posted May 17, 2008
Every once in a while something will happen that dredges up memories long thought forgotten. A number of these have occurred the past several days that have caused an old song to roll over and over in my mind. It will not leave. Not the whole song, just lines from the same old Byrds song in a disorganized whirl.
"Woke up this morning, I was feeling quite weird" probably because all of our wallets are under siege by our elected officials...from the feds on down to the dog catcher. It was 47 degrees F in Chattanooga this morning, the middle of May. So much for the global warming that congress seems dead set on implementing, and increasing all of our costs in the process.
This week the federal boys and girls put polar bears on the endangered species list even though their population has increased by over 400% in the last 35 or so years. The federal boys killed half a dozen sea lions in traps because they were eating salmon...like sea lions do, and are supposed to do. They stopped filling the strategic oil hinkiebob because gasoline is approaching 4 bucks a gallon, but won't allow the oil companies to drill for new and known sources such as ANWAR, the Gulf of Mexico, or any of the other known domestic sources. But Sen. McCain is going to fix everything...as he pokes conservatives in the eye.
"Hey, Mr. Spaceman," I mean Mr. Congressman, I don't want to go along on your ride.
Some of us are old enough to remember the days before there were public address systems to page people. It wasn't uncommon to hear someone walking around a public building hollering "Mr. Jones...Mr. Jones...looking for Mr. Jones." Dear Aunt Shirley is the youngest of my late father's siblings. She was the wild one back in those days and I can still see her zipping around the curves on Browntown Road in front of Grandpaw's house in that white Fairlane convertible of hers, the one with a red interior. She was always quick with a little ditty, much to the chagrin of our parents. "Twinkle, twinkle, little snot...thought I'd eat you, but I'll not...now you stay up there, don't you cry...you'll be a booger by and by." "Drink Dr. Pepper at 2, 4, and 10...Squirt at 6 and 8". I haven't seen Squirt in years. "What does Smokey the bear say? Don't mess in the woods. Why? Because it stinks." Of course, when she became an old married lady and had a daughter of her own she didn't appreciate us kids passing those little ditties on.
Don't mess in the woods. That would be good advice for many of our politicians these days. What they're doing really does stink.
They call themselves leaders, but those who truly are leaders get denigrated and belittled. It seems some would rather have a karaoke bar patron in office than someone who is actually doing his best to be a good steward of his constituents' tax dollars.
Some are really funny too. It's especially interesting to see them doing the backstroke when they get caught trying to slip one over on the taxpayers while they're trying to take care of major campaign contributors. It's one thing to contribute to one party or the other. That's using one's resources to support a personal ideology. Major contributions to both parties is nothing more than telling both "you're going to owe me and one day I'm going to collect." I didn't even know Bo could swim, much less do the backstroke...but his stroke is more than a little awkward, as evidenced by the obvious tension in his voice while denying any knowledge of a bill that would allow a private corporation to collect a tax for what should be an investment of their own funds. One must wonder what he's ever done for the small businesses in his district...other than tell them they cannot perform a perfectly legal activity such as smoking in their own building, that is.
Poor Bo, the "I'll vote for a 21 cent tax but 43 cents is too much" advocate of public/private "partnerships." That's, like, when the public takes all the risk and the private corporation receives all the profit, if there is any. I wonder if he understands that public/private partnerships originated back in pre WWII Germany, or that the hazard of them is that one business receives all of the benefit over some others...eventually choking out those others and leaving only those who are among the "in crowd." One might additionally ask those same questions of his accomplice over in the lower house of the legislature.
One must wonder what would have happened if the current deficit of Tennessee tax receipts had not occurred until next year. Would we be facing another tax increase...or even an income tax? Mr. Davis Lundy has advocated such things be done immediately after an election so the tax payers will forget about it by the next election. Some will not...forget, that is.
Is the Chattanoogan Hotel and Convention Center operating in the black yet? Operating in the black means that not only is it bringing in more than is required to operate, but to pay for debt service and profit on top of the basic expenses of keeping the doors open.
Republican Principle #3 - Government exists to protect the freedom of each individual, not to restrict it.
Republican Principle #8 - Government must maintain sound money and reasonable economy. The rights of life and liberty are meaningless if citizens are deprived of their property through excessive taxation, inflation and government waste.
~Source: Republican National Committee, 1999
Last year our State Legislature spent every dime of the revenue surplus, especially the Republicans, so "those democrats would spend it right." How many people are going to suffer now because of that? Everyone was sitting in Fat City when we had beaucoups (that's French, means bunches) of cash in the State Treasury. What now, when our legislature has spent it all?
But they're leaders...
Yes, they're leaders. One must wonder what differences would be if more of them had ever had to make a payroll, perhaps having to occasionally forgo their own paycheck in order to pay their employees. Perhaps then we would have "conservatives" who understand that being a conservative means more than espousing opposition to abortion, that it means forcing government to stay out of the lives of citizens...the governed.
$4.5 million operating deficit at the Chattanooga Housing Authority. Now there's a fine example of fiscal conservatism and responsibility. Who was watching the hen house on that one? Who picks up the tab for that? What ever happens to government functionaries who perpetrate such a fraud upon the tax payers? But they'll try to bust any business owner for lighting up a Marlboro in his own business, a business he's scratched and clawed to start and build from nothing more than a dream.
Yes, they've made a mess. And it stinks.
Looking for Mr. Jones...Mr. Jones...calling Mr. C. O. Jones...
I need a cigar...and chocolate.
Royce E. Burrage, Jr.
Royce@OfficiallyChapped.org
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