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Judge Disconnects Interior Dept., Again
jeremycec writes "Evidently, nothing's been resolved since 2001, when this
happened the first
time. In these Memorandum
Opinion and Preliminary
Injunction documents from Judge Royce
C. Lamberth of the U.S.
District Court for Washington, D.C., we see how the court
stepped in to pull the plug on a system, which, through its
abject lack of due care,
left someone's important financial information wide open to
attackers. According to the former CIO of the Bureau of
Indian Affairs: 'For all practical purposes, we have no
security, we have no infrastructure, ... Our entire network
has no firewalls on it. I don't like running a network that
can be breached by a high school kid.' So, when the BIA
could get no relief through Interior's IT Dept.,
it went to the courts. Source: Government Computer News "
It's really very simple, people; if you leave personal information about me lying around on a network which a mere script kiddie can break into, then you deserve to get sued. If you take no measures to remedy the situation, even after being repeatedly warned, and then my details get stolen and sold on, you WILL get sued. Why? To send a message. I hope this happens to more companies so that they get serious about data protection. Heck, even schools have crappy information security. I should tell you about the kind of thing I could get off the school network and the lax treatment of passwords...
Bash script for FP whores
Our government is incapible of becoming like Orwell's 1984. They cant even keep their system straight.
And also, what's a government office doing on the internet? Shouldnt there be a Web machine (dmz) and a firewall for interal access (if they need it)? That doesnt cost more than a 1000$.
it's true .... my mother in-law works at the BIA, and hasn't had email for years. i've offered to do real cheap contracting to help them set up a small, secure network in their regional office, to no avail. they were still waiting for the gov IT dept to work it out.
They should try one of those motherboards with fancy IDE encryption, that'll keep their data safe!
I have over 70 freaks, do you?
I know the feds have lots of standards (And pretty well thought-out) for bank-related IT security.
Don't they have some similar standards for government standards, or are all different federal entities left to simply come up (or not come up) with their own standards?
It's often a good idea to make it plain which link is the main focus, rather than the background information. It would make sense for the main story to be linked to "the court stepped in to pull the plug on a system", but I suppose we'll have to be left wondering.
On the bright side, at least this one wasn't archived.
Well sounds like someone told someone a Buzzword. If there was NO infrastructure, there wouldn't be a problem. The problem is the infrastructure they DO have. BTW is the dept. of Indian affairs there to keep secret the horrors the Indian people had to suffer under the Imperialist conquerer's the early Americans were? Ooops just let the secret out, you can keep the firewall budget for the lawsuits.
I went to battle MC Escher, but drew a blank
So, what's your IP? WoOt!
Now everyone gets to know your business if the government does. How egalitarian! Big Brothers are watching you!
So fine, the BIA is allowed to sue the DOI. But who the hell is the DOI, who funds them. Well you and I. If the IT manager of the DOI is an idiot who couldn't care less about Native Americans and their "bureau", the absolute worse thing that can happen is that that person will lose their job (and good luck with that if this person happens to be female or a minority). So what is happening here. WE get to pay for someone dropping the ball. WE get to pay the court costs for BOTH agencies. WE get to pay whatever damages are awarded. In this case lawsuits are worthless (actually worse than worthless as they have negative worth). No messages are sent and in the end the taxpayers lose, and the clients of the BIA lose.
There has to be a lot more to this story. Low priority is one thing. This is right up there with willfully not breathing, or willfully not locking a door.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming
They should run on FreeLeonardPeltierBSD.
in this day and age, when government spending along with jobless rates are at an all time high, there are government agencies that either don't have or have a badly staffed IT department. Judging from slashdot readership alone, there are many out-of-work geeks that could shore up gov't IT security for next to nothing. Even if it's an all Windows network, it can still be secured for relatively cheap....just hire a kiddie, pay him 30K/year to maintain Microsoft's Software Update Services to automatically download and install critical updates. You certainly don't need MCSE for that!
This comment was randomly generated by a school of piranhas chewing on the PCB of a Microsoft Natural Keyboard.
The simple fact is that the Department of The Interior hates the BIA. They resent them like hell and are doing nothing to help them at all. Standards, routers, etc... have nothing to do with this.
It's high time that the BIA be moved from Interior to the Department of State anyway. The American-Indiands issue isn't a land issue, it's a deplomacy issue. But that's just more politics and not relevant to the story at hand.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
It comes as a shock that our government employs unqualified personal in the IT department! The chief executive and his top aids are clearly the most qualified individuals for the job! Then why this trend does not propagate down to the trenches?....
he-he
Just because I don't care, it doesn't mean I don't understand. Homer J. Simpson
This Website is Temporarily Unavailable The BIA website as well as the BIA mail servers have been made temporarily unavailable due to the Cobell Litigation. Please continue to check from time to time. We have no estimate on when authorization will be given to reactivate these sites. Here are some alternate ways to get BIA-related information: For general BIA information: 202 208-3710 For Tribal Leaders Directory: 202 208-3711
I went to battle MC Escher, but drew a blank
I feel safer. And the chocolate rations have been increased to 5 units.
I'll take that challenge!!
The BIA has been hopelesly corrupt for years, squandering monies that were meant for Native Americans and padding their own pockets. They don't want this system fixed, as fixing it would also uncover their embezlement. They also want a convenient scapegoat: "Hackers took the money!"
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
aware of your comments and are on the way over to help. Just sit quietly and wait.
..but they seem to leave it up to individual entities.
Which, I think makes sense. The Department of Oddly Shaped Buttons does not need the same security procedures as, say, the Department of Defense. Implementing the craziness of the DoD in the DoOSB would only waste time and money. Our money - we're taxpayers, after all, and we're the ones footing the bill.
At any rate, I expect the government entities will become much more 'l33t3r' in the months to come.
Back in the day, a government job in computers was for weenies. Why make $35-60k a year, when you could ride the bubble for $100k+ and stock options?
Now that the bubble is burst and the tech industry is befukt, knowledgable technies are flocking to gub'ment jobs.
The BIA is mostly a human services organization, historically a realm of Democrats. The current administration is Republican. This is the adult version of kids pulling the wings off of flies, or focusing a magnifying glass on an anthill, for the sole pleasure of watching the chaos and the misery.
I'm sure someone will question my use of the term "adult"....
I've been fighting with them for about two years now over land issues. Corrupt and lazy don't even begin to describe them.
Sticky? ...You're on your own there.
This is slashdot, after all.
The BIA isn't suing anyone. They're *being* sued.
The case is Cobell v. Norton -- the plaintiffs are Native Americans and Norton being the Interior department, of which BIA is a part. (Side note: Gail Norton has been held in contempt of court at least twice that I know of as part of this case.)
So, what we have here, is a suit by individuals (more or less) against the Interior department.
Yes, WE get to pay for the government's defense, and, when the government loses, the full judgement to the (fully deserving, IMHO) plaintiffs.
Go pursue your anti-governemnt, anti-PC campaign elsewhere: it isn't relevant here.
Lawsuits aren't worthless here, they're pretty much the only lever the endlessly screwed-over Native Americans have against the interior depatment. I'm happy to see them succeeding at it.
This is the funniest joke I've seen on slashdot in quite a while. Of course, most /.'ers probably are not familiar with this
very controversial case.
"Weapons should be hardy rather than decorative" - Miyamoto Musashi
I think that goes for OS's too
kinda has a new meaning here...
the best way to service the humans covered by the BIA is to explain that they're being compassionate as they bend the clientele over, grab the Crisco and ...
You get the picture.
I heard this on NPR (about 2 weeks ago, sheesh!) and all I could think was "I wonder how long until someone posts the google cache link."
No, my sig isn't that link.
--
...what the hell this article is about?
Bureau of Indian Affairs - are these the people responsible for outsourcing IT jobs to India?
It seems to me that his statement about not wanting to run a network that a "high school kid" could penetrate, needs to be more specific. I would wager that most of the break-in on the internet are teens, who get big thrills off of the more infantile shit, scrpit kiddies if you will, and not hard core attackers. Granted these kids can, and do, do major harm and are just as capable of theft.
Speaking from the inside, they are giving the rest
of the Department an opportunity to show progress and not be affected, which could mean this has a much smaller impact. There are some offices who have been offline the entire time, which makes dealing with them a pain.
For my agency, IT security has improved immensely since last time.
Unfortunately, they've not taken into account those who already had decently secured systems three years ago.
It's a lawsuit over the Indian Trust Funds that's been going on for 7 years now. The plaintiffs are a couple of Indians from various tribes. Cobell vs. Dept. of Interior. http://www.indiantrust.com has a summary of what's been going on.
They can get interns to do it for free .
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If they cannot get an Intern they can import someone
from overseas give them a L1 visa and pay them
minimum wage
Hell Tatia consulting specializes in unempolying ppl in the US
they are one of the best cheap foreign labor sweatshops in the US
Why hire americans, when you can get ppl for next to nothing !!
Go corporate corruption !
( sarcasm ended )
Asking the government why they do something stupid year end
and year out is like asking why the CEO of a major failing
corporation did not listen to the engineers
An MBA type thinks he is above the lowly R&D folks, his
elitism pushes his ego to all new heights
You see the same egotism, elitism, and intra-departmental
squabbling in the government
"little kingdoms" run by little minds
cooperation on a basic level undermined by personality
conflicts, and pissing contests
Until someone goes thru there and "cleans house" it is gonna
suck just as bad as it does now
Protecting the jobs of the incompetent whether they are
female or a minority is hurting this country, and will
be of the key object lessons of it is collapse from within
Learn from the fall of Rome, or history will repeat itself
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
But the problem is that something like 3/4 BIA employees are Native Americans, which presents a HUGE conflict of interest in this lawsuit. So basically the people suing for negligence and mishandling of funds are the people responsible for handling those funds.
But the sad point is thet even if the BIA wins, they still won't get secure netowrks or good infrastructure out of this.
So they're not really succeeding, unless is the verdict is for the Interior Department to pay for whoever the BIA wants to hire from the outside to come in and do the job right.
Hmm so you're saying that none of the 500,000 Native Americans that are benfeciaries of the trust fund work for BIA? I call bullshit...
- The government agreed to secure machines that had certain types of sensitive information, and to allow someone to verify that those machines were secure.
- One machine was discovered to be insecure because apparently it WAS in the DMZ for a legitimate use and thus could be portscanned (it was just insecure)
- The people scanning it told the gov't that they were going to do a full penetration scan (so that they didn't get prosecuted), which everybody had agreed to and agreed would be private (i.e. nobody would try to secure the box in advance of the penetration)
- The machine magically vanished off the network right before the penetration scan with a bit of a bogus explaination
- The government and the guy responsible for doing the scans got into a big pissing contest that they refused to settle peacefully.
In other words, it seems like some parts of the government was attempting to do the right thing here, but some other parts got seriously upset when they discovered that the Special Master (the guy responsible for verifying compliance that the machines were actually secure) was actually doing his job and not just taking their word that they hadn't leaked information about the machine that was going to be penetrated, fearing the consequences.Quite frankly, I'm a little confused as to why the government had to allow a full exploit to take place rather than accepting the warning of "this machine is insecure, secure it now," except that maybe it's with an eye towards preparing for the day when the courts aren't constantly portscanning them.
Is that the government is deliberately foot-dragging on all kinds of BIA infrastructure, hoping to delay the time of reckoning, when it will be made clear that the BIA mismanaged the lands entrusted to them, particularly with regard to oil royalties.
IIRC, Gale Norton, the Secy of the Interior, had gotten subpoened, held in contempt, etc.
This IT snafu is just a small part of an overall larger mess that each Cabinet level Interior Secy is hoping to delay Until the Next Administration's Watch.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
If this has nothing to do with which administration is in power, then why did your first rebuttal fix blame on the Clinton administration? And who cares who sought the injunctive relief; the fact is that the BIA is blaming this on underfunding.
I don't like running a network that can be breached by a high school kid.
I think this statement underestimates the experience, intelect and time that some high school kids have. I have seen countless posts to Slashdot either by people in high school or by people who were doing great things by the time they were in high school. This statement means nothing and somewhat indicates the lack of understanding that the general public has about hackers and crackers.
Either that or security is run by the US 7 cavalry!
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
This is exactly what is going on, so everyone claiming Democrats or Republicans are to blame, wake up. The US has been screwing over Natives and covering it up since before there even were Democrats or Republicans. It's really one of those "public secrets" that anyone who knows anything about Native American affairs knows all about.
It really has very little to do with computer security at all, this is all just another delaying tactic by yet another administration. I could claim that this administration's oil ties would make this even more of an embarrasment if it all came out, but I'm sure the Dems have their fair share of dirty little secrets too.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
The US government continues to crap on Native Americans. They've done so for centuries, and will continue to do so until people speak up. I am part Native American (at least 1/8th blackfoot). I am grateful that my parents divorced when I was younger and I grew up with my dad. There are no opportunities on most reservations. The actions of the DOI (or lack thereof) stated in the article just goes to prove that the BIA does just the bare minimum. It's truly sad. :(
Get the facts and the whole sad story online at www.indiantrust.com
You will discover that the real issue is the US Gov. stonewalling and resisting the lawsuit giving rise to this judical order.
At stake is the US Gov losing it's trusteeship over all the money it collects from such things as rental/timber/mining/mineral/other rights earned and payable to individual indians. Seems there may be TRILLIONS of dollars "unaccounted for" over the decades the US Gov has been "taking care of" the indians.
The IT systems supposedly set up to track everythng are a mess. They can't say how much they have, should have, or to whom they should be making payments.
Sounds to me like a nice slush fund for the US Gov. With the judge on this case -- who is wise to all the government's ploys (read about his background for why), it's likely the game is finally up. While I'm doubtful the entire truth of the entire amount stolen from the indians will come to light, the amounts that do come out are lilkey to astonish many, IMO.
Anyone can read up on the lawsuit and press coverage of this lawsuit at www.indiantrust.com
To most of the 4 and 5 level moderated comments I've read, I'll say that most of you are reading this assuming the judicial order is due to the system being messed up (and this coming to light recently) as the central issue. This is just the tip of the iceberg. The real story is how the US Gov has been pilfering indian money for decades, resisting by every means they can of making a full accounting of the state of the trust accounts, and resisting losing their control over all the money flowing through their hands -- much less than 100% of which makes it to the trust beneficiaries (i.e. poor indians) it's supposed to be paid to.
FWIW, IMO...and I'm not a lawyer or an indian, nor connected to this suit; I've just been reading about it over time,
Signed,
A proud American, but one ashamed at how badly his government behaves in cases like this.
These guys 'lost' over a billion dollars worth of stuff ($1,000,000,000) much of it permanently belonging to the Indian community NOT THE TAXPAYER. They royally screwed up things like property titles, trust funds for Federal use of their property for things like storing nuclear waste, uranium mining, et cetera. Many of these assets are guaranteed by treaties which were ratified by the US Congress and the Indian nations. If the BIA violates the treaties they would have to return the land those treaties guarantee. This is the highest form of contract obligation. They didn't even take the most basic precautions to protect this cash and property. The system by all accounts is completely inept to the point of being criminal negligence. Ovbiously the BIA has a role of servicing the Indian community contracts and treaties. If the Indian owner of the property demands where his cash is the BIA is obligated to tell him, he has a legal right to do this. The DOI 'losing' the cash is not an excuse, they have pay what they owe. They can't tell the Indian nations, "By the way we lost your cash so we aren't going to pay you." They are obligated to pay by contract and by Federal law. The BIA is right to sue, they have no other way to get those assets back from the DOI that belong to the native community and they are chartered to manage and protect! This is not about minorities victimizing us poor white people, it is about the US government following through on contract obligations, which they are currently in breach of.
This comment did not deserve to be downgraded in points and listed as "flamebait." Crack open a history book and find out for yourself which Native American leader died (in the late 19th Century) at the hands of the BIA and their Indian Police allies over a skirmish to remove his second wife from his home. Therefore, my comment on the BIA and polygamy was appropriate and NOT flamebait...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Wasn't there a treaty signed that specifically gave firewalls to the Indians? Could that treaty have been broken?
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
The California 1849 gold rush started as personal placer mining (with a pan or trough), but as the easy stuff was taken, it turned into corporate hydraulic mining. They built big canals and diverted lots of water to erode hills in their search for gold; the diggins near me used to be a hill 400 feet higher. They also stripped the forests to build the flumes and canals; almost all the big trees around me date from 120 years ago when you count the rings. The eroded hills washed downstream and silted up rivers, caused flooding and destroyed farms and orchards. No one liked hydraulic mining, but the legislators were in the pocket of the miners (and the railroad, but that's another story). What stopped the mining was the downstream victims suing and pressing enormous damages.
Yes, 120 years ago, lawyers did good with huge lawsuits, remarkably similar to nowadays. As much as I despise lawyers, they do have a way of bypassing corrupt and powerful corporations and politicians. As much as I would love to get rid of lawyers, I don't want to until there is some method in place to replace their function.
Infuriate left and right
In a nutshell, the Special Master for the court has brought in an outside consultant to do pen-testing of DOI systems. The problem is that this guy is just hacking away willy-nilly, and there are no rules of engagement or lines of communication. In short, there's no way for DOI to know this guy's attacks apart from those of any black-hat, and there's no way to prevent him from doing more harm than good (or notifying DOI should he screw something up, as is prone to happen in pen-testing). SAIC, the company working to improve DOI security, has asked for some changes to this, and was turned down. As a result, the DoJ has intervened, pointing out that what the consultant has been doing is not legal and is actually hacking in the very illegal sense of the word. This is the backlash from the Special Master in return for that.
For your security, this post has been encrypted with ROT-13, twice.
I have worked both in the private sector and (now) in a government organisation and I can say that I've seen incompetence in both realms. Market pressure does not not necessarily eradicate losers, because once they get enough money, they can feed off each other, creating industries of incompetence (marketing, management consultants ;) ).
Self-congratulatory old-boys networks can last for a long time in business. Eventually, their businesses will collapse, but it can take a long time. In the meantime the end-user suffers.
Sometimes a public service can appear inefficient because it has a duty to cater for all citizens, rather then just a select few who can pay for a premium service. It might not be cost effective to print pamphlets in braille, but does the goverment have a right to deny basic information and services to the blind?
In Australia, a lot of IT contracts were outsourced to private companies, who were tremendously inefficient compared with the in-house staff. Or they lacked the specialised knowledge those staff possessed.
I think a lot of public services go wrong when they try to emulate business (uh oh, here come the buzzwords!).
What is the inverse of the Matrix?
I admire your defending Tatia, but it does make one .
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wonder why you have those allegiances or biases
Here in the US sweatshop has took on a different meaning
in India/Asis , sweatshop prolly is more in line with locked
doors and whip cracking
The value of the work is the current market value, Tatia
looks to under cut that by bringing in cheap labor
Fortunately the corrupt senators and house of reps recently
decided to reduce this policy to 65,000 new H1-b's a year,
but scum bags like Tatia have decided to start using the
now UNLIMITED L1 visa to bring in cheap labor
Our senators and house reps are suppose to represent us, and
vote for what we think would be in our best interest , but
they have been bought off by the big corporations to pass
these Visa laws to bring in cheap labor
Even the Democrats voted for this as the lobbying group
paid off our senators and house reps to the tune of 22 million
It was the one of the most lopsided votes in history,
like 97-1 in the senate.
Most of the ppl from these outsource labor countries do not
evne like the US, they just like its money, and most send the
money back home
This further undermines the economy of this country.
Some of this money even makes it into radical muslim
hands to fund the likes of Al-qaida
How many muslims working here are funneling money
back to their country, and then a 3rd party makes
the pay off to Al-qaida
Instead of being earned here and spent here, it gets spent overseas.
If they want to hire you, they should pay you as much as the
US counterparts make here
This has already gone the gambit in canada
You cannot get a job in canada if they can find a canadian that
can do the job, even americans are held back from jobs up there
This mentality is hopefully soon to come to the US
I like canada's idea and hope we implement it soon
if we can find an american that can do the job, no Visa
worker moving in to take it and send the money overseas,
sounds DAMN good to me
Peace,
Ex_MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
The most interesting thing in all of this is that BIA is mostly comprised of Native Americans. BIA has given priority in their hiring process to Native Americans for over 70 years. Most BIA vacancy announcements contain the following: "Indian Preference Policy: Preference in filling vacancies is given to qualified Indian candidates in accordance with the Indian Preference act of 1934, (Title 25, USC Section 472)." I used to work in DOI IT in DC(& had to retire to get away from it). The case against DOI is clear, but what has not been made clear is that the Native Americans in BIA have pretty supported the status quo ever since they got control of "their Agency". They got theirs; too bad about the folk back home. Sad.
1. I do not call them filthy foreigners, I am American Indian .
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so I got a clue as to racism
2. Some will work better than me, in fact I am sure we could
lay off half the ppl in america and replace them with cheap
foeign labor . But I do such a DAMN GOOD JOB that I get
letters of recommendation
http://www.geocities.com/duanenavarre/Recommend
I think that speaks well enough to my ability
I used to work for Cisco Systems and got 3 performance
awards with cash bonuses because I "singularly" made
the project happen on time . If you want e-mail
adresses of ppl at cisco that will verify this I will
provide them !
4. All muslims are not terrorists, but their are millions
of muslims that support what Usama did . I do not say do
what hitler did, I say send them home , which beats what
was done to japanese americans during WW2 here
5. Norman mattloff of UC Davis pointed out the falsehoods
of the H1-b program, you can read them here
http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.html
6. The value of work may drop, but if it drops too soon,
it causes ppl to default on loans on cars and houses and
sends the economy into a crash . All those Mega-Corps
have all those broke americans for customers. They do
not realize they are shooting themselves in the foot
long term . You do not give a damn, you and your family
just go home if the house of cards falls down
7. You may be american, but I bet your parents are not
8. Just because you had the honor of being popped out on US
soil does not make you a real american in my eyes . have you
or any member of your family ever served in the US armed forces ?
My guess is no . Of my family, both sides, over a dozen of us
have taken the oath, and done time in the military
9. Nationalist, Yes at times, Bigot no I am not, I just
think you are not an economist, and you have your own bias
I think you are probably a liberal to boot
10. What you and I think does not matter a hill of beans as
Congress and the House of Reps are not going to repeal the
Visa laws because they are bought off by the corrupt corporations.
65,000 new H1-b's per year is not helping 10,000,000+ americans
already out of work, and do nto tell me they were all laid off
because they suck . No one on slashdot is going to buy that tripe
off of you or anyone else
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Ugh, just reading this comment makes me feel nauseous. Disregarding all the obvious ranting ( I particularly liked the way the first thing out of your mouth were some murky allegations of bias or shady dealings, instead of, for example, a respect for the free market ), You're supposed to be the greatest capitalist nation on earth, and this is called 'competition'. Get with the program!
Most of the ppl from these outsource labor countries do not evne like the US, they just like its money, and most send the money back homeBring me your tired, your poor...
YLFI
One god, one market, one truth, one consumer.
I need to talk to someone that does not have a vested .
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interest in financially destabilizing our economy
As visa workers or their kids you do not care if our
economy goes in the toilet
Fortunately one person in Washington does, as will others
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userlet
Sending billions out of the US a year does not help
the economy
I am starting an online e-mail petition and hosting it
off petitionsonline and I am going to get this Visa tripe
set straight.
You have *** """ Motivated Me """ ***
I thank you for your help in giving me the level of disgust
to do something more than just whine about it here
I may fail, but by God or Allah I am going to try my best,
and I am going to get all the ppl I know that got """ REPLACED """
to join me in this crusade
So enjoy your jobs here while you got it, or your parents
got it, the gig is just about up
The majority of Blue and White collar workers are pissed
off and as citizens we get to vote , and your gonna be hearing
about it
Peace,
Ex-MislTech
google "32 trillion offshore needs IRS attention"
Yuo have obviously never called Technical Support, your health insurance company, or the billing office of a University. The problem is not Government vs. the Private Sector. The problem is that of poor management. I feel that branches of our Government are quite friendly and useful. With others the experience is like dentistry without novicane.
Here is another hint, this Government is elected by you and for you. I can't tell you how many bureacratic problems my family has solved with a letter to our Representative and/or Senator. Yup but, they our interests. They cut the bureacrat's checks. Everyone listens to congress.
Now quit your bitching and try participating in Government.
"Learning is not compulsory... neither is survival."
--Dr.W.Edwards Deming