He means they are paid by our taxes -- not that they collect them directly.

Snark FAIL.

I know what he meant, otherwise snark wouldn't have been necessary.

He's basically saying that because there was one CIO somewhere, anywhere, in the Federal government that it's appropriate to tar every military and civil servant with that same 'idiot' brush.

I mean, I'm assuming you would be offended if someone said that all computer hackers have my own personal morals, so it seems wise to only blame people for what they actually do, not their seventh-order relationships to other people.

It's not about being offended. It's about theft and corruption. All these agencies are taking away our income and squandering it through incompetence, cronyism, and worthless spy programs and military adventurism. If the "computer hackers" were stealing 30% our collective income and wasting it I'd be very angry about them too.

If the worst thing a Federal agency does to the taxpayers in a day is waste a computer keyboard, they're still far in the black compared to the rest. True story.

Besides, you're talking about an issue which afflicts essentially all large organizations. Have you never received a small part from a retailer wrapped in waaaaaay too much packing material?

Military adventurism, overly harsh sentencing, and illegally spying on our own citizens are not simply wasting a day at the keyboard. They are actively harming all of us.

I'm not just talking about an issue that affects large organizations. I have never feared imprisonment from Apple, MSFT, or Amazon. I have never made involuntary payments to any of them. Steve Ballmer can't stop and frisk me for weapons on the street b/c he fears for his safety. Sure big companies have waste and inefficiency, but it's at a much lower level than the federal government.

Funny how no one points out that it was a government agency that uncovered this issue in the first place...

Are we supposed to start rewarding these institutions for being capable of "uncovering" million dollar technology projects that are wasteful and pointless? The fact it happened in the first place is bad enough.

>He's basically saying that because there was one CIO somewhere, anywhere, in the Federal government that it's appropriate to tar every military and civil servant with that same 'idiot' brush.

Well, I don't know if he meant it that way. But whether he did not or did, there are two counter-arguments to be made.

First, one has to note that he didn't say that broad a thing as you accuse him of: he merely wrote about "these people", that is "those described in the article". So it could very well be that he did not meant it for everybody.

Second, even if he did intent to talk about all "military and civil servants" ("all" meaning "most", as it mostly does in conversation), why assume he was basing it on this particular case only?