Oh wow! So because the government gave him an extra 75 cents…cuz, you know, he’s not-white…he’s actually writing an expose????

Oh, I see there’s more. He’s claiming waste because there were DISCREPANCIES on a GOVERNMENT FORM and when he called the bureaucrat who was overseeing his training and work, the careerist DIDN’T RAISE AN ALARM!

Oh my god, what is the world coming to???

Tell me, has this guy actually worked a day of his life?

I read the whole thing.

I don’t………….what???!

I need to lie down now.

It was earlier reported that the form he was given to fill out was for the purposes of training him how to fill out a form.

Had Jimmy Carter not used the CRA to force banks to give free houses to black people, none of this would have happened.

It was earlier reported that the form he was given to fill out was for the purposes of training him how to fill out a form.

And he STILL couldn’t fill it out properly.

He also gave his supervisor seven cents because he spent an extra thirty seconds on the toilet thinking about the 24 series finale even though he was done pooping. That corrupt fucker probably used our tax money to buy Laffy Taffy instead of putting it back into the public coffers where it belongs!

Alternate Shorter:

I have such low self-esteem I wouldn’t work for any organization that would actually hire me.

Slightly Longer First Draft of Alternate Shorter:

I am a dark skinned person with a funny sounding name who can’t fill out a form properly and yet the Census was willing to hire me anyway even though I couldn’t get a real job with any private company. This just goes to show how wasteful and incompetent government really is — it’s almost as bad as wingnut welfare agencies!

Took breaks? So is this guy familiar with US labor laws?

Why doesn’t he try a job that’s exempt, like, say, over-the-road trucking? It has its own work rules, which some companies will pressure you to flout. Yeah, try that for a year and then get back to me about how you enjoyed your year in hell.

(note: I don’t hold a class A … but many of my friends do)

Can I just say: This is the formally perfect post title I’ve always dreamed of, and now I can stop trying and have my work fall into a spiral of self-parody.

Or, I mean, into a tighter and more rapid one with less self-awareness, sort-of-thing.

I have such low self-esteem I wouldn’t work for any organization that would actually hire me.

Bingo. I dub thee Groucho Rand.

So, is this what the “Don’t Respond to the Census” movement morphed into?

They’re all working undercover exposing the governmentwasteandfraud at the census? Like the pimped-out ACORN guy?

The census shuts down in a couple months–then what are they all going to do? Who’s going to care about it in a year?

This just goes to show how wasteful and incompetent government really is — it’s almost as bad as wingnut welfare agencies!

Hm. Maybe…

Is it possible that the Scaife Foundation took him and said, “Boy, I know you’re one of our only ‘bruthas’ on payroll, but times are getting tough. You need to produce. No more carrying your shiftless, lazy (ed note: remember, we’re talking racist Republicans here) ass with your comfortable shoes and providing you a warm place to shit, until you start making a name for yourself. Those angry white men don’t just grow on trees!”

So Shaun felt he had to go find SOMEthing, ANYthing, to satisfy his massas.

You know, there’s a fascinating classism to this. Here’s a guy trying to whip crowds into a frenzy because some temporary census workers got paid for 45 minutes they didn’t work, presumably at minimum wage.

Meanwhile, all around the world, lawyers bill their clients an hour for thinking about the case for five minutes on the drive home, and businessmen sit for hours drinking at happy hour then claim the whole thing as a “business expense” because they were trading stock tips between lapdances.

But the real corruption is the overpaid census workers. Got to root that shit out or the whole country’s going down.

Can I just say: This is the formally perfect post title I’ve always dreamed of, and now I can stop trying and have my work fall into a spiral of self-parody.

What’s it supposed to be, Gavin?

(wiping hands after levelling Gavin’s karma…my job here is done!)

Exclusive undercover video! Must credit Sadly, No!

I would have thought that a better example of wasting taxpayer’s money would be to deliberately go through this entire training course and then quit before actually doing any of the work.

BigGovernment Press Release:

Wanted – GOVERNMENT WHISTLEBLOWERS.

Seen your colleague steal a post-it note? Witnessed an intern pop a paper-clip into his briefcase? Heard your boss call his kids from on a workplace phone?

BigGovernment needs to hear from you. Fight government waste, your poop is our scoop.

BigGovernment Press Release:

¹ DoD employees need not apply. We don’t need to know about $64,000 toilets or $500 hammers

FIXED

It is a masterful post title.

I resigned prior to doing any of the enumeration work door-to-door.

For all his outrage over waste, he’s pretty cool with being on payroll for the training and then quitting before doing any actual census-taking.

FTR, within our first three days of training, three of us were fired for having “cheated” on their time sheet (more likely an honest mistake, but the people involved were making a point not to cheat Uncle Sam). I’d have to say that either this guy’s full of shit, or the office in Louisiana works pretty damn differently than it does here in DC… which seems like more of a commentary on Louisiana than anything else.

We were also coached to indicate government phone numbers were in fact our personal cell phone numbers (a blatant lie) in order to prevent people from calling and harassing us.

They gave you government phones? Phew! Nice to see what all that money flowing out of blue states and into red states is buying you guys. We sure as hell didn’t have that.

And yet sex offenders and rapists find a way to squeeze through the government filter. If a business hired this way, they would be held criminally liable for the actions of their employees.

Thank God the same rules don’t apply to churches, eh? Eh?

I resigned prior to doing any of the enumeration work door-to-door.

So, you took the money for the training and then didn’t do jack shit to earn it. Yes, I’m certainly seeing the pattern of waste here.

Of course, you did have the honesty and integrity to return the money they gave you after cheating the taxpayer out of it, right? You did have the honesty and integrity to fill out your time sheet correctly and not the same those fed bastards wanted you to, right? (I mean what would they have done, fired you? You were quitting anyway).

Chalk another one up for conservative welfare chiseling, and general asshole-behavior.

You know, when your census bashing screed gets shat upon by a commenter using “Obama as the Joker” for an avatar – I think you may have missed the mark.

For all his outrage over waste, he’s pretty cool with being on payroll for the training and then quitting before doing any actual census-taking.

The interesting thing is that private businesses do this all the time. As a grad student a friend of mine happened to rope me into applying for a position as a tutor at a test prep company. The company trained me, paid me for the training and then never contacted me again. I got paid to sit in a room and listen to my very funny friend train me how to teach people stuff (good training for my current profession) and I didn’t have to do any actual work!

And I didn’t even have to be a jerk about it and quit before being assigned to do any work: the company just never called back after telling me essentially “don’t call us, we’ll call you”.

But it’s a good thing private enterprise is so much more effective than the gummint, ain’t it?

Not-as-shorter: I slummed at a temporary gummint job in order to nit-pick about time sheets and shit, then went back to Big Gummint where everyone is super-accountable for what they do and when they do it. Next assignment: setting up a “sting” on James O’Keefe’s probation officer.

What’s it supposed to be, Gavin?

(wiping hands after levelling Gavin’s karma…my job here is done!)

You’re…not actually going to make me post a link, are you? I mean, you’re totally just messing with my gullible nature, right?

You’re…not actually going to make me post a link, are you? I mean, you’re totally just messing with my gullible nature, right?

I’m an ancient fart, remember? I’m not down with OPP or whatever you young’uns call it these days. I’m not hep.

Actor, repeat after me: one two three four five

One two three, um, four…what was that last one?

I’m an ancient fart, remember? I’m not down with OPP or whatever you young’uns call it these days. I’m not hep.

This is pre-your moratorium on the supposedly shitty music that came out during the last 20 years, dude.

actor212 is Tattycorum and Pupienus Maximus is Mr. Meagle? ( / Little Dorrit, BBC Version, reference )

Little Dorrit? As in Dickens?

Is that a veiled penis reference?

Wow, Rue McClanahan died.

You know, there’s a fascinating classism to this. Here’s a guy trying to whip crowds into a frenzy because some temporary census workers got paid for 45 minutes they didn’t work, presumably at minimum wage.

Correction on that last one; at least in DC, the pay was $20.00 per hour.

Yes, it’s a very good salary, which is why they’re such hardasses at making sure nobody cheats the system. You work for them honestly, they’ll pay you well. Personally, I’ll keep a damn good memory of it – that one month alone gave me two more months’ worth of rent. (And unlike that chiseling, sniveling little shit, I actually earned it).

Oh, I thought the title was a BTO reference (and shout out hence to Texas Chilibean — TCB right?).

Goes to show how out of touch I am (is it possible to be a young fart? At 33, I am too young to be an old fart) … and also the genius of the title that it lends itself to such a varied set of interpretations!

And just yesterday I had that for an earworm and found it somehow had been (nefariously?) deleted from my iThingy.

Meanwhile, all around the world, lawyers bill their clients an hour for thinking about the case for five minutes on the drive home, and businessmen sit for hours drinking at happy hour then claim the whole thing as a “business expense” because they were trading stock tips between lapdances.

But the real corruption is the overpaid census workers. Got to root that shit out or the whole country’s going down.

Oh yeah. I love how much outrage there is in this country over the poor, compared with how little there is over the rich.

And I’m not talking “poor” as in “inner city America,” I’m talking “poor” as in “Honduran sweatshop,” “Palestinian refugee camp,” or “Iraqi citizen with his country lying in smoking ruins around him.” The media spares no expense in talking about how lazy and shiftless these people are and how they should be thankful for what little they have.

On the flip side, we listen to upper-upper-class New York suburbanites whine and bellyache about how nobody understands how hard it is to be rich, what with all those Cayman Islands accounts you need to keep track. Something’s rotten in the state of America, says I.

Pupienus Maximus said,
June 3, 2010 at 18:10

Actor, repeat after me: one two three four five

Oh, thank you. I was racking my brain to figure it out…BTO?…Workingman?…What?

And for your earworm, and for everybody that’s still missing it, here you go.

I was paid with your money, money that was stolen from you.

By you, apparently.

It was hard for the Census to notice the undercover investigator, because at the Census, they all dress like pimps livin’ large.

From Big Government:
In South Louisiana, particularly Lafayette, Cajuns were once referred to as “Coonasses.” Sometimes, they still are. There is also something called “coonass logic.” I learned about it from my dad in the early 1950s. BTW, he was born in coonass country. In short, “Coonass Logic” means “they all want something for nothing.” This is very much like the mentality the Communist in the White House has instilled in many so-called Americans. Unless this attitude is changed back to the reality of hard work and American exceptionalism, America will fail. The rest is up to you.

I’ve never heard of calling Cajuns coons but I have heard that term used for another group that’s considered lazy and freeloading. The same group the President belongs too. Hmmmm….

Are the hamsters ailing, or are the interwebz all clogged up?

Wait a minute (and tell me if I have this wrong), but I thought “Coonass” refers to white Anglo-Saxon Louisianans, not Cajuns (white Louisianans of Acadian, or French-Canadian ancestry). I don’t think it’s considered derogatory, but “Coonass logic” certainly would be. It’s basically calling them trailer trash.

WIngnuts. Can’t even get their own derogatory terms right.

The billing is also in fifteen-minute blocks- if one has a ten minute conversation with a respondent, one bills fifteen minutes (in actuality, the follow-up binder management may take a few extra minutes). The office will fire an employee with no questions asked if said employee goes over forty hours.

Wait a minute (and tell me if I have this wrong), but I thought “Coonass” refers to white Anglo-Saxon Louisianans, not Cajuns (white Louisianans of Acadian, or French-Canadian ancestry). I don’t think it’s considered derogatory, but “Coonass logic” certainly would be. It’s basically calling them trailer trash.

“Coonass” was, I believe, originally a French derogatory term for their Louisiana descendents. It’s like the n-word… it can be used jocularly in-group, but there’s a good chance you’ll get a beat-down if you use it and you’re not a Cajun:

On the French derivation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coonass

Gavin M. said,

June 3, 2010 at 18:14

How existential, Gavin…Thanks to DAS I finally got it.

We are in Andrew Sullivan’s head

Grrrrr….FYWP

We are in Andrew Sullivan’s head

We are in Andrew Sullivan’s head

Good Lord, Sully. Could you get more Freudian?

Oh, and the justification over there why they’re so OUTRAGED over such a little amount is that it all adds up. Why, if enough people get overpaid by five bucks, it might add up to the amount of money spent on one jet!

Thanks, B^4. I stand corrected.

20 hours of undercover work and that 6 minutes was the best he could do?

The latin term “de minimis” doesn’t seem to cover the infinitesimal nature of this. “de flimsiness” maybe?

B^4 is right. I was in the uSArmy with some Cajun fellows- I heard them refer to each other as ‘coonass’, when I used the term as in ‘Pass the hash pipe, coonass.’ they debated whether to trhow me off the barrakcs roof we were sitting on, getting high and drunk (big giant German barracks buildings). I pled ignorance and learned yet another lesson in Americana. I don’t remember the whole blurb about the history of the term (damn good hashish), but the gist was similar to the black guys calling wach other ‘nigga’. It’s sort of an in-crowd, group identity thing, highly exclusive of outsiders. I don’t think WonderBoy Adeleye ever gets called ‘nigga’ by the other black folk that know him. The white guys he works with/for on the other hand never let him hear it when they do.

*Barracks*- and I don’t even get loaded any more so FYWP

*Barracks*- and I don’t even get loaded any more- so FYWP w/ Nixon’s Dick

“A wee touch of the creature” indeed.

Oh no he didn’t.

Later, McCartney ended the night by saying, in reference to the prize from the Library of Congress, it was good that after the last eight years, America had a president who knew what a library was.

HAHAHAHAHA

Wait a minute… Am I to understand that Sweet Adeleye here signed on for census training, took 20+ hours of taxpayer-funded money to engage in that training, and then did not do the work for which he had been trained? Is that not fraudulent misappropriation of taxpayer funds by Mr. Goldeneye himself? He’s all “I got paid for 3/4 of an hour I didn’t actually work,” but in reality, he was paid for 20.75 hours of training for a particular purpose that he had no intention of fulfilling. Gitmo for him, I say!

I’d post this over there at Blartblart, but I am not signing up to post comments in that cesspool.

Another Census employee here*, repeating what the rest said. We bill in 15 minute increments. You get a paid 15 minute break for every 4 hours if you work, and if you work 6 hours, you must take a 30 minute unpaid lunch break. Nothing shocking, just federal labor laws.

Census employees are reimbursed for milage, and paid for communiting times. If I have to drive 15 minutes to a site, I get paid for those 15 minutes because that’s how government contracts work. When I fill out my timecard at the end of the day, I have to estimate my travel time.

There’s a fairly high level of trust implied in the job. Enumerators are working independently in the field, setting their own hours and planning their own work schedules, so if a manager said “I wouldn’t worry so much about the little stuff”, it’s not because they don’t care, it’s because they’re trying to communicate a level of trust. Don’t forget: the Census is an organization of statisticians. You’re not going to fool them by fudging your hours week after week.

Yes, time is billed in 15-minute increments. That’s the same as all my private-secor jobs. Nothing too shocking.

I’m amazed at the gall of folks who claim the Census is wasteful, usually when someone knocks on their door. You know what’s wasteful? Choosing not to mail in a form for $1, and instead having someone get paid (by the hour) to go to your house, knock on your door, and listen to your ranting for 15 minutes before you’ll fill out the survey.

As for the whole “hiring child molesters” thing, let me just say that in these economic times, there are a lot of very well educated, very professional people who are thrilled to have a job that pays a living wage. There are PhDs knocking on doors for the Census because the economy is so bad. The Census is my second job, and about half of my crew works day jobs as well. The hiring pool this time around is pretty deep; this guy says he “resigned” before doing field work, but even odds says his crew leader was getting ready to fire him.

*the opinions stated here are my own; they do not reflect the U.S. Census, or any other element of the Federal Government. I’m speaking as an individual, not acting in any official capacity.

Listen. If there’s not a flat-chested hooker and a walking douche with a huge nose involved I’m not interested.

My gosh, I like Paul McCartney more now.

Good article about Blarblart in last weeks New Yorker.

Rage Machine
Andrew Breitbart’s empire of bluster.
by Rebecca Mead

Full article here:
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/05/24/100524fa_fact_mead

What an awesome XTC shout-out! You rule!

The best XTC song. This one if for Joey “If You Diddle the Children You Risk a Transfer” Ratz.

May I suggest “We’re all making plans for nihil?”

This is very much like the mentality the Communist in the White House has instilled in many so-called Americans.

Wow. In only 18 or so months, Barack Obama has managed to instill into “many” Americans the traditional values of one of America’s oldest and most unique ethnic cultures, the Cajun culture.

What can’t he do?

Because it’s about a black, see?*

*Right band, wrong album reference.

My gosh, I like Paul McCartney more now.

I hope that is not in any way connected to Vacuumslayer’s immediately-preceding comment about “a walking douche with a huge nose”.

Paul’s nose is not huge.

Big Hollywood weighs in!

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/pmeister/2010/06/03/classless-paul-mccartney-trashes-bush-in-front-of-obama/

Just imagine an American singer or actor being similarly honored in your country and making such a remark at an event sponsored by David Cameron about either Gordon Brown or Tony Blair. The press there would rightly have a field day dragging said celeb over the coals.

The British press is overly concerned with propriety.

Paul’s nose is not huge.

The walrus was Paul’s nose.

The press there would rightly have a field day dragging said celeb over the coals.
The press there would not give a rat’s arse on a stick about the opinions of an American singer or actor. Not everyone is terminally insecure.

“Coonass” was, I believe, originally a French derogatory term for their Louisiana descendents.

Ohhhhhhhh, right: it derives from connasse! I should I figured that out immediately–“connasse” and its myriad derivations make up a huge part of French slang.

True story/point of trivia: there is a town in the Ardennes (I believe) that was named “Con;” because it was the local market town, it was known as “Le grand Con.” And then one day in the nineteenth century, Parisian slang reached its verdant…um, town limits…and the name suddenly became something that would get a kid’s mouth washed out with soap. I believe they may have opted for a name change.

This is an absolutely certain true real story. Or so claimed the guy who told me.

Anyway, there are also villages in France named Condom and Mathematics.

I read on The Rude Pundit that O’keefe’s Mighty Morpin’ Palinjugend Posse had to pad out their latest AROO AROO NOOZ FLASH with them yawping along to some hip-hop.

Dipshit Blues for Degenerates in A Flat.

See Griefer Boy. See Griefer Boy take his big shot at public redemption. See Griefer Boy blow it. See Griefer Boy ooze flop-sweat.

Ooze, Griefer Boy, ooze.

Fraud and abuse? This is someone who allowed the taxpayers to pay for three days of training for a job he had no intention of performing.

Slightly lacking in a sense of irony, is he?