Squatlo proved right. Again.

When I saw the tease for this article this morning -- Two Admirals Face Probe in Navy Bribery Scheme -- two things hit me. More proof that the U.S. is sliding rapidly into banana republic/third world nation status, because the lower down the global scale a nation is the more rampant the problems with corruption in government, and once again Squatlo has been proven right. He's done numerous posts on the subject, all illustrating the numerous ways in which lust triumphs over intelligence. Once again, as it has many times in the past, all it took was someone else paying for the hookers and men who really should have known better let their dicks do their thinking.

The investigation into this particular scandal has apparently been going on for awhile, but as usual the mainstream media hasn't been paying much attention to actual news. Also as usual, the investigation started at a much lower level in the Navy, no doubt with the hope that they'd be able to stop at a few junior grade officers. Unfortunately, it's apparently turned into something that resembles an "NCIS" plot, complete with foreign nationals, corrupt admirals, and national security data possibly being compromised. The stupid, it burns.

Depressing stuff heard on the news

Mexico's economy is in much better shape than ours. Their unemployment rate is below 6%, and, with the exception of the sections of the country along the U.S.-Mexican border where drug cartels are killing people, the country is thriving. If it's been looking like the numbers of day laborers hanging out at Home Depot have been shrinking lately, don't credit Immigration and Customs Enforcement for doing its job -- undocumented immigrants are heading back to Oaxaca and Michoacan on their own.

Why is the Mexican economy doing so well while the rest of the world is still reeling from a recession? One reason is banking regulations. Apparently about 30 years ago Mexico went through a financial crisis that caused the government and the banking system there to re-evaluate how to do business. They actually learned something from their mistakes. End result? They didn't get sucked into the global financial meltdown that hit every place else when financial bubbles started bursting on Wall Street here in the U.S.

You know, when Mexico starts looking a lot better than the U.S., you know for sure the slide into third world nationhood is accelerating.  

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."