journal entry #5000

well, this is week six's assignment so I guess it's number 6.

we had to choose a newspaper article then write a response. i saw this on the news yesterday and was outraged...http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=12026017

I'm going to insert a warning. This piece is full of my opinions. I had to write MY response and this is my response to this issue. It's not nice, NOT politically correct in the slightest, and involves alot of the F Bomb. Consider yourself warned and if it offends, I'm probably going to not care. Sorry. I'm a commuter myself and no one on Gods green earth helps me. I already owe a mountain of student loans to finance my commute. So here we go. Hold on tight.

Basically the gist of the article and newscast was that state employees -civilians-not police officers-have take home vehicles that are paid for by the state, and their gas from home to work and work to home is paid for by who...all of us, thats right. Some of these employees live 100 miles away from the capital and commute DAILY. One man they followed (and they mounted cameras and actually FOLLOWED these people!) drives 250 miles a day round trip to work. And he doesn't pay a dime to do so.

And I'm betting that he doesn't do it to live in a cheap apartment like I do.

I drive 150 miles a day or more. When we lived on the northside I had 300 mile days every Tuesday. I've cut out over 60 of those miles moving south. I think MY breaking point was being in my car 8 hours one Tuesday but thats another story for another time.

These employees claimed over a quarter million miles last year. Wowza. I'm just wondering what makes them so special that they can live in bum fucked egypt then make us all pay for their fucking commute? Why don't I get to make everyone pay for my living choices? I mean does anyone want to shell out the $70 a week (down from $100). I didn't think so.

So why the fuck do I have to read about school teachers being FORCED to take a 5% paycut while civilian employees have us picking up the tab on gasoline, they have no car payment, and I'm betting their are alot of expense account dinners going on as well.

Nothing has made me quite this mad in awhile, except for stupid parents who pretend their child doesn't exist, but again, story for another time.

Notice I keep saying civilian because police officers get cars as well, but they get cars the rest of us cannot drive because we don't have what it takes to wear the badge that gets the car. They get to claim the gasoline because 90% of it IS WORK RELATED. And knowing cop salaries, most of them aren't living in fancy ass bloomington homes.

I particularly find the responses by these folks interesting...here's one:

"But 13 Investigates found IDHS also issues take-home vehicles to staff who are not emergency responders and inspectors, such as Thompson and IDHS public information officer John Erickson.

Erickson drives back and forth to Indianapolis from his home in Columbus. The 79-mile roundtrip commute accounted for about 7400 of the 9800 miles driven late last year on Erickson's state-owned Ford Escape.

"I have a take-home vehicle because I am on call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week if I am needed to quickly communicate essential messages for the safety of Hoosiers," Erickson told WTHR. "I may need to go a joint information center or a disaster scene to coordinate risk communications to the public." When asked whether he could do that in a personal vehicle instead of one funded by state taxpayers, Erickson provided no response.

2009 mileage reports show both Erickson and Thompson, as well as many other IDHS workers, routinely fell far short of the 1000 business miles the Indiana Department of Administration likes to see each month to help justify the need for a state take-home vehicle. The vast majority of their mileage was for commuting only, and WTHR's 6-month investigation has discovered the same holds true for employees at other departments, as well.

No response. "I'm on call 24/7." Guess what. My husband is on call 24/7 and doesn't have a car. He provides services to the residents of this apartment complex on his own time and in his private vehicle. And being the honest people we are, we only claim what he uses which is no where near enough to itemize on our taxes, so we don't even claim it.

I'd love to see one of these "EMERGENCY PERSONNEL" get their fat asses up at 3 am to respond to a murder or someone beating the fuck out of your door because they are in an altercation with their wife and she's trying to kill him and the kids. And be in your underwear while doing it.

This is my life and not only does no one pick up our tab for this, no one fucking thanks him either. Welcome to the real world Mr. State employee.

Yeah. Hot button. But Shannan asked for it. You know whats funny? I looked through todays issue of the Tribune online and found absolutely nothing newsworthy. This article I chose from Channel 13 is days old, and they've been doing the fact finding for awhile now. I guess thats the advantage of living up here. Lots of good stuff to pick from! Next week, we'll discuss laying off the men and women who are here to protect and serve and then see how long it takes for the COP to bitch that crime rates are up. Bring your friggin popcorn.