Insider disease

Looks like fiscal mismanagement isn't the only infection tainting the CDC. Equipment worth $22M missing from CDC - Yahoo! News

ATLANTA - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will investigate the disappearance of $22 million worth of equipment, computers and other items from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Last month, a congressional oversight committee requested an audit of the CDC's property management procedures and an investigation into allegations of theft at the center.

CDC officials said they have accounted for about $9 million in missing goods in recent weeks.
...

Between fiscal 2004 and 2006, there were 61 investigations into the theft or disappearance of CDC property. No arrests or disciplinary action resulted from those investigations, and several are ongoing, CDC spokesman Tom Skinner said.

Looks like some guvment employees take the entitlement concept further all the time.

Chewing the fat

While we blog about the pork barrel spending, the pork is peeking out a little hole to see if anyone is looking.

Domain Name		cdc.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		158.111.4.# (The United States Centers For Disease Control)
Referring URL		http://blogsearch.go...center&sa=N&start=30
Search Engine		blogsearch.google.com
Search Words		cdc off center

We welcome all visitors here, even the nervous pork type. But I am a bit leary because I have never witnessed a pig stampede.

Trim the fat

A prime cut of government pork barrel spending. Not sure the pigs ever had it this good.

CDC Off Center

Some examples in the report of CDC’s spending:

1. $1.7 million — including terrorism funds — on a Hollywood liaison program, which happens to be run by a former employee (pg. 87);
   
2. $45 million for conferences, including those featuring prostitutes, protests, and beach parties (pgs. 48 - 60);
3. $30,000 employee saunas in a new $200,000 fitness center that also includes mood-enhancing lightshows and $3,500 worth of zero-gravity chairs (pg. 15);
4. $5 billion spent over seven years on HIV/AIDS prevention funding, and yet the U.S. still sees 40,000 new cases each year, with no decrease in infection rates for over a decade (pgs. 23-37);
5. Syphilis prevention funds used to feature a porn star’s presentation (pg. 44);
6. HIV/AIDS prevention funds spent on a transgender beauty pageant (pg. 45);
7. $250,000 spent so two former employees could help build staff morale, (pgs. 100 - 101);
8. $5.1 million on “audio visual integration” in the new Thomas R. Harkin communications and visitor center, including a giant 70-foot-wide by 25-foot-tall video wall of plasma screen TVs showcasing agency vignettes (pg. 8);
9. 110 CDC employees traveled to two international AIDS conferences, when buying retroviral drugs with the trip funds could have prevented mother-to-child AIDS transmission for more than 115,000 infants (pgs. 50 & 52);

I sure could use a $125,000 moral boosting tax cut. I might skip the beauty pageant though. And after getting fat on all this pork, a trip to the $30,000 sauna might be in order.