Send in the Clowns, and Cheese
By GAIL COLLINS
NYT
Our question for today is: What lessons can be learned from the current scandal involving the 2010 Western Regions Conference of the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service?
I know you’re all excited, but don’t everybody talk at once.
Honestly, this is a fascinating story. Not much in the way of sex, but there is a clairvoyant and a clown. Plus quite a bit of cheese.
The G.S.A. is a very large agency with the not-always-glamorous mission of providing support services for the federal bureaucracy, some involving the management of public buildings. Every two years, about 300 of the higher-ranking people in the western half of the country have a conference to open lines of communication and improve teamwork.
In 2010, the organizers chose the theme “A Showcase of World-Class Talent,” which, of course, suggested going to Las Vegas and employing a professional mind-reader and clown as entertainers. The four-day gathering wound up costing more than $820,000, some of it for $4-apiece shrimp and an “American Artisanal Cheese Display” at the M Resort Spa Casino.
(More here.)
NYT
Our question for today is: What lessons can be learned from the current scandal involving the 2010 Western Regions Conference of the General Services Administration’s Public Buildings Service?
I know you’re all excited, but don’t everybody talk at once.
Honestly, this is a fascinating story. Not much in the way of sex, but there is a clairvoyant and a clown. Plus quite a bit of cheese.
The G.S.A. is a very large agency with the not-always-glamorous mission of providing support services for the federal bureaucracy, some involving the management of public buildings. Every two years, about 300 of the higher-ranking people in the western half of the country have a conference to open lines of communication and improve teamwork.
In 2010, the organizers chose the theme “A Showcase of World-Class Talent,” which, of course, suggested going to Las Vegas and employing a professional mind-reader and clown as entertainers. The four-day gathering wound up costing more than $820,000, some of it for $4-apiece shrimp and an “American Artisanal Cheese Display” at the M Resort Spa Casino.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Instead of a cavalier attempt at explaining away such waste, liberals should be a concerned about $4 shrimp as it causes others to lean towards “starving the beast.”
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