I've lived long enough that I fear nothing and yet around me I see people who surround me who shiver in their boots about everything, whether it is real or not. Remember that nobody is getting out of this place alive. When you cower in the face of death, you empower those who create the fear of death. I'm not saying that I am suicidal. I'd love to live to be an old man, but not with the boot of authority stomping me in the face as in George Orwell's book "1984."
I am not here to provide sunshine and lollipops. I am one person that has been constantly stomped on by the system my entire life. I would be lying if I said that it didn't make me angry, but I use that anger as a constructive force. My grandmother always said to me that this is a mean world and at 44 years old I know what she means.
I have been working on this stuff going into the fifth year pretty soon and it is causing me anxiety. I have suffered from panic attacks in the past to the point where they were nearly debilitating. For physical reasons, I probably need to slow down on the output of this blog because sometimes I dream about where we are headed and it isn't good folks.
The people who read this blog care. I truly believe that. But lets get down to it. There are so many losers out here that the tide of idiots and lackies can be overwhelming. I am being consumed, because there are people that are so closed minded that they think that the message that I am preaching is way out there only because they are ill-informed. And I wonder if the people who understand the message and what I express, even have the guts to support me and inform people they know and create the chain that needs to be created.
I'm reading some of the Hickory Daily Record's latest articles and I am sorry, but I am truly ashamed of what they purport to be news. I'll be frank. I don't like some of Congressman Patrick McHenry's ties to the Megabanks and the donations they have given him. I am not even going to qualify that statement or give him excuses, because as I told the Congressman, we can't fix our economy until we stop Financial Institutions such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan-Chase from doing what they are doing. I want these banks to be reined in, but the Hickory Daily Record doesn't have a freaking clue about any of the paramount issues that we face related to banking.
They have made it an issue to go after the Congressman over two issues of so little merit, that it is an embarrassment to even bring them up. First, there was the issue of Congressman McHenry stating in Politico that in the upcoming redistricting that there would be another minority ward and that there would be more Republican districts because of the census and the way that the state is politically proportioned.
Here is the Link to the article - Race politics hit North Carolina redistricting. The HDR's stand on this issue is nonsensical. What Patrick McHenry states in that article is straight forward, which I honestly find to be refreshing. To claim that he is somehow being racially insensitive is beyond ridiculous. You look at the numbers and look at the statistics and tell me where he is wrong.
Then this weekend they put out an editorial in which they went after Congressman McHenry for having an "argument" with Elizabeth Warren who serves as Assistant to the President and Special Advisor to the Secretary of the Treasury on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. She is basically another Czar that was created last year and her position is to snoop into your personal bank records and guess what folks, she works for the Treasury Department under Tax-in-Thief Tim Geithner whose Treasury Department has been usurped by the Federal Reserve and the New York banking cartel (Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Citi, BofA, Wells Fargo). A position that "had" to be created, because the banks have borrowed (stolen) trillions of taxpayer dollars from the public treasury, which caused this economic debacle we are presently in.
Mrs. Warren was up to her eyeballs in the administration of TARP. What he is trying to question her about is the unfettered power she has been given in this newly created position. Like other Obama administration officials, she believes she is above congressional inquiry. She is trying to run out the clock and leave. She doesn't want to answer the questions.
The Record construes this to be a squabble. I believe that it was a disagreement and it may have been caused by a misunderstanding, but who thinks that Bureaucratic Officials aren't late to meetings all the time and don't have to rearrange schedules all the time.
And The HDR, then goes on to point to Facebook and Twitter accounts that have been inundated by supporters of Mrs. Warren. Well whoopty-do. There are organizations that look to pounce on situations like this all the time. It happens with organizations that associate with groups from all sectors of the political spectrum. George Soros has several groups that are dedicated to these e-mail/message board bombs and Newt Gingrich's American Solutions organization does this same thing.
Then, they go into a diatribe about Congressman McHenry being rude. Watch the video below of the incident. Is he really being what anyone would term rude? Then they question McHenry's statesmanship, by stating that "public discourse has degenerated into vitriolic he-said, she-said. This episode added more fuel to that fire." And thus inferring that our Congressional Representative was in some way over the top in requesting that Mrs. Warren finish out her Congressional testimony, which would have only taken ten more minutes. I guess he can be faulted for not addressing her as "You imminence" or "Your Highness."
The Hound thinks that what we need to do in this nation is lose all of this subservient patronage of elected officials and bureaucrats. These people aren't smarter than us or better than us. The problem in this country is that we don't have too much debate. It is that we have too little. The problem is that in the end all we are seeing is political games and very little substance, very little passion, very little principle, and basically no leadership.
The problem that we have is that our local newspaper doesn't even give issues that are happening in our own community more than a gloss over and most of the people of the community don't seem to care about important issues any way. The HDR website is (by far, no comparison)the worst news website I have ever come across. They have destroyed the ability to obtain their news under a fair electronic marketplace, because they want to pigeon-hole people into buying the paper edition and are scared of the electronic business model. That is a very bad move for the future of their viability.
As far as content (or lack thereof), I know of a Conflict of Interest story that would directly show how local elected officials throw kinks into regulatory governance that directly effects their personal interests. The Hickory Daily Record had this story laid in their lap several months ago and it has done nothing but collect dust. And the people behind this story want our local paper to step up to the plate this time, but it seems the HDR would rather run a story (the McHenry stories)that they obviously haven't really researched. I don't even think they have seen the video of the incident and they just pieced together the story from the New York Times and Washington Post's website.
I have no problem with Congressman McHenry on any of these issues. I also have seen him ask some very tough questions related to TARP and the other bailouts that have happened over the last two years. Can we say the same about the Hickory Daily Record? Can we ask why they only go after Congressman McHenry and we barely hear a peep about our other local and State officials?
Where is their editorial about the Ridgeview and George Ivey Pools? Where is their editorial about the overzealousness of local officials going after Drinking Establishments and their permits and licenses? What about the mismanagement of our local airport? Where is their editorial related to conflicts of interest happening related to zoning and code enforcement issues?
There is plenty to talk about with the local Hickory Metro scene, but little time or space is ever devoted to the local issues that truly impact our lives. Does Congressman McHenry's disagreement about scheduling with Mrs. Warren really have an impact on our lives here in Hickory? I think not. Does the Record's abandonment of the current local issues of the day have an impact on our lives? I most certainly think so.
