Rember those orders? Well, I called SATO (the government travel agent) about my plane tickets and was told they weren't purchased because the line of accounting was wrong on my orders.

Hmmm. . .just when were they planning to tell someone about this.

On digit out of a string of about 50 was transposed. Had the travel clerk call them, do a pen and ink change and we were back in business.

What really burns me about this is that this is the kind of behavior I have come to expect from civil servants:

If anything is out of the ordinary they default to the do nothing position

If anything is problematic they default to the do nothing position

In fact I never met a more dynamic group of people. Thermodynamic, objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force.

This is an over generalization of course. Their are many fine public servant/civil servants out there. People who take pride in their work and really want to help. I know several; A few bad apples can spoil th whole bunch!

Got my orders (1st version) from our travel section today. At first glance they looked good and then I saw the obligated perdiem for travel lodging meals and essentials. 40K. Yep thats right 40 Large. After I did the Happy Happy Joy Joy dance in my cubicle reality stuck in it ugly good for nothing head. I realize that their is no way Uncle Sugar will pay me an extra 40 Grand during a wee little six month African Sojourn and if I let things stand as is I would be tieing up 40K of the travel budget that couldn't be used for anything else until I got back and filed my final travel claim. That damn conscience of mine (I try and I try, but I just can't make it go away. Must be my christian upbringing I had as a child. Now days I pay through the nose to keep my spawn in private christian school so they can have the benefit of strong moral character, ethical behavior and gasp....integrity). Well I went over and informed my travel clerk that it was incorrect and I was not entitled to perdiem for lodging at all and am only entitled to half the standard Meals and essentials rate for my destination because it was field conditions with lodging and meals provided.

I was met with the standard civil service dead fish stare.

I continued on unabated, I explained that if she didn't fix the accounting we would be holding a years worth of travel money for our whole command hostage for six months.

The dead fish stare continued.

I told that she needed to fix it and she finally fessed up what was already obvious: It the orders didnt follow the normal everyday expected pattern she had no idea what to do.

Finally, I just asked her to open up the travel program on the PC call up my orders and we would work on it together. A couple of hours later and three modifications, the orders were complete.

Hoo Boy! If it weren't so darn ironic I would just cry. Have been trying to get my orders cut through our travel section. First they had to get the right fund code for Operation Enduring Freedom from our TYCOM. After a couple of days of trying to find someone who actually knew what the fund code was it was provided with out restriction. Basically, the just handed us a blank check. We could assign that code to a document with any amount we desired and the money would be obligated. This is how you get 30,000 dollar hammers. Well it isn't real money anyway. The appropriation system is all smoke and mirrors. Congress gives Big Blue an appropriation for FYXX in the annual defense appropriation bill. The Navy (Big blue) takes that appropriation and parcels it out to its Fleet Commanders. The Fleet Coms give some to thier type commanders (TYCOMS). TYCOMS give some to their ISICs (squadrons, groups, wings) and the ISICS dole it out with an eye dropper to the operating units. Mind you, every stop along the way keeps a little extra for a rainy day. Every one of these organizations is keeping some form of accounting but what was given never matches what was spent until it reaches the highest level and then the books get cooked. No actual money changes hands, no cash, no bank account, only lines of accounting which represent money. These lines of accounting only exist for one fiscal year. If there happened to be unobligated "money" in one line of accounting at the end of the year, it vaporizes like cindarella's pumpkin barouche. Why is this important? Because, it was real money when it started out in you paycheck! Instead of going to provide food and goods for your family whom you worked an honest day to provide for it went to Uncle Sugar courtesy of the IRS. I am going to digress for a moment (like I am not already in left field) and talk about the tax system for a moment.

I believe the Federal Income Tax is an abomination. The government has no right to take and redistribute an individual's money. It is theft pure and simple. Our government functioned without an income tax for many years. Our founders were dead set against the concept. Abraham Lincoln levied one to support his brutal war of aggression against the south. He suceeded in conquering the Southrons with the proceeds of his income tax (awash in the blood of 600,000 americans) but it was promplty recinded. Was it justified? Only in the sense that providing for the common defense is a legitimate function of the federal government and Lincoln maintained that he was defending the union. Today our money is used by the handful to fund programs that the federal government has no business being involved in. The big government genei got out of the bottle in the 1860s and it has only been growing more powerful ever since. If the Fed would get back to only those powers authorized by the constitution we probably could do without an income tax again. In lieu of that a flat tax would be a better system. Provided that the government remembers the even God only asked for 10%.

Well I have gotten on a subject I am really not prepared to discuss or even defend my point of view. In closing let just quote patriots of old:

To The Tyrant Never Yield!

Completed my 9mm small arms qual on saturday. Luckily one of the civil servants I work with has an alter ego as a National Guard battalion commander. His battalion was conducting small arms training and he was able to fold me in. The range used pop up targets instead of paper. It was so much easier. If you his one of these man sized and shaped plastic targets anywhere they fall down. You can't help but get a perfect score. I have a lot of bad habits on a hogleg that cause me to consistantly pull high and right. With this kind of range it just didn't matter! I have always preferred a long arm to a hogleg, I was hoping to take my 1853 enfied 3 banded rifle musket out hunting this year. I have yet to put a real minnie ball through it though I have burned a lot of powder fending of those yankee invaders. Guess this deer season will be total loss, their certainly won't be any hunting in the part of Africa I am going to (unless you count Al Quiada). In fact, I don't think there is any food there to begin with.