sobo

Oh, I'm sure she's got some goodies on top of that. Her benefit package, to say the least. And a vehicle allowance. And free travel for State business (with which she can pair it up for personal use on the same trip). And free parking. Prob'ly a slush fund, too...

$167,000 for WA Governor? Shit, that just ain't worth it for what you'd have to put up with...

OK, I understand that, sure. So what happens to these folks when they start losing their jobs as a result of Draconian budget cuts? Would it not be better to pay an additional $516/year now towards your own benefit package so that everyone has a chair to sit in when the music stops? Or, on principle, insist upon their current course of action and leave more than a few people standing when the music quits playing? Which is the lesser evil here...??

OK, I drug out the books on this one to see just how much of my benefits I am paying for vs. what my employer is paying... In 2009, the annual cost to provide my family with benefits was... Medical: total = $14,124, of which I paid $2,207 or 15.63% of total Dental: total = $1,188, of which I paid $520 or 44% of total Vision: total = $217, of which I paid $217 or 100% of total Percent of total benefit package for which I pay: ~19.0% 2010: Medical: total = $15,518, of which I paid $2,424 or 15.62% of total Dental: total = $1,279, of which I paid $564 or 44% of total Vision: total = $217, of which I paid $217 or 100% of total Percent of total benefit package for which I pay: ~18.8% 2011: Medical: total = $16,657, of which I paid $2,556 or 15.34% of total Dental: total = $1,308, of which I paid $600 or 46% of total Vision: total = $217, of which I paid $217 or 100% of total Percent of total benefit package for which I pay: ~18.6% In 2012, the annual costs will be... Medical: total = $17,774, of which I will pay $2,856 or 16.07% of total Dental: total = $1,379, of which I will pay $648 or 47% of total Vision: total = $217, of which I will pay $217 or 100% of total Percent of total benefit package for which I will pay: ~19.2% So what does it all mean, you ask? I pay for about 16% of my medical coverage, almost half of my dental coverage, and ALL of my vision coverage, for an aggregate of about 19% of my total benefit package's cost. When I read that the Washington Federation of State Employees union rejected out-of-hand a request to renegotiate its workers' benefit package with the Governor, which would have asked for State workers to pick up $43/month of their benefits, I find this irksome to say the least...

If it were me, and looking to not waste time, I'd pick... 1st choice: Kautz 2nd choice: either of the Fuhrer routes

Tell me about it. And since I've already signed up for 2012 benefits, I now know what my increased annual premiums will be beginning in 2012: Medical: Up another $300/year from last year (~12% increase) Dental: Up another $48/year from last year (8% increase) My family vision coverage has remained constant since 2009 at ~$220/year (no employer participation in that plan), so if I assume that it remains constant for 2012 at the current rate, then my out of pocket costs for benefits coverage in 2012 has increased 11% over 2011's costs. Like I said before, cry me a fuq'n river... I'm so pissed off over the whole thing that I don't even feel like claiming my third in this thread...

Hate to be the one sayin' it to ya, ivan, cuz I like ya an' all, but "cry me a river." Ever since the mid 90s, I've been paying more and more of my own benefit package every year. For the first 6 or 7 years out of college (in 1988), my employers paid 100% of my benefit package costs. Then, beginning sometime around 1995 or 1996, a program started wherein the employee was required to pay a small portion to help offset costs. That first year it was like 2 or 3% of the total package cost. Every year since then that employee-paid portion has gone up at the rate of anywhere between 3 to 10% (with 2008 being the worst, IIRC). I have come to expect this increase every year, so much so that I have a line item in my personal budget for "Increased HC costs" at the beginning of each calendar year. This past January (2011) that line item increased ~5.5% over January 2010's number. So I don't have much sympathy for these WA State unions and/or labor federations that are intractable in their "bargaining" position regarding having their members pick up a share of their own health care benefit costs. FTR, I pay ~$2,550/year towards my family medical benefits (Employee+2), $600/year towards my family dental coverage (Employee+2), $200 into a FSA that my employer double-matches ($400), and $217 for VSP vision coverage (Employee+1). That's over $3,500/year.

Tricky Dick would've loved these things...

You shouldn't dump your puppy so quickly. It was only some dip.

Just swooping in here a la Seagull Management to claim my for the 200th reply. I'm leaving now. Carry on!

Great stuff, Lowell; truly fabulous. Just watched every digitized newsreel in your link, and read both of your accounts of the Exploration Northwest stories. I seem to recall reading the Golden Horn account several years ago on this board. Good to see it again. :tup:

Well, they'd only cut off one, cuz it's a first offense. So technically the little scofflaw could become a repeat offender. But I'll lay even money that Safeway will be watching that whelp much more closely in the future, rest assured of that...

You are Kevboning very well. I love this. It's about time we added a new verb to the English language. I think the last one to be adopted in mainstream use was "to Google", and that's been a while... Kev.bone [kev-bohn] noun, verb, Kev.boned, Kev.boning, {NE, 2011} noun 1. to behave in the manner of Kevboning. That congressman never answers a question directly; he's such a Kevbone. verb 2. to habitually and continuously "answer" any question directed towards oneself with another, unrelated, question to the original enquirer. rob asked Kevbone a direct question about Ron Paul's position on chemtrails, but he never got a straight answer back; he got Kevboned...

WTF, where's their sense of adventure? It's just a puppy, fercryinoutloud. They're all cute and sweet and stuff...

I see you added a 6th one. Or is that Stage 0...??

Figgerz... NEVER shoulda put YOU in charge of the main course... Hmfff!

So spiders are Vulcan in origin? Fascinating...

What happened to the free-range raccoon?? I was so looking forward to leftovers. WTF...??

Just posting in this important thread again to tag my second

That kid soooooooooooo needed that...

That is simply dumbfounding, a "congressman" berating a member of the public that elected him that way. I'd like to be able to say that if he or someone like him told me that they could call me whatever they wanted to, then I'd reply in kind, "Hey fuckshite, if you can call me whatever you want to, then I can call you whatever I want to, ya fuckshite!" Was a pretty funny snap-to, wasn't it? Mebbe she needs to hear stuff like that coming at her employer a little more often...

You should be playing Lotto with Einsteinian powers of deductive reasoning such as those... Jeebus, Doug, WTF were you thinking???

Spencer still setting routes? LOL I, uh, have been, uh, busy. Yeah, that's it...

What were you doing in Saudi and where? I'm looking at a gig for two years based out of Al Khobar.

Mtguide is spot on about those hatin' Texans. I "lived" in Houston for 3 years one decade about 30 years ago. Talk about a bunch of shitty-assed, überproud, bigoted, fuckshite wanker racist rednecks. Had my motorcycle stolen right out of my driveway (they chop-sawed down the light standard that it was chained to), had beer bottles thrown at me or into the wheels of my motorcycle while riding on the 610 Loop, had a pistol pulled on me by a BMW-driving yuppie shithead on the Loop cuz the fuckwad wouldn't yield as he was entering the freeway and I was trying to exit, and any number of other lovely "southern greetings" while in that shithole. I didn't leave a thing there when I left, so I have no goddamned reason whatsoever to EVER go back to that bug-infested shithole of a town. JUST NUKE 'EM!!!