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 Ron Paul is a Quitter!
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| By : Roy_Pope on 13 Jun 2008 at 10:45:41 am
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Remember the old saying that "It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings"? Evidentially, Ron Paul doesn't like fat ladies. Maybe he's just not a fan of opera - I don't know. What I do know is that Ron Paul quit in the race for President of these United States of America.
I never saw that one coming! Ron Paul, a "quitter"!
I, like many true Americans, stood fast behind Ron Paul in his campaign because he convinced us that he would champion The Constitution of our once-great nation. He convinced us with his record in Congress that he would not back down from this fight, that he was a man of sound resolve ready and eager to restore the liberties and rights of Americans everywhere.
Only yesterday (as Ron Paul was in the process of quitting), I gave an encouraging speech at my restaurant to a handful of customers as they ate their lunches. I reminded them of Ron Paul's determination to fight for us all the way to the end. I spoke of how Ron Paul has never backed down from what he believed to be right, and how he would benefit our country if we would only elect him to office.
Ron Paul sure made a liar out of me! |
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Category : News and Opinion
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Tax Lien Investors Get Screwed by Mobile County
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| By : Roy_Pope on 29 May 2008 at 05:08:39 pm
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The annual participants in Mobile County's property tax lien auction got screwed really good this year. I'm one of those participants and I am steaming mad right now!
Mobile County has always conducted the annual property tax lien auction beginning on the first Thursday of June in every year. The county even printed flyers which I collect every year, and in those flyers it is advertised that the auction is held on the first Thursday of June and continued from day-to-day until all parcels have been sold.
Well, this year Mobile County decided to pull a sneaky one on the participants. Instead of starting the auction on the first Thursday of June, they started the auction on the last Thursday of May.
I found out about this change when I called the Mobile County Revenue Commissioner's office. I was calling to find out when they planned to update the list of tax-delinquent properties that they have on the internet at http://www.mobilecopropertytax.com/pap317.txt. Dated March 17, 2008, the list is more than two months old and well out-of-date.
When I called, the lady I spoke with told me that the auction had already started! I was shocked. I had been working feverishly for two months to prepare for the auction that was supposed to be held in June and had set aside fifty-thousand dollars to invest in tax liens. Now, my entire investment portfolio is screwed for the next 12 months.
Why in the world would they do something like this? I went back through old newspapers and even did some online research - they didn't mention anywhere that I could find that the date of the auction had been changed. The only mention of the date change that I was able to find was on pages buried deep within the mobilecopropertytax.com website.
I did find one clue that might answer why Mobile County would screw tax lien investors like this. There were articles that came out in the Press Register months ago about the City of Mobile getting into the tax lien investment game. Could it be that Mobile County screwed the regular tax lien investors in order to give the City of Mobile an unfair advantage over us - to omit us from participating in the auction so that the City of Mobile can buy up tax liens without too much competition?
I'm going to pass this one along to one of my company's attorneys and see what he thinks. |
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Category : News and Opinion
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A Sign of The Times
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| By : Roy_Pope on 19 May 2008 at 02:30:40 pm
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It is clear that the cost of everythig has been on a steady rise lately. The costs of food, medicine, clothing, the luxuries in life – they are all intricately tied to the cost of fuel, and we all know the direction that the cost of fuel will continue to head in unless something is done to put a stop to this ridiculous war that we are still fighting.
Though the cost of living is on a steady rise – rising faster than I can remember it ever rising – minimum wage and the ability for people to meet the rising costs has not changed a bit. People are now spending twice as much hard-earned money for half the things that they relied upon only a year ago for survival. They are selling off their worldly possessions at online auction sites such as eBay! just to pay the mortgage and to put a scrap of food on the table.
Then, there are some who have become reflections of those who went before us during the Great Depression of the 1930's. They're doing whatever they can to get by, even in light of the fact that what they do is criminal.
Look around you. Crime is on the rampage, even right here in our beautiful city of Mobile. You see more in the papers these days of people "misappropriating" funds from their employers, running scams to defraud others, and robbing banks and individuals.
Sunday, May 4, at exactly 2:00am, a black man attempted to pick the lock on the front door to my home. I stood on the other side of the door and watched him through the bevel-cut glass as he fumbled with the lock. I drew two handguns and aimed them at his head, then yelled three times for him to "come on in!" He finally looked through the glass, saw the guns pointed at him, and took off running.
I will interject a word of appreciation to the Mobile Police Department right here. It took four police cars no more than a minute and a half to show up from the time that I called 911 – and I live a good distance from any police pricinct. Great response!
Back to the story.
Two weeks later on Sunday, May 18, at approximately 4:45am, there was a second attempt at breaking into my home. This time, I did not see the unsuccessful perpetrator, but my wife heard them and I saw the damage that he left behind. He had climbed over my six-foot high privacy fence and tried to force the gate open with his shoulder, breaking a piece of wood in the gate. He then used a prybar of some sort and eventually succeeded in breaking open the padlock on my gate, at the expense of damaging the metal handle on the gate.
Once again, the would-be robber took off running. This time, I believe because he saw the television was on, which spooked him.
Now, I live in one of the nicest, quietest neighborhoods in Mobile. My wife and I have worked hard, and we have earned the priviledge of living where we do. For these types of crimes to be happening within our small community is practically unheard of – and especially at this great a frequency.
After each attempted break-in, I emailed all of the people living within our subdivision, notifying them of what was occurring. For those that did not have email addresses, and those for whom I did not have their email addresses, I either telephoned them or visited them in their homes. Now, everyone in my neighborhood is better aware of what is going on, and they are taking appropriate actions to make certain that they do not become victims of robbers looking to make off with their possessions.
I can still remember the days when I went to sleep with my doors and windows open, allowing the cool summer breeze to cozy me to sleep. Those days aren't really that far gone, but the world is changing at too rapid a pace and these days only a fool would consider going to sleep with even a dog-door unsecure on his home.
Regardless of how safe you feel the neighborhood is where you live, you are really never any safer than you make yourself to be. So, to wrap up this article, I am going to offer you a bit of sound advice to help you and your loved ones along the way:
Select one responsible person within your household to check the locks on doors and windows every evening before going to bed. If you stay inside with the approaching darkness, go ahead and lock down your house, leaving open only windows in the immediate area where you and your family hang out, such as the living room.
If you have a security alarm installed, USE IT! So many people don't bother setting their alarms when they are at home. This leaves them wide open for a successful home invasion.
Always have a plan for escape and make sure everyone in the household knows what it is. You know your home better than any burgular ever will. Picture in your mind the route a burgular would take while invading your home, then prepare a route for you and your family members to take in order to get out of the invader's path, should it ever be necessary.
If you own a handgun and know how to use it, keep it loaded and near you at all times. What good is an unloaded weapon when you need it the most? Not much. When a robber enters your home, rest assured that if he has a weapon (and they usually do), his is already loaded and ready to be used. He's not going to allow you to call a "time-out" so you can load your weapon against him.
If you own a handgun and know how to use it, should the time ever arise, don't hesitate for a second to use it. That's all the time it takes for the robber to pull the trigger and for you to wind up dead or critically injured. The State of Alabama allows you by law to shoot to kill if you fear for your safety or the safety of others in a situation such as a robbery. A judge once told me, "Roy", he said, "it is far better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six." I'm sure that he was right.
Pay attention to the critters. Huh? That's right, the critters. When you hear dogs barking at night in a menacing manner (not the casual barking that they all do to annoy us as we try to sleep), pay attention because something is wrong. If you hear birds chirping in the middle of the night as if they've been disturbed by something, then they probably were and you might want to take a quick look out the window. The animals around us can tell us so much, if we only learn to listen to them.
Get to know your neighbors – or at least get ahold of their email addresses (and give them yours, too). If there is a serious problem in the neighborhood that you know of such as a robbery or attempted robbery, send everyone an email detailing what happened. Who knows, they might be the next victim on the robber's list, and you might just send out the warning that saves a life.
Keep the number to '911' next to your phone, and don't be afraid to use it. Sounds like a stupid tip, but you'd be surprised at how many times I've encountered problems and told people to call the police, and they'd start flipping through the pages of the phone book or say something like "I don't know the number to the police". |
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Category : News and Opinion
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Shameless in Mobile
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| By : Roy_Pope on 19 May 2008 at 01:14:23 pm
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The 'Homeless in Mobile' story printed in the current edition of Lagniappe was touching. It almost made me feel a bit of sympathy for those who are in a much lesser state than I am in.
Before I continue and explain why I used the word "almost", let me clarify something. I am neither ashamed nor embarrased to admit that I was homeless for little more than 18 months. I lived in boxcars and under bridges in Colorado Springs. I took daily showers in the area's Red Cross shelter, and I ate at a soup kitchen. When I needed a bit of money, I either found odd jobs, or I sold my plasma.
I believe that I am more than qualified to write what you are about to read.
Experience has shown me that more than 90% of homeless people are on the streets because of nobody but themselves. They chose to leave their jobs because they thought that they deserved higher wages than what they qualified for – but at least they had jobs. They lost their homes because they felt it more necessary to party with their friends than to pay their monthly obligations to the landlord or the mortgage company. They developed mental instabilities because they chose to drop one-too-many hits of LSD or smoke crack pipes in abandoned buildings instead of enjoying the pleasures that a normal life has to offer.
In all my years, I have never met a homeless person who hadn't devised a tale of what put him or her on the streets. They weave intricate stories telling what brought them to the point of homelessness in order to hide their shame, avoid arrest, and to gain access to government services and the services offered by places such as 15 Place.
Since the 'Homeless in Mobile' story came out in the Lagniappe, the homeless in the area have become more aggressive in their presence around my restaurant and along Dauphin Street. This week alone, one homeless man alarmed one of my female customers as she was leaving the restaurant by pulling his penis from his pants and waving it at her; there are now three homeless persons actively working the intersection of Dauphin and Conception Streets begging from people in the evenings (after the police vacate the police box in Bienville Square); three different men have approached me and another downtown business owner begging for our money as we were talking in front of our stores; and just this morning I arrived to my restaurant only to have to clean up the cardboard bedding that some homeless person left in my doorway from the night before.
They are homeless. They have lost everything in life, including their self respect and the respect that they may once have had for others. They have absolutely nothing to lose by committing the disturbances and petty crimes that they commit within our community, and so much to gain: if they are arrested, they get a nice place to sleep for the night, out of the weather, and a meal to eat before they are released the next day.
That which 15 Place does for the homeless doesn't seem to be helping them much at all, and it really doesn't help this business community. I see the same people using the services of 15 Place these days that used their services when I opened my restaurant seven years ago. All 15 Place really does is act as a magnet drawing the homeless to the area. When they feed the same homeless people day-after-day and year-after-year, they send a silent message to them that they do not have to find jobs and become responsible members of our community. In the process of doing so, they insult each and every working man and woman by silently saying that we are fools to work for a living when they are ready and willing to give us food for free.
For free? Of course. For as long as they can encourage people to use their services (even people that are not really homeless at all) then they can produce records which they submit to grant-issuing organizations so that they can qualify for more money.
An organization that was truly interested in helping the homeless would limit them to the number of times within a given year that they could take advatage of their services. Doing so would send a loud and clear message that help is available, but nobody gets a free ride through life. This would help the less fortunate in dire times of need while simultaneously encouraging them to seek gainful employment before their benefits within the organization run out. And this would echo a resounding message along the corridors that homeless people trek from state to state that Mobile really does care about them, but this is not the place to plant roots in unless you are willing to become productive within our community. |
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Category : News and Opinion
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Will Mayor Jones steal your land next?
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| By : Roy_Pope on 14 Apr 2008 at 12:12:03 pm
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It's a real shame, what Mayor Sam Jones is trying to do to the people of Mobile. The only greater shame is that the people of Mobile are sitting idle and letting him get away with his shenanigans.
First, Sam twisted and perverted voting lines in west Mobile in order to "grab" land via annexation. He practically purchased votes on the annexation from the Mobile Terrace community and others by giving the people free smoke detectors and making promises of paved and repaired roadways.
Sortly after his annexation scheme worked, Sam moved the fire department from the area that voted against him and placed it out near the Mobile Regional Airport. Why, you might ask. All I can guess in this is that (a) it was a means of punishing those who voted against the annexation while (b) attempting to purchase the upcoming annexation of Mobile Regional Airport into the City of Mobile. If that is the case, then it worked like a charm - the Mobile Regional Airport annexed into the City of Mobile shortly after Sam Jones announced that he was moving the fire department out there from Hitt Road.
It wasn't too long after that when the news broke that the City of Mobile was going to get into the business of taking over people's property when they become late on their payments of property taxes. That's right! The City of Mobile is now in the business of grabbing land from those who are too poverty-stricken to pay their property tax bills.
The news has now come about that Sam Jones is trying to use the power of eminent domain to literally STEAL several parcels of land in the Mobile terrace area so that he can build a park. He had promised the people of Mobile Terrace a park in exchange for their votes in the annexation scheme that he ran and won, and now he is making good on that promise. The only problem is that in order to make good on his promise of a park, Mayor Sam Jones is going to steal property from the very people he pretended to be trying to help earlier.
A PARK! How does that benefit the good of the people? How does it increase tax revenues for the city, or improve the common welfare of the community? All it is going to do is produce a tax burden on the city in way of maintenance and insurance expenses, provide a marketplace for the distribution of illegal norcotics, and present itself as a hunting grounds for paedophiles on the prowl for underpriviledged children that they can take advantage of.
What a shame, indeed. And, to top it all off, the newspaper reported that Sam Jones intends to make more use of the power of eminent domain to steal other people's properties as well throughout his term in office.
Looking back at all of this, I see only one thing about our mayor, Sam Jones. In my opinion (and we're all legally protected in voicing our opinions), he's as crooked as any snake in the grass could ever be. He's a land-grabber, and he's not ashamed to steal the lands of the poor and needy in order to make a name for himself.
Once again in my opinion, I say that it is way past time that the people of the City of Mobile speak up and speak out against this crooked man we've mistakenly elected into office, to tell that we have had enough, and to remove him from the office of The Mayor. If we don't act soon, who knows what is going to happen next. For all you know, Sammy-boy might have his eye on the parcel of property you live on. |
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Category : News and Opinion
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