gossip archive at Haemet

Via Drudge, from the Washington Times: Outsourced passport work risky

The State Department is now charging Americans $100 or more for new e-passports produced by the GPO, depending on how quickly they are needed. That’s up from a cost of around just $60 in 1998.

Internal agency documents obtained by The Times show each blank passport costs GPO an average of just $7.97 to manufacture and that GPO then charges the State Department about $14.80 for each, a margin of more than 85 percent, the documents show.

The accounting allowed GPO to make gross profits of more than $90 million from Oct. 1, 2006, through Sept. 30, 2007, on the production of e-passports. The four subsequent months produced an additional $54 million in gross profits.

The agency set aside more than $40 million of those profits to help build a secure backup passport production facility in the South, still leaving a net profit of about $100 million in the last 16 months. GPO was initially authorized by Congress to make extra profits in order to fund a $41 million backup production facility at a rate of $1.84 per passport. The large surplus, however, went far beyond the targeted funding.

So, not only am I paying the US Government to pay Europe and Thailand to make my passport under questionable security standards, but I’m paying them too much?

As someone who just dished out $100 last week to get a new passport, this “large surplus” talk makes me a bit unhappy… I knew the price seemed more than when I got my passport in 8th grade.

(Sidenote: I filed this under the gossip category for kicks and giggles since the GPO hasn’t ‘fessed up to anything. But seriously, does anyone doubt this?)

So, here I am in Casper getting settled in for what promises to be a very interesting and exciting day tomorrow.

Already in the Parkway Plaza (where I am taking full advantage of their free wireless until my friends get off work), I’ve seen Ron Micheli, Randall Luthi, and Doug Chamberlain. One of those men is highly favored to be on that top three list submitted to the Governor. Which one? Well, I don’t want to spoil tomorrow’s fun for you.
I have also seen frantic friends and family of some of the other candidates busily preparing for their last minute campaigning. From 7-9 tonight in the Parkway Plaza, there will be a meet and greet of sorts that is optional for the central committee and, as far as I know, open to the public. I’m skipping that in favor of hanging out with my friends, but I’m sure it’ll be an interesting time.
In talking with various Republicans whom I respect, I have decided to slightly alter my list of favored candidates. My current favorites include Sansonetti, Micheli, Lummis (who supposedly gave an unexpectedly bad performance at the forum, but is in general a stellar Republican), Asay, Kruse, Hunkins, Moore, Paddleford, and French. Some of these appear to have better odds than others. I can say that it isn’t looking good for Hunkins since he will not be attending tomorrow’s session due to some sort of inescapable jury trial/meeting.

I also found out that there are two staffers from the National Republican Party who are coming to help us poor Wyomingites out. There is supposed to be some national media coverage of tomorrow’s session and at least one of the Republican staffers is coming specifically to handle any requests from those vultures. Oops, I meant reporters.

Well, that’s all the gossip I have for now although I’m seeing important faces all over! Hopefully I will be able to pilfer some wireless from the Best Western tomorrow and give periodic updates throughout the day. That’s assuming that I don’t get put to work as a page or errand-runner for the Republicans.