Parasitical 'Justice' Dept. hit over big spending

Where can you get a $16 muffin?

At a Justice Department conference, auditors said Monday in a report that does not come close to topping the Pentagon’s legendary $400 hammer and $600 toilet seat but does, the auditors said, expose “wasteful or extravagant spending.’’

Cynthia Schnedar, the Justice Department’s acting inspector general, said in the report that some conferences featured “costly meals, refreshments, and themed breaks’’ and that the department failed to minimize costs as required by federal and internal guidelines.

Among the examples: Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres at $7.32 per serving; a Cracker Jacks, popcorn, and candy snack for $32 per person, and coffee costing more than $1 per ounce, making a single cup $8.24.

And the $16 muffins? They were served at a 2009 legal training conference in Washington by Justice’s Executive Office for Immigration Review. The report describes the $4,200 spent on 250 muffins and $2,880 on 300 cookies and brownies (nearly $10 each) as very costly.

In all, the report said, the department hosted or participated in 1,832 conferences in 2008 and 2009, at a cost of $121 million. Each of the 10 conferences examined by auditors - covering topics ranging from drug enforcement to violence against women - were at major hotels that applied service fees of roughly 20 percent “to the cost of already expensive menu items,’’ the report said. Most of the conferences were held or planned during President George W. Bush’s administration

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2011/09/21/justice_dept_hit_over_big_spending/

Parasitical 'Justice' Dept. hit over big spending

Parasitical 'Justice' Dept. hit over big spending

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order