SEC learns they are watched.

Journalists are often called upon to decry the wrong-doings of public officials. That is what it means to be a watch dog, but stories like this one don't come around every day.

Technight usually avoids political issues, but this time we need to discuss what the Security and Exchanges Commission has done.

The SEC is tasked by the U.S. Government with overseeing the economy and business dealings. But probes by its own Inspector General, David Gotz, show many employees spend a vast amount of time at work looking at pornography instead.

This is a clear violation of ethical principles the government has set up for it's employees, but more than that, it's stealing.

The Associated Press covers this story and gives a thorough "he said, she said" review by the major players, but we need to look at something deeper.

These are Federal employees paid by the tax dollars. Some are reported to make over $200 thousand a year. That's a lot of money taken out of the pay-checks earned by those people who still have jobs after the economic down-turn.

That's a lot of money to pay someone to watch porn.

One of these employees got a 14-day suspension after refusing to plead in his defense.

That isn't good enough. That employee allegedly downloaded thousands of explicit images onto a government-owned computer hard drive by getting around firewalls. That is space that should have gone to databases, spread sheets, ideas to turn around the recession--you name it.

We suggest another idea. Network and server logs were used to determine that these employees were looking at porn instead of working in the first place, so they should be used to determine how long these people where getting paid to do so.

They should be fined an equivalent amount based on hourly income or salary plus expenses for computer repairs--porn sites often carry with them multiple viruses and worms that can seriously damage the functionality of the machines.

Next, information technology managers should be placed in offices to oversee internet usage and data trafficking. These people are there to work, not play. This kind of activity doesn't cut it in the private sector and it certainly should not in the public.

Oh and by the way, they should be fired.