How E-mail Works – THE IRS IS LYING

Posted on June 22, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

photo credit (AP/Carolyn Kaster)

Many of you already know the nuts-and-bolts of how e-mail works so you understand that Lois Lerner, the IRS, and the Obama Administration are caught in yet another bald-faced lie when they say her e-mail files are missing. If you are in this category, you may skip this article and move on to something productive.

I did not intend to write about the IRS scandal because I thought the “big lie” is just so obvious that everybody will see right through it and justice will prevail. But the controversy goes on. The corruptocrats are betting they can get away with their contempt of congress, the law, and the taxpayers because there are still enough people who (a) don’t care and (b) don’t understand. I can’t do much about (a), but I can help with (b).

Let me explain in layman’s terms why it is impossible for Lerner’s IRS e-mails to be lost forever.

Let’s say Yahoo is your mail service provider. When you write an e-mail and press the “send” key, the e-mail file goes through the internet to Yahoo’s mail server (a large computer system specifically designated for handling e-mails). A copy of this file is then routed through other internet computers to the recipient you specified. The file remains on Yahoo’s mail server disk drive, and is also copied to other Yahoo drives for backup protection, permanent storage, and to free up space on the main mail server. Yahoo keeps many copies of every e-mail you send, and they are retained forever.

Conversely, when someone sends an e-mail to your “@yahoo.com” address, Yahoo’s mail server forwards a copy of the e-mail file to your computer, and saves the file on several of its own disk drives.

You might be thinking “Yeah, but what if I delete the e-mail?” Well, it won’t show up in your list of e-mails any more, but trust me – it’s still there on Yahoo’s drives. There is considerable controversy right now over who owns these e-mail files, whether they can be processed and the information from them sold, and whether the government should be allowed access to them. Do not assume that the content of your e-mails will not be seen by other eyes, or that when you delete an e-mail, it is gone forever. The big e-mail providers will never destroy any data that has profit potential, and that includes your e-mails.

The process is the same for government computers. Just change the “@yahoo.com” to “@irs.gov”. The federal government’s mail servers have multiple backup copies of every e-mail received or sent by everybody who works there. And outside mail providers have copies of the same e-mail files that they processed on the way to and from their mail clients.

One IRS spokesman said that e-mails are only stored on the federal government’s mail servers for six months and are then deleted. This contradicts the government’s own policy, which states that the retention requirement for most e-mail records is permanent. Further, it instructs employees:

Once you determine that an e-mail message is an official record, you should ensure that it is kept in an approved file system that satisfies the requirements for recordkeeping set out in points 1 to 5 above. You may, of course, retain your personal copy in your personal e-mail, but you must ensure that the record is placed in an approved file system.

The government contracts with a private data security firm to provide and manage the file backup system. The defense that Lois Lerner lost her e-mail to a “hard drive crash” on her personal computer ten days after her department was implicated in the scandal, is moot. And how can we be expected to believe that e-mails from six other key IRS employees were lost at about the same time? How many times does lightning strike the same spot?

Where is the DOJ? Where is the FBI? Where are the terminations, if not criminal prosecutions? This is an outright, in-your-face assault on the taxpaying citizens of the US. We can’t allow government employees, and the elected officials who direct them, to break the law and cover their tracks without repercussions. When will we say enough is enough?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Lerner is not the first person to have problems with the mail . . .

Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone.
We had a quarrel, a lover’s spat
I write I’m sorry but my letter keeps coming back!

Elvis Presley – Return to Sender

Another “BFD” for Obama – How Many More BFDs Can We Take?

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

smug_obama I have reported to you Rockers many times that I am on the President’s mailing list. I get an e-mail almost every day, usually just to ask me for five dollars.

Most of the time it provides me amusement. Today, not so much. I got four letters from my friend Barack and his operatives today. Yes, one of them asked me for three dollars. But the other three were back-slapping, high-fiving, chest-bumping celebrations of Obama’s latest and greatest attack on our economy and citizens.

Here is one of them, from Jim Messina, Obama’s data-mining and mass-media guru:

Friend —

This is a BFD:

The New York Times is calling President Obama’s plan “the strongest action ever taken by an American president to tackle climate change” — he’s proposing new EPA standards to limit carbon pollution from existing power plants, the single biggest source of the pollution in the United States that causes climate change.

Listen, it should come as no surprise that polluters and groups that like things the way they are have already started fighting this with everything they’ve got. The best thing we can do is show just how many Americans believe this is the right thing to do.

Add your name right now — stand with President Obama and support aggressive action to fight climate change.

Announcements like this are why we all do this work. It’s proof that grassroots organizing really does pay off. Climate change activists have fought for years for EPA standards on carbon pollution — and this week President Obama is making it a reality.

This fight is about our future, but the effects of climate change are being felt right now — it’s linked to stronger weather, from more frequent and severe droughts to floods, storms, and wildfires.

It’s affecting public health, too. Over the past three decades, the percentage of Americans with asthma has more than doubled, and climate change is putting those Americans at greater risk of landing in the hospital. Over half of all Americans live in an area where air pollution levels are too often unhealthy to breathe.

But while we place limits on dangerous air pollution like mercury, arsenic, and lead, existing power plants have had no national restrictions on the amount of carbon pollution they can emit.

None at all — until now.

The President’s plan promises to cut carbon pollution from power plants for the first time, setting a new standard for action on climate change.

As I write this, powerful interests on the other side are lining up their dirty budgets to try to tear this down. They have plenty of allies in Congress that will try to stop us.

I’m asking everyone who cares about this fight to stand up and say so today — stand with President Obama and new carbon pollution standards.

The media will not let us forget for a moment that this is the first black president. Who cares. I’m more concerned that he is the first president to bypass congress with proclamations that are given the force of law. The first to openly flaunt the constitution and decide which laws will be enforced. The first to deny the sovereignty of states, not to mention citizen’s rights including the rights of private property.

Certainly Obama is the first president to repeatedly look directly into a camera (actually a teleprompter) and lie with impugnity. Calling carbon dioxide “carbon pollution” is so brazen that he must think we are all cretins. Claiming that the carbon dioxide that we exhale, and that makes all plant life possible, is causing droughts AND floods, storms AND wildfires, is an insult to our intelligence. Worse, he seeks to intentionally damage the well-being of all Americans. Why not just break our kneecaps?

Obama’s letter to me today said, “I’m not going to wait to take action on this.” The anointed one will accept no limits to his authority.

I thought Joe Biden’s BFD, ObamaCare, was an epically egregious assault on our economy and families. Now comes BFD number two, using the EPA to ruin entire industries, destroy countless jobs, and raise energy costs to crushing levels.

The next BFD will be complete amnesty and open borders – you can expect an executive order for this purpose the moment Congress leaves for summer recess.

I really wonder if the United States can withstand any more BFDs from the first BFD president.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Big Deal! So what? Who cares?
You just got lucky, that’s all
Oh oh, it’s a real big deal!
Oh, yeah!
Oh oh, it’s a real big deal!
Big deal!

Big Deal – LeAnn Rimes

Country gal Leann Rimes rocks it . . . Big Deal!

The Monster That Will Not Die! Export/Import Bank

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard Reply

godzilla The Monster That Will Not Die! Created 80 years ago by the hand of a single misguided man, it grew – and grew – and grew. And now it can’t be stopped!

No, it’s not Godzilla. It’s just another federal government program – the Export/Import Bank. FDR created the thing in 1934 by executive order to make loans to Russia and Cuba. In its early years it benefited the country by making loans to foreign governments and companies so they could buy exported US goods.

But like almost all federal programs, even if it is obsolete, corrupt and hemorrhaging money, it seems like it will never die. It will grow its budget every year, employ an army of faceless bureaucrats, and grease its own skids. You see, a government agency or program can only do one thing – spend the taxpayers’ money. Somebody receives or uses that money, and would not enjoy seeing the spigot shut off. So Congress is “encouraged” by these somebodies to keep re-authorizing the program.

The somebodies who benefit from the continued existence of the Export/Import Bank top the charts in corporate profits – Boeing, GE, Caterpillar, John Deere. Do these mega-monster companies really need taxpayer-backed loans to their less-than-creditworthy foreign customers?

The Ex/Im marketing department says that the Bank helps US companies make sales to foreign entities who could not get financing in the private market. (Hmm, I seem to remember something like that a few years ago, when the housing bubble burst, nearly destroying our economy.) The Bank claims they do not compete with private banks, they merely make loans that the privates can’t or won’t. (How convenient that the government can create money out of thin air to loan to foreigners and does not have to worry about interest costs or defaults.)

Supporters of the Ex/Im have claimed that it returns profits to the government every year. But it turns out they have been cooking the books and are not playing by the same rules that private sector banks do. The Export/Import Bank holds about $140 billion in taxpayer-backed liabilities and is losing money. It is reportedly rife with corruption and ineptitude.

The Export/Import Bank no longer serves any public purpose. If your congressman votes to re-authorize this Godzilla in September, you should look at his or her list of campaign contributors. If Boeing, GE, Caterpillar, and John Deere appear on the list, maybe your congressman should not be re-authorized at election time either.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Oh no, they say he’s got to go
Go go Godzilla!
Oh no, there goes Tokyo
Go go Godzilla!
History shows again and again
How nature points out the folly of men
Godzilla!

Go Go Godzilla – Blue Oyster Cult

The Wizard of IM – Immigration, That Is

Posted on May 24, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

wizard-of-Oz Tin Man: “If I only had a heart – I would see poor immigrant families risking their lives to follow the yellow brick road to prosperity in the United States. They borrow money from their families in Mexico and Central America to pay a “coyote” or some other shyster to get them over the border, and If they survive the trip, many end up working for slave wages and living in the shadows. Some fathers leave their wives and children behind, sending their pay back home to feed the family and pay off debt. Those who bring their families with them dodge immigration officials and hostile neighbors who don’t want them in their neighborhoods and schools.”

Scarecrow: “If I only had a brain, I would know that the US economy can’t afford the loss of millions more jobs. The huge influx of low-skilled immigrants only pushes down wage rates, and the cost of social services for them is unsustainable. And our open border allows more than just immigrants to enter the country – do we need more drugs, crime, and terrorism?”

Cowardly Lion: “If I only had the nerve, I would stop worrying about getting elected. I should be doing the right thing for the future of our citizens, their kids, and even our neighbors who want to live the American dream. I would come up with a plan that protects the security and prosperity of legal Americans, creates a sensible way for productive foreigners to share and contribute, and allows families to improve their lives through effort and ingenuity.”

Dorothy: “I think I’m still in Kansas. Why is everybody speaking Spanish?”

Wizard: “Don’t look behind the curtain! Nothing to see here! I uh, I’m the Wizard, and everything will be, umm, all right . . . oh blast it, I don’t know what I’m doing!”

Well, there’s the script. You can choose your own favorite actors to play the parts (I have a favorite for the Wicked Witch, too).

Unfortunately, there is no resolution to the plot. Everybody is looking at the symptoms instead of the cause of the problem.

It’s understandable that people want to move here – we have a rich history of opportunity and economic success due to our free market economy, honest government and commonly-held values. Even though these staples of our American heritage are at risk, enough of our founding fathers’ wisdom still remains to make the United States a leading attraction to the world’s strivers.

There is only one way this story can have a happy ending. We have to deal with the reason why Latin Americans want to leave their homes and move to the United States: their own governments are corrupt and dysfunctional.

What prevents our political leaders from devising a plan to help our North American neighbors improve their own nations? Cost can’t be the problem – we are apparently willing to risk all of our wealth – and that of our children and grandchildren – to allow them to move and stay here. It’s not that the people of other nations don’t want to be like us. If that were true, they wouldn’t be risking all to be here. And it can’t be that we don’t want to exert undue influence on how neighboring countries manage their affairs. We don’t seem to have a problem meddling in other parts of the world.

If we are going to spend a bazillion dollars accommodating people who leave their own countries to come here, why not try spending a half a bazillion to make their home countries livable? We might even find out that our neighbors can help US with some things if we treat them like friends instead of poor cousins. Obviously, some regime changes would be in order in some of these countries. Maybe even in ours.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Oz never did give nothing to the Tin Man
That he didn’t, didn’t already have

Tin Man – America

Here’s a great clip from an amazing but somewhat overlooked duo – America. Enjoy.

My Best Friend, Barack, Would Like You To Have A Free Cell Phone Too!

Posted on May 12, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

As you know, my friend Barack gave me a free cell phone a while back.

I don’t use it, but I still have it just in case I need to call Hillary and ask her who wrote Susan Rice’s make-believe talking points about the Benghazi attack. You know, after seven committee investigations, they still haven’t got around to answering that simple question.

Or I might need it to ask Speaker John Boehner why he doesn’t think Susan Lerner needs to explain how so many Tea Party groups and their contributors got singled out for “special treatment” by the IRS.

I probably should use my Obama Phone to call my friend Barack’s wife, Michelle. I have been meaning to ask her how many of the Nigerian girls were released by the terrorists after she “selfied” her hashtag #BringBackOurGirls.

Anyway, it looks like the Obama Phone (Lifeline Assistance) program is still going full speed ahead. I got a letter the other day asking me if I have any friends or relatives who might need a free cell phone. It says:

Dear Tom: (I was kind of surprised they used my name — Barack always calls me “Friend”) We hope you are benefiting from your (free phone). Now you can help others benefit too, by spreading the word to your family and friends! If eligible, they can also apply for Lifeline Assistance and get a FREE phone with 250 FREE voice minutes each month and 250 FREE texts each month. Voicemail, call waiting and caller ID included!

We’ve enclosed two applications for you to share with family and friends who live at a different address. If you need more applications, please ask your family and friends to visit (our website) or call (our number).

Since you are my friends and family, I thought I had better let you know that our government would just love to give away more free cell phones. You know, they are printing all that money at the Federal Reserve, and it just keeps piling up and getting in the way. My friend Barack and all of the wonderful people in Washington, DC want to keep their streets clear so their limos can get to those fun parties, like the correspondents’ dinner. You can help them out! Just take one of these free Obama Phones, and they can shovel up some of that money and send it to Carlos Slim (the world’s richest man, and a big Obama donor).

Isn’t it wonderful living in America, where anybody can get a free cell phone, and nobody has to pay for it? We get free food stamps and free Obama Care. I can’t wait until the Obama Cars program starts up and we all get free cars!

Our friends in Washington, DC, like Barack, and Boehner, and Pelosi and Reid promise they will give us Americans free stuff as long as we vote for them. And they will even give free stuff to people who are not Americans as long as they vote for them too! How cool is that!

Boy, have we got it good, or what?

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

People let me tell ya ’bout my best friend!

The Biggest Democrat Lie EVER!

Posted on April 13, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

For years now Democrat leaders have fought efforts to beef up voter ID laws tooth and nail. Last week President Obama stepped up to the podium and with a straight face declared:

“The stark, simple truth is this: The right to vote is threatened today in a way that it has not been since the Voting Rights Act became law nearly five decades ago,” Obama told a meeting of the National Action Network, a group founded by civil rights leader and MSNBC television anchor Reverend Al Sharpton.

“Across the country, Republicans have led efforts to pass laws making it harder, not easier, for people to vote,” he said.

Translation: “If you think voters should be expected to identify themselves at the polling place, you are a RACIST.”

That’s not the “stark, simple truth.” It’s the biggest lie ever. A naked, ugly, partisan lie. Requiring voters to prove they are who they say they are has nothing whatsoever to do with racism. It is merely a simple and effective tool used all over the world to ensure the integrity of elections.

Democrat leaders continue to play that tired, old race card against Republicans – the only strategy they have left in the face of 78% public approval for voter ID laws. And the Lame Stream Media shamelessly continues to support the big lie.

It’s such an obvious lie that it frightens me to think that the Democrats even dare to say it. Minorities (legal American citizens of color) are no less capable of showing their identification than anyone else. And they should be furious at the President, the Democrat leadership, and the media for calling them that stupid and helpless.

Everybody knows there can only be one reason for anybody to disapprove of validating each voter: the desire to cheat.

There is no evidence that anybody would be prevented from legitimately voting because they do not have identification. I challenge the media and the Democrats to come up with 100 eligible voters – legal citizens of the United States – who have no form of identification or no means to get one. Show them! Put them in front of the TV cameras! I challenge you!

They do not exist. If there actually were Americans who are so disengaged from ordinary daily life that they have no identification, the Democrats would be falling all over themselves to get them enrolled in social programs. For which they would need identification, of course.

So there is the lie. And now here is the truth. Only one person could be opposed to a common-sense law: the person who wants to break that law. Banks have security systems to prevent theft. Only bank robbers would be in favor of eliminating that security.

The Democrat leaders have perfected many methods of voter fraud in recent years. Last week DEMOCRAT spokesperson Al Sharpton, at a rally for “voters rights”, hugged DEMOCRAT Melowese Richardson, a poll worker who admitted – and was convicted for – voting for DEMOCRAT Barack Obama five times in the 2012 election. It is but one small example of a huge and accelerating problem.

Thank God only 22% of Americans are that crooked. That would indicate at least half of all Democrats support voter ID. The other Democrats persist with the biggest lie EVER.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Lie to me
It doesn’t matter anymore
It could never be
The way it was before

Lie to Me – Jonny Lang

“Science Deniers” vs. “Economics Deniers”

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 2

mad scientist According to the Left Side, we Neanderthals who Rock on the Right Side don’t buy that mankind is destroying the earth, so we are, by definition, “science deniers“.

How dare we question them? They are the ‘intelligentsia’. They own the facts. Their “science” is unassailable. They don’t really have any proof, but if you don’t agree with them, you must be an idiot. You probably think the Earth is flat! You probably don’t even accept that Albert Einstein’s great-great-great grandmother was a newt!

Well, I may not be an Einstein, and I admit I got a C in eighth grade science (actually Mr. Anderson paddled me for passing notes in class, that didn’t help). But I have a question for you scientists:

If your “science” is so perfect, and you are so sure that mankind is destroying the earth via “climate change”, why have none of your predictions come true?

In 1975, according to Newsweek Magazine, you scientists were convinced that global cooling would “portend a drastic decline in food production – with serious political implications for just about every nation on Earth. The drop in food output could begin quite soon, perhaps only 10 years from now.” News Flash: didn’t happen.

Then in 2007 Al Gore predicted that “all Arctic ice would be gone by 2013”. Um, Al, if that’s your science, I think I can safely deny that. Didn’t happen. In fact, there was a record ice-pack in 2013.

Go ahead, Left Side. Call me a “science denier”. I’m not convinced that man is capable of causing global climate change. Don’t these same scientists admit that the earth was much warmer — and also much colder — in prehistoric times, well before Lady Gaga was “born this way”?

I’m pretty sure all of the uproar about climate change is more about power and money, and not so much about temperature. Al Gore charges $100,000 per speech and his Global Investment Management company has made a killing dealing in Climate Change drama. And the UN building is full of little despots rubbing their fists at the prospect of slipping some carbon-tax guilt money into their pockets.

Speaking of money, it seems to me that the Left Siders are “Economics Deniers”.

They won’t accept that printing and distributing ever-growing gobs of cash waters down the value of existing dollars. They can’t believe that paying people not to work for several years contributes to unemployment. It doesn’t make sense to them that flooding our country with cheap foreign labor results in lower wage rates.

They don’t believe in the power of the free market, and the flawless balance of supply and demand. They can’t accept that $17 trillion of debt is a problem for our children.

They won’t buy that unequal incomes are the result of unequal effort or talent.

The Left Side are the ones in denial. The Economics Deniers.

But let’s not talk about that! Let’s talk about gay marriage! Or how barbaric it is to expect women to buy their own birth control pills! Or how those stupid Right Siders are “Science Deniers” who don’t care about global warming!

So far the Left Side has not blinded the Right Side with their “science.” Good thing.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

The spheres are in commotion
The elements in harmony
She blinded me with science
“She blinded me with science!”
And hit me with technology

She Blinded Me With Science – Thomas Dolby

Watch this great live performance by Dolby – glad to see an old-school Telecaster in the studio with all that SCIENCE!

Cut the Corruption!

Posted on March 13, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 1

piggies cake Americans don’t like their elected federal officials very much. A few months ago Congress’ approval rating hit a rock-bottom 9%. While their rating has rebounded slightly, President Obama’s just hit an all-time low. Granted, the approval ratings are a pretty dumb measurement: I might dislike a given official because she is too liberal, while my neighbor might disapprove because she is not liberal enough.

Still, it’s fair to say we don’t think all is going swimmingly in Washington, DC.

I think a major contributor to our disrespect is the daily reporting of corruption in our nation’s capital. It permeates the White House. It fouls the air in the Senate chambers. It slimes the floor of the House. The Republicans smell. The Democrats stink. The reflecting pool on the National Mall has become a cesspool.

While government corruption is not a new phenomenon, it sure seems to be more widespread lately. Our president shamelessly funnels wads of cash to campaign bundlers. The administration’s leadership posts are filled with party hacks and cronies whose only qualification is the ability to extort money from corporations. Most of our congressmen have “leadership PACs” which allow them to accumulate ridiculous sums with no strings attached to their spending on lavish lifestyles and backroom political deals. Many, like Democrat Harry Reid and Republican Roy Blunt, have armies of relatives at the public trough through questionable employment, purchased political offices, or shady lobbying relationships. Our DOJ and SEC choose (or are assigned) political targets and then find (or write) obscure regulations to either punish them or take their lunch money. At the same time, proven billion-dollar thieves like Obama cash-bundler John Corzine slither past the enforcers scot-free. The IRS blatantly targets conservative political opponents, an Obama campaign contributor is assigned to investigate, and then the head honcho pleads the fifth.

Corruption was once driven by outsiders seeking favors from vulnerable DC politicians. Now the mojo is on the other side. Peter Schweitzer points out in his blockbuster book, “Extortion”:

“In Washington today corruption is driven more by extortion than by bribery . . . Our reform efforts have been almost exclusively devoted to restricting the activities of these special interests – in other words, ourselves – as opposed to the activities of the Permanent Political Class”.

Schweitzer suggests bans on contributions and solicitations involving lobbyists and government contractors, and contributions from anyone during congressional sessions. He would restrict the selling of votes (which, believe it or not, is now perfectly legal), prohibit family members from employment and lobbying, and ban leadership PACs.

I would take it a step further. We need to get our congressmen out of Washington, DC and back to their home districts to face their constituents the majority of the time. In this era of instant electronic communication, elected officials no longer need to schmooze face-to-face with their counterparts and with the concentrated purchasing power of DC lobbyists.

The Corruption Cake, frosted with seemingly endless layers of DC money, must be replaced with something healthy. Soon!

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Cut the cake!
Don’t you know that I’m a greedy man

Cut the cake!
Don’t you know that I’ll do the best I can

Cut the Cake – by Average White Band

Funkiest . . . band . . . ever! and man, have they aged well. Enjoy this great video by the Average White Band from Scotland.

)

Is the “Money Game” Dying in DC?

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 4

ChangeCongress-FollowTheMoney696 In my last post I decried the incessant corruption in Washington, DC. I recently read Peter Schweitzer’s amazing book “Extortion” and suddenly I see the baffling events inside the Beltway with new clarity.

Yesterday Speaker of the House John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor got 26 other Republican congressmen to join 200 Democrats and pass a “clean” bill to extend the debt limit until after the election. All the other Republican congressmen sensibly voted against passage.

Today the Senate, with Republican Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Whip John Cornyn voting along with the Democrats, passed the bill for President Obama’s signature. As a result the national debt will rise to at least $18.2 trillion while our government does nothing but accelerate the calamitous decline in our economy.

Until I read Schweitzer’s book I could not fathom how the Republican leadership of both houses of Congress could vote not only against the wishes and interests of their constituents, but also in defiance of their own body of legislators. The Republican majority-holding members in the House could have stopped this travesty in a heartbeat, and would have, were it not for John Boehner and the other Republican leaders. What kind of evil pathology is this? How can we face our children?

It just didn’t make any sense to me. Until I learned about “the money”.

I learned from Schweitzer and subsequent research that the game of government in DC is all about “the money”. A congressman cannot get elected without “the money”. Once a candidate is anointed by his party (both teams play by the same rules) and then elected, he is immediately indebted. He is required to not only raise enough funds to win his own re-election, he also must also raise funds to sustain the party. And let me tell you, these are some high stakes.

Committee assignments and leaderships are granted to legislators based on the funds they raise. Votes are bought and sold. Party leaders can financially make or break any member in a heartbeat. None of the attributes a congressman brings to his position – knowledge, experience, skill, hard work – matters at all. One’s status and hope for re-election is solely the result of how much dough he raises for the party. The vast majority of a legislator’s time is spent chasing “the money”.

While you never hear about this “Lord of the Flies” culture in the press, it is no secret inside the Beltway. It has been in place for a long, long time.

But a change took root in recent years. Conservative voters, seeing that the entrenched political class in Washington, DC no longer took any interest in limiting government, supporting constitutional rights, and passing reasonable budgets, began sending principled men and women to the nation’s capital. These newcomers were less engaged in “the money” and more driven by practical economics and common sense. As the Tea Party influence became more pronounced, and fewer members feared the leadership’s “protection racket”, the DC money machine started to break down. The Republican war chest was depleting. And the central control of the Republican leadership started to crack.

For a candidate, the worst thing about the Tea Party is that they will work hard for you, but they won’t bring you a lot of money. The best thing is that you won’t have to sell your soul to pay them back.

Boehner and friends have thrown in the towel. From the Huffington Post:

Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said he “hoped to find 18 of them to join 200 Democrats to get the job done.”

“The fact is, we’ll let the Democrats put the votes up,” Boehner said. “We’ll put a minimum amount of votes up to get it passed.”

The new conservatives don’t care that much about raising money and are not indebted to the leadership. They voted a resounding NO, and led most of the Republican membership into the light with them. The old guard Republican leadership hunkered down in their central command, clinging to the hope that they could keep hold of their power and positions, and “the money”, by caving in, again, to their Democrat opponents. In his final hurrah, Boehner bought just enough votes to do the deal and now he is broken and broke, along with Cantor, McConnell and the others. “The money”, and the power structure it bought, may soon be extinct.

I hope we will look back at this day as a pivot point. It was a battle lost, but one that could light the path to winning the war, where true conservatives stand on principle and vote for the people, not “the money”.

(To my Montana friends – The “Responsible Republicans” in the Big Sky State should take note. Their future may look a lot like that of Boehner and friends.)

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

You never give me your money
You only give me your funny paper
And in the middle of negotiations
You break down!

You Never Give Me Your Money – the Beatles
covered by the Ed Turner Band

Boehner, Reid and Friends Are Playing Us for Fools

Posted on February 6, 2014 by Tom Balek Standard 3

cartoon courtesy Rhode Island Insider Our federal government is dysfunctional. Everybody knows it.

Most people blame the polarization of politics in America today. The Democrats and Republicans can’t agree on anything because they have deep ideological differences, right?

Maybe not so much. Our entrenched political leaders in Washington – Democrats and Republicans alike – are less driven by ideology than they are by money. This is nothing new, but it sure seems to be accelerating.

The untold secret, closely guarded by the press and the political oligarchy, is that politics inside the Beltway is hopelessly corrupt. The average American assumes that lobbyists work for big, evil corporations seeking to buy political favors. Sadly, the opposite is more often true. Our political leaders live and breathe to extort money from corporations, fattening their campaign coffers and their own wallets by promising (or threatening) to pass (or not pass) legislation that will affect profits. They write bills specifically for the purpose of shaking down a given company or industry – often writing and then erasing the same proposals over and over to generate fresh cash with each iteration. Democrats and Republican leaders frequently collude on legislation, agreeing to pass it after all palms have been well greased. Legislative leaders repeatedly stall votes until the appropriate ante has been paid.

Peter Schweizer’s book “Extortion – How Politicians Extract Your Money, Buy Votes, and Line Their Own Pockets” lays out the schemes in non-partisan detail. Here’s an example: In 2011 the Wireless Tax Fairness Act, written specifically to help AT&T and Verizon prevent local taxation on cell phone bills, was stalled in the House, waiting for a floor vote.

“Everyone expected Boehner, given his general aversion to raising taxes, to support the bill and hold a vote. But as the months went by and mid-October arrived, it was unclear whether the vote would ever come.”

“Members of Congress from both parties had their hands out. Employees of Verizon and AT&T wrote over two hundred checks totaling over $180,000 to the campaign committees of members of Congress during September and October of 2011. Finally, he declared a vote for the bill on November 1, 2011, and on the day before the vote, Boehner’s campaign collected the toll: thirty-three checks from wireless industry executives, totaling almost $40,000. Twenty-eight of those checks came from executives with AT&T. The day of the vote, employees of Verizon sent twenty-eight checks to members of Congress.”

“The tribute had been paid. The vote was held. The Wireless Tax Fairness Act passed the House easily on a voice vote.”

Actually, the more polarized the Democrats and Republics seem to be, the more money they can raise. They love conflict, and work hard to preserve it.

Let’s stop being naive. There is a reason why the United States has slid to 19th place on the “least corrupt government” ranking by Transparency International. There is a reason why Congress writes thousands of bills for every one that is passed. There is a reason why Congressmen begin their careers with modest wealth and end them fabulously rich. There is a reason why a lobbying firm will frequently work for both Republicans and Democrats. There is a reason why so many lobbyists are related to politicians. There is a reason why the president’s campaign contributors get federal contracts. There is a reason why 154 (and counting) tax breaks are written to be “extended” every year or so instead of put in place permanently.

It’s called corruption. But you will never hear the press talk about it, and to this point no candidate has mentioned it.

The framers of our Constitution didn’t build in malware that would stop corrupt individuals from taking financial advantage of their positions. They relied on the voters to elect people of character.

We can’t afford to send one more corrupt or corruptible person to Washington. We must fight to remove Pelosi, Boehner, Reid, McConnell and Obama. Our last, best hope is the Tea Party – until we get principled people in the positions of leadership in Washington, DC nothing will change.

The Democrats and Republicans have played us for fools for far too long.

Tom Balek – Rockin’ On the Right Side

Everybody plays the fool,
They use your heart just like a tool.
They never tell you so in school
Everybody plays the fool.

Everybody Plays The Fool – the Main Ingredient