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. 

*************************************

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.

***************************************

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