This article will p*** you off

One employee of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is part of the department, spent $7,790 on a 63-inch plasma monitor, which sat for six months, unused, in its original carton.

Another FEMA employee spent $68,442 on the 2,000 dog boots, which were intended to protect the paws of search dogs on rescue operations; the boots ended up in a FEMA warehouse and have not been used.

A Coast Guard cardholder bought the beer brewing kit, which officials explained was “a quality product for official parties attended by cadets, dignitaries and other guests,” but which the auditors called “abusive and questionable.”

Yeah, those terrorists are FOUGHT with beer brewing kits.

The small flat-bottomed boats, the audit said, were bought from a Texas company for a total of $208,000. That was about twice the retail rate for the boats, which were supposed to be used in the rescue and recovery effort in New Orleans.

Auditors also found that officials from Customs and Border Protection spent $2,492 on rain jackets for use at a firing range, even though the firing range is usually closed when it rains. And Secret Service officers spent $7,000 on iPods, which the agency explained were intended to serve as data storage devices, an explanation the auditors found unconvincing.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the department, said it would soon be issuing credit card rules, which he agreed were needed to avoid some of the problems.

“We are still a young department, a little over three years old,” Mr. Knocke said, adding that the total value of the purchases questioned by the auditors represented only a tiny share of the amount charged on the government cards.