Career choices

Oh, man, I am definitely working at the wrong agency. No one I've ever known in a government job has ever had as much fun as the guys in Interior's Minerals Management Service.

Report says oil agency ran amok

Government officials in charge of collecting billions of dollars worth of royalties from oil and gas companies accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drug use and illicit sex with employees of the energy firms, federal investigators reported yesterday.

I loved this rationalization for partying hard and taking "gifts":

Many employees identified in the report told investigators that they didn't think ethics rules applied to them because of their "unique" role in the agency and that they needed to socialize with industry representatives for "market intelligence," according to the report.

Corruption like this is yet another sign we're sliding farther and farther towards Third World nation status.

And it definitely puts a whole new spin on the phrase "getting screwed by the oil companies."