This Wednesday, the GAO is slated to release a report on improper Federal employee air travel. I suspect it’ll be held up and waved around as an example of those lazy and greedy government workers scamming the system again.  Which makes me hope that the report does tell us this – how many of these improperly authorized business/first class trips were taken by political appointees (as compared to civil service/SES types)?
I think answering that would help us get a clearer picture on exactly who’s responsible for all that waste, fraud, and abuse Republicans are always going on about . . .
(Personally, I think the rules are a bit ridiculous – no business class unless it’s a 14 hour nonstop flight, and you head straight to a meeting when you land? No, thanks. But the solution is to adjust the rules, not break them.)
The BBC says that the deal will “allow Lonely Planet users to access BBC content – such as Michael Palin’s New Europe.” Well, umm, okay – didn’t I have “access” to that before? In any event, my advice to the BBC is twofold – concentrate on improving LP’s online presence. The “Thorntree” – LP’s online forums – is one of the Internet’s great wasted opportunities. LP users are the type that love to share useful info, but the forums are so poorly designed that they are near unusable. The books, on the other hand, are perfect. Don’t touch the guidebooks. Not even a little.