*This article was just sent to me and is a real candidate for Snappa
Joe painted the jail cells pink and made the inmates wear pink prison garb.

Maricopa County was spending approx. $18 million dollars a year on stray animals, like cats and dogs. Sheriff Joe offered to take the department over, and the County Supervisors said okay.

The animal shelters are now all staffed and operated by prisoners. They feed and care for the strays. Every animal in his care is taken out and walked twice daily. He now has pris oners who are experts in animal nutrition and behavior. They give great classes for anyone who’d like to adopt an animal. He has literally taken stray dogs off the street, given them to the care of prisoners, and had them place in dog shows.??

The best part? His budget for the entire department is now under $3 million. Teresa and I adopted a Weimaraner from a Maricopa County shelter two years ago. He was neutered, and current on all shots, in great health, and even had a microchip inserted the day we got him. Cost us $78.

The prisoners get the benefit of about $0.28 an hour for working, but most would work for free, just to be out of their cells for the day. Most of his budget is for utilities, building maintenance, etc. He pays the prisoners out of the fees collected for adopted animals.

I have long wondered when the rest of the country would take a look at the way he runs the jail system, and copy some of his ideas. He has a huge farm, donated to the county years ago, where inmates can work, and they grow most of their own fresh vegetables and food, doing all the work and harvesting by hand.

He has a pretty good sized hog farm, which provides meat, and fertilizer. It fertilizes the Christmas tree nursery, where prisoners work, and you can buy a living Christmas tree for $6 - $8 for the Holidays, and plant it later. We have six trees in our yard from the Prison.

Yup, he was reelected last year with 83% of the vote.
Now he’s in trouble with the ACLU again. He painted all his buses and vehicles with a mural, that has a special hotline phone number painted on it, where you can call and report suspected illegal aliens. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement wasn’t doing enough in his eyes, so he had 40 deputies trained specifically for enforcing immigration laws, started up his hotline, and bought 4 new buses just for hauling folks back to the border. He’s kind of a ‘Gi t-R Dun’ kind of S heriff.

TO THOSE OF YOU NOT FAMILIAR WITH JOE ARPAIO HE IS THE MARICOPA ARIZONA COUNTY SHERIFF, AND HE KEEPS GETTING ELECTED OVER AND OVER THIS IS ONE OF THE REASONS WHY:

Sheriff Joe Arpaio (In Arizona ) who created the ‘ Tent City Jail’:
He has jail meals down to 40 cents a serving and charges the inmates for them.

He stopped smoking and porno magazines in the jails. Took away their weights Cut off all but ‘G’ movies.

He started chain gangs so the inmates could do free work on county and city projects.

Then He Started Chain Gangs For Women So He Wouldn’t Get
Sued For Discrimination.

He took away cable TV Until he found out there was A Federal Court Order that Required Cable TV For Jails So He Hooked Up The Cable TV Again?.? Only Let In The Disney Channel And The Weather channel.

When asked why the weather channel He Replied, So They Will Know How Hot It’s Gonna Be While They Are Working
ON My Chain Gangs.

He Cut Off Coffee Since It Has Zero Nutritional Value.

When the inmates complained, he told them, ‘This Isn’t The Ritz/Carlton……

If You Don’t Like It, Don’t Come Back.’

More On The Arizona Sheriff:

With Temperatures Being Even Hotter Than Usual In Phoenix (116 Degrees Just Set A New Record), the Associated Press Reports:
About 2,000 Inmates Living In A Barbed-Wire-Surrounded Tent Encampment At The Maricopa County Jail Have Been Given Permission To Strip Down To Their Government-Issued
Pink Boxer Shorts.

On Wednesday, hundreds of men wearing boxers were either curled up on their bunk beds or chatted in the tents, which reached
138 Degrees Inside The Week Before.

Many Were Also Swathed In Wet, Pink Towels A s Sweat Collected On Their Chests And Dripped Down To Their PINK SOCKS.

‘It Feels Like We Are In A Furnace,’ Said James Zanzot, An Inmate Who Has Lived In The TENTS for 1 year. ‘It’s Inhumane.’

Joe Arpaio, the tough-guy sheriff who created the tent city and long ago started making his prisoners wear pink, and eat bologna sandwiches, is not one bit sympathetic. He said Wednesday that he told all of the inmates: ‘It’s 120 Degrees In Iraq And Our Soldiers Are Living In Tents Too, And They Have To Wear Full Battle Gear,
But They Didn’t Commit Any Crimes,So Shut Your Mouths!’

Way To Go, Sheriff!

Maybe if all prisons were like this one there would be a lot less crime and/or repeat offenders. Criminals should be punished for their crimes - not live in luxury until it’s time for their parole, only to go out and commit another crime so they ca n get back in to live on taxpayers money and enjoy things taxpayers can’t afford to have for themselves.

As an Australian I was affected deeply by the horrific Victorian fires which killed more than 180 lives on Saturday 7th of February 2009 and destroyed over 1000 homes.

My partner Lisa was so concerned for me as I told her of stories of Wildfires I had fought many years ago in my youth.

No one can understand how powerful a widlfire is unless you have witnessed one yourself.

Back in the 80’s, I worked for the Australian National Railways and part of our job was to put out summer track fires started by passing freight trains. When a train uses it’s brakes, it will spew out sparks. In most cases these sparks land on bare ground and do not pose a risk. However, sometimes these spark will fly out from the trains brake pads and light small fires along the tracks.

Most of the track fires were very small. But as a track maintenance crew, we were called out and usually put out the fires with a couple of hours. These fires were at anytime day or night. The only bonus to us, was that we were paid for a minimum of 4 hours, whether we were out there for an hour or 10 hours.

I worked between Hallet in South Australias mid north and Peterborough.

In the summer of 1981 we were called out to fight a fire 5 kilometres east of Peterborough. The day was extremely hot and our crew had spent most of the day under a colvert. It was a bad day for fires and we had hoped that this day would be clear of fires and track buckles.

Around 3pm our Track boss had rang us on the railway phone line and told us of a small track fire near Peterbrough and that he wanted us to get the truck and fire tank and pumps and go have a look. I remember we were all pissed off because we had just completed a very hot day (46c on track) and all we wanted to do was go home and have a cold beer.

At the time I was a truck driver/fettler so my job was to get the truck and water tanks. We were on the road to Peterbrough by 3.15pm and arrived at the fire by 3.45pm.

The small track fire had grown from a small blaze on Railway property to a large grass fire on the property of farmer Giles. I remember seeing him trying his best to keep the fire from going through another fence.

My Ganger (foreman) told four of our crew to grab the fire hoses and get in the back of the truck. He then told me to drive the truck along the upwind side of the fire so that the flames wouldn’t burn back on us.

The heat was unreal and the roar of the flames was deafening. I had fought many small fires in my young life, but this one was the “Bigun”.

It was a very hot day, gusting winds and we had very limited water. The only water we had was what ever was in our water tank. I would gues around 2000 litres and we had 4 fire hoses feeding from it.

I suppose within 30 minutes the fire had got away from us and we needed help and a message was passed onto the Country Fire Service and we had to hold on till they arrived.

I remember seeing farmer Giles trying to cut some fences to let his stock out and the fire was within metres of him. I yelled out, or maybe my Ganger yelled out for everyone to get off the truck. I drove like the devil towards farmer Giles. My intent was to shield him from the flames. If I could put the truck between him and the fire, maybe he could cut the fence?

That was the plan, but in the end the fire was way too hot for me to get the truck between him and the fire, so I kept blowing the truck horn to try and get him out of the way, so that I could use the truck to bring the fence down.

I can still see him, trying to cut the fence. Putting himself in front of the fire, desperately trying to save his livelyhood and the lives of many hundreds of sheep and kangaroos.

Farmer Giles did get out of the way and I did drive through his fence and the stock did get out. But we were running very low in water, so out came the fire bags. These are heavy heshion bags we use to stamp out the small flames on the wings of a fire. We were not going to put this fire out, but we needed to stop it getting any wider.

The Country Fire Service people came out with their trucks and within an hour had the fire under control.

We continued putting out spotfires for about 2 hours, until the CFS told us that the fire was out.

Because this fire started on Railway land we were not allowed to leave the fire until the fire was totlaly out. It was still very windy and hot and the Ganger was concerned the fire may start again, so we stayed until nightfall, when the conditions cooled off and the wind stopped.

I arrived home around 11pm and the first thing my wife told me was I stank of grass smoke. She was trying to be funny, trying to console me. She also noticed that all the hair on my right side of my head was singed and the skin on my right arm was surface burnt. To be honest I hadn’t noticed. But i certainly did after she mentioned it. But we lived 250 kilometres from Adelaide and at least 40 kilometres from the nearest Dr, so I just had to put up with it.

It wasn’t until the next day in the work shed that I realised how dangerous the fire had been. All down the righthand side of the truck the red paint had been burnt. It wasn’t burnt off, it was discoloured. Sort of a mustard colour.

My Ganger, Mike told me I had to go get something done for my burnt arm. So I did!

My fire wasn’t anything like the one in Victoria and no one died in my fire except for a couple of field mice. But I can truly understand how the fire fighters feel while trying to save life a property. You do things that are super human. And they do it for free. True heros.

I have been watching with great interest the rise, then rise, then rise of petrol in Australia, with the current price of diesel is hovering around $1.87 per litre. Good thing I don’t own a truck or Turbo diesel 4WD.

I have abasic understanding of how the price of crude oil is set and I also understand that demand for oil is greater than supply. But what I dont understand is, why OPEC dosn’t increase production and release more oil?

Is it because the greedy oil barrons want even higher prices for their oil? Is it because they have shareholders that want even better Dividends? Or is it really, that the reserves of crude oil are low and OPEC has the ration it? I’m a bit sceptical and beleive that BIG BUSINESS is taking us all for a ride and shareholder dividends and Million Dollar CEO paydays are the reason I am paying $1.62 a litre for ULP.

I have no answers to the fuel price problem except to say, “Screw the rest of the World”! Lets find our own oil, refine it and sell it at a price we can all afford in our own country. If we have any left to trade with, then and only then we export it.

From what I can see, as the Corporations and BIG BUSINESS gets richer and richer in our growing economy, the poorer are getting screwed on fuel and food prices so that profits and enormous incomes are increasing. The price of fuel and food only effects the poor. The rich, earning $150,000 plus per year are not going to worry about fuel prices or that the price of prime steaks are going up in price.

I don’t know about you, but I am an avid watcher of Big Brother on Channel 10 and I recon this years group are the best so far.

Now I am expecting to cop and ear full from a lot of your, but look at the characters in the last 4. Four people with as a diverse lives you wouldn’t find anywere. Each with their unique personalities adding to the attraction of watching the show.

• Aliesha is a bubbly, busty country blonde with an infectious smile and a personality that would light up a city. No doubt she would like to pursue a longer relationship with Billy except for his aloofness and non committal attitude. If she was my daughter I would be so proud and if I was 30 years younger ………….mmmmmmmm.
• Billy is a born leader. He is respected in the house with a air of honour and adventure that allows him to make tough decisions but suffers later when he realises his manner of arogance has hurt someone. The Star task showed what this man is made of. Billy is avery loyal person and having him as afriend would be an honour.
• Zak is as camp as any poof can be, but don’t ya just love him. I am slightly homophobic, but this bloke is so happy with himself and out there, you have to think this bloke has what it takes to win Big Brother and he has worked his way into the hearts of everyone I know. He has done the poof movement a great service. Hail to Zak.
• Travis will win big brother! He is the picture of an aussie bloke with compassion, respect and loyalty all built into a tanned hulk of a man, not afraid to lay his feelings on the line. Even with his “bloody, “bloody, “bloody, “bloody, really starting to piss me off, I will still vote him as the Winner of the 2007 Big Brother.

All in all I have enjoyed this years show and have watched it since the Bum Dance and I suppose I will keep watching it. Mr Howard, keep ya hands of Big bros.

June 2008

Wow its hard to beleive its been 12 months since I wrote the above post. I havnt really got into it this year. Apart from Travis, Nobbi and Bianca it been pretty boring

Nothing gets me more pissed off than seeing people blatantly flaunt the laws relating to Water restrictions.

A Current Affair presented a story the other night, highlighting the downright arogance of some Australians during the current drought. Each State has imposed their own water restrictions, but some Australians are saying “stuff you! I’ll do exactly what I want and if I want to hose my house down, or wash my car in the driveway, I will”.

Tagged with the title Water Rats, these people just don’t give a dam and should be penalised and brought to justice. But as was highlighted on the Current Affair feature, nothing can be done, unless these people are caught red handed by the authorities. What The! Sydney Water had a home video of this bloke squirting his house down and still said they needed proof. A Current Affair repoter Simon Bouda offered Sydney Water their tape which would have been time coded for evidence, but still they said they needed to catch the Water Rat red handed. (more…)