More shoddy oversight

State's Homeland Security spent on TV, boat with a kitchenette, lawnmower. No one should have been surprised that state inspectors found $15 million in questionable spending of Homeland Security grants by California agencies.

[Robert J G Jackson Sr]

These are but a few examples of why you can't trust the government to be efficient or cost effective when handling your money. Yes, your money. For example, the Congress is now claiming that they have suddenly realized that there is waste and abuse in Medicare. Really? They claim that it is to the tune of $600 billion. So why aren't they busy fixing the problem of such amazing levels of fraud and abuse? The abuses listed in this article are much smaller in dimension, but just as aggregious. Wouldn't you like to have the plasma TV yourself? Or the boat? Our elected and bureaucratic officials in many cases are simply burning your money. Isn't it long past time to stop them?

[Birdman]

Speaking of boats, I recently saw a very new boat that was owned by the City of Long Beach at a boat repair yard near the 710 freeway and Anaheim. I would guess this boat was in the $250,000.00 range and it had large letters spelling SURVEY. I didn't notice if it had a kitchenette or plasma TV or a machine gun mounted on it, but I bet the taxpayers would like to know what are we surveying in the ocean that we need this boat for. Could this be another Lobstergate?