thou shalt deny me thrice.and deny God and Jerusalem, they did...
source:
GOPICYMI YouTube Channel
Thursday, September 6, 2012
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
The First Four Years Are The Hardest… « mikeroweWORKS
Dear Governor Romney,
My name is Mike Rowe and I own a small company in California called mikeroweWORKS. Currently, mikeroweWORKS is trying to close the country’s
skills gap by changing the way Americans feel about Work. (I know, right? Ambitious.)
Anyway, this Labor Day is our 4th anniversary, and I’m commemorating the occasion with an open letter to you. If you read the whole thing, I’ll vote for you in November.
First things first. mikeroweWORKS grew out of a TV show called Dirty Jobs. If by some chance you are not glued to The Discovery Channel every Wednesday at 10pm, allow me to visually introduce myself. That’s me on the right, preparing to do something dirty.
When Dirty Jobs premiered back in 2003, critics called the show “a calamity of exploding toilets and misadventures in animal husbandry.” They weren’t exactly wrong. But mostly, Dirty Jobs was an unscripted celebration of hard work and skilled labor. It still is. Every week, we highlight regular people who do the kind of jobs most people go out of their way to avoid. My role on the show is that of a “perpetual apprentice.” In that capacity I have completed over three hundred different jobs, visited all fifty states, and worked in every major industry.
Though schizophrenic and void of any actual qualifications, my resume looks pretty impressive, and when our economy officially crapped the bed in 2008, I was perfectly positioned to weigh in on a variety of serious topics. A reporter from The Wall Street Journal called to ask what I thought about the “counter-intuitive correlation between rising unemployment and the growing shortage of skilled labor.” CNBC wanted my take on outsourcing. Fox News wanted my opinions on manufacturing and infrastructure. And CNN wanted to chat about currency valuations, free trade, and just about every other work-related problem under the sun.
In each case, I shared my theory that most of these “problems” were in fact symptoms of something more fundamental – a change in the way Americans viewed hard work and skilled labor. That’s the essence of what I’ve heard from the hundreds of men and women I’ve worked with on Dirty Jobs. Pig farmers, electricians, plumbers, bridge painters, jam makers, blacksmiths, brewers, coal miners, carpenters, crab fisherman, oil drillers…they all tell me the same thing over and over, again and again – our country has become emotionally disconnected from an essential part of our workforce. We are no longer impressed with cheap electricity, paved roads, and indoor plumbing. We take our infrastructure for granted, and the people who build it.
Today, we can see the consequences of this disconnect in any number of areas, but none is more obvious than the growing skills gap. Even as unemployment remains sky high, a whole category of vital occupations has fallen out of favor, and companies struggle to find workers with the necessary skills. The causes seem clear. We have embraced a ridiculously narrow view of education. Any kind of training or study that does not come with a four-year degree is now deemed “alternative.” Many viable careers once aspired to are now seen as “vocational consolation prizes,” and many of the jobs this current administration has tried to “create” over the last four years are the same jobs that parents and teachers actively discourage kids from pursuing. (I always thought there something ill-fated about the promise of three million “shovel ready jobs” made to a society that no longer encourages people to pick up a shovel.)
Which brings me to my purpose in writing. On Labor Day of 2008, the fans of Dirty Jobs helped me launch this website. mikeroweWORKS.com began as a Trade Resource Center designed to connect kids with careers in the skilled trades. It has since evolved into a non-profit foundation – a kind of PR Campaign for hard work and skilled labor. Thanks to a number of strategic partnerships, I have been able to promote a dialogue around these issues with a bit more credibility than my previous resume allowed. I’ve spoken to Congress (twice) about the need to confront the underlying stigmas and stereotypes that surround these kinds of jobs. Alabama and Georgia have both used mikeroweWORKS to launch their own statewide technical recruitment campaigns, and I’m proud to be the spokesman for both initiatives. I also work closely with Caterpillar, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, and Master Lock, as well as The Boy Scouts of America and The Future Farmers of America. To date, the mikeroweWORKS Foundation has raised over a million dollars for trade scholarships. It’s modest by many standards, but I think we’re making a difference.
Certainly, we need more jobs, and you were clear about that in Tampa. But the Skills Gap proves that we need something else too. We need people who see opportunity where opportunity exists. We need enthusiasm for careers that have been overlooked and underappreciated by society at large. We need to have a really big national conversation about what we value in the workforce, and if I can be of help to you in that regard, I am at your service – assuming of course, you find yourself in a new address early next year.
To be clear, mikeroweWORKS has no political agenda. I am not an apologist for Organized Labor or for Management. mikeroweWORKS is concerned only with encouraging a larger appreciation for skilled labor, and supporting those kids who are willing to learn a skill.
Good luck in November. And thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Mike Rowe
PS. In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I wrote a similar letter to President Obama. Of course, that was four years ago, and since I never heard back, I believe proper etiquette allows me to extend the same offer to you now. I figure if I post it here, the odds are better that someone you know might send it along to your attention.
source:
The First Four Years Are The Hardest… « mikeroweWORKS
My name is Mike Rowe and I own a small company in California called mikeroweWORKS. Currently, mikeroweWORKS is trying to close the country’s
skills gap by changing the way Americans feel about Work. (I know, right? Ambitious.)Anyway, this Labor Day is our 4th anniversary, and I’m commemorating the occasion with an open letter to you. If you read the whole thing, I’ll vote for you in November.
First things first. mikeroweWORKS grew out of a TV show called Dirty Jobs. If by some chance you are not glued to The Discovery Channel every Wednesday at 10pm, allow me to visually introduce myself. That’s me on the right, preparing to do something dirty.
When Dirty Jobs premiered back in 2003, critics called the show “a calamity of exploding toilets and misadventures in animal husbandry.” They weren’t exactly wrong. But mostly, Dirty Jobs was an unscripted celebration of hard work and skilled labor. It still is. Every week, we highlight regular people who do the kind of jobs most people go out of their way to avoid. My role on the show is that of a “perpetual apprentice.” In that capacity I have completed over three hundred different jobs, visited all fifty states, and worked in every major industry.
Though schizophrenic and void of any actual qualifications, my resume looks pretty impressive, and when our economy officially crapped the bed in 2008, I was perfectly positioned to weigh in on a variety of serious topics. A reporter from The Wall Street Journal called to ask what I thought about the “counter-intuitive correlation between rising unemployment and the growing shortage of skilled labor.” CNBC wanted my take on outsourcing. Fox News wanted my opinions on manufacturing and infrastructure. And CNN wanted to chat about currency valuations, free trade, and just about every other work-related problem under the sun.
In each case, I shared my theory that most of these “problems” were in fact symptoms of something more fundamental – a change in the way Americans viewed hard work and skilled labor. That’s the essence of what I’ve heard from the hundreds of men and women I’ve worked with on Dirty Jobs. Pig farmers, electricians, plumbers, bridge painters, jam makers, blacksmiths, brewers, coal miners, carpenters, crab fisherman, oil drillers…they all tell me the same thing over and over, again and again – our country has become emotionally disconnected from an essential part of our workforce. We are no longer impressed with cheap electricity, paved roads, and indoor plumbing. We take our infrastructure for granted, and the people who build it.
Today, we can see the consequences of this disconnect in any number of areas, but none is more obvious than the growing skills gap. Even as unemployment remains sky high, a whole category of vital occupations has fallen out of favor, and companies struggle to find workers with the necessary skills. The causes seem clear. We have embraced a ridiculously narrow view of education. Any kind of training or study that does not come with a four-year degree is now deemed “alternative.” Many viable careers once aspired to are now seen as “vocational consolation prizes,” and many of the jobs this current administration has tried to “create” over the last four years are the same jobs that parents and teachers actively discourage kids from pursuing. (I always thought there something ill-fated about the promise of three million “shovel ready jobs” made to a society that no longer encourages people to pick up a shovel.)
Which brings me to my purpose in writing. On Labor Day of 2008, the fans of Dirty Jobs helped me launch this website. mikeroweWORKS.com began as a Trade Resource Center designed to connect kids with careers in the skilled trades. It has since evolved into a non-profit foundation – a kind of PR Campaign for hard work and skilled labor. Thanks to a number of strategic partnerships, I have been able to promote a dialogue around these issues with a bit more credibility than my previous resume allowed. I’ve spoken to Congress (twice) about the need to confront the underlying stigmas and stereotypes that surround these kinds of jobs. Alabama and Georgia have both used mikeroweWORKS to launch their own statewide technical recruitment campaigns, and I’m proud to be the spokesman for both initiatives. I also work closely with Caterpillar, Ford, Kimberly-Clark, and Master Lock, as well as The Boy Scouts of America and The Future Farmers of America. To date, the mikeroweWORKS Foundation has raised over a million dollars for trade scholarships. It’s modest by many standards, but I think we’re making a difference.
Certainly, we need more jobs, and you were clear about that in Tampa. But the Skills Gap proves that we need something else too. We need people who see opportunity where opportunity exists. We need enthusiasm for careers that have been overlooked and underappreciated by society at large. We need to have a really big national conversation about what we value in the workforce, and if I can be of help to you in that regard, I am at your service – assuming of course, you find yourself in a new address early next year.
To be clear, mikeroweWORKS has no political agenda. I am not an apologist for Organized Labor or for Management. mikeroweWORKS is concerned only with encouraging a larger appreciation for skilled labor, and supporting those kids who are willing to learn a skill.
Good luck in November. And thanks for your time.
Sincerely,
Mike Rowe
PS. In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that I wrote a similar letter to President Obama. Of course, that was four years ago, and since I never heard back, I believe proper etiquette allows me to extend the same offer to you now. I figure if I post it here, the odds are better that someone you know might send it along to your attention.
source:
The First Four Years Are The Hardest… « mikeroweWORKS
please sir, i want some more
IT'S THE ECONOMY, STUPID!
i'm sorry, but we don't want more of the same, do we?... it baffles me that the big picture isn't seen by some very intelligent people... they sure think those trees look pretty, but there's a forest out there, too.
Mike Huckabee recently posted the following:
so, what is a bank to do with toxic loans?... well, sell them, of course.
but who would buy them?... investors, of course.
and why would they buy them?... because they can be traded on the market, speculated against, even short-sales... they were high risk, so they could be bought inexpensively... and if mortgages were (mostly) paid on time, investors made big money... but if they weren't paid, investors were out only a fraction of their investment.
better still, you could bet on them failing, drive the price down, buy low, and get bigger returns... Stock Market 101 = "Buy Low; Sell High".
now, back the banks with federal insurance, and there is no risk should it collapse... great idea... idiots.
and the final nail, offer "No Documentation" and "Stated Income" loans... or "Interest Only" loans... someone with poor credit and slight income can get a loan without any repercussion against them... it's not like they paid a down payment, anyways!... the loans go belly-up, the banks foreclose, they're left holding property when no one is buying, they lose money... well, that is until the government bails them out.
HERE'S THE POINT:
the people who put this all in motion, from deregulating the banking industry to backing toxic assets to requiring loosened standards on housing mortgages... these are the people in the White House and have control of the Senate.
they believe that everyone has the right to own a home... everyone has a right to go to college... everyone has a right to everything.
and they believe it's the government's place to provide all of the above.
THIS is who they are... THIS is who is running things... THESE are the people want four more years.
source:
Mike Huckabee's Facebook post
Obama’s African-American clients got coupons, not cash - 09/03/2012 - The Daily Caller
Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank
i'm sorry, but we don't want more of the same, do we?... it baffles me that the big picture isn't seen by some very intelligent people... they sure think those trees look pretty, but there's a forest out there, too.
Mike Huckabee recently posted the following:
[T]he Daily Caller revealed some previously unpublished court information about a landmark case that many consider the fuse that set off the sub-prime mortgage boom and eventually, the economic meltdown. It was a 1995 discrimination lawsuit against Citibank, on behalf of a group of African-Americans who claimed they couldn’t get loans because of their race. It was part of a coordinated effort at the time by progressive groups. The banks didn’t want to be sued or accused of racism, so they loosened requirements for credit history and down payments.at one point, the Daily Caller (and Huckabee, by proxy) attempt to tie a young Barack Obama to the sub-prime mortgage disaster... it's a stretch, by any reasonable person... but there's a bigger truth that the DC and Huck don't emphasise... it isn't that Obama was involved... it's the idea of forcing sub-prime mortgages on banks that don't want them.
so, what is a bank to do with toxic loans?... well, sell them, of course.
but who would buy them?... investors, of course.
and why would they buy them?... because they can be traded on the market, speculated against, even short-sales... they were high risk, so they could be bought inexpensively... and if mortgages were (mostly) paid on time, investors made big money... but if they weren't paid, investors were out only a fraction of their investment.
better still, you could bet on them failing, drive the price down, buy low, and get bigger returns... Stock Market 101 = "Buy Low; Sell High".
now, back the banks with federal insurance, and there is no risk should it collapse... great idea... idiots.
and the final nail, offer "No Documentation" and "Stated Income" loans... or "Interest Only" loans... someone with poor credit and slight income can get a loan without any repercussion against them... it's not like they paid a down payment, anyways!... the loans go belly-up, the banks foreclose, they're left holding property when no one is buying, they lose money... well, that is until the government bails them out.
HERE'S THE POINT:
the people who put this all in motion, from deregulating the banking industry to backing toxic assets to requiring loosened standards on housing mortgages... these are the people in the White House and have control of the Senate.
they believe that everyone has the right to own a home... everyone has a right to go to college... everyone has a right to everything.
and they believe it's the government's place to provide all of the above.
THIS is who they are... THIS is who is running things... THESE are the people want four more years.
source:
Mike Huckabee's Facebook post
Obama’s African-American clients got coupons, not cash - 09/03/2012 - The Daily Caller
Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank
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