Holder and his muffins
The Washington Times‘ Jerry Seper writes that the Justice Dpeartment has been throwing lavish parties that they call “law enforcement conferences” for out-of-towners…and oh, you’re paying for them;
…including spending $16 on each of 250 muffins served at an August 2009 legal conference in Washington, D.C., a report said Tuesday.
Acting Inspector General Cynthia Schnedar, in an audit report that examined taxpayer expenditures incurred by the Justice Department at 10 of 1,832 conferences held during fiscal 2008 and 2009, said investigators also found that another conference featured a lunch that cost $76 per person and coffee costing more than $1 per ounce. Other costly items cited in the report included a $32-per-person snack break consisting of Cracker Jacks, popcorn and candy bars, $7.32 Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvres, $10 cookies and $5 Swedish meatballs.
A $76 lunch? I was happy on the days that I could sneak into the Heritage Foundation and snag a ham’n cheese sandwich and a Sprite. WTF costs $76 that you could eat for lunch? Add to it the $32 snack break – that’s feeding an already obese lawyer-type a hundred bucks worth of chow.
But the real problem is that them damn soldiers are actually using that free health care which we promised them.
So this is going to be Holder’s legacy on this blog. I will delete any comment that mentions Holder without including a mention of the $16 cupcakes or the $7 horse dovers (what part of the horse does the dovers come from?)
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
I know when my old Police Dept hosted an event, I would actually look for the best price for the vendor to serve coffee etc. Most of the time, I just made it myself. Some of us really hated wasting a dime of the tax payers money…I felt it was my duty to get the best price etc. I could drive a price way down…and get the best price.
Public employees have a DUTY to get the best price.
I want you to read the indignant comments on this article about how a business man spent his OWN money on something outrageous & frivolous, and how those capitalist pigs are just beyond greedy. Then compare that to spending $4000 on muffins, at TAXPAYER EXPENSE. I’m sure those commenters would not be outraged one bit because Obama’s BFF did the spending.
UGH!!
I would like to taste a $16 muffin, it must be pretty delicious…I wonder what they did with all the left overs…
$16 muffins? $7.32 Whores devours? Holy shit. Now, I have seen some Camel toes that could rate prices near that, but this asshole is ridiculous. He is a slap in the face to “Justice”, and a wallet thief to the taxpayer. Just one more example of the cesspool that is Chi town gummint types.
Eric Holder is not one of America’s patriots, not a statesman, not even a good citizen. He is every bit as slimy as Obumbler, his handlers and those who voted for this mess.
To put these expenditures in perspective, I just walked out of the grocery store with a weeks worth of good eating for $27.85, and I will eat damned good on that.
$76 Lunch- Ain’t no such thing!
Holy crap, I knew hotel/catering prices were outrageous, but $150/gallon for coffee? That must be some of that civet (kopi luwak?) shit.
And here I get grief from Scoobie for wanting to buy Starbucks or Dunkin Donuts whole bean coffee at $8.50/lb over at Costco.
In fairness, $76 is probably what they’re paying the hotel. Here’s how the racket works: you want to put on an event at the hotel, and they require you to guarantee a certain amount of food and beverage (F&B) service. For a decent hotel in DC, that F&B guarantee is probably around $10,000. Divide that by the number of days and number of attendees and you get the idea.
For reference, I put on an event in San Diego for 25 people for 3 days at the Manchester Hyatt– a very nice hotel but not nearly as expensive as DC. F&B costs were around $13K. That’s for breakfast and lunch, plus an afternoon coffee/snack break, for 25 people for 3 days.
This is not, of course, to say that DoJ should be spending the money at all, but it’s a little disingenuous to quite the numbers as a “$7.32 Beef Wellington hors d’oeuvre” without giving some context.
@6. I read the article after reading your comment and it is crystal clear that the auditors conclusion–in any context–was that DOJ, headed up by The Muffin Man, has wasted a ton of money on extrvagant snacks and lunches. It is not disingenuous unless you somehow know that every meeting had to be catered and that the hotel rates applied to each.
Government per diem is set at $228/day ($157/day: lodging, $71/day meals and miscellaneous expenses) (http://www.gsa.gov/portal/category/100120).
The questions of the drill being: of what value are these gatherings? Can’t the government use CITRIX for Direct-Connect Online or Go-To-Meeting for portions of pennies on the dollar?
DOD put out a moritorium on all travel for “conferences” unless approved by somebody at the Pentagon. We have to be creative when we bring people in and alot of stuff has been canceled or done via VTC..not that I’m complaining. Holder and Justice should be ashamed.
Wow, I knew DC was expensive, but $228/day? Even I only got $119/day in Cedar Rapids.
Now Paul, I agree with you. The ex did a lot of dealings with hotels and catering as her company did their event primarily in hotels and convention centers, and I was stunned to learn how much they charge for shit.
For example, folks:
http://www.hyatt.com/gallery/wasarcatering/
This is for the Hyatt Regency Crystal City. A nice place, but by no means the Hay Adams, Four Seasons, or the Fairmont.
Navigate around and you’ll see they charge some SERIOUS money for their services. But $72/gal for coffee? Seriously?
“(what part of the horse does the dovers come from?)”
Apparently from the governments hindmost tit or the tax payers ass. Your choice.
I have put on several conferences in DC and the F&B was no where near that if you have people staying in the hotel.
What I think is funny is that the DOJ can pay that, but when I did a little training at CENTCOM (for which a certain govt. contractor type never paid me MITRE), they wouldn’t let me bring donuts and coffee for the servicemembers attending. WTF?
Ohhhhhh. Now I get it.
Now we know why DOJ was selling AK-47s to the Mexican drug cartels! To buy $16 muffins and $7 whored ovaries.
Don’t forget that earlier this year Holder demeaned the military and its judge advocates when he essentially stated that they were not capable of handling cases at guantanamo but instead they should be prosecuted by “true patriots” at DOJ in NY. Somehow I think the military guys aren’t lavished with $16 muffins, but nice to see that the real patriots get all the lunch swag.
Susan, MITRE is too odd a duck to mess with. They are rather like George III when he was… unrestricted from reality.
DaveO – I liked a lot of the people I worked with there, but some of the senior guys were very interested in taking the credit but then not paying the bill.
Muffin Man was too busy promising to close Gitmo in time to help out Obama’s re-election bid to worry about blowing boatloads of taxpayer money.
And, seeing the lineup of White House parties, who is really surprised by seeing that bleed over into DoJ and other places? Hey, it’s just money that belongs to the morons who actually work.
Should hand them each a Jimmy Dean half frozen & a Diet Pepsi like we get in training.
Is a $16 muffin like a $5 milkshake?
Susan: similar experience with MITRE – good folks, but the leaders were a curious lot.
We’ve got “Muffin” over here, and the hot topic of the day is about the Chippendale SEAL. Is this all related to the repeal of DaDt somehow?
Beginning to wonder… 😉
I wonder how much money they could save if they started moving some of the offices out of the DC area. For instance, moving DOJ to lets say Topeka KS. Now I know that the horror that some of the long time staffers would have at the thought of moving from DC out to the stix of KS.
Eh, can’t say I’m suprised by the way Holder runs that joint. They do everything but punish the deserving.
On another note, Jonn you got into Heritage? K’ snuck in, but still.
WTF? Seriously… Doesn’t the DOJ have an office building with a freaking auditorium anywhere in DC? Why the hell are they holding this shit at a hotel in the first place? I would think security issues alone would make using a DOJ facility preferable.
If this was a corporation the event planner would be canned. Maybe in 2012 we can see about that.
There is absolutely zero fiduciary responsibility on many levels of Gov’t and this is just another shining example. If we cannot do it in the private sector, why is the government allowed the double standard? I am fucking sick to death of that mentality. I wish I were big enough to incite to all that we should make the exemptions on our taxes enough not to have to pay in until the government can prove responsibility. They suck balls.
Send that muthafucking Holder a bill for every cent of it and turn it over to collections if he don’t pay up. Useless piece of libtard shit.
DOJ probably got their catering done by the same people that do work for TSA. Anyone remember that boondoggle about TSA wasting a buttload of money for lifetime achievement plaques less then 2 years after they were formed?
can’t say I’m suprised by the way Holder runs that joint. They do everything but punish the deserving…
thnx
Thanks
can’t say I’m suprised by the way Holder runs that joint. They do everything but punish the deserving…
[…] Apparently, ethics ended up being a bigger issue than she expected. We’re still waiting for someone to resign at the Justice Department, by the way, for their little conference. […]
The last three staff meetings I attended, before taking my leave of absence, were catered by those of us in Admin by donating to the cause to buy muffins and coffee from Costco! The city of Phoenix will not spend a single cent of tax payer money for any refreshments for any meeting or conference. The Feds can’t do the same? Futher Muckers!?