Talk about being in bed with 'em

This may be among the topics on the Daily Show http://www.thedailyshow.com/ Thursday night. It airs on Comcast channel 62 at 12:00 p.m. (that doesn't seem right to me, but that's what Comcast says and since it's next to impossible to get a printed schedule of tv listings in this town, I guess I'll believe it) and is rebroadcast at 3:00 p.m. the next day. That's the one I always catch.

My friend, Mike Ernest, works for the Department of the Interior's Minerals Management System. He emailed tonight, writing, "The Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar will

be on John Stewart's "The Daily Show" this Thursday night, May 7th. I can

only imagine the references to MMS hijinks. Ought to be fun."

The Minerals Management System was accused of trading favors for drugs and sex.

(The reverse of this has reportedly been a tried and true business model on the corners of south Nevada Avenue for years.)

MMS is the part of the Department of the Interior responsible for collecting royalties in lieu of taxes, from companies that produce oil and gas on federally controlled land and water. The department collected more than $9 billion in oil and gas royalties in 2007, making it one of the largest government income producers other than taxes.

In a report to Congress, the department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, found wrongdoing by a bunch of employees of the MMS. He wrote that officials in the MMS Royalty-In-Kind program "frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, used cocaine, marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and gas company representatives.”

Having taken a look at this document, I can tell you, if you this government reports are boring, you ought to get a load of this!

Thanks Mike!