I received in the mail today a letter / survey from NOAA along with a new crisp $1 bill. . Supposedly my deceased mother who died March of 2008 in a local hospital, was chosen at random. She was on Social Security for no less that 13 years at the time of her death and Social Security was immediately contacted and informed. There was a death certificate, autopsy, and Florida Vital Statistics issued a Death Certificate. I also contacted all her creditors, closed accounts, notified Florida issuing dept for drivers Licensing via email from rear of her current drivers license at that time. Gilchrist County Voter registration was informed to strike her name from voter rolls as well. I still on occasion receive mail for her. Go figure. My point is; the freakin' Federal Government should know she is DEAD. . Besides the initial mailing / envelope costs, and the $1 bill, there is a postage paid return envelope, and a slick heavy stock 2 page 2 sided color brochure / questionaire. Now I ask you, never mind they sent the damned thing to a dead person, would you consider this mailing anything other than a total waste of money, and trash mail? I normally would not have even opened this type of mailing if it were addressed to me. It would have gone straight into the trash. I wonder what percentages of these letters had exactly that happen to all those dollars, prepaid envelopes, and slick brochures? . Return address on initial mailing; NOAA Weather and Outdoor Activity Survey, c/o Abt SRBI inc., 7431 College Parkway, Suite A, Fort Myers, Fl. 33907 . Cover Letter highlights; We are now conducting the first stage of a scientific survey. For the results to be meaningful, we need ALL households who receive this short survey to complete the questionaire and send it back in the postage paid envelope that is provided. We've included a small token of appreciation for your help with the survey. Random selection yadda yadda, participation voluntary, answers confidential yada yadda. . Someone from your household might be selected to complete a second questionaire in the next few months. If you have any questions about this study we are happy to talk to you: please contact Sujata Pal at 1-866-898-6633 . Cover letter signed by; Dave Van Voorhees, Chief, Fisheries Division, NOAA Fisheries, Office of Science and Technology . Survey Highlights; yadda yadda, fine print at bottom of first page yadda yadda, no person shall be required to respond to, nor shall any person be subject to a penality for failure to comply with, a collection of information, unless that collection of information displays a currently valid OMB Control Number. page 2 and 3 are the survey, but at the top of page 3; OMB control # 06480052 Exp. 12/31/2014 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- imho This is a total waste of time and money. We need a government Jobs reduction plan inforce, and being enforced slashing jobs of money wasters with great speed and gusto. Pink slips galore. . Feel free to use the info provided to contact small government anti pork politicians or these individuals above directly. . ps; I don't have a scanner or fax. I do have the original of this mailing. Oh, I spent the dollar.
Good for you, spending the dollar, there Tac.... You helped the economy recover, one dollars worth.... Figure that it was your contribution, to the ObamaBucks giveaway.... Can you buy a Beer, for a Buck? Just wondering....
You can put down a deposit on a beer with a dollar in a local bar where they are willing to let you run a tab. . I usually just put down a $20 and tell them to subtract what I owe from that. After just a few drinks whats left is less than the price of a drink, and I walk away. Not drunk, and usually not broke.
Dear NOAA ,Send more la'jon,Adult beverage is now $5.00 for the good stuff...Even Jacques'Daniel's that Sea drink's is $5.00 per shot...Send at least $40,000.00 We have a holiday coming up !!! No worry..We support ever thing the gubberment does..Thanks' Hope this help's Tac...lol...
If ya really wanted to screw up their system, you should have returned the survey with "Deceased" scrawled all over it plus the dollar. Let 'em figure out how to account for the dollar being returned. It'd be an accounting nightmare for them! Kajun
Naw, they outfit (c/o Abt SRBI inc., 7431 College Parkway, Suite A, Fort Myers, Fl. 33907) would just pocket the dollar, as if it was lost in the mail, and move on.... more cash for them... as NOAA would never audit them....
I can beat the heck out of your story. Did you know that in the last 10 years, we have spent almost A BILLION DOLLARS on late fees for containers in a certain country that rhymes with Laffganistan? Yes, a billion. No typo. Almost all of it due to ineptitude and negligence. That's a 1000 million. Gone.
Demurrage adds up in a hurry, no doubt about it, and the military procurement contracts take no steps to reduce it.
Oh, demurrage is separate from what I'm talking about. I don't know what that figure is. I'm talking about detention costs for containers that we decided to use for storage, or lost, or haven't unloaded yet, or gave to the natives only to turn around and buy them back, or any one of a dozen other mindless things. I had a colonel tell me the other day that it was good that these things make me angry. Strange. I guess it's better than complacency.
All of the above. Demurrage (in effect, a rent, or more accurately a penalty or "liquidated damages" for misuse of the shipper's materials) kicks in when the container is not returned within the time allotted for transport, unloading, and returning to carrier, all as (should be) in the shipping documents and purchase orders. The military has always played fast and loose with that type of thing. In any case, the magnitude of waste these days is well above even what used to be normal. Back in the "good old days" dot gov owned its own containers, IIRC, and accounted for them all somehow. When they started "renting" them to allies, quite a few disappeared, forcing the rent of shipper's stocks. And so, we are now where we are. O/T - Right now, there are more containers coming into CONUS than going out. Cheap, if you need one, "once fired" if you will pay a little extra.
