Government bureaucrats are the same everywhere. That is, they’re stupid. And today’s stupid bureaucrat is Jerry Taylor, city manager for Tuttle, Oklahoma.

Last Wednesday afternoon, Taylor noticed that the city’s web site was not accessible anymore. Instead of the web site, it was displaying the CentOS Test Page, the page shown after the CentOS Linux operating system is installed, but before a web site has been set up.

But instead of contacting the city’s Web hosting company, Taylor contacted CentOS directly.

CentOS is an all-volunteer effort to create, distribute and maintain an enterprise-grade distribution of Linux. Its product bears a very close resemblance to Red Hat Enterprise Linux, but does not include technical support or the hefty price tag.

So Taylor’s first message was something of a surprise: “Who gave you permission to invade my website and block me and anyone else from accessing it??? Please remove your software immediately before I report it to government officials!! I am the City Manager of Tuttle, Oklahoma.”

CentOS developer Johnny Hughes jumped in and tried to help Taylor sort out the problem, but as can be seen from the email exchange, Taylor was hostile and uncooperative. He even threatened to call the Federal Bureau of Investigation! Fat lot of good that would have done.

A full day later, Taylor finally gave up the Web site address having the problem, and Hughes was able to locate the hosting provider who had caused the problem. It turns out that they had reinstalled the operating system after a hardware failure.

But, and this is where it gets really stupid, Taylor wasn’t at all grateful that anyone at CentOS had helped him track down the problem. Instead, he blamed them for the problem, when they had nothing to do with it. “I am sorry that we had to go through the process and accusations to get the problem resolved. It could have been resolved a lot quicker if the initial correspondence with you provided the helpful information that was transmitted in the last messages.”

Sure it would have. But it’s your fault, Jerry Taylor, for not cooperating in the first place.

The Register notes that Taylor was probably having a bad day because another city website had been hacked recently, and as of today, still hasn’t been repaired.

Disclaimer: Homeland Stupidity uses the CentOS Linux operating system for its Web server, e-mail server and telecommunications equipment.