I could never succeed in intelligibly defining stupidity but I know it when I see it

The concept of the deadbeat dad is no bogeyman, no chimerical construct invented by bitter ex-wives looking to milk some poor bastard for every dime. Unfortunately, the world is full of worthless pricks too busy looking for holes to poke and bottles to empty rather than doing the hard work of being a dad, much less shouldering the financial responsibility of raising kids. If a so-called man is willing to walk away from his children, I think he’s an idiot; if he’s willing to leave those children high and dry, he’s scum. If to get that scum to be a tenth of the man he needs to be and pay his fair share takes the state threatening jail and garnishing checks, I’m all for it. The only good deadbeat dad is a dead deadbeat dad or at least, a deadbeat dad doing a nice long stretch in county jail.

The Child Support Enforcement Agency of El Paso County, Colorado is therefore there, in their shiny clothes and neatly wrapped sandwiches, rapping ink stamps on papers, having a margarita in the afternoon, doing lots of sudoku, checking out YouTube. CSEU of El Paso County, Colorado is that lout in the office who eats alot and never does any work, loses your shit and claims it was your fault. That thing that was there before you and will remain well after you're gone, its girth oozing out into the aisles like a malignant sac of pus reeking of its self-perpetuating putrescence.

It (CSEU) knows these things, the court knows them:

1. X and I share custody of the kids 50/50
   
2. The "X-McQ v. Me-McQ" is a lie (it needs to be "CSEU v. Me-McQ" on the court papers);
   
3. X makes about 10 grand a year more than I do;

and yet insists that I provide documents for everything - everything it already has indisputable proof for - and then whatever else it thinks it needs (phone bills from the last three years or papers on how to sex pre-pubescent game birds).

This is Kafkaesque and I think you’ll agree. The state wants $100 a month from me. I make 9.50 an hour; $100 a month may not matter much to you but it’s a fortune to my family, the decision between camping this month or change the oil on the car and replace a tire. Yet, of that $100 a month, X gets $57 (which she applies towards daycare). The state is keeping $43 for fees and such. A tax on poor people, I guess, for not being able to afford the time it takes to get T’s crossed and such. Yet, the most absurd aspect of this situation is that the state must be ultimately losing in this case - surely the cost of maintenance on this case costs the state more than $43 a month.

To get my $100, the state is willing to pull both my driver's license and my counseling license. Take my way to get around, get to work, pick up my kids, make me pay $60 for the reinstatement and the day's wages it takes to sit and wait in the DMV. Take away my license to make a decent wage and - well, you see the infinite regress in this.

The state loses money in this; so do X and me-McQ. So who benefits? You'd think the state would ask itself that but instead there's an inexorable slog through knee-deep stupidity that sucks, sucks, sucks with every step. The whole thing about doing what's best for families gets lost in the day to day drudge of bill collecting. The forest is a blur because the trees are more goddamn paperwork. Fucking trees.

If you're pissed off enough about what I just wrote, you can leave these people a quick message:
Sallie Clark (County Commisioner)
Michael Merrifield (State Rep)
John Morse (State Senator)
Doug Lamborn (US House Rep)
Ken Salazar (Senator)
Bill Ritter (Governor)

Please - tell em' what's really stupid. They don't seem to know....