Fuzzy Wuzzy Hope and Change

I woke up this morning with an old childhood jingle running through my brain. Everybody's surely heard it before:


Fuzzy Wuzzy was a bear.
Fuzzy Wuzzy had no hair.
Fuzzy Wuzzy wasn't fuzzy, was he?


I interpreted this as a message about the promises of "hope and change" that hypnotized enough people to elect Mr. Obama in 2008. His promises of transparency in government have been broken and his "hope and change" was just "more of the same". 


The engineer of our national engine has no idea how to steer and we're headed for a trainwreck.  The House could save us if they'd have the backbone to grab ahold of the brake. I believe they all know the wreck is going to occur, but are playing a game of musical chairs to see who catches the blame. Who's really to blame?  The people who voted for this worthless crowd of fools. You, me, everybody. We've allowed politicians to gradually expand the power of the government over the people until the weight is so great that a financial collapse is 99% inevitable.


I sincerely believe that our only chance to survive this disaster is to "reboot" the system and start over with the "constitution" as our compass. The captain of our ship should be the man who has consistently told Americans the truth, even though the truth is not very popular in Washington. If Ron Paul had been elected President in 2008 our situation would be significantly improved over what we are now enduring, and 2112 will probably be our last chance to get our collective heads out of the sand and put a principled person in the presidency.  


The rest of the fuzzy wuzzies have no hair.

Ding Dong, the Witch is Dead

Tonight I hear that Osama Bin Laden has been martyred by the U.S. military in Afghanistan. President Obama, in his speech tonight, claiming credit for the killing, says this represents a great victory in the international war against terrorism.  One might argue that Bin Laden might have lost his last battle,  but won the war by destroying the U.S.

After 10 years of searching and $10+ trillions of dollars spent in that search we have finally run down and killed one old man tied to a dialysis machine. An excellent example of government efficiency. Would make the old 19th century Apache Indian fighters proud.  It only took them 50 years to run down and kill a couple of hundred starving Apaches.

Now that Bin Laden is resting in the arms of Allah and the fabled virgins, he is probably smiling as he looks down on an American landscape that has been stripped of its personal liberties and freedoms, with an economy devastated by unemployment and government over-regulation, and a society on the verge of chaos once the value of the dollar collapses because the federal reserve is desperately trying to paper over government debt and deficit spending with newly printed dollars backed by nothing but the faith and good credit of the U.S. government.

Is there any hope for our country? Well, yes and no. We might save ourselves by insisting the government stop trying to be the world's policeman. Close our 900 military bases around the world, bring our military home. We could decide to sharply reduce the size and scope of the government bureaucracy. Stop subsidizing and over-regulating our economy. Give up on the idea of the Nanny State. Abandon the concept that people have "rights" to government handouts while the government has the "obligation" to provide for every deficiency so that everyone can be "equal".  Protect and defend Freedom and Liberty allow the people to be responsible for their own lives. Put an end to Corporate Welfare and the culture of the Special Interest/Lobbying and influence peddling in our government. Can it happen? Yes. Will it happen? Probably Not.

Anyway, Bin Laden is dead and a lot of folks are glad that he's gone. But to characterize it as a great victory seems to me to be just more of the same old shameless hypocrisy that governments are famous for. Will Bin Laden spend eternity in heaven or hell? Guess it depends on which religion you believe in. Christians will be certain he'll go to hell and the Muslims might see him headed in the other direction. That's the problem with religions. 

The World's On Fire

2011 really started out with a bang. The Middle East has erupted in popular protests and demonstrations that who knows where or how will turn out. I have a couple of other blogs, but found that I needed another one for the placement of comments about the "hell-in-a-handbasket" direction that the U.S. and the world in general seem to be taking. My Holler Log is designed to be that vehicle. 


So what are we to make of the growing movements of people taking to the streets to express their dissatisfaction with governments? Here in the U.S. it's one of our constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. 

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Bill of Rights: Article 3

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

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Americans across the country have been taking to the streets in increasing numbers in the grassroots organization known as the Tea Party. They opposed the growing government intervention into their lives in the form of an ill-conceived health-care program that was being devised by a socialistic democratic party and president with a veto-proof majority.  When the Congress recessed in the summer of 2009, I attended a town-hall meeting with our freshman Congressman, Harry Teague, in Alamogordo, New Mexico. I was pleased to see so many of my neighbors were also there to hear what Mr. Teague had to say. 

After a brief statement announcing some pork barrel spending in the area, our cowardly congressman refused to take any questions from the crowd, instead offering to meeting with everyone individually in an adjacent private office.  He departed Alamogordo, leaving an angry nest of angry constituents behind ... constituents who didn't forget when it came time to vote for his reelection in Nov. 2010.  He was turned out of office along with every other Democrat on the ballot.

The federal healh-care program now has been declared unconstitutional in federal court and more lawsuits have been filed by numerous state governments and individuals. And, to add insult to injury, over 900 waivers have been granted to unions and corporations, exempting them from provisions of the bill that, according to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, congress would have to pass the bill to know what was in it. 


People are getting weary of this kind of rough-shod government that puts special interests ahead of the constitutional rights of its citizens. Combine that with rising food and energy prices and you are dealing with a slow burn that can and will erupt into protests given the slightest additional provocation by the government. 

This weekend federal employees union members (as well as out-of-state "supporters") are protesting in Madison, WI because a state government, facing bankruptcy, wants teachers and other government workers to contribute to their own health care and retirement programs.  While I support any american citizen's right to exercise their constitutional rights, I am also a member of the growing majority of  ordinary americans who recognize the problems inherent with government employees' unions, who have traditionally been courted by the politicians in return for political contributions that have ultimately been paid for by taxpayers who cannot get these sweetheart deals. Benefits that were promised by politicians who now are finding it impossible to live up to. We are on the brink of a national and global systemic financial meltdown. We are going to be tested, and soon.  

Today the Tea Party has organized a counter-rally in Wisconsin to support the governor's efforts to balance his state budget, as well as call for fiscal responsibility in all layers of government. This will undoubtably provide some interesting news tonight. 

The following link provides a European perspective on the worldwide demonstrations and the global-decline of U.S. influence:

(10) Washington has thus demonstrated a complete lack of preparation, then obvious indecision, confirming not only the end of all US leadership internationally, but the acceleration of a process of paralysis at the heart of US government. To understand the importance of the event, remember that Egypt is one of the countries in the world that has been the most directly funded and supervised by the United States since the late 1970s. Moreover, the New York Times of 02/12/2011 summarized the situation very well, whilst trying to present it as a strategy whereas it’s only a lack of strategy, describing the management of the crisis by Barack Obama as the "straddle", a market technique of trying to cover both sides when one feels that something important will happen but with no idea of what direction it will take.

http://www.leap2020.eu/geab-n-52-is-available-global-systemic-crisis-world-geopolitical-breakup-end-of-2011-fall-of-the-petro-dollar-wall-and_a5927.html