# Brainless Bean-Counting Bureaucratic Bozos
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [August 24, 2004, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213 "2004-08-24T03:31:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/1 "2004-08-24T03:31:57Z")
[So much for working undercover as an air marshal.](http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2004/08/23/air_marshals_say_discount_may_cost_them_their_cover/)
> [@](#):
>
> Under a new policy, when air marshals travel away from their home bases – as they do continually – they will have to stay at a short list of selected hotels. They also will be required to identify themselves as air marshals to receive a special rate their agency has negotiated with the innkeepers – below the regular government discount they now get.
>
> That, as many air marshals see it, is the latest bureaucratic blow to their effort to maintain security and keep potential terrorists from identifying them.
>
> The hotel policy “has caused great anxiety . . . as [marshals] worry about the various security risks involved in having a set, observable, and discernible pattern of activity regarding their hotel accommodations,” a lawyer for the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association wrote to the Homeland Security Department earlier this month.
>
> [snip]
>
> The labor-management feud is surprising because, in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the air marshals received an enhanced role as front-line warriors in the battle against terrorism. But more recently, officials at the Department of Homeland Security seem to see them as ordinary federal employees – subjected to rules and procedures handed down from above, sometimes with little apparent regard for the potential effect on their mission.
>
> The issue of identifying themselves to hotel clerks, and being required to stay together in a small number of hotels may not seem like a big deal, but in the present climate of heightened concern about terrorist attacks – along with recent revelations about the extent of Al Qaeda’s surveillance operations in the United States – marshals say the problem is significant and unnecessary.
>
> “If terrorists . . . were to ascertain that a predetermined list of hotels was being used . . . these sites would be high-value targets in and of themselves,”
Did those responsible give any thought whatsoever to the implications of this policy before decreeing it?
The fucktards who came up with this bit of idiocy are drooling turd-brains.
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/2 "2004-08-24T12:49:51Z")
:smack:
Why do I post in the wee hours when my brain is shutting down? The spelling is, of course, “bureaucratic”.
:smack: :o :smack:
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 12:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/3 "2004-08-24T12:56:50Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#):
>
> The fucktards who came up with this bit of idiocy are drooling turd-brains.
No, they’re just typical upper-level government managers. I have to deal with this sort of crap all the time. Policies like taking GS-9 technical staff off their regular duties to answer phone calls from the public instead of hiring more GS-5 teleservice reps, then having to pay the technical staff overtime to do the work that wasn’t done because they were answering the phones. And the delays in processing the casework results in more phone calls from people asking why there hasn’t been a response to their first call.
Even when they do bother to ask for input from the people who actually do the work they disregard anything that doesn’t fit in with their priorities or pet projects.
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/4 "2004-08-24T12:57:17Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#):
>
> :smack:
>
> Why do I post in the wee hours when my brain is shutting down? The spelling is, of course, “bureaucratic”.
>
> :smack: :o :smack:
Fixed the title for you.
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### Author:  [@EddyTeddyFreddy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EddyTeddyFreddy)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/5 "2004-08-24T13:17:07Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#):
>
> Fixed the title for you.
Thank you, thank you, wise and generous one! Are you, like unto Cecil’s Angel of Death, given to looking kindly upon bearers of fine chocolates? I shall order forth the caravan forthwith! Or perhaps a keg or three of my humble village’s finest microbrewed ale would be more to your august taste? Roll out they shall!
> [@LurkMeister](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Quote:
> > Originally Posted by EddyTeddyFreddy
> > The fucktards who came up with this bit of idiocy are drooling turd-brains.
>
> No, they’re just typical upper-level government managers.
Is there a difference?
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### Author:  [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/6 "2004-08-24T13:24:08Z")
It would seem to me that the agents would be complaining more about the new code that requires they wear neon signs. Maybe they haven’t seen the memo yet.
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### Author:  [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/7 "2004-08-24T14:05:33Z")
> [@EddyTeddyFreddy](#):
>
> > [@](#):
> >
> > Originally Posted by LurkMeister
> >
> > > [@](#):
> > >
> > > Quote:
> > > Originally Posted by EddyTeddyFreddy
> > > The fucktards who came up with this bit of idiocy are drooling turd-brains.
> >
> > No, they’re just typical upper-level government managers.
>
> Is there a difference?
Usually by the time they’ve reached executive grade status they’ve stopped drooling. Or at least managed to get it under control enough to not do it during press conferences,
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### Author:  [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)
#### Post date: [August 24, 2004, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/brainless-bean-counting-bureaucratic-bozos/261213/8 "2004-08-24T15:16:11Z")
As a “gubmint worker”, I have to say this sounds typical of bureaucratic staffrats, who make rules and policies for someone else to follow (but who have never been “in the field” themselves).