Publicity the ukulele could have done without...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...fficials-joking-about-cost-lavish-conference/

Why couldn't he have used an accordion or something...

Oh man, heavy! Still, I hope nothing bad happens to the guy in the video--I think the problem lies more with the people who misspent the money. He just made a dumb video about it.

austin1 said:

Oh man, heavy! Still, I hope nothing bad happens to the guy in the video--I think the problem lies more with the people who misspent the money. He just made a dumb video about it.

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Why should anything happen to him ? Feet up on the desk at a government job playing the ukulele on taxpayer's money. The image all over the internet. Give him a raise.

He's gonna' need those talents for busking for money. Ric

Anyone read the comments though? The idiots commenting aren't any better than the guy they're witch-hunting. They all just play themselves as willfully ignorant Internet tough guys. I got through the first page and lost my faith in humanity.

Plainsong said:

Anyone read the comments though? The idiots commenting aren't any better than the guy they're witch-hunting. They all just play themselves as willfully ignorant Internet tough guys. I got through the first page and lost my faith in humanity.

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think about the source of the comments. I have nothing against fox news, but some of its viewership is rabid in their desires to make all political issues a democratic scandal. Certainly not the type of people that want to just hang out and strum their ukes.

Bill Mc said:

Why should anything happen to him ? Feet up on the desk at a government job playing the ukulele on taxpayer's money. The image all over the internet. Give him a raise.

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Yes, but that guy himself didn't actually do anything, the way I see it. He may have, through his video, showed the entire world the problem, but he himself is most definitely not the problem. There are a million and a half workplace music videos out there--I know a lady who's entire office floor banded together to film one of those one-take lip syncs. The difference between those videos and this video is that this video brought a real problem to the public forefront. If you shoot the messenger, you're missing the point. So don't shoot the messenger. Shoot his bosses.

frankiefirefox said:

think about the source of the comments. I have nothing against fox news, but some of its viewership is rabid in their desires to make all political issues a democratic scandal. Certainly not the type of people that want to just hang out and strum their ukes.

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Solid point.

Having an intimate knowledge of government beauracracy, I am willing to bet that the folks involved in the bad decisions have been around for several administrations and it is hard to tie the bahavior to any political party.

But the guy was pretty good in the music video, IMHO. Quite entertaining.

pootsie said:

Having an intimate knowledge of government beauracracy, I am willing to bet that the folks involved in the bad decisions have been around for several administrations and it is hard to tie the bahavior to any political party.

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+1 on this, for sure. I've dealt with civil service folks going back to the mid-seventies and I have to say that the smug, "entitled" attitude displayed in that video is pretty representative of many of them. I say this in spite of the fact that my sister was a "GS" practically her entire adult life and retired at a pretty high GS rating. In fact, the "entitlement" thing drove her nuts - she used to always complain how hard it was to discipline or remove a subordinate because the entire system is "hard wired" to reward mediocrity and protect even the utterly incompetent.

In your average civil service workplace it takes probably five or six employees to get the productivity expected of one employee in a competitive private sector workplace. The sad thing is, this has been going on forever and most of them are "lifers" that have never known anything else - they don't even realize how utterly useless they are!

I'm not saying there aren't some good folks wearing the GS tag - but from my experience of dealing closely with at least 40 or 50 of them over the years I'd have to say that they're the exception rather than the rule.

Just a couple of examples: years ago I was living in base housing (Air Force) when they decided that the floor in my kitchen needed to be replaced. First, there was nothing wrong with it but it was scheduled for routine replacement (yeah, your tax dollars at work). Second, a crew of four came to replace the floor in a small kitchen - 1 young airman and three civil service guys. The three civil service guys literally did not lift a finger the entire morning. I can't say they stood around and watched the GI do all the work, because it's more like they sat around and drank coffee, read newspapers, and talked sports.

In the 80's myself and four other GIs were selected to man a "new" flight simulator shop where an old simulator was being installed. The sim was shipped in from another base and it had been a hangar queen (parts bucket) for years. They sent a civil service crew to come "help" us install the simulator and get it running. It happened that all five of us GIs had been hand-picked for this assignment and we had the system operational and "mission capable" in a few days - and weeks ahead of schedule. The guy supervising the civil service "specialists" from Ogden first demanded, then begged, that our shop chief not report the simulator mission capable until the scheduled date because they were making a killing in per diem and it was "unfair" that they would have to pay back their advances. Oh, and of that crew of "specialists" only one of them did anything, or even seemed to know anything, at all. The others I wouldn't have hired to install car stereos, let alone flight simulators.

I could cite dozens of other examples, but let's just say I wasn't at all surprised by the attitude displayed in that video.

John