Welcome To Government Efficiency: Obama Staff Working in Technological Dark Age

You'd think these people had never worked for the government before, but the Obama staff is furious that the White House is using antiquated technology. From WaPo:

Two years after launching the most technologically savvy presidential campaign in history, Obama officials ran smack into the constraints of the federal bureaucracy yesterday, encountering a jumble of disconnected phone lines, old computer software, and security regulations forbidding outside e-mail accounts.

What does that mean in 21st-century terms? No Facebook to communicate with supporters. No outside e-mail log-ins. No instant messaging. Hard adjustments for a staff that helped sweep Obama to power through, among other things, relentless online social networking.

Facebook at work, what the hell is that? Most government-issue computers take so long to load up a goddamn Word document you'd be better off writing a report in Ottoman-era calligraphy. And a PDF? Fuggedaboutit! It might load up when the administration's over. All you can do is sit around, yell at your computer screen, and curse the Senator's brother who has the lucrative tech contract to set up this jenky-assed system.

For all the young and idealistic staffers in the West Wing, welcome to the "Hope and Change" of sluggish bureaucracy.