The World According to Mike

Newt is right....

2009-05-15T23:04:00.001-07:00

Pelosi's got to go.....

http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=7595688

I don't think any intelligent, sane person can disagree with Newt on this one.

Grassroots Minute 2.20.09

2009-03-24T07:52:00.000-07:00

Ok, let me see if I've got this. Evil people are killing each other and the way to fix it is to punish law abiding Americans. Got it.

Grassroots Minute 3.13.09

2009-03-17T09:03:00.000-07:00

Just one more example of how liberals (as most university professors are) love freedom of speech....until it offends them!

Grassroots Minute 3.6.09

2009-03-08T21:31:00.001-07:00

Ok, Let me get this straight; A bunch of criminals in Mexico are shooting at the army and the way to fix it is to take firearms away from law abiding citizens in the United States. Got it!

Don't think Obama will abuse presidential power?

2009-02-26T07:50:00.000-08:00

Well, at least one constitutional scholar in his own party disagrees with you....

CLICK HERE

The "Bailout". What's my share?

2009-02-26T07:24:00.000-08:00

Here's a handy (yet depressing) little calculator:

Note: I have not verified these calculations but it sounds roughly plausible considering congress just spent an amount of our tax dollar that is on the order of a dollar a second for 25,000 years.

If you take this, please post your results and any additional comments you may have below.

Grassroots Minute 2.13.09

2009-02-15T20:32:00.001-08:00

Grassroots Minute 2.6.09

2009-02-11T07:55:00.000-08:00

Grassroots Minute 1.30.09

2009-02-07T07:28:00.000-08:00

Here's the text of HR 45:

http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-45

Here it is on OpenCongress:

http://www.opencongress.org/bill/111-h45/show

Our nation is on it's death bed folks!

The direction we want to go?

2009-01-31T20:28:00.000-08:00

How many Tony Martins will this country have if the current administration gets it's way?

Cancelled Credit Card

2008-12-03T18:12:00.000-08:00

Well, I got out of bed the other day at about 11AM, after not getting off work until 5AM (the "natives" were restless). I ran down to the mailbox and grabbed the day's mail. I opened the envelope from Citigroup. I was greeted with a letter informing me that my interest rate on my MasterCard I had with them was going to practically double. Fortunately, my balance on that card was zero so I did what any prudent individual would do; I called the company to cancel the card. I was transferred to an "Account Specialist" (whatever the hell that is). After trying to make me feel better by telling me that thousands of people got similar letters, this guy did everything under the sun to keep me from cancelling, well, everything but offer to leave my card alone. He was offering to send me a check to put toward my car loa at 4.9%, give me a card with better "rewards", and give me a card with a full percent lower interest that what my card was going to. I finally had to remind this fool that his company was all over the news last week and that my tax dollar is effectively propping up the company! I basically had to tell him to shut up and just cancel the card.

Is it just me or is it a lousy business practice to take taxpayer money to "bail out" your company only to turn around a week later and treat your (taxpaying) customers like dirt?

Quote of the day 12/3/2008

2008-12-03T18:08:00.000-08:00

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

~Bill Vaughan

Quote of the day 11/15/08

2008-11-15T12:50:00.000-08:00

Whatever starts in California unfortunately has an inclination to spread.

~Jimmy Carter

Leaky Plumbing

2008-11-14T10:03:00.000-08:00

Another great analogy for the ObamaNation...

Barack Obama discovers a leak under his sink, so he calls Joe the Plumber to come and fix it. Joe drives to Obama's house, which is located in a very nice neighborhood and where it's clear that all the residents make more than $250,000 per year. Joe arrives and takes his tools into the house. Joe is led to the room that contains the leaky pipe under a sink. Joe assesses the problem and tells Obama, who is standing near the door, that it's an easy repair that will take less than 10 minutes.
Obama asks Joe how much it will cost. Joe immediately says, "$9,500."
"$9,500?" Obama asks, stunned. "But you said it's an easy repair!"
"Yes, but what I do is charge a lot more to my clients who make more than $250,000 per year so I can fix the plumbing of everybody who makes less than that for free," explains Joe. "It's always been my philosophy. As a matter of fact, I lobbied government to pass this philosophy as law, and it did pass earlier this year, so now all plumbers have to do business this way. It's known as 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act of 2008.' Surprised you haven't heard of it, senator."
In spite of that, Obama tells Joe there's no way he's paying that much for a small plumbing repair, so Joe leaves. Obama spends the next hour flipping through the phone book looking for another plumber, but he finds that all other plumbing businesses listed have gone out of business. Not wanting to pay Joe's price, Obama does nothing.
The leak under Obama's sink goes unrepaired for the next several days. A week later the leak is so bad that Obama has had to put a bucket under the sink. The bucket fills up quickly and has to be emptied every hour, and there's a risk that the room will flood, so Obama calls Joe and pleads with him to return. Joe goes back to Obama's house, looks at the leaky pipe, and says "Let's see this will cost you about $21,000."
"A few days ago you told me it would cost $9,500!" Obama quickly fires back.
Joe explains the reason for the dramatic increase. "Well, because of the 'Joe's Fair Plumbing Act,' a lot of rich people are learning how to fix their own plumbing, so there are fewer of you paying for all the free plumbing I'm doing for the people who make less than $250,000. As a result, the rate I have to charge my wealthy paying customers rises every day. "Not only that, but for some reason the demand for plumbing work from the group of people who get it for free has skyrocketed, and there's a long waiting list of those who need repairs. This has put a lot of my fellow plumbers out of business, and they're not being replaced nobody is going into the plumbing business because they know they won't make any money. I'm hurting now too all thanks to greedy rich people like you who won't pay their fair share."
Obama tries to straighten out the plumber: "Of course you're hurting, Joe! Don't you get it? If all the rich people learn how to fix their own plumbing and you refuse to charge the poorer people for your services, you'll be broke, and then what will you do?"
Joe immediately replies, "Run for president, apparently."

~Original Author Unknown

Quote of the day 11/14/08

2008-11-14T08:50:00.001-08:00

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

~George Washington

Quote of the day 11/13/08

2008-11-13T08:59:00.000-08:00

A democracy is nothing more than mob rule, where fifty-one percent of the people may take away the rights of the other forty-nine.

~Thomas Jefferson

Very Good Analogy

2008-11-11T09:41:00.000-08:00

The following is one of the best analogies I've ever read. I truly believe that it is this very mindset that got Barrack Obama elected:

Every evening, the same 10 friends eat dinner together, family style, at the same restaurant. The bill for all 10 comes to $100. They always pay it the way we pay taxes:

• The first four are poor and pay nothing.
• The fifth pays $1.
• The sixth pays $3.
• The seventh, $7
• The eighth, $12.
• The ninth, $18.
• The 10th, (the most well-to-do) pays $59.

One night the restaurant owner announces that because they're such good customers, he's dropping their group dinner bill to $80. Let's call that a tax cut. They want to continue paying their bill as we pay taxes. So the four poorest men still eat free. But if the other six split the $20 tax cut evenly, each would save $3.33. That means the fifth and sixth men would end up being paid to eat. The restaurant owner works out a plan: The fifth man eats free; the sixth pays $2; the seventh, $5; the eighth, $9; the ninth, $12; and the 10th guy pays $52. All six are better off than before, and the four poor guys still eat for nothing. The trouble starts when they leave the restaurant and begin to compare what they reaped from the $20 cut. "I only got a dollar of it," says the sixth man, "but he (pointing at No. 10) got $7." The fifth guy, who also saved a dollar by getting his meal free, agrees that it's not fair for the richest to get seven times the savings as he. No. 7, grousing that the wealthy get all the breaks, points out that he only got two bucks. "Wait a minute," the first four poor guys yell in unison. "We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!" The nine men jump the 10th and administer a severe beating. The next night he doesn't come for dinner. They shrug it off and eat without him. The customary $80 bill comes. Surprise! They're $52 short.Yes, those who pay the most taxes get the most back from tax reductions. But tax them too much — punish them for the wealth they may have — and they just might stop bringing their money to the table.

~Author Unknown

In the last week I've alienated a couple on and offline friends with my anger. Please understand that in the same week the nation elected a president who I believe is going to tax me out of my ability to retire (at least for some years) I received an announcement that the governor of the great state of California is going to punish me for my own state's woes by cutting my pay 5%. To put a 5% pay reduction into perspective, that is 3/4 of my gasoline money or about 1/2 of my grocery budget. And all of THAT news comes on the heels of a friend of 25 years blowing his brains out. Yeah, it's looking like a lovely year!

I make very good money (6 figures). But I got out of high school with nothing and got to where I am by hard work and sound decision making. I had little help from anyone. Now I must endure a political environment in which I'll be mandated to give up a substantial amount of what I've spent 24 years in the work force to achieve to "help" people who haven't paid those same dues. It's as if I'm to be punished for applying myself and working long hours (I average 14 months a year if you add up my hours).

Where is it going to end, folks?

Liberal Training Manual Page 1

2007-08-13T16:09:00.000-07:00

SEVENTEEN WAYS TO BE A GOOD LIBERAL

1. You have to be against capital punishment, but support abortion on demand.

2. You have to believe that businesses create oppression and governments create prosperity.

3. You have to believe that guns in the hands of law-abiding citizens are more of a threat than nuclear weapons technology in the hands of Iran , China and North Korea .

4. You have to believe that there was no art before federal funding.

5. You have to believe that global temperatures are less affected by cyclical changes in the earth's climate and more affected by soccer moms driving SUVs.

6. You have to believe that gender roles are artificial, but being homosexual is natural.

7. You have to believe that the AIDS virus is spread by a lack of federal funding.

8. You have to believe that the same teacher who can't teach 4th-graders how to read is somehow qualified to teach those same kids about sex.

9. You have to believe that hunters don't care about nature, but PETA activists do.

10. You have to believe that self-esteem is more important than actually doing something to earn it.

11. You have to believe the NRA is bad because it supports certain parts of the Constitution, while the ACLU is good because it supports certain parts of the Constitution.

12. You have to believe that taxes are too low, but ATM fees are too high.

13. You have to believe that Margaret Sanger and Gloria Steinem are more important to American history than Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, or Abraham Lincoln.

14.You have to believe that standardized tests are racist, but racial quotas and set-asides are not.

15. You have to believe that the only reason socialism hasn't worked anywhere it's been tried is because the right people haven't been in charge.

16. You have to believe that homosexual parades displaying drag queens and transvestites should be constitutionally protected, and manger scenes at Christmas should be illegal.

17. You have to believe that this message is a part of a vast, right-wing conspiracy.

GOD BLESS AMERICA . Oops, can't do that either!!

~Original author unknown

The Forgotten Cop

2007-07-30T06:50:00.000-07:00

Most of those "in the biz" have seen this but perhaps some of you on the outside might get a little more perspective on the "dumb knuckle dragger"....

What would the average citizen say if it were proposed that police officer be assigned to a neighborhood which was inhabited by no one but criminals and those officers would be unarmed, patrol on foot and be heavily outnumbered? I wager that the overwhelming public response would be that the officers would have to be crazy to accept such an assignment. However, as you read this, such a scenario is being played out in all areas of the country.

I am a state corrections officer, not a guard, who is a person that catches school crossings. I work in a maximum security correctional facility. I am empowered by the State to enforce its penal laws and the rules
and regulations of the Department of Corrections . In short, I am a policeman. My beat is totally inhabited by convicted felons, who, by definition, are people who tend to break laws, rules and regulations. I am outnumbered by as much as 20, 30 and even 40 to 1 at various times during my workday, and contrary
to popular belief, I work without a sidearm. In short, my neck is on the line every minute of every day.

A correctional facility is a very misunderstood environment. The average person has little knowledge of its workings. Society sends its criminals to correctional facilities and as time passes, each criminal's crime fades from our memory until the collective prison population becomes a vision of hordes of bad people being warehoused away from decent society in a place where they can cause no further harm. There is also the notion that prison inmates cease to be a problem when they are incarcerated.

Correctional facilities are full of violence perpetrated by the prison population against each other and the facility staff. Felonies are committed daily but they are called "unusual incidents" rarely result in public prosecution. Discipline is handled internally and, as a rule, the public is never informed of these crimes. In the course of maintaining order in these facilities, many officers have endured the humiliation of being spit upon and having urine and feces thrown at them. Uncounted correction officers have been punched and kicked, bitten, stabbed and slashed with home made weapons, taken hostage and even murdered in the line of duty, all the while being legally mandated to maintain their professional composure and refraining from any retaliation which could be the basis for dismissal from service.

In addition to these obvious dangers, corrections officers face hidden dangers in the form of AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. Courts are now imposing longer sentences and the prison population is increasing far beyond the system's designed capacity. As the Public demands more police on the street, governments everywhere are cutting police in prisons where violence reigns supreme, jeopardizing all those still working behind prison walls.

Although you will never see me on "RESCUE 911" or "TOP COPS" I am a law enforcement professional. I am THE FORGOTTEN COP, hidden from public view, doing dangerous thankless duty on the world's most dangerous beat, hoping someday to received the respect of and approval from the public whom I silently serve.

~Original author unkown

Things That Burn My Ass Number 6

2006-08-03T09:15:00.000-07:00

Expatriots being allowed to vote in the U.S.A.

Don't like our political climate? Feel it's bad enough to move out of the country? Great. Have a nice life. Just don't sit up in Canada or any other nation and cast your vote here. Am I the only one in this country who's against dual citizenship? Either you want to be an American or you don't. Either is acceptable with me. Just have the intestinal fortitude to make the decision all the way.

Off the soapbox. For now.

(Please note that I know the word is spelled expatriate. I just like my spelling better. Perhaps I should have hyphenated it to get my point across (ex-patriot).)

Things that burn my ass...

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five

Things That Burn My Ass Number 5

2006-06-17T09:13:00.000-07:00

Parts of stores opening at different times!!!

I went to my "friendly neighborhood Wally-World" this morning with one mission: to make a nice little greeting card for my wife using one of my digital photos. Well, stupid me, I figured since the store was open at 7am and the time was after 8am that it would be all good. Well, imagine my surprise when I found that the photo department wasn't open until 9am. LOVELY! Well, not to let it bother me, I went up the street to Wrong-Aid and couldn't even get them to nail down a time for me. "9 or 9:30," was the reply I got there. TERRIFIC!!! Well, I drove 15 miles into town so I figured I had to do something to justify the gas (currently around $3.50 a gallon here) so I went to Safeway to get some donuts. This went swimmingly as long as you wanted plain glazed, regular chocolate, or plain dry-ass old fashioned! Well, a bouquet of carnations, 2 chocolates and 2 glazed later I returned home!

Off the soapbox. FOR NOW!

The Things That Burn My Ass series...

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Memorial Day Weekend

2006-05-27T09:14:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a great weekend this week even though the weather is less than stellar (at least out here on the left(ist) coast).I would ask just one thing of all my friends, family and acquaintances:

Take a moment to remember what the holiday is actually about and give thanks to the many brave souls who have made the ultimate sacrifice so that you and I can remain free!

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below..

~John McCrae
From the poem, Flanders Fields

Things That Burn My Ass #4

2006-05-18T08:27:00.000-07:00

Email Urban Legends

Folks really need to do a little research before they blindly forward stuff. Guess what: Robin Williams didn't say that, George Carlin didn't say that, nor did Ted Nugent, Andy Roony, etc, etc.

Even if those statistics reinforce your political beliefs, it's wrong to send them to everyone on your contact list if they aren't even close to accurate.

Oh, and by the way, those email petitions you get? (you know, add your name to the bottom of the list and send it on) This doesn't work. There is no credibility to it. Anyone can write names out of the phone book until they get 100 or 500 or 1000 and send it somewhere. The only electronic petitions with ANY clout are the ones actually ON a website where they can track IP addresses and even that isn't near as good as handwritten signatures.

Some great resources:

TRUTH OR FICTION

SNOPES

BREAK THE CHAIN

Signing off, for now.

The Things that burn my ass series:

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The Side of Corrections the Liberal Media Doesn't Want You to See...

2006-05-10T07:12:00.000-07:00

I took my family to the Lassen County Children's Fair on May 6. As they do every year, volunteers from my local chapter of the California Correctional Peace Officer's Association were there as part of the Thumbs Up Child Protection Project. They take the time to fingerprint and photograph children and make ID cards for them in case a child is ever lost or abducted.

Here are a few snapshots of the event. Keep in mind I was in line with my own whippersnapper so I wasn't able to get great photos but you should get the idea of just how busy it was...

These folks worked there tails off that day and should be commended for it! Unfortunately, I somehow doubt it will make even our local newspaper.

May 1st Illegal Alien Boycott - I'm all broken up about it!!!

2006-04-30T12:36:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow might just be a great time to get your shopping done. The illegal aliens aren't likely to be in your way. I was going to write something more in depth about this but I find this article to be good enough. Plus, I'm running a tad late. I have to go do my part to keep the illegals who have actually been caught committing crimes locked up so your tax dollar can keep paying to support them.