselves by accidentally selling off the $8,000 copier they'd just acquired for pennies on the dollar, the bureaucrats are, instead of being sensible and moving on, are being even more stupid and preparing to spend even more money to get "their" copier back.

But the story of the copier reveals these bureaucrats aren't your garden variety stupid. They're colossally, phenomenally, incredibly stupid.

Ted Anderson, Ken Dahlstedt and Don Munks, Skagit County (Wash.) Commissioners, spent $8,000 of federal homeland security grant money they were expecting in order to buy a state-of-the-art copier for the county's new emergency response van.

A van they hadn't yet bought.

That's right, these morons put the cart before the horse, or in this case, the copier before the van it was going to be used in. And I haven't even gotten into the question of why an emergency response van needs a $8,000 copier, when presumably, in an emergency, a $100 inkjet copier/printer/scanner off the local computer store's shelf would do. (That's because the bureaucrats aren't spending their own money, but your money, and are horrible stewards of it. It's enough to make you vote Libertarian out of sheer disgust. Which you should do anyway, but that's a story for later.)

Anyway, so "Skagit County's own version of Moe, Larry and Curly" decide to stick the copier in a warehouse. The warehouse where the county keeps surplus items. Do you see it coming yet?

Yes, you're right. The county did have a surplus auction, and sold off the copier to a local businessman, who reportedly paid $250 for it, about three cents on the dollar.

After about a month goes by Skagit County officials decide they should get the copier returned.

The county reportedly offered $5,000 to buy back it's $8,000 copier.

"No thanks," said the businessman who'd bought it.

So now Skagit County officials will spend God only knows how much money as they sue the businessman in an effort to force him to give the copier back. -- KOMO

So, let's recap the math for you. After the auction, the county was out $7,750. It then offered another $5,000 to buy the copier back. I wouldn't sell it for that low either. Now the city will spend many more thousands of dollars on lawyers to force this guy to give back the copier. You can be sure it will be more than $5,000.

And at the end of the day, even if they win, they'll have a used copier, and no van to put it in. And the residents of Skagit County, as well as you and I, will have paid for these bureaucrats to waste the money they're forcibly taking from us.

Might I suggest, instead of harassing this guy, getting on eBay and finding a nice copier instead? Or does that require too much brain power for three of the dumbest bureaucrats I've ever heard of?


(P.S. That copier/printer/scanner was on sale for $69 at CompUSA the last time I looked.)

[KBCraig]

I bow to you, Sir. Especially for your excellent summary:

That's because the bureaucrats aren't spending their own money, but your money, and are horrible stewards of it.

I'm in the process of swapping out radio batteries. Granted, the "cheap" batteries previously purchased were false economy at best, and we desperately needed new ones (most posts were swapping batteries at least twice during each 8 hour shift). But due to the miracle of "year-end money" in the federal budget process, we "found" almost $25,000 for batteries, at $101.15 apiece.



Kevin

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Cheap batteries are indeed false economy; they don't last long enough and you wind up spending a lot of extra money on them to get the same amount of use... and that's why governments buy them.

As for your $25,000... I can supply them for $101.14 each...