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Economy Tanked While Government Surfed Porn

Posted by Soulskill on from the gotta-have-your-priorities dept.

unixan writes "In a report by the SEC Inspector General that smacks of fiddling while Rome burns, 33 recent ethics investigations all showed that the government employees responsible for keeping an eye on the economy were instead obsessed with surfing porn — while the economy was tipping over. One cited example: 'A senior attorney at the SEC's Washington headquarters spent up to eight hours a day looking at and downloading pornography. When he ran out of hard drive space, he burned the files to CDs or DVDs, which he kept in boxes around his office.'"

7 of 405 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Can somebody explain to me... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    It can help pick up ones mood.

    A pretty picture can perk ones mood up better than a cup of coffee.

  2. Re:Not news by gad_zuki! · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah, this is a manufactured controversy issue by the GOP. They are attacking the SEC because its attacking Goldman Sachs and trying to regulate the industry that almost took the economy down. Republicans have no shame.

    http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hOvd2ZHpLgAEKjwU87acksA24EDQD9F8SEUO0

  3. Anti economic reform FUD by spun · · Score: 5, Informative

    FTFA:

    The number of cases jumped from two in 2007 to 16 in 2008. The cracks in the financial system emerged in mid-2007 and spread into full-blown panic by the fall of 2008.

    Anyone want to bet that certain right-wing news outlets are furiously trying to figure out a way to blame this on President Obama?

    A certain right wing news outlet? How about Slashdot? Where in the summary does it mention that this happened under Bush? Nowhere, it says 'recent.' This is meant to spread FUD about the SEC, in order to turn people against the idea of financial reform and regulation. "Why, if these fools are constantly surfing porn, how can we trust them to regulate Wall Street?" But they aren't anymore: the fellow appointed by this administration cracked down and stopped it.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  4. Re:Look Around You, Look Around You, Look Around Y by 1729 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Kind of like reading /. at work?

    I work for a government agency, and we're allowed to use the internet for non-work purposes. In fact, Slashdot was specifically mentioned as an acceptable site to visit on our government-owned computers. The general guidelines are:

    -Don't visit porn sites (an automatic firing offense, unless it was truly inadvertent)
    -Don't do anything for personal profit (checking an eBay auction is okay, running an eBay-based business isn't)
    -Don't behave unprofessionally
    -Don't use excessive bandwidth
    -Don't spend too much time online for non-work reasons (i.e. get your work done)

  5. Re:Not news by e9th · · Score: 2, Informative

    True, Republicans have no shame. But Obama has yet to return the $994,795 in donations his campaign received from Goldman Sachs and its employees.

  6. Re:Just in case it wasn't crystal clear by magsol · · Score: 2, Informative

    +1 just for the "you can't touch my karma, bitches" comment. Awesome.

    --
    "I'd just like to emphasise that taking a million years isn't a metaphor here..." -Rich Bradshaw
  7. Re:Just in case it wasn't crystal clear by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Only one president ever guilty of Genocide.

    Andrew Hickory Jackson.