The Foreign Service Journal, November 2010

N O V E M B E R 2 0 1 0 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 ke/ ). Established on Aug. 17, the joke account is appropriately named Fake Uriminzok ( http://twitter.com/Fake _Uriminzok ). Its photo depicts North Korean leader Kim Jong-il in sunglasses with the tagline “We be illin’.” The prankster responsible for the account, who continues to remain anonymous, at least for now, has sent out 21 satirical tweets so far, including: • Please believe our propaganda — it’s all we have left. That, and ginseng. • Say “dear leader, great leader” ten times fast. … See? I told you that you couldn’t. • blah blah blah blah US devil mon- keys blah blah blah blah • The dear leader sees a kindred spirit in brett favre: he’s a dictator at heart — blackmailing parties for his own selfish design. •The dear leader invites Pakistani flood victims to seek refuge in his work- ers’ paradise—preferably refugee nu- clear scientists. • It seems like @fake_uriminzok is getting media attention: And we didn’t need to sink a south korean ship to do it! Feds Have at Least One Friend in Washington There is, alas, no documentation for a quote frequently attributed to Presi- dent Harry Truman: “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” But many a federal worker can identify with the sentiment these days, in light of growing calls for Uncle Sam to get rid of employees and slash the pay and benefits of those who remain. Fortunately, Federal Computer Week reports in its Sept. 20 edition, Senator Ted Kaufman, D-Del., is vig- orously pushing back against allega- tions that federal employees are grossly overpaid, earning more than twice the salaries of their private industry coun- terparts. He maintains that such claims are based on “a flawed reading of statistical data” ( http://fcw.com ). In a Sept. 15 speech, Sen. Kaufman dissected an Aug. 10 USA Today article ( www.usatoday.com ) by Dennis Cau- chon, which drew on Bureau of Eco- nomic Analysis data to conclude that, in 2009, federal employees received an average total compensation in pay and benefits of $123,049, while private sec- tor workers made $61,051. As the senator noted, the newspa- per’s analysis did not include military pay in its calculation of federal com- pensation. Nor did it compare similar jobs across all categories. Sen. Kauf- man added that it’s unfair to compare the small, 1.9 million-strong federal work force with the 101.3 million peo- ple employed in the private sector — particularly given the fact that the civil- ian federal work force mainly consists of highly skilled, highly educated em- ployees who tend to earn higher salaries. This is far from the first time the Delaware senator has defended feds. Each week since May 2009, as part of his “Great Federal Employees Initia- tive,” he has taken the floor of the Sen- ate to thank exemplary individuals for their hard work and unsung dedication to serving the American people. Himself a veteran public servant, Sen. Kaufman hopes these stories will inspire Americans to consider careers as federal employees, and he plans to continue sharing examples of their im- portant accomplishments throughout his term ( http://kaufman.senate. gov/great_feds/ ). ■ This edition of Cybernotes was com- piled by Editor Steven Alan Honley. C Y B E R N O T E S